Category: LDS Publisher

Posts on navigating the LDS publishing world.

Storymakers: Kirk Shaw, Covenant Editor

Notes from the 2008 LDStorymakers Conference

Workshop: Ten Ways to Get Your Story Noticed
Presenter: Kirk Shaw, Workshop on Friday
Submitted by: Karlene Browning

(I have 10 things on my list but they don’t match up well with the 10 things in the syllabus, so if someone else wants to add to this list, please feel free to go right ahead and do it.)

First, he said that if we attended the conference, we could use his name and submit directly to him, skipping the slush pile entirely. He said he’s looking for: gift books, 32 page children’s picture books, suspense, action, romance, historical epics, YA and childrens (chapter books). He stressed that they needed to be a good read and DYNAMIC.

1. Cover letter—Do research to make sure they publish your type of book. First paragraph should include word count, genre and subgenre (ex: not just “mystery” but “who-done-it cop story”). You can also say it’s similar to a particular author. Don’t use modifiers. Be objective: “this is what my book is.” List credentials if you’ve been published before. (Credentials = it’s printed; you’ve been paid for it.)

2. Openers for your book—Do NOT start with eating, sleeping, dreaming, flashbacks, anything sedentary or far away from your story. DO start with interest and action.

3. Formatting your manuscript—Follow publishers guidelines. Use MS Word; do not use WordPerfect.

4. Proofread—Make sure your manuscript is your best work. Have it proofed.

5. Dialogue—Don’t use heavy tags (ex: “Don’t go into the woods,” she whispered breathlessly.) Avoid dialogue tags when you can. Give each character their own voice, so they could be recognized without the dialog tag.

6. Be fresh—Give us a twist on the setting, plot, etc.

7. Characters—Avoid polar characters who are all good or all bad. Give them unique voices. Give them unique names; don’t have them all start with the same letter.

8. Conflict—You need meaningful conflict that moves you toward your end goal.

9. Writing Style—Watch for your pet words and phrases. (Ex: actually, suddenly, however.) Use sensory experiences. Show, don’t tell. Be consistent in your narrative style.

10. Climax—Your entire story should aim toward the climax and move you that direction in some way.

Storymakers: Tim Travaglini, Putnam Editor

Notes from the 2008 LDStorymakers Conference

Workshop: Getting Out of the Slush Pile
Presenter: Tim Travaglini, Keynote Speaker on Friday
Submitted by: Karlene Browning

There are 10,000 new children’s books published each year in the U.S. Here are a few tips for getting out of the slush pile and becoming one of those 10,000.

  • Talent, Training, Perseverance—You need to be strong in two of the three to be successful; and always be working on improving the third area.

  • Collect and be proud of rejections. They are an indication of your perseverance; that you’re not giving up. (Kate Dicamillo, author of Because of Winn Dixie got 400 rejections.)

  • Luck—the harder you work, the luckier you get.

  • #1 thing to be a topnotch writer is to read in your genre—lots!

  • Join a writers group. Find one that you like with good support and honest feedback

  • Take classes and read books on writing.

  • Dont be afraid to revise. “Your words are not gold.” (Richard Peck goes through his finished manuscript and deletes his favorite sentence because he knows if he can cut that, he can do what needs to be done for the good of the story.)

  • Know who you’re submitting to; who you should be submitting to. Consider submitting to a junior editor. They are hungry and eager.

  • Attend writers conferences where editors and agents are presenting. Any agent or editor who attends that conference is “fair game” for submission. Include mention of the writers conference in your query/cover letter.

Storymakers: Creating Your Inner Writing Team

Notes from the 2008 LDStorymakers Conference

Workshop: Creating Your Inner Writing Team
Presenter: Carroll Morris
Submitted by: Lee Ann Setzer

I attended Carroll Morris’s session, “Creating Your Inner Writing Team.” Carroll, who co-authors the “Company of Good Women” series with Lael Littke and Nancy Anderson, reviewed the special strengths of the right and left brains, reminding us that no one is all right- or left-brained—it’s not like the non-dominant side is “filled with packing peanuts!”

We’ve heard plenty about brain dominance in the last twenty years, but a couple of points impressed me. One was that the left brain—she called it the Project Manager and the Inner Editor—is naturally active, aggressive, and demanding, while the right brain—the Creative Dude—is naturally passive and accepting. So the Inner Editor demands to be heard, while the Creative Dude, when ignored or put off, shrugs and wanders away.

She also emphasized that all the voices in our heads are there to protect and help us. The Inner Editor tries to keep us from making mistakes that might hurt us, while the Creative Dude is constantly “googling the environment,” noticing pieces of important information, forming impressions, and coming up with ideas. She briefly addressed those other voices as well, mostly left-brain residents, like the frightened child who’s afraid of rejection and the spoiled brat who wants to goof off.

Carroll helped us relax and guided us to visualize our “inner writing team,” starting with our inner writing area. We invited each member of the team into the room, one at a time. We had a firm chat with the Inner Editor, expressing gratitude for all its help but asking (it? him? her?) to please take a break when Creative Dude needs to share ideas. Then we invited Creative Dude to share anytime, and we promised to listen. The project manager, the frightened child, and the spoiled brat all got some attention. Each inner voice promised to help—after all, they only want what’s best for us!

Maybe I’m a little remedial here, but it hadn’t occurred to me the those voices in my head were on my side. Focusing on them one at a time and acknowledging their contributions gave me energy and some new optimism. The last couple of days, I’ve been more successful at turning off the Inner Editor (or rather, sending her on a well-deserved vacation) and inviting Creative Chick’s ideas. Thanks, Carroll!

Lee Ann Setzer
www.leeannsetzer.com

How Long is Too Long?

