The Little Whisper. . ."Should I Just Self-Publish?"

In the vast land of author dilemmas there lives a persistent, harmful reflex thought that short circuits an author's patience for, and belief in, the traditional publishing process:  Maybe I should just self-publish.

At the moment this thought rolls through your brain, it's a relief. Relief from rejections, from the roller-coaster of hope and despair, from the seemingly endless stream of voices in The Publishing World saying You Are Not Good Enough For Us. You are not It.

But there is so much wrong with this thinking. For starters:

1. No matter what a publisher rejection actually says, it is rarely meant to say You are not good enough for us. It is not personal, and this is critical for every author to accept. There may be problems with the writing, or the concept, or the market for this idea. But no one is saying YOU are not good enough to be published. Once you engage in the publishing process using a business mindset instead of a personality-contest perspective, you won't feel so beat up and the rejections will not sidetrack you.
2. The manuscript submission process is as much a way of getting editor and agent input/feedback as it is for asking Do you want me or this book? You can find out if your positioning in the market makes sense to publishing people; if your premise is interesting to them; if there is competition in your area that you didn't know about, etc. Use the submission process for more than papering your office with letters. [I know what you're going to say about form letters! But when agents and editors have something to say, they will say it. I know many agents and editors who try to offer insights and suggestions.] 
3. It isn't that a writer should never self-publish; it's that this decision should be intentionally made, not because you are frustrated with the publishing process. You always have the option to self-publish, but unless your goal is to be a Publisher, the self-publishing option should be left as your last option.

Traditional publishers have offered a compelling defense for themselves over the last two years:

Dominique Raccah, President and CEO of Sourcebooks and leading innovator in our industry, offering a must-read blog:  A Publisher's View of the Digital Transformation

Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. is specific in her Huffington Post blog about what traditional publishing does NOT do: Understanding How the Traditional Publishing Model Works

Carole Baron, formerly of Knopf, emphasizes Ten Things an Editor Does for the Author:

• Choosing the book
• Negotiating the deal with the author or agent
• Editing the book
• Working with copy editing, design, and production
• Writing jacket copy and catalog copy; work with the art director on the jacket
• Positioning the book within the company as an advocate to sales and marketing
• Being aware of what is happening in the publishing business so you can make informed decisions
• Communicating to the author and agent what is happening to the book along the way.
• When the book is published, cheering for the good reviews and commiserating for the bad ones (and explaining that even Jane Austen and Herman Melville got bad reviews).
• Being there for the author's next book. 

"So before you, as a writer, decide to bypass the publisher and the editor, remember it is the role of the editor to be the author's advocate in the arduous publishing process so that the book will get the readership it deserves.

For those who have never worked behind the scenes in a publishing house or in a bookstore, it is impossible to fathom the multitude of things a publisher and sales force is doing for an author to launch that book into the world. The very least of it is printing it.

William Petrocelli, veteran bookseller from the San Francisco Bay Area wrote an extensive Huffington Post article on the absolute need for publishers and booksellers today, stating:

"Most authors work in isolation. Unless they are famous, there is ordinarily no ready market for the books they write. There may be a large potential readership, but the great majority of authors have no practical way to reach that audience. For the vast majority of writers, the cost of doing this would be prohibitive. This is where publishers and brick-and-mortar bookstores step in. Their principal role is to help authors reach readers that they aren't able to find on their own.Publishers are the key to this process, because they make it financially worthwhile for authors to spend their time and energy writing books. Most people think the publisher's major expenditure is the money they pay authors as an advance against royalties. But the advance is often a small part of the publisher's overall expenditure. Publishers pay for editors to suggest textual revisions and correct mistakes. They pay for text designers and cover designers for the book, and they employ other designers to create catalog copy, website information and promotional materials. They have publicists who arrange media appearances and author tours. They have printers, binders and shippers who get the book out to stores. They have web experts to convert the book into an e-book format. And they have sales people who call on book stores, go through the publisher's catalog page-by-page with the store buyer, and sing the praises of the books they really like."  read more

Random House has a Youtube called "Bringing Our Author's Books to Life." Do yourself a favor an watch it.

Bestselling author Peter Straub weighed in on self-publishing, talking to Edan Lepucki of The Millions:

"Most of the editors I have worked with over the past thirty-five years have made crucial contributions to the books entrusted to them, and the copy-editors have always, in every case, done exactly the same. They have enriched the books that came into their hands. Can you have good, thoughtful, creative editing and precise, accurate, immaculate copy-editing if you self-publish? And if you can’t, what is being said about the status or role of selflessness before the final form of the fiction as accepted by the audience, I mean the willingness of the author to submerge his ego to produce the novel that is truest to itself?"

This should help quiet the little voice whispering Just self-publish and be done with it. If you are passionate about your writing and your book, and believe you have a future in publishing, this would be a terrible waste. Instead, (1) Take a small break, (2) Rethink and study what has happened so far, to get some new ideas, (3) Send your work out to a whole new crowd of people. Try again.

Perseverance!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

The Art of an Effective Radio Interview

Marsha Friedman of EMSI PR firm's PR Insider newsletter--gives 3 Tips for Making Your Interview Shine

• Beware of trendy "crutch" words. For too many years, "like" was, like, the No. 1 favorite fall-back word. Before that, it was "y' know" - y' know? "Cool!" has remained a favorite for decades because it can convey agreement, happiness, or the fact that you just can't think of anything better to say. The newest crutch I've been hearing is "actually." I actually heard a recent interview in which a college student talked about actually going to Syria to help people who were actually starving. We're all guilty of using crutch words from time to time, and using any just once in a conversation or interview is fine. But they tend to be like potato chips. Record yourself telling a story and play it back to listen for repetitive crutch words, or ask a friend to critique you. Then practice excising them from your vocabulary.
• Don't back into your interview - start strong! Some people take a little time to get warmed up. Others think the audience will stick with them longer if they build up suspense, as in "I have something really important to tell you and if you hang in there, you're going to be amazed!" I say jump right in and get right to the heart of your message. There are a few of reasons for that. (1)Your interview may get cut short if you're not entertaining and informative. (2) It makes a good first impression and builds momentum for the rest of your interview. 
• Use sound bites. Sound bites have gotten a bad rap; they're associated with being shallow and insincere. But in truth, they're very helpful. While listeners may not be able to immediately recall everything you say, your sound bites are likely to stick - which will help people remember some of the details. Good sound bites are nuggets of compressed information stated in a fresh, memorable way. One of my favorite celebrities, Muhammed Ali, is known for great sound bites, including, "I outwit them and then I out-hit them." Prepare some ahead of time and have them written down in front of you when you're interviewed.

Check out their online radio show! It can only help you, and takes but a moment.

Onward Savvy Book Author!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

FICTION THAT EDITORS RECENTLY BOUGHT

Okay--here are some deals that happened in the last week with new FICTION--something you all love to read, I know.

