Reviews, Word Of Mouth And Super Users

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This is a cross-posting from Alan Baxter’s alanbaxteronline site, from 9/28/09.

Today I’m pleased to present a guest post by MCM. This post explores the difficulties in building a fan base through word of mouth, and talks about how reviewers can help us with that.

Recently, I’ve had some conversations with very smart people about the future of publishing, specifically about how readers and writers can connect directly and make old-style functions like reviewers obsolete. It’s a great notion with dangerous consequences, and if you’re game, I’ll explain why.

Here’s the thing: the internet breaks down barriers and actively enhances communication between people. In the old days, it was impractical for an author to chat with their fans; today, it’s downright pedestrian. The old notion of “word of mouth” expanded beyond your neighbourhood and now covers the globe. Tell your five best friends about your new book, and they’ll tell their five best friends, and eventually you take over the world. It is, theoretically, pure unbridled exponential growth (at least until you run out of people to tell). This is the way of the future.

Except it’s not as easy as it seems. Just because you tell your five best friends, it doesn’t mean all of them will like your writing enough to tell anyone else. There are lots of factors that play into the “infection rate”, but the end result is you may only get one of your friends to follow through. And then only one of their friends. And so on. It’s still exponential, just working on a lesser scale.

Word of Mouth (WOM) depends less on the potential pool of converts, and more on the accessible pool. There are billions of people on the planet, but you probably only know 0.000002% of them. Add in decay (meaning your WOM is not eternal… eventually, the lag in reading will affect the infection rate) and your growth is severely capped. If you have 135 friends at the start, in most cases you’ll end up with a total audience of 621 (note: all numbers are based on a rough systems model and are probably too high).

135 Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users Guest post by MCM

Next time around, you’ll have a base pool of 600 to work from, which helps a lot. But unless you’re willing to spend years and years building up an audience, straight WOM is not going to cut it.

This is where Super Users come in. They are, very simply, people with a lot of friends and influence. If they say “this book is awesome!” a larger percentage of their network will act on the promotion. You get a 1% infection rate, but they’ll score 10% or higher. Add that to their larger pool, and your growth will have much more potential. Switch from a gentle curve to a steep one, and you see the difference.

The other benefit of a steep curve is that the decay is postponed… someone, somewhere will always be finishing your book and telling their friends about it. It creates a constant state of critical mass, which also ups the infection rate. Think of it this way: nobody likes to be dancing alone, but if you’ve got a large pool of people all dancing together (even if some of them cycle out after every song), it looks like a party. You’re more likely to dance if that’s what everyone else is doing. Super users can find enough people to throw that party.

Super Users can take many forms online, but one important role to weblit is the reviewer. People are looking for advice on what to read, and reviewers read a lot of material. As a reviewer proves their merit, their social network grows, and so does their influence. Writers can expand their network with every new title, but reviewers can expand with every new posting.

135and1000 Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users Guest post by MCM

The value for authors is that a single positive review by an established reviewer can give them access to thousands of eyeballs, not just hundreds. If you have no social network, a reviewer can give you one. If you already have a solid base, a reviewer can help you tap a different set of people, or at least add to your own influence.

To compare: if your book is reviewed by someone with a social network of 1,000, your total audience potential increases from 621 to 4,937. If their social network is 10,000, you’re looking at just shy of 82,350. Imagine someone with a million Twitter followers reviewing your book… you’re looking at 8,242,224 converts.

1000and2influence Reviews, word of mouth and Super Users Guest post by MCM

The trick for weblit reviewers is that, right now, very few of them have large followings. That’s something authors can help change, by supporting and promoting them. It may seem unappealing to put reviewers on a pedestal (especially since it reeks of gate keeping), but if you look at it objectively, a healthy weblit community depends on a healthy reviewer class.

The question of how to build a SMART reviewer class is something I’ll cover in a guest post on Novelr tomorrow. And yes, it’ll have more graphs. Yay!

MCM is the creator of the animated series RollBots as well as the author of several picture books for kids. His grown-up work includes the sci fi thriller “The Vector” and a crowdsourced mystery novel called “Fission Chips”. He has a background in programming and systems thinking, which is how he learned to make graphs. He lives in Victoria, BC, Canada with his wife and kids, and may be at least partially insane.

What are your experiences with word of mouth marketing? Do you trust all reviewers or no reviewers? Do you have particular places that you’ll go for reviews to help you decide on a purchase? Leave a comment.

Creating Agents

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This post, from Bob Spear, originally appeared on his Book Trends Blog on 9/25/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Once upon a time, there were many highly experienced, very capable editors working for the big publishers. It was possible to send queries and manuscripts directly to the publishing houses for consideration, thereby creating the infamous slush pile and the phrase, “Over the transom,” referring to a small window that opened out into the hallway and was located above the office door. Ah, but the bean counters came into power, and they were very smart at saving money for the bottom line.

The older, experienced, very expensive editors were let go with a pat on the back and a thank you. Young, intelligent, much cheaper editors were hired to fill some of the slots that had been vacated; however, they would do little actual editing. Rather, they were essentially book project managers. The preponderance of real editing would henceforth be done by freelance editors (many who had just lost their jobs) paid for by the authors smart enough to do so.

In addition, the publishers said, they no longer would accept contact from unrepresented authors. Suddenly, there was a need for knowledgeable agents to represent authors. Eureka, the recently laid off editors decided to become agents. They would receive the queries and manuscripts. They would decide who they were willing to represent. They would maintain contacts with their old publishing houses and determine what hot new directions they were wanting to go.

Those bean counters were so bright. Their laying off the editors saved money initially and also created a filtering system (the agents) who gave good service for free, as far as the publishers were concerned. The authors paid for that service out of their commissions on their royalties. And so, that is where we are today, and now you understand the system and how it came to be.

 

Weird Signals from the Great Beyond….

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I guess everyone has heard about the old guy with the metal detector…I’m not kidding, it’s not a joke ….who uncovered a huge, horde of Celtic gold and silver treasure in a field in Staffordshire this past week.  It was all over the NY Times — big article, color pictures, etc .

Now I’m always interested in archaic Celtic stuff.   It’s been a lifelong interest and is actually the glue that holds my first three books together.  I laid it all out in the first book.  Because of shallow pockets, I eliminated some illustrative material I researched and sketched out while I was writing the first draft back in the Winter of 1999-2000.

Friday, I opened up the Times, and read the tresure story, to be confronted face-to-face, with an artifact that is an exact illustration of an odd symbol I devised from pre-Christian Celtic sources as being the device on the sails of some very important (to my book, at least) ancient ships. I don’t mean a little reminiscent. I mean exact.

So here I sit, two days later, with an odd buzing in the back of my mind to pay heed to this.  Really.  LIke it is a message, or a sign, or a poortent, or something….

We writers need to believe in such portents. We need a talisman to protect us from encroaching reality.  The magic we weave in the dim recesses of our imaginations need recharging from time to time, and this is one of those times for me.  Whether it’s really communication from the auld gods or not doesn’t matter…. it can be if I want it to be! 

Just remember: Whatever works.

Crafting a Cover: A Do-It-Yourself Sermon in Two or Three Parts…

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We’ve all worked the keyboards till our fingertips are bruised getting our books into shape for readers to actually read and enjoy.  At some point, towards the end of the editing and rewrite drudgery, I need a break.  I’ll assume we all do, and that’s a good point to start thinking about your cover design, if you haven’t already been carrying the whole idea, or components of it around inside you head for months and months.  Putting together a hard hitting cover design will require a whole different set of tools from writing, although you’ll use some of your well-honed writing skills on the cover, you’ll need to put on a new cap – the graphics designer cap…

When I was fresh out of school, the guys who worked the Linotype machines setting hot metal for newspaper type galleys and the pressmen (very few presswomen at the time) wore hats they made by folding last nighty’s sports section, to protect their hair from ink, etc.  and give them a place to stick a couple of extra red pencils and/or grease pencils.

