Writing and Publishing News from

January 24, 2011

What Does the Publisher Really Want?

Filed under: Publishing — Patricia @ 5:55 am

We all like samples and examples. Today, I’m not talking about food samples like you get at the grocery store, but examples to illustrate a certain process in writing or publishing.

How much does it help you to write your query letter when you see an example of a query letter posted someplace? When you read someone else’s market analysis, does it help you to write yours? Some authors just get more confused by seeing examples from material that doesn’t exactly relate to what they are writing. But reading the instructions for writing the proposal or query letter, for example, doesn’t quite bring the process into focus for them, either.

If this is you, let me see if I can help. Before trying to follow a model or a set of instructions, find out what purpose the query letter or book proposal has. What is its function? What is it supposed to accomplish for you? Key in on how the query letter or the synopsis is supposed to benefit you—what its job is.

What is the job of an author’s query letter? To sell a publisher or agent on your project and on you. For example, a query letter will:

• Introduce your book project.

• Succinctly describe it to a publisher or agent.

• Help the publisher/agent understand why this book is important/needed.

• Identify the proposed audience and how large it is.

• Explain why you are the person to write this book.

• Describe your platform—what you have to offer toward promoting this book.

The publisher wants to know that he will make some money on your project.
When you write a query letter or an entire book proposal, you need to think like a savvy publisher not an emotional author. You need to know what his concerns are, what’s important to him and what it takes to convince him to consider a project like yours. If you don’t have a clue about any of this—you’ve been more concerned with what you want to write, how writing makes you feel, what you want to get out of publishing this book, etc.—you may not get a second look from a publisher or an agent.

Spend some time thinking about this concept this week. Practice thinking like a publisher when you ponder your project, while you’re writing, and especially while you work on your book proposal and your query letter. Keep in mind that a publisher is more interested in his bottom line than he is in your good writing or your feelings. It may surprise you to discover (through this exercise) how much your approach to your query letter, your proposal and your book changes.

Personal Note
I hope I stopped an author from blindly rushing into the first publishing contract she received for her book this week—from a pay-to-publish company. It is one that Mark Levine, in his book The Fine Print of Self-Publishing lists under “Publishers to Avoid.” Thankfully, she visited my blog first and contacted me. She is rethinking her rash decision.

If you are new to publishing and you have a book in the works or ready to publish, please, please read Mark’s book first.

And read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book to learn all of your publishing options. After reading the first three chapters, you will have a much greater understanding of the publishing industry and how you might fit into it. The remainder of the book will help you to choose the right option for you and for your project and it will guide you every step of the way through publishing and beyond no matter which option you choose. It will also prepare you for the largest, most intense part of producing a book—promoting it. YES it is up to the author to promote his/her book no matter which publishing option he chooses. This book tells you how.

http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Do you need an editor? http://www.patriciafry.com

Are you unsure whether you should produce your book at all? Sign up for the NEW ebook at this site. 50 Reasons Why You Should Publish That Book.

January 23, 2011

Do Bookstores Matter to Authors?

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 7:21 am

If you’ve been studying the publishing industry for any length of time—reading this blog, industry newsletters, books by myself and other professionals—you’ve probably crossed bookstores off of your list of potential sales outlets for your book.

You’ve been told that it is next to impossible to get your book into bookstores—that your book is liable to get lost among the thousands of others in a bookstore. Is this true? Well, yes. You probably can’t count on bookstore sales to help your book reach the level of success you desire. But I don’t want you to dismiss the idea of selling through bookstores altogether.

What I hope to get across to authors through my nagging and ranting about bookstores is that you should not count on them as your primary sales outlet. Bookstores should not be considered the ultimate last word in book promotion and sales. But do they have a place in the scheme of things where our marketing plan is concerned? Absolutely!

• You want to try to infiltrate the mega-bookstores. At least have your book listed in Books in Print so they can order it if someone comes in and asks about it.