Notice the "New Adult" category of book - which is a new classification for books aimed at older-than-teenagers but "early adults" who are out in their new independent lives....beyond Young Adult, not yet Adult stories...
___________________________________________________________

[Thriller]  Jen Danna with Ann Vanderlaan's A FLAME IN THE WIND OF DEATH, when a murder spree rocks the crowded streets of Salem, Massachusetts just before Halloween, a cop and scientist team up to stop the killer before mass panic ensues and more victims die, to Deni Dietz at Five Star by The Seymour Agency. [Mystery/Crime]  Allen Eskens's THE LIFE WE BURY, about a Minnesota college student on a dangerous quest to discover the truth about a dying convicted murderer, but hamstrung by a dysfunctional mother, sibling guilt, and a haunting childhood memory, to Dan Mayer at Seventh Street. [General]  Davis Slater's SELLING SIN AT THE HOOT-POSSUM AUCTION, in which a 13-year-old, orphaned Missouri boy's mission to help his parents avoid hellfire in the afterlife by burying them is threatened as he is abandoned by his community and thrust into the care of an unscrupulous cousin willing to sell his own daughters for a quick buck, to Rena Dodge at Pink Fish Press. [Mystery/Crime]  Holly Menino's next untitled equestrian mystery featuring amateur sleuth Tink Elledge, following MURDER, SHE RODE, to Anne Brewer at Minotaur. [New Adult]  NYT bestselling self-published author Monica Murphy's ONE WEEK GIRLFRIEND and SECOND CHANCE BOYFRIEND, featuring a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who agrees to pose as the girlfriend of the star college quarterback when he takes her home to see his family, but soon discovers his life isn't as perfect as it seems from the outside, to Shauna Summers at Ballantine Bantam Dell.

[General]  Author of IN THE HOUSE UPON THE DIRT BETWEEN THE LAKE AND THE WOODS Matt Bell's SCRAPPER, set amid the 100,000 abandoned buildings in the city of Detroit, where an illegal metal scavenger accidentally rescues an abducted boy and then becomes obsessed with finding his kidnapper; and an untitled collection of new and previously published stories, to Mark Doten at   Soho Press.

[New Adult] Karina Halle's Artists Trilogy, featuring the two self-published titles SINS AND NEEDLES and ON EVERY STREET, and the third book in the series, following a couple as they attempt to outrun past sins and lovers, to Latoya Smith at Grand Central. [Debut]  Pia Padukone's WHERE EARTH MEETS WATER, spanning from New York to India, exploring the interwoven stories of four people united by one man and his search for meaning in the wake of great tragedy, to Susan Swinwood at Mira. [New Adult]  NYT bestselling author Abbi Glines's Too Far series, including the originally self-published TWISTED PERFECTION and its follow-up, SIMPLE PERFECTION as well as THIS ONE CHANCE and TAKE A CHANCE, to Judith Curr at Atria. [General]  The Fates Will Find Their Way author and 2012 MacDowell Colony Fellowship recipient Hannah Pittard's REUNION, about a woman in the midst of a personal crisis who upon her father's suicide must reunite with her large extended family and some of her father's five former wives, to Helen Atsma at Grand Central. [General]  The sixth novel by the author of The Island House, Posie Graeme-Evans' THE SILVER KING, set in both the present day and in the 12th century, in the border country between England and Scotland, about the daughter of a forest woman who captivates the heart of three dueling, Norman-descended brothers, to Sarah Branham at Atria. [Debut] Brooklyn College MFA graduate CJ Hauser's MARITIME, narrating the beautiful flaws of two young women, each in search of family in small-town Maine and each of whom must shatter her own fantasies of what growing up means in order to arrive in the strange yet marvelous land of adulthood, to Kate Nintzel at William Morrow. [Mystery/Crime] SUNY Albany Criminal Justice Professor and MWA and Sisters in Crime board member and author of The Red Queen Dies Frankie Bailey's second mystery featuring a detective in the Upstate New York of the near future; again to Marcia Markland at Thomas Dunne Books. [Mystery/Crime]  Winner of the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Competition for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, Ruth Moose's DOING IT AT THE DIXIE DEW, featuring the new owner of a B&B in North Carolina who gets drawn into murder when her first guest dies, to Toni Plummer at Thomas Dunne Books. [General]  Winner of the Governor General's Award for Fiction for THE MISTRESS OF NOTHING, Kate Pullinger's next novel, LANDING GEAR, about a stowaway from Pakistan who falls out of the landing gear of a plane above a parking lot in London and into the lives of an English family, to Heather Lazare at Touchstone, with several online components, including a multimedia online version of the prologue. [Mystery/Crime] David Morrell's INSPECTOR OF THE DEAD, a follow-up to his Murder As a Fine Art continuing the saga of the inspector as he investigates a series of murders, several of them unsuccessful attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, aided by his irrepressible daughter and their Scotland Yard companions, to Josh Kendall at Mulholland Books. [General]  Tom Harper's THE ORPHEUS DESCENT, following Plato on a perilous journey to Italy as he seeks the secrets to the Underworld, igniting a conspiracy that burns into the present, pitched in the vein of Dan Brown and Sam Bourne, to Michael Signorelli at Harper Perennial. [Debut]  PEN/Bellwether Award finalist Aline Ohanesian's THE EXILE, set in present day California and Turkey circa 1915, in which a young Muslim man loses his inheritance and journeys across continents and back in time in search of a stranger in Los Angeles who will forever alter the way he sees himself, his family and his country, to Kathy Pories at Algonquin. [General]  J. W. Ironmonger's THE COINCIDENCE AUTHORITY, pitched as reminiscent of The Time Traveler's Wife, a suspenseful novel of a woman who becomes obsessed with the unlikely, troubling convergences that dominate her life -- and the coincidence expert who falls in love while trying to help her overcome her obsession by debunking them, to Cal Morgan at Harper Perennial. [General]  Jennifer Murphy's debut novel, I LOVE YOU MORE, the story of a man secretly married to three different women, who, when they discover his deceit, plot his perfect murder, to Jennifer Jackson at Doubleday. [General]  Rachael Herron's PACK UP THE MOON, in which a woman who has suffered the loss of her family has the opportunity to be a wife and mother again, if she can untangle the complications of her past, to Danielle Perez at New American Library. [Mystery/Crime] Tracy Weber's MURDER STRIKES A POSE, book one of the Downward Dog Mysteries, featuring a Seattle yoga instructor, to Kelly Can Sant at Midnight Ink.  [General]  Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands author Susan Carol McCarthy's LOST AND FOUND AT THE ORANGE COUNTY TEXACO, centered on the thirteen days of the Cuban Missile crisis, days that changed not only a nation, but irrevocably altered the life of a Florida family, to Kate Miciak at Ballantine Bantam Dell. [General]  Rust and Bone author Craig Davidson's CATARACT CITY, about two boys growing up in the Niagara Falls region, a gritty hardscrabble existence that takes them into the worlds of dog racing, bare knuckle fighting, border smuggling, and prison, and from which emerges a powerful story of male friendship, to Steve Woodward at Graywolf. [General] Mitch Albom's THE FIRST PHONE CALL FROM HEAVEN, about a small Michigan town where residents start receiving phone calls from those in the afterlife -- is it the greatest miracle ever or a massive hoax? -- "maybe my favorite story yet, a tale of belief, love and mystery, moving to Karen Rinaldi at Harper Collins. [General]  Author of the August Target Book Club pick THE SECRETS OF MARY BOWSER, Lois Leveen's JULIET'S NURSE, which begins 14 years before the events in Romeo & Juliet and continues beyond its final pages - all told from the perspective of the nurse, moving to Emily Bestler at Emily Bestler Books.

