Archive for 2012

My Publishing Predictions for 2013

December 31st, 2012 | Current Affairs, Deep Thoughts, The Business of Writing, Trends | 29 Comments

Okay, time for my big publishing predictions for 2013…

1. Some of the large publishers will buy up the smaller micro-publishers who have succeeded in niche markets. (This only makes sense. Penguin/Random House are merging, and want to expand their reach. Hachette is perhaps the most forward-thinking of the companies, and must see the opportunity. It’s possible HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster will combine forces, and they are two companies who have always sought to maximize niche markets. MacMillan does as well. So look for some of those guys who started in their garage a couple years ago to cash out.) 

2. Literary agents will re-define themselves. (This has already begun to happen with some multi-person agencies. The growth of e-books and the opportunity authors have to self-publish means an agent, to demonstrate value, has to prove he or she can assist with self-publishing, with marketing and sales planning for a wide variety of projects, with career development for authors who are working with traditional publishers as well as publishing their own books, with contract evaluations in an age of significant intellectual property rights changes, and with business management. An author isn’t just a writer any more — he or she is a self-proprietary business person, and good agents will re-define themselves in order to assist with that change.) 

3. E-book royalties will grow. (E-publishers are already paying in the 50% neighborhood, so traditional publishers are going to have to be competitive. I can see one of the Big Six boosting e-royalties to 30%.)

4. Several of the major and mid-major publishers will move to strictly digital catalogs and royalty statements. (Think of it: At many of the larger houses, they’re still hiring people to print off stacks of paper and stuff them into envelopes. Welcome to the 80′s! This is a change that’s way overdue. And there’s limited value in expensive book catalogs any more — a digital catalog is cheaper and more nimble when it comes to updating or shifting the sales priorities. Lest you skip over this one, Dear Writer, understand that it’s important both to your marketing and to your ability to get access to your numbers.) 

5. A photo will be released that shows President Obama’s Department of Justice officials kissing Jeff Bezos on the lips. (Okay this is just a wild guess, but that’s the only explanation for the recent e-book pricing decision favoring Amazon. The court’s decisions make no sense at all when it comes to consumer protection or publisher assistance, so I figure secret love photos must be behind it all.)

6. Barnes and Noble will be sold. (For the record, I don’t have a shred of evidence to suggest this will happen. But with Microsoft investing a half-bilion in the Nook, I wonder if a publishing conglomerate will decide to go all in, take over the brick-and-mortar stores, and try to compete with Amazon that way.)

7. Speaking of Amazon, I think they’re going to start offering a print version of any e-book they sell. (It just makes sense, and the technology already exists. E-book sales growth has slowed, and it’s clear print isn’t going to just fade away any time soon.)

8. There will be a lot more short-form books sold in 2013. (As novel publishing moves back to the era of Charles Dickens, serials will become more popular, and readers will once again start flocking to interval-based stories that are short, episodic, and create a long story arc. Think “Downton Abbey” but in print.)

9. That will mean the industry will have to re-think the way it markets and sells e-books. (This is a no-brainer. They don’t sell songs the same way they used to sell albums, and they won’t sell shorter e-books in the same way they’ve sold printed tomes. The change will probably include less big-budget pre-sales marketing and more tracking of sales data in order to determine which projects to promote. And that will mean the days of “your book has 60 days to succeed or it will die and be out of stores” will change.)

10. Someone (Amazon? Best Buy? B&N? Books-a-Millon? Sony?) will produce a free e-book reader and make it available to subscribers. (It will work this way: If you agree to buy 10 books, perhaps with an agreement to purchase 10 more, you’ll get a free reader, and it will come loaded with a whole slug of classic public domain titles, such as Dickens, Twain, Hawthorne, etc. E-reader sales are slowing, and companies are going to have to decide if the focus is on the once-every-two-years purchase of a reader, or on the consumable purchases of books. I’m guessing the focus is on books, which means the value of the e-reader device goes down.)

My miscellaneous meanderings. The best part of making predictions is that it makes me look like an expert, and by this time next year you’ll have forgotten all about them, so I can always claim to be right. 

