It’s always a big deal to win an award. We know authors can go a long way on recognition. And they aren’t the only ones.

When we agents have the honor of being present when awards are presented to our authors, it adds a huge measure of joy to the work we do on their behalf. And often, we are the lucky ones to receive awards for them.

I travelled to RWA last week, but knew I couldn’t arrive in time on Thursday last week to attend the Faith, Hope & Love chapter meeting at which our author Carla Stewart was up for an Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award … but I had a feeling she’d win, and so asked Amanda to be there just in case. And YES!! Carla won for her novel BROKEN WINGS, edited by Christina Boys, (Faithwords/Hachette). Of course it’s a team effort around here — but thanks, Amanda, for accepting. We’re so proud to represent Carla and looking forward to more continued success together, to more of her lovely stories about bygone times, and more of those equally lovely Faithwords covers! Go team Carla!

Mandy wrote to me and noted, “Recently you encouraged all serious writers to find a writing mentor. How does one do this? I’ve been to several writing conferences and am acquainted with some well-known authors, but I’m not sure I’d ever be bold enough to ask one of them.”

Well, my first thought is that you keep in mind what a mentor is: Not someone perfect. Not someone on the top of the bestseller lists. Not someone who is necessarily your best friend in the business. A mentor is someone who is a bit further down the path from yourself — a writer with a bit more experience in the field, who can offer you some wise advice and direction, especially when you are trying to grow or you are faced with a major decision. Would you benefit from having that sort of relationship with another writer?

If so, I’d suggest that it’s tough to walk up to someone you don’t know well and ask, “Will you commit to being my friend?” Most of us would probably find that a bit odd. So focus on one of those experienced authors you already know, perhaps someone you’ve met and enjoyed at a conference, and think about what you’ll say to him or her.

By using the framework of “talking to a friend,” consider going to that experienced author you’re friendly with and talking with him or her about mentoring. What are their thoughts? Who mentored them? Take the time to write down what you’d like to receive from a mentor (a chance to talk things over? career guidance? some wisdom when faced with big questions? suggestions for writing exercises?), so that it’s clear in your own mind what your expectations are. If you don’t know what you want, it’s tough to explain it to someone else.

Approach the person in a one-on-one setting sometime and simply say, “I have a favor to ask you. You don’t have to say ‘yes’ right away, but I’d like you to consider my request. I need to be able to occasionally talk to someone with more experience than myself — someone who has some wisdom, and who is a little farther down the path from me. I’d like to ask if I could approach you via phone or email briefly, about once a month, just to glean some of your knowledge. I like and respect you, and I believe I could learn a lot from you. Would you consider some sort of relationship like that?”

Okay, that might not be the perfect script, but something low-key like that is a good place to start. You’d probably agree with me that most of us are busy and don’t need another complex relationship — but at the same time, most experienced people are interested in helping foster the next generation of writers. So approaching someone who already knows you and with whom you feel comfortable, and asking for a bit of their time, but placing firm limits as to how much time and what will be covered — that’s a way to get the mentor/protege relationship started.

Is that helpful? What other tips do you have for approaching a prospective mentor?

Amanda 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.

We’re all at RWA this week, and if you’ve never been to a BIG conference, then do yourself a favor and sign up for one. Lots of great information, lots of big-name authors, lots of agents, editors and aspiring writers.

In short, there’s lots and lots of chaos.

And I’ve noticed that within that chaos, you have numerous authors who seem to get lost in the mix…authors who are so intent on soaking up every last bit of the conference and attending every workshop, party, and award show that they lose sight of one of the most valuable uses of their time: SELF PROMOTION.

In an attempt to avoid frantically writing a post and slapping it up in time for my next appointment, I’m going to cut this week’s Thursday with Amanda short. BUT that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear from you! So, take some time to think about these questions, and then share your thoughts:

• What have YOU done to promote yourself at conferences?
• How have you dropped the ball?
• How have you succeeded?
• What has prevented you from going all-out with your promotions during conference time?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll dive in to looking at what published and unpublished authors can do to promote themselves at conferences.