Be inspired!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

AUTHOR PR: 50 THINGS THE MEDIA WANTS FROM YOU

WHAT THE NEWS MEDIA WANTS

                                           by Brian Feinblum
                      Chief Marketing Officer for Media Connect

1. Your book if it ties into the current news cycle.
2. You to only contact them if the book is relevant to what they cover.
3. Something that is actually new to report.
4. You to email them but not blitz them with a barrage of contacts.
5. You to give them a pitch in 15 seconds.
6. To never receive a voicemail unless it’s truly about an A-list author.
7. A guest that is reliable and respectful.
8. Authors that are media coached.
9. Their viewers/listeners/readers to be entertained, enlightened, informed, and inspired by authors.
10. An exclusive.
11. A new twist to a familiar story.
12. An author who is controversial.
13. Your advance review copy four months prior to publication – for book reviewers and long-lead publications.
14. To beat its competing media outlets to the punch.
15. A story that writes itself – so they don’t have to do a ton of research.
16. Bullet points and targeted press releases.
17. Free books, especially printed copies.
18. An author that doesn’t sound like a commercial.
19. Authors and books that don’t clash with its editorial ideology.
20. A book or an author to localize, where possible, the story.
21. To champion certain ideas and will use your book to channel them.
22. Likes visuals – show them a good photo or short video.
23. Not to be overwhelmed by 20 links or buttons to blogs, FB, etc.
24. Good humor, but nothing too racy if it’s a mainstream media outlet.
25. For you not to say how great a book is, but to state without hyperbole, why there’s an urgency to cover your book now.
READ MORE

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian is chief marketing officer for Media Connect media-connect.com and has been in the book publishing and public relations industries for for the past two decades. He also blogs at Book Marketing Buzz Blog bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com.

www.authorbiz.com

TO WRITERS and PEOPLE WHO SPEAK...On the Use of "LIKE"

Re-posted from DAILY WRITING TIPS

“Like” Serves Nouns and Pronouns, Not Verbs

 

Like is associated with various uncouth usages — “They were, like, all over the place”; “I was, like, ‘Really?’” — common in speech but easily avoided (except for comic effect) in writing, but many people are unaware that another widespread usage is considered improper in formal writing.

As a preposition meaning “similar to,” like is associated with nouns (“She entered the room like an empress”) and pronouns (“I don’t know anyone like him”). However, when the word connects one clause (a segment of a sentence that includes a subject and a verb) to another, it impersonates a conjunction: “He started dancing like his pants were on fire”; “I arranged the furniture like it had appeared before.”

Note, though, that this usage, though ubiquitous in conversation and in informal writing, is not considered acceptable in formal writing; like should be replaced, respectively, by “as if” (He started dancing as if his pants were on fire”) or as: (“I arranged the furniture as it had appeared before”). Replacing as with “the way” is also acceptable: “I arranged the furniture the way it had appeared before.”

(But beware of hypercorrection; as is erroneous when, with the same intent, it precedes a noun: “She entered the room as an empress” means that the subject literally became, rather than merely resembled, royalty. But “She entered the room as an empress would” is correct, because the emphasis is then on the subject’s action, not on the type of person the subject is compared to.)

In the case of a sentence such as “Like many first-time visitors do, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me,” either change like to as (“As many first-time visitors do, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me”) or delete the verb at the end of the introductory phrase (“Like many first-time visitors, I stared, dumbstruck, at the vista before me”).

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Just a gentle reminder...let's clean up our language and speak like adults.

Happy Monday!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

BUILDING YOUR SPEAKING BUSINESS

FABULOUS ANNIE JENNINGS PR SHORT COURSE

Round Up: How To Break Into The Speaking Business!
Can you hear them clapping?
That’s right, thousands of people eagerly awaiting your next words, followed by tons of back of the room sales, people asking how they can hire your company and more speaking invitations rolling in. . .

But how much should you charge? How do you create a speaker website that gets you booked? How do you attract meeting planners?

Good questions. JenningsWire queried speakers and those who work with them on how to break into the speaking industry. The response was plentiful. So much so, that we have to break this article into a series. Your success as a speaker starts right now and this is Part One.

Please keep your eye on JenningsWire for the rest of the articles in the series or you can send an email to annie@anniejenningspr.com with ‘please send speaking articles’ in the subject line and we will let you know via email when the next article is posted.

What does it take to break into the speaking industry? You are about to find out!

One successful speaker’s game plan, broken down, step-by-step

The following speaking tips are shared by Alona Banai, Director of Operations, CMI: Our company’s CEO is starting to give workshops and talks at industry conferences related to creating performance oriented organizations and based on his book, Front Line Heroes: Battling the Business Tsunami with Performance Oriented Cultures. You can learn more about our company and Bruce’s speaking by visiting his speaking page. In order to prepare for all of this our company did the following:
1. Bruce hired a coach to give him some speaking tips. Marty Zitlin of Strategic Creative Communications:
2. Bruce hired another speaking coach, Susan Levin, Speaker Services to help us learn how to break into the speaking world and prepare necessary materials. She’s been extremely helpful.
3. We hired a Ken Hall, Story View LLC, to film and edit Bruce presenting at a conference. You can view the results of those films on our YouTube channel.
4. We updated our website to include a speaker’s page which lists the various speaking topics that Bruce presents as well as a link for meeting planners.
5. We created a Speaker One Page.
6. We emailed all our existing clients to get recommendations for industry meetings where Bruce could present.
7. We’ve been emailing and cold calling leads that come up in Google searches and Google alerts.
Success! Bruce is already scheduled to speak at 2 conferences this year and potentially a third. Last year he had 4 speaking engagements. Speaking is only part of what our company does so that is very successful for us.
Speaking tips submitted by Alona Banaim, Director of Operations, CMI, Strategic Planning For Today’s Challenging Business Environment. Read Bruce’s latest Family Business Article and visit Bruce and Alona at CMITeamWork.com, LinkedIn, Facebook and on their Blog.

More tools of the trade

read more....

This is invaluable. Don't waste this training. Read the rest of her series, and check out her whole web site...http://anniejenningspr.com/jenningswire/


Here's to your success --
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

LEARNING FROM THE GRAMMAR POLICE

GOOD ONE!

Reprinted from the site:  DAILY WRITING TIPS

10 Classes of Careless Usage

by Mark Nichol

 

If you find yourself making any of the following types of errors, general or specific, brush up on your writing with grammar guides and usage handbooks and/or any or all of the other strategies mentioned at the end of this post.

