Month: April 2013

Authors of the Digital Age–What It Takes to Be a Real Author CEO

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This post, by Kristen Lamb, originally appeared on Kristen Lamb’s blog on 4/12/13.

I do a lot of reading of other blogs, particularly blogs that aren’t about writing. I think this keeps my information fresh. As many of you might know, financial blogger Steve Tobak is one of my favorites, and he regularly inspires my writing.

This past week he had a neat post What It Takes to Be a Real CEO, and there were so many of the principles that applied to being a Digital Age Author. We are now Author CEOs, no matter what path we take. So what does it take to be a REAL Author CEO?

Passion for Work

We must have a passion for writing and a willingness to work hard. To be blunt, being a professional writer is a lot of HARD work. Writers are CEO of a company of one, and many times our writing work is on top of a day job, family, children, and other responsibilities. Going pro isn’t all floating around on a unicorn cloud hanging out with the muse.

All professional authors have to read, learn the craft, make work count, finish the books, and be ruthless and relentless in our edits until the work is complete. We have to build a platform, promote, keep up with taxes, accounting, deductions, receipts, spending, write-offs, mailing lists, etc.

This means we need to get up earlier and stay up later than most people, and we will have to sacrifice a lot. This is why we need passion. Passion takes the sting out of sacrifice. While others are whining, we are working.

Relentless Pursuit of the Dream, Even When Others Think You’re Nuts

In the beginning, this is particularly important. No one will take you seriously. Accept it and sally forth. Brush the dust from your feet.

Others want us to fail, because if we succeed, then we are proof success is a choice. Others will resent us because they want to believe they aren’t in control of their futures. They want to keep their victim mentality because it’s safe and absolves them of personal responsibility for their own futures.

Expect push-back.

Courage in the Face of Adversity

The new paradigm is changing and can be just as scary as the old one. Those who choose a traditional path know the odds of finding an agent and landing a publishing deal are not the best. Most writers who query will fail.

When it comes to a non-traditional path, we have to learn so many new things and wear frightening and unfamiliar hats. Again, the odds are better, but competition is staggering, discoverability is a growing nightmare, and the workload is daunting to even the best of us. But, we must have the courage to do what scares us if we want the dream.

Stickwithitness

 

Read the rest of the post on Kristen Lamb’s blog.

How Self-Publishing Has Changed the Industry

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This post, by Clare Langley-Hawthorne, originally appeared on the Kill Zone blog on 4/15/13.

I read a recent blog post on The Guardian book blog about the 10 ways self-publishing has changed the book world and, after Jim’s post yesterday, it got me thinking about how I would explain the current state of the book world to friends and family who are neither authors, nor wanna-be writers, but who, as book readers, are nonetheless intrigued by all the changes going on in publishing.

I’ve summarized the Guardian’s top 10 list below and am interested in whether or not you agree (though I do think most of them are pretty self-evident):

1. There is now a wider understanding and increased visibility about what publishing is (and acceptance that it’s more difficult than it looks). Self-publishing has enabled people to learn the process and understand what is involved which has led to a wider awareness and diversity in the publishing process.

2. We are no longer confident that publishers and agents know what everyone wants or should read.

3. The copy-editor is now in strong demand as writers realize the limitations of self-editing. Freelance copy-editors are now in high demand by both self-publishing authors and traditional publishing houses.

4. The book as a ‘precious’ object is re-emerging as publishers produce limited, luxury editions.

5. Authors are being empowered to do their own marketing and are no longer reliant on publishers to mediate the relationship between authors and their readers. Looking ahead, authors are likely to be less compliant with what their publishers demand of them.

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes five more list items and some analysis/commentary, on Kill Zone.

BookBinding: Making A Travel Notebook

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Increasingly, we work and play in a digital world.

I read, write, publish, market and often interact with friends online, which I absolutely love and value highly. But recently, I’ve been craving some physical creation, so last week I went along to the London Centre for Book Arts and joined one of their awesome workshops.

Because I write in so many Moleskine journals, I decided to make a Travel Notebook, complete with concertina folded envelope in the back. I’d like to eventually make my own paper, print my own work on it and bind limited editions myself – but that’s a while away! (I got the idea from Cory Doctorow’s awesome limited edition work)

Book binding

I made this!

In the (under 1 min) video below, you can see time-lapse footage of the process plus some pics. You can also watch it here on YouTube.

Extra Information:

  • Find out more from London Centre of Book Arts – and apparently there are similar centres in major cities all over the world. Or try searching for ‘book-binding’ locally.
  • I’m wearing a Nike FuelBand on my wrist, which is proving to be a fantastic way to get me motivated to move more in this very sedentary writer’s life we lead!
  • The video was shot with my iPhone using TimeLapse app which takes a photo every 10 seconds and creates a video from it. I just set it up with a GorillaPod adaptable tripod.