Sandra Bishop, MacGregor Literary, Inc. Agent, shares her reflections on a rare thing indeed for people in the publishing biz–time away. Sandra represents fiction and nonfiction authors in multiple genres. 

Each of the past few years as summer approached, I’ve told myself it’s what I would do. Slow down. Lay low. Say no. Cultivate my inner life. Spend undistracted time with my family. Reach out to friends. Remember what – besides work – brings me joy and satisfaction.

I’ll be honest, if I hadn’t been forced this year to stop completely and take time to heal from surgery, I don’t know that I would have actually done so.

It took me a full ten days before I was not schlepping around in my PJ’s at least part-time, but once I started feeling well enough to do more than sit around with my feet up all day, I began to enjoy the gift of just “being.” And I gave myself permission to take a full month off. Now that I have, it’s something I plan to do again next year – and something I recommend everyone do if possible. Not the surgery part, of course, but the taking of a good stretch of time away to rest, recharge, and remember what you love to do – besides work and write.

It sounds easy – the notion of taking time away – but for those of us who are driven to produce, it is no small thing to stop and really enjoy the simple pleasure of taking each day as it comes. After being immersed in work day in and day out for years, it took me some time to relearn what I enjoy most in life. I’ve been a bit surprised that it really, really is the simple things that matter most.

I’ve grown increasingly grateful for God’s lavish blessings in my life. In addition to understanding what a privilege it is to work in a field I love, I have grown more appreciative of my good health (and health insurance!), my family and friends, the Church, my home (and the cleaning crew I recently hired!), and …my adorable, faithful dog.

FAMILY LOVE, FRIENDS, AND LAUGHTER

My husband takes such good care of me when I’m down. From full-time kitchen duty, to fetching, to hauling dirt (see below) to reminding me to take it easy when he knew I was getting eager to push myself, he’s the cream of the crop, to be sure. I’m a lucky, lucky wife.

I’ve had some rare moments with my son recently. I’m amazed how spending unplanned, spontaneous time together can make so much difference in a relationship. He and I really needed this time to just “hang.” (And apparently he’d been needing to “hang” his face in a box of Voodoo Doughnuts.)

Thanks to my mom, I’ve exercised those muscles in my tummy that only hurt when one laughs SO hard. She’s always, always good for that. I appreciate her sense of humor – and her giant laugh.

My first venture out was on Independence Day to enjoy a BBQ and fireworks at the invitation of one of the authors I represent who happens to live nearby. What a gift to enjoy a full-fledged fireworks show with their friends and neighbors, right from the comfort of my outdoor lounge chair. It will be hard to convince me to ever brave crowds again on the 4^th!

JUST HANGING OUT … OUTSIDE

As is typical in the Willamette Valley, summer weather officially kicked in around July 4^th this year, and since then I’ve spent nearly every day outside. With the tinder-dry, scorching, and humid temperatures other areas of the country have suffered this summer, life without climate control is not something I take for granted. Trust me, I’m grateful.  I do complain a lot about the rain and gray skies, but when it is warm and clear here in the summer, I cannot imagine living anywhere else. No bugs. No humidity.  Practically no place I’d rather be than outside on my deck.

And … thanks to my brother, I finally identified one of my favorite birdsongs,  though I’m not quite yet over feeling rather simple that I’d never known it came from a common American Robin.

FLOWERS & FRUIT; LAVENDER IN LIEU OF VEGGIES

I enjoyed a beautiful rose bouquet from Chip & crew when I returned home from the hospital. And I’m looking forward to planting the lovely summer annuals that were sent to me by my authors, now that I’m fully bendable. I just need to add some fresh soil to my friendship garden, and in they go.

By the time the rain stopped, it was too close to surgery and I knew I wouldn’t feel well enough to bend over, so we didn’t plant a vegetable garden this spring; we just let the garden patch go. Of course by the time I was feeling well enough to wish we had done something, it was really too late to plant anything we could expect to produce.  With the help of my son, niece, and husband we transformed the weed patch into a lavender garden. It’s a bit sparse as it was difficult to find many starts this time of year, but we’ve done what we could – and have made a small population of bees quite happy. I’m told these plants love drought, and that by the end of summer I’ll have plants of respectable enough size that they’ll come back in the spring ready to flourish. By then I can move then to their permanent home outside our family room picture window.