This question was taken from a recent comment on a post from last year. (Thanks for reading through the archives.)

I’ve been working on a book for 2 years now, and am thinking I’m getting close to submitting a first draft to a publisher. After reading this, and all the comments, I’m now thinking I need another four years before I’ll be to that point…

What can I do to keep my motivation?


Part 1—How long do you need to work on your novel before submitting? The answer, of course, is: as long as it takes to get the story right.

Having said that, however, I have a few more comments. First, if it takes you six years to write a novel, and you’ve only been working on the one story during that time, as a publisher, I’m going to think twice about accepting your book. Reason being, if I publish your book and readers like you, they’re going to want more ASAP. If it takes another six years to get book two out, readers will forget about you and we’ll have to start all over again to establish a fan base. If you want a career as a novelist, you should plan to produce a book every year or two.

Now, first books usually take longer to write because you’re learning your craft. We understand that. And if you’re going to be a “one hit wonder,” you may still be published if that one hit is good enough. Just keep in mind that part of my decision making process in accepting a book is if I think I’m going to be able to create a “reproducible commodity” of sorts. (Okay, I know that phrase is going to get me lots of hateful comments. Fine. Go ahead. Give me your best shot.)

If you’ve been working on a book for two years, get yourself into a good critique group right away and get that thing polished up and submitted this year!

Part 2—What can I do to keep my motivation?

Readers—jump in and help our new author out. What do you do to keep yourself motivated when you’re either dragging in your work-in-progress or you’re waiting to hear back on submissions?

LDS Agents

Say there was someone silly enough to work for chicken feed, and they decided to become an agent for LDS authors in the LDS market. What are the odds that the publishers would work with them?


Standard agenting fees are 15% of royalties (paid by the author), so unless you were really, really good at picking winners, it really would be chicken feed.

Would the publishers work with you? I don’t know. It depends on whether they see you as an unpaid asset that will help them find the better manuscripts, or as a pain in the side who is going to insist on contract changes they don’t want to allow.

I would be open to agents. I know some other smaller publishers who would. But I’ve also heard through industry gossip (so who knows if it’s true or not) that some publishers flat out refuse to work with anyone who uses an agent, unless they’re an author already established in the national market.

But assuming publishers are open to working with agents, there are two key stumbling blocks you have to overcome:

1. Convincing the publisher that your submissions are better than what’s coming in the slush and that working with you is easier than working directly with the author.

2. Convincing the author that you have a better chance at getting them accepted than they have on their own, and that you can get them a better deal than they can get on their own.

Good luck.

How I’m Getting Filthy Rich Off Gullible Authors

What is the average printing cost of a copy of a typical $15.95 LDS fiction book?

I always hesitate to answer questions like this because:

  1. I’m not privy to the numbers for any publishing company other than the one I work for,

  2. Some of my colleagues are gonna’ be ticked that I’m giving out this info; and

  3. I imagine this question is being asked by an author who thinks they’re getting ripped off based on the measly royalty they’re getting and the limited marketing/promotional budget their book has been given. And that many of my readers feel/think just like him/her and are going to yell at me in the comments section and via e-mail and threaten to smack me in the face because I’ve reduced their heart and soul to “product” status.

But I personally believe that there is some merit in full disclosure, so I’m going to reveal all the dirty secrets of the LDS publishing industry and once and for all admit that we’re getting filthy rich off the backs of you poor, gullible and naive authors. (I hope everyone caught the thick sarcasm there.)

So the answer is:

It depends on the number of books you print at a time, the number of pages in the book, the type of cover (matte, glossy, embossed, etc.), whether you print here in the U.S. or overseas, the relationship you have with your printer (for example, if you’ll be printing 10+ titles with them in one year vs printing 1 title with them), whether you use a standard press or a print on demand, shipping costs, etc.

Here’s a scenario with a title from our company. For us, this is fairly typical of a new author’s first fiction book.

Price: $13.95; 2500 copies, 6×9 trade paperback, 224 pages, 4-color flat gloss cover, printed within 100 miles of the warehouse, on a standard press = $1.40 per book.

Now BEFORE YOU GO ALL CRAZY because you just did the math and it’s completely unfair that the author is only getting $1.12 per book (8% royalty) while we’re raking in a big fat $11.43 per book in profit, you have to figure in a few more things. The true cost of the book is not just the printing, you know.

Print run: $3500
Editing: $500
Typesetting: $900
Cover Design: $500
Pre-release promo: $650
Initial Marketing/Promo: $2000
Total $8050
Per book cost: $3.22

Now, here’s how you use those numbers:
$13.95 (Retail) — $3.22 (initial cost) — $5.86 (avg 42% Wholesale Price) — $1.12 (Royalty) = $3.75 gross profit per book.

Out of that $3.75 per book, we still have to cover all our internal expenses and overhead such as rent, phones, staff, etc., etc. This particular book did not sell through its initial printing so we lost money. (We generally do not make money unless we go into a second printing within the first year of release.)

Now, these numbers are going to vary between publishers. The big two (which are now one) have the benefit of company name recognition (both with bookstores and individual readers) AND guaranteed access to the LDS market through their websites and shelf space in their retail stores. They also have the benefit of what we call “economy of scale” which is the more you do, the cheaper you can do it.

Smaller publishers have a much harder time just getting their product to market. They have to take the financial risk with no guarantee that they’ll be able to get their books on the DB/Seagull shelves or even on the DB website. And let’s face it, if your book is not there, 90+% of the LDS buying public will not even know that it exists.

The costs to the really small publisher is even higher. There are a few that I know of that use a print on demand service and their printing costs could be as high as $6.00 per title—which means if they do any marketing at all they’re going in the hole.