• Apply for Barnes and Noble and Borders’ warehouse programs. (Contact me for more info on this.) PLFry620@yahoo.com.

• Make sure your book is listed in online bookstores—Borders, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.

• Approach independent bookstores individually and ask them to take your books on consignment.

• Contact specialty bookstores related to the theme or genre of your book: mystery, cats, religion, spirituality, cookbooks, children’s, etc.

And then promote the heck out of your book so people are walking into bookstores asking for it.

Ignore bookstores altogether and you will sabotage the success of your book. Use them; just don’t rely on them totally. Consider bookstores an outlet for your book, but also promote it over the Internet, go out and give presentations, do radio/TV gigs, reserve booths at flea markets and book festivals, approach appropriate specialty stores with your book—kitchen stores, gift shops, museum gift shops, toy stores, pharmacies, auto parts stores, etc. Some of my books are selling well in a local “Made in Ojai” store where everything in it comes from local artists, potters, authors, jewelers, etc.

By the way, the gigantic Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is coming up in April. If you’d like to take your book to this spectacular event, you may be able to participate in the SPAWN booth. SPAWN is Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network. It’s an organization that you probably should join, anyway in order to further your freelance writing career or your success as an author. SPAWN has two booths at the festival this year and members can join us and sell their books from our booth for $200 per day. If you do not live in Southern California or you do not wish to travel, we will display your book in the booth. Post it in our beautiful print catalog which we will be giving away to each visitor to the booth. This will be your brochure. The cost for displaying one book and one catalog entry is $55. A catalog entry only is $35.

Learn more about these amazing opportunities by subscribing to our FREE SPAWN newsletter. The next issue will be sent to your email box February 1, 2011. http://www.spawn.org Sign up for the newsletter and receive a FREE ebook, Promote Yourself: 25 Ways to Promote Your Work, Whether You’re an Artist, Author or Small Publishers.

You can also enter our archives and read the January 2011 issue of SPAWNews to find details about SPAWN and the LA Times Festival of Books. http://www.spawn.org Contact me for additional information: Patricia@spawn.org.

January 22, 2011

Second Chances for Your Book

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 6:19 am

We talked recently about the possibility of your self-published or pay-to-publish book being picked up by a traditional royalty publisher. Well, it happened again to one of my clients. This time it is a children’s picture book—can you believe it? Instead of illustrations, this author used photographs. It is a charming book. Delightful. I will reveal more once it is produced.

And I had an email conversation with Debbie Allen yesterday. She is the author of Confessions of Shameless Self Promoters, Confessions of Shameless Internet Promoters and others. She self-published her first book in the series and did so well with it—appeared on the Howard Stern Show, became a bestseller at amazon—and Mc Graw-Hill recently picked it up.

I met another young man this week—under thirty. He self-published his story, and sold 12,000 copies of it before being picked up by an agent and then HarperCollins. He managed this by landing some pretty serious media and a chance meeting with a major agent.

I’m currently revising one of my self-published books for a publisher.

And I think I’ve told you about my client who sold so many copies of her young adult fantasy that Scholastic Books picked it up.

You’re actually hearing about this phenomenon more and more often. So if you know you have an excellent book idea and you are confident that you can write something that is meaningful or highly entertaining to a large audience, why not go for it? But it could take an enormous amount of time, energy, strategy and belief in yourself to take that book to that next level. Everyone of these authors will tell you that and all of them are highly motivated powerhouse promoters.

I’m here to encourage you. But I don’t want you to delude yourself. It will take a whole lot of savvy and work to go from point A (writing a worthy book) to point B (experiencing thousands of sales through a traditional publisher).

For more about how the whole publishing thing works and how to navigate within this industry, read The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Need editing? Would you like a free evaluation of your manuscript? Check out this site: http://www.patriciafry.com

January 21, 2011

What Do You Want in Your Reference Book?