1. Appending an s to words in which, in most usage, the letter should not be included (for example, regards, as in “in regards to”) or that, in American English, have dropped it altogether (backward). (Using the -st ending in such words as amidst and amongst is a similar sign of poor usage.)

2. Using the incorrect form of pronouns — writing, for example, “My friend and myself” instead of “My friend and I” or “That happened to she and I at the same time” rather than “That happened to her and me at the same time.” (If you don’t like the way that sentence looks, either, write, “That happened to both of us at the same time.”)

3. Using unnecessarily complicated words or phrases in favor of simpler, well-established terms: utilize instead of use, “prior to” in place of before, subsequently instead of later.

4. Using nonwords: irregardless, supposably, theirselves.

5. Using plural forms of words instead of singular ones: “a criteria,” “a phenomena.”

6. Using less when fewer is appropriate: “There are less boxes than I thought” instead of “There are fewer boxes than I thought.”

7. Using euphemisms: “He passed away last year” instead of “He died last year.”

8. Using badly in place of bad in such sentences as “He feels badly about the decision.”

9. Adding extraneous prepositions: “That’s too small of a shirt for you.”

10. Employing erroneous wording of idiomatic phrases: “for all intensive purposes” instead of “for all intents and purposes.”

read more....

Bless you Mark Nichol!  Hear! Hear!

Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

AMAZON'S AUTHOR PAGE: Why and How to Use it

DON'T BE A BLANK... Reprinted by permission from Amazon... with thanks to Leslie Kossoff Greetings, Authors— Guy Kawasaki has some great advice on how and why to use Amazon Author Central in his latest book, APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur—How to Publish Your Book. We asked Guy what tips he has for getting the most out of Author Central:

“	Think of your Amazon Author Page as your online identity as an author. Here’s how to use Author Central to create a great Author Page: Provide a high-quality profile photo – Your photo should depict you as someone who is likable, trustworthy, and competent. Your face should dominate the photo--don't include your kids, spouse, car, or cat. The picture should be in-focus, without red-eye, and with a light source in front of you. Ensure your biography is complete and up to date – This is where you need to prove to people that you have the street cred to write a book. Think of this as your elevator pitch as if you're applying for a job. Use all your weapons – This means investing the time to include your blogs and social-media accounts. That said, if you're no longer blogging or using a social-media account, then don't include them. The goal here is show that you're an engaged and engaging person. Cut to the chase – Let your writing and reviews do the talking. Don't describe yourself or your writing as "innovative," "inspiring," and "irresistible." Bragging makes you look clueless. Let the stars do the talking. ”
Here’s Guy’s Author Page (amazon.com/author/guykawasaki), updated with photos and links to his blog and tweets: Author Pages are viewed by millions of readers each month. Managing your Author Page is easy. Simply log into Author Central, go to the Profile tab, and update your information. If you haven’t done so already, you can claim your own easy-to-remember Author Page web address to share on your blog and social networks.
Sincerely, The Author Central Team https://authorcentral.amazon.com

Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

The Big Fiction Deals with Major Publishers in 2012

Part of the year-end Publishers Marketplace analysis and findings includes this amazing piece about fiction sales to publishers:

Along with the growth in volume of fiction deals came a clear increase in publisher investment: We recorded 180 fiction deals for six-figures or better (or ten percent of all fiction sales). There were 60 percent more six-figure fiction deals for 2012 compared to 2011. 

This reminds me of what an editor told me at the beginning of last year. He was explaining his turning down a perfectly good book that he knew historically he would have published. Now? No. He said, "I would much rather throw a hundred thousand dollars at you for a spectacular book than to pay you $10-15,000 for a bunch of perfectly good but mid-list, ordinary books. There's no longer any reason for us to commit our resources to the mid-list books."

The message for the commercial novelist is that there is no middle ground. There are the niche books that sell steadily for the the independent publisher or the self-published authors who market themselves well, and there are the books that will sell nationally and internationally, get translation deals and a few film deals, which is what the major publisher is built to to do. This is where their machinery kicks in.

So if you want to to write to attract a major publisher and have commercial success, what are some key recommendations?

• Study all elements of the craft for your specific genre (see Writers Digest books)
• Take intensive writing workshops taught by commercially published authors
• Write write write (in other words, don't keep it all in your head!)
• Work with a well-matched freelance editor
• Go to writers conferences where well matched agents who sell strongly in your genre are speaking so you can open doors for yourselves in advance
• Learn about the current marketing essentials for authors in advance of your book even being accepted by an agent, study books like Christina Katz's Get Known Before Your Book Comes Out and Chuck Sambuchino's Create Your Marketing Platform and Penny Sansevieri's Red Hot Internet Publicity.

Set your sights, make a plan, and execute your plan like a professional.

Laurie

www.authorbiz.com

What to Watch for in 2013 by Mike Shatzkin

The Shatzkin Files recently posted this cogent and helpful summary of what to expect in publishing this coming year. I thought you would find it enlightening as well:

Although “digital change in publishing” has a year that lags the calendar year and this year won’t “end” until we have a read on how post-Christmas ebook sales were affected by the new devices consumers got for Christmas, the dropping of the ball in Times Square is the signal most of us respond to when timing our look ahead.

The signals about what to expect when the “digital year” ends are mixed, but not wildly encouraging. There are anecdotal reports of strong sales by US indies selling Kobo devices and Amazon has bragged about their Kindle Fire sales. On the other hand, B&N does not seem to be meeting its targets on the digital side and we’re learning that we don’t get the ebook sales surge from replacement devices that we get when a consumer first switches over from print. Most of the devices being sold now are replacements. And we’re also seeing tablet sales surging past ereaders. Prior analysis has told us that people spend more time reading books on ereaders than they do on tablets.

But quite aside from precisely where Digital Year 2012 ended up, there are five trends I think will be increasingly noticeable and important in trade publishing that are worth keeping an eye on in 2013.

1. Overall migration of sales from print to digital will continue to slow down.We have already seen this clearly in data that has been reported throughout 2012. After ebook share growth that was in triple digit percentages for four years (2008-2011), this year we saw that switchover slow down considerably to substantially less than a 50% increase over last year.

Although the slowdown was pretty sudden, it shouldn’t really have been that surprising. Since the ebook era began in earnest with the arrival of Kindle in November, 2007 (5 years and a few weeks ago), it has been clear that heavy readers were early adopters. Both price and convenience were drivers that made the reader of a book a week much more interested in the new way of purchasing and consuming than the reader of a few books a year.

There appear to be those out there who believe this is a temporary lull and that the ebook switchover will shortly accelerate again. I really don’t think so. Although I don’t think the various surveys of reading habits have captured this, my hunch is that there are relatively few heavy readers left to make the change and those are, demonstrably, extremely resistant.

