Ten Marketing Questions Authors Are Asking

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This post, from literary agent Chip MacGregor, originally appeared on his blog on 6/24/09. While Mr. MacGregor isn’t a supporter of self-publishing, his advice here is equally useful to mainstream and self-published authors.

I’ve received a bunch of marketing questions from authors over the past few months. Let me take a stab at a random sample…

Jennifer wrote to ask, "What is the most important thing I need to know about marketing my book?"

To me, the most important thing for you to grasp as an author is that you are responsible for marketing your book. Not the publicist. Not the marketing manager. Not even the publishing house. YOU. Think of it this way: Who has the most at stake with this book, you or the publisher? (You do.) Who is more passionate about it, you or the publisher? (You are.) Who knows the message best, you or the publisher? (You.) I think an author should work with his or her publisher’s marketing department as much as possible. Make yourself available. Say "yes" to everything they ask. Express appreciation every time they do something that helps market your book. But then go do everything as though it all depended on you, because it does. Whatever the publicist does for you is gravy. YOU are responsible for marketing your own book. Don’t leave it to some young college grad who has 17 other projects to market. 

Clatrice asked this: "If I publish my book with a smaller publisher, will they set up radio and TV interviews for me? And can I expect them to set me up with newspaper interviews or book reviews?"

Here’s my suggestion: When you first begin talking with the marketing department at your publisher, tell them how excited you are to work with them, explain that you’ll do everything they ask of you, then ask this question: "Can you tell me what you’ll be doing to market my book? I’ll be working hard at marketing, and I don’t want to duplicate efforts." Just try to get some sort of explanation about what they’ll do — even if it’s minimal. Some will focus on media, others will send out review copies. Once you find out what they plan to do, you can begin to fill in the gaps with your own efforts. And don’t have huge expectations of your publisher — a smaller house may not have the resources to do a lot of marketing. The fact is, they are expecting the author to help them sell about half the copies of the book that will be sold. Half. No kidding.  

[And this is the perfect time to share my favorite marketing story. Years ago, when I was releasing one of my own books, I asked a very brainless marketing manager what she was planning to do on my book. "First, we’re going to give it a great cover and title." I was VERY pleased about that, since I’ve noticed books without titles and covers don’t sell. "Second, we’re going to stick it in our catalog." This is something that only goes to bookstore owners, so that doesn’t make a big difference when it comes to convincing readers to buy my title. "And third, we’re going to give it to our crack sales team." I’m not making this up — those were her three points. My response: "So… you’re not really doing anything?" Which was fine, since I just wanted to know. Again, if you can find out what they’re doing, you’ll better know how to manage your own marketing plan.]

Dave asked, "Since it seems like anyone can get a book published today through self-publishers, how do I make sure my book gets the needed exposure?"

I’m one of those who thinks that most self-published books don’t really count as being "published," Dave. Most people who self-pub lose money because they don’t know how to market and sell their own book. So if you want to really sell some copies, whether you are self-pubbed or published through a regular royalty-paying publisher, you’ve got to understand basic marketing principles. I suggest authors purchase some basic marketing books (such as a textbook from Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, or Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettitt), in order to give them a conceptual framework for what marketing is. Maybe take a class at the local community college, or look for online marketing training. Then you can invest in some of the "how to market your book" titles available at Barnes & Noble. But the most important thing is to put together a planned strategy, so that you aren’t just trying to think up stuff on the fly as your book releases.

The key principle for anybody doing marketing of their own book is simple: Figure out where your potential readers are going, then go get in front of them. If you’re doing a book on lowering cholesterol, research to find out what websites people with high cholesterol are visiting, what blogs they’re reading, what magazines and e-zines they’re checking out, what the most popular sites for information sharing are. That’s the first step. The second is to get yourself involved with those venues. 

On a related note, Greg wrote these words: "You have frequently told authors to find out where the potential readers are, then go get in front of them. How can an author find the target audience for his book?"

Research, man. This will take time, but start checking out key words and topics. Find other books and sites that cover similar material and check them out. Start doing reviews on Amazon and TripAdvisor. Get involved with Digg and Flickr. Create del.icio.us bookmarks. Join Facebook and Twitter. Begin researching your topic and you’ll soon discover interesting sites, as well as being steered toward other places people go. This takes time — there’s no hurry-up formula for getting this information. The key is to have multiple venues for finding new friends, and see it as "participation," not just "promotion." 

Read the rest of the post on Chip MacGregor’s blog.

What's A Book Blog Tour?

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This post, from Yen Cheong, originally appeared on her The Book Publicity Blog on 6/11/09.

An interesting discussion emerged on Colleen Mondor’s blog Chasing Ray a couple days ago about the blog book tour and in particular who schedules them and how they are set up.  I caught the tail end of the discussion on Twitter.

Blog tours aren’t new — this New York Times article from a couple years back explores one author’s blog tour experience – and sites like Blog Book Tours or this post at The Dabbling Mum contain some excellent information about what exactly a blog tour is.  But beyond that, I thought it might be useful to look at how blog tours are set up and how they differ from online publicity in general.

First, the basics: for those of you who attended the book blogger panel at BEA, you will have heard the blog tour explained as an author going from blog to blog (rather than from store to store as they would on a traditional book tour) which is a great, quick way to explain it.   Depending on the author and the blog, coverage may consist of any of the following: book review, Q&A (either posted or live) or book giveaway and then I’m sure some bloggers have gotten creative and come up with other ideas.  Blog tours, like traditional bookstore tours, will feature a designated number of “stops” — often 10 to 20 blogs — and can roll out over the course of a week or a month (or whatever other length of time that has been decided upon).

Here’s some more information about blog tours.

How do blog tours get set up?

Blog tours are typically set up either by the publicist of a book or by blog tour companies / coordinators.  Since it takes time (and expertise) to schedule blog tours, publishing companies sometimes feel it is worthwhile to pay a third party — an online marketing company, a freelance publicist, a blog tour company, etc. — to set these up.  (We’ve been doing this for years with the broadcast industry — we hire companies to set up a series of radio or TV interviews, also known as radio or TV “tours.”)

Although typically book publicists ask authors not to contact the media directly, different rules apply to (some) blogs.  For example, Natasha from Maw Books Blog, mentions that authors sometimes contact her directly to schedule a “stop” on a blog tour.   (Other bloggers may prefer to work directly with publishing houses — many bloggers will have information about how to contact them on their sites.)  Sometimes, a group of bloggers may come together on their own and contact the author (or publishing house) to schedule the tour.