Filed under: Authorship — Patricia @ 6:14 am

Do you use the resource guide in a book? I’m trying to decide whether to include a resource section in my book as I revise it. In the earlier versions of The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book, I included thirteen pages of resources. I also had a glossary. I provided ideas for “Recommended Reading” at the end of each chapter. And I sprinkled the entire book heavily with resources—website links, suggested reading, resource sites, etc.

Does any of this matter to you, the reader? Do you use the glossary to find out what certain terms mean? Do you search the resource section of books? Do you make note of the resources listed throughout the chapters? What is most meaningful to you when you’re using a reference book?

Of course I will have a complete index in the revised book. Is this something that you require in an informational reference-type book? Do you refer to an index often? A good index in a reference book means a lot to me. I also like a detailed table of contents. What about you?

I’d love to get some feedback on your preferences. Is a bibliography important to you? I guess it would be if you were conducting research for a project and wanted to find additional information, right?

Are any of you in research mode as we speak? I feel like I am in research mode practically alllll the time. I guess that’s partly because of my snoopy/inquisitive nature and also I write the monthly SPAWN Market Update for the member area of the SPAWN website. And I am always collecting information, data, stats, stories and other material for this meaty newsletter. SPAWN, by the way, is Small Publishers, Artists and Writers Network at http://www.spawn.org

The SPAWN Market Update is one of the strongest publications around for authors and freelance writers as far as keeping up with trends, opportunities and the latest in resources. It’s the opportunities sections for authors, freelance writers, photographers, artists and those promoting a book that members find most valuable.

For more about me and my books and services, visit my websites. You’ll also find tons of resources and articles on every topic.

http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

January 20, 2011

How to Use Examples to Develop Your Query Letter

Filed under: Writing — Patricia @ 5:34 am

We all like to see examples to follow when we are in doubt as to how to write a book proposal or a query letter. But do they help?

Do you find examples helpful or do they just confuse you? Do you feel as though you should take examples too seriously—if the example query letter includes a list of experts who will be quoted, you believe this is a necessary element for your query letter? If the example query letter includes five marketing ideas, you deduce that you need to come up with five marketing ideas. No! Examples are just examples or ideas for you to use as a guide in designing your own query letter.

Obviously, your query letter will not look exactly like any other query letter because your subject is different and your writing style is different. Your experiences, connections and skills will differ. You could look at a hundred query letters and never find one exactly like yours or one that you feel comfortable patterning yours after. That’s okay. Just use them as guides and study the available instructions to design your query letter. Just keep in mind that your goal is to adequately and succinctly describe your project and make a case for it—sell it.

Rather than taking away from an example exact specifics to use in your query letter, you should study the deeper purpose of the query letter and come to understand its intent. Then go to work devising your query letter with those elements—a description of your project and why it is important/viable. Throw in your abilities, skills and connections that will help to sell this book and you could be signing a publishing contract sometime soon.

Resources and Opportunities for Writers
I have a couple of links I’d like to share. For new writers, you might want to visit http://www.writersandillustrators.com. It is a new writing community where you can display your unpublished work and get it critiqued. You can critique other works and communicate with other writers.

http://www.guru.com is an online marketplace for freelance talent and offers the opportunity to market your skills worldwide. If you need a web designer or photographer or if you want to promote your freelance writing or graphic arts business, you might want to check out Guru.com.

Be sure to sign up for your FREE ebooklet, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book at http://www.patriciafry.com

January 19, 2011

The Business of Authorship

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:42 am

Do you think that authors are the only ones who must define and target an audience? Absolutely not. Anyone who contemplates starting a business or coming out with a new product MUST identify their customers—that is, if they want to be successful.

The thing that causes authors confusion is the fact that they don’t typically look at publishing as a business.

You’ve heard/read me say, “Publishing is not an extension of your writing.” You’ve heard/read me and others say, “Writing is a craft/an art and publishing is a serious business.” Some of you even accept this and understand it to a point. But you may still not quite get it to the degree that you must in order to create a viable product and sell numbers of it.