Have you tried book-binding, paper-making or any other physical book art? Or would you like to? I’d love to hear about it. Please do leave a comment [in the comments section of the original post].

 

This is a reprint of a post from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

 

The Ongoing Angst of Successful Writers – Conclusions

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Publetariat Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on Alan Baxter‘s Warrior Scribe site on 4/11/13. Alan is a regular Contributor here at Publetariat, but due to the length of this piece, and its numerous references to related posts on Alan’s site that have not been reprinted here on Publetariat, we are reprinting only the first portion of the article and providing a link back to the rest at the end of our excerpt.

I’ve really enjoyed the recent run of guest posts from six of Australia’s most successful genre writers. Here I’ll try to collate the overlapping themes from those posts into one place (and have links to all the posts in one place too.) First and foremost, I’d like to thank the six respondents for giving their time and honesty to the idea. So here are the links to each individual post, with my heartfelt thanks:

Kaaron Warren

Jo Anderton

Angela Slatter

Lisa L Hannett

Trudi Canavan

Margo Lanagan

I expected considerable consensus from all of these talented writers to most of the questions. It’s pretty obvious the questions were loaded to that end, but that was because I’ve regularly seen those kind of comments from writers of all styles and all levels of success. But let’s go through each of the three questions and see what the key themes were.

1. What do you still fear as a writer, when it comes to putting your work out there? What fills you with doubt and angst?

This is the question that I knew would draw the most consensus. The over-riding responses were of “imposter syndrome” – that dark and quiet thought that no matter how much success you see, at some point everyone is going to realise you’re a hack, or that one day everyone will point and laugh because they’ve all been having you along all this time. It’s simply the fear of not being good enough, contrary to all the available evidence. Or there’s been some terrible mistake.

Kaaron said: I’m still sure that one day someone will say, “You do realise it’s all been an elaborate joke we’ve played on you? You’re a crap writer and no one has ever liked anything you’ve ever written.” Trudi said: “one day I’ll discover that every person who liked and bought my books was just being polite” although she also pointed out: “but I can laugh it off.” That’ll happen when you’ve sold as many books as Trudi has!

In terms of being good enough, Jo said: “I fear being ignored, but I fear attention too. Silence is disheartening, but when people do sit up and take notice I’m terrified they’ll hate the story, tell everyone they know, and then laugh at me. Loudly.” Angela said: “you’ve lavished all your love, attention and care on it, that you’ve flensed and polished it until it looks like a slightly evil supermodel, but that when it’s out in the public gaze someone will find a fault you didn’t see.”

Lisa used a quote from Keats that summed things up well and she explained it thus: “It’s that niggling doubt that you’re not necessarily crap, but that what you’re writing isn’t adding anything exciting to the mix. That it’s just mediocre. That it’s not just forgotten, but forgettable. Now that’s scary.”

I think these fears are actually encouraging. Of course, that doesn’t help in our darkest moments of self-doubt, but the fear we’re not good enough leads to a desire to always be better. I think that’s essential to growth in any art. If we start to think we’re good enough, that we can’t learn more or get better, then surely our work will stagnate and become, at best, ordinary. Not necessarily crap, as Lisa says, but pedestrian. In the pursuit of any art, we need to constantly strive to be better, to out-do what we’ve done before. Sometimes we’ll succeed and sometimes we won’t – we may write something that truly resonates and then write a lot of stuff that doesn’t reach those heights again for quite a while. But we must always strive to do so regardless and surely, as our skill and experience improve, we will reach those heights again, and beyond. There’s no ceiling to how high we can go if we always strive to improve. I think the fear of not being good enough is what constantly drives us in that pursuit.

Margo made an interesting point that bad reviews can sometimes fuel that self-doubt. She said: “those voices feed directly into, and reinforce, that other voice inside me that’s ready to tear me down and call me a fraud”.

Interestingly enough, just yesterday Chuck Wendig posted this blog, about that very same thing. He calls it the “writer as stowaway”. He has two new books coming out soon and the early copies have gone out for review. He describes the feeling like this:

all the while I’ve got that flurry of fear-bubbles in my tummy: egads they won’t like it they’ll despise it I’m going to receive hate mail people might punch me Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly will probably give me whatever the opposite of a starred review is like maybe they’ll rub a cat’s butthole on my face in public OH GODS THAT’S HOW BAD THIS BOOK IS.

In classic Wendig style, he echoes exactly what the writers in my guest posts have said.

The second question I asked was:

2. What career markers do you still strive for? What heights are you determined to scale?

 

Read the rest of the article on Alan Baxter’s Warrior Scribe.