That’s not what I mean.  I mean, it’s time to start thinking about graphics for your book in a new way.  The way a craftsman thinks about an upcoming project: Who is this for? What will it be made of? What will it accomplish? The answers will help organize the tools and materials that will be used in completing the work.  There’s a bit of design philosophy and some scientific touchy-feely stuff, too, but I’ll hold it down. You can skip it if you want, but it will give you a better idea of why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Depending upon your book’s distribution channels, your book’s cover should be designed for:

1. The book seller
2. The book reader
3. The book’s content

Your book cover is packaging for a product you are going to be selling.  The way in which you will be marketing it will have major implications for the effectiveness of the design.  Let’s say, that you intend to use traditional distribution as your primary marketing focus. That means book stores.  The best place to start the design process is to visit a few, if you haven’t had the time lately.  I don’t expect you’ve had a lot of free time on your hands for quite a while, but take some now.

As you pass the front desk, note any Point of Purchase promotion going on, especially book posters and displays.  If you can, without being too obvious, jot down the titles, and the sizes of the books displayed on the counter for later reference. See if any of these are in a similar genre to your book.  Then, go to appropriate sections to your book, and see what’s in the stacks.  Are there books also displayed flat on tables for your genre.  If either a book spine in the stacks, or a cover on a table attract your eye more than others, pick it up, check out how the cover is put together and try to jot down the first three things about the cover that got your attention, including color, besides the title or author(which may be memorable from marketing and promotional exposure).

The point of this exercise is to begin training your eye to “see” book covers as product packaging, and as individual objects composed of several key elements. In good design, these elements are arranged in such a way that they motivate you to hold the book, open the cover and begin reading the book. Some work better than others. You’ll need to learn what these often subjective attributes are.  Whether you have the right terminology to label these attributes doesn’t matter – you will develop your eye to “see” what works – what attracts and hold your attention and what doesn’t.

Pick it up…

If a cover does the right thing, pick up the book and turn it over. Read and file away what about the cover, back blurb, images, Titling, etc. makes you want to open it up. Notice, especially how your eyes move over the cover. Where is your eye led? Does your eye re-visit certain areas of the cover?  There is an entire science of the study of reader eye movement that has been called into action in the graphic design field, especially in advertising and packaging design.  Most people’s eyes move in predictable ways. These ways can be exploited to create more effective design.

If you’re not motivated to open it, file that fact and ask yourself what distracted you or gave you the feeling not to bother to open it up.  These are important points, and will vary from book to book. Remember not all the covers that held your attention will continue to hold it once in hand. Be sure to remember especially the covers that you put down before opening.

You’ll will need to find as many examples of what works once your attention is held, and the book is picked up, as what doesn’t.  You’ll need to “see” a lot of covers and pick up a lot of books before you begin to notice the graphic elements of the designs as separate from the words set in type on them.  Learning to discern the fine point of manipulating graphic elements for best effect takes years, but getting used to seeing those elements in a book cover is something that will begin to take place after only a few visits to a few different book sellers. 

What we’ve learned…

You’ll come to some conclusions about the designs of covers.  You’ll need to be able to see through differences in size, as larger books (trim-size here, not thickness…yet) will attract and hold your eye longer, so sort out primarily any notes regarding similar sizes to your book.  Not all designs are as effective in every size.  There are a few element decisions which will be influenced a great deal by the finished size alone.

Images…

Color alone is a very important element, as is whether the cover is a photographic, illustrative or typographic design.  In my experience, speaking of novels and some non-fiction historic genres, I believe photographic cover designs can hold a reader’s attention longer than the other two types of covers.  It is a true fact in most product advertising design, that whether the ad is set up to feature the product, or a life-style associated “benefit” image; photos (and now, video) work in print and in broadcast media better, in most case that illustration or typographic only advertising.  The other two types, though have very effective uses in specific areas. I’ll deal with those types as well as additional color considerations, next week.

The ascendancy of photography is based in part upon scores of case and focus studies that have shown that it works.  The idea is to get the prospect’s eyes to linger on the cover image long enough to begin to associate familiar experiences, items, etc., from their own lives.  While this is going on, the “magic” takes over. Key graphic elements, ad copy and headlines have a chance to penetrate the often hard, shell of resistance.  If a tiny spark of familiarity and empathy can be kindled, most of the job of selling has been done. 

Bored to tears yet?  Let’s concentrate, right now, upon photographic images. Where can you find them? Should you go through all the shoe boxes of snapshots stored in your closet? Maybe.

Image Resources…

I recommend visiting online providers of stock photo images.  Do keyword searches for images from your book, your intended reader market, even place names and key phrases from your prose. Stock Photo houses, such as Comstock, Veer and Corbis have achieved their high ranking in advertising design circles because of the way their catalogues are organized to provide relevant images.  Each house will have a specialty. For your book, each will probably offer several images that will relate in some way, to creating interest in reading your book. They may show a feeling, a mood, or illustrate a setting, even items used by your Primary Characters. 

Whatever the glue is, stick with it.

If a substance, such as mud, or water is an underlying “glue” throughout your book, then that kind of image may be most appropriate.  Remember, in your cover image choices, you’re not trying to answer all the reader’s mental questions – you’re trying to establish the need to open the book and read it.  A mysterious setting, a dangerous image, all may contribute towards establishing the intended feeling in the viewer, motivating them to pick up your book, turn it over, study the back blurb, then open it up.  Later, they may receive a small, bonus gift in the form of an “Aha” moment as they understand why the image was chosen for the cover!

You may find a handful of appropriate images available from each site, or you may only find a few online across many searches, but the next step will be to consider each of them in turn as potential covers.  Most sites will allow you to download low resolution samples of the images you are interested in for “comping”, which is the term for creating full color mock-ups for presentation.  It can be useful to learn how to use a basic graphics program at this point, or you may have a friend or colleague who can give you assistance in this area.  Oh …also buy a bunch of high-grade glossy inkjet printer paper, as well (you did run out and buy that printer, didn’t you?). 

A short digression, here, if you’ll prop up your eyelids a bit longer. I have been using CorelDraw graphics suite for many years, which is an image/bitmapped studio system for photo bitmapped images (resolution and size dependant) as well as vector graphics (for graphics elements including typography, which will not be resolution and size dependent: scale-able).  There are several other design and photo software suites from Adobe and Quark among others, but initially I purchased CorelDraw because it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the others and provided the same capabilities as well as hundreds and hundreds of different type fonts. Of course, I soon learned that I really only use a few of these, but at the time, in 1985, it was exciting! I also couldn’t afford a Macintosh at the time, so my software choices were also limited by the PC platform – no longer much of a limit at all.

I usually create a composite cover image in the vector program using these steps:

1. Set up page layout and trim size, adding any folds or scoring (read: spine and back cover) as needed. Cover Templates can come in handy here, also page count, which will determine your spine thickness..
2. Import all the photographic bitmap elements,
3. Resample bitmaps if necessary (changing size and/or resolution),  and adjust contrast and color balance, using the photo-editing accessory. The final touch, if needed will be to apply unsharp masking at a reasonable level (too much gives image components ghost haklos and harsh edge definitions) after all image editing is complete.
4. Convert all bitmaps to CMYK (process printing color) format if proofing for print. Leave it RGB if proofing for online presentation. If RGB, look at the proof on your monitor, not a printed sample.
5. Add typography and other scale-able vector graphics elements in appropriately valued areas with little distracting texture,
6. Tweak until it looks the way you want it, make all elements align along pre-determined invisible lines, then exporting the whole thing to a jpg bitmapped format for reproduction as a proof on my trusty photo printer.