It is entirely possible that the death of Borders and changes at B&N reduced the amount of shelf space for books by as much as 50% in the two years that ended with 2011, a year ago. (That emphatically does not mean that print sales declined by that amount, or even that print sold in stores did.) That adjustment of shelf space to the reality of the purchasing shift consumers had made was a sudden over-correction, with the result that the remaining booksellers got a bit of wind at their backs. The data is hard to interpret, but it is possible that the indies benefited from that more than B&N did, perhaps as a result of B&N’s more intense focus on its NOOK business compared to the indies, who (despite the lift they got from selling Kobo devices this past Fall) are more focused on print.

This does not mean the digital switchover has ended. My gut (I don’t think there’s a great empirical substitute available here) tells me that store sales for books will continue to lose ground to online (print and digital) at a rate of 5-to-10 percent a year for some years to come. But that’s a much more manageable situation than the one bookstore owners had been dealing with for the several years leading up to 2012.

This is good news for big publishers. Their model is still built around putting print on shelves and managing a marketplace that works around a publication date focus and the synchronized consumer behavior that store merchandising really stimulates. It is good news for B&N too, if they can take advantage of it.  read more....

Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

The Author's "Book Completion Blues"

There is a rarely talked about author "syndrome" that I call BCB--book completion blues. It almost always happens to the author whose manuscript is finally done (D-O-N-E). Suddenly every waking moment of the author's life is not focused on The Book.

I am re-posting C.S.Lakin's article, which was originally published for Writer's Digest, in its entirety so you will not forget to read it. I do so with the author's permission.

Most writers write in the hopes that they will sell their book, connect with a readership, and make money from the sales. Their priorities may not be in that order, but it’s usually the goal when writing a novel or nonfiction manuscript. And that’s expected and reasonable.

Yet, often, upon completing her first novel, an author’s engulfing joy of writing becomes infiltrated with a subtle, growing anxiety. Soon to join that is a cocktail mix of emotions: trepidation, fear, self-doubt, worry, despair, frustration. Whether these come flooding into the writer’s mind and heart full force or just niggle at the back of her mind—they come.

Once the intensity of the writing journey is over for the moment and the writer can step back and look at her accomplishments, often any feelings of significance, achievement, or success are squelched before they can nurture the artist in the way they should. We should be able to step back when done creating a work of art—be it a novel, a song, or a painting—and spend some time in that special place of accomplishment. But this rarely occurs for the writer.

Feel the Earth Move under Your Feet

How much of this is self-imposed and how much is society-imposed is not something I can answer. However, I do believe we as artists need to be aware of this shift and understand that we can actively change how we respond. Why should we? Because if we think back to why we create in the first place, we will usually agree it’s because of the fulfilling experience expressing creativity gives us. There is no deeper joy to an artist than to create, to immerse herself in the creative experience, and then to step back and look at what has been created. That stepping back moment is a precious one, and unfortunately it often gets trampled on by the anxiety of “what comes next.”

Beating Ourselves Up over Perceived Failure

Some people aspire to reach the top of Mt. Everest. They may spend years of their life training, saving money, and obsessing over this goal to stand at the top of the world. Much of their success will depend upon their skill and training. But there’s no accounting for a freak storm that might come along and take them down. Just read Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air if you want to see how bad luck can cancel out all the odds in your favor of succeeding.

I am intrigued by these climbers who, upon having to quit for one serious reason or another just short of reaching their coveted goal, fall into deep depression, and their evident sense of total failure and worthlessness is plain for all to see. How can these people put so much of their heart and joy into the need to get to the top? Can’t they be satisfied with having made it to 27,000 feet instead of 29,000? They have still climbed higher than almost all the humans who have ever lived on earth—isn’t that good enough? But it’s not. They torture themselves over their failure, which to them is absolute and unforgivable.

Many writers do the equivalent in regard to their writing. If they don’t sell millions, make some best-seller list, become a household name like Stephen King, they are miserable. In fact, it’s worse than that. For some, if they can’t get a book contract, or earn more than their advance, they feel the same way. What used to be a joyous experience (writing) has now become a burden and a source of great pain. Even some writers who are successful by the world’s standards feel that success is just not good enough and they are a failure. In effect, they have lost their way through the bucolic land of creativity and are wandering in despair in the gloomy marshes of self-doubt.

Step Back and Admire the View

If this process of surfacing from the joy of being creative into the marsh of despair over a lack of “success” is repeated many times over, year after year, it can destroy our spirit. There are numbers of climbers who never quite made it to the top of Everest and feel like failures in life. You’d think with the kind of panoramic perspective they’re used to having at the top of a mountain they could don a healthy perspective about their life and their significance.

My advice, then, is to step back and get a perspective on how obsessed you might be with “success” and instead find significance in what you create. Remind yourself that the joy of the process is valid and vindicating in its own right. The more you can shift your perspective, the less the ground will shift under you.

About this author:

C.S. Lakin, author of thirteen novels, including the 
seven-book fantasy series “The Gates of Heaven.” She also writes 
contemporary psychological mysteries, including her Zondervan contest 
winner Someone to Blame. Her websites are dedicated to critiquing fiction 
and building community to help survive and thrive in your writing life: 
www.LiveWriteThrive.com and www.CritiqueMyManuscript.com. You can 
read more about her and her books at www.cslakin.com. BE SURE TO CHECK OUT HER WRITING WORKSHOPS! http://www.writingforlifeworkshops.com/.

_________________________________________________________________________

Wishing you a HAPPY book completion --
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

Note to Self in 2013: Improve My Writing

There is no better goal for any writer in this new year than to improve his or her writing. With that in mind, I have a site to recommend that will help you do exactly that.

BOOKMARK this blog and get on their email list:
Daily Writing Tips by a team of writers, including editor Mark Nichol.

Today for instance, the blog is on 10 Tips About Basic Writing Competency that talks about the 10 areas of writing you must master as a writing professional. It addresses formatting, style, usage, and spelling rules.

Their New Year's Post is great fun:  The Most Overused Words of 2012, rounding up the results from the business world, LinkedIn, the PR world, the university campus, and print media. For instance, in the pop culture arena, "Epic, used as an adjective to describe a supposedly remarkable experience or phenomenon, is among a slew of pop-culture terms singled out for retirement."
Hear! Hear!

At the end of December there was a post, 5 Parallelism Problems in Sentence Structure, which I had to read since I didn't know what "Parallelism" even referred to! This post shows and analyses several common sentences, and their structures--pointing out where the problem lies. Excellent!

There's a Word of the Day--great fun, and ever enlightening.

If you're up for the challenge, take their tests !

Let's get our brains going. Onward to continuous IMPROVEMENT.
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

The Tricky Business of Getting Endorsement Blurbs

   
Do you know people who only call you when they need a favor? Most of us don't consider that very nice, and (eventually) are not friends with people who do this. In business, you can get away with asking favors as a "colleague" or "fellow X's colleague" or "referred by," but it's still a delicate matter to ask for favors from someone with whom you're not personal buddies, for whom you have done nothing.

So here you are, an author with a manuscript and now you need endorsements. Why? For added clout to get an agent, for the agent pitching publishers, for the publisher launching the book to the public, for the publicist pitching the media...the list goes on and on.

