Writing and Publishing News from

September 17, 2012

The Back of Your Book

Filed under: Authorship,Writing — Patricia @ 4:48 am

Have you given any thought to your book’s back cover copy? You may just be starting your nonfiction book or you may be nearly finished with your novel. At some point, you will be facing the back cover. What will you write? Have you given this any thought?

First, consider why you are writing something for the back cover. What is the purpose of the back cover copy? Is it just to fill the space? Should you use an eloquent paragraph from the story? Is this an opportunity to show how well you can write? Not necessarily.

This is your opportunity to sell your book—to pique the interest of someone who picks it up or who sees it online. Your job is to adequately describe your book to your particular proposed audience so that they are inclined to purchase it—so that they want to read it. What is the story about? What is the purpose of your nonfiction book? What does it offer/provide for your readers?

The back cover often includes a brief paragraph about the author. Readers may want to know who wrote the book—what is this author’s experience as a mystery writer or expertise in the subject of the book? And whether we like to admit it or not, a photograph sometimes sways us one way or another when we are considering which book to buy.

I like to use bullets on the back cover of my nonfiction books for writers. Then potential readers can see at a glance some of the things I cover in the book. This technique is effective when writing articles, as well. That’s why you often see me use bullets in my blog posts.

You may have your cover designed. Perhaps you are over-the-top pleased with your cover design—you are confident that it will attract your readers. But what about your back cover copy? Have you written it? Are you not sure what to write? Have you even thought about it? Here are some tips: (notice the bullets)

• Write the back cover copy with your audience in mind.
• Once you’ve written it, read it from the standpoint of your readers.
• Study the back cover copy of other books similar to yours
• Run your back cover copy by actual potential readers.
• Have an editor take a look before finalizing.

If you’d like to send me your back cover copy, I’d be happy to take a look.

PLFry620@yahoo.com
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

September 15, 2012

Who’s to Blame for Your Failed or Struggling Book?

Filed under: Authorship,Publishing — Patricia @ 5:01 am

Over the years, I’ve met hundreds of authors. Some of them are experiencing varying degrees of what they consider success. Many more of them are struggling. Some believe that the publishing system has failed them.

In reality, it is the author himself who has failed all on his own. How? First, he entered into a serious business that he knew nothing about. Let’s use Bob as an example. From the outside looking in, Bob thought he could see all he needed to know about the industry and how to participate as a published author. There were people eager to take his money and produce his book. Bob had met other authors with books, read about them, heard them speak at his church group and civic group meeting about their books. He had attended signings and book festivals. He believed that the book he was writing was every bit as good as some of those he saw on the market and better than many he had bought recently. He was sure that he had more on the ball than most of the authors he met.

Not only that, when he told people about his book, they appeared interested. He had every reason to believe that thousands of people would want it once he published it.

Unfortunately, Bob would most likely end up in the majority group of authors who sell fewer than 100 copies of their books. The number now is right at 78 percent. Why would Bob find himself among the 78 percent of authors who fail? Not because the system failed him, but because he did not take the time and effort to understand the system, his options and his responsibilities as a published author.

Bob remained on the outside looking in. The only involvement he had with the industry, was deciding to go with the first pay-to-publish company he found on the Internet. Soon he had a book to hold in his hands. Turns out it was not a well-written book. Bob was an accountant not a writer. He didn’t know how much better an experienced book editor could make it and why it was important to produce a well-written book. He didn’t have a clear understanding of his audience. In fact, he hadn’t given his audience any thought while he was planning and writing his book. This was simply a book he wanted to write. If he liked it, surely others would, too. And he didn’t know that it was his responsibility to promote his book to this audience. It didn’t occur to him to connect the dots from the process of producing a book to the ultimate end result—people purchasing it. He had no idea how to take his product from point A to point B. In fact, he didn’t even know to consider his book a product.

Just as there is an enormous amount of skill, talent, knowledge, time and energy that goes into becoming an Olympic swimmer, an expert equestrian, a successful restaurant owner or a sought-after actor, for example, so it is with successful publishing.

There’s more to this industry than what you see on the surface. If you want to become a successful part of it, you must invest and immerse yourself in it. The number one recommendation from any expert or professional worth his or her salt is to study the publishing industry.

