What Am I Doing Wrong?

You spent a year crafting the perfect novel. Rewrites. Polishing. Editing. Proofreading. Finally you release your baby into the world and await the crowds of avid readers. But sadly, sales of your new masterpiece falter soon after your family members all have one. It is at this point that you ask yourself, “What am I doing wrong?”

During last weekend’s Just Write writer’s conference I was thinking about how writers get off track once their manuscript becomes a book. I was considering the big blunders, the global errors.  I wanted to write about the worst mistake a writer can make. The longer I thought the more I realized there are LOTS of “worst mistakes.”  I sorted thru my list to figure out the worst of the worst.

At the top of my list is failing to learn about the business. Just because you wrote a book doesn’t mean anyone is going to buy it. But if you write the right book you can improve the odds. So before you self-publish or send that manuscript off to a small press, do some research. Know who your competitors are and what they publish. Know how strong your genre is in the marketplace. What’s missing from the shelves right now? The better you know your market, the easier it will be to figure out a way to connect with readers, to get reviews, to build a platform and ultimately, to sell books.

Another big mistake writers may make is underestimating the importance of their book cover. I’ve even had authors tell me that since they’ve published an ebook the cover is irrelevant. It’s true that readers and book buyers often spend only seconds looking at book covers, and many of them are now viewing thumbnail-size images online. But I think that makes the cover more important than ever, and makes it more challenging to get a cover that hooks a reader in. That’s why we at Intrigue Publishing always invest in a professionally designed cover by someone who understands book design and the publishing industry and I think you should too. If you can't capture people’s attention with a strong cover, you will probably lose potential readers and buyers. If you put a lot of work into writing your book, give your book’s cover the same level of effort.

That’s just a couple of the worst mistakes I think writers can make.  Next week I’ll talk about a couple more.

The Author's Final Step

My next novel, Beyond Blue, has been written, re-written, edited, proofread, formatted and, as you can see, it has been fitted with a beautiful cover. As a publisher I have lots more to do but as an author, you would think my work was done. But no, I have one more crucial duty.  Now I must face the galley proof. 

In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders. They are created for proofreading purposes, but at Intrigue Publishing we also use them as the Advance Reader Copies we send to reviewers. 

They are called Galley proofs because in the days of hand-set letterpress printing, the printer would set the page into galleys, the metal trays into which type was laid and tightened into place. These would be used to print a limited number of copies for proofreading.

When we print them, one copy goes to the author.  His or her assignment is to go over that book with a fine toothed comb, read every word, looking for errors.  This is that writer’s one last chance to find anything wrong, be it a formatting error, spelling, grammar or that character’s name that changed halfway through without us noticing.  This is the writer’s final “I meant to say…” opportunity. It isn’t meant to be rewrite time, but if an author thinks a particular turn of phrase looks clunky in print and he is inspired by the perfect wording, we usually accept it.

So in addition to my other duties, I’m re-re-reading Beyond Blue. Not something I look forward to, but as editorial director I do need to practice what I preach. This being the first book of a new series, I’m not as familiar with the characters and setting as I am with Hannibal Jones or Stark & O’Brien so I have to look extra closely.

What’s the book about?  Well, I try to make this blog about my writing/publishing life rather than my writing itself.  However, if you’re good, maybe I’ll tell you a little about it next week.

The Joy and Frustration of Choices

One of the biggest changes the publishing industry has had to face in the last decade or two is the rise of a variety of formats in which a book can be published.  Since Amazon launched twenty years ago the e-book has come into its own.  That fact has been a book for self publishers and small presses, but it has also made publishing a bit more confusing.

The publishing business was already confusing when all books were paper.  A publisher would sell books to bookstores at a specified discount.  Each time a book was sold the publisher would pay the author a certain percentage of the price. The bookstore discount was pretty consistent at 40%, and cover prices for hard covers, trade paperbacks or mass market paperbacks were also pretty consistent.  For those reasons, author royalties were also pretty consistent across publishers. 

Of course this process continues. But now that author or publisher can also distribute this book for use on the iPhone, iPod Touch, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook and probably some devices I haven’t thought of. Each requires a slightly different format and pays a different royalty.  If a publisher is handling these books, the company has to take those various royalties into account, which means that royalties to authors is not consistent from one publisher to the next. In the future a standard may well appear, but at this point both authors and publishers are still figuring out what seems fair and profitable.

AND there are variations on these variations. For example, if you give Amazon.com exclusive rights to your e-book you can get 70% royalties and even get paid when people just borrow your book. Otherwise your royalty will be just 30%, but you may actually make more if people with other e-readers buy your book.

Beyond that, each publisher (or self-publisher) sets the price for his or her book and there is no consistency there either.  I’ve seen e-books available for 99 cents and for 12.99.  One can assume the lower the price the more books sold but how do you establish what price will bring the publisher the most money?