Regardless of who sets up the blog tour, the end result is the same.

What’s the benefit of a blog tour?

As with radio and TV tours, blog tours enable a book and author to generate buzz for a book without having to travel.

How is the blog tour different from online publicity?

A blog tour is simply one type of online publicity.  One difference between a blog tour and online publicity in general is timing.  Blog tours start and end on designated dates, the goal being to generate a certain amount of publicity within a certain amount of time.  A general online publicity push, on the other hand, could start months (or weeks) before the publication of a book and could end months (or weeks) after.

Also, while the goal of online outreach is to generate any coverage of a book — from a mention to a full-fledged review or interview — blog tour “stops” will typically skew on the more robust end of coverage, e.g., a post rather than a one-line mention.

Are bloggers paid to participate in the blog tour?

No — paying anyone to cover any books would be unethical.  (Paying for ads is a perfectly ethical practice, of course, but with PR, coverage — good or bad — should come free).   To clarify — since this can get confusing – with blog tours (or with radio or TV tours), publishing houses aren’t paying bloggers (or radio or TV hosts) to cover a book; we’re paying someone to schedule the tour: finding blogs that would be appropriate for the book, arranging dates for the reviews / interviews, reporting back to us about who is running what when, etc.  It’s like we’re paying a party planner to put together a party and the guest list (but we don’t pay guests to actually attend the party).

Read the rest of the post on The Book Publicity Blog.

Advances And Royalties: The Business End Of Writing

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This post, from mainstream-published author Susan Beth Pfeffer, originally appeared on her blog on 6/23/09.

I was wandering around the Yahoo listings for the dead and the gone, when I found its official Houghton Mifflin Harcourt paperback publication information. Publication is indeed Jan. 18, 2010, but what I didn’t know was that its price is anticipated to be $7.99. That’s a dollar more than the paperback of Life As We Knew It, which means that every paperback d&g sells will earn me 6 cents more than a LAWKI paperback.

I figured I’d be safe sharing this information with you, since you’d be unlikely to hit me up for a 6 cent loan.

It occurred to me after I decided to make the 6 cent announcement that there are people who read this blog who may not know how writers get paid (not enough and certainly not often enough, but that’s a whole other entry). So for those of you who are interested, here are the basics of how it works, using LAWKI as the example.

When I wrote LAWKI, I gave my agent the manuscript to sell. That’s called writing a book on spec (short for speculation). Neither my agent nor I knew if any publisher would be interested in buying it (when I wrote the dead and the gone, and This World We Live In, I got a contract before writing the books). My agent gets 15% of every penny I earn from these books, so it’s in her best interest to sell them.

Harcourt agreed to buy LAWKI, and offered me a $20,000 advance. For that money, they were given the right to publish the book in hardcover and paperback, and to make some additional money by selling some of the subsidiary rights, which they did, selling to both the Junior Library Guild and Scholastic some reprint rights (HMH gets half that money; I get the other half, after my agent gets her 15%).

An advance is called an advance because it’s an advance on future royalties. Once the publisher gives you the advance, they can’t get the money back, no matter how hard they beg. So I got the $20,000 minus 15% (that’s $17,000; I can multiply anything by 15%), gave Internal Revenue its share, and kept the rest to pay rent and gas and electricity and groceries, etc. Since the book was already written, Harcourt pretty much paid me the whole amount at once; with d&g and TW, I got half on signing the contract and the other half after Harcourt decided the manuscript was ready for publication (I’m currently waiting for the second half of the advance for TW).

I get a 10% royalty on the LAWKI hardcover. That means I get 10% of what the list price ($17) of the book is: $1.70 for every book sold, after I earned back the original $20,000. Because of the sale to the Junior Library Guild, I knew that meant as soon as the hardcover sold 10,000 copies, I would start earning royalties. That happened almost immediately, so I’ve been earning royalties on LAWKI since shortly after its publication. I have no idea why they’re called royalties, since most writers earn less than the average medieval peasant.

Royalties get paid twice a year. The publisher keeps track of how many copies of the book are sold, multiplies the total by the percentage the writer gets (10% for hardcovers, 6% for paperbacks), sends the total amount to the agent, who takes her 15% and sends the rest to the writer, who’s been going crazy waiting for the check to arrive. It used to be I never knew how much money (if any) to expect, but nowadays I can ask what the sales numbers are, so I have a far better sense of how big (or small) the check will be. This definitely cuts down on the stress.

Read the rest of the post on Susan Beth Pfeffer’s blog.

Stay Ahead of the Shift: What Publishers Can Do to Flourish In A Community-Centric Web World

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This post, from Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on his Idealog site, and represents a talk he presented at BookExpo America on 5/28/09.

Michael Friedman and I were having lunch and he said to me, “You know Mike, the word is “evolve”.” And that’s the word. So in fact it’s not going to be about how you flourish, it’s going to be about how you evolve. How publishers who create products can evolve into a world that’s going to be about community.

There are a few fundamental premises that really ground this speech that we want to start with, and the first one is Things Will Change, and I don’t think we’re going to have a lot of disagreement about that. So, we can move on to the fact that It Is necessary to have a view of the future to anticipate change. Think, for example, that people in the future are going to look up publishers on the web, and search those publishers for the books they want. Well then you would do things differently to what I’m going to suggest to you, because I don’t really think that’s what the future is. But you have to have a view of the future in order to know what to do in the present.

Another premise that I believe is true is that the market is going to shift in some ways, from now on, between the time you acquire a book and the time you publish it. Every book that is being published now was acquired before anybody had heard of Twitter. And every book that is being published now depends on something that is in Twitter. So that’s going to be normal. And because that’s normal, you’re going to be constantly trying new things. You’re not going to have any choice but to try new things! Because Twitter is a new thing, and things become new, and you don’t have the chance to sit on the sideline and watch how it works and analyze it.

You have to be opportunistic, you have to see what opportunities are out there and you have to try new things all the time, and you have to do that within some sort of framework, within some sort of understanding of the future because we know that there are so many new things going on. We can barely remember them all from the last two weeks, let alone try them all. So if you don’t have some sort of an idea of where you’re going, and where the world is going, it gets very very hard to distinguish between the opportunities.