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

December 26th, 2012 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

We’re taking a blogging break for the Holiday Season. Thank you for reading in 2012, and we’ll see you in 2013!

 

Is it legal to strangle my publisher?

December 21st, 2012 | Current Affairs, The Business of Writing | 10 Comments

Someone just wrote to say, “I can’t believe it! I spent an entire week writing a piece for a digital magazine that insisted they needed it on a tight deadline, skipped my daughter’s play, ignored family meals, then stayed up all hours writing. I got it done, turned it in, and the publisher is saying they’ve decided to run it… next month! Will I go to jail if I shoot him?”

Ah, the joys of the writing life.

True story: A publisher once hired me to do a fast-fix on a book. “I need this by Thursday morning,” he told me. “If I don’t have it by Thursday, I could be out of business.” His exact words. 

So I took it, banged away, and met my deadline. I stayed up all night two nights in a row, grabbing coffee and blearily going through the manuscript line by line, fixing the problems and getting the book ready for publication. I finished at 4 Thursday morning, grabbed a couple hours of shut-eye, then drove an hour-and-a-half to the publisher’s office in order to turn it in by hand as they opened their doors. Mission accomplished. The publisher gave me a hearty thanks as I set the disk on his desk, and I headed to a coffee shop to try and stay awake for my drive home.

The following Wednesday, I’m at a breakfast meeting in the city, and who do I run into but Mr. Publisher. “Hey,” I say to him, “I haven’t heard from you — what did you think of the manuscript?”

He looked at me for a second with a blank look, then said, “Oh…you know, I haven’t gotten to that one yet.”

So I strangled him. Right there on the spot. Shoved several of those heavy restaurant pancakes they’re always serving down his evil throat. (Okay, not really. But I wanted to.)

The publishing business. It simply works on a different clock than the world of magazines and newspapers. But you live with their deadlines, so you write the best you can, turn it in, and hope they remember to publish it.

Often people ask why a book publisher needs a manuscript for a year before it hits store shelves — the reason has little to do with production (they could have hard copies in a couple weeks) and much to do with sales and marketing (they want to know how to pitch it, get it in front of bookstore owners, support it with quality marketing). All of that takes time, so an idea you have today, which takes you six months to write, and your agent six months to contract, and a publisher a year to produce, and the accounting people six months to get you a statement… means you may not be seeing much money on that bad boy for a couple years. This is all changing as we move to more and more toward ebooks, which can come out quickly and rely on more word-of-mouth. (The weakness of that system? We’ve seen too many bad ebooks that required better editing, and there have been too many ebooks that simply died because nobody had a plan for marketing and selling them.) Still, you can expect deadlines to tighten, things to be needed more quickly, magazines and books to be produced faster… and more of this sort of frustration to arise. 

Sorry to hear this happened to you, my friend, but it happens to all of us who write for a living. And no, I doubt you’d go to jail for shooting a publisher (though I understand it’s still a misdemeanor in some states). 

Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Down and Dirty Ideas for Marketing Your Book

December 20th, 2012 | Marketing and Platforms | 11 Comments

Amanda Luedeke Literary AgentAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

I want to take it easy this week and next as I give a chance for all the Thursdays with Amanda readers to catch up on last week’s post which highlighted ALL of my 2012 platform-building blog posts. So I thought I’d spend this week sharing 5 Ideas to Market Your Book. They’re going to be a bit random! But it’s all about thinking outside the box.

5 DOWN AND DIRTY IDEAS FOR MARKETING YOUR BOOK

1. You know that rack of magazines at your gym? Leave copies of your book there. And you know the front desk at your gym? Ask about leaving a flyer with a download password for a free/discounted digital copy of your book. I mean have you seen how many people read while working out?! It’s crazy.

2. Ask your local library to feature local authors (if they don’t already).

3. Do a Google search for book clubs in your area. Ask if they’d be willing to read your book if you provided some sort of incentive (a party at the end where they can chat about it with you, free copies, etc).

4. Get your publisher to update your book’s Amazon and Barnes & Noble pages to reflect the holidays. An opening line that reads “The perfect gift for those who love mystery and intrigue!” speaks to your target reader and it also gives gift-givers something to go off of.