 

Authors Guild's Scott Turow: The Supreme Court, Google, Ebooks, Libraries & Amazon Are All Destroying Authors

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This post, by Mike Masnick, originally appeared on TechDirt on 4/8/13.

from the old-man-yells-at-cloud dept
We’ve written more than a few times about Scott Turow, a brilliant author, but an absolute disaster as the Luddite-driven head of the Authors’ Guild. During his tenure, he’s done a disservice to authors around the globe by basically attacking everything new and modern — despite any opportunities it might provide — and talked up the importance of going back to physical books and bookstores. He’s an often uninformed champion of a past that never really existed and which has no place in modern society. He once claimed that Shakespeare wouldn’t have been successful under today’s copyright law because of piracy, ignoring the fact that copyright law didn’t even exist in the age of Shakespeare. His anti-ebook rants are just kind of wacky.

However, in his latest NY Times op-ed, he’s basically thrown all of his cluelessness together in a rambling mishmash of “and another thing”, combined with his desire to get those nutty technology kids off his lawn. For the few thousand members of the Authors Guild, it’s time you found someone who was actually a visionary to lead, rather than a technology-hating reactionary pining for a mythical time in the past.

First up, a confused reaction to the Supreme Court’s protection of first sale rights in Kirtsaeng.

LAST month, the Supreme Court decided to allow the importation and resale of foreign editions of American works, which are often cheaper than domestic editions. Until now, courts have forbidden such activity as a violation of copyright. Not only does this ruling open the gates to a surge in cheap imports, but since they will be sold in a secondary market, authors won’t get royalties.

First of all, no, this was not a “change” in US law. Courts had not forbidden this particular situation in the past, because the specifics of this hadn’t really been tested in the past other than a few recent cases with somewhat different fact patterns. The point of the Supreme Court’s ruling was to reinforce what most people already believed the law to be: if you buy a book, you have the right to resell it.

As for the “surge” in cheap imports, let’s wait and see. It might impact markets like textbooks, which are artificially inflated, but for regular books? It seems like a huge stretch to think that it would be cost effective to ship in foreign books just for resale. And, of course, secondary markets have existed for ages, and studies have shown that they actually help authors because it makes it less risky to buy a new book, since people know they can resell it. Turow admits that secondary markets have always existed, but then jumps to what this is all “really” about in his mind:

This may sound like a minor problem; authors already contend with an enormous domestic market for secondhand books. But it is the latest example of how the global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors’ income streams. It seems almost every player — publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars — is vying for position at authors’ expense.

Yes, that’s right. The Kirtsaeng decision isn’t just about first sale, it’s really about the evil “global electronic marketplace” sucking authors dry. Of course, Turow fails to mention that Kirtsaeng had next to nothing to do with the internet. Yes, Kirtsaeng ended up selling his books via eBay, but tons of books sell on eBay. That had no impact on the ruling at all. The issue in the ruling was about books legally purchased abroad, and Kirtsaeng did that without the internet — he just had friends and family back in Thailand buying books for him. To blame that on “the global electronic marketplace” is just completely random and wrong. It seems like the kind of thing someone says when they just want to blame technology for everything. Turow has his anti-technology hammer, but he’s got to stop seeing nails in absolutely everything.

 

Read the rest of the post on TechDirt.

How Fiction Authors Can Steal Marketing Ideas from Their Non-Fiction Friends

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I abhor playing team sports. I presume I’m not alone in this dislike, but I do feel the need to share my reasoning. You see, it’s not that a bad teammate or anything like that. It all goes back to middle school: in 6th grade, I went from being the tallest person in my class to one of the shortest. The sudden height catch-up from my peers had an inverse relationship to my prowess in PE class.

Basketball was the particular bane of my existence. When you’re towering two or three inches above your peers, man, basketball is a BLAST. You come to think you have some sort of actual skillz (with a ‘z’) when all you really have is a distinct height advantage.

You may call me a sore loser if you wish (I freely admit that I’m WAY competitive), but when I stopped winning games, I started becoming a bit sour on the whole team sports thing. All of those height-blessed peeps had a total unfair advantage…how could I ever hope to catch up?

I see many fiction authors complaining about a similar unfair advantage, and I completely understand their point of view.

Tell me if you’ve ever felt this way: you look at a fellow indie author, very similar to you in every way except one key one: her book is non-fiction.

You can’t help but think, ”wow, it’s so much easier to market a non-fiction book. You have a built-in jumping off point for marketing, a specific, niche target audience and oodles of angles to approach someone with other than ‘hey, I wrote a book.’”

I totally understand your frustration.

Because, in many ways, marketing non-fiction is much easier than marketing fiction. (Please don’t throw stones at me, non-fiction peeps. I know it’s not necessarily easier for everyone!)