The lack of homegrown veggies encouraged me to stop in and meet the owner of a new year-round fruit market that just opened up in the neighborhood. What a find. As I write this, I’m enjoying sweet, fresh local cherries, and for only $1.39 per pound!

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC

I have finally had time to figure out how to utilize Google to capture, play, and catalog my music collection (sorry iTunes – just never been a fan) AND I’ve now synched my music collection to my smartphone! So I’m now fully enjoying old favorites and actually buying some new tunes.

My son has been taking drum lessons for just over a year and is doing really well.  We’re grateful to have found a drum teacher who is inspiring him to keep after it. People say we’re “brave” for putting up with drums in the house, but honestly, I like hearing him play. Sounds like joy to me.

Until this morning when he left for his first day of Blazer Basketball camp, the only other camp my son has been to this summer was Rock Band Camp. This year they practiced Mat Kearney’s “Ships in the Night” all week, and he did a bang-up job on concert night.

A couple weeks ago we scooted out mid-day to a local radio studio to hear Lyle Lovett. It was quite an indulgence knowing that we were going to see him later that evening at The Schnitzer – our beautifully refurbished historic downtown music hall. Love me some Lyle!

As much as I love live music, I’ve never played an instrument. But, feeling inspired by some local musicians, I recently started taking online harmonica lessons. As in very recently. As in seven lessons down and about 100 or so to go.  I’m certainly not holding my breath that I’ll be playing like Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s harmonica player) anytime soon, but I’m having fun.  (Check out this fun video of him playing MAN OF CONSTANT SORROWS with The Reflectacles – a new band I was just getting into which, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to have hung together.)

Last weekend, on the spur of the moment – and with thanks to an author I represent who happens to be very close to the band – I was able at the last minute to trek up to a Switchfoot concert a couple hours away and enjoy watching the concert from the side stage. It was a joy to share this experience with my son and his buddy – who didn’t tell me until we were on the way home that this was his first concert. Hopefully he won’t be disappointed at other shows when he isn’t invited to watch from the stage.

AND YESTERDAY … TWO REUNIONS IN ONE DAY

First stop: Annual Doodle Romp. Yep. Our breeder invites us back once a year around our dog’s birthday to a family reunion.  And guess what these Golden Doodles do? They romp! And guess what the owners do? We compare notes and take turns touring the new puppies. It’s hard to resist not adding another one to the family, trust me.  In fact, I’m still working on resisting.

Next stop: Annual Church Gathering. We go to a large, ever-growing church that meets in three locations and comes all together only twice a year: Christmas (at the Schnitz) and in July for “The One” event at a local football stadium. Unlike the last two years, it was not 100+ degrees this year, so I’m thinking that baptismal water was chilly! Fun event, great message (as always) and … more live music, thanks to Evan Wickham.

RECHARGED, AND READY FOR RWA

I’m happy to say I’m feeling recuperated, recharged, and ready to get back to work. I’m declaring my summer sabbatical officially over …  just in time to be getting ready for RWA in LA this Wednesday – Sunday.   Perhaps I’ll see you there? If so, please say hello. I’m ready to work and raring to go!

I’m just back from ICRS (the International Christian Retailing Show), where I always enjoy getting to see longtime friends in CBA. A lot of people in publishing don’t really understand the Christian Booksellers Association — they still refer to it as “the inspirational market,” and have no idea that it’s a HUGE part of publishing. I think it’s funny that a major magazine recently admitted, while putting together notes about book publishing in the US, that they had excluded all religious works in their totals… then noted that religious publishing accounts for about 20% of all publishing in this country. That would be akin to a publisher saying, “Here are our sales figures for last year — but, of course, they don’t include any of the books we sold on Amazon.”