I always make up rough proofs for opinion gathering, using several different images, but always use the same simple typography (at first) to concentrate upon how effective the image alone is.  The book title and authors name are all I use to proof comps.  If there are nice, light areas in the right part of the image, I use darker, related-color type surprinted over the image. If there are nice, dark areas, I knock out the type (white on a dark background, for example).  I use the same type font on all examples, to make the image the most important single element in the overall design. The type weight, size and placement should be chosen to balance and enhance the natural eye movements that take place on a printed page. Composition is an art in itself, but we’ll suffice to say, work it til it’s right, and if it’s not broken, don’t fix it! Noodling a cover is the same as over-editing a book. You can fix it until all the life is gone from it. Now, back to the selection process…
                           
The Money Part…

At this point, you need to have reality intrude a bit.  Stock photos are sold two ways.  First, at a fixed price, Royalty Free, based upon the size of the finished reproduction.  The other way is to pay royalties for each use and published instance of the image, based upon what kind of use, what kind of media and the expected circulation potential.  If you have unlimited funds, this is the way to go, as usually the best (subjective word here) images are managed and sold this way. I’ve found a wealth of material is out there, Royalty Free, and this is probably the way you’ll want to go.

You always need to pay for the use of the cover image or images, unless you own a photograph that is perfect for your cover.  You may have taken it yourself (in which case, you own the photo rights completely, but if it is of another person or recognizable place or landmark, you may need to secure model and/or property release documents for the cover use. Stock photography is almost always fully released when sold. But not always. Be sure.  You will receive a rights receipt, which you should protect carefully when you have decided and paid for an image.  You will also need to understand that you are only apying for the rights you asked for when making your purchase – most stock images are licensed, when sold, for a single use. Be sure to read your licensing/release agreement very thoroughly before you pay up..

But you don’t need to pay for an image before working up several dummy covers using different photos. It’s a very useful step you should take.  Narrow your selection of potential photos down to three or four that you like equally well, and considering the price, subject, clarity and the purely mechanical ideas of tone and texture fields available for type titling and eye movement considerations.  These should be printed in color and show around to people whose opinions are important to your decision. They should all be readers, and they should all read in your genre.  Record all their comments. A bookseller or two would also be a good idea if they have the time to give you.  A nice technique for bookseller presentation involves finding two or three papervback books of the same trim size and page count as yours, then trimming out your proofs and using rubber cement to glue your cover and spine onto the books to show the bookseller. You can even put your books into the stacks this way, to see how they work spine only.  You want your cover to “pop” off the shelf for someone who has not seen it before.

Image Composition, again…

Most stock shots have been professionally composed, and are either basically a portrait (vertically composed) or a landscape (horizontally composed) image.  Here the orientation of your book trim will influence your image decision. Keep in mind, that in some case, it will work nicely to wrap the image around the spine and onto the back cover, especially if it presents lots of areas of minimal texture and either light value or dark value.  Too much texture underlying typography, even titles and headlines,  will distract the reader and create difficulty, so I would try to minimize texture in those areas where type will reside on your design.  Look for the right spots.

These areas are prime real estate for Title type and text, assuming all other considerations fall into place. Images can also be cropped, but bear in mind the final size of the image you’re paying for when thinking of cropping.  Cropping in “tight” and then having to enlarge a lot to fill the trim size is generally risky if the original resolution of the image is 300 dpi or less. It can create resolution issues in final reproduction and even nasty, fuzzy jaggies along the image areas of high contrast and detail. Keep the need for resolution equal to 300 dpi in it’s final form, hopefully achieved without having to enlarge an image or parts of the image.  Reducing to a smaller cropped size does not usually create issues, and is generally a safer way to go, but larger, high resolution images cost more, so you have to balance cost versus application when considering image costs.

One design that can make use of smaller, tighter cropped images, is a layout that makes use of more than one image along with the type on a color or textural background.  Depending upon how appropriate this may be considering the book’s content, and upon the length of the title, this may actually be a potential consideration and savings if smaller images with less resolution can be used successfully.  My only issue with this idea, is that the design aspects of the cover layout will need to be much more refined to pull all the elements together for maximum attention-holding, attracting value, especially in a trade paperback size. A multi-line title can also prove to be much too distracting. This kind of layout also requires a lot of refinement in image alignment and order.  I generally go for the easier path of a great single image, bled all around (no borders) and simple titling.

When designing for smaller sizes, the key is simplicity and readability.  If you have a smaller space to work your magic, it needs to be very arresting.  Use a very simple concept overall, to get the desired results. A larger scale cover gives you more latitude. Oversized books, especially, usually displayed on sellers tables, carry have a lot more space for your “presentation”.  While simplicity is usually the best approach, there might be certain types of books that need to involve the prospect more – a “how to” book for example.  Men – I’m one of those – tend to like to tinker, so appealing to the tinkerer in potential readers is smart design. In this case, additional image “situations” may pose some additional questions. This may lead to the prospect opening the cover up to look for specific answers. But enough theoretic blither…

Let me give you an example of a trade paperback book front cover design.  Below is the front cover of my first novel, The Red Gate:

View 1

It’s a very simple cover, but it has been effective, both flat and on bookstore shelves.  I’ve even had some feedback that the cover was the reason they bought the book!

In the next image, I’ve added a grid I like to work with, superimposed over the image. I call this the Rule of Fives. Catchy name, huh?  I divide a page space into thirds (two lines) vertically and fourths (three lines) horizontally. Five lines in all.  The intersections of these lines correspond, roughly to the places the average readers eye will stop, and are prime locations for informative elements such as title, authors name, and subheading, if one is used.  The choice of five lines is based upon which kind of space divisions most people seem visually comfortable with, given natural eye movements. I’ll cover the source of that design philosophy next week, meanwhile…

The idea is to set up natural alignments of necessary elements in your cover design. Some of the individual elements may also be parts of your photo image.  Look inside the photo.  Considering also the typical eye movements of the reader (clockwise, mid-left, around, then ending top right…). Finessing these into an effective cover is the goal.  Let me illustrate:

View 3

Here, I’ve added the small primary and secondary circles of eye movement to show how elements within the photograph help support the intended eye movement within the natural inclinations. My main focus is to never lead the eye off the side of the page, but to keep it circling and re-circling.  Try to choose well-composed photographic elements that do this – have clear central emphasis and focus – those whose internal elements won’t introduce lines that lead the eye where you don’t want it to go.

In addition, while in the example, the eye is gently guided to rest on the title and author’s name, the subject matter of the image – the wet, craggy Irish coastline – dangerous looking rocks and the arresting sunset coloring all are directly connected to important elements within my book.  The setting is an important Primary Character, influencing much more than movement of the people in the story.  The orange tones, overall display an arresting color, but only a little intimidating, mostly warm and inviting. 

While generally seen as a cheerful color, in this instance, in contrast with the jagged cliffs, it sets up an immediate conflict adding an air of mystery.  Just what I want the viewer to feel. It’s the way I first felt when viewing the image – and since I’m a reader, and have feelings, my opinion has some weight here., and so should yours. The color also relates directly to the title , adding questions which hopefully will guide the person holding the book to turn it over.  I will mention here, that the image was so good for cover use, I decided to carry it over the spine, leaving an arresting color and simple texture: a strong area for titling. It makes for an easy to spot spine in the booksellers’ stacks!  The wrap around image with the abrupt diagonal line formed by the sheer cliffs edge, encourages the reader to turn the book over to see the back, where my pitch awaits. The image was from Corbis, and my out of pocket was under US$100. 

Next week, we’ll continue thinking about color selection and we’ll decide how to pick a type font or face.  I’ll discuss my take on illustrative or typographical cover designs but I’ll minimize the philosophical and touchy-feely stuff in favor of more Nuts and Bolts – I promise. 

The Curmudgeon is also looking forward to your submission of your cover design preliminaries for comment. Email ’em in!

Running a Mile in Under Four Minutes

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On May 6, 1954 Roger Bannister became the first human in history to break the four minute barrier and run a mile in under four minutes.  Stick with me here folks, I really have a point.  He decided he was going to break this record and after several attempts he did it.  No one thought it was possible for any human being to run a mile in under four minutes.  It was too extraordinary to even comprehend.  But Roger Bannister decided in his head that he could and would do it, and then he trained accordingly.  

 

In the two years following his achievement, 37 additional people ran a mile in under four minutes.  Why?  No human in history had done it, suddenly Roger Bannister does it, and then 37 other people can do it too?  It’s because Bannister proved it was possible.  Once something is proven as a possible human achievement, other people gain the belief in themselves to make their dreams a reality.  And then other people achieve as well.