Non-fiction authors have built-in topics to blog about. They have a much easier time pinpointing readers who are interested in their book’s topic. When they find them, there’s an automatic open to engage potential readers in conversation. They’re never short on newsletter content. They can put out a free report or fancy manifesto to draw in fans.

In short: non-fiction authors have it all, right?

Here’s a secret: you, dear fiction author, can have it all, too. Wanna know how?

I’ll show you; it’s a method I’ve enjoyed using with fiction authors for awhile, but it wasn’t until the fabulous Laura Pepper Wu gave it a name that the concept really gelled in my mind.

Fiction authors can gain the advantage of non-fiction authors by finding non-fiction angles for their work.

A What Now?

Think of it this way: how can your fiction work relate to what’s going on here in the boring ol’ real world?

  • Maybe it’s a fabulous location the characters in your novel visit.
  • Perhaps it’s a time period you became particularly well-versed in.
  • Or, maybe it’s a common life topic like parenting, death or disease.

Here’s a quick example: Even if your book isn’t 101 Ways to Cook a Steak, if your main character is a chef, you can still tap into the same fan-finding angles as your non-fiction author friend.

16 Non-Fiction Angle Ideas for Fiction Authors

Luckily, there are a variety of categories you can “mine” for non-fiction angles. Keep reading for overall non-fiction topics as well as specific examples for how you can turn those angles into viable marketing ideas!

Angle Category #1: A Location or Time Period

  • My book takes place in St. Augustine, Florida. Reach out to the St. Augustine Record newspaper and share a bit about your book. Also consider offering up a review copy!
  • My book is set in Paris, France, where I visited last summer. Contact travel blogs and pitch a guest post about your journey and how it influenced the writing of your book.
  • My book is centered around a cruise to Fiji. Partner with a local travel agency to host an event where they can share how to take a trip to Fiji and you can share details about your book.
  • My main character’s parents are from Italy. Host a theme night with a local restaurant featuring Italian food and a reading of your book.
  • My book is a Victorian Romance. Contact a blog interested in Victorian history, culture or fashion and write a guest post or give away a copy of your work.
  • My book takes place during the Civil War. Reach out to reenactment groups, bloggers and historical societies interested in that war and time period.

Angle Category #2: A Character’s Generation, Job, Hobby or Interest

  • My main character is a 75-year-old retiree. Reach out to senior centers in your area and offer to do a reading or signing.
  • My main character is celebrating her Sweet Sixteen. Reach out to high schools and youth-oriented programs.
  • My villain is obsessed with sports. Contact sports bloggers or local sports teams in your area.
  • My sassy sidekick loves gardening. Reach out to local garden clubs as well as bloggers who focus on gardening.
  • My main character is a ghost hunter. There are niche blogs about everything! Contact paranormal bloggers and share a bit about your work and why their fans would enjoy it.
  • A character in my novel is a fashionista. Get in touch with fashion bloggers or the local fashion column in your local paper.

Angle Category #3: A Major Theme or Topic

  • My novel deals with adoption. Contact parenting and adoption bloggers to share your work. Also consider partnering with a local adoption support or awareness group.
  • The main character in my novel is a widow. Contact grief support groups and offer to discuss your book. It can be helpful for those going through something similar.
  • Divorce is a theme in my novel. Contact marriage and relationship bloggers to share your work or ask for a guest post. Share what you’ve learned and experienced on the topic.
  • A character in my novel has a rare form of cancer. Contact foundations and support groups to share your book — many will be appreciative of the research you’ve done and interested to hear of an author discussing the illness.

Now, Start Brainstorming!

  1. Physically or mentally run through your novel, making a list of every non-fiction angle you can think of. Come up with at LEAST 5-10!
  2. Brainstorm a way you can use each angle to reach out to potential readers.
  3. Choose the three best ideas and work on implementing them for the next few months.

The Big Idea

Using non-fiction angles immediately forces you to think outside of the box and connect your fiction story to real-life readers.

While those readers aren’t necessarily crazy fans of [insert your genre here], their interest might just be piqued by a particular angle your book offers them.

The best part of this non-fiction angles gig is that, any time you need to think up new marketing ideas, you can complete the exercise again. I guarantee you will find a new idea each and every time!

As for me…well, I still haven’t quite figured out how to steal basketball strategies from the folks towering over me. Ah, well; I’ve learned to love my short stature anyway!

Talk Back

What non-fiction angles did you find for your book? What brilliant marketing ideas did they spark? Share them with me (and your fellow authors) in the comments [section of the original post]!
This is a reprint from duolit.

The Point Of The Paperback

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This post, by Nichole Bernier, originally appeared on The Millions on 4/2/13.