A Lot Happens in 20 Years

Now, before I describe what I think will be the world of content and publishing in 20 years, I want to make the point that a lot happens in 20 years, because I’m going to describe a world that is pretty different from the one that we’re in, and that would raise a lot of skepticism. Think about this:

In 1968, there were about three broadcast networks that had about 95% market-share. There was nothing else to do with your TV, and there weren’t a lot of things to do other than watch TV. So, half the country or 60% of the country, could watch The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, that kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore. By 1988, half the homes in America had cable, and half the homes in America had VCRs. There were five broadcast networks, not three. And there were 40, 50 , 60, 70 channels on the cable. And the broadcast networks knew that that day they had, 20 years before, was never coming back.

I picked 1980 for the record companies because that was just before a huge boom. As a matter of fact it was before two huge booms, because the Walkman 2 was invented in 1980. So between 1980 and 1983, the record companies got to sell me all the records I bought until that time, as cassettes. And then in 1983 or 84, they invented the CD, and they got to sell me all the records they sold me as cassettes again as CDs. And that made the record companies a lot of money. And things looked great for them. And the future was booming. And we know where the record companies were by 2000. 2000 was before the invention of the iPod, but not before the invention of Napster.

Newspapers. Well 1989 was a peak year for newspaper ad revenue. It went down a bit after that, but you know what saved them? In the mid-1990s, classified advertising saved them. But you know what classified advertising is now? Craigs list. It’s not on the newspapers anymore. You know where newspapers are now. They’re threatened. So in 1989 they had a peak year, and in 2009, they’re facing extinction. That happened in 20 years.

Mass-market paperbacks. Now this is something where you have to be as old as I am to remember when book publishers made a lot of money selling mass market paperback rights, and the fact that that was the jackpot. You published that title in hardcover, and then you could sell the mass market rights for a lot of money. I’ve picked 1975 as a starting year there, because the record sale for mass market paperback didn’t occur until 1979. That was Princess Daisy. Remember Princess Daisy? Pretty forgettable book. 3.1 Million dollar sale from Crown to Bantam. That number has never been topped. By 1999, mass market paper backs were where they are now, which is that they are category books. 95% of mass market paperbacks fall into a fiction category. So in 20 years, it went from a business that meant, that mass market books were bookseller, to a business where it doesn’t anymore.

Online Access in 20 years. Well, in 1989, the World Wide Web was in the process of being invented. But you could go online. To Prodigy. Through a dial-up. And now, 20 years later, you carry the internet in your pocket. So, that’s changed a lot in 20 years!

Books. Well, 1989 was before two great booms, sort of like the music business in 1980. Because in 1989 the owners of Borders, and the owners of Barnes & Noble were headed down to Wall St. to get a lot of money, to open up superstores. And all those superstores stocked a lot of backlist. So in the early 90s, publishers were printing a lot of backlist to put into all those superstores. And then Amazon came along. And that, as a matter of fact, got the backlist for the guys who didn’t have enough sales clout to get into the Barnes & Noble and Borders. Their backlist is sold on Amazon. So everybody was moving up. But you know what? The last 10 years, unit sales on books are flat. And bookstore shelf space is now sinking, where it was really expanding. We have gone from a business that was expanding, to a business that is contracting in 20 years.

Read the rest of the post, view the PowerPoint presentation, and watch videos of the BEA talk, on Idealog.

10,000 Ideas And Resources For Writers

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This post, from Kathryn Vercillo, originally appeared on her Real Words From A Real Writer blog on 3/13/08. While the post was originally aimed at freelance writers, most of the resources on this fantastic list will be useful for any writer.  

Every once in a while I come across an article or blog post listing the "Top 100" of something for writers or bloggers. Every time that happens, I’m a little bit impressed. After all, it is common to see "Top 10" lists but it takes a lot more effort to compile a list that includes 100 things. However, it makes more sense to be thinking in terms of hundreds and not tens when it comes to freelance writing.

With thousands of new blogs launching every single day, there is a lot of material online for people to be reading. There’s certainly far more than ten authority sources on any particular topic. So, in an effort to be ambitious as well as to provide others with information about the best writing tips and sites out there, here is my Top 100 collection of “Top 100″ lists that others have put together. That means that you’ve got 10,000 tips/articles/ideas to read here. There are lists about books, lists about blog tools and lists about everything in between. That should keep you busy during your downtime!

  1. Writers Digest 101 Best Websites For Authors (updated to 2009 edition)
  2. The Top 100 Freelancer Blogs @ Bootstrapper
  3. 101 Ways to Monetize Your Website or Blog @ Vandelay
  4. Top 100 Blogs @ Make Money Online
  5. Top 100 Articles on Writing @ Writing Information
  6. 100 Tools Freelancers Can’t Live Without @ Bootstrapper
  7. 100 Writing Tips @ How to Write for the Web
  8. 100 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Blog @ InternetBabel
  9. Make Money Online: 100+ Tools and Resources @ Mashable
  10. 101 Ways to Create A Powerful Web Presence @ Hello, My Name is Blog
  11. 100s of Resources for Finding Blog Content @ Lorelle on WordPress
  12. 101 Reasons Freelancers Do It Better @ HR World
  13. Top 100 Novels Of All Time @ Time Magazine
  14. 101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog without Irritating your Readers @ Inside CRM
  15. 114 Ways to Build Links @ SubHub
  16. 100 Niche Job Boards for Web Workers @ Bootstrapper
  17. Top 100 Essay Sites for Students
  18. 100 Ways to be Better Entrepreneur @ Entrepreneur.com
  19. Top 100 Social Bookmarking and Social Networking Blogs @ Virtual Hosting
  20. 100 Web Apps for Freelancers @ Codswallop
  21. 131 Legitimate Link Building Strategies @ SearchEngineWatch
  22. Over 100 Best Firefox Extensions @ LifeHack (many of which are great for improving writing productivity)
  23. 120+ RSS Resources @ Mashable
  24. Top 100,000 Search Keywords @ Aleksika (useful in SEO, when adding keywords to your posts) 
  25. 101 Great Posting Ideas To Make Your Blog Sizzle @ I Help You Blog

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Read the rest of the post, with links for resources #26-100, on Real Words From A Real Writer. While we’ve verified the links provided in this excerpt (and updated them as necessary) , due to the age of the post we can’t guarantee that when you click through to view the full article, all the remaining links in the post will still be valid. 

5 Steps for Successful Social Media Damage Control

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This post, from Sharlyn Lauby, originally appeared on Mashable on 7/9/09. While it’s primarily aimed at companies, much of the advice here is just as useful to an individual, or group blog, that’s run into some social media trouble.