 

Tony Robbins is one of my heroes, and not just because he has those awesome big teeth.  This video is 38 minutes long, but if THIS doesn’t change how you view your dreams and go after it, then probably nothing will. I believe this video could be the best 38 minutes of your time you’ve ever invested. tonyrobbinstraining.com/320/interview-with-frank-kern-and-john-reese/

 

Tony explains it far better than I do, but the bottom line here as it relates to us is… self-publishing is really filled with a lot of underachievers, and I believe there is a reason for this. The reason is that self-publishing has been poo poo’d for SO long, that nearly every person who goes into it has a dream, but it’s a pipe dream.  They don’t REALLY believe they can do it and so they don’t take the required actions to make it happen.

 

In the past 10 months since I released my novella, KEPT, I’ve had over 10,000 readers.  over 2,000 of those readers bought the Amazon Kindle version, so they actually paid money to read it.  The rest got the free PDF.  (And just so no one jumps on me, the Amazon Kindle Version is a dollar, they won’t let little indies like me give it away.  So when you get it on Kindle, you’re paying for the format and convenience of having it delivered to your Kindle.  I have no control over that issue if I want to be on Amazon.)

 

And yet… there is a giant gap between free and $1.  Because free is a no-brainer, and $1 is a "buying decision" even if a little one.  Candy Bars are under a dollar but people don’t always buy those just because they are in their face at the check out line.  In this economy especially, something being cheap, doesn’t equal massive sales necessarily.

 

My "over 10,000" number doesn’t impress me. (Many people are doing far better than I am.  And I take full responsibility for the fact that I haven’t done even better.  I know how much (or little) I’ve worked at times, and the results are the fruit of that.) I see it as progress, and that’s great but it doesn’t just knock me over with "OMG I’m so awesome."  And that’s because I have big goals and even bigger dreams.  Meanwhile I’ve seen many self publishing authors who have moved under 300 copies in a full calendar year.  For free or pay.

 

Why?

 

There could be many reasons… maybe the book isn’t good. Maybe the cover is lousy.  Maybe the book isn’t being marketed; the author thought they could print it and it would magically sell itself.  Or maybe… the author doesn’t believe in himself.

 

Belief in what you can accomplish creates your reality.  You can’t just believe and not take action… that’s just a pipe dream.  And you can’t just take action without belief because then you’ll put less effort into it.  The force of your belief in yourself will drive you.  You have to get to the point of absolute certainty.

 

Absolute certainty that you are a good writer and people will want to read your work. (Get there however you have to get there.  Test market, get crit and beta readers, see if any agents show any interest in your writing at all, even if they don’t think they can sell it.  They don’t have to sell it. You will.)

 

Absolute certainty that you can create a GOOD and well-put together book that illustrates your competence.  i.e. you’re going to do what you have to do to have proper editing, layout, cover design.

 

Absolute certainty that you can market and sell this book and move a certain number of copies in a certain amount of time.

 

 

Self-publishing is one of the hardest things to do successfully, well except for maybe brain surgery.  Many people I’ve seen publishing their own work just aren’t displaying a high level of savvy.  They aren’t bringing much to the table.  Their covers look homemade, their editing is shoddy, they’ve sold 150 copies in a year.  I mean come on guys.  You have got to BELIEVE you can do this.  And then you have to bring the competence to the table.

 

Some of the people self-publishing have high-powered jobs, that require a level of savvy they aren’t bringing to the publishing table.  WHY?  Take this seriously.  If you don’t take it seriously, you’re not going to succeed.  If you don’t believe in yourself with absolute certainty you’re not going to succeed.  If you take a million shortcuts and don’t take the time to educate yourself about publishing and marketing and how to create a great book and get it in the hands of readers, you’re not going to succeed.

 

Here is the feedback loop many self-publishing authors are stuck in:

 

Critic:  You’ll never succeed. Do you know how RARE it is to succeed self-publishing?  Most self-publishing authors sell 150 copies or less.  You’ll never make any money at this.  Most self-published books suck.  They are poorly edited, have crappy covers, and don’t sell well.  You can’t get in bookstores, so obviously you can’t sell books unless you sell out of the trunk of your car.

 

When the self-publishing author hears this, unless they’re just really stubborn and determined, they’re likely to believe it and internalize these thoughts.  If the odds are so bad then they think of what they’re doing as a lottery.  They put minimal effort into it.  They don’t get the book well-edited or the cover properly produced because what’s the point?  They don’t learn what they need to about marketing or how they’re going to move books outside the bookstore environment, because there’s no point right? 

Because they’ve been infused with the belief, and bought into it, that their odds are really really bad and it’s probably just a silly dream, they don’t take themselves seriously and do the things that they need to do to succeed.  Instead they self-sabotage.  They design their own cover, and it looks it.  They don’t get proper editing.  They don’t do the proper market research, and when the book comes out, they don’t work that hard to sell it because they’re afraid of failure and being mocked. Or failure and losing money and being mocked.

 

If you’re going to do it, you may as well do it properly and take the time to learn HOW to do it properly.  Because some people do succeed self-publishing, and there are more of those stories than you think.  But you won’t, as long as you live into what your critics have said.  You have to rise above it.

 

Some of your critics and naysayers are trying to save you from yourself… bless their hearts.  What they don’t understand is… if a person truly has a dream they feel compelled to follow, they’re going to do it anyway.  And if a critic/naysayer really has their best interest at heart and just doesn’t want them to get hurt, then they’ll be supportive and help them problem solve, not try to talk them out of it.  Once the decision to do it has been made, the naysaying becomes pointless and cruel.  I’ve noticed that many many many people like to spend hours naysaying but they won’t spend five minutes trying to help problem solve.  Says more about them than it does about you, huh?  Keep it in mind so you can determine who is really on your side and who wants you to follow their path so they can feel better about their own choices.

 

There are also too many self-publishing authors who aren’t treating this like a business.  And it’s fine if you want to hobby publish.  But if you want to publish as a hobby then you need to understand that you are going to lose money.  Hobbies don’t generally make a profit.  You aren’t going to sell many books because it’s hard to be motivated to do a lot of work without any financial payout or promise of one at all.  If you just want to publish for love and not money, then give it away.  Save yourself the time and stress and money of getting it into print.

 

If you want to look at it as a business then you must become aquainted with the concept of the profit and loss statement.  Simple as that.  You have to have a business plan and a marketing plan.  You have to know where you’re selling and how.  You have to test market to see if people respond to your work.  You have to bring in more money than your sending out.

 

But in order to do all of this you have to take yourself seriously and believe in yourself.  Stop listening to the naysayers.  I’m going to let you in on a little secret of life… 90% of the naysayers out there are too gutless to follow their own dreams so they have to pick at yours.  And I gotta tell ya, I’m not that impressed with a mediocre cubicle monkey who can’t even THINK big, let alone act big. Don’t let them impress you either.

 

Grab your dreams and go for them.  If you’ve truly done your research and then you have someone coming to you with a million excuses of why your dream won’t work… then you know that you know more than they do.  Because you’ve spent months researching it, and in all likelihood, they just spent about 30 minutes to an hour reading other naysayer’s views and then parroting those back.  It doesn’t take guts or knowledge or savvy, or really anything impressive to follow the naysaying herd.  But it does take guts and knowledge, and savvy, to step out and follow your dream in your own way.  It takes guts and knowledge and savvy to self-publish successfully.

 

Weak-minded people concern themselves with everybody’s business but their own.  The strong-minded find what they want and stay the course.  In order for self-publishing to turn a corner and start breaking the stigma and stereotype, self-publishing authors must have the courage and strength to ignore all the negative mental crap being thrown at them and what their doing, and rise above it to follow their dream.  It’s the only way we’ll run that mile in under four minutes, and give others the courage to do the same.

 

 

A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books

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This post, from Bob Stein, originally appeared on the if:book blog on 9/24/09.

