Working with an author

Today we have a guest blogger of whom I am very proud - my good friend Cyndi, who is responsible for my busy signing schedule and other promotional successes.


I had never written a blog, but Austin asked if I’d be willing to give it a shot. Me, being somewhat adventurous, agreed even though writing is not something I’ve ever considered as a personal strength. Maybe that will change. My name is Cyndi, and I’ve been working with Austin for a while now as his publicist / branding manager, calling bookstores to schedule signings, contacting blog managers to have him as a guest blogger, and doing some proofreading when he finishes a new book.

If you are new at working with an author, like I am, it can be very enlightening. During the past year and a half or so that I’ve been making calls, sending emails and scheduling book signings, I’ve learned a lot about the writing & publishing business. (I had no idea what an ISBN was, or that POD wasn’t a “nu metal” band) Even though it can be very interesting and intriguing, it can also be stressful. There are deadlines, uncooperative and inexperienced bookstore managers, and downright rude people to deal with occasionally. I admit there have been several times when the frustration level caused a few thin spots in my hair.

There are several things that I’ve learned are very important skills to have (and have surprised myself on many occasions). Number one is organization. If you’re not organized with the contacts and schedule, it is next to impossible to avoid confusion and double bookings. It also makes the writer seem disorganized as well, especially if a bookstore sees scheduling a signing as a big hassle.

The second thing is having an approachable and friendly attitude, and developing good professional relationships with the managers of the stores. It’s nice to know that I am remembered by various managers who are always willing and anxious to be included in the events when they get a call or email from me. It’s especially nice when a manager contacts me, out of the blue, to say they’d like to schedule an event. Remembering even small details about them, such as a recent birth, makes them feel special and not just like another name on the list. That’s where keeping good notes comes into play.

Finally, it is extremely important to follow through with the contacts you’ve made along the way. If you tell someone that you’ll call them back on a certain day, be sure to do that, or be ready to apologize that you weren’t able to touch base with them because something came up. In my experience, most of them will understand.

I’ve often teased Austin that he’ll never have a summer weekend away at the beach with his wife if he keeps wanting me to schedule signings for him. Sometimes I’m sure it seems that it is my personal challenge to see how busy I can keep him. So far so good.

Another blog on how to blog

A while back I shared some valuable tips from my friend and fellow blogger CM Mayo on how to create a good blog. Since it’s a big subject, I thought I’d share more of her valuable advice here, because if a writer is going to have a blog, it needs to be a good one! Here are some more great ideas and suggestions.

#1. Offer Beefy Blogrolls.Writes Tom Christensen, "Your ‘link neighborhood,' the constellation of sites you link to and that link to you, says a lot— both to your readers and to the search engines— about the nature of your blog. It's karmic— if you are generous with credit, praise, and links, I promise you will be repaid."

#2. Offer RSS feed.RSS means "Really Simple Syndication" and, basically, it is a way for readers to subscribe to your blog's updates (or "feed") without their having to actually go into your website and without your having to take their e-mail address.

#3. "Bookmark" and/or "tag" your posts.If you have time, bookmark your posts to bring in more traffic. For more about this and how it works, see Blogging for Dummies.#4. Don't use the free blogging programs and hosting--- get your own.Otherwise, you don't control your own blog. (As you can see, I need to take this advice more seriously.)

WORST PRACTICES

#1. Blogging that's nothing but floggingLeslie Pietrzyk, guest-blogging on "Madam Mayo" wrote: "I'm happy you have a book out; I really am. But if it's all there is to your blog— YOUR book, YOUR readings, YOUR conferences, YOUR mother loving the book— I am going to move on. Please learn to promote yourself shamelessly in a discreet way." Writes Tom Christensen, again on "Madam Mayo," "Try to look at the blog as the product, not as a vehicle for promoting the product: that is how your readers will look at it."

#2. Endless self-referential navel-gazingTom Christensen, guest-blogging on "Madam Mayo" wrote, "being too self-referential is a common, and deadly mistake."

#3. Opening a blog post with an apology"Sorry not to have been posting as I should"— oh, yecch. Just blog.

#4. Long strings of ginormous jpegsI'm talking about pictures here. I love to find them, and I love to include them— but when a blog post has several of them, and I'm on dial-up, and they take eleven cen-tu-rie-sssss to doooooooown-n-n-n-n-load, I've surfed away, click.#5. Black or dark backgroundsThese may look lovely, but they are a strain to read. Be kind to your readers, use a white or very (and I mean very), pale background.