5. Host a Twitter party in the days after Christmas. That’s when new Kindle and Nook owners are going to be looking for great content to put on their devices! So make sure you’re creating buzz.

What are some of your down and dirty marketing ideas?

What do agents look for (and why won’t they take on my screenplay or poetry)?

December 19th, 2012 | Agents, Questions from Beginners | 7 Comments

Someone asked, “What’s the first thing you look for in a proposal?”

Voice. I’m a sucker for great voice in a writer. If I see great voice, I’m almost always willing to take the next step with an author. 

Another wrote to ask, “As an agent, do you ever ‘go after’ an author? I mean, do you see a person you think has good book potential, then try to track them down?”

Very rarely. I mean, it happens occasionally, but not often. I was in the air on September 11, had to make an emergency landing, saw first-hand the things going on in the air and at airports, and was emotionally impacted by the events of that day. So a couple days later, when Patti and I were watching the President speak, we saw him introduce the very poised Lisa Beamer. I turned to Patti and said, “She could do a great book.” So I started trying to connect with her, spoke to her pastor about how to handle media requests, and put her in touch with a publicist to help her manage all the people approaching her. Eventually Lisa and I met at her home, talked things through, and started shaping a book. I brought in Kenny Abraham, who did a fabulous job working with Lisa on her manuscript. That book hit #1 on the New York Times list, and was the bestselling nonfiction book of the year. So, yeah, having an agent seek out an individual can happen… but not often. People with the platform of a Lisa Beamer don’t show up every day. Besides, most agents are seeing pretty good proposals on a regular basis, so there isn’t much of a need to chase anyone down. 

Someone noted, “It seems like agents either sell manuscripts or screenplays. Is it too much to ask one agent to do both? If I decide to write a screenplay, do I need two agents?”

You’re right – most agents either sell books or screenplays. Trying to do both, in my experience, usually results in one area not being taken care of very well. The world of books is completely different from the world of movies — it requires different relationships, it has different contracts, it needs very different expectations. The truth is, I’ve rarely found a good book agent who knew what he or she was doing with a screenplay (though I’ve known many who CLAIM to do both). So while I’ve often sold the dramatic rights to a novel, I don’t take on a screenplay by itself, and I tell authors I’m fine with having them talk to a good screenplay agent. Not every agent feels this way.

And someone else noted, “I just heard an agent say she sold a book in a genre that isn’t very popular right now. She noted it was a lot of work to land a deal… and that made me wonder: How successful will a book be in that sort of situation?”

That’s an interesting question, but there’s no way to answer it. No publisher contracts a book unless they think, at the time, they can sell adequate numbers of copies to make money. But if a genre is trending down, then yes, it can be an uphill climb to try and make a book in that genre become successful. 

Finally, someone wrote this: “Don’t get mad, but I publish poetry. Why is it that agents don’t want to see any poetry submissions?”

I don’t get mad at those types of questions. I think that’s a legit question. The answer is simple: there’s no money in poetry. I love good poetry (also intentionally bad poetry, if you’re a regular reader). If I could make money representing poetry, I would. But I can’t. There’s no market for poetry, no way to make a living at it, and since I’m not independently wealthy, I have to choose to represent projects that pay me money. 

An agent won’t talk to me unless I have a deal?

December 18th, 2012 | Agents, Questions from Beginners | 4 Comments

An author wrote me to say, “Many publishing houses will not accept manuscripts from un-agented authors, but many good agents will not accept manuscripts from unpublished authors. How then do I solicit an agent?”

This is the common conundrum faced by beginning writers. You can’t get a publishing deal unless you have an agent, but you can’t get an agent unless you have had a publishing deal. My response? You’re screwed. But that’s the writer’s life.