You may be thinking now, how do any of the smaller publishers stay in business? The answer is, a lot of them don’t. That’s why you see a lot of come and go LDS publishers. The ones that do stick around are ones who are able to get their books on the DB/Seagull shelves and who have titles that sell upwards of 6000 copies in the first year—or their fiction is a labor of love subsidized by their non-fiction titles.

What’s Lacking in the LDS Market

What kind of a book would you like to see someone write? What’s lacking in the LDS market?

What I’d like to see and what will sell well are sometimes two different things.

Personally, I’d like to see more realistic YA that deals with some of the tough things in life from an LDS perspective, offering the youth positive models for dealing with challenges. NOT the pat-Primary answers for things, but reality.

I’d like to see the same thing in adult fiction, like what Josi Kilpack did in Sheep’s_Clothing. Tough topic, handled well.

Overall, I’d like to see more of everything—fiction for children, teens, adults, in every genre, but well written and high quality.

Blog Book Tours

Do you think a blog book tour is a good idea?

Absolutely!

On a virtual/blog book tour, an author “visits” a different blog/website each day for several weeks. It’s best to have it coincide with the release of your book, but any time in the first three months would be okay. Here’s how you do it:

  • Tell your publisher that you want to do this. They may have some good ideas or be willing to provide comp copies of the book or offer prizes for contests.

  • Research various blogs that you feel would be a good match for your book. Look for blogs that talk about books in your genre and that get a fair amount of traffic. Determining traffic is sometimes difficult but a good indication of a blog’s popularity is the number of comments on their posts. The more comments, the more traffic. (But take a peek at the comments to make sure they’re made by individuals, and not a conversation between the blogger and one reader.)

  • Contact the bloggers 6 weeks ahead of the tour to see if they’re willing to participate. Get a tentative commitment from them but give them an out if they don’t like your book.

  • Send the bloggers a copy of your book. (You publisher may or may not be willing to supply the books. If they won’t, then you must. It’s hard to do a good virtual visit if the blogger hasn’t read your book.)

  • Contact the bloggers two to three weeks later to see how they liked your book and to set a date for visiting their blog. Make it clear that this is a serious promotional tour and you will be doing cross-promotion on your blog, so they will need to commit to posting your visit on their assigned date. (If they didn’t like your book, this would be the time to exclude them from your tour.)

  • Discuss possibilities with the blogger and decide what you will “do” during your visit to their site. Ideas: book review by blogger, blogger interviews you or one of your characters, you write a guest post for their blog, contests with prizes (your book) for their readers, online chat or live web-conferencing, real-time discussion board, recorded telephone or video interview, or anything else you and the blogger can come up with that will provide interesting content for them and positive exposure for you. (Some of these can/must be done ahead of time. Schedule them with enough lead time that they will be finished and ready by post date.)

  • Schedule the dates of the different events to provide a variety of activities for groupies readers who follow you from site to site. For example, if three bloggers want to do interviews, spread them several days apart. Also, try to arrange for some variety in the questions they ask you.

  • List the dates and places of your visits with links on your blog and/or website (example here). If a blog, put them in the sidebar, in a static post at the top of your posts, or on a tab or link where it’s easy to find and won’t get lost among all your other posts. Start announcing your tour dates and stops 2 to 4 weeks ahead of the tour.

  • Encourage the blogger to advertise your visit (with links to your blog/website) in their sidebar two weeks ahead time.

  • Post on your blog about each visit the day before you go, talk positively about the blogger you’ll be visiting, and describe what you’ll be doing with excitement and energy. Provide links to the blog.

  • The day of the visit, go to the blog and provide the interaction you have agreed upon with the blogger. Put your best self forward—be positive, friendly, supportive, kind, and all that other stuff. If it’s not a real-time activity, leave a comment on the post thanking the blogger.

  • Post positively about the visit the day after. (Even if it was a horrible experience, put a positive spin on it.) Thank the blogger in your post and provide another link to them.

  • Send a personal thank you to each blogger after you visit them.

  • When the tour is over, assess the results. You may not immediately see a jump in book sales, but you should see an increase in your blog/website hits. Make a note of the bloggers who were the easiest to work with and who provided the most hits back to your blog. You’ll want to work with them again in the future.

Readers—If you’ve done a virtual book tour, let us know how it went. What did you do that worked really well? What didn’t work so well? What would you do differently? Feel free to post links in your comments.

P.S. While I was googling “virtual book tours”, I found the Book Tour site. If you’re doing a real-life tour, you can list your events here. When someone visits the site, it lists the events in their area. Cool.

How Much Should an Author Spend to Promote Their Book?

Do you think it’s a good idea for an author to send copies of his/her book out to reviewers (in addition to those that the publisher may contact) to help create a buzz about the book? How much should an author spend to promote his/her book?


An author should definitely be willing to invest in the promotion of his/her book. Whether that investment is put into review copies, a launch party, postcards or whatever depends on what the publisher is doing. Coordinate your efforts—know what they are doing and let them know what you are doing—so that you work together, not against each other.

If writing is a career for you, or you want it to be, you need to look at this as a business investment. If you were opening a burger shop, you’d expect to invest in that. Your books are your burgers. Expect to invest in them.

How much you invest depends on what you can afford, whether it’s your first book or tenth, what your publisher is doing, and if you get/how big your advance is. I can’t tell you how much to spend, but this is what I would do if it were my first book in the LDS market.

If I got an advance, I’d take my family out to dinner then spend the rest of that advance on marketing the book. If I didn’t get an advance, I’d look at what I could personally afford and make a marketing plan/budget. I’d be willing to spend up to 75% of the royalties I could reasonably expect to earn. For example, if my royalty was $1 per book and my publisher was doing an initial print run of 2,000, I’d probably spend between $500 and $1,000 on marketing. If the book sold through in the first 6 months, I’d increase my budget. If the marketing is done well, I’ll earn this back in royalties.