Here’s my contribution to that end:
“Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author.” Order it from Amazon.com or any other online or downtown bookstore. Also available at my Matilija Press website. See below.

PLF620@yahoo.com
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

September 10, 2012

How Fame as an Author Could Change Your Life

Filed under: Authorship — Patricia @ 3:58 am

Do you adore the process of writing? Are you happiest when you are in your writing room creating a book, fleshing out a story or revising something you wrote? Maybe you are contented, but you still yearn to make it big as an author.

Have you ever thought about how your life could change if this happened?

Look at some of the big name authors—in particular, those that seemed to become overnight successes with their first books. Now they are wealthy and popular, but imagine how their life has changed. No longer are they free to sit quietly and write what they want. There are constant demands being made on their time. They have responsibilities toward their readers, fans, publishers. They must live up to an image that has been created and they have a percentage of critics to go along with fans.

Sure they can afford to travel, buy things, move into a lovely home with a view. But do they still have the freedom to do that writing that once brought them so much joy?

I want to let you all know that I’m going to have the comments aspect of this blog turned off due to an extremely high instance of spam messages coming through. I am scheduled to do some traveling soon (some for pleasure—some for work) and it is especially annoying to have to spend time either while traveling checking and deleting thirty to eighty spam comments per day or hundreds of them by the time I get home. Occasionally, I get a legitimate comment—I love it when you comment—and that’s why I go through all of the comments that come in so carefully—so as not to miss yours.

From now on, however, I invite you to contact me through one of my websites or my email address. Comments will be closed—at least for a while.

http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com
PLFry620@yahoo.com

September 7, 2012

Subject Line and Press Release Titles

Filed under: Authorship — Patricia @ 4:09 am

We’re back to titles again today. Why? Because some authors really struggle with them. One problem authors often express to me is, “I emailed such and such publisher/agent/editor and received no response.” Many times, the subject line is the problem. The author has used a rather generic lead to his email. Most of us have learned not to respond to or are suspicious of emails from strangers that come with a subject line saying, “hi,” “Need your help,” “Please help,” or that have the title of the book, the name of the author (if it is unknown) or is blank, for example.

If you are trying to sell your book, you would not put in your subject line or your press release, “Great book for sale” or “Announcing a new book.” Not in this competitive bookselling climate. Instead, list a benefit to your particular readers. “A gripping story of struggle through the depression,” or “A suspense story that will keep you on the edge of your seat,” or “Learn how to be happy every day, no matter what,” or “1001 free things for every household.”

Learn more about your subject line, your title and writing press releases and web copy and sooooo much more in my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Can also be purchased from my website: http://www.matilijapress.com

September 3, 2012

Apologies, Explanations and Dilemmas

Filed under: Authorship,Editing — Patricia @ 4:54 am

I’ve been working on things that take concentration and time—lots of uninterrupted time. And I’ve given up a few things in the processes. One is my daily walk (I’m definitely walking this morning before the heat sets in) and another is my daily blog. I’ve missed a few lately—breaking my “daily” record.

What am I doing? This weekend, I’ve been writing the index for my upcoming book for Allworth Press, Talk Up Your Book. And for the last few weeks and now sporadically when I absolutely must have a break from the tedium, I work on my novel. (Working title, The Klepto Cat Mystery.)

I thought I did the final proof for the nonfiction book a month or so ago and actually started working on the index then. One of the experts who received a galley in order to write a testimonial, however, suggested a format change that the publishers’ editors accepted. Without consulting me, they made major formatting changes which increased the book by around 30 pages. Now all of my preliminary index entries are off from about page 40 to page 300. Not only that, the spacing is off in many areas because they didn’t do a thorough job in making these changes. In what should have been a clean proof this time (the 3rd pass), I have located approximately 40 problems—all resulting from their attempt to make a major change midstream. And one that was not necessary, in my opinion. It would have been fine the way it was. It was one of those close calls—an either/or situation. It was right either way. And I would have suggested they leave it the way it was. If it ain’t broke…you know…

When my mind isn’t so cluttered with the proofing and the index, which I’m eager to get out the door to make room for an incoming editing job, I want to discuss how to handle authors of poorly written published books. I have two authors in mind at the moment whose novels I have tried to read, but couldn’t because there were so many problems. One of them even had some decent reviews.