The best way to find an agent is still to approach the problem professionally. First, write a great manuscript. Next, do some research. Find out who represents the sort of thing you write. Try to figure out a way to meet and talk, if at all possible. Go to a conference or two and try to meet the agents you’ve discovered. See if you have a mutual friend who can arrange an introduction. Write to them and ask them to take a look at your work. Be persistent, but not a pest. And be professional. Every agent I know is interested in seeing a great manuscript, even from a new writer. It’s true that it’s harder for a newbie to get started, but that’s true in any field — it’s hard for a new musician to get bookings, or a new painter to get into galleries, or a new life insurance salesman to land clients.

So one word about new authors: Make sure you’re really good. You see, the majority of stuff I see from newer authors isn’t turned down because the writer is new; it’s turned down because the writing isn’t all that great. I see proposals all the time that are about 60% done, and they’re asking me to consider it before it’s ready. Don’t assume you’re a genius just because your mom (or spouse, or best friend, or priest) told you so. Get some professional opinions, listen to others, and become a better writer. All those people who are famous writers now probably weren’t very good when they first started. They all needed to practice, to get training, and to learn from more experienced types before they could succeed. So learn the craft, create a really good manuscript, and your chances of landing an agent improve tremendously.

Is it worth approaching a literary agent?

December 17th, 2012 | Agents, Questions from Beginners | 3 Comments

 

Someone wrote to ask this: “I read that new authors should not bother submitting to agents. One famous author’s blog claims that a beginning writer doesn’t really want an agent, since most (if not all) of the money paid on a book will go to the agent. Would you say that is true or false?”

 

False. Unquestionably false. Most new authors don’t have the experience or the relationships to get their work in front of editors, so they have a hard time selling their words. Most will find that a good agent will help you get your work ready to show, then get it in front of the right people (and if it doesn’t sell, offer advice on how to self-publish it successfully). And an agent is going to be paid 15% of the deal — the other 85% is going to be paid to the author. That should always be true. I’m thinking you might have misunderstood what that famous author was saying on his or her blog.

One note: There are some fake “book doctors/agents” who charge fees to offer editorial assistance, ask for a check to have a career planning meeting, even charge something extra to take your proposal out to publishers. (I know of one author who spent $35,000 for this sort of “help.”) If the agent is charging you fees, chances are it’s a scam. Walk away.

Someone else asked, “Are agents willing to look at manuscripts if they come recommended by authors they already represent?”

Almost every agent is willing to look at the manuscripts that come recommended by current clients. Just make sure the established author has really read your work and is willing to say, “I genuinely think this new writer has talent.” All of us get some projects sent to us from people who are owed a favor. And I’m always ready to look at friends of my current authors… though that’s not a guarantee that I’m going to say “yes.” The friend can get you in the door – but it will have to be your writing that will get me to agree to represent you.

Another wrote to say, “I just finished a manuscript set in 12th Century Europe. I had it edited, and have query letters created, but some other writers told me submitting letters to agents is a waste of time. Do you agree?”

Absolutely not. I mean, I haven’t read your manuscript, so if other writers are saying it’s bad or needs work, then yes, sending out query letters for an underdone project is probably a waste of time. However, the general process of sending out query letters is still one potential means of landing an agent. You first write a great manuscript, then you write a great query letter, then you send it to an agent who seems a likely fit.

That said, let me offer some advice: Do your research. Try to make a connection with a good agent. If at all possible, try to meet the agent. Use your resources to see if you have a relationship that can help you. Printing off 100 query letters and sending them blindly to agents isn’t a very effective method — just like printing off 100 resumes and sending them off to businesses isn’t a terribly good system for finding a job. But making a connection somewhere is probably going to help you down the road. 

And one writer noted, “A literary agency just contacted me to offer their services. They said they would send out a press release to their data base for a reasonable fee. I checked them out and they seem legit, but I’m wondering if this is the sort of thing my publicist could be doing. Thoughts?”

My thought is that it sounds like a scam. A reputable literary agent isn’t trying to sell you other fees. He or she is not going to say to you, “Hey, this is pretty good… It’s not quite ready, but let me introduce you to our editor, who can help you get this in shape for $500.” Real agents aren’t cross-selling products or services to you. We are paid by the publishers, not by our authors. So an agent who approaches you with a fee-for-service like this is probably not legit.


Will being young keep me from getting published?