Yes, we live in a culture where the consumer always asks, "Who else likes this?"

There is another reason for the endorsements, which is to "leverage" that endorser's audience. You can multiply readers faster if you piggyback on other people's -- much like Amazon's referral program of "If you like this book, you'd probably like this one too..." It works much faster than finding readers one at a time. Go for groups!

There are not many shortcuts to securing endorsements (what a surprise, huh?). In fact the fastest way is if you have already spent a few years helping other authors, so when it's your turn, they jump at the chance to help you.  One of my favorite examples of this is author Carrie Link, whose book Wil of God I have mentioned before. Before Carrie was even writing a book she was active in the writing and reading communities, and hosted authors' book readings in her home. These authors included such writers like Hope Edelman, Suzanne Finnamore, Cheryl Strayed, Michelle O'Neil, and many others. There was no premeditation on her part. She loved hosting them and meeting them and talking about their books and writing. She taught writing classes. Years later when it came time to ask for endorsements on her book, they couldn't wait to help her. It was all genuine.

It's always a good idea for you to figure out, in advance, the writers or Name people who would be the ideal endorsement candidates for your book because of (a) their readers that you want (b) the clout they carry with the media or book review critics (c) the book clubs or online bloggers who love them (d) their book's top positions on Amazon that might position your book nearby ... you get the idea. It's strategic.

If you are not able to invest yourself into the writer's community like Carrie did, you will do well to figure out NOW all the ways you can create a logical path to authors and experts you will want to show your book to later. Maybe you can attend events of "target authors" who are coming to your area to promote their newest book. Meet them, but don't mention your book. Just get a feel for how you might be able to communicate best with this author, what his or her personality is like, what common interests you legitimately have with this person. Maybe start publishing comments on their blogs. Who is the author's agent (one avenue to use for endorsements)? Do you know anyone who knows this author or whose path might cross with this author's? Who is this author's publisher and editor? There are ultimately various routes to take when asking for endorsements, but all of them will work best if it's not a "cold call."

When you are actually at the point of sending the manuscript to those who have agreed to read it, keep in mind that they need a significant amount of time to get this done--the very least being 2 months, and most often four months plus. Don't be surprised if some authors ask you what you'd like them to say; "Perhaps you can just draft up something and I'll look it over and tweak it." Do this - it is faster for them and you are more assured of getting helpful, usable quotes.

Once you get an endorsement, can you edit it? Yes you can. You can shorten it, clean it up, correct an error and such, though you clearly can't rewrite it to add something they didn't say. Once it is edited, run it by them for final approval.

Go start making your list and checking it twice.
Onward,
Laurie

www.authorbiz.com

Wise Advice for the Fiction Writer Hoping to Write Full-Time

Luc Reid is a writer and speaker whose posting on The Masquerade Crew's site offers smart and sane advice for the fiction author who wants to write full time.

   
11 Essential Things to Know If You Want to Write Fiction for a Living
   

       My 16-year-old son Ethan recently wrote his first short story intended for publication and my niece, a high school senior, is visiting colleges like Middlebury, Williams, Wesleyan, and Bennington looking for a school that can help her develop a career as a writer. Just in case I wasn’t already thinking… read more
   

---

In my experience the full-time writing life is built over many books and a number of years, during which time the writer pretty much does whatever work is necessary to cover bills and responsibilities in order to continue writing. Many a writer carves out a midnight-3 am writing schedule. If you - like 98 percent of writers - don't have a trust fund or benefactor, pursue your writing passion with a steady and consistent focus in whatever way you can.

It is particularly accurate that Mr. Reid emphasizes the quality of your writing, because it is the foundation on which you build. Never stop learning or improving. All the time, effort, investment, and practice put into writing itself is never wasted.

There is so much excellent help and information available for any serious writer, online and in books, that no one has to live near writing centers or have physical access to writing classes or formal education. Take advantage of it all. Follow your passion.

As is the case in most of life, the only thing stopping us is ourselves.

Onward --
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

Random House Explains What They Offer an Author

This Random House video is an outstanding explanation of what traditional publishing does that an author simply cannot do for him or herself when self-publishing. Having worked with Random House for over 27 years as an agent, I can attest that what they are saying for Random House is true. It isn't
as true for all publishers, but it is for them. They are top of their class, in my experience.

This interview is positively inspiring to authors and readers. Take a look.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FlnAFH4HV4&feature=player_embedded


Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

What Fiction Editors Bought Lately

Back by popular demand, is a look at some of the recent FICTION book deals, which is always fascinating. From the thousands of manuscripts and pitches editors received, these editors bought:

Thriller
Phil Viner's debut A HALF-REMEMBERED DEATH, told in fractured time about a 20-year old murder of a college girl: her parents become completely -- dangerously -- undone and her boyfriend, now a cop, continues his quest to find out the truth, to Zack Wagman at Crown by Erin Malone at William Morris Endeavor.

Roni Dunevich's FROM DEEP WITHIN, from his series featuring the chief of operations at the Mossad, confronting the elimination across Europe of agents of the Nibelung ring, a Mossad sleeper cell operation, and also hunting down a mole in the intelligence agency, to Claire Wachtel at Harper, by the Deborah Harris Agency.

University of Michigan MFA graduate Brittani Sonnenberg's HOME LEAVE, about a husband whose global business uproots his family every few years; his wife, whose identity shifts in each new country; and their two daughters, who are torn apart by tragedy, to Helen Atsma at Grand Central, by Jenni Ferrari-Adler at Union Literary.


Inspirational
Patty Smith Hall's CONTRACTED HEARTS, in which, when a train wreck in 1856 derails a physician's plans to break a marriage contract, he works with his betrothed - a lady doctor - to save those injured while he and his reluctant bride-to-be learn love is a choice, to Kathy Davis at Harlequin Heartsong Presents, by Tamela Hancock Murray at Steve Laube Agency.

Laurie Alice Eakes's GUARDIAN OF MY HEART, in which, when a woman chooses a position with a lady's journal over a position as his wife, her spurned suitor buries himself in his work but cannot forget the one who spurned him, as becomes apparent when he comes face-to-face with her on a wrecked train, but love may prove as disastrous to his future as two locomotives colliding, to Kathy Davis at Harlequin Heartsong Presents, by Tamela Hancock Murray at Steve Laube Agency.

Betsy St. Amant's HIS FOREVER FAMILY, in which a man starts a ranch for troubled teens as a means of atoning for his own past, only he never imagined his next guest would be the son he never knew he had, to Emily Rodmell at Harlequin Love Inspired, by Tamela Hancock Murray at Steve Laube Agency.

Lynette Eason's HIDE AND SEEK, book one in the Family Reunions Series, in which a woman who's desperate to find her kidnapped daughter is convinced that a man's drug-addicted sister had a part in the kidnapping, only he knows his sister is innocent, so when the two come together on opposite sides of the playing field, they must learn to compromise and trust that God has a plan to work all things for the good of those who love Him, to Emily Rodmell at Harlequin Love Inspired, by Tamela Hancock Murray at Steve Laube Agency.