This is what I’d do:

  • I’d buy the two books mentioned in this post and study them. I’d also surf the Internet to see what other authors are doing. Then I’d choosing at least a dozen ideas that appealed to me and that would bring me the best return on my investment

  • Two websites (URL my name and URL title of my book); they wouldn’t be fancy, but they’d look professional and have newsletter sign-ups and online sales capabilities (or a link to Amazon). There are several inexpensive and/or free hosting sites, templates, and shopping carts out there. You can do this for under $100.

  • Business cards, postcards and bookmarks—whatever my publisher didn’t supply. My goal would be to personally give out 500 business cards and 500 bookmarks in the first 30 days after release. I’d also mail the postcards to everyone I know.

  • Internet campaign/promo with prizes (copies of my book)—Use something like Constant Contact to send out regular newsletters, promos, contest announcements, etc.

  • Get my book listed on Amazon.com

  • Set up speaking engagements for my target audience and give away at least one free book per event

  • Give comp copies of my book to anyone who contributed to it in any way whatsoever; two comp copies to family and friends who you mentioned in the Acknowledgments (one for them to keep, one for them to give away). Also give each of them a handful of bookmarks and ask them to give those to their friends. Their excitement will help spread the word.

If this were my second or third book, I’d estimate what I’d earn in advances and royalties (based on sales of book one) and spend 1/3 to 1/2 of that on marketing. I’m still investing most of my earnings back into the business of being an author. Hopefully, I would also be able to upgrade some of my equipment and pay for expenses involved in writing future books.

By the time my fourth book came out, I’d start keeping most of the book earnings as income. I’d have a good idea of what types of promotions worked best for me, gave me the largest return for my investment, and concentrate on those promos, spending about 10% of my advance/expected royalties on marketing (min. $500), over and above what my publisher was doing.

To Prologue or Not to Prologue

There seems to be some disagreement about the use of prologues. What qualifies as a prologue? If a first chapter covers an event that happens a few months before the next scene, is it a prologue or a first chapter?


Prologues go in and out of fashion. Some publishers like them, others hate them. Some might call their prologues Chapter One, but they’re still a prologue.

Currently, prologues are out of favor. But this is my opinion: A good prologue that is well written adds to the story. The main purpose of a prologue is to give us needed backstory, but to allow it to happen in real time instead of the dreaded info dump. Prologues work best in fantasy, where we need to know something about the main character or the villian, but the main action of the story doesn’t start until the main character comes of age. Or sometimes a thriller, where the bad guy does something to set the story in motion, but the effects of his acts aren’t felt until months or years later.

Here’s an article on prologues that explains it pretty well.

None of this info really helps you decide whether to call your prologue a prologue or to call it chapter one. If you’re really concerned about it, go look at some books in your genre from the publisher you’re submitting to. Do any of those books have prologues? If so, you’re fine using one. If not, call it chapter one.

Author Branding and Platforms

So many publicity/marketing sites talk about the importance of branding yourself and having a platform. First, can you define brands and platforms, and second, are they important to you and your colleagues in making a decision as to who will get a contract and who won’t? Are brands and platforms significant in the LDS marketplace?

Branding
Branding yourself as an author means that you have created a body of work in a coherent style, theme and/or genre. It needs to be easily recognizable and easy to summarize. People who buy your books understand what they’re going to get. Your brand begins with the first book you publish. If it’s a romance, you’re branded a romance writer; if historical, that’s your brand. If you want to build your brand, you will stick to that genre.

This is particularly important for a national market. If you write outside your perceived brand, it can sometimes cause problems. (John Grisham’s Christmas book upset many readers; Anne McCaffery’s romances were counterproductive to her sci-fi/fantasy brand.) To get around this, many very famous, well-branded authors will use a different pen name when they write in a new genre. (Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb; Stephen King/Richard Bachman/John Swithen; Robert Jordan/Regan O’Neal/Jackson O’Reily.)

There aren’t a lot of LDS writers with a strong brand, simply because there aren’t many with a large, coherent body of work. Anita Stansfield is branded—like her books or hate them, you know what you’re going to get. Jack Weyland is another, as is Rachel Nunes. However, if any of these authors started writing in a different style or genre, they’d have to recreate their brand.

Now, that said, you don’t have to stay pigeon-holed in the first genre you start writing in. Many authors successfully write in a variety of genres, with or without a pen name. However, you, your agent, publicist, publisher need to work together to make a genre change thoughtfully—to minimize reader disappointment and to incorporate the new genre into your evolving brand.

Platform
There are actually two uses of the word “platform” as it applies to writing. The first refers to your message, your credentials. This applies more to non-fiction than to fiction. Think of it like a political platform. Maybe a therapist writes frequently about depression—that’s their platform.

The other use of the word “platform” refers to the machinery behind marketing your book(s). What methods do you use to get the word out about your book? This would include a website, maybe a blog, publishing related articles for periodicals, a newsletter, public appearances, your agent/editor or publicist.

Are branding and a platform necessary in the LDS market? Well, they happen automatically, whether you’re aware of them or not, so I say, use them consciously to promote your writing career.

Does a brand and platform determine who gets a contract and who doesn’t? Not directly. Good writing determines a contract. But on the other hand, good writing with a unique story line or style, brings with it the seeds of branding. Also, all things being equal, in a pinch the author who has a good marketing plan (platform) may be published ahead of the author who has not given it any thought.

However, branding and platform are not where you put your energy—at least not in the beginning. Your first concern is to WRITE A GOOD STORY. After that is done, then start thinking about branding and platform.