December 15th, 2012 | Career, Questions from Beginners | 1 Comment

One writer wrote to say, “I’m only twenty. How much, if at all, does my young age affect how seriously agents and editors will consider my fiction manuscript?”

When I look at a manuscript, I generally review the words first. I always figure I have to like the writing before we explore much of anything else. Most agents and editors will approach things that way, I think — so they’ll have no idea how old you are when they take that first look at your proposal. (In fact, I’m wondering why I’d need to know an author’s age… most writers don’t include that in their proposal.) So at least initially, your age isn’t going to matter much at all. What will matter is the idea and the writing.

If it’s fiction, the writing will matter first. If it’s nonfiction, they’ll probably review the idea first, then look at your writing. If they don’t like it, you’ll get a rejection notice and that will be the end of it — nobody will even know your age. But if they like your project, they’ll start looking at your platform and how you’d go about supporting your book. That’s when I suppose your age could matter. The publisher is basically want to know if you can help them market and sell your book. And this system is pretty well the same whether you are twenty or fifty or eighty.

That said, there’s a practical matter that needs to be brought up: Most twenty-year-olds don’t have enough life experience to create a good book. I’m sorry if that sounds impolite, but I’ve found it to be true. I think there is a depth that comes with age and experience, and it’s why there are almost no successful novelists in their early twenties, and even fewer nonfiction writers. They normally don’t yet have the maturity to know their own voice or bring their experience to bear on the project at hand.

I tend to think college writing programs flatten out writing voice by suggesting there is a “right” way to write. Many students take the courses, determine the correct way to write, and lose their voice. It takes time and experience to gain (or regain) that unique voice. And that, coupled with the fact that many writers in their early twenties haven’t had enough hard experiences to add depth to their character, has mitigated against the success of younger novelists. But that’s not to say it can’t happen. Shelagh Delaney was 18 when she penned A Taste of Honey, Mary Shelley was 19 when she wroteFrankenstein, and more recently we’ve seen 18-year-old Helen Oyeyemi’s Icarus Girl. Still, it’s proven to be a steep hill to climb.

Thursdays with Amanda: How To Grow Your Author Platform…2012 blog posts

December 13th, 2012 | Marketing and Platforms, Web/Tech | 24 Comments

Amanda Luedeke Literary AgentAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

Assuming that the world will NOT end and that 2013 is YOUR YEAR to get things together and develop (or further develop) that coveted author platform everyone keeps talking about, I figured I’d put together an index of all my posts this past year.

The catch? You aren’t allowed to casually skim it. I want you reading the ones that jump out at you while you come up with a goal list of

10 Things I WILL Do in 2013 to Grow My Author Platform

2013 is your year! Make the most of it. Your career will thank you.

How it all started

Growing Platform Through Articles

Growing Platform Through Blogging

Growing Platform Through Conferences

Growing Platform Through Ebooks

Growing Platform Through Facebook

Growing Platform Through Goodreads

Growing Platform Through Pinterest

Growing Platform Through Public Speaking

Growing Platform Through Tumblr

Growing Platform Through Twitter

Growing Platform Through Video

Growing Platform Through Websites

Misc

So what’s on YOUR to-do list for 2013? I want to hear some of your goals!

Memorable Words

December 12th, 2012 | Uncategorized | 15 Comments

Kate wrote and asked, “How can I make my nonfiction memorable?”

I can think of a handful of tips…

1. Rely on “story.” How many times have you sat through a church service, listened to a good sermon, and left without remembering the pastor’s points, yet having his illustration stuck in your mind? The world revolves around story. It’s why you can turn on a TV anywhere, 24/7, and find stories. It’s how we come to understand ourselves and our world. So offer your reader a story, not just solid content. Give them a story that illustrates your points, and your writing will be much more memorable.

2. Pick up the pace. After you’ve written your chapter or article, go back through it and cut all unnecessary words. Ask someone you respect to look it over and suggest cuts. If you move the reader along quickly, you’re more apt to keep him or her reading. In particular, trim your adjectives and adverbs. Newer writers tend to think it will make them look mature or thoughtful if they lard up their text with adjectives (“The bright, yellow, cheery sun shone on the green, verdant, rolling hills as…we…Zzzzzz…..”). It doesn’t. It just takes the punch out of your writing.