Claire Sanders's SHADES OF GRACE, welcome to Piney Meadow, Texas, where arsonists burn African-American churches and threaten anyone who dares to intervene - two people set off on a journey that will challenge long-held beliefs but ultimately lead them to a new understanding of the power of love, to Nicola Martinez at Pelican, by Terry Burns at Hartline Literary Agency.

Mystery/Crime
Amanda Flower's the next four books in her Appleseed Creek Mystery Series in which a computer-whiz turns amateur sleuth to protect her friends from a rash of murders in the heart of Ohio's Amish Country as she juggles a new relationship with an Amish-turned-Mennonite carpenter and his conservative Amish family, to Julie Gwinn at B&H Publishing, for publication in May 2014, by Nicole Resciniti at The Seymour Agency.

James Lear's THE HARDEST THING: A Dan Stagg Mystery, pitched as in the league with Lee Child's Jack Reacher, chronicling the adventures of an ex-military gay man; a combination of romance, adventure, and conspiracy, detailing intimate encounters alongside the moral dilemmas that the dark hero must navigate, to Brenda Knight at Cleis Press, for publication in June 2013.

Mary Anna Evans's ARTIFACTS, in which an archaeologist, struggling to save her ancestral home, discovers some long-ago murders that bring past and present colliding and keep the reader guessing about the identity of the killer, to Marsha Zinberg for Harlequin Worldwide Mystery, for publication in 2014, by Baror International on behalf of Poisoned Pen Press.

Pioneer in the field of police psychology Ellen Kirschman's BURYING BEN, following a doctor as she tries to solve the mystery of a police rookie who kills himself and leaves a note blaming her; as she resorts to some highly unconventional investigative methods while trying to exonerate herself, she discovers that no one is who they seem to be; even the rookie, from the grave, has secrets to keep, to Aakenbaaken& Kent, by Cynthia Zigmund at Second City Publishing Services.

General/ Literary/ Debut

Kate Wilhelm's DEATH OF AN ARTIST, in which an artist dies supposedly accidentally after arguing with her husband, and her family is highly suspicious of the circumstances of her death, to Marsha Zinberg for Harlequin Worldwide Library Suspense, by Sierra Stovall at St. Martin's.

NYT bestselling author Louise Erdrich's LAROSE, the final volume in the trilogy that includes her Pulitzer finalist THE PLAGUE OF DOVES and her NBA-winning THE ROUND HOUSE, again to Terry Karten at Harper, by Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency.

Brian Payton's novel, THE WIND IS NOT A RIVER, set in 1943, on WWII Japanese-occupied Aleutian islands off of Alaska about survival in combat as well as a heart-rending love story, to Lee Boudreaux of Ecco, by Victoria Sanders of Victoria Sanders&; Associates

Peter Mattei's THE DEEP WHATSIS, a satirical and provocative story of a young, brilliant, humorously sociopathic lost soul, the Chief Idea Officer at a hip New York City-based advertising agency, who we follow on his anti-hero's quest for redemption and love, to Judith Gurewich at Other Press, by Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment


The Good Patient author Kristin Waterfield Duisberg's AFTER, about a marriage tested by illness and long-buried secrets, the fear of abandoning those we love, and the bond between mother and child, to Victoria Barrett at Engine, by Rachel Sussman at Chalberg & Sussman.

Peter Mountford's second novel, THE DISMAL SCIENCE, about a self-destructive and emotionally unstable executive at the World Bank whose outbursts have geopolitical consequences, to Tony Perez at Tin House Books, by Ayesha Pande at Ayesha Pande Literary.


Paranormal
Michelle Zink's TEMPTATION'S HEAT, the first in a 3-book series featuring members of The Shadowguard, an elite group of assassins whose passion for forbidden entanglements may bring more than one of them to their knees, to Georgia McBride at Swoon Romance,by Steven Malk of Writers House

Sci-Fi/Fantasy
D.B. Jackson's THIEFTAKER 3 and 4, to Jim Frenkel at Tor, by Lucienne Diver of The Knight Agency.

Chandler Klang Smith's GOLDENLAND PAST DARK, in which a hostile stranger hunts a ramshackle travelling circus across 1960s America, to ChiZine, by Joy Tutela of the David Black Literary Agency

Kate Wilhelm's DEATH OF AN ARTIST, in which an artist dies supposedly accidentally after arguing with her husband, and her family is highly suspicious of the circumstances of her death, to Marsha Zinberg for Harlequin Worldwide Library Suspense, by Sierra Stovall at St. Martin's

Young Adult
REAL GIRLS DON'T RUST, an anthology of Steampunk genre short stories for young adults, to Jennifer Carson at Pugalicious Press.

Garrett Calcaterra's DREAMWIELDER, in which a young girl with supernatural abilities and of royal blood embarks on an epic journey to harness her power and free an empire from tyranny and the war against magic, to Mary Cummings at Diversion Books, by Elizabeth Kracht at Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

Kody Keplinger's collection of three original digital-only short stories, two of which take place at Hamilton High and follow side characters from The DUFF (Designated Ugly Fat Friend) and A Midsummer's Nightmare, and one of which introduces a character from the author's upcoming novel Goldfish, to Kate Sullivan at Little, Brown Children's, by Joanna Volpe at New Leaf Literary & Media.

Rosamund Hodge's GILDED ASHES, a novella re-imagining the fairy tale Cinderella as a prequel to her novel SUNDERED, again to Sara Sargent at Harper Teen Impulse, by Hannah Bowman at Liza Dawson Associates.

Romance
Jeannie Moon's THE TEMPORARY WIFE, a sweet and sexy contemporary romance about a marriage of convenience between a billionaire and his childhood sweetheart, whose heart he broke years before, to Jesse Feldman at Intermix, in a three-book deal, by Becky Vinter of FinePrint Literary Management.

Abigail Sharpe's debuts WHO WANTS TO MARRY A COWBOY? and WHO WANTS TO MARRY A DOCTOR?, to Lauren Plude at Forever Yours, by Rebecca Strauss at McIntosh & Otis.

Children's
Sarah Combs's debut BREAKFAST SERVED ANYTIME, following a 17-year-old's summer at "Geek Camp" where she and fellow misfit classmates pursue a series of clues left by a mysterious professor in a coming-of-age story that captures the magical and bittersweet singular summer that changes everything, to Nicole Raymond at Candlewick, by Elizabeth Kaplan at the Elizabeth Kaplan Agency.