If you choose to self-publish, good luck deciphering the new world of publishing.  If you find yourself trying to figure out  whether or not a publisher’s contract is fair to you, just now that the publisher on the other side of that contract thought long and hard on the decisions that, he hopes, will lead to a profit for him and for you… but that noboby has it all figured out yet.

The Human Element

In this blog I’ve discussed several facets of the publishing business – submissions, editing, marketing and more.  But one part of our business that I haven’t gotten into is more ephemeral and harder to define. For want of a better term, I’m calling this side of the business the human element.

It is true that writing is both a skill and an art, while publishing is a business. But a publisher is more than a venture capitalist, investing in the potential value of a product.  That is because a publisher doesn’t simply invest in a book.  He also invests in the author, and dealing with the artistic temperament of a creative fiction writer is often much more challenging than dealing with that writer’s work.

For example, editing is the process through which good manuscripts become great manuscripts. At Intrigue Publishing, like most small presses, that process is collaborative.  Professional editors know how to improve pace, strengthen characters, and fill plot holes. But only the author knows how to present his theme, establish the chosen atmosphere and preserve her own voice. We want to end up with the best book possible, but we never want to take the book away from the writer.  Better to let the book and the writer go than to have an unhappy or bitter author in our stable.

The same applies to cover design.  Our job is to create a book cover that will get a reader’s attention, express the book’s genre and tone, and prompt the reader to pick that book up. But authors feel, often very strongly, that what matters is that their cover represents their story accurately.  So for many writers it can’t be a great cover if it depicts a scene that doesn’t actually occur in the book, if characters are facing each other who don’t meet in their story, or if the heroine is wearing a gown she would never wear.  This type of thing may not matter much to the big six publishers (or are there only five now?) but we don’t want to have one of our authors out there promoting their book but hating the cover.

Every press is bound to make decision an author doesn’t favor (we’ve debated the font, page layout and even chapter heads with writers) but we consider every choice carefully and always stand ready to explain why a writer’s preference isn’t followed.  We must never forget that it takes a special person to create a novel others will want to read, and that the publishing industry really rests on that human element.

I'm Baaa-aaaack!!!

A new beginning.  Every new year brings a chance to reexamine our lives and make a fresh start. For me, that process has resulted in, among other things, a new title for this blog.

In preparation for 2014 I had to plan my goals and objectives. In doing so I realized that describing this as an author’s life was no longer accurate.  The life of a publisher is also exciting, and hopefully of interest to those of you who aspire to be published authors, or who just want to know what it’s like to be one.  Besides, publishing is as big a part of my life now as writing, and the two roles are often in conflict.  We all have the same number of hours each day and have to choose carefully what we do with them.  But, as a publisher I have responsibilities to others and they often win out over my selfish desire to add words to my next novel. 

So, yes, high on my list of things to do is completion of the next Hannibal Jones mystery.  And I am dedicated to making sure the second Creatures, Crimes & Creativity conference is even better than the first.  But as editorial director of Intrigue Publishing I owe it to my partners and the emerging writers I work with to read and appraise incoming manuscripts with care, and help the authors we sign with to make their manuscripts as good as they can be.  So I add to my goals the release and publishing of at least six exceptional works of fiction.

There is also the matter of promotion to face.  Only now, in addition to marketing my own novels I must dedicate time and energy to promoting my company and helping to establish our place in the publishing community.  So my objectives now include attendance at a certain number of conferences and assisting with events that support our authors.

But I am off to a pretty good start. I’ve set myself some deadlines.  I’ve cleaned out my office so I now have an uncluttered place to work.  I’m scheduled to be on panels at two literary conferences.  I’m 58,000 words into my next novel and realized this week that it needs another suspect. And Intrigue already has three magnificent books in the hopper scheduled for 2014 release.

SO, if you’re interested in how I juggle my different roles and seek balance in my life, or if you just want to know how my books and publishing venture are doing, keep reading this blog.  And if you have something to say about the writing life, or the life of a publisher, please send me your thoughts and opinions at ascamacho@hotmail.com. I am always happy to host guest blogs.

And I’m always happy to see comments on my blogs.  In this case, what are YOUR plans for 2014? And how will you stick to those plans?

My View of Reviews

I am often asked how to get reviews for a book.  It’s a fair question when fewer and fewer magazines and newspapers have review sections, well known reviewers naturally prefer to review well known authors and even bloggers who review books are inundated with books from publishers every month. 

Blogger reviews are great, and you can get them.  The trick is to network with bloggers.  Start by following the blogs you’d like to be reviewed on.  Post comments often.  When they write a review you really like, tweet it, or if it’s already out there, REtweet it.  BE a fan to GET a fan.  When you send your book out it is much more likely to be reviewed if the reviewer recognizes your name.