Most authors hope to make money on their book. But they still have trouble viewing their book as a product that must be advertised—promoted. The fact is that over 76 percent of books fail. The average number that pay-to-publish books sell is 100. In most cases, you will not break even at that rate.

Most of you know something about business. Many of you are in business. You know which brands of clothing, electronics, pet food, laundry detergent, etc. are outselling the others because that’s the one you see promoted with the most gusto. It’s the one that gets the most exposure.

You may notice promotion going on at events you attend—one brand of water is being given away at the track meet, there are signs around the field advertising various local businesses, a plane flies by with a banner asking you to vote for a certain candidate, people are wearing hats with business logos, a car in the parking lot has a sign on the side depicting a real estate company, someone is handing out business cards or brochures, a sign in the snack bar indicates that a certain brand of hotdog is being served. When you decide to have a yard sale, you hang signs to let people know when and where it is, you might place a free ad in the newspaper and hand out notices to neighbors. It’s all advertising/exposure. And it’s something you, as a published author, will have to engage in if you want to sell your books.

Sure, some people will stumble upon the yard sale without having seen the signs. But you can’t rely on that—just as you can’t rely on your book being accepted for sale in bookstores nationwide and it being widely purchased. Not without some effort on your part.

I’ve known a LOT of authors and I can tell you that those with a business sense—those who go into publishing with a business head (no matter their choice of publishing options) always sell more books and become more successful than those who don’t. Write a book from the heart, pay to have the unedited book published and then sit back and wait for it to sell and you will surely fail.

Learn more about how you can promote your particular book through my online-on-demand book promotion course. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

January 18, 2011

Aggressively Go In Search of Your Target Audience

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:27 am

While working on my book revision yesterday, I came across this section about targeting your audience for your book. I thought it might be of interest to those of you who are still a little unsure of who your true audience for your book is and how to determine where they are.

Ask yourself who are you writing this book for? Define who will want to read it, not necessarily who you think should read it. And make sure that this is a large enough audience or a strong enough niche audience to support the book you are writing. (If not, you may want to expand on the concept of your book to appeal to a larger audience.)

Use logic and research when determining your target audience. And be realistic. Seek out statistics reflecting the number of people who purchase genre fiction each year, for example, or who buy certain types of children’s books or cookbooks. Start here: http://www.publishers.org. Click on “Industry Statistics.”

And then you must determine where you will find these people. Discover your audience by visiting websites of authors with books like yours. Who are they directing their advertising toward? Read their media releases—you may get an idea of what groups of consumers they are approaching with their promotional material. Study their book’s back cover copy. Who are they addressing? Read their testimonials. Who wrote them?

It’s not always easy to locate your target audience, but it is important to go through the motions. Otherwise, you are just flailing in the wind. You’ll have a product and no discernable direction for promoting or selling it.

Would you create a new way to sharpen pencils without an idea of who would buy the device? Would you just stand on the street corner or stay in your office waiting for the appropriate customer to come forward? No, you would be out contacting office managers in charge of supplies, promoting to accountants and visiting schools where you know that pencils are widely used. In your production, you would consider your end user—children (is it safe to use?), busy professionals (is it easy to use and attractive?), for example.

Never lose sight of the fact that your book is a product and it is up to you, the author, to identify and discover ways to reach your particular readers (customers). And the best time to do this is before you complete the book. Why?

• You should have your audience in mind as you write the book to make sure that the story will aptly entertain them, be clear and be free of inconsistencies.

• While compiling your nonfiction book, consider whether this is the material, facts, information your target audience desires/needs.

Otherwise, how can you be sure that you are writing a book that is wanted/needed—that will be well-received?

Figure out where you will find your audience. Now don’t cop out and decide that you will simply sell your book through bookstores. Did you know that over half of all books sold in America are sold outside of the traditional bookstore? You must also think outside the bookstore. Think instead, specialty stores, back-of-the-room sales, story time in schools/libraries, college bookstores, Internet sales and, of course, those off-the-wall ideas that could work for your particular book and with your particular personality.