Here are a few links that talk about branding and platform in more depth:

The Basics of Author Branding
Are Books Bound by Their Brand?
Your Personal Brand

How to Build a Writing Platform
The Truth about Author Platforms
Build an Author’s Platform

E-books for Christmas

I’m writing a Christmas story, that I am going to give out to friends for Christmas gifts. I am not a published author yet. I’ve thought about possibly putting it as an online e-book, but don’t know if it costs money to do. That way, if they enjoyed it, they could show it to other friends and family. I guess my question is what is your opinion of e-books? I plan on going the regular route of publishing companies when I finish my novel. But for short stories to share with others, what would be the best way to share – besides giving them a file or printout of the story?

I wouldn’t make an e-book out of something you planned to publish in the future without the permission, guidance, help of your publisher/agent. But an e-book is a great way to distribute a story you’d like to share with family and friends.

You need to create the file—which is often a pdf file (my preference because you can make it look pretty) or some type of generic text file (easier for you; but ugly). You also need a delivery method—which could be as simple as sending it through e-mail.

If you want a fancy delivery service where you can post the file and let people come download it at their convenience, you’ll need some type of website and server capabilities to do that. You could create a Yahoo group and post it in the Files section. That is free.

Or if you want something more complex, you’ll need to get that info from somewhere else. I’m not involved in that part of our company. (We do very few e-books.) For a really spectacular example of doing this, see what Marnie Pehrson has done. I have no idea how she did it so I can’t really help you with the specifics.

Anyone with experience on this want to chime in?

Self-Promotion: Easier Said…

It has come to my attention that we need another discussion on self-promotion because some of you (and YOU know who you are) are not very good at it.

I understand that it is hard to go around tooting your own horn. You don’t want to be so over the top that your friends and family run screaming each time they see you coming. But there are some simple and very easy ways to self-promote that are very rarely offensive. Here are a few (in no particular order).

  1. Donate copies of your book to your local libraries. If you write for children or teens, donate copies to the local schools. If you’re up to it, offer to do a book reading or a class on becoming an author, etc.

  2. Offer your books as prizes in community events, blog contests, etc.

  3. Join some of the online social networking groups and/or blog rolls; submit posts and/or articles to online communities. There are a gob: MySpace, Facebook, Cre8buzz, Digg, Sk-rt, Helium, BlogHer, Digg, BlogCatalog, Stumble, Squidoo, etc. The purpose of this is to get people to come to you blog or website where they will see a tastefully posted image and description of your book on the sidebar/webpage.

  4. Join writing and book review forums and comment on a regular (weekly) basis. Don’t spread yourself too thin. Select the ones where you feel you fit in. Use a signature in these forums that links to info on your book(s).

  5. Join local networking groups, like Chamber of Commerce, service clubs, book clubs, writers groups, etc. Select ones that give you the opportunity to spotlight yourself and your books, or that provide networking social events.

  6. Offer to donate reading copies of your book(s) to book clubs.

  7. Create a simple e-mail signature with a link to info about your book(s). You don’t want this to be 10 lines long, two or three at the most.

These take minimal effort to set up and maintain yet they put and keep your name and your book in the public eye.

Do you have a simple, effective promotional idea? Please share in the comments section.

For some other good ideas on promotion, read here and here and here.

Pen Names

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a pen name?

A pen name has one purpose: to hide or screen your identity from your reader.

There are several legitimate reasons to do that, the most common one is when an established author wants to write in a new genre. I talk about that here.

Some authors just have an issue with using their real name–either they are afraid no one will like their book and they don’t want to be embarassed later, or they are afraid they’ll be the next J.K. Rowling and want to protect their privacy. Sometimes the subject matter of the book is such that they need to protect their identity (for example, if it’s a memoir about something that’s socially unacceptable, or where you could get sued if people knew you wrote the book). Or maybe they don’t like their real name. Or maybe the publisher doesn’t like their real name. Whatever.

The disadvantage is that your friends, neighbors, old boyfriends, the teacher who said you’d never write worth anything, will never know it’s you when your book ends up on the NYT Best Seller list.

It might also create some issues if you’re out there promoting your book and people recognize you, but usually only if you’re already well known. For example, if Hilary (she’s a first-name celebrity now, right?) used a pen name to write about politics. That could be a problem.

A similar problem is that some readers will feel cheated if they find out you’re not using your real name. This is more of an issue with non-fiction where you’re presenting yourself as an expert in the area you’re writing about. They wonder if they can trust what you’re saying.

If you want to use a pen name, talk to your agent/publisher about it. Discuss the pros and cons with them and then make a decision. Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal either way, but I do like to see authors use their real names when possible because I think if they’ve gone to all the trouble to write a good book, they deserve all the credit and perks that come with that.

Promotional Expectations

What should an author expect from a publisher in the way of promotion?

In addition to what I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I made a few suggestions here and here.

What’s the best way to promote a book?

Depends on the book, the genre, the target audience. There are a few suggestions in the links above. But in addition to this, brainstorm. Look at what others are doing and adapt them to your situation. But don’t be a Nathan Newauthor. DISCUSS the possibilities with your publisher and TOGETHER decide what will work best.

More on Promotion

Doesn’t promotion/marketing fall mainly to the author, especially in the LDS market? [I added “marketing” to this question, because they’re so closely related.]

No, it doesn’t. Yes, an author has to do a lot of promotion for their book but it is an error in thinking that the author does the majority of the promotion for their book.