Anyway, we at MacGregor Literary represent a bunch of Christian books. We don’t work exclusively with religious books (though I get that question frequently, we do about a third of our business in the general market), but Sandra, Amanda, and I probably sell as much Christian fiction as any agency in the country. So I was there, representing the company at the book show, trying to act nice, and remembering to wear a clean shirt.

As usual, I loved seeing editors and authors. There were great new covers to see, some trends in books that we’ll get into later, and authors we represent won several major awards — so a good show all around. It was once again held in Orlando — faithful readers will know that the people in charge of ICRS hold high-level meetings each year, to try and determine which will be the hottest city in the country the next year, in order to book the show someplace completely uncomfortable. (“How about hell? Have we considered doing the show in hell?”) Rumor has it they light candles, throw the urim and thummin, and then decide to go back to Atlanta or Orlando or someplace equally muggy. The main show was in the Orlando convention center, which has finally added covered walkways to the complex, so you no longer get rained on every afternoon when you leave the convention and walk back to your hotel. (Another fine CBA tradition ruined!)

The show itself has definitely shrunk. There were far fewer people attending, and it didn’t have the optimism we all felt last year. In fact, the one thing that stood out about this year’s show was the lack of buzz. Monday mornings of ICRS traditionally are crowded, and have an air of anticipation to them. There’s always that first-morning crush, with everybody trying to see the latest books and Christian Crud. Not this year. I’m not trying to be negative, since I actually enjoy the convention, but Monday morning was decidedly quiet. In fact, it had the feel of the old Wednesday afternoons, when everybody was gone to visit with Minnie & Mickey, and the sales reps could talk to each other about how terrible the book business is. (Note: The fact is, book business is great. We’re producing and selling more books than ever before in history. And we’re selling more Christian books than ever before. So don’t accept the mistaken notion that publishing is falling apart. It’s not. It’s simply changing.) Anyway, there wasn’t nearly as much excitement as usual, and a number of CBA publishing houses simply chose not to participate.

For the un-initiated, ICRS isn’t like BEA, in that it’s not a “book” show. It’s a more generalized retail convention for anybody with religious stuff to sell. So there are t-shirts and ties, jewelry and Jewish trinkets, paintings and posters, music and miscellaneous crap from board games to dolls to genuine olive oil from the Holy Land. Yes, it’s THAT kind of show.

The book publishers were basically all in one section, but it’s clear they’ve all shrunk their floor space. Not as many giveaways, not as many signings, not as many authors. Makes me wonder if the publishers will again choose to dump ICRS and hold their own show, just for books. I pretty much stayed in that space, since I have no interest in Precious Moments Statuettes or Thomas Kinkade paintings, but I did get around to see some of the specialty products offered to religious retailers. In the past, I’ve recorded some of the really bad ideas that have come and gone at the show — Gospel Golf Balls, Praise Panties, Pope Soap on a Rope, vials of “genuine ash from Sodom and Gomorrah,” etc. (And before you ask, NO, I’M NOT MAKING ANY OF THIS UP.)

A couple years ago, Jesus Footwear was all the rage — people offering shoes with verses, Standing on the Promises insoles, and the like. This year it was clearly “The Pillowcase Convention,” since I counted at least three companies who have discovered the deep truth that “putting your head on a random Bible verse offers you better sleep.” Don’t believe me? “Celestial Slumber” offered pillowcases with heavenly stuff on them. The “To Rest My Case” company had pillowcases with Bible verses. And “Faceplant” was a third company that offered the same concept — all vying for this hot new corner of the Department of Laughable Christian Crud.

Of course, those pale in comparison to the people offering “WWJT” t-shirts — which stands for “What Would Jesus Text?” (An alternative idea: What would Jesus SELL? Would it be made in China? And would it have more depth than a stoo-pid t-shirt?) There was also a company on the floor selling Scripture Fortune Cookies. Really. Wrap your mind around that for a moment… (“Whenever I’m in need of divine guidance, I eat Chinese! Then I look forward to the Spirit leading me through some pithy aphorism in a cookie!”)