1.
“Why are they still bothering with paperbacks?” This came from a coffee-shop acquaintance when he heard my book was soon to come out in paperback, nine months after its hardcover release. “Anyone who wants it half price already bought it on ebook, or Amazon.”

Interestingly, his point wasn’t the usual hardcovers-are-dead-long-live-the-hardcover knell. To his mind, what was the use of a second, cheaper paper version anymore, when anyone who wanted it cheaply had already been able to get it in so many different ways?

I would have taken issue with his foregone conclusion about the domination of ebooks over paper, but I didn’t want to spend my babysitting time down that rabbit hole. But he did get me thinking about the role of the paperback relaunch these days, and how publishers go about getting attention for this third version of a novel — fourth, if you count audiobooks.

I did what I usually do when I’m puzzling through something, which is to go back to my journalism-school days and report on it. Judging by the number of writers who asked me to share what I heard, there are a good number of novelists who don’t quite know what to do with their paperbacks, either.

Here’s what I learned, after a month of talking to editors, literary agents, publishers, and other authors: A paperback isn’t just a cheaper version of the book anymore. It’s a makeover. A facelift. And for some, a second shot.

2.
About ebooks. How much are they really cutting into print, both paperbacks and hardcovers? Putting aside the hype and the crystal ball, how do the numbers really look?

The annual Bookstats Report from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), which collects data from 1,977 publishers, is one of the most reliable measures. In the last full report — which came out July 2012 — ebooks outsold hardcovers for the first time, representing $282.3 million in sales (up 28.1%), compared to adult hardcover ($229.6 million, up 2.7%). But not paperback — which, while down 10.5%, still represented $299.8 million in sales. The next report comes out this July, and it remains to be seen whether ebook sales will exceed paper. Monthly stat-shots put out by the AAP since the last annual report show trade paperbacks up, but the group’s spokesperson cautioned against drawing conclusions from interim reports rather than year-end numbers.

Numbers aside, do we need to defend whether the paperback-following-hardcover still has relevance?

Read the rest of the post, which includes a gallery of before and after book covers, on The Millions.

4 [Nonfiction] Ebook Writing Tips that Will Help You Go from Average to Awesome

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This post, by Cheryl Pickett, originally appeared on The Future Of Ink site on 2/22/13.

If you’re going to go through all the effort and time to write an ebook, I’d be willing to bet you don’t want the response to be like a bored dog!

You don’t want people feeling uninspired, or worse yet, like they’re ready for a nap when they’re done reading your words.

So how do you create a book that’s interesting instead of sleep inducing, awesome instead of average? Here are four ebook writing tips that will put you on the right track.

Build a Bridge

Even though these tips are about how to improve your writing, the first thing I’d like you to do isn’t about words, but rather a picture. In your mind’s eye, picture a bridge over a river.

It doesn’t really matter what kind you think of. All bridges have one thing in common; they are a straight line between the two points they connect.

Bridges don’t meander like a garden path or a winding road. They take you from Point A on one side to Point B, the other. Also, there’s no confusion about where you will end up if you take a bridge; bridges won’t suddenly move so that you end up somewhere other than where you set out to go.

Books, whether print or digital, are a lot like bridges. People buy nonfiction in particular expecting it to take them from where they are now, needing some information, to where they want to end up, informed and maybe inspired too.

Most people will not be happy with a book that meanders to its purpose or gets totally off track. Unfortunately, a lot of average books out there do exactly that.

Your ebook will be awesome and not average if you’re clear about where it goes from the outset, it’s easy to navigate, and ultimately delivers the reader to the promised end result and no place else.

Go Beyond

 
Read the rest of the post on The Future Of Ink.

7 Publishing Tips I Learned at Writer’s Digest Conference East 2013

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This post, by James H. Duncan, originally appeared on his site on 4/7/13.

I recently attended Writer’s Digest Conference East in New York City — my first writing conference in almost seven years — and aside from the standard (though invaluable) advice on craft, career, and publishing options for writers, I picked up these seven tidbits of info that I found especially fascinating. You might too, so enjoy!

1. Bookmarks: Every reader needs them. Heck, I have about thirty around my apartment lying in wait and I still take more when I can. So think about creating some with your name and book title on them. They’re easy to make, inexpensive to print, and they can help spread the word about your book, name, website, or twitter handle long after someone has finished your book. It’s a great tip I picked up from Eric DelaBarre (former writer for Law & Order and author of the hit children’s novel Saltwater Taffy).

2. Author Pages: I’ve used CreateSpace/Amazon to publish a collection of poetry, and I plan to use them to publish my upcoming collection of short stories, but I had no idea that they allow any author—no matter who has published the book—to create and modify an author page at Amazon.com. You can even link blogs and twitter accounts to the page. It’s like having a second website for free. Might have been common knowledge before, but it was cool news to me, and I thank Jon Fine, the director of Author and Publisher Relations for Amazon, for that great tip.