The following started out as a set of notes to various colleagues suggesting that successful digital publishing involves much much more than coming up with a viable form for networked books. rather unexpectedly this led to the question of how bookstores might evolve to give publishers a way to reassert their brands and strengthen their position vis a vis Amazon (as well as Google and Apple). This is very much a work in progress but i thought i’d post it and bring others into the discussion along the way.

 

The idea that "a book is a place (where readers, sometimes with authors, congregate)" arose out of a series of experiments investigating what happens when the act of reading moves from the printed page to an online space designed for social interaction. as we expanded the notion of a work to include the activity in the margin, in effect we re-defined "content" to include the conversation that a text engenders. Put another way, locating a text in a dynamic network brings the social aspects of reading to the fore. (see Without Gods, Gamer Theory, Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge and The Golden Notebook projects)

In an earlier set of notes ("A Unified Field Theory of Publishing in the Networked Era") I suggested that as discourse moves off the page onto networked screens, the roles of authors, readers, editors, publishers will shift in significant ways. For example, the author’s traditional commitment to engage with a subject matter on behalf of future readers will shift to a commitment to engage with readers in the context of a subject. Successful publishers, i posited, will distinguish themselves by their ability to build and nurture vibrant communities of interest, often with authors at the center, but not necessarily always.

The purpose of this new set of notes is to expand the thinking beyond how a specific text is presented or interacted with. Reading (and writing) do not happen only at the level of the individual work. There is a broad ecology of behaviors, activities and micro-environments that surround each work and our relationship to it — how things come to be written, how we choose what to read, how we make the purchase, how we share our experience with others. Currently (i.e. toward the end of age of print), that ecology is defined by agent/editor mechanisms of acquisition, sharp delineation between authors and readers, top-down marketing, heavy reliance on big mainstream media to get the word out, the bookshelves that make our books part of our daily life, bookstores and — yes — Amazon. Much more than not, Amazon is a product of the same DNA that underlies the still-dominant mode of the print-book read by the solitary reader. Everything about the Kindle, from its interaction design to its draconian DRM provisions, underlines its conservative role in preserving the ecologies of print.

The current e-book business (the buying/selling bits) was designed (or at least evolved) to minimize friction with the legacy business; pricing, release schedules and DRM all structured so as not to challenge print, which is still the predominant source of revenues.

To succeed at publishing in the networked era, it won’t be enough just to re-conceive the work as a "networked book." If we accept that social interaction will be paramount, not just at the level of the individual work but throughout the ecology of networked reading and writing, then it’s important also to ask the question "if a book is a place, what is the place for books? (or, more accurately but less forceful, "what are the places for books?")

Currently the predominant place(s) for books are bookstores, libraries, classrooms, cafes (as a stand-in for the general category of informal brick-and-mortar gathering places), living-room reading groups, and the infoweb (mainstream media + internet) where books are reviewed, promoted, and on sites like LibraryThing and Shelfari, discussed. Each of these places has its own culture, its own social fabric that determines how people relate to each other, what their transactions are like, how you meet "new" people, how you come to trust them or not, and how you manage ongoing connections/relationships.

The bookstore, The Library and The Cafe
Brick and mortar bookstores are much better for (un-directed) browsing than online stores. This is probably mostly a function of bandwidth, i.e. I can see so much more in a bookstore than I can on my 2D screen. This will change as the web and its attendant hardware/software develops over time, but my guess is that a satisfying browsing experience of the order i can get in a great bookstore is many, many years away from practical. On the other hand if you know what you’re looking for, online shopping excels at simplifying the process of making the transaction. In fact, in every sense except immediate transfer to the buyer of the object they’ve purchased, online buying is vastly more efficient. When the bulk of our book purchases are in electronic form, and therefore delivered instantly, the significant advantages left to the bookstore will be the superior browsing experience, the help desk and the cafe.

[And before you say "oh, it will be years before the bulk of what we’re buying is in electronic form," think about how many iPhone apps or iTunes purchases you or your friends have made in the past few months (including the books you’ve been reading on your phone or Kindle) compared to how many print books you/they bought. This part of the future seems to be near-now.]

Read the rest of the post on if:book.

Preparing For A Book Sale

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Publetariat Editor’s Note: This blog post, from Fay Risner, originally appeared on her Publetariat blog on 9/17/09. It’s such a salient topic for indie authors, I asked Fay if we could reprint it as an article for the site and she graciously agreed.

Friday the 18th Civil War Days begins in Belle Plaine, Iowa. I’m going to sell my books in the park on the fringes of North versus South battles. So am I ready?

I’ve watched the weather forecasts. Looks like perfect days for having a table full of books outside. To help the customers visually see what kind of books I write, I made place cards that states the genre to place by each pile of books. It would be a good thing if the wind wasn’t too strong, or I will spend time chasing those place cards down. Also, the bookmarkers I printed that list my inventory and address for future reference.

I’ve been doing a mental list in my head this morning. It has taken a lot of preparation for this three day event. I’ve got an aluminum folding table left over from my craft sale days. (Those craft sales are where I learned some salesmanship.) An Indian blanket for a table cover, doesn’t go along with the Civil War but in that century. Dressing in a pioneer dress and wearing a bonnet should give me some attention. (How did I come by a pioneer dress and bonnet? I revamped a dress and sewed the bonnet years ago when I volunteered at Ursher Ferry in Cedar Rapids. I was spinning in a one room log cabin as the woman who lived there. When visitors came in, I had to tell them about my life. It was fun to act the part.) I still have my money box from craft show days (a small fishing tackle box). It’s perfect with a top divided shelf for change and the bottom for bills. I bought a mesh folding chair with a canopy top so I wouldn’t have to sit in direct sunlight. Haven’t had it out of the bag to see if I can set it up. Every time I buy something in a bag or box that needs put together, I’ve found it a struggle to put the object back in the bag. So guess I’ll wing putting the chair together in the park after I have the table set up.

After some fall house cleaning, I found a four by four poster board upstairs to use for a sign to lean against the table. This advertisement shows that I am a local person. That might help get me some interest if not sales. So I printed large banners and tacked them to the poster board. The sign reads Keystone Author Fay Risner – Book Sale – Featuring – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia . On each side of the Book Sale line was a blank space so I put a picture of my book cover on one side and a Confederate Flag on the other. That definitely states which side of the war I’m on. Figured I might as well join. You can’t hear it in my writing, but I have a southern accent. That would be a dead giveaway if I tried to join the Union forces. They might shoot me for a spy.

I have no idea where I am to set up. The man I talked to said I could be by a building where reenactors sell their wares. Guess someone will point me in the right direction.

Friday is the day the schools bring students to learn about the Civil War. I wanted to be a part of that education. Besides, a presentation will go along with my book. So I made up another poster board. While the reenactors will be talking military feats, I will be discussing Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers. A time line of the border war between Kansas territory and Missouri is on the poster. A large Missouri map dominates the board with stars for important places and Vernon County drawn in so the children can see where my history comes from.

I won’t have anyone to watch my table and I don’t know how far it will be to the concession stand. I baked an apple cake. That will be meals and snacks plus I’m taking a large container of ice tea.

My husband isn’t so sure all this stuff will fit in my small car. Best be prepared. Today I pack the car just to see how is the best way to fit everything in. It will be good to have that much done. I’ll have to get an early start to be set up before 9 a.m.

No matter what, this will be a fun experience going back in time amid the smell and explosions of gunpowder, war cries and crowd appreciation of the battles. Lincoln will give his Gettysburg Address, a church service will be held under the open sky and much more. I can’t wait to get there.

Fay did so many things right, from being very well-practiced and prepared, to hitting her target demographic square in the middle, to highlighting her local community connections, and more. Read Fay’s next blog post to see how well she did with her book sale event. Fay’s books are available on Amazon.

Just Another Warning Un-heeded…

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Every author that sells books on Amazon has got to come to terms with a couple of things.  First, you’ll have to promote until you’re blue-in-the-face, everywhere possible, leading necessarily (no matter if you’re a private person down deep) to lots of emails in your in-box(es).  Second, you’ll need some reviews. Most of these, you’ll have to ask for.  Here are a couple of recent tips I fell into…the hard way, of course.

