C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

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05/15/2010 • 4:13 PM 0

Your Book, Publishing Platforms and Cross-pollination

Brainstormed some ideas for a friend last night. He makes films. He’s not an author yet, but he’s in an excellent position to get published and build a media empire. I have every confidence he will be a published author soon after he decides to do it. Here’s why:
1. His films provide excellent material.
2. Book launch + world film premiere = mucho moolaaaah because one medium cross-pollinates the other!
3. He has a background in writing.
4. He’s not shy about going on the road for screenings, signings and presentations.
5. I think he could bring a distinct voice to the material.
6. He has the equipment and know-how to launch websites and a podcast to build his audience.
7. The film tie-in is very attractive to grant institutions, agents and publishers.

I went on and on about my enthusiasm for his publishing potential but it boils down to these seven points plus this:

BONUS

If you want to write a novel, you are better off writing non-fiction first. Non-fiction is more profitable (generally) and is easier to sell. If you’re selling fiction, you need the full manuscript. Do not go to an agent or editor with an idea for a book if you’re a first-time author. They need to see you have the full, complete and polished manuscript. No exceptions.

With non-fiction, you can put together a killer book proposal and synopsis and swing a deal before you officially type “Chapter 1” and begin pulling your hair out. Non-fiction is a different skill set in many ways, but after you’ve got an audience, agents, editors and publishers are much more receptive to the fiction you want to write.

I’m not saying never write fiction first. I’m saying that, in this person’s case, the road to publication will be wider and smoothly paved compared to the goat path most writers find themselves on at the beginning.

DOUBLE BONUS:

Have you got an advantage in a particular niche either through specialized knowledge or unique access? Who is your audience? Can you reach them through networking, association connections, websites, blogs, speaking engagements? Do you have expertise and the credentials to back it up? Are you comfortable speaking in front of an audience?

The potential abounds in many people I know. For instance, I know a professional woman who has a special interest and experience with bullying in the workplace. She’s connected to a community of like-minded people. She’s a non-fiction book proposal away from making her book happen.

More examples: I know an opinionated teacher who uses imaginative approaches to reach his students. Another friend is a SWAT expert who could write an antiterrorism manual (or a terrorism manual, come to think of it.) I know a couple of cops whose fascinating career experiences would make great memoirs. I’m editing a memoir for a lady now who catalogues all the tragedies, events and family foibles into a loving memoir that sees the pain through humor. A great friend of mine travels the world constantly. He’s a font of hilarious travel stories, each tale the length of a Blackberry entry. I know an expert in strategies to deal with mental illness and I’m married to an expert in learning disabilities. Another friend was a casualty of Multiple Sclerosis, overcame it and became an expert on MS and alternative health treatments. My God! There are potential books everywhere!

If you’ve got a special interest, (and who doesn’t?) start working on your platform now. Publishers expect it as part of the business plan for your book.

Filed under: Books, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, book proposals, platforms, publishing

05/14/2010 • 12:37 PM 0

Self-publishing pros and cons

Self-publishing is easier than ever and it’s only becoming easier. The problem is, what to do with it once the printer delivers all those boxes to your garage?

1. Most self-published books look self-published. Between bad printing, poor design and an absence of proofing and editing, they often don’t look impressive.
2. Many bookstores won’t carry them. Publishers have access to a distribution network self-published authors do not.
3. Self-publishing still wafts the stink of stigma.

And yet, self-publishing can be successful. When it is successful, it’s because the author has a business plan to combat 1,2, and 3. The author hires an editor, isn’t shy about promotion, gets a website and/or podcast going and builds a platform to call a congregation.

The Wealthy Barber was an early winner in self-publishing. Publishers have offered to publish that book. The author turned them down since he likes to sell his own book, retain all the rights and keep the profits. Now he’s publishing a very successful line of cookbooks for other authors as well.

A few weeks ago I chatted with an author at her book signing. Lorina Stephens has 30 years experience in publishing and decided to publish her own books. They looked great. Now she’s become a publisher, as well. Next year her company, Five Rivers, will publish a bunch of authors.

It can be done well. The problem is that the vast majority are not done well.

Filed under: publishing, publishing, self-publishing

05/13/2010 • 2:04 AM 0

This is refreshing

Read Rick Sheehy’s Weblog for his take on how ebooks could be a good thing.

Filed under: publishing, ebooks, publishing

05/12/2010 • 2:34 PM 0

Here’s one of my favorite websites on publishing

We focus on the upside of the writing business for the same reason we focus on lottery winners. Literary Rejections on Display reflects the nitty-gritty kick in the teeth that is publishing.

Filed under: publishing, publishing, rejections

05/10/2010 • 8:41 PM 1

Conflicting Writing Advice

Writing Guru #1:

Start with a hook. Come into the action late, leave the action early and finish each chapter with a breathtaking cliffhanger to propel the reader into the next chapter! All scripts need more and more tension!

Writing Guru #2:

Hooks are hokey. Take your time to build tension. Cliffhangers get tiring. I don’t want to see a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. I want a feeling of satisfaction.

I’d feel some satisfaction if Writing Guru #1 and #2 duked it out in a naked Jello-and-broken-glass cage match. Who will win? Ooh, cliffhanger!

BONUS:

What do agents and editors want? They want to “be delighted!” What does that mean to you in any practical sense? Shit, man. It means shit. Write to delight yourself and hope that you find someone who agrees with your take. It’s your only hope.

Filed under: publishing, publishing, writing, writing advice

05/10/2010 • 5:04 PM 0

The Writer’s Trial

First they tell you your manuscript sucks, but genially. Form rejection. You chalk it up, along with all the others, as paying your dues just like everyone else.

Your next manuscript is also not for them. Or anyone else. Your family asks what happened to that book you were writing. You mumble and start drinking because that’s what writers do. Now you know why.