3. Blog to Website: Despite their wide use by industry professionals and writers, many blogs and websites that have the tags .blogspot and .wordpress retain a slight stigma as being “less professional” than a website. So the $10 a year (or so) that these sites charge to turn it into a strictly .com operation is well worth the money to dispel any doubt that you are taking this seriously. It’s on my 2013 To Do list for sure.

 

Read the rest of the post on James H. Duncan’s site.

Live First, Write Later: The Case for Less Creative-Writing Schooling

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This post, by Jon Reiner, originally appeared on The Atlantic site on 4/9/13.

An unexpected brush with professional jealousy reminds a writing teacher that it’s what you have to say, not how well you’ve learned to say it, that’s the basis for great stories.

The other day, a college student sent me an autobiographical essay to read, following my visiting lecture to his creative-writing class. I had written my e-mail address on the white board, and he was the only student who took me up on my general offer of help. What I received wasn’t well written. It suffered from too much telling and not enough showing—a common shortcoming in student narratives—but buried in its moony diary entries was the germ of a compelling story.

I won’t spoil it here, but seeded in the essay—as I saw it—was the hook of a young man’s shocking decision to walk away from the pinnacle of his adolescent dreams in order to pursue a far less certain adult future. A journey of destiny aborted and reimagined, a tale of courage and risk. Potentially more than a typical student essay.

As my wife and kids watched a TiVoed Glee, I wrote several paragraphs of encouraging and, I hoped, constructive editorial notes, and didn’t give it much more thought until I received an e-mail from the student two days later. He graciously thanked me for my comments and wrote ecstatically that his rough piece had just been accepted for publication by The New Yorker online! Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who recognized an undeveloped story lurking within the wandering pages. According to him, “I met with the editor I’m going to work with, and it might as well have been you talking.” Lucky me.

I shared the news with the student’s creative-writing instructor who’d invited me to class, and she—like me, like every coffee-shop writer in New York—was shot through with a mixed serum of emotions: happy for a nice person’s success; astounded by the coup of his incomplete writing’s placement; envious of the ease at which he’d reached this peak; stunned by the willingness of the magazine to work with material this preliminary and a writer this unproven.

Having labored over a finely tuned story that was recently rejected by the same publication, the bite of the student’s triumph stung. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I felt like a fool, trying to chisel perfect sentences when it clearly didn’t matter. If you had a story in you—as the student did—the quality of the writing wasn’t important, even for the esteemed New Yorker, reflecting this period when writers are tasked to compete with piano-playing cats rather than with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Story is and has always been king, but now more than ever before, it is the entire court. Print and online publications are ginned up to shine an anecdote, an experience, into a gem that will be plucked and dittoed through the social media.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Atlantic.

4 Obstacles to Self-Publishing Success

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Are you one of those authors who keeps meaning to get to publishing your own books, but somehow never manages to actually get all the way to the finish line?

Hey, you’re not alone, it happens to lots of people.

Gathering information from many talks with authors, it seems to me there are 4 big obstacles that trip authors up, and that get in the way of their goals.

What are they?

  • Rejection–Thinking that you’re just not good enough, that people will hate your book—and you—because you’re actually a no-talent hacker with no business publishing your own book.
  • Worry–Feeling overwhelmed by how big the project is, that you will never be able to do it all.
  • Fear–Feeling that no one will notice your book and no one will buy your book and the people that do read it will hate it and write bad things about you on the internet.
  • Confusion–Becoming so totally confused about just what to do and where to start that you never end up doing anything.

Let’s face it, these are powerful human emotions. Putting our work out into the world can bring up lots of resistance and make us question the value of our message, the quality of our writing, and the passion we bring to our work.

That’s why I hate to see authors trapped in these emotions, because they just keep you stuck.

New Video: “Self-Publishing Mistakes, Screw-Ups and Disasters”

I’ve got another video for you that addresses this subject head on, and suggests ways you can get over the traps if you happen to be caught in one at the moment.

In the video I also look at some common mistakes new self-publishers make, and go over some of my own classic goofs just to reassure you that even professionals can screw up big time.

At the end of the video there’s a story I call “The Most Important Book of All,” and I think you’ll get something out of it.

It describes some of the things that happened to me when I first overcame my own resistance and succeeded in publishing a book I knew there was a need for.

Getting that book out into the world wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t cheap either. But I had no idea when I published it just how much it would change my life.

I would have to say that nothing was the same afterwards as it was before.

But better yet, go over and have a look at this video. It runs about 21 minutes and it’s packed with content.