1. If you swap reviews with another writer, be sure to read excerpts of their work first.

Not every Independently Published author is as serious about the quality of their finsihed work as you are.  Some are in a hurry to publish, others’ stories are terribly derivative, others never passed their fourth grade English class, etc., etc. 

2. Don’t read from manuscript, read from the actual book — even if you have to buy it.

You can’t review a book from a page of type online.  Not possible. Really.

I recently made an agreement.  The other writer purchased my book ($11.95 on Amazon), read it, and left me a really good review.  He writes very good reviews. 

Now, I’m 5 chapters into his novel( more expensive than mine, but I digress…).  It’s not terribly thick (good) and it’s in 12 point type (also good), but within the first four chapters, the POV changed four times with no warning, characters’ dialog appeared out of thin air, and the puctuation/capitalization is horrendous! And I’m a guy with the comma disease!

To add insult to injury, it’s typeset (shudder) justified instead of Rag Right, so every page is filled with rivers and streams of vertical white space making reading near impossible.  Here’s one way that mainstream publishers usually creat a better product: They can afford to have a book professionally typeset.  Using the best of the newest typesetting softwarte and fonts, it is possible to set a page with justifed margins, that doesn’t also have terribly inconsistent word spacing, rivers and streams of whitespace running vertically on every page.  It’s very difficult to do this with the level of softwarte and fonts most Indie Authors utilize.  Better to set your book flush left, ragged right, to speed reading and prevent holes in your prose, but I digress…

I promised the guy a review, but it’s going to be difficult.  What I’m going to have to do is give him a free edit and make up "notes".  A deal is a deal.  It’s a good thing that with POD, a published book can be easily edited, because if his sales were slow, up to this point, a few changes may make a world of difference.

The real shame of it is that the story is a good one, and the pacing and characters would normally make it a fast, fun read!  So…

Don’t get caught in this situation yourself, and never, never, never put another writer in this situation.  Do your homework, make your book as good as it can be, first…before you publish. That way, when agents and publishers start to go on and on about the garbage that self-publishing and POD foist upon the public, you can beg to differ honestly.

And be sure to read a book before offering to review it.

 

 

 

 

One Thing Leads To Another For Book Promotions

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When I signed up for the internet a few years ago, I researched about author promotions on the internet. I still do search for new ideas. One thing I learned right away was that authors need a website. This was before I had a book published but dreamed that it might happen some day. So I hunted for a free website. I tried several and couldn’t figure out how to submit to them. Finally, I found tripod and understood the easy instructions. I haven’t had problems submitting to my website, but I hear that people have trouble finding it. Perhaps that’s because it’s free. http://www.booksbyfay.tripod.com

Every site I’ve registered on, I use booksbyfay to log in. I wanted a name that clued people into what I do. Now thanks to google search, I get about four pages when I put my name Fay Risner in the search box because of all the websites I’ve advertised my books on. Google uses a small portions of the websites announcing my books or events.

Now I have four blogs. I copy and paste the same entry on each one, but hopefully, I attract the attention of many different readers. Awhile back a woman emailed me she had linked one of my blogs to a website she belongs to because she likes what she read and wanted others to read my blog. Good Reads website put the bookshelf containing my books I entered there next to my blog on blogger. Amazon decided to give each author a page and blog.

A woman approached me at Civil War Days to ask if I would like to be a guest blogger on her blog. She asks people who are writers or illustrators. I told her I’d be delighted.

Another woman asked me to be a guest speaker for her church group "Golden Girls" to talk about my books.

　

 

Sometimes I hear things and think I should remember that for future reference. About five years ago I was told a successful business man from Texas came back for a high school reunion in Belle Plaine. A former classmate said he brought each of them a signed copy of his new book. So the 8th of August I had a high school reunion. I gave out 21 copies of my latest book "A Promise Is A Promise". Since then I have sold 11 other books to the classmates and one teacher.

This particular teacher wasn’t but a few years old than me when she taught high school home economics and girls gym. She took a liking for my whole class of 32 students and has been our cheering section ever since. She comes to all our high school reunions and keeps in touch with many of us. Always, she gives us encouragement and praises our successes. While I was at my book sale on Saturday no one could have been more surprised than me when she came walking across the park toward me. I asked how she happened to be there. She said because she heard I would be selling books. I thought she was teasing but turns out a former classmate passed on my news about going to Civil War Days. Do teachers today still have that commitment to students so many years after they are out of school? I think not. Oh, maybe they take an interest in one or two, but not 32.

I let you know how my guest blogging and book presentation for the women’s group turns out.

 

　

　

　

　

What Makes A Great Author Website?

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This post, from Thad McIllroy, originally appeared on his Future of Publishing blog on 9/19/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.  

A colleague of mine who is a noted Canadian historian, and a prolific writer, asked today what makes a great web site for an author. So I began an exploration:

Most publisher websites for authors are pathetic, placeholders with short bios and links to books. A case in point is Canada’s “most venerable” old publisher, McClelland & Stewart. I wrote:
M&S is pointless:
http://www.mcclelland.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31934

With their partners in crime (Random House, Doubleday, etc.) they have created BookLounge.ca, which makes the first mistake of forcing you to register (I never did succeed in completing my registration).

I try without success to find any content from M.G. Vassanji (who was well-featured on M&S). Odd.

So I check out my old friend, Lucinda Vardey, and find that her listing is no better than if it appeared on the M&S site:
http://www.booklounge.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=31912

Then I turn my search to well-known (i.e. bestselling) historians:

Niall Ferguson has what I would call an “adequate” website.

http://www.niallferguson.com/site/FERG/Templates/Home.aspx?pageid=1

There’s some substance to it, but many flaws. He doesn’t offer a blog per se, but rather a blog-like “thing” labeled “journalism”. The entries are often short and blog-like…it appears they were published elsewhere, but we can’t find out where.

There’s a listing of the two spring courses he taught at Harvard, but no listing of what he’s teaching this fall.

There are three videos offered with no indication of their content or length or why we might want to watch them.

You can sign up for a newsletter, but have no method to view a sample and no idea how frequently it might arrive.

NONE of his publications has a live link (including his books), so you have to expend extra effort to find out more about them.

Well, enough of Prof. Ferguson

* As an aside, I do not like E.L. Doctorow’s site: http://www.eldoctorow.com/ for essentially the same reasons. There’s a professional design and lots of content, but none of it is particularly engaging.

Jared Diamond does not appear to have a website.

Gary Wills does not appear to have an independent website

Bob Woodward has a surprisingly uninteresting website: http://bobwoodward.com/

Thomas L. Friedman, has a pretty good site because it’s packed with relevant, current stuff. There’s no interaction, per se, other than the usual “subscribe to my newsletter”.

But, for example, on the page for his latest book: http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded-2
…you can download a sample, hear an audio preview and download a discussion guide. These are useful and show some generosity and thoughtfulness on the part of the author (or his publisher or publicists or whatever). Foolishly he offers no blog nor a way to contact him directly (although if you go to his page on the New York Times you can contact him directly there).

You’ll see he’s now on LinkedIn, which is the best professional social networking site (as vs. the child’s FaceBook). I recommend LinkedIn— basic membership is free. Plaxo is roughly 65% as good as LinkedIn and also free for basic service.

Malcolm Gladwell has a very simple site: http://www.gladwell.com/index.html

There’s always something to be said for simplicity. He also offers a genuine direct way to email him and a COMPLETE and accessible archive of all his great articles from the New Yorker. He’s generous with his excerpts from each book, and has a good Q&A for each. The blog is badly out of date. Not bad overall.

Back to the Yankees:

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s site rates about 5 out of 10. http://www.doriskearnsgoodwin.com/

The good is the personal stuff in the right-hand column on the home page. Also there’s a way to email her directly. The material available on her books is pathetic.

So here’s a Geist author with a beautifully-designed site:
http://www.sheilaheti.net/

Would this be “the right site” for you? Probably not. By the nature of your profession, more formal approaches are called for. But that doesn’t mean your site shouldn’t be fun also.