Even bloggers who don’t usually review books can help you.  Once they know who you are they might agree to let you post a guest blog talking about your book.  Or, maybe they’ll put an excerpt of your book on their blog.  Many bloggers like to do author interviews, so make sure you offer to answer a few questions. 

Another way to get reviews is to become a reviewer yourself.  I write monthly for The Big Thrill, the newsletter of the International Thriller Writers.  There’s no pay, but it makes networking with other writers in my genre very easy.  And when I have a new book coming out, it is very easy to ask people I have reviewed to take a look at it. 

You don’t have to have connections with a newsletter or magazine to do this.  Post reviews on Amazon.com of books in your genre.  Not only does this put your name in front of their readers, but it makes them more likely to say yes if you ask for a review. 

All the same rules apply to getting reviews in print publications.  Your best bet is to get to know the reviews at local newspapers and magazines.  If they don’t have one, get to know the entertainment writer.  If he’s writing about TV or local theater he might want to review the local author’s work too.  So comment on their articles (so easy now that almost all publications are on line as well) so they’ll get to know your name.

And don’t overlook social media sites.  I regularly post on a Yahoo Group called Kindle Korner and when someone mentions one of my novels I ask them to put their comments where everyone can see.  A lot of the group members have posted reviews of my books.  Other good places to get reviews include Goodreads and Library Thing.  Both sites have easy setups for doing reader giveaways.  Readers can win a free copy of your book if they post reviews.

Of course the most important factor in getting reviews is to write a book worth talking about.

What ELSE Not To Do In Your Novel

Last week I talked about some things fiction writers should NOT do if they want to see their work published.  Since then several fellow authors have mentioned some other crimes that writers need to avoid, enough to warrant a follow-up blog.  For example…

Don’t write a classic.  Thomas Hardy’s “Return of the Native” opens with an entire chapter describing the setting.  That may have made readers swoon in the 1870s but it will simply put today’s readers to sleep.  Keep your book focused on the story, and give us no more detail in setting or background than we really need.  The easiest way to avoid being wordy is to seek out and delete all adverbs and most adjectives.  Nouns and verbs make the story.  

The only thing worse than being overly wordy is being overly scholarly, especially in your dialog.  Atlas Shrugged was a big hit in the 1950s, but you won’t be able to sell a manuscript with a 70 page monolog today.  Dialog needs to imitate the way people converse, and none of us is going to let our friend go on for even a fraction of that time without chiming in.  Also, dialog doesn’t need to follow the same rules of grammar your prose sticks to.  People speak in fragments, use contractions, and sometimes just misuse words.

In the same vein, don’t focus too much on detail in general.  Tom Clancy is a very successful writer, but he had brought any of his manuscripts to Intrigue Publishing we would have passed unless he cut about a quarter of the book.  We just don’t think our readers need to know much more about a particular weapons system than its name and what it can do.  The same applies to day-to-day activities.  Unless something exciting happens during the trip I don’t really need to see our hero sitting in his car going from here to there.  We will assume that your characters do brush their teeth, shower, go to the bathroom, get dressed, etc.  Unless something happens that moves the plot forward or deepens characterization, let it all happen off camera.

Don’t make me work to follow your story.  I’m not against flashbacks, but non-linear storytelling (the TV show Lost comes to mind) will prompt me to put the book down.  Flashing forward and back is not necessary if you have a good story anyway.  Using literary techniques just to show off does not impress me, or most acquisition editors.  The last writer I read who I thought got away with being cute with a story was O. Henry.

If you have more ideas for things that writers should NOT do if they want to get published, share with us!

Conference Planning: Location, Location, Location

 Last week I told you that we here at Intrigue Publishing will launch a new conference for writers and fans next year.  Once we decided to hold the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity (C3) conference the next decision we had to make was where to put it.

We wanted our con to draw readers and writers of the chosen genres from the entire DMV – The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  We also wanted it to be easily accessible for people coming in from farther away.  And we wanted to keep costs down.  The less expensive the venue, the less we would have to charge for registration.  But we had absolute minimum space requirements.  We needed enough rooms to have three panels going on at one time, plus spaces for a bookstore, registration, an author roundtable and special events.  The hunt was on.

A cost comparison quickly ruled out any venue in DC.  Several places in Northern Virginia were in contention, especially in Arlington where Malice Domestic was held for several year, in easy reach of Reagan National Airport.  Then we looked at some promising places near Baltimore Washington International Airport. 

We found what we were looking for just north of Baltimore.  The Marriott Hunt Valley had the space we were looking for at a reasonable price.  It is an easy train ride from BWI Airport.  Plus, the folks there have valuable experience.  For years they’ve hosted Balticon, one of the better known science fiction gatherings.  They know how to do this con thing, and how to handle the special kind of people we call fans.  And did I mention that they offered us a really nice discounted rate for attendee’s hotel rooms?  We met with them and ran through all the details with smiles on both sides of the table.