Here’s the link: Self-Publishing Mistakes, Screw-ups and Disasters

If it brings up issues for you (I just watched it again, and it brought up issues for me!) leave me a comment below the video. I’d love to hear from you.

Here’s the link one more time, this will be 21 minutes well spent: Self-Publishing Mistakes, Screw-ups and Disasters

 

This is a reprint of a post that originally appeared on Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

Am I Good Enough?

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This post, by Steven Ramirez, originally appeared on his Glass Highway site and is reprinted here in full with the author’s permission.

Douglas Adams had a name for it. In fact, it was the title of one of his books: The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Sounds dreamy, right? Adams used the phrase in the service of his second detective novel featuring Dirk Gently. In the book, Adams deals with man-made gods who, no longer worshipped, have become destitute, as well as with Gently’s crippling guilt.

For me, though, the phrase aptly sums up that miserable time between two and four in the morning when your eyes fly open suddenly from a troubled sleep, you sit straight up and ask yourself, “Am I good enough?”

If you’re a writer, you know exactly what I’m talking about. All that nonsense about opening a vein and finding your muse—it’s rubbish. What really matters to a writer is Do they like me? Consider this quote from Adams’ book:

There are some people you like immediately, some whom you think you might learn to like in the fullness of time, and some that you simply want to push away from you with a sharp stick.

We all want to be that first guy, but will grudgingly settle for the second. And, God help us, we live in horror of third when it comes to our books.

It’s All Amazon’s Fault
In the world of traditional publishing, publishers actually saved you a ton of time with something called a rejection letter. It was short, painful and private. No one else in the world needed to know that you just had your kiester handed to you because you were not deemed good enough to have your words committed to paper. Over the years, you collected these things like parking tickets and continued writing till you actually produced something that a publisher would accept. You were, according to these great and powerful Wizards of Oz, good enough.

Now it’s actually worse, and it’s all Amazon’s fault. Indie publishing has made it possible to put whatever you want out there in no time at all. Never mind that the cover is cheesy and the text is filled with mistakes and sloppy prose. Never mind that you rushed to finish the last third of the book. Just hit the Publish button and you’re golden! Now the entire world can—well, not reject you, of course. No, it can do something much worse. It can ignore you. Ouch.

The Thrill of Failing
It’s precisely because I am planning to publish my new zombie novel this summer that I am plagued by thoughts of inadequacy. During the daylight hours, I go happily about my business, revising my manuscript, finalizing the book cover and experimenting with eBook formatting. But it’s at night when The Doubt hits me. And it hits hard, son, let me tell you. Sure, I’ve published a number of short stories that have gotten some lovely reviews. But this is a novel we’re talking about. It’s the majors, and I don’t know if I’m good enough.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Remember that one? I keep telling myself that I need to try this. The book, regardless of how well or poorly it’s received, will give me the courage to try another, and another. And that’s a writer’s life. You keep at it because you have no choice.

Nevertheless, failing still sucks but it’s instructive. No one ever does a post mortem on their successes—only the failures. And with failure, you pretty much have a nice blueprint of what not to do next time.

Stay the Course
So what do you do? You keep going. One thing that’s important to remember is to keep your doubts and fears from sabotaging your current efforts. Writing is something you have to work at every day. And every day, if you’re doing it correctly, you get a little better. This is what I tell myself.

Here’s a final thought. There’s nothing more thrilling than thinking you’re going to fail and succeeding wildly against all odds. That’s an experience worth having. Just make sure that whatever it is you’re slaving away ends up with a better title than Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter. Come to think of it, the right title may be the key to the whole thing.

 

Elements Of A Successful Fiction Platform

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This post, by Christina Katz, originally appeared on the Writer’s Digest site on 4/5/13.

For most fiction writers, the true definition of that buzzword “platform” has always seemed a bit fuzzy. While writers of nonfiction can draw upon their subject matter in seeking opportunities for their work, theories on how aspiring novelists should promote themselves abound. Many fiction writers have a vague understanding of the need to network online, but are unsure of the specific and tangible benefits of doing so. Can time invested in platform development up front really help sell more novels later? Does offering craft tips or glimpses of your personal life succeed in leading people to your fiction?

Without having a clear idea of which methods of promoting yourself and your work are really worth the investment of time and money, you might be tempted to avoid the subject entirely. After all, you’ve got a novel to write! But in today’s publishing world, neglecting your platform—even before you have a book deal—can be a big mistake. Simply put, writers need readers. It’s an undisputable fact that many of today’s most successful fiction writers are those who’ve developed ways of creating lasting fans—and of reaching out to new ones every day. And aspiring writers who’ve developed budding fan bases have an advantage when it comes time to appeal to publishers and agents.