3. Use short sentences. Yeah, you can call it the Curse of USA Today, but short sentences cause the reader to stay with you. They also force you to break complex ideas down into simpler thoughts, thereby making your work more easily memorable.

4. Create a strong lead. Think through your opening words. Make sure they draw your reader into your topic. You want your lead to arouse curiosity, hook them into your topic, and set your scene.

5. Work on your writing flow. Make sure your first sentence flows logically into your second sentence. Then make your second sentence flow into your third. Follow that by making sure your first paragraph flows into your second paragraph. Nonfiction can’t always rely on characters and setting to move the action along—it’s your content and story that keeps them reading. So don’t rely solely on the greatness of an idea to carry a book—the fact is, there are some fabulous ideas buried in truly awful books, so they’re apt to be ignored. Great nonfiction writing has a flow to it that keeps the reader moving forward, turning pages, learning new things.

6. Establish conflict. No kidding. A nonfiction writer needs to establish conflict right away, perhaps even faster than a novelist does. Readers are buying a nonfiction book for one of three reasons: either they want to learn, they want to be entertained, or because they have a question or problem and they want an answer. So, unlike a novelist, you can’t dwell on conflict. Nobody wants a book that defines their problem for them. If I’ve got a problem with, say, my kids or my money or my marriage, I don’t need someone to tell me it’s bad—I already KNOW it’s bad; that’s why I’m looking for a book that will offer me a solution. So set the stage by revealing what the conflict or problem is, then move on to…

7. Offer strong solutions. Readers don’t buy books that ponder problems. They buy books that offer great solutions to problems. So offer solutions. Tell me what the answer is to my problem. (And if you don’t know, you’re not writing the correct book.)

8. Give details, not generalities. We’ve all had the experience of feeling like we got cheated by a book that over-promised and under-delivered. Don’t cheat your readers or they’ll never buy anything from you again. Give the reader the details. Tell them exactly what they need to do different in order to live more effectively. Don’t hold back by thinking you’re going to give the rest of your wisdom in book #2—it won’t happen. Don’t withhold good information because you want the readers to come hear you speak at your seminar—if they don’t like your book, they won’t show up. GIVE THEM ANSWERS TO THEIR QUESTIONS and you’ll be on track to create a good book. My friend Bobb Biehl used to say that writers are like TV repair men. We walk into lives and jiggle the wires, trying to find something that will make it work. But you MUST jiggle wires, since no TV ever got fixed by telling people to keep on doing the same thing that hasn’t been working. So give me details—suggest some wires to jiggle.

9. Use story to illustrate your points. And I should add that a good story doesn’t need to be explained—it illustrates your point so well that additional words are unnecessary. But your stories will stay with your readers. (I once illustrated my point about “learn to have fun with your kids” by telling how Patti and I used to take the kids on pajama rides. We’d get the kids ready for bed early, put them under the covers, wait a moment…then burst into the room yelling “Pajama Ride!” We’d bundle them into the car and take them to Dairy Queen. A simple illustration that demonstrates having fun doesn’t take a lot of preparation. Years later, I still have people ask me, “Aren’t you the guy who wrote about taking pajama rides?”) I contend that most of us think in story, so it’s the story that makes your writing memorable. I should be able to read your story and know exactly what your point is. A story that needs a lot of explanation is simply the wrong story.

10. When you’re not sure how to make it memorable, rely on your five senses. In other words, steal a bit of wisdom from novelists—get your readers to see, hear, smell, taste, or touch something. That forces a reader to engage with your text, and draws them back into the content of the book.

I’m a huge nonfiction reader. I love history, true stories, and anything that educates me. I probably lean more toward being changed by content than being entertained by interesting characters in unique situations. Don’t get me wrong — I love a good novel. But I’m just naturally drawn to nonfiction books because I enjoy learning and changing. So “nonfiction” does not equate to “boring” in my world. As a writer, you should make it sing…or you should leave it alone and go back to writing failed screenplays.

Chip

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