I guess I read books partially from an editor’s point of view. If it is full of clichés and mistakes and doesn’t ring true, I am not interested in reading it. If it is sappy, predictable, trite and written as if by a third-grader or for a third-grade mentality, I am totally turned off by it. Last night, I started reading a light mystery novel and I kept laughing out loud. My partner, Dennis, said, “Funny story, huh?”

I said, “No, I’m just blown away by the triteness of this writing.” It was unbelievably dull and uninspired. Last year, I bought a book by someone I’ve known professionally for a while. I thought I’d read it while traveling. I ended up leaving it on the plane on the first leg of my trip because I couldn’t read comfortably past the errors. The writing was decent, but OMG, the grammatical mistakes were so distracting, I couldn’t read the thing.

Now, what I want to talk to you about is this—do I contact these authors and gently suggest that they bring their next manuscript to me (or another qualified BOOK editor) before publishing it or do I just stay out of it?

August 28, 2012

What Will You Name it?

Filed under: Authorship,Writing — Patricia @ 4:18 am

Some authors come up with titles for their books without much trouble. Sometimes we have a title in mind even before we write the book—a title we are attached to for one reason or another. Other times, we struggle with a title up until the day the book finally goes to the printer—changing it, fretting over it, changing it back…

As time goes on and we promote the book, we learn whether or not we did right by our book title. Here are some tips for coming up with an appropriate title that will help to sell the nonfiction book it is attached to.

1: Your title should pique the interest of the audience. If it is designed for people who want to learn how to bake cupcakes, you’d better make that clear in the title. Using titles such as, “The Baker’s Way” or “Back Home Again,” or “Night Shade” or “Not for Breakfast” might have meaning for you—but if I’m looking for a book on how to bake and frost cupcakes, I’m probably not going to pursue these titles.

2: Your title should speak to the audience. Are they looking for a book to help them solve a problem, learn a technique, make a change, etc? Make sure that the reader knows at first glance that your book will meet their requirements and expectations. “Cupcake-Baking Tips for the Kitchen Klutz” or “Bake and Frost Your Cupcakes Expertly” might appeal to someone who has had cupcake failures or who just want to know more about making great cupcakes.

3: I advise authors to address their audience personally. Use titles such as “Become a Master Cupcake Baker” or “You, Too, Can Win the Cupcake Wars” in order to make your title resonate with your audience. You want the title to evoke emotion. You want the potential reader to say, “I can do this—with the help of this book, I can do this.” If the title is playful, the author who wants a light read with a little humor throughout will give this book a second look.

So take a look at your title for your nonfiction book today and determine whether it evokes emotion, speaks to your audience, tells immediately what the book is about. Or is it generic and mundane—one of those titles that would keep a book from being noticed?

Find many more tips and techniques for preparing your book in my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s available at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.
http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

August 15, 2012

Finally, How to Experience a Successful Author Presentation

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:01 am

Yesterday I listed some real time activities that you really should be pursuing in order to put a personality to that book of yours—to interact with your readers face-to-face. Maybe you’ve heard: personality sells books.

Some of you read over the list and took mental notes that sounded something like this: “I tried that—failed. Won’t be doing that again.”

Perhaps you didn’t try hard enough. Maybe you could improve the way you approached the activity. Here are some tips:
• Choose an appropriate venue and time for your activity. One author I know discovered that it was useless to schedule an indoor activity in her home town on a sunny day because everyone would rather be outdoors. Pay attention to what’s going on during the day or evening you choose to speak, for example. Your local high school graduation night is not a good time to speak at the library about your career guide for high school seniors. You might not get many senior citizens to your presentation on exercise for the elderly if you schedule it as late as 8:pm.

• Promotion is highly important to the success of any activity. Here are a few ideas:

1: Plan a program with benefits—promise that it will be entertaining and/or highly informational. Give something away and/or make it interactive, for example.