I spent many years of my career in the hospitality business and the first rule of thumb when dealing with customers was, “if a guest had a positive experience, they’ll tell 3 people and if they had a negative experience, they’ll tell 10.” That same idea holds true in the new media world, except the numbers have grown exponentially. Instead of it being 3 people – it’s 3,000, or instead of 10 – it’s perhaps 100,000. The numbers aren’t meant to scare you. But what should you do when something goes wrong?

Our goal, of course, hasn’t changed – work to increase the number of positive comments written about your company, product, or service and take care of those who have negative experiences. But, how do you make that happen in the social media world? What steps to you take to keep negative social media damage to a minimum?

Minimize the damage

Before we even talk about how to fix what goes wrong, let’s talk about the positives. One of the best ways to minimize social media damage is to proactively create an environment that encourages positive feedback. There are two main things you should do to keep the accolades coming.

1. Foster a positive culture. There are plenty of studies showing that if your employees are happy, they will deliver good service to customers. Not only does this minimize potential damage, but it leverages your brand in a very positive way. Keeping your employees engaged and letting them know how they fit into the corporate culture goes a long way.

Case in point: I recently returned from a conference in New Orleans where Harvard Professor John Kotter showed us an old video of a Roto Rooter employee who had pimped out his van to make his job easier. It had everything from pull down maps (obviously this dated prior to the Garmin) to a makeshift toilet. The point is, this employee created all of these conveniences for himself so he could spend more time servicing customers. How many of your employees are doing that?

2. Train employees on the proper use of social media tools. Your employees represent your organization, and if they have a solid, credible personal brand, it will carry over to the company’s image.

It’s not enough to allow employees to have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Organizations need to show employees the proper way to use them. For example, Zappos employees are not only encouraged to have Twitter accounts, but they receive training during company orientation on how to use the application. Again, if your employees use social media well, it will benefit both those employees and the organization.

Keep in mind, however, that someday the other shoe might drop. Many companies have fallen prey to negative press, so don’t put your head in the sand. It’s not about “if” something will happen; it’s about “when.” In this transparent, authentic and real-time world, expect a hiccup to occur. But be prepared.

In the end, the issue is less about the mistake that was made, but the reaction that came after. So, here are some tips to follow if you find yourself in a damage control mode.

1. Monitor social media sites 24/7

Daniel Ruby, director of marketing at advertising network Chitika, recently had an issue where McAfee flagged one of their ads, thus making their entire network have issues with aggressive McAfee antivirus alerts. Ruby credits Twitter for alerting them to the issue. “We actually found out from one of our publishers who was telling a reader via Twitter, as well as the comments box on his site, that our ads were…giving McAfee users a red flag,” he said.

From there, Chitika could respond to concerned users (also via Twitter), and keep users up-to-date on the steps they were taking to fix the problem.

 

chitika tweet image

 

 

2. Respond quickly with a consistent message

No matter how proactive you are, customers will start to question your organization when they see problems. And, whenever there is an information void, those customers will tend to fill in the gaps with their own thoughts on what the cause may be. That’s why it is important to respond to issues quickly, even if the message is just, “we’re looking into it.”

Ruby elaborated that he “reached out to the publisher via his comments box, letting him know what happened and what Chitika was doing to resolve it.” He also kept him updated via Twitter (apologizing as profusely as one can in 140 characters).

Communication is key here. Make sure each employee knows the same message all the way down the chain of command. And, when that message changes, don’t forget to communicate those changes. This serves two purposes; (1) it gives the public a sense that you have your arms around the issue; and (2) it gives your employees a sense of unity – working together to solve a common problem.

Read the rest of the post, including steps #3-5, on Mashable.

17 Reasons Manuscripts Are Rejected

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This post, from Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen, originally appeared on her Quips and Tips For Successful Writers blog on 10/24/08. Even if you intend to self-publish, this list of traps to avoid will still have some applicable wisdom for your work-in-progress.

These 17 reasons book manuscripts are rejected are from a panel of editors, literary agents, and publishers at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in British Columbia, Canada. I’ve also pulled out some great writing tips and quips about the book publishing business from this discussion…

But first, a quip from an agent about getting published:

“You don’t have to have an agent to get published,” says literary agent Janet Reid, of Fine Print Literary Management. That may be true, Agent Reid, but representation sure greases the literary wheels! I’m with Special Agent Jon Sternfeld of Irene Goodman, and he’s knocked on doors of houses that I can’t even see…

Julie Scheina (Little, Brown editor) and Haile Ephron (writer and book reviewer at the Boston Globe) joined Reid for a 90 minute session about sending queries, editing manuscripts, and publishing books. For more info on literary agents, click on the Guide to Literary Agents by the editors of Writer’s Digest (and read my 12 Steps to Finding a Literary Agent). And, read on for 17 reasons book manuscripts are rejected… 

 

17 Reasons Book Manuscripts are Rejected

1. “The writer uses the phrase ‘fiction novel’,” says agent Janet Reid. Misusing the English language is why she – and many editors, publishers, and agents – stop reading and reject manuscripts.

2. The manuscript doesn’t seem organic or authentic. “If you’re trying to follow a trend, you’ll lose your voice,” says Scheina. “If I feel like this is something I’ve already read, I’ll put it down.” Read How to Write Authentically From Anne Lamott.

3. The manuscript is too complicated. “If there are too many characters and I have to make a list to keep them straight, then I’ll put the book down,” says Ephron. Your manuscript will be rejected if it doesn’t flow or transition easily.

4. The book is boring. “If your opening paragraph is someone driving and sleeping, I’ll put it down,” says Reid. “Most writers need time to warm up – but I don’t want to read that. Make sure your story starts in the first sentence.” Read Grabbing Your Read by the Throat for tips on writing introductions!

5. The writer offers no reason to care about the character. “Why do I care?” asks Scheina. “Each character has to be unique and special, or I’ll want to close the book.” The first day of school, moving, or packing your boxes aren’t gripping leads. “Prologues are really boring most of the time,” says Scheina.

6. The writer slips into a sliding point of view. “You get one point of view character per scene,” says Ephron. “Every scene should be narrated by one character in that scene.” Don’t shift the point of view. Stay with one specific character’s perspective throughout the scene.

7. The writer includes too many stock characters. Beautiful blonde bombshells, evil billionaires, and hookers with a heart of gold are all stock characters – and agent Reid is tired of them! Limp descriptions are also boring. “I want complex, nuanced characters,” she says.