However, there was a hands-down, slam-dunk, stone-cold-lock winner of this year’s coveted Gold Weenie Award, given to the worst idea at each ICRS. This year’s unanimous selection has to be Grilled Cheesus — a George Foreman-like grill that imprints the face of Jesus on your sandwich. It’s so truly awful, so patently offensive, it is sure to join “Heroin Jesus” (a painting of a junkie pushing drugs into the arm of the Savior) and the afore-mentioned “Vials of Sodom Ash” on my top ten list of Worst Jesus Crap of All Time.

Lest you think I’m making this up…

So ends another year at ICRS. Now it’s on to RWA.  Would love to hear your take on ICRS 2012!

(And, for those who are slow readers, YES, WE REPRESENT RELIGIOUS BOOKS, BUT WE ALSO REPRESENT GENERAL MARKET BOOKS. I hope that’s finally clear.)

Amanda 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.

Today, we’re going to gear things a bit more toward published authors and, for the time being, away from strictly talking platform-marketing. Today, we’re going to talk a bit of book marketing, thanks to Tina’s question:

I once heard MJ Rose say we shouldn’t stop promoting past novels. She even told a story about a guy who promoted his book for two years after a publisher dropped theirs and he sold an amazing 100,000 copies.

It seems even more important to promote when we are in between novels, but I don’t want to beat people over the head.  At the same time, I feel like I need to keep promoting my writing to keep from disappearing from the industry. Thoughts?

The simple answer (in my opinion), is yes. You should continue to promote all of your books. Lets talk numbers, here…

You write a book. The publisher gives you $10,000 as an advance. The book comes out. It almost earns out that advance before the publisher wants to do another book. They give you another $10,000. In the course of one year, or so. You’ve made $20,000. Not too shabby, but it’s still not a solid income.

At this point, most authors stop focusing on their old book and focus on their new one. New is exciting! Fresh! It’s a way to start over! And maybe earn out that advance!

But let’s think about this…your first book is almost going to earn out. That means, once the publisher recoups the $10k, you’re going to start seeing royalty money come in. If you drop the book altogether, chances are it will go out of print, and you haven’t made a single dollar on it past the $10k you were given. BUT if you continue to promote the book, not only will you see better sales numbers, but you’ll start earning money without putting in much effort.

This is how financially sound writing careers are made…when you make your books work for you, instead of you working for your books.

Royalty money is the best money in the business. It’s literally money for something you’ve already written, already sweated over, already made personal sacrifices for. And you don’t have to do much to keep those royalty checks coming in.

Another reason to promote your old books, is because most of your readers don’t own each book you’ve ever written! Sure, your die hard fans are going to have all your books, but a majority of your readers are people who have one, maybe two books of yours total. So if you’ve written five books, that means there’s 3-4 books they don’t have. And if you ask me, those should be the easiest sales to make!

How to promote you “old” books

1) Feature them on your website, social media pages, newsletters and book signing tables. Be unashamed and unhindered! When you’re talking with readers at a book signing, talk up your old books (and have them on the table, ready to sell). When you’re designing your cover photo for Facebook, put your old books right up there with your new one. When you Tweet about your books, talk up the old ones just as much as you talk about the new one. When you blog about your books (or about themes in your books), don’t forget your old ones!

2) Build off your new release. Yes, you should protect the release of your new book. But after you’ve given your book 4-6 weeks, it makes sense to take all of that interest you’ve built up, and push it toward all your books.

3) Plan out the “in between” times. Let’s say you release a book every year in January. You promote it through March, but then run out of steam until October when you’re ramping up for your new book. That’s six months of dead time! Use it to promote old books. Give each book (old and new) between 2 weeks and a month in which you focus on it in all your social media. Cycle through your books over and over until it’s time to focus on a new book. Your schedule could look like this: April – old book 1; May – new book; June – old book 2: July – new book; August – old book 1; and so on.

When things gets tricky…

Many novelists who are making a living at this, are doing so by writing multiple books per year. They may have anywhere from three to five books coming out in 2012 alone, and on top of that, they do other writing.