#6. As a header, using the generic forms provided by the hosting service Try to get something original in there that presents you and your blog in the way that best serves your purposes.

RECOMMENDED READING

Blogging for Dummies, by Susanna Gardner and Shane Birley, Wiley Publishing, 2007
See also "Madam Mayo" on www.cmmayo.com which has an extensive archive of posts on blogging and writers's blogs.

TOP HOSTED BLOG SERVICES

Blogger www.blogger.com, WordPress www.wordpress.com, Typepad www.typepad.com

For more about choosing blogging software and services, see Blogging for Dummies.

SELECTED WRITERS'S BLOGS (All Very Different From One Another)

#1. Design expert and author Edward Tufte's Ask E.T.He calls it a moderated forum. Yeah, I'm calling the page a blog because I want to.

#2. Novelist and journalist James Howard Kunstler's Clusterfuck NationOnce a week, a zippy op-ed style essay.

#3. Novelist and creative writing teacher Leslie Pietrzyk's Work-in-ProgressHighly focused and meaty with helpful information. Frequently updated and features many guest-bloggers.

#4. Poet and literary magazine editor Deborah Ager's 32 PoemsWide-ranging, quirky, frequently updated. Big on Web 2.0 tools.

#5. Childrens writer Erica Perl's PajamazonChildrens' book recommendations (and a bit more). Part of Offsprung news.

#6. Travel writer Rolf Potts' VagabondingFun, daily updates, multiple bloggers working for him.

#7. Professor of History, Middle East expert and author Juan Cole's Informed CommentOne of the go-to places for news about Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Updated daily with multiple links and commentary. (Boy howdy does he sell ads!)
#8. Novelist Laila Lailami's Moorish GirlShe's been around almost from the time blogging began.

#9. Editor, graphic designer, translator and writer Tom Christensen's Right-reading Eclectic quality links, and he encourages both mail and comments.

#10. A cabal of crime novelists's Naked AuthorsRegular posting by Paul Levin, Patricia Smiley, James O. Born, Jacqueline Winspear, and Cornelia Read.

#11. Fiction writer and editor Maud Newton News, opinion, a charming miscellanea--- hers is one of the longest-standing and most respected lit-blogs.

#12. Novelist and essayist Jane Smiley (on the Huffington Post)One of our finest novelists. Her blogging, however, is focused on politics.

#13. Fiction writer and journalist David Lida's Mostly Mexico CityInteresting photos of Mexico City with brief commentary.

#14. Novelist M.J. Rose's Buzz, Balls & HypeShe's the author of some steamy best-sellers; the blog supports her "AuthorBuzz" advertising business.

#15. C. Monks's Utter WonderQuirky, elegant design.

Publishing’s Inconvenient Truth?

Regular visitors to this site know that I am a supporter of self-publishers, small publishers and even Print On Demand authors. After all, I am or have been all of the above. I always believed that having my book out there would be a plus, and that a track record of sales would make me more attractive to publishers. Besides, with a book published I can demonstrate how hard I’m willing to work to sell books.

The truth may be someone different. I’ve spoken with several agents lately and been told some things that, if true, I wish someone had told me a lot sooner. Some things that POD Publishers and small presses would NOT want you to know.

For example, I’ve been told that some agents automatically reject any manuscript from an author who wants to step up to a bigger house, or wants a chance at a wider readership once he or she is already published. They say that publishers prefer the unknown risk of debut authors to the known potential of established authors who have shown they’ll promote their work, unless those authors have sold more than 50,000 copies.

For years I’d heard that large publishers would pick up books that had been successful at a small house or POD, but until now no one every defined “successful” for me. (This particular agent, Janet Reid, was speaking in the Sisters-in-Crime newsletter.)

Agents also report that most publishers aren’t interested in taking on a series that is already started. They might look at a new series by an author with a series already published, but only if they see the new series as potentially a big breakout hit.

So the advice from these agents is, keep submitting everywhere because if you self-publish, publish POD or go with a small press it could spike your chances at a career as an author for one of the big houses. Ms Reid says that until you’ve queried 50 agents with three separate books, it’s too soon to consider the other options.