Children's: Middle grade
Marcy Kate Connolly's debut novel, MONSTROUS, about a girl recreated from the parts of her broken body, the wings of a raven, the tail of serpent, and a cat's razor-sharp vision, and given the mission to avenge her own death and stop other girls of the countryside from suffering the same fate, pitched as Frankenstein meets Brothers Grimm, to Rosemary Brosnan at Harper Children's, in a two-book deal, by Suzie Townsend at New Leaf Literary & Media

Jennifer Downey's debut THE NINJA LIBRARIANS OF PASSAIC, the first in a series about a girl who stumbles on Petrarch's Library, the headquarters of a secret society of warrior librarians who use their mysterious library to travel time, protecting those whose words have gotten them in trouble; she longs to join their battle, but when she learns that a traitor hides within, she knows that saving Petrarch's Library could mean erasing herself from its history, forever, to Aubrey Poole at Sourcebooks, in a two-book deal, by Susan Hawk at The Bent Agency

Children's: Young Adult
John Dixon's debut DISSIDENT, the first in a sci-fi thriller series for teens, introducing a tough but principled orphan who lands himself on an island boot camp for teen offenders and is determined to turn his life around until kids start to die, forcing the captives into a us-against-them fight for their lives, to Adam Wilson at Gallery, in a two-book deal, by Christina Hogrebe at Jane Rotrosen Agency

Shelley Coriell's GOODBYE, REBEL BLUE, about a loner rebel who reluctantly completes the bucket list of a do-gooder classmate and en route connects with a gimpy dolphin, a guy with dimples, and a past and pains she's tried to forget, to Maggie Lehrman at Amulet, by Jill Corcoran at The Herman Agency.

Andrea Seigel and Brent Bradshaw's EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME, about a teen boy who has left behind his poor Southern family and a teen girl with the worst kind of Hollywood mom, who are pitted against each other in a reality TV singing competition, to Leila Sales at Viking Children's, by Douglas Stewart at Sterling Lord Literistic

Seventeen-year old novelist Katherine Ewell's I, OPHELIA, about a 17 year old girl who kills on request, but as a nihilist does so without remorse or regret and becomes the most famous serial killer in London since Jack the Ripper, to Katherine Tegen at Katherine Tegen Books, by Alice Martell at The Martell Agency

Dawn Klehr's THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR, about a girl questioning her sexual orientation while she tries to solve her beloved high school teacher's murder, and her best friend who, when not directing the high school film, attempts to direct the lives of the girl and everyone else around him -- until he goes too far, to Brian Farrey at Flux, in a two-book deal, by Jessica Sinsheimer at the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency

Now back to YOUR book!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

Self-Publishing As Bait for a Big Publisher Book Deal

I'm a big fan of wishing wells. I like to daydream, to consider the possibilities. Nuggets of good ideas lie buried in daydreams and wishes.

A prevailing wish these days among authors-in-waiting is to be plucked from self-publishing obscurity and launched forward into a Proper Published Author Life.

Where agents used to get a slush pile of queries and proposals, they now get self-published books. And the majority of authors in that pile believe that by virtue of their book looking like a real book, their chance of being taken by an agent and then Random House increase exponentially.

Here is how it really works in publishing:

When an agent or publisher is considering a proposal or manuscript, the thinking goes like this:
Who is this author? What is the concept behind this book? What genre is this?

[Read while tapping in the name of the author on Google, to see what websites, blog, and news show up.]

What other books has this author published? What other writing? What is the author's expertise?
What platform has been established for the author? What is the author's "sphere of influence"? 

[Jumps ahead to the sample chapter material to see the writing and the opening pages of the book.] 

All this takes about 6 minutes.  It is decided. You have gone into either the Read Further or the Decline pile.

When a publisher or agent is considering a self-published book, the thinking goes like this:
same as above, except now adds, 

How many copies of this has the author sold and in what period of time? What marketing has been done? 

[Asked while keying in book title to Amazon and Google, to see what others say about it and if the author generated any reviews.]

The keys to publishing success continue to be what they have always been:

1. Write well. 
2. Hire a brilliant editor. 
3. Know your audience.
4. Create an appropriate marketing plan to promote your book.
5. Don't rush.
6. Implement and expand your marketing plan, always learning more 
    ways to reach your potential readers.

Publishing success--meaning in this case, publishing for the mass audience with multiple books that produce income--is about the end game; sales and marketing. You think it's about the fabulous idea you have, and certainly the idea must be good and the writing excellent. But as one editor said to me early in my agent career, as I went on and on about the exciting ideas in the book I was pitching: "It's not the content I'm interested in. We know how to make a book. It's what audience the author can bring to us that matters." 

I was stunned, as you likely are reading this. This editor, who said this to me over 25 years ago, is still in NY publishing and is now Editorial Director. The truth of what she said is reinforced all the way to today, but it's not what you think. 

She was not saying content isn't important, or that good writing is not important. It is only important after you have gotten the book into a reader's hands. It is the concept, ideas, and compelling writing that will generate the word-of-mouth marketing, and continue to get you reviews and interviews beyond the marketing "buzz." But it's the author's existing network and radius of influence that gives the publisher a starting point for launching the book. It all starts there. And in far too many cases, the book ends there--stillborn.

According to Alan Finder's article in The New York Times, "The Joys and Hazards of Self-Publishing on the Web," most self-published books sell fewer than 100-150 copies. He quotes from Bowker's Vice President of Market Research, Kelly Gallagher: "The single toughest part of self-publishing is getting attention for your book. Nearly 350,000 new print titles were printed in 2011, and 150,000-200,000 of them were produced by self-publishing companies."  If you want to know if you should self-publish your book (and you intend it for the world, not just family and friends), then first answer the question:  How much am I willing to invest in marketing, time-wise and money-wise? 

David Vinjamuri wrote a brilliant piece for Forbes that should not be missed:  "Publishing is Broken, We're Drowning in Indie Books--and That's a good Thing."  He sees major houses using indie publishers as the "minor leagues," the testing ground. If you think for a moment about how hard the players work in the minor leagues, for how many years, waiting for their chance to move up, you'll know how to approach your self-publishing.

Penelope Trunk wrote about her experience first publishing her book with a traditional publisher, only to take it back for the self-publishing route--"The New American Dream." She states "Book sales are about community. If you have a community of people who listen to you via blog posts then you have a community of people who will be interested to know how you put a bigger idea together in a book." And that is what marketing your book is all about:  Building your own logical network of people, one group at a time, who have an affinity for what you write about and what you have to say.   

Self-Publishing is a wonderful opportunity, in and of itself. It is perfect for those who are not targeting a large national or international audience, who perhaps have a specific, limited number of people to get the book to. It is perfect for those people who already have a way to reach their audience, perhaps in their speaking or their consulting work, or via their blog. 

But your self-published book will only become bait for another publisher's offer if you dedicate yourself to building an audience, garnering sales that entice another publisher to imagine leveraging it up to an even bigger audience.  These are the self-publishing heroes you read about whose book gets picked up for a seven figure book deal in NY.  What you're not reading is all the work and investment into marketing and reaching readers that lead to those sales (the five year overnight wonder). 

Write the book you want to write, and write it well. Along the way, give equal thought to how you will want to reach out to your readers.  And go ahead a throw some coins in that wishing well.

Onward!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

A few resources:
The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine  -- link to it
Get Known Before Your Book Comes Out by Christina Katz
Previous blog on marketing:  
The Author marketing Experts' Newsletter