8. The writer offers didactic messages. “Don’t send me fiction books that give moral messages, because neither kids nor adults will [read] them,” says Scheina. “If you have a message, it shouldn’t be on the first page or in the first chapter.” She also says readers don’t want to be preached to; morals and messages should occur to the reader after they put the book down.

Read the rest of the post, containing reasons #9-17, on Quips and Tips For Successful Writers.

Ebooks and Text-To-Speech Technology: A Legal Perspective

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This article, from Charles A. Gaglia And Thomas R. DeSimone of The Legal Intelligencer, originally appeared on Law.com’s Legal Technology blog on 6/30/09.

Amazon’s recent foray into the electronic book business can be described in no other way than as a resounding success. In a short period of time, Amazon’s Kindle has done for the electronic book what Apple’s iPod did for electronic music: that is, make it easily accessible, downloadable and, most importantly, cool. However, Amazon’s attempts to find new ways to exploit this medium and enhance the reading experience have met with their fair share of controversy.

The Kindle 2 recently hit the market, and it included a new feature that had the publishing industry up in arms and threatening suit. Ths feature is commonly referred to as "text to speech," but according to representatives for the publishing industry and the Authors Guild, it may represent the beginning of the end for the burgeoning audio book market, in addition to constituting a blatant violation of existing copyright law. From a copyright point of view, does text-to-speech technology require a license? And should publishers be legitimately concerned about the demise of the audio book?

What exactly is an e-book? Quite simply, it is nothing more than an electronic version of a traditional paper copy of a book. An e-book is usually in some type of computer readable format (such as DOC, PDF, etc.) and can be read on any type of electronic device capable of displaying that particular file type. E-books have been around for quite some time but have had a limited appeal because of the fact that many people prefer the portability and ease of use of traditional printed media, as opposed to being tethered to a computer screen. Keenly aware of these shortcomings, several manufacturers attempted to develop dedicated hardware devices that would emulate the traditional book-reading experience while at the same time providing many advantages only possible with e-book technology, such as storage of hundreds or thousands of books on a single device and instant access to titles via downloading.

Sony was an early entrant into the field with its LIBRIe device, which never really found an audience. Sony tried again more recently with its PRS-500, which experienced moderate success, but has been largely overshadowed by the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle device. Unlike Sony’s PRS-500 reader, the Kindle does not need to be coupled to a computer in order to download titles. It uses Amazon’s wireless Whispernet (provided by Sprint) in order to download any available title from Amazon’s e-book library, wirelessly, on demand. However, the most controversial feature of the Kindle was introduced to the public when Amazon released the second-generation device, known as the Kindle 2. This device incorporated text-to-speech technology, which, at the press of a button, allows the Kindle to read the e-book.

Much like the e-book, text-to-speech technology is not something entirely new. In fact, the first computer-based text-to-speech system was completed in 1968. Text-to-speech software enables a computer to convert text characters into audible, intelligible words by virtue of the computer’s internal synthesizer. If one wants to get an idea of what typical text to speech carried out by a computer sounds like, it may be instructive to listen to any interview given by world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who communicates with the aid of a computer because of severe paralysis brought on by the ravages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The technology continues to improve, and many who have heard the Kindle 2 in action have remarked on the quality and clarity of the Kindle 2’s electronic "voice." However, text-to-speech technology continues to be hampered by the software’s inability to convey emotion and to handle heteronyms, which are words that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently (e.g., "bow" as the front of a ship versus "bow," which is used to fire arrows). Considering these significant shortcomings, should the publishing industry be legitimately concerned that text to speech may replace audio books created by professional voice actors? The answer to this question is important, as it relates directly to whether text-to-speech technology is a permitted use of computer-stored text under U.S. copyright law.

As a result of protests made by the publishing industry and the Authors Guild that Amazon had not negotiated for the text-to-speech rights, Amazon elected to disable the feature at any publisher’s request, effectively forestalling any threatened litigation for the time being. In a press release announcing the compromise, Amazon steadfastly maintained its original stance that its text-to-speech feature was in fact a permitted use of computer text under their current license. In an opinion piece published in the Feb. 25 issue of The New York Times , Roy Blount Jr., president of the Author’s Guild, stressed the importance and value of protecting audio rights and the continued success of the audio book market. His argument was primarily economic in nature, stressing that authors be adequately compensated for their creative works and any derivative rights that may flow from them. But the letter is noticeably devoid of any legal support for the contention that text-to-speech technology is violative of U.S. copyright law. Blount concludes by noting that while parents need not fear any legal repercussions for reading bedtime stories aloud to their children, performing the same act with the Kindle’s text-to-speech function is another matter. He fails, however, to explain the distinction.

Under the 1976 Copyright Act, copyright protection may extend to any work of authorship. Among the works that are subject to protection are literary, musical, dramatic, choreographic, graphic, audiovisual and architectural works as well as sound recordings. In order to be eligible for copyright protection, the work must be "fixed in a tangible medium of expression." With respect to e-books, the underlying text itself is clearly subject to protection, in that the e-book text is fixed as an electronic file on the Kindle’s internal memory. (This assumes, of course, that the underlying e-book is still subject to copyright protection, and that the work has not passed into the public domain.)

However, the situation is not so simple when one considers that when a Kindle user activates the text-to-speech feature, there is no fixation of anything into a tangible medium. In fact, after the software completes the process of converting text into audible sound waves, and those waves have reverberated throughout the listener’s immediate vicinity, there is nothing tangible that remains. With respect to audio books, there is fixation, in that the sound waves of the author or professional reader’s voice are affixed to a compact disc, or more recently in the form of an electronic MPEG file affixed to the hard drive of a user’s iPod. But nothing similar exists with respect to text to speech.

Read the rest of the article on Law.com’s Legal Technology blog.

Interview With Soft Skull Press Editorial Director Denise Oswald

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Soft Skull Press. The Huffington Post calls it, "The literary version of a punk rock label."  Canada’s Quill & Quire describes it as "One of the most visible and respected alternative houses in the U.S…like Grove Press in the 1950’s and 1960’s." Among its recent releases you’ll find Osama Van Halen and Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys: Sex Workers and Prostitutes writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex. Clearly, Soft Skull Press is not your grandfather’s trade publisher.

In this interview, Editorial Director Denise Oswald talks about Soft Skull’s philosophy and approach to publishing, the advantages of working with a small publisher, how Soft Skull succeeds with books the majors won’t touch with a ten foot pole, and more.  

Soft Skull is known for being a sort of "punk" publisher, in the sense that SS frequently publishes edgy and nontraditional material. Can you elaborate a bit on what Soft Skull looks for in its acquisitions?

