Monday Mailbox ~ You're a Published Author?

It's Monday and time to answer your questions. Today's email is decidedly not a good one, but a common question.

You say you're a published author, but I've never heard of you and can't find a reference of your previously published books. Why is that? VR

My response...

It depends on what you've read, what it pertains to and in the circles you follow. I haven't always wrote fiction. I started my publishing career in nonfiction. Do you have any interest in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis? Arthritis in general? Physical therapy with children? Medical text? Dissertations? Medical Abstracts? Computer languages, now ancient and no longer used? Coding Manuals? Textbook collaborations?

No? Then no wonder you don't know me as an author because that's what I wrote and published. Nonfiction is very specifically geared to a set audience and not the general population. Added to this almost all of my previous work are now out of print. Most were before computers came into play with search engines. I also did not write them under this name which makes finding me nearly impossible. No, I'm not being coy about not using my other publishing name. I do not want my publisher name to be tied to my indie author blog.

Still I am a multi-published author. I do know the ropes of publishing, contracts, deadlines, royalties, and agents. As far as being an indie published author, I'm still learning as I go. There are some things that I know to be true, while others are a trial and error situation.

I hope this answers your question.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Writerly Way ~Changes in Publishing

It all started with me wanting to learn about the publishing industry. I'd been an author for a dozen years or more, but was taking someone's word for what was a good deal...my agent. Admittedly, he knew all the ins and outs of the industry. I really didn't have to worry my pretty little head about it. All I had to do was pick a subject, research it, break it down into workable data, and write. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Why rock the boat?

Back in those gone-by days an author wrote and somebody else was delegated with all the other stuff. Like editing, that's what my editor was for to fine tune and correct the grammar mistakes. Times changed and to be a continued success, I had to learn. Not that learning is any problem for me, but change is always disruptive, but accepted grudgingly.

The most pleasant change was putting my manual typewriter in it's case never to be opened again. Except in a major extended power outage. I took to computer word processor like a duck to water. It was so much easier to correct mistakes and change text around without having to use write-out or correction tape. No more carbon paper for duplicates or triplicates. It was an invention from the gods. Thank you Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

But anyhow back to learning more about the business of publishing. Vanity presses or self-publishing was for those who couldn't cut it in the real publishing world. Nobody had a strong following with those authors. The publishers had the inside track of promotion and advertising your book. They knew how to reach people who read. They knew how to get books into catalogs for book buyers in stores, especially those that were in almost every town. They knew how to get reviews of your book. They knew the cover designers. They knew everything. They were the gatekeepers for what people read. They knew best or did they?

123rf.com

With mergers and acquisitions the big publisher were absorbing the competition. You can't really call it a monopoly because there are six big publisher. More like  making the big pond only available to big fish. If you were famous and wanted to write your biography, they throw out huge advances, but the small time author, Jill Nobody, had a hard time breaking into the market. Even authors with a publishing history had a hard time.
 getting their books published.

A small interuption for a story...
I spoke to an idealistic teenager last week during therapy. When she found out I was a published author she was in awe. She told me she was writing a book too. She had envisioned a life of becoming a best-selling author, the fame, the book signings, the television interviews and traveling. I asked her what was the premise behind the book, and genre, and she couldn't tell me. In fact she gave me a "huh?" look. After a few more well pointed questions, I determined it was a contemporary romance novel.

She asked about how to get it published and I asked her if it was finished. No. I asked her about projected word count, another "huh?" look. I asked about her writing history. None, no surprise there. I hated to bust her bubble, but I told her the realities of the industry. How hard it was to find an agent. How difficult if might be to sell the book to a publisher. I dropped the bomb of the 91-99% rejection rate. But I ended on a happy note and told her if that's what is in her heart to do, just do it being aware of the possibility of failure.

Back to publishing changes, I'm just too scatter brained today. Enter the internet. It provided a basis for authors to get their name out there. Blogs and websites became a had-to-have among authors even traditionally published ones. Social networking enabled readers to get to know you, the author, with only minimal face-to-face time. The advent of e-readers caught the publishing industry as a whole unaware. You could reach out to the world from your home. Sites sprang up everywhere for this or that part of publishing. You could get your book reviewed. You could have it professional typeset/formatted. You could find a cover for your book. More and more authors opted to publish on their own.

Yes, it all came at a price. But when you look at 70+% royalties in your pocket versus 12-17% even with the payout, indie (independent) publishing seems more lucrative. It still left me with 60% in my pocket so far in sales I've made. The stigma of self-publishing became less of a thumb-your-nose at the proposition. The shelf life alone makes it worth a try... three months versus eternity.

Have I given up on traditional publishing totally? Now why would I want to do that? I like the have my cake and eat it too side of the street. Until my agents and publishers say I can't and are willing to do all that I do for my indie books, I continue on being a hybrid author. Now I know they will eventually wake up and put it into new contracts, maybe in ten or twenty years