The next decision was about food.  At some cons the visitors are on their own for dining.  At others meals are included.  We decided to follow the Love Is Murder pattern and include as many meals as possible in the registration price.  This would prompt people to stay in the hotel and network when they weren’t watching a panel.  We arranged to have Friday’s dinner, all three meals Saturday and Sunday’s breakfast be part of the package.  And since the panelists will all be there, fans will be able to sit at a table with their favorite writers, or maybe with new authors they just met.         

Of course, there are a lot of other details involved in putting a con together.  I’ll talk about more of them next week.

HarperCollins Flips the Script

Part of the writing life is trying to keep up with what’s happening in the industry, and it’s a lot more than changes at Amazon.com.

For example, mainstream publisher HarperCollins is launching a new imprint for the express purpose of experimenting with the standard business model. Giving small advances, not accepting returns and giving authors a bigger slice of profits, this big publisher is sounding more like a small press.

This might sound like a step back until you look closely. Big advances are nice, except with the barely makes a profit. Then the author doesn’t get invited back. Big booksellers return 30 to 40 percent of books shipped to them. That’s a major expense to the industry that nobody makes money on. But less up-front money and a bigger profit share is a motivator for writers who know they’ve written a good book. If they go with what I’ve read, a 50/50 profit split, that is sure to reward the authors who are willing to do their share of the work to make a book sell.

This new publishing program based on a non-traditional business model involves buying both print and digital rights. One cool idea is to bundle the formats, that is, sell the paper book, e-book and audio book in one package. Plus, their announced intent is to do a lot of promotion through on-line publicity and savvy marketing - kinda like we small press guys do every day.
Will the idea of a new paradigm scare other publishers? I don’t know. I do think it will rattle retailers. With no returns they’ll have to do what every other retailer in the country does - figure out how many of an item they can really sell, and order that many. Add to that the notion of the publisher focusing on direct sales to consumers and the big book stores might begin to see how the current broken system has babied them.

I’m certainly rooting for this new project to succeed. Anything that shakes up the industry is ultimately good for us little guys with big dreams.

Your Dreams as a Cottage Industry

All the talk I’ve heard about Amazon.com’s “attack on small publishers” has been focused on some sort of “restraint of trade” issue, as if not selling on Amazon.com means not selling at all. Funny, I never considered bringing suit when Barnes and Noble and Books-a-Million refused to carry my Print-On-Demand books. Even funnier, the Amazon debate has not at all focused on the injured parties. Amazon’s new policy doesn’t threaten authors as much as it punishes Print on Demand publishers. The first casualty of the new policy may well be PublishAmerica.

PublishAmerica produces their books using the print on demand process but that in and of itself is not a bad thing. No, the problem with PublishAmerica is two fold. First, they hold the rights to books for several years but don’t pay the author for those rights. They may sell those rights, but unlike an agent, they keep half the money they get. So if an author find a larger publisher, well, he or she is screwed.

The other problem with PublishAmerica is the same as the issue with all publishers who sell a Print On Demand package. They don’t invest in marketing or distributing books because they make their money selling books to their authors instead of bookstores. In most cases, not only don’t these companies pay an advance, but the author pays the company to get his or her book into print. Many of these companies give the impression that authors who do business with them have the chance to make money doing it, maybe even get on a best seller list. They feed those dreams but they are so rarely realized that the exceptions are hardly worth discussing.

The truth is, the Print on Demand publishing industry is built on every author’s dream that his book is better than anyone can guess and if he can just get it out there lots of people will want to buy it. The truth is, there’s a reason all those publishers who pay advances rejected your manuscript - they didn’t think they could sell enough of them to make their money back. The truth is, a publisher who will publish every manuscript that comes in the door doesn’t expect to make money selling those books to bookstores. They know the author will buy books to resell and that’s where they’ll make their profits.

And those publishers are only one link in the chain that shackles optimistic authors. The next step is to tell authors that the only reason their books haven’t sold a million copies yet is that they haven’t been marketed well enough, or edited well enough. There are lots of people who are happy to sell you a marketing plan, or take hundreds of your dollars to edit or rewrite your work, and the false prophets are almost impossible to tell from the real deal until you’ve already written a check. There ARE editors who will tell you your book just isn’t good enough for them to put work into. There ARE marketing experts who will tell you that no virtual blog tour or radio appearance will make your book a best seller. Like publishers, the legitimate ones are selective.

So what do you do if you are convinced that the industry is wrong and you’re right? Well, consider doing it yourself. Instead of giving some stranger hundreds of dollars to produce your book so they can charge you for them, go to the library and learn the process to publish yourself. That way you get to keep all the profits, and if your book goes nowhere you have no one to blame but yourself.

Just be careful, okay, and don’t feed that cottage industry that makes its money on author’s dreams.