Books They Bought Today

I thought it might interest you to know what editors bought today, from the tens of thousands of manuscripts circulating through editors' offices. It's a mighty small list, I know, but it only counts what was announced--from deals that were complete enough to announce.

• Editor Emily Griffin at Grand Central (the former Warner Books) bought Marine biologist and science journalist Sheril Kirshenbaum's THE SCIENCE OF KISSING, an interdisciplinary look at why and how we kiss, drawing on neuroscience, classical history, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and popular culture.
  
• Christel Winkler at John Wiley & Sons bought Dr. Ava Shamban's SKIN SURVIVAL SKILLS. Shaman is founder and director of the Laser Institute for Dermatology and the Recovery Skin Care Clinic.
  
• Henry Ferris at William Morrow (owned by Harper Collins) bought Dr. Gail Levin's THE LIFE AND TIMES OF LEE KRASNER: An Artist's Biography. Dr. Levin is Professor of art history, American studies, and women studies at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of CUNY. This book examines Krasner's evolution as an artist during the pre-feminist era and after from a woman's perspective, outside the context of Jackson Pollock.
  
• Tony Award-winning playwright and author David Rabe's untitled novel about a soldier and a Vietnamese whore, set during the Vietnam War, was sold to Sarah Hochman at Simon & Schuster.
  
• In the Children's/ Young Adult category, James Moore's THE HYDES, the story of five unrelated youths who come to realize that they are all the product of genetic experimentation and must seek each other out if they're to survive the forces of evil looking to find them, sold to Ben Schrank at Razorbill.
  
• In the Religion/Spirituality arena editor Amy Caldwell at Beacon Press bought Forrest Church's THE FORREST CHURCH READER, a collection of essays by the minister of public theology of All Souls in New York, and author of LOVE & DEATH: My Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow.
  

Now you know.
Laurie

www.authorbiz.com

Yes, there is good news....

Although it is the season to hunker down, in more ways than winter, there is good news. Agents are still signing new clients, and publishing house editors are eagerly reading and buying new books. There may be doom and gloom galore over current economic realities and the changing world of books, but writers still write, readers still read, and publishers will still publish and evolve to stay viable.

The curse of experience in any business is that you know too much. It inhibits your creative thinking and curbs your bliss of ignorance. If you have been reading a lot of publishing industry news lately, I recommend that you take a break. Just read a good book or two, peruse your earlier writing, and remember your earliest inspired dreams for your writing. Pretend for a moment that you don't know a thing about this business...you just know how to write and you have ideas burning to get out of your head.

Spring comes again.

Laurie

www.authorbiz.com

Photo: (c) 2007 L. Harper

The Proposal Part IV: COMPETITION & MARKETING

And now we come to distinguishing your book in the marketplace. You have gone to bookstores and found "your shelf." You have been on Amazon to see the other books that show up by your key words. But in the Competitive Books part of the proposal, you have to write about how the most popular and recent of those titles compare to your book.

Authors frequently cut and paste from Amazon, which is fine, to put in descriptions of the books. List the competitive book like this: Book Title (Publisher, Year of Publication), followed by its description. Then you would say something like "While this book gives a good summary of the problems of education today, it does not show a parent how to help their child in school. My book....." You will only cover the most recent or most popular books. The point here is to demonstrate to the publishers that you know your area, you know the literature that is out there.
Many authors say they don't want to read other authors' books while they are writing their own because they don't want to confuse their own thinking, or find their material already written. But as an author you have to read your colleagues' work. You have to know where you fit in. In this section of the proposal, you must intelligently and persuasively write about your competition--separating which books are complementary to your work, which books sound like yours but are not (and why), and which directly compete with what you are doing but how yours has an edge. You can see again how that hook you worked on in the Overview is playing a role here too.
You should know that while the agent is pitching your book to an editor, the editor is simultaneously punching in key words into Amazon, saying "well there sure is a lot published in that area...it shows 1250 titles..." and you have to have prepared your agent with the ammo to position your book and defend it accurately, as well as excite the editor.