It’s hard to say to what extent this is just information that small presses and POD companies just don’t want you to hear, since their livelihood is based on getting writers to publish with them. There is also quite an industry that has sprung up around selling products and services to self-publishers and POD authors. They don’t want you to think it’s pointless, or worse, counter-productive to try.

But it’s also hard to say to what extent this information is self-serving for the agents, whose livelihood depends on selling manuscripts to companies that pay an advance big enough to make 15% worth having.

As there are no disinterested parties in this business, we must all still use our best judgment: publish now and risk never being considered by the big guys, or keep submitting, knowing that you may never be considered by the big guys.

Mainstream VS Self-Publishing by Denise Camacho

I want to talk this time about the pros and cons of self-publishing.

Let’s begin with the pros. There are a lot of reasons why you might want to self-publish. Key among these is the ability to control your product and not give it over to a publisher that might change particular aspects of it that you hold near and dear.

There are other reasons such as being able to revise it at will. This is possible if you go with a printing company such as Lightning Source. With Lightning Source you can upload new revisions to your product whenever you like for a small fee. In addition, with a number of companies you can print short runs of 25 at a time. This keeps you from having to buy 100s or 1000s of copies of the books and the possibility of never getting your money back.

And one of the best reasons to self-publish is because you can make a lot more money from it. A mainstream publisher will take the bulk of the profits leaving you with a mere 7% or so. However if you self-publish you will garner the bulk of the profit. A typical book priced at $14.95 might cost you around $3.79 to make, a fee to ship and if you are hand-selling it that gives you a profit of about $10. Quite a difference from the $1.45 or so you would make from a mainstream publisher.

Also if you compare it to POD, the POD company will make you pay them to put your product into print, and then they make you pay on average about 60% of the cover price to purchase them. Not a money making prospect from where I stand.

Ok, so now let’s discuss the cons of self-publishing. You won’t get your books into the major bookstores across the country because you won’t have the backing and marketing engine that a mainstream publisher can provide. And because most self-published authors think it is an unnecessary expense to get their product professionally edited it is a real benefit that a mainstream publisher will put forth the expense to have the product edited. This is very valuable and something that more self-published authors should do.

So there are pros and cons for self-publishing, but with the new technology and the fact that better and better novels are being self-published, it would appear that the industry is finally starting to see that they are not the only game in town anymore.

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.

A blog on how a writer should blog

At this point I figure every writer has been told that he or she needs to start a blog. Like writing a good book, this sounds easy until you actually try to do it. Well, there’s hope, and help!

My friend and fellow blogger CM Mayo has mastered the art of blogging. At the recent Maryland Writers Association conference she spoke on the subject, and offered to let me share some of the valuable advice in the handout she used. Below you will find part of her list of best practices for blogs.

1. Start with clear intentions.What do you want your blog to do for you? How much time are you willing to spend blogging? What image do you want to project? What kind of readers are you aiming to attract? I started my blog, "Madam Mayo," to help promote my anthology, Mexico: A Traveler's Literary Companion, as well as my other books, events, and workshops. That said, I have continued to blog because I love exploring the form. I now think of my blog as a kind of filter (read about that here).

#2. Open your mind to the many possibilities of what your blog can be and do.Be careful not to jump to conclusions about what a blog is or is not. Guest-blogging on "Madam Mayo," Tom Christensen (whose blog is "Right-reading") wrote: "Just as there is no one way to write a novel, so there is no one way to write a blog. I imagine Joyce's blog would look a lot different from Proust's, or from Kafka's, or from Celine's, and so on." [Ed. Note: Kafka’s blog! What a wonderfully tempting writing exercise!]

Be sure to have a look at my list of top writer's blogs— you might be amazed at how different they are from one another. Writers are forever telling me, "I can't blog because I don't have time to post every day." But why, pray tell, do you "have to" post every day? Or, "I can't blog because I don't have time to deal with all the comments." Who says you have to allow comments? With your blog, you make the rules.

#3. Provide content that is useful, interesting, charming, or at least funny.Because otherwise you will not have readers! This sounds obvious, but for a large number of writers, alas... well, go visit a few and see for yourself.... Writes Tom Christensen (again on "Madam Mayo"), "you have to have something original to offer. Some bloggers do succeed as aggregators of content produced by others, but I think it is more difficult to get by with that approach than it used to be. Sure, many posts can consist of passing along items spotted elsewhere, but unless you create some original content with a unique point of view, it will be difficult for the blog to grow."