Arrange to do a reading from your crazy-sports-moments book at the county-wide Little League Parents’ end-of-year barbecue. Attend open mic events with your book or poetry. Do signings at motorcycle shops for your book featuring a woman stunt rider. Have a stand and sell your Western romance at local rodeos. Offer your parenting book as a door prize at state and county run parenting classes and so forth.

Use your creative abilities to devise a marketing plan. That’s what it takes in these highly competitive times. With over a million books coming out each year, if we want our book to be in the running for attention with all of the others, we MUST get creative and bold.

Read my book The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book for additional marketing ideas. http://www.matiliapress.com/rightway.html. In fact, you might want to sign up for my online book promotion course to help generate some ideas and devise a plan. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm

January 17, 2011

Educate Your Way to Publishing Success

Filed under: Publishing — Patricia @ 5:19 am

While there are more people making better decisions with regard to their book projects, STILL hopeful authors are taking unknown, treacherous roads in hopes of finding publishing success. They begin their journey without a map, blindly rushing here and there in hopes of locating the entrance through which they can follow their dreams. They either stop at the first place that offers them what they think they want or they choose the wrong fork in the road.

They say to themselves, “I could spend time learning more about the publishing industry or I can pick door number one—that nice publisher that will do all of the work for me and hand me a published book in a few weeks.” Door number one is oh, so tempting. Authors reason, “I’ve put in some hard months writing this wonderful book, why should I take any more time chasing after a publisher when this company wants to publish it NOW? And all they want is a few thousand dollars. I can afford that!”

Fast forward a year or so and you’ll find that author finally doing the work he should have done initially. He has a published book, all right, but things are not popping in his world like he thought they would. He has sold few books. The company has sold none. He gets so little profit from each book that he isn’t motivated to put much effort into promoting them. Besides, he truly hasn’t found an audience that embraces his book. It doesn’t seem to be of interest to those he thought would buy it. Friends have pointed out a few errors in his book and he’s disappointed that the editor he paid extra through the publishing company didn’t catch them. He’s also upset that the publisher won’t let him out of his publishing contract so he can start over and maybe take the other fork in the road.

Since publishing his book, he has had time to do a little research. He has joined a couple of publishing organizations and he’s begun to read some articles about publishing. He now realizes that he didn’t enter into publishing with the right stuff. In fact, he is kicking himself because he approached publishing like such an amateur—not realizing it was big business and that there were so many sharks just swarming to get his money.

He desperately wants to start over—to make some better decisions—and he is beginning to gather the information and facts he wishes he had collected before he went with the first company that expressed an interest in his project.

Now, however, he is stuck in a contract he can’t get out of—that is, without turning over another chunk of money.

If only… How many of you are seeking a publisher for your amazing book? Please, do not make the same mistakes this author and hundreds and hundreds like him have made. Here’s the wisdom for the day:

Study the publishing industry so you know what your options are, the possible consequences of your choices and your responsibilities as a published author.

And write a book proposal so you will know that you are writing the right book for the right audience.

I’m going to add, hire a good book editor for your project.

For more about how to navigate the treacherous publishing waters, read my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Copies of my ebook, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book, are flying off of the Matilija Press shelves—actually, through the Internet waves. Order yours FREE at http://www.patriciafry.com

January 16, 2011

Are You Addicted to Your Book?

Filed under: Authorship,Writing — Patricia @ 4:44 am

Do you seem to eat, sleep and drink your book project? You are writing or revising it every minute you have available. And when you are not working on your book, you are thinking about it. You wake up in the night with ideas. You begin to consider changes or improvements while out walking. And in the middle of a conversation with someone on a completely unrelated topic, you might have an epiphany about how to handle a tricky problem in your story or the structure of your nonfiction book.

I’m in the thick of revising and updating my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book for Allworth Press/Skyhorse and that project is currently ruling my life. Thankfully, I am enjoying every minute of the work—well most minutes. Every once in a while I have a dilemma that makes me a little cranky. But for the most part, I love the work. I can’t wait to get up in the morning to go back to work on it and I have trouble pulling myself away from my desk to visit with our house guest, to run an errand or even to take a walk.