To me the keys to a great author web site are:

  1. The short answer is ENGAGEMENT: your site should make the reader feel that they’ve been inited into your living room for a chat.
     
  2. The same keys as apply to all great web sites: good design, clear navigation, lack of clutter, etc.
     
  3. A distinct personality to the site, which, god-willing, mirrors the personality of the author.
     
  4. More good stuff stuffed into the site than a child could pray for on Christmas.
     
  5. Backgrounders, audio-podcasts, videos from YouTube, discussion points. etc.
     
  6. Your blog should be hosted on you key site: your author site. Comments must be allowed, but moderated. The blog MUST be current.
     
  7. Generous links to other material you’ve produced that’s available online.
     
  8. Generous (AND APPROPRIATE) links to colleagues and other sites of interest. In return, they should agree to offer a link to your site.
     
  9. A direct way to email the author.
     
  10. Do not favor a single online bookseller as a source to get obtain books. Let your reader decide.
     
  11. Free previews of work-in-progress.
     
  12. Friendly personal info on you and your family and friends with lots of cute photos.

    [Publetariat Editor’s note: let your comfort level, as well as the comfort levels of your family members and friends, be your guide here, but we do recommend at least including the same quantity and type of personal information one typically sees in the author bios printed on book jackets.]
     

  13. A “Resources” section for those who want to explore BEYOND your work.
     
  14. You must establish your authority. This can be done in subtle ways (which I think comes naturally to good authors), but also requires a link to “Reviews,” and wherever possible links to live online reviews.
     

So there it is…one of several viewpoints about the ideal author’s online site. To overlook the effort is to overlook your career. 

September 21 update. Forgot ito include:

15. Don’t be shy about using ALL of the social networking tools available to you, at the very least Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace…

Thad McIllroy has authored or edited a dozen books on technology and marketing issues surrounding electronic publishing, color imaging, PDF, workflow, publishing automation, and the Internet. He’s also written some 200 articles and delivered innumerable seminars on a broad range of industry-related topics. He acted as Program Director at Seybold Seminars for five years, and in 1990 co-founded (with Miles Southworth) The Color Resource, a publishing and distribution company devoted to books and training materials on color design, imaging and prepress.

More recently he wrote the Composition, Design, and Graphics chapter (with contributions from Frank Romano) for the Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing (Columbia University Press, January, 2003). He’s a contributing editor to PrintAction magazine, a columnist for XMLPitstop.com, and a member of the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts, the Association for Computing Machinery and the Content Management Professionals. For three consecutive years he was named one of Canada’s 50 most influential people in graphic communications.

How Can I Help You With NaNoWriMo?

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This post, from David Niall Wilson, originally appeared on his Glimpses Into An Overactive Mind site on 9/23/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Sometimes I have so much to say I can’t shut up.  Seriously.  Just ask people within earshot.  Other times, though, I sit and tap the keys nervously and think – I should be working on that story instead of doing this.  Currently that story is Glenn and the Tart of Mortar Psycho Maine Tenants which I hope to complete tonight, or tomorrow night.  Still, I like to be productive in many arenas, and one thing that has become an annual goal is to help as many people as I can to prepare for the annual National Novel Writing Month challenge.

I’ve done Nanowrimo successfully every year since 2004, which was the first time I managed to say I was going to do it and actually start.  I’ve sold most of what I’ve written durning those challenges, and I’ve got a couple of decades of writing experience, a few awards, for what they’re worth – I like to think that when I post here I am somehow giving back and helping with the next “round” of creativity.

So here’s the deal.  If you have a particular subject you are interested in regarding Nanowrimo or writing, post it in the comments section and I’ll do my best to get to it.  You might want to type it into the search box here on the site though, because odds are I’ve covered it at least once.  Here are search links to a few common writing topics, and a couple of less common topics.  Sorry, the Nanowrimo lolcats keep showing up in all the searches … 🙂

Outlines

Characters

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Wordcount

Scheduling

Lolcats (these are important)

You might also find these links helpful / interesting:

Vintage Soul – dedicated to my Nanowrimo-written novel due out in hardcover this December – you can pre-order and get a signed copy cheap – particularly if you are a Nanowrimo winner, or Follow Me On Twitter!

Heart of a Dragon: You can register here to read along as I write this year’s Nanowrimo Novel – which is book II in the series begun in Vintage Soul – the DeChance Chronicles.  There are also more Nanowrimo tips posted here.

The Necronom-Icon – not really Nanowrimo related.  Short stories inspired by the smiley faces and tiny Emoticons proliferating on the web. All free.

Hope I’ve been of some help…

–DNW

Written by David Wilson – Visit Website
Follow me on Twitter

David Niall Wilson has sold 17 novels and nearly 200 short stories and has won the Bram Stoker Award for poetry and short fiction.  His novel Vintage Soul is due in December from Thompson/Gale Five Star and his collaborative novel with his wife, Patricia Lee Macomber – Stargate Atlantis: Brimstone is also due in November.

The Second Tour

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I invite you to visit my website: http://thesecondtour.com, which showcases my best work, a novel titled The Second Tour that describes my experiences during the Vietnam War as a combat Marine. The Second Tour has been adopted for use next year in English literature classes at The Air Force Academy and Tulsa Univ. It was also taught this year in Behavioral Sciences classes at the Air Force Academy. If the Vietnam War or combat experience is something of interest to you, I believe my book will provide a window to a world few understand or imagine. Thank you for letting me toot my horn.

A Conundrum…A Long Conundrum (Be Prepared)

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This is a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and get ready to mull with me…

I’ve been mulling over one of many, odd conundrums that seem to exist in the murky world of mainstream publishing. It’s an obscure, opaque condition writers can run into with a first novel.

It is an undisputed fact that most books sell poorly. No matter whether they are mainstream published with the requisite fanfare, or Indie Published with the fanfare authors can muster on their own. Very, very few books become best sellers, let alone covering their own publishing run costs, with the one exception of POD books.  It can be depressing for any writer who really has the drive and desire to publish.

Now, if we take a look at publishing from the Literary Agent’s perspective, facing the fact expressed above, they must concentrate upon books they are pretty sure they can sell, and remember, they are selling to in most cases, long-established publishing relationships. Personal relationships.  An agent "vetting" a book reduces the risk for the publisher substantially.  It also cements relationships within in the industry. 

There are clearly observed, followed trends in book buying. What readers buy in numbers is what publishers need to publish.  It is a matter of economics, especially in the downturn we are all experiencing. 

Most publishers show great pride in their discovery of a new author with a great, new voice, especially if their work has marketplace traction.  Let’s assume the writer writes fiction, which is harder to sell well than a self-help, non-fiction title.  So the writer starts out with reduced expectations.  The publisher will promote and distribute the book, but probably not as well as they would if it were determined to be a current "best seller" genre book.  The author is still heavily responsible for promoting the book as much as possible in order that a great number of readers is exposed to it, just like an Indie Author must do.  No difference, yet.

When the book sales begin, for most new authors, they will be initially slow.  If you browse discount sales table at book sellers and library fund raisers, you’ll find books from recognized writers, but titles you probably never heard of.  Some of them are early work that didn’t gain market traction. I have several of these in my personal library — some from hugely selling writers, whose initial work wasn’t grabbed up.  Some of it is good, some of it is really terrible by comparion with later work. 

Taken as a whole, despite a huge outpouring of argument I’ve heard regarding the traditional role as gatekeepers, protecting the public from an influx of bad books, mainstream publishers produce bad books too. They also produce good book that don’t sell well. Right now, they can’t afford to tie money up with many mistakes, so they will rely more and more on LIt. Agents to only send them really saleable new work. This puts tremendous pressure on agents to dismiss the overwhelming majority of work submitted, in favor of book genres and styles that are currently enjoying success.

That, by and large, leaves most new literary fiction authors out.  Once a new author’s book is as good as it can be honed, assuming the writer wants to publish these days, the only option seems to be Indie Publishing, for one big reason.  An author who writes well, but whose genre isn’t currently popular, may get an agent to represent them, but if, after the launch and a year on the market, with book poor sales, the publisher will blame the agent.  Depending upon their financial committment to the book, they may cut back on their reliance on this agent.