Someone tells you rejection is good for you. Someone else says it’s part of the process. You fantasize about murdering these people with ballpoint pens.

Another year passes and you submit again. This time they make fun of it in their agent blog. You question your raison d’etre but somehow you climb in off that ledge. You keep writing because…well, let’s face it, you are otherwise unemployable. You have always self-identified as a writer and if you aren’t that, what are you? (Uh-oh…you shove that dangerous and dim realization back into the dark because that way lies existential oblivion.)

Time passes. You’re grayer. You give up drinking for your health. Somehow you keep writing. The starter wife is out the door. At 20, yours was a romantic aspiration. Past 30 and still nothing? Pathetic. Don’t worry about her. She’ll find a nice safe accountant/lawyer/landowner.

Worry about you. A lot.

Another vampire manuscript is rejected because it’s a vampire novel…or they didn’t read it or they read it but they just graduated from a MFA program so obviously, no way. You’ll never really know.

More time passes. You take up drinking again, this time for your sanity. Your writing group loves your new book–except for the guy who hates everything. But who cares? They aren’t publishers or agents. They’re a bunch of unpublished losers. Just. Like. You.

They want to promote you at the dead end job that was supposed to be temporary…when was that? How many years ago? You turn it down so you can stay focussed on the next manuscript which doesn’t seem to have a thrid act. Or a second. Or maybe it’s the alcohol on top of the pills.

You send in the first manuscript to the first place by accident. (You’re forgiven a clerical error. After all, you’ve sent out a ton of these over a long time. And vodka may have been involved. You’re doing better though. You don’t have a problem as long as you don’t start drinking before noon.)

Surprise! Somebody thinks you’re a genius! (Same bonehead who turned you down as laughable years ago.) Now they want to publish all your manuscripts.

Huh.

ALTERNATE ENDING:

Publishing? That’s so over. You build a website and give your stories away and maybe sell some t-shirts. Now you start the day with lots of vodka. You can take that promotion now.

Finally your life is on track. Finally, you’re happy. You gave up. You’re free.

Filed under: publishing, Writers, publishing, querying

05/08/2010 • 6:18 PM 0

The Demand for Query Orgasms

I just read an agent blog (blagent) where the agent critiqued a query for our common education. Very brave of the person who put it out there to be publicly torn apart by an agent, but you know what? Totally discouraging.

Query letters are tough and we do have to have a thick skin. However, sometimes it sure looks like the bar is set too high. When a query goes under the microscope, sometimes it seems all perspective is lost. It’s a pitch. It’s a quick, enticing summary. Do nitpicking queries improve it? Mostly.

But if they are going to be that critical of a single page, no wonder we often have a hard time letting our writing go out into the world. If they are going to shred one page with their druthers (which really wasn’t that bad) then how easily displeased will they be with a whole manuscript?

I’ve slogged a publisher’s slush pile. I know it’s rare to find something good, but I also know I wasn’t doing a line edit as I read the submitted draft. It didn’t have to be perfect. There is no perfect. The odd weird sentence construction wasn’t a cause for exasperation and sneering. We took the time to read slowly enough that we would understand the occasional awkward sentence without getting prissy about it.

Of course, there are even fewer editors now and they are even more pressed. They’re using agents as the first line of defense (many more people submitted directly to publishers 20 years ago.) More egregious, now there’s all this bullshit about hiring a freelance editor so the author pays for what all publishers used to do in-house. (We’ll see even more of this now that the virus is out of the bottle.) I do freelance editing. I never saw Outhouse Book Doctor as my role.

Editors and agents tell you they want “to be delighted.” Okay. Does it have to deliver orgasms, too? And how is it that the stuff that does get through that editorial sieve comes out to so much bookstore shelf space that is not delivering me any orgasms? (…you know…unless I’m actually in the animal husbandry erotica section of the bookstore.)

Conclusions? I look at a pretty clean query and think, that sounds like an intriguing story. I want to know more. Send a partial. The agents look for any excuse, no matter how flimsy, to say no. Maybe they’re so overworked they’re cynical. Maybe this is why so many books that eventually become bestsellers get rejected by too many nosepicking nitpicking crankypants agents and editors.

What I learned from working in publishing is people know what they like. (I remember when the evaluation was, twofold: Can we develop this author and whether I like it or not, can I sell it? That’s actually easier than demanding I fall in love with everything I represent. Nobody can do that.

For instance, as a sales rep for a whack of publishers, I sold everything. I didn’t love everything. And some things I sold were so beyond hope your eyes went googly. I repped Margaret Atwood, Bret Easton Ellis and a book about female Saskatchewan artists that didn’t have a single picture in it. (That last one we called The Credibility Book. When we mercifully steered the unwitting bookseller away from that disaster, they believed us when we told them they needed to order a bigger stack of the unknown but promising midlist author.)

Also, nobody knows what’s going to be a hit, no matter how much they make their subjective opinions sound objective. Too much microscopy. Too many reasons for anyone to say no, no, no, no, no. But if one agent is interested, suddenly they are all interested and you’re suddenly not some boob who dared to send them that same fucking manuscript they sniffed at last week! I think I need to meditate more. And no more reading agent blogs for a week!

Filed under: publishing, publishing

05/08/2010 • 6:06 PM 0

Dreary Publishing Stat

There are roughly 180,000 books produced in english each year in North America according to the president of Harper Collins. 465 of them sold more than 100,000 copies last year. The majority sold under 99 copies.

So…doesn’t this mean that for all the hoopla, publishers suck at their jobs? Sure, you could blame writers, but writers aren’t the gatekeepers, are they? Editors and agents are. That’s a failure rate that would get you fired in any other industry. No wonder we need to blow the dust off and take another look at how the whole business is conducted.