It’s most difficult for those authors to make the switch and start promoting old books, because they naturally have to think about “what’s next” all the time. But my challenge to those authors would be to stop living advance to advance. Scale it back. Get to the point where you’re doing two books per year and have shifted your focus to promoting your 10+ books already in print. Then, see what happens. You may find you’re able to write better stories. You also may find that focusing on bringing in royalty money is easier and more profitable than cranking out a bazillion novels.

Just a thought

What thoughts or ideas do you have? What are the struggles of promoting old titles? What have you found works?

And for all you unpublished authors out there who dream of having this problem, what’s your game plan when you’re faced with chasing advances versus royalties?

Marie Prys provides administrative support to MacGregor Literary’s agents as well as overseeing contracts and informational databases. She hails from the Northwest, lives in Richmond, VA, and enjoys a blessed life with her husband and four children. Reading is a favorite pastime she is always trying to find more time for.

When it comes to favorite books, I would be remiss if I didn’t cover Children’s fiction. As a child I was sometimes punished with having whatever book I was reading be taken away until a misdeed had been rectified—such as completing neglected chores. (This was, by the way, very effective, as I was always reading.) As an adult I am again re-reading old favorites with my children, or sometimes just living vicariously through them as they find my old favorites, and together we’ve even discovered new reading gems. Reading in this way creates communion, interaction, and special memories, but it also teaches.

When my daughter got hooked on the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, it was an addiction for me to ask her where she was in the series and what was going on. I relished her enjoyment of the descriptions of sisterhood (Laura is going to be Mary’s eyes now), her disdain for Nellie Olson (She deserved the leeches!), and her anticipation of what would happen when Almanzo Wilder came on the scene.  And as she was reading, she learned geography, American pioneer-era history, and about the intricacies of family relationships.

The scene was no different when my son discovered J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. We discussed the pros and cons of mail by owl (how do the owls know where to go?), and Harry’s incredible successes in Quidditch (It would be the coolest game if it were real), and I taught him how to play chess after he read about Wizard Chess and realized we had that game. Going more deeply into his reading, we also considered what Muggles were and drew parallels to WWII, and considered how people groups should be treated, and what history and the Bible teach us.

During a recent trip we listened to an audio version of P. L. Travers Mary Poppins, and, much to my delight, it was well received by all (it can be hard to please everyone) and led to a great discussion of how the original book was similar (and completely different) from the Disney movie version.

It also warms my heart that my two older children, in spite of their reading proficiency, still enjoy tuning in when I read aloud to the younger two. Last week we started Roald Dahl’s Danny and the Champion of the World. The following passage (p. 34) brought great enjoyment:

“…Whenever my dad thought up a new method of catching pheasants, he tried it out on a rooster first to see if it worked.”

“What are the best ways?” I asked.

My father laid a half-eaten sandwich on the edge of the sink and gazed at me in silence for about twenty seconds. “Promise you won’t tell another soul?”

“I promise.”

“Now here’s the thing,” he said. “Here’s the first big secret. Ah, but it’s more than a secret, Danny. It’s the most important discovery in the whole history of poaching.”

He edged a shade closer to me. His face was pale in the pale yellow glow from the lamp in the ceiling, but his eyes were shining like stars.

“So here it is,” he said, and now suddenly his voice became soft and whispery and very private. “Pheasants,” he whispered, “are crazy about raisins.”

…

“Just ordinary raisins. It’s like a mania with them….”

[Stop my reading here as I explain what “mania” and “poaching” are.] Then, without missing a beat, one eager listener raises the question I should have expected: “Mom, do you think our chickens would like raisins too?”

Um, no, I think we should leave the raisins to those who poach pheasants.  (And yes, I moved both the bag of Craisins and the box of raisins to the top shelf of the pantry right after our reading that night.)

Thanks, Roald Dahl, for great moments spent reading your stories, and for ideas that will likely lead to some experimentation in my very own backyard, but also hours of enjoyment and memories with my kids.

What children’s books stand out in your memory as great reads, and have you shared them with your own kids? Please leave a comment as I’m always on the lookout for more great books to read.