2: Send press releases to local newspapers and any other regional publications. Generally this is done 10 days to 2 weeks prior to when you want the announcement to appear.

3: Solicit an interview or two with reporters to be published during the week of the event.

4: Contact everyone on your email list 10 days in advance of the event. Cordially invite them and ask them to bring friends. Get commitments if you can.

5: Create posters and post them at the venue and other appropriate places—library, downtown bulletin board, etc.

6: Post announcements at your website as well as your twitter, Facebook, Linked-in, etc. pages.

7: Blog often about the upcoming event.

8: Send reminder notices to your email list a few days in advance.

9: Attend other authors’ signings and presentations. Your gesture of support is likely to encourage them to attend your presentations.

10: Ask the press to cover the event. In case they don’t show up, always have a camera handy and someone willing to use it. After the event, submit a photo and story to the local newspapers and follow up with posts at your website, blog and other social media pages.

11: Send thank you notes to the store manager, librarian or program chairpersons after the event. Also send notes of thanks to those who attended. How will you know who attended? Always have a sign-up sheet where you can collect email addresses. Add them to your growing email list.

If you have a viable book project, if you follow these guidelines and if you continue to improve your presentations, you should begin to experience more success when you go out to face your readers.

Speaking of success, how does one measure it? We all have very different formulas. The one I want you to consider is the exposure factor. Oops, this post is getting rather long. How about if I go into the value of exposure in tomorrow’s post?

In the meantime, you know the drill, I want you to purchase my two latest books—yes, you can’t go wrong by ordering them both and Amazon is bundling them at a good price. I’ll offer you a bundle deal, too. Order both books from me and I’ll give you a full 90 minute consultation or editing services. This offer expires Sunday, August 19, 2012.

http://www.matilijapress.com
Order Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author
And
Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author today!!!

August 8, 2012

What the Author Needs

Filed under: Authorship — Patricia @ 5:48 am

We’ve had some knowledgeable guest bloggers lately. I hope you’ve gleaned from their wisdom on the subject of writing your memoir and on building and using the right tools in your book promotion toolkit.

If you’ve followed this blog for a while or if you’ve spent time in the 7 years of archives, you pretty much have everything you need in order to successfully write, publish and promote a book; establish your own publishing company; start a successful freelance writing business and more. But many of you still have questions.

It’s common for those who want to write for publication to skip over some of the information they stumble across in the early stages of their publishing dream. Then when they need the information, they might have trouble finding it. You might discount advice the first, third or eighteenth time you read/hear it and then eventually realize it is something you definitely need to heed. That’s why professionals blog and continually produce articles and books that respond to the issues you will be facing as an author or freelance writer. Pay attention. We know what you need to know at some point in your process.

There are times when you read this blog and feel that the message is spot on for you at this moment. Other times you don’t believe it applies to you. But it may at some point.

I run into this when I’m out speaking. I’ve seen audience members shut down when I talk about the importance of writing a book proposal. They don’t want to do it and they don’t want to hear about it. Book promotion is another topic some would-be authors ignore. They simply can’t be bothered with something so foreign and distasteful right now when all they want to do is write their book, get it published and have the satisfaction of hearing readers’ praises.

Publishing is another issue that authors often resist researching or even acknowledging until they are finished with their manuscript and super eager to publish before Christmas or in time for someone’s birthday or they just want to finally complete their project. So what do they do? As little research as possible. Then they choose the first publishing option and company that seems reasonably legit—without spending any time educating themselves on exactly what criteria they should use in determining this.

Authors, I am so pleased that you are reading this blog and I urge you to check out some of the hard-hitting posts in my archives. If you are new to publishing or are struggling as a published author, please read my latest book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s at Amazon.com in print and Kindle and at most other online and downtown bookstores. Also available at http://www.matilijapress.com

August 2, 2012

Permission to Quote

Filed under: Authorship,Publishing — Patricia @ 5:28 am

I get questions from authors occasionally. Today I received an email with a two-fold question.

“Do I need to get permission to quote a colleague in my book?” And “How do I handle her quotes? Do I include them in the text or note them in the back of the book?”