#4. Make it clear to a first-time visitor who you are as a writer.Your name, what you write, the link to your books and web page, etc. This information can be contained in a link and/or the sidebar, but make sure it's right up front.

#5. Offer brief posts, as opposed to essay-like posts.There are some notable exceptions, but generally, the better blogs offer short posts (a single sentence to a paragraph or two), that are rich with quality links.

#6. Feature guest-bloggers.A voice other than your own can liven up your blog. Tip: Anyone who is actively promoting something (a new book, for example) is usually game to offer a guest-blog post. I find they are most likely to accept when this does not require more than a paragraph of writing, and when I can offer them a specific date for their guest-blog post. Madam Mayo, for example, hosts guest-bloggers (generally) on Wednesdays with a "5 link format."

#7. Offer lots of good links.For example: if you mention a book, link to that book's page on, say, amazon.com. If you mention, say, Jane Austen, be sure to offer a link to some web page about her. I love to find lists of links. On my own "Madam Mayo" blog, I offer, for example, Top 10 Books read in 2007; Top 5 Pug Videos on Youtube; 10 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Writing Workshop.

#8. Post on a regular schedule.To attract repeat visitors, predictability is more important than frequency. Though certainly, frequency helps. Madam Mayo--- as noted on the home page--- is "updated every Monday and in-between more often than not. Guest-blog posts generally on Wednesdays."

#9. Indulge in a few off-topic obsessions.This tip is from novelist Leslie Pietrzyk, whose blog is "Work in Progress." Guest-blogging on "Madam Mayo," she wrote, " I enjoy feeling there's a person— complete with quirky taste— behind the magic curtain."

#10. "Mine" your blog.Dig into your blog and bring up the better / more interesting / traffic-generating posts and link to them from your sidebar. Some of "Madam Mayo's" post popular posts include "The 3 Questions I am Most Frequently Asked About the Writing Business"; Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and "Jill Bolte Taylor's TED Video".

In a future blog I will share more of Madame Mayo’s blog wisdom. Meanwhile keep reading her blog.

How Do You Choose a Speaker?

Yesterday was the 20th Annual Maryland Writers’ Association conference that I coordinated. I think it went very well overall, but there was one presenter that I took issue with. As a conference coordinator I try very hard to make sure that I get presenters that are applicable to the audience and also that they can offer something valuable.

Rather than out this presenter, I wanted to talk about what makes a good presenter and what you should look for when you are recruiting individuals to present at your meetings, conferences and book clubs.

When you are looking for a person to present information or experience to your group be sure you have done your research.

Do they provide you with the following:

1. Resume of previous work experience that you can validate.
Now this does not mean the references they spoon feed you. This means that you can call the person who hired them and ask if this presenter gave valuable information and presented themselves in a professional manner.
2. Is the information on their website up-to-date. If you scan the website are the events that this presenter attended last year’s events or are they current. Has this presenter done gigs in the last 3-4 months? If not you might want to wonder why. If nobody wants to have them as a presenter there could be good reason for that. Also, if they are not taking the time to update their website they are doing themselves a disservice and that should send up at least an orange flag.
3. Content of the presentation you would like them to give. If they don’t have an actual outline on their website be sure and ask for one to be sure that they are going to be giving relevant information to your audience.

These are just a few things to look for.

Additionally, make sure they have a current photo and bio. Some of the photos that I received were out of date to the point that I didn’t recognize a couple of the presenters from their photo. One of them not only had a different color of hair, but it was a different length and they looked nothing at all like their photo. Your audience needs to be able to recognize the photo in the program with the individual walking around. Networking with these individuals is key to a successful conference.

Also, do your best to have a conversation with your presenter via phone if possible, but at a minimum via email to get a read on how they are going to be as a presenter. You may get fooled by their “interview” voice, but if you’re good at spotting the red flags you should be able to weed out the unprofessional and unknowledgeable ones.

Each time I do this conference I learn something new about how to pick out the bad apples and I’m getting pretty good at it. The conference was a big success I believe and everyone went home with something learned and a new energy to put into their writing.

If you are in the DC, MD and VA area and are looking for speakers for your events let me know. I have a list of those that I recommend and would be happy to share.