When you are done with the Competitive Books piece, start a new section called Author Marketing. This part shows a combination of your expertise and your marketing muscle...what you can do to consistently market your book to your target readers, even as other authors try to get on to "your shelf." Don't skimp on the details of everything you will be doing to call attention to your book when it is published: web site, internet marketing, blogging, social networking, speaking (where and how often and to how many people a year), article writing, select bookstore talks and events in your local area or places where you will be traveling for work, organizations or associations you belong to that have chapters throughout the country that you will tap to promote the book....you get the idea.
Your proposal now has: The Overview, The Audience, About the Author, Positioning, Competitive Books, Author Marketing, Table of Contents, Annotated Outline, and Sample Chapters.
Now that you have done all this work, go read Jeff Herman's WRITE THE PERFECT BOOK PROPOSAL: Ten That Sold And Why. Once you have read his different types of book proposals, put the final polish on yours, spread your wings, pass Go and collect your $200--go forth into the publishing world.

Whew. And this is why authors say it is easier to write the book than to write the proposal!
Laurie
www.authorbiz.com Photo: (c) 2006 L Harper

The Proposal: Part III, The OVERVIEW

You're probably sitting there at your computer flexing your fingers, cracking your knuckles, taking a drink of coffee, thinking "Okay, let's get this show on the road." Pretend you are sitting in the editor's office of your favorite publisher. He or she has welcomed you, brought you that triple espresso drink, and has just said, "So, tell me about this book you're writing."

Start typing now, and start The Overview with (a) the "hook" of your whole idea (the grabber), and (b) its origin--where did this book idea come from? How have you developed it? What kind of work have you done on it so far--research, interviews, travel, reading? Was this a book where you knew the "answer" or "conclusion" going in - or was this a book that started with a question, a mystery, a "wondering"--but you had no idea where it would lead? Convey the true essence of your idea, and what is really happening with it. Convey what it is that compels you. "What I find irresistible is...." "What I was not expecting was ..." "What I discovered changed....." or "What drew me in deeper and deeper was..." Draw the editor in the same way it drew you in. And state right up front here what the most amazing thing is about your book that the reader will discover. How will the reader come away changed for having read your book?

When you have typed that part--keep reading.

Many proposal writing books show the About the Author section somewhere towards the end of the proposal, but think logically; who you are, what you do for a living, what you've already written-- all of this may be woven into how you are writing this particular book or how the book idea found you...The who you are and why this book are often entwined. In this case, you should weave "about the author" stuff into the Overview, conversationally and naturally.

This will not be the case if you're writing a reference book that an editor basically called and asked you to write -- or if you are writing a book that just fills a market gap, "it was there" and you write books, so "why not." Then the Overview is what-this-book-is-about and your bio information can go later to support the "why you should be the one to write it."

In the Overview, you also need to talk about who this book is for, and I mean targeted for --not "the whole world" or "anyone who reads books." Puleeese. There are people who need the book, really need to read it, because of its groundbreaking information, or because it's part of their jobs, or because anyone who reads this topic would inherently be fascinated with what you're putting together...You must specifically identify your target readers.

You're now moving out of the Overview section and into the Marketing parts of the proposal. Start a new section, called The Audience and keep typing. Follow your logic and continue. What else do your readers read (magazines & books), which authors? What do they know about your topic so far, generally? Are they NPR listeners or what kind of radio stations most likely have your readers tuned in? What organizations or associations attract your readers? When they are in the bookstores, which shelves are they browsing?

When you've written all you know so far, continue reading.

Now speaking of shelves (which we were), which shelf in the bookstore are you planning to land on with your book? Find it, identify it, see who else you'll be cozying up to on that shelf. Start another new section in your Proposal called Positioning (Your Title). Talk about the category your book belongs to, which shelf it should be on, next to which authors, etc.--all that you just discovered when you spent hours in the bookstores, and more hours online at Amazon plugging in key words from your book topic and content.

So far, your Overview has conveyed the central book idea, how you came to be attached to it, why you are the one to write it, targeted for which readers, who are where in the bookstores....not bad.

Next time, we'll be getting to the "Competitive Books" part of the proposal--another section that often trips up the author. More fun ahead!

Laurie

www.authorbiz.com

Photo: (c) 2007 L Harper

The Nonfiction Proposal: Part II

I'll have lighter Posts to this blog than these Proposal ones, I promise -- but I wanted to talk about proposal issues right off the bat because they are so common. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PROPOSALS: PART I -- please back up and start there.

So now that you are ready to write the Overview, let's ask the obvious questions: Who is this for? What is the Proposal for, anyway? Who reads it? Who uses it? ("It's so much easier to just write the book!" authors cry out in unison.)