Andrea wrote to say, “An author recently gave me a copy of her book to review. I wasn’t very impressed with the writing or the story, but I felt indebted to write a fairly positive review, since she gave me a complimentary copy. What is my obligation in this situation?”

Eeek. I hate that situation. Been there many times myself, and I always felt like a weenie when I didn’t tell the truth. Besides, none of us like reading a glowing endorsement of a book, only to buy the book and feel ripped off by a reviewer who clearly either (a) lied, or (b) didn’t read the book, or (c) can’t read. It’s frustrating. So my advice is lifted entirely from my Grandmother: If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

There’s a limit to this advice, of course. If you’re hired to do a review, just close your eyes and tell the truth. But in a case like you’re describing, where you’ve been given a copy by someone who probably thinks of you as a friend, it is sometimes best to write back and politely say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be able to do a review on this book after all. I wish you the best.”

What advice do you all have in this situation?

Kathy wrote and asked, “I’m in negotiations on my book contract. What’s a fair advance?”

Um…that question is impossible to answer, Kathy. “Fairness” depends on your mood today, the publisher’s perspective, your expectations, and a hundred other variables. But the advance will largely come down to “how many copies can the publisher can sell?”

Agents will sometimes create a formula to try and establish a book’s worth based on past sales, your history of advances, size of audience, and the proposed marketing for the book. They may take into account what you think the book is worth to you, based on your time and energy. It’s funny, but authors often approach a negotiation as an emotional thing — i.e., “I feel this advance isn’t big enough.” But that’s a trap. Your feelings may not be correct. And you can’t always compare your contract to someone else’s contract and be sure you’re comparing apples to apples. (You’ve seen this before — “They offered Nick Sparks a million bucks, but all they could give me was ten thousand?!”)

Try not to think of the advance as the only important part of a contract. Some of the romance publishers pay fairly small advances — but they sell a lot of copies, and the authors don’t complain when those big royalty checks come in. Instead, think of your book as a project that has a lot of opportunity to earn money for you, over the long haul. We’re all moving away from an advanced-based way of earning a living, so here’s your chance to get ahead of the curve. Think long term — advance, royalties, ebooks, foreign income, etc.

If you need a formula for determining the immediate value of your book, you might find it helpful to think like a work-for-hire writer. If he needs to make $1000 per week in order to meet his budget, he’ll try to determine how long a project will take him to complete. The creation of an article that will pay $600 is measured by time — he needs to be able to write it in three days in order to stick to his budget. If he’s afraid it’ll take him two weeks to complete the article, that’s $2000 worth of time, so it doesn’t make financial sense to say “yes” to a $600 project.

Still, that’s a tough method for a novelist to follow. You might spend a year creating your book, and the publisher is only willing to offer you a $10,000 advance — pretty skinny money for a year of your life. (Perhaps this is why so many novelists are women married to men with careers.) But most novelists aren’t in the business strictly for the money — they’re in the business because they have stories in their heads, and they have to write them down. That’s the life of an artist — any artist. There aren’t a lot of poets, musicians, scupltors, and dancers who are making a fortune off their art. We do it for art’s sake, I guess, and to be able to use this great gift God has granted us.

So…you may not be happy with my answer, Kathy. A “fair” advance is the one you and your publisher can agree to and feel good about. Let me know how negotiations go.

Amanda 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.

As we’ve been discussing growing your platform, one of my rules has been Don’t start too big. Start small. Give Facebook a try and when you feel you have that under control, then move on to Twitter. You’ll shoot yourself in the foot if you launch author versions of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube all at once. Trust me, you’ll want to die. So focus on one thing. But along with that one thing, you should also have a website.

Last week, we discussed what type of content unpublished authors should include in their websites, and the week before we discussed why an unpublished author needs a website in the first place. If you haven’t read those, take the time to catch up. I really believe it’s valuable content not only for unpublished authors, but new authors.

As a quick recap, an unpublished author’s website should have two goals: The first goal would be to provide editors, agents and the publishing world with a better picture of who you are and what you’re about. The second goal would be to utilize your website as a central hub for all of your social media ventures.