So as much as you might want to, you can’t afford to wait to create an online identity. The kinds of connections that translate into devoted readers of your work take time to build. “First and foremost, I try to remember the brand is me, not my latest book,” romance novelist Gwyn Cready says. “My efforts go into building a connection between the reader and Gwyn Cready, the writer.”

The key is to get your name known early on and then work at continually increasing your visibility as your career progresses. But knowing you need a platform and knowing the best way to go about building one are two entirely different matters. The good news is that when developing a strategy for beginning—or strengthening—your own presence and outreach, you don’t have to spend valuable hours starting from scratch with your own trial and error. Many notable novelists have succeeded in building large networks of fans over time—and are willing to share what they’ve learned along the way.

What does a successful platform really look like for a fiction writer? Read on to find out.

Your Website & Blog

 

Read the rest of the post on Writer’s Digest.

Book Buying Trends

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[At] the end of the year [it’s] time for my wife, Barbara, to sum up our bookstore’s sales. There are some interesting results that I’d like to share with all of you.

First of all, the typical customers are in their forties and older. The younger people are, the less likely they are to buy books. Of course some younger people still do, but overall, the book buying populations tends to be older.

The preponderance of children’s book buyers are grandparents. The parents tend to buy electronics. One interesting factor is how many grandparents want to buy books they read when they were kids. Although a few are still in print, they don’t hold the interest of the younger population.

Another interesting fact: 55% of young adults books are bought by adults who prefer reading that genre. So many adults do not have enough time to read as much as they would like. They find young adult books are easy and quick reads with fast developing plots. They are easier to fit into their schedules.

My last article addressed the trends of ebooks, which are having a definite impact on shopping habits. Internet sales are also taking their toll. The current group of young readers, our potential future group of shoppers, are actually being given tablets or readers by their schools. There are some youngsters who have never read a printed book. This does not bode well for bookstores or major publishers.

One interesting trend has been major publishers who have insisted on charging as much for ebooks as they do for printed paperbacks. To me, that is simply greed, because it costs much less to publish an ebook than a printed version, especially since they are producing a printed version anyway. One device they have invented is the “Agency” model, where they dictate to bookstores a 30% rather than a standard 40% discount rate and no discounting the standard retail price. This has come under fire by the Federal Trade Commission in several court battles.

Yes, the book industry is in turmoil. The only easy prediction to make is that the ways to publish and market books will be changing drastically. It is my guess that the days of independent bookstores are numbered. Oh well, I’ve been trying to talk my wife into retiring for several years now.

 

This is a reprint from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

Decrying the Evil Empire of Publishing While Piloting One of Its Battle Cruisers?

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This post, by Bob Mayer, originally appeared on his Write on the River site on 4/2/13.

Amazon, it appears, is the Death Star, the evil empire, that is devouring the publishing universe. At least according to a lot of people who are publicly proclaiming it. That makes Jeff Bezos the Emperor and, hmm, let’s pick Jon Fine, as Darth Vader, because he’s always out there at writers’ events representing Amazon. Behind that long hair and charming smile, lies his true, twisted face. We won’t even get into where he hides his light saber.

The recent Amazon purchase of Goodreads has rattled all these ‘rebels’ out of the encampments and have them polishing up their swords and powering up their own light sabers to . . .

Uh wait. Actually, when you check, you find that most, if not all, of these people, whether they be authors or work for publishers, have books on Amazon for sale. Huh? Are they then not part of Amazon? I mean, Amazon has to sell something. Right? And if these same people are supplying that product and making money off it, aren’t they either Imperial Storm Troopers (the little ones, you know, let’s say a midlist author at a trad publisher who generates probably 60-80% of her eBook royalties and 35% of her print royalties via Amazon) or piloting an Imperial Battle Cruiser (let’s say a Big 6 Publisher that sells a considerable number of books through Amazon, both digital and print, and oh yeah, audio).

How can both be true? How can Scott Turow use his bully pulpit as president of the Authors Guild to decry Amazon over and over again, yet still sell his books on Amazon? I think there’s a word for that.

Hypocritical?

I understand that its Scott’s publisher who sends the book metadata to be sold on Amazon and not Scott himself, but if Amazon is truly the Death Star, why is everyone feeding it?

I’m all for everyone having an opinion. I remember Barnes & Noble when it was the Evil Empire destroying indie bookstores. I also remember B&N when it was one store on 18th in New York City that I visited on Sundays growing up in da’ Bronx. I remember in 1994 when there wasn’t an Amazon. I remember the early part of the last decade as the music business imploded because of digital and NY blithely stuck to business as usual. Now it’s imploding and people are crying FOUL! Not preparing for the future isn’t your competition being unfair, it’s running your business poorly.

 

Read the rest of the post on Write on the River.