The proposal is the selling tool for your book, used by agents to sell to publishing house editors; by editors to sell to their bosses and the Sales & Marketing team. It is the tool everyone uses to get the green light to make you a publishing offer. Without the proposal, you are asking everyone to fly blind (a very dangerous proposition for your book). So if you want your potential agent and your potential editor to really "get" your book and why you are the one to write it; if you want them to position your book correctly and summarize it accurately, and understand why it will sell well to your target audience in spite of 60,000 other books coming out at the same time...you'll hand them an excellent proposal. It's worth the time you have to spend to craft it for them.

And because of the way a Proposal is used, you should write it in a natural, conversational tone and voice. It should sound like you when you read it aloud. I say this because what often happens when writers follow the how-to-write-a-book-proposal book is that they get an unnatural voice going, all very stilted (must be the old test pressure that kicks in). When anyone reads your proposal, they should feel as if they have just had a conversation with you about your book; that they know you.

I can almost tell which book someone has used by the tone that creeps into the proposal. Your proposal should sound only like you, with your own brain and smarts that have figured out why your book is still necessary on that bookstore shelf and to your audience in spite of everything else written and published; in spite of whomever is Oprah's latest pet celebrity; and in spite of which authors are currently on the bestseller lists.
Let's hear it for your own voice.

And now LENGTH. If I had a quarter for every time I was asked "How long does it have to be?" . . .There is no length parameter. It takes whatever it takes to compellingly write about, explain, and champion your own book. Some proposals, including the sample chapters, are 90 pages. Some are 45. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it is complete and convincing, and that it excites people to read your manuscript.

Next time, I'll talk about the Overview, I promise.

Laurie

www.authorbiz.com Photo: (c) 2007 L Harper

The True Shortcut to Nonfiction Proposals: Part I

There aren't many shortcuts in the world of publishing, but you might be relieved to know there is one for writing the famously pesky Proposal: Back into it. Yep -- that is the trick.

If you start with the generic how-to-write-a-book-proposal book, it will start you off with writing the Overview (a broad-based summary and pitch of the book), and proceed in a linear fashion through the pieces of The Proposal, like completing a checklist. If you have already written several chapters of your book, this might work fine for you. If you have only a sketchy outline or worse, have it "all in my head," you do not want to start here. Only start with the Overview if you have a complete detailed outline written and at least two chapters of the book. Otherwise, keep reading.

No matter what your nonfiction book idea is, begin by writing a narrative outline of what is in your head. Write conversationally; talk to yourself on the page and create a chapter by chapter road map, describing the chapter's content, tone, focus (and highlights), as if you were telling it to an editor. Fill in as much as you know. This will also tell you how much you don't yet know about your book. What you don't know, go figure out. Do not pass Go and collect $200--stop and work out everything for this outline. You can't go anywhere good without it.

The beauty of the outline work is that you will discover whatever problems there may be in the idea, the planned structure, the research, etc., and now is the time to solve any problems without the whole book unraveling.

Once the outline completely works, write two chapters from it -- test drive it. And I mean really write them -- write them as if they are going to be immediately published. It's not a "draft." Make sure you are writing the book you have in your head. Is it as interesting now as it was in your head? (Note: If it isn't fully engaging you, it will never engage the rest of us.) Are you getting more and more ideas as you write, or are you hitting some walls already? (Pay attention to this.) Is your material breaking into the chapters as you thought it would, or is it creating wildly fluctuating page counts within the chapters? If so, you need to resection your material to produce more evenly divided chapters. Do you have everything you'll need to flesh out all the chapters, or are you going to need to do more interviews, more research?

During this phase of the outline and chapters, don't talk to all your buddies and cohorts about what you're doing. Keep the ideas locked in your head until they are released on the page. Enjoy this process of monkeying with the ideas in your head, creatively and productively. Restraining the impulse to share will produce more dynamic writing, and very likely even more exciting ideas. Writing a book is an organic process. Let it flow.

It should now be clear that if you had started writing the Overview before having done all this -- you'd be flying blind and might easily start filling in the blanks by making up stuff that ultimately describe some other book --not at all like the one you originally envisioned. It happens to many writers. They prepare the Proposal and proceed to write the book they proposed, only to later realize it isn't the one they wanted to write.