I’d say we’re drawn to gritty, dissident voices. Risk takers that are in their own way willing to speak truth to power. The focus could be on just about anything, really—it’s all about the author’s take on it.

What specific advantages do you feel Soft Skull can offer its authors, in comparison to a big, mainstream publisher?

It’s really easy for all but the biggest books to drown on a large, mainstream publisher’s list. For a book to just get subsumed amid the sheer volume of other titles vying for the attention and energy of not just the retailers and media, but of the in-house sales, marketing, and publicity staffs. A small press offers a boutique publishing experience. Odds are everyone in house not just knows about the book but has read it and shares the editor’s enthusiasm for it. And odds are the editor who was so enthusiastic about the project from the get-go is going to have a larger hand in how that book gets marketed and sold. So it’s a very intimate relationship.
 
Does Soft Skull have a set number of titles it can release each year, or do you let the quantity of desirable material dictate your release schedule?

Well, I think every publisher, large and small, has a range specific to them that they’re trying to hit in terms of the number of titles published annually. There’s a minimum number you need in order to achieve pragmatic results, like keeping your lights on, and then there’s a maximum number beyond which I think everyone sees diminishing returns because all the key players are working at capacity. But that doesn’t mean if a small publisher falls in love with a project she might not be able to take it on because she’s already maxed out on the number of books that can be published that year. At worst it means waiting a season to put the book out but it never means passing simply because you don’t have a slot to fit it into. 
 
You took over as Editorial Director for Soft Skull following the departure of Richard Nash earlier this year. Do you have any specific goals, or changes in mind for the imprint?

I’d like to expand on the fiction publishing program. It’s a spectacular list that I’m eager to build on, particularly in terms of voices from abroad–in translation or otherwise. Beyond that I’ve always done a lot of music related projects so I think you can expect to see that part of the list growing, as well.

Soft Skull is known for championing the very books mainstream publishers avoid: books that are controversial, difficult to classify, difficult to boil down to a sound bite, and frequently for, from, or about underrepresented or fringe populations. Why do you think Soft Skull is able to succeed with these types of books when the majors cannot?

To invoke an oft-abused term, it’s all about authenticity. When you embrace those kinds of books with purpose and show that you’re discerning about what you take on and that you can publish those that you do take on well, people trust your opinion and pay attention when they otherwise might dismiss a project out of hand.  When it comes to mainstream publishers, they probably have few people on board who’d understand the relevance of some of the books Soft Skull is known for, let alone be willing to devote the time and effort to making them work. This isn’t to say that something controversial or difficult couldn’t make it through at a big house due to the passion of the editor, but it can also die on the vine if the other departments don’t get it or what the readership is for it. 

To what extent, if any, does Soft Skull plan to utilize ebook and Print on Demand technologies?

Well, both are valuable tools that can be used in either standardized or more discriminating ways. Most publishers I know of, including us, utilize POD technology to help keep their backlist going when limited demand might have otherwise forced good books out of print. This is one embodiment of the The Long Tail theory. But I think the most interesting use of POD is what’s going on at ELECTRIC LITERATURE. The editors there have created a new literary journal that plays to both internet and traditional paper readerships and in order to make it feasible the terrestrial edition is purely available as POD. I think it’s a very smart way for a literary endeavor to navigate the digital transition.

As for e-books, at this point they’ve become an established format that stands alongside traditional hardcover and paperback—and one that will likely come out the victor in years to come—but for now it’s a fellow traveler that can be  be utilized in more proactive ways. For instance it allows for the rapid publication of timely material.  So if you’re doing a book that’s tied to current events, instead of releasing an e-book simultaneously with the hardcover or paperback original, perhaps you get that e-book out first. Or perhaps you’re doing a book on the environment or technology and you need the medium to live up to the message. Then maybe going e-book first or e-book only is the way to go. It all depends on the particular context of the project at hand.

Author platform is becoming an increasingly important consideration for mainstream publishers when it comes to considering a debut book for acquisition; how important is author platform to Soft Skull press in its acquisitions of debut books? 

Platform gets such a bad rap, but everyone potentially has one so it’s a question of figuring out what yours is and how to utilize it or further develop it. It’s another way of cutting through the sheer volume of voices out there and making yourself stand out. It’s a kind of road map to your reader and in an era of seemingly endless choices for our personal amusement and enlightenment, that’s crucial. Think of it like building your resume. You need to gain experience and exposure to get better and better job opportunities. If you’re a would-be novelist that can mean working on short fiction and trying to get placement in journals and magazines. It’s very rare that you can publish a debut book by someone who hasn’t made their way to some extent through the newspaper/magazine/journal circuit. If I can use a sports metaphor, getting a book published is like marathoning. A wise coach once told me: the marathon isn’t the hard part, it’s sticking with the months of training that’s the hard part. The marathon is your reward.

In a recent Idealog column Mike Shatzkin said self-publishing is now an acknowledged strategy for authors looking to break in to publishing, but some industry people still strongly advise authors against self-publishing. What is your opinion of the burgeoning "indie author" movement? Can self-publishing be a smart move for authors whose books don’t fit the conventional, easily-classifiable mold?

I think if you look at the number of break-out books amid self published titles you’ll see the percentage is very small. I’m clearly biased, but my feeling is that it always benefits a writer to see if they can place their work with a good house and a good editor who gets it before going the self-publishing route. There’s a lot more to publishing that simply creating the book itself. And sometimes the fact that a book has existed in a prior edition can hinder its chances of getting exposure on a grander scale.

April L. Hamilton is the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat, and the founder of the Publetariat Vault, a new crowdsourcing tool for use in literary acquisitions.

Stacey Cochrane of OnLine Book review.org Interview's Edward C. Patterson

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I gave OnLineBookReview.com’s Stacey Cochrane an author interview today. Come visit and comment. I discuss The Jade Owl Legacy series, Indie Publishing, the Kindle and the future of book distribution as I see it.

http://tinyurl.com/l8b9qm

Edward C. Patterson

Authorfail: When Authors Attack

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This post, from Victoria Strauss, originally appeared on the Writer Beware! Blogs on 7/7/09. In it, she shares some past and recent examples of authors behaving badly as the result of receiving a bad review, and gives authors many reasons to think twice before Tweeting, blogging or posting in anger.