Your publisher is going to concentrate on marketing your book to the bookstores, to get it in the stores and on the shelves. A lot of this promotion is very “behind the scenes” to the author. It includes schmoozing, developing industry relationships, phone calls, mailings, e-mailings, faxes, catalogs, order forms, shelf liners, in-store posters, promotional discounts, convention booths, sometimes personal visits to the stores, etc., etc., etc. It also includes things like the cover design and layout of your book, to make it attractive to the buyer, pre-market research, and all sorts of stuff that takes time and costs money–90% of which you, the author, will not see happening. We’re honestly not just sitting there twiddling our thumbs. We have a monetary investment in your book that we want to recoup and to build upon.

The author promotes mainly to the reader via book signings, television and radio shows, newspaper reviews, press releases, bookmarks, business cards, websites, blogs, post cards, firesides, buttons, t-shirts, and whatever else you can think of. (Some of which the publisher will provide, or assist you in creating; all of which you should run past them.)

Dollar for dollar, I know I’ve outspent every single one of my authors in marketing and promoting their books.

Now, for a few other questions. I am going to give you MY answers, as in, OUR company policy. Your publisher may have a different policy and/or attitude. When in doubt, ask them.

Is it acceptable to blog about or announce on your website, an upcoming (6 months or so from now) book release?

Yes. It’s fine to blog about your challenges and rewards of your work in progress, to post about it as you move through the submission and acceptance process, where it’s at in printing and marketing. That’s great. It creates a buzz and an expectation; it also personalizes it to your blog readers. They’ll be more likely to buy your book if they’ve shared your journey.

Don’t post content because 1) it will likely change; 2) if the reader doesn’t care for your first draft, they won’t be drawn to read the finished book.

Also, do not post negative things, like “Gee, my stupid publisher blah, blah, blah” or “I hate my book cover…” All of that puts a negative spin on your book and decreases interest.

Is it acceptable to continue to blog about the book release?

Yes, see above.

Do most publishers provide bookmarks or other promotional items if the author asks for such?

We do—up to a certain amount and under certain conditions. If the author wants more or different items, then we negotiate it on an item by item basis.

Bottom line: an author should obtain permission for all promotion, including blogs?

You shouldn’t have to clear every single blog post with your publisher. We don’t have time for that and we wouldn’t be publishing you if we didn’t have some faith in your writing abilities. However, I really liked Josi’s suggestions about a marketing plan. If you make a quick outline of what you intend to do, include blogging on that list. Then if your publisher has a problem with it, they can contact you to discuss it.

The Horrible Story of Nathan Newauthor

On the subject of marketing and promotion, I’m saddened to hear that some publishers don’t get back to their authors in a timely manner concerning promotional events. Sometimes it’s beyond their control and a matter of bad timing, but if it’s a regular occurrence, that’s really unfortunate. And as an author, you may feel hamstrung in your efforts because there is probably a clause in your contract somewhere that says you have to have all promotional pieces and marketing efforts approved by your publisher.

There is a reason for that clause as illustrated in this story about Nathan Newauthor. Nathan is a soon-to-be-published new author whose book is currently at the press. In his enthusiasm and inexperience and without permission and approval from the publisher, Nathan decides to get very creative with his marketing ideas. Having read a book on guerilla marketing for writers and being encouraged to push the envelope by friends and family (who know very little about the publishing industry), Nathan creates and hand distributes a promotional piece at an event with nearly 1,000 attendees that are HIS TARGET AUDIENCE.

Wa-hoo! Those orders ought to start rolling in.

Here’s what Nathan doesn’t understand.

  1. Although he and his mother thought it looked quite attractive, his marketing piece was very unprofessionally done. It looked like it had been copied at Kinko’s and hand-cut and assembled. Which it had been. Now, let’s think for a minute. Does an ugly promotional piece encourage or discourage someone to go purchase a product? Do the people he gave promo to know that Nathan lovingly slaved for hours to create this? Do they give him an A for effort? No. They think the publisher did it–and if that’s the best the publisher can do, why would they think the “real” book would be any better? Nathan most likely just lost 800 of the 1,000 people in his target audience.

    If Nathan’s publisher had been involved, the promo would have been professionally designed, using appropriate fontage and color and white space and all that other graphic design mumbo-jumbo that most people poo-poo, but which has an actual, measurable impact on the buyer.

  2. Nathan spent way too much money on the project, so he decided to just do a few in color and the rest in black and white. Color says, these people know what they’re doing; black and white says, these people are working out of their garage on a shoe-string budget.

    Had Nathan’s publisher created the piece, it would have been in color and printed at a much lower price. Because we have connections.

  3. Nathan thought it would be great to get advance notice out for his book. Good in theory. But if you market too soon, you lose momentum. Since his release is over a month away, it’s too soon to market to the end customer.

    Nathan also thinks people will pre-order his book. No, they won’t because his name is not J.K. Rowling. They’ll go to the bookstore or website, decide to wait to get the book when it’s available, and then FORGET about it.

    Publishers understand this. We time our advance notice.

  4. Nathan didn’t know (because he didn’t bother to ask) and the publisher hadn’t told him (because it clearly states in the contract that Nathan has to approve all marketing efforts and since he didn’t, the publisher had no way of knowing he was planning something like this) is that there was trouble at the printer and his books are going to be delayed by several weeks past his scheduled release date.

    Publishers know that release dates can be tentative and they plan accordingly. New authors believe the release date is carved in stone.

  5. Nathan thought it would be a great thing to let all the people at this event know about his upcoming release. What he didn’t know is that the event coordinators have a very strict policy against distributing promotional pieces at said event. In fact, if a publisher does that, they are very often asked never to return.

    If Nathan had asked his publisher, the publisher could have prevented this serious faux pas.