Since last week we discussed Goal #1, this week, we’re looking at Goal #2.

When you’re just starting out, it can be so great when a stranger or acquaintance takes a serious interest in your writing. Maybe they overheard you say that you’re writing a book, or maybe they saw you typing away at Starbucks and had to say something. Maybe they met you on a message board that focuses on your genre or maybe you buddied up at a writer’s conference. When these connections happen, it’s probably one of the most encouraging, exciting things for an unpublished author.

So you want to do everything in your power not to lose that potential reader.

When someone asks about your writing, you need a one-stop place to direct them. The last thing you want is to list out your Twitter handle, Facebook url, blog url, email address, and YouTube username. Chances are, the person is going to feel overwhelmed, not know where to go, and they’ll fall off the grid. But what if you had a website that could direct the user to each of these applications? That way, when they ask for more info, you just give them your website URL and let them decide how they want to interact with you.

How to turn your website into a social media hub…

1. Put your social media buttons at or near the top of the home page. Last week, I share the example of Susan Sleeman’s masthead. It’s designed in such a way that all of her social media buttons are impossible to miss. So, readers who want to interact with her on Facebook can easily get that set up. Same goes for Twitter and with RSS feeds. This same strategy should go for your website. And as you add more social media channels, you can add more buttons.

Also, check out Jennifer Murgia’s site. She includes Goodreads!

2. Link your blog directly to your website. It doesn’t matter if it’s hosted live on your site (like Susan’s is), or by clicking on “blog” in the navigation menu, the user is directed to a new site. Just make sure your blog is easily accessible.

3. Make sure your blog has RSS capabilities or some sort of subscription service. For those of you in the dark, RSS is a program (for lack of a better term) that will notify users when a website or webpage has updated its content. Bloggers use this a lot. Their readers can subscribe to their blog via RSS, and in turn they’ll get an email notice every time the blog has a new post. Pretty cool.

The RSS service that I highly recommend is Google’s Feedburner.

4. Have your blog or home page stream your Twitter feed. Sometimes, all readers need in order to follow you on Twitter, is proof that you actually Tweet! (A second qualification would be humorous Tweets …no pressure). If you scroll down on Laura Smith’s blog, you can see an example of what it looks like for Tweets to show up on a website. Most blog providers (WordPress, Blogger, etc) have widgets or apps that you can add to your blog or website to enable this feature. Here are some posts on Twitter:

• Why Authors Should Be on Twitter
• How to Write a Great Tweet

I believe Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube can also be linked to your website. Not sure on the specifics of those, but it would be worth pursuing. Here are more posts on Facebook:

• Using Facebook
• How to Use Facebook as an Unpublished Writer
• How to Use Facebook as a Published Author

5. Beware of the break. Ok, this is where my background as a social media marketer for a not-too-shabby marketing firm comes into play… Go to our agency website. Don’t click or do anything. Just let it be. What do you see? You see some books that we represented. You see a picture of all of us (one in which we look like a happy family). You see a button for Chip’s blog. And you see various tabs. So tell me, what is your next action? Go ahead. Do something. Leave the site. Click on something. Or do what a very small percentage of readers will do…scroll down.

You see, there’s a bunch more information on the page. There are author recommendations, links to sample book proposals, and our list of guiding principles. But they all involve scrolling down. Within 3 seconds of visiting our page, you decided what you’re going to do next. And it probably didn’t involve scrolling down.

That bottom part of the screen…that’s called “the break.” And any content that comes after “the break” usually goes unnoticed.

When designing your author website, place the most important, catching, and inviting information above the break. Otherwise, no one will know it’s there.

Now, you can do a sneaky thing, where you have some information that spills past “the break,” thus requiring an interested visitor to scroll down. But take a look at our “Latest News” section. If you’re not a fan of Susan Page Davis, you’re not going to scroll down.

So be very intentional about where you place your content. You have anywhere between 2 and 10 seconds to capture attention. Don’t waste it!

That’s all for today! Any thoughts? Questions? Or maybe you want to share whether you actually scrolled down.