Last week, the Twitter- and blogosphere were abuzz with two tales of authorial bad behavior: much-published author Alice Hoffman’s Twitter meltdown over a poor review (Hoffman tweeted several angry messages about the review, including one that provided the reviewer’s phone number and email address and encouraged fans to "Tell her what u think of snarky critics;" Hoffman’s publisher subsequently yanked her Twitter account, and Hoffman issued an apology);

…and philosopher and author Alain de Botton’s blog explosion (de Botton posted an angry comment on the reviewer’s blog, concluding "I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make"; he, too, subsequently apologized, excusing himself by saying "It was a private communication to his website, to him as a blogger…It’s appalling that it seems that I’m telling the world." Well, duh).

Although you can blame these errors in judgment on the social media phenomenon, which encourages us all to tweet (or comment, or post, or email) before we think, they are hardly isolated incidents. Authors wigging out over criticism is nothing new.

This past April, a Russian court ordered a journalist to pay compensation to a writer who objected to the journalist’s review of his novel. Compensation amounted to US $1,000; the writer had originally demanded much more. Per the news report of this incident: "Observers have commented that this judgment creates a very dangerous precedent, opening the way for lawsuits based on subjective opinion. Some have even suggested that if a book reviewer can be sued, a reader who did not like a book can sue the author for making a bad quality product." Holy frivolous lawsuits, Batman!

A recent article on the Hoffman debacle from Salon.com provides several more examples of authors behaving badly over criticism. Authors Caleb Carr, Jonah Goldberg, Stanley Crouch, and Richard Ford have (respectively) written invective-laden letters to, blogged obsessively about, slapped the face of, and spit upon/shot holes in the books of reviewers to whose analysis they objected (one of those reviewers, ironically enough, was Hoffman herself).

In 2007, Stuart Pivar sued blogger PZ Meyers for libel for Meyers’s negative review of Pivar’s book Lifecode, which proposed "an alternative theory of evolution." Most observers dubbed the charges "frivolous" and "empty." Pivar eventually dropped the suit.
 

Read the rest of the post on the Writer Beware! Blogs.

The Book-Club Hustlers

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This article, from Francesca Mari, originally appeared on The Daily Beast on 7/6/09.

Enterprising fiction writers are marketing themselves to book groups in person, by phone, and over Skype to boost sales. Meet the new breed of literary types on the make.

There is a thing authors do, nervously, when they think no one is looking. They check out their numbers—online sales figures, ratings, rankings, reader reviews. Not long ago, Joshua Henkin, a professor of creative writing at Sarah Lawrence and Brooklyn College, was doing just such a thing in his home office. He was scrolling through Goodreads.com, monitoring the reception of his new novel, Matrimony. A user named Shelley had given him a mixed review—three stars out of five. Henkin clicked on her name and decided to email her, offering to attend her book club, if she had one. She did—that very evening—and, after several exchanges, Henkin was set to call into it.

Joshua Henkin has topped 175 visits to book groups. “With 10 people in each group,” he said, “that’s 1,750 books sold right there.”

Henkin had already participated in over 80 groups, most of them personal visits to between 10 and 12 middle-aged women. By now, he’s topped 175. “With 10 people in each group, that’s 1,750 books sold right there.” When his first novel came out in 1997, Henkin said the book got good reviews but fell by the wayside in sales, in part because his editor was dying. “I’d heard enough horror stories in publishing that even if a book got great reviews it wasn’t going to sell well, and I got the sense that so many people were in book groups,” he says. So when Matrimony first came out, he emailed friends to put him in touch. Now groups find him. And he’s willing to drive up to two hours, one way, to any group that asks. “Most sales are going to come shortly after publication. When you see sales stay steady,” Henkin says, “something is going on in terms of word of mouth. And that tends to be book clubs.”

Henkin’s efforts are an enterprising response to the publishing industry’s chronic woes. Money is scarce for publicity, and the way it’s often hoarded to buy full-page ads for the books that make bank (think: James Patterson, Stephen King) means that authors must be on-call at all times. To make a living off of fiction, most writers must be as attuned to marketing as they are to writing. Mickey Pearlman, an author, editor, and professional book-club facilitator, says, “The only thing that’s going to save publishing is book clubs.” Pearlman offers four-hour book-marketing seminars (for $500), focusing on “how to creatively market your book on the Web and in other outlets”—one of those outlets being, of course, book groups. “You’re building an interest in you,” Pearlman says, “so they’ll be very likely to buy your next book.”

The focus on book clubs has spurred the evolution of a new breed: the author-hustler, the writer who succeeds in large part because of door-to-door salesmanship. After the writing comes a new challenge, one of industriousness, perseverance, and charm. Since 2000, Adriana Trigiani has averaged two to three book clubs a week by phone, and this past April, she led “The World’s Biggest Book Club,” a 300-person event run out of New York’s Convent of the Sacred Heart High School (the very set of Paris Hilton and Lady Gaga’s [mis]education).

Chris Bohjalian, whose book Midwives was an Oprah selection in October 1998, began phoning into groups after he was forced to cancel his book tour in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Requests keep increasing, and this year he anticipates talking to 120 groups. As soon as The Divorce Party came out, Laura Dave was reaching out to book clubs at the suggestion of her editor and publicist, both of whom recognized her book’s potential appeal to the middle-aged woman. “Every time I speak to a book group,” Dave says, “almost without exception that book club refers me to another book club that emails.” Dave has done over 100 discussions in person, by phone, and on Skype. She says that Gwyn, the middle-aged narrator of her second novel, is a composite of some of the women she’s met in groups.
 

Read the rest of the article on The Daily Beast.

The Theft Of Time

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This post, from Dennis Palumbo, originally appeared on The Writer’s Store site.

A particularly arrogant film producer once said to me, “I could be a writer, too, if I only had the time.”
 

Which implied, I guess, that if he didn’t have to attend meetings, deal with studios, manage production budgets—–in other words, if he didn’t have a real job—he too could just sit around, effortlessly knocking out compelling narratives and crafting pithy dialogue.

Yet for most writers, time is exactly that thing they can’t seem to get enough of. Certainly not without carving it out for themselves, strenuously hewing a private space for their writing from a dense forest of financial and familial duties. Most writers understand that they must somehow demand the time to write; that, in many ways, writing is a “job” like any other, requiring diligence, constancy and commitment. But getting others to understand this is not always so easy.