  6. Nathan thought he was doing his publisher a favor because the event coordinators are one of the publisher’s largest bulk buyers. But they don’t like what he did. They are not happy. If they are severely unhappy, not only will they NOT buy Nathan’s book, but they may also stop buying other books from this publisher. Nathan thinks he was only promoting himself and his book, but in reality, since the publisher’s name was all over the marketing piece, he was also indirectly representing the publisher, and by default, all of their other products as well.

    Again, the publisher could have prevented Nathan from not only shooting himself in the foot, but also from shooting the feet of the publisher and their other authors.

  7. Nathan thinks marketing and promotion is all fun and games, and that anything goes. As long as he’s paying for it, what’s the harm? What he doesn’t realize is that he’s created a situation that could cause a lot of potential harm, for himself, for his book, for the publisher and for every other author the publisher represents.

    Because the event coordinators are a major buyer of the publisher’s products, the publisher has to keep them happy. This is especially important in a small market like ours, where there are only so many distribution channels.

    If the buyer is ticked, and the publisher blows it off, they lose credibility with the buyer. If the buyer is really ticked, the publisher may have to choose between Nathan Newauthor’s not-yet-released book and placating the buyer. Since Nathan’s book is one teeny part of the publisher’s product line, and the buyer is a huge part of the publisher’s income, what do you think the publisher is going to do? The choice could literally be between dropping the author like a hot potato or going out of business.

    Worst case scenario: the publisher decides Nathan’s mistake puts them in a high-risk situation, cancels the contract with Nathan, destroys the book, and sues Nathan for loss and damages due to breach of contract.

    Best case scenario: the publisher gives Nathan a harsh talking to, holds the release of the book until everything is smoothed over with the big buyer, and is now very reluctant to consider future projects with Nathan.

Point of the story: Just because an author doesn’t understand why a publisher has a certain policy or clause in their contract, it doesn’t mean there’s not a very good reason for it. When an author disregards that, they are asking for trouble.

Another point of the story [for those of you who still don’t quite understand this concept yet]: Yes, for the publisher, the bottom line IS ABOUT THE MONEY. If we don’t make money, we won’t be publishers for very long.

One last point: If this is too restrictive for you, then you are free to self-publish. No one is preventing you. But if you choose the traditional publishing route, you have to be willing to play by the publisher’s rules.

P.S. This is not a fictional story. It is based on true events, but the names and a few small particulars have been changed to protect the… well, you know.

P.P. S. Fortunately for Nathan, the publisher was able to smooth things over with the buyer and he got the best case scenario.

Because Nice Matters…

A publishing company needs to have a working calendar where we schedule due dates, press dates, release dates, etc. When I start a calendar year, I usually have a pretty good idea of which projects I’m going to be publishing during that year. I calendar their release dates according to a specific list of criteria. Due to budget restraints and other limited resources, I have to stay as close to my calendar schedule as is humanly possible.

Point One: The nature of the publishing business is that things are always getting delayed. It always takes longer to do something then you think it will. A key employee gets a two-week flu. The graphic designer goes on vacation. The printer has a brain cramp and forgets he agreed to do a project by a certain date. Shipments get held up in customs. Whatever. The bigger the publishing company, the more flexibility they have and the less likely the printer is to forget them, but still. It’s always something. We try to pad our schedule for emergencies like these but sometimes things happen outside of our control. Yelling at US doesn’t heal our employees or influence the customs master. We expect you, the author, to understand and be patient. We will be nice to you by explaining these things as soon as we know about them and we expect you to be nice back.

Point Two: When an author and I agree to a release schedule, and I tell them I need their finished manuscript by February so that we can release it at Bookseller’s in August–and they agree–then I pretty much need their manuscript when I say I do. If the author doesn’t get me their manuscript until April, then their project is now competing with another author’s project and release date.

What am I supposed to do? Tell Author B, who did get their manuscript to me on time, that their book will now miss Bookseller’s because Author A was two months late with their’s?

I understand that things happen. Authors have real lives too. If life smacks you in the face and you’re going to miss your deadline, let me know as soon as possible. Talk to me. I will be understanding. I will be nice. I might be able to swap your schedule with someone else’s and get you both out in time for Booksellers. I’ll certainly work with you as much as I reasonably can because I like your book; I want your book.

BUT I’m not going to bump someone else’s book–which I also like and want–to accommodate yours. I’m not going to work 18 hour days and rush both projects through. I’m also not paying my employees overtime to get your book done so it can be released on its original schedule. I’ve already paid them for twiddling their thumbs for two months because your book wasn’t there to work on when it was originally scheduled.

When this happens (and it does more often than not), please don’t climb up my back or yell at my employees because your book wasn’t at Booksellers as I’d originally “promised” and don’t accuse me of breaking agreements and acting without integrity when YOU were the one who dropped the ball.

I will be nice to you, but I expect you to be nice back.

Just Do It by Rebecca Talley

It’s approx three weeks until LDSBA and I have way too much on my plate. So thank you, Rebecca, for being today’s guest blogger.

I’ve always loved to write, but life has had a way of getting in the way.

I wrote poems and short books as a youth, but placed writing on the back burner while I attended, and graduated from, BYU, married, and began having a multitude of children. During this time I took piano lessons, learned to knit and crochet, redecorated my house(s), studied how to raise horses, and chased my kids from one end of the day to the other.

One day, I told my husband that I’d like to get back into writing. He encouraged me to pursue it, but, once again, I let life get in the way. I figured that when I stopped having kids, I’d have time to write. Or, when the laundry mountain wasn’t as big as Mt. Everest. Or, when I could cook and freeze several meals so I could get ahead of the cooking. Or, when the dishes grew legs and walked themselves to the sink. Or, when life slowed down. Or . . . .