I keep a pen and paper handy for note-taking so I don’t forget a brilliant thought that occurs while I am away from my computer. The only thing I don’t do is discuss the project with nonwriters/nonauthors. They do not understand. If I start talking about a problem I’m having with organization, my frustration with deciding what to pare down and what to keep, the joy I experience when the project is moving along nicely, my thrill at seeing it come together, seemingly, ahead of schedule, they look at me with eyes glazed over.

But you, my dear blog followers, you understand. You are in the trenches with me working on book projects. You are out there composing, revising, self-editing—you know the joys and the challenges. Do you also have some tips for those writers who haven’t become obsessed with their projects, yet?

Yes, there are hopeful authors who just can’t discipline themselves to write. They are either genuinely too busy with life issues or they aren’t motivated enough to sit down and do the writing they claim they want to do.

There are many reasons why authors don’t write. Their excuses come in many shapes and forms. And it’s a shame when someone has a story to tell or information they want to share, but they just can’t get it together to actually do the writing. Or they get so far with their books and become stuck. Do you have advice for these authors?

Maybe my newest ebooklet would help. There has been quite a flurry of interest in 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book. Get your free copy at http://www.patriciafry.com

January 15, 2011

Don’t Try to Create a Make Believe Audience for Your Book

Filed under: Book Proposals — Patricia @ 5:36 am

I suggest that you always write a book proposal before writing your book. At least develop a book proposal before you start shopping your manuscript around or decide to self-publish or pay someone to publish it.

An important part of the book proposal is the process of targeting your audience. And I’m finding that more and more authors are trying to create an audience for their books instead of targeting the most reasonable audience. Rather than determining who would most likely read their books, they are inventing the audience of their dreams and listing this as their target audience.

If you are writing a book proposal, take a look at where you identify your target audience. Be truthful, now—are these likely readers for your book or are you using wishful thinking? While you might want to entice people who have never attended a car race to read your book on insider secrets of car racing, this is NOT your target audience. Everyone who drives cars, who likes movies with fast car scenes or who has ever attended a jalopy race is not your target audience. Your audience comprises people who follow car racing or who are involved in some way. Sure, you might get some curiosity seekers to purchase your book for themselves or as a gift, but these folks are so remote that you would not even list them on your book proposal as a possible audience for your book.

Think long and hard about who makes up the audience for your book. Be realistic. Make sure those on your list are legitimate—folks who would probably, if they had a chance, purchase your book or put it on their wish list. A realistic look at your target audience early on is one of your best tools for publishing success. If you are honest and true in your evaluation, you might discern that your book doesn’t actually have a very large audience. This is not when you start making up potential audience members, this is when you begin to reevaluate your book. Is your niche too small? Are you trying to make the focus too narrow?

There is nothing wrong with a niche book—there is a huge need for them and those with the right stuff will sell to your niche market. But that’s all you can expect. I have actually worked with authors who believe that their obvious niche book could make it to the big time. But that’s another blog post.

My message today is in the form of a warning. Do yourself a huge favor by understanding what is meant by the term target audience and by being realistic when you determine yours. These are the people who want a book like yours—who typically read books like this, who are seeking the information in your book and can’t find it anywhere else, who, if they knew about this book, would definitely (or even probably) buy it. This is your target audience. Sure, others may come out of the woodwork and decide to read your book, but these are not the people you are writing it for—they are not part of your target audience.

If you want to create a larger or a different audience for your book, do it by changing something about your book project—expand on the concept of your book to include a wider audience, use my technique (in The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book) to build a larger audience base, bring in aspects and features that will attract additional segments of readers.

For more about targeting your audience and many, many other aspects of publishing and authorship, be sure to purchase my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

Get your FREE ebooklet, 50 Reasons Why You Should Write That Book: http://www.patriciafry.com

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