Here’s basically what I told her:

“If you are including personal anecdotes throughout the text in your book and/or you are writing the book in first person or you simply write with a friendly tone, it makes sense to flow her comments or stories about her into the text. But if your book is a reference or informational book without anecdotes, you could put her comments in an appendix or use footnotes. You have one of my books, so you know that I prefer using a more friendly approach and that I quote people and share anecdotes throughout the pages of my books.

I suggest that you study other books like the one you plan and see how other authors handle this situation. Find a solution that works for you and your project. You are the CEO of your book, so you get to make all of the decisions. The key is to educate yourself in what the possibilities are and make an informed choice. The best way for me to plan my book format and style has always been to check out other books like the one I propose and determine what would work best for my particular project.

About getting permission: Not only would I for ask permission to quote, when you are ready, I would send everyone you quote or write about a copy of exactly what you want to publish to make sure they are okay with it. Get signed or email permission. A publisher will want to see these authorized permissions before he will publish your book. No matter which publishing option you choose, you will want these permissions in your own files, as well.”

You’ll find these and a whole lot more important questions answered in my 240-page book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. Available at amazon.com in print form and Kindle as well as other online and downtown bookstores. Also at http://www.matilijapress.com

Have you downloaded your free copy of my latest ebook, 50 Ways to Promote Your Ebook? Download your copy here today: http://www.patriciafry.com

August 1, 2012

What Does a Publisher Want?

Filed under: Authorship,Publishing — Patricia @ 5:26 am

Are these some of the questions you are asking?

How many words should my manuscript be?
Do publishers accept submissions all year round or just during certain months?
How long does it take to get a response from a publisher?
Do publishers pay advances—how much?
What percentage royalties to publishers pay?
Do publishers produce both fiction and nonfiction?
What sort of promotion does a publisher do?
What’s the best way to approach a publisher—can I send the completed manuscript?
How many books does a publisher produce in a year?

Do these represent some of the questions you have? I often get these very questions from hopeful authors because some people still believe that a publishers, is a publishers, is a publishers. Not so.

Publishers come in all flavors, sizes and styles. This is why it is imperative that, when an author decides which publisher(s) he or she wants to approach, he or she obtains a copy of each publishers’ SUBMISSION GUIDELINES or WRITERS’ GUIDELINES or AUTHORS’ GUIDELINES.

Don’t rely on the information in the listings you find for these publishers in various databases. Sure, this is an excellent place to start when you are contemplating which publishing house is appropriate for your project. But before you contact a publisher (or several publishers), go to their websites and locate a copy of their Submission Guidelines. Then study them and submit to each publisher accordingly. If you don’t easily find Submission Guidelines, check under “About Us” or “Contact Us.” Perhaps you’ll see a link titled “Write for Us” or simply “Submissions.” Use your imagination in locating these guidelines. In some cases, you’ll need it. If you can’t find them, contact the editor and ask for a copy.

Perhaps you have completed your manuscript and it encompasses 150,000 words. One publisher’s Submission Guidelines, however, states that they publish books of from 75,000 to 100,000 words. If you want to go with this publisher, be prepared to cut your manuscript down to size. Tell this publisher, for example, that you will present to him a manuscript of around 85,000 words. Don’t apologize for the fact that your book includes 150,000 words and ask if he will look at it anyway.

Likewise if the publisher’s guidelines note that they are accepting only fantasy and thriller manuscripts at this time, don’t send a query letter for your book on raising guinea pigs and hamsters.

And if the publisher asks for an overview or a detailed prospectus related to your platform, make sure you provide plenty of honest information in this regard.

The competition is just too stiff today. There are too many other authors out there with great projects that are ready to go and with built-in followings and marketing skills. Publishers strive to choose projects that will make them some money. Part of that equation is—projects they are familiar with and have the connections to promote successfully. The other part is you—your connections, expertise, skills, abilities and willingness to present an appropriate project and vow to aptly promote it.

If you have questions about your publishing options, how to choose the best option for your particular project, how to choose the best publishing company within that option, how to work with a publisher and what exactly is expected of you as the author of a published book, read my book, Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author. It’s available at amazon.com in print and Kindle form and at most other online and downtown bookstores. You can also purchase this book at http://www.matilijapress.com

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