Then, my epiphany. Life would never slow down and I would never stop having kids (okay, maybe that will happen someday). If I truly wanted to write, I needed to stop making excuses why I couldn’t write and just do it. I needed to focus on the one thing, besides my family and the Church, that was most important to me.

I stopped taking piano lessons, put away my yarn and needles, suspended the redecorations (my husband was quite thankful for this resolve), gave the foal to my daughter for her to train, and tried to stop chasing my kids all day long (well, that hasn’t happened, yet).

I focused the little time I had on writing. I read books, took classes, attended conferences, joined email groups, asked thousands of questions, and surfed every writing-related website I could find. Oh, and I wrote. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I have notebooks filled, and many half-filled, with things I wrote—I kept misplacing the notebook I was using and had to keep finding other ones. (Important safety tip: keep your notebooks in obvious places and/or ban your children from ever using any of your notebooks as an artist pad).

I still had babies. I even homeschooled my other children for a time. I served as Primary President. I attended my children’s activities and cooked and cleaned and regularly climbed Mt. Everest, but I made time to write because it became a priority. With my newfound focus, I managed to publish a children’s picture book (Grasshopper Pie, Windriver, 2003) and sell stories to online and print magazines, including the Friend.

No, I didn’t learn to be Wonder Woman (though I’d love to look like her in that costume and have her lasso of truth); I learned to focus on writing. I learned to make writing my priority over knitting, playing the piano, and repainting my house. I learned I couldn’t do everything well, but, maybe if I put all of my effort into that one thing I enjoyed the most, I might be able to learn how to do it well enough to share it with others.

We’re all busy. We all have demanding lives. Writing should never become more important than our spouses, families, or fulfilling our duties in the Church, but, if we truly want to write, we can find the time to just do it.

Rebecca Talley
www.rebeccatalleywrites.blogspot.com

ARCs and Galleys

What is an ARC?

An ARC is an advanced reading copy. They are usually printed before the regular print run is done, either using a short run printer or a POD service. They often have a plain cover with just the title and author info. They are usually perfect bound, although I have seen some with spiral bindings. ARCs are sent out to key reviewers in advance of the release date to get the marketing buzz started. They may also be sent to bigger buyers to review before they place an order. There were no ARCs for HP #7.

What is a galley?

A galley is the press proof. There are pre-press galleys which are printed after typesetting but before they go to press. Authors are usually given these as their final proof copy—last chance to make corrections (meaning small typographical changes, NOT rewrites). But the usual use of the word is for the final proof from the printer. Publishers review this to make sure the printer has all the pages in the right order and all the fonts are printing correctly, etc.

My How Time Flies

What’s the general time frame from acceptance to finished product?


Two months to two years. Depends on so many, many things. Average for me is 6-8 months.

Christmas in July

I am working on the final edits of a novel that takes place during Christmas time. It is not a “Christmas book” per se, but I’ve begun to wonder, because it’s my first book, if I ought to change the season for marketing reasons. Does the season a book takes place in have any bearing on a publisher accepting a first time novelist?

Not really. We might schedule the release date based on the season of the book, but that wouldn’t make any difference for acceptance.

I’m assuming there was a reason your book takes place during Christmas, so I’d say, no, don’t change it unless a publisher asks you to.

Odds & Ends

How will the prospective readers “visit” talk shows and radio shows? On the television and radio, I suppose, but those would probably be local stations in Salt Lake City and would therefore exclude anybody living outside broadcasting range.

Turn it into a podcast (easy to do) and post it to author’s & publisher’s websites and anywhere else we can get it.

I don’t know what a “jump drive” is.

Also called “thumb drive,” it’s a small portable storage device that plugs into your computer via the USB port.

you said you’d provide all the buyers with this jump drive thing, right? So if somebody bought it off the internet, it would be included in the package? Or could they have the possibility of asking you, the author, for the promo piece once they can prove to you that they’ve bought the book? They could answer a question or forward their e-mail ordering form, or whatever, and then you’d send the jump drive in the mail?

If I did this, which I wouldn’t because it would be way to expensive, I’d put a mail-in “proof of purchase” form on one of the back pages of the book that they’d have to photocopy and mail in with a copy of their sales receipt.

Coming in a little late as usual, but I’ve seen the expression “sticky post” on several blogs. What’s a “sticky post?”

On a forum, it’s a way of creating the discussion category that keeps it at the top of the list. It’s an option you select when you create that category. As for a regular blog…? Not sure. Anyone else know?

Behind the Scenes Acceptance Process

Can you tell me what happens when you receive my manuscript? Do you have a first reader that sifts through all the manuscripts and then passes on his/her picks to you? When does a manuscript go to outside readers? Do all publishers use committees to decide the fate of a manuscript? Who has the final say? Do you follow the same procedure with all manuscripts?


I have an assistant who does a pre-read and sorts them into piles–ones I will probably want to read and ones that I will probably reject. We’ve worked together for a long time, so she’s pretty accurate at guessing what my response will be. If she really likes something, I put it at the top of the pile.

I go through the rejection pile first because those are pretty obvious and there’s no need to keep those authors waiting. I write my own rejection letters–most of them are form letters, but sometimes I offer suggestions on what to improve.

The manuscript goes to outside readers if the in-house staff likes it enough to consider publishing it. We need to make sure it will appeal to a fairly wide spectrum of readers.

If they’re smart, publishers have some type of committee giving them input. Who is on that committee depends on the size of the company. It may be the readers or it may be a group of employees, or it may be an official committee which includes the finance and marketing departments.

Who has the final say? Depends on the company. It could be the head editor, the president, the marketing VP, or a majority vote of the committee. In my company, it’s usually a unanimous vote of the committee.

We follow the same procedure 99% of the time. Sometimes we’ll publish something that has a majority vote, but not very often.