Start at the end to first know your book. Then the rest of the Proposal gets easier and easier, while staying true to book you set out to write. Stay tuned for Part II.

Happy outlining --

Laurie
www.authorbiz.com

What are realistic expectations?

Agents and Editors all want authors to have "realistic expectations." What does this mean?

FOR THE FIRST-TIME AUTHOR, it usually means that your expectations for the publisher's advance stay relatively modest, since publishers have only their own best guess to go on when projecting sales for your book. And keep in mind that separate from the advance money, most books cost in the neighborhood of $50,000 just to get them onto the bookstore shelves with basic launch promotion--nothing fancy. Your advance money is added to that $50,000.

"Realistic expecations" also means the author understands that as much as the agent and editor love your book, you are one among many in their "stable" -- much like being in a family of 14 children. You have to wait your turn and do many things for yourself. It doesn't mean you are not loved.

And when it comes to how much the publisher will spend on your multiple cover designs, or interior layouts of the book, or size of the first printing, or when it comes to the publicity budget and then marketing dollars allocated to your book...well, it is your first book and unless Sales and Marketing folks come in with significant pre-orders, your budget will be modest. And as all editors tell agents, whatever they allocate to any author will never be enough for the author-- even for Danielle Steele -- she'll still be unhappy about this or that, wanting MORE. Understandably they love an author who does not throw a fit demanding MORE.

Lastly, it means they want an author who understands that publishing is a business, and as such the agent has to make enough on commission to afford to be your agent, and the publisher has to make enough profit so the editor keeps his/her job and the publisher can grow to buy other authors.

Okay, you can understand all of this, but it doesn't make it less painful or frustrating. You've put a lot into the book, and have done your part all along. So, "realistic expectations" really means having the good sense to not vocalize anything beyond an expression of your "disappointment." Manage your communication.

FOR THE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AUTHOR, "realistic expectations" first means owning up to the sales figures your previous books have put up on the Board -- that Board being the sales tallies that publishers and booksellers have accumulated through Bookscan, which you saw reflected in the royalty statements you shouldn't have thrown out. If your previous book sold 7500 copies in its lifetime, it would be unrealistic to expect a next advance of $75,000 unless this new book idea is so timely and commercial that it wouldn't matter who wrote it, it will sell a ton of copies. Most of the time, however, this is just not the case.

It also means that if your first book did well (everyone was happy and made a profit) and it was a thriller (for fiction) or a biography (for nonfiction) -- and now your next book is a children's book....well, you see the problem. The readers of # 1 will not be coming along to # 2, so the publisher's initial investment will cease to pay off. You are basically de-railing. A smart author always plans the second book to build on the audience/reader of the first book, for everyone's sake (including his or her own). As soon as you start jumping around, you risk losing your publisher, your agent, bookseller support, or all three. Changing category and direction is to be approached very carefully--because, as you know, this is business.

My recommendation for managing expectations is to have a solid support group of friends and family and other published authors who will let you vent now and then, since that is not really what your agent or editor are for. Note: emphasis on "now and then"

Here's to having expectations--for without them, we would never lift the pen.

Laurie

www.authorbiz.com

Photo: (c) 2006 L Harper

Life in the Real World of Publishing

Welcome to Author Biz Sense, where you will be reassured that you are not crazy.

I'd love a clever blog handle like "Ms. Snark," ranting in glorious anonymity, but I've spent my entire career helping authors in a very straightforward, unglamorous way--sort of like calling your CPA, attorney, banker, or neighborhood cop, but more fun. Whether as an agent, publisher, or consultant, I've been engaged in the author business for over 30 years; this is no time to go into hiding, as fun as pseudonyms might be.

On any given day book authors everywhere are grappling with writing issues; agent conundrums; money issues; publisher problems of an amazing variety; money issues; marketing and publicity dilemmas; money issues; and rest-of-their-lives questions. . .and all throughout there is a labyrinth of questions and jams about which they have no one to ask except people who are not in publishing or who are "too close to it." This is how I ended up, years ago, becoming a "911" for authors, and Author Biz Consulting became official a few years ago. I've been on-call ever since.

This blog will explore book author business at all phases and various levels--in no particular order. I hope it will help you think and make decisions about your publishing career with a much clearer head.

Here's to having issues to grapple with--it means you're alive.

Laurie

www.authorbiz.com