Robert Frost said that the one thing all nations on earth share is a fear that a member of the family will want to be a writer. There are a lot of reasons for this, from parental concern about a child’s ability to earn a living, to legitimate desires to spare the would-be writer the heartbreak of rejection and disappointment, to irrational fears about the aberrant life-style that writers are stereotypically known to indulge. Next to announcing that you want to be an actor, proclaiming your ambition to write is guaranteed to strike terror in the hearts of parents, siblings, and spouses. Especially spouses with whom you’ve had children.

The pressure to provide for a family is acute for most people, but even more so for writers, often struggling with both the difficulties of their craft and the insecurity and fickleness of the marketplace. Finding time to write is hard enough when you have a writing job—on staff at a TV series, say, or developing a screenplay for a studio. At least then you can justify the time spent away from the family, lost in your thoughts, scribbling notes on coffee shop menus, banging away at the keyboard at all hours.

But if you have a non-writing job, some 9-to-5 gig to pay the bills, any time you might need for writing, for pursuing a writing career, seems a selfish luxury. It’s time seemingly owed to personal obligations, to the tasks of running a home and raising a family. In such cases, “demanding” time for your writing carries with it the possibility of frequent relationship strife, as well as a significant burden of guilt.

In my private practice, many of my writer clients deal with this guilt constantly. They feel an obligation both to the demands of their creative ambitions and to those of their families. Even when their spouse or partner goes along with their need for time and solitude, many of them still feel guilty. Often it increases the pressure to achieve quick financial success. It affects their decisions about what kinds of things they should write. It makes them feel that every second spent writing must “count.”

More than one writer has said to me, “What if my script doesn’t sell? I’ve spent all this time doing it, obsessing over it. I’ve been distracted and impatient with my kids. Totally unavailable to my wife. What if it all turns out to be for nothing?”

Sometimes the fissures in the relationship at home become wide enough to cause panic. “I’ve made a deal with my husband,” another writer once told me. “If this spec doesn’t sell, I’ll give it up. I mean, how long can I keep doing this, banging my head against the wall? I’m not getting any younger. And I don’t want to lose my marriage.”

Even successful writers, those who make a living at their craft, find it difficult to continually justify to loved ones their need for private time. “Unless my kids hear the keyboard clicking,” one noted screenwriter confided in me, “they feel okay interrupting me. You ever try to explain to a four-year-old that you’re working, when all you’re doing is staring at the ceiling? Hell, sometimes I have a hard time convincing myself.”
 

Read the rest of the post on The Writer’s Store site.

Change: Are You Initiating Or Avoiding?

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This post, from Kassia Krozser, originally appeared on her Booksquare site on 6/6/09.

How can authors leverage change to their best advantage?

I have come to accept that our species is not fond of change. Some of us know it is inevitable and take the pain now rather than later, some simply refuse to change (I have seen this and it is awesome in its execution. Also, ultimately futile.), and some pretend to embrace change while carefully manipulating “change” to look like “same as it ever was”. It is that final group, I believe, who face the biggest letdown.

It is surely the rare soul in the publishing ecosystem who believes the business tomorrow will resemble the business of today. Change, being change, is messy stuff, best managed through experimentation. You can design the best process in the world, but until real people get their hands in the system, you don’t really know what will work and how. Change is iterative.

Mike Shatzkin’s article on evolving role of agents, coupled with his piece on the publishing portfolio reshuffle, focuses on key aspects of this change: the economics. You cannot unsettle an entire industry without considering and preparing for the financial impact on all the players.

There is no doubt that the physical retail environment is shrinking. The news about stores closing for good unsettles people in the industry. And outside. Many factors are behind this loss, from changing consumer behavior to high rents in bad economic times to “redevelopment”. The choice throughout the industry is clear: hope for a business-as-usual miracle or make the necessary changes to thrive in a new (sometimes uncertain) environment.

The booksellers who remain standing — and there will be many! — will react to these losses by changing their retail mix to accommodate new customers while incorporating new sales channels, such as digital. In the physical sense, there is only so much shelf space, and booksellers will, necessarily, be more particular and more aggressive about fresh product. The sheer volume of annual releases, with new titles coming out weekly, leaves the bookseller little room for chancy purchases and backroom stock.

Inventory management will be elevated to an art form as booksellers try to balance the slower reactions of customers who rely upon word-of-mouth with those who chase the latest and greatest. Factor in the enduring popularity of catalog titles, and it’s not hard to see that booksellers will be leaner and meaner (oh, and leaner and meaner indicates that booksellers will be purchasing fewer units because, well, managing returns for credit or cash is not a cheap endeavor).

Read the rest of the post on Booksquare.

11 Types Of Bad Writing Advice

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This post, from Dr. Susan K. Perry, PhD, originally appeared on the Psychology Today site on 6/27/09.

All advice is suspect. I’m not suggesting you break all the so-called rules of creativity you’ve collected. Only that every tip can be counteracted with its opposite. And some advice is just plain bad for you. If interviewing 76 successful novelists and poets taught me one thing, it’s this: advice that one person swears by, another will find ludicrous. Here, then, are 11 types of advice to avoid:

1. Advice that limits your potential. An online student of mine once asked if what a famous novelist had written was correct, that if you’d left a novel unfinished for a few years, it was a lost cause. I reassured her that if her passion for the project was still there, or could be resurrected, she could pick it up again. One writer went back to a novel he’d put aside more than a decade before and was able to salvage parts of it. He’s now happily engaged with a new version of the project.

2. Advice that cramps your imagination. Some people would have you write only from your own point of view or about a group to which you belong. That’s too rigid. Credible stories and poems have been written from the point of view of the opposite gender or from some other time or culture that you couldn’t possibly know personally. Writing is about pretending.

3. Advice that insists there’s one way to schedule your creativity. Must you write every single day? If you don’t devote yourself to writing full-time, does that mean you’re not taking yourself seriously? Avoid any advice that starts "You MUST," or that feels like a punishment. Productive artists work out all sorts of schedules that fit in with the rest of their lives.

4. Advice that makes you feel bad about yourself. A young poet told me she’d felt devastated by the admonition a teacher once gave her to put her poems in a drawer for ten years before actually sending them out. She took the advice literally and was thoroughly stymied. In fact, that kind of advice plays into a paralyzing perfectionism. Usually a few days or weeks is enough to see your words through fresh eyes.

5. Advice that tells you more about the advisor than about your own work. A talented poet friend of mine showed some of her work, much of which tends to be about the darker side of dysfunctional family life, to a co-worker. The listener’s response was this: "Don’t you ever write anything about nature?" The water cooler critic in this case apparently thinks poems are only about pretty things.
 

Read the rest of the post, containing items #6-11, on Psychology Today.