Publishers today, can rarely afford to put their money towards tenuous future sucess. They need success now. An agent must help create success in order to keep their own bills paid and cover more than their expenses. If a represented book languishes, the agent will think less of the writer’s work, in fact being less than anxioust to pitch the next one.  The writer gets a bad rap, right at the start. A smart writer with an eye to the future would want to avoid this kind of situation. 

Poor booksales, are a killer of potential for everyone involved, yet without promotion, review and backing, good sales are very hard to achieve, even if your book is a jewel.  Most of the — hell, all of big media press goes to best sellers, not to competent novelists working in a literary genre.  The web is full of blogs and writers articles confirming the "death" of literary fiction.  I believe that it is a premature announcement, personally. On the other hand, if you write literary fiction, you must either adapt and begin writing in genres that sell (read: vampires, serial mysteries and religious conspiracies) or be realistic and expect that you won’t be the first best selling author on your block.

Confronting that fact tends to deflate the writer’s ego pretty quickly.  But you can always blow it up again.  By choosing to publish independently, you eliminate most of the poor industry associations that plague most debut novelists.  You are still required to produce work as good or better than anything mainstream published. To do less work in honing your novel is just foolishness.  You will need to involve outside editors, whether paid or unpaid. You will need to keep submitting your work to agents and to online reviewers, but all of the results will reflect upon your involvement. If you were accepted as a mainstream published new author, and your first book did poorly, you would probably not have the automatic deal for your second book anyway. Be realistic.  If you are an Indie Published author, when it’s time to move on, you can move on with little of the baggage that would accompany you to new pitches after a lackluster track record. 

Another important force in mainstream or Indie Publishing are book reviewers.  Reviewers also like the cache and potential financial gain of being in on a great ride, so they are also becoming more selective. Indie authors, unless self-published with traditional distribution will find most mainstream doors are closed to them.  I’ve read repeatedly on the web that the one bright spot in reviews for Indie Authors seem to be the Amazon Top Reviewer List. Not all are actively accepting new book submissions, but the ones that are — and you have to be very selective yourself, pairing your work with the individual reviewer — will read your book, and give you a review that will sit on the page where your book appears.  It doesn’t seem to matter if your book is self-published or not, and online promotion is one area where Indie Authors usually shine, or at least glow brightly! Besides the obvious, these reviewers have followers, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands! It will just cost you the postage and a copy of the book.

So, the daunting task of getting a first novel published can be a conundrum — a puzzle within a puzzle.  Translation: you’re damned if you do, and almost damned if you don’t.  Fortunately for Indie Authors, some of the most opaque, inscrutable parts are missing, along with an out-of-pocket percentage here and there. This leaves you free to find your readers and provide them with entertaining novels, at less risk to your long-term reputation, and less risk to your financial health.

Whew!  Thanks for having the patience to listen to the whole sermon.  Let me know if your experiences differ, how and why, or if you can add anything else to this dicussion.

Pam Satran's Web-Book Synergy

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This article, from Laurie Lico Albanese, originally appeared on Shelf Awareness on 9/22/09.

Humor author Pamela Redmond Satran offers many lessons. For one, she advises those of us who are not-so-hip that the young and vibrant read vampire romances and graphic novels while assiduously avoiding eternal dieting, perpetual negativity, excessive housework or anything in leopard print spandex.

How Not to Act Old (Harper, $14.99, 9780061771309/780061771309), Satran’s self-help humor book inspired by the eponymous blog site known by its acronym HNTAO, was released August 7 and immediately hit the New York. Times Paperback Advice Bestseller List at the No. 7 slot, thanks to pre-pub orders fueled by the author’s tireless electronic networking outreach.

This included early cross-posting on the Huffington Post, marketing through More.com magazine in conjunction with Barnes & Noble.com and scoring a Best New Humor Website plug in the Los Angeles Times last year.

The lesson in this: as she has before for various literary projects, Satran was able to harness the evanescent attention and lightning-fast Internet connections needed to cross from blog to book to YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, print media, TV and beyond. And she did so on the cheap. Her start-up costs were "zero," plus "my own sweat-equity," she said.

After posting 70 entries on her new HNTAO blog site in July 2008, Satran went from web launch to book contract in six weeks, and from contract to book in a year. The book’s been favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and has taken her to the Early Show, Good Day New York and dozens of radio spots. In July, Slate’s doublex.com Hanna Rosin praised "the great genius of How Not to Act Old," and the New York Times Book Review featured Satran at the top of "Inside the List."

Ironically Satran started the HNTAO blog after trying unsuccessfully to place a piece on the same topic in a national magazine.

"This is a hard market for people to understand," Satran said of her largely over-40, predominantly female market. "Ageism is deep-seated and pervasive and really at its heart is very vicious. I sometimes think that young people secretly wish we’d all go off somewhere and just die."
 

Read the rest of the article on Shelf Awareness.

Self-Publishing: Future Prerequisite

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Until recently, if you were self-published virtually any agent or book editor worth her salt didn’t want to hear about it. Many of them would want nothing to do with you at all, as if your self-published status might rub their own cachet off or something. But given the tenor and content of the sessions at this year’s Writers Digest Business of Getting Published Conference, I predict it won’t be long before agents and editors will routinely respond to queries by asking what you’ve self-published, and how it’s doing. That’s right, and you heard it here first:
 

I predict that within 5 years, self-publishing will no longer be an option, but a prerequisite for unknown, aspiring authors hoping to land a mainstream publishing deal. It’s the logical, inevitable next step in author platform.

At the conference, the prevailing message was that authors, both aspiring and already published, need to be getting themselves and their work out there in front of the reading public at every opportunity. And guess what? If you’re blogging or making your writing available for download in ebook or podcast formats you’re already self-publishing. As for those who aren’t doing these things for fear of intellectual property theft, in numerous sessions attendees were reminded of Tim O’Reilly’s now legendary quote: that for anyone trying to build an audience, “Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy.”

Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, both of whom broke through to mainstream success after building an audience for their podcasts, advised conference attendees that the best way to get publishers to sit up and take notice is to demonstrate your ability to build an audience and move your material on your own. Social media guru Chris Brogan said the easiest way to get a book deal is not to need one—because you’ve already established your own platform and have your own audience—, and proposed that rather than follow established roads, aspiring authors should go where there are no roads and create their own. Writers Digest Publisher and Editorial Director Jane Friedman reminded us that here in the 21st century there are no longer any rules in publishing, and reiterated the notion that for aspiring authors, platform comes before the book deal. Be The Media author David Mathison hammered away at the importance of connecting with your readership directly. Booksquare’s Kassia Krozser urged authors to push out into every available channel to enable readers to find them, and as for The Writer Mama Christina Katz, the title of her most recent book is Get Known Before The Book Deal (’nuff said!).

So, how do you intend to enable readers to find you, or build an audience, or connect with readers directly, or get known before the book deal if you’re not publishing or podcasting any of your work? You can’t just tell your site or blog visitors your writing is great, they should trust you on that, and then expect to hold their interest with what amounts to a lengthy series of hang-in-there-I-swear-when-the-book-comes-out-you’ll-love-it messages.

As we all already know, a manuscript’s content is only one piece—an increasingly small piece, unfortunately—of the decision-making puzzle when it comes to convincing a publisher to make an offer. When the editors, marketing wonks and other decision makers get together to consider which manuscripts to acquire, Risk is the name of the elephant in the room and mitigating risk is the key to a sale. When you approach an agent or editor with a quality manuscript, you may convince them you can write but you’re doing nothing to reduce their fears about the eventual book’s performance in the marketplace. If you can approach those same people with a book that’s already in the marketplace and already has a fan base, you’ve already answered the question of how the book will perform post-publication. You’ve reduced their antacid intake by half and given them some very good reasons to invest in you and your book.

Don’t let anyone tell you self-publishing is a desperation move. It’s a power move.

April L. Hamilton is an author, and the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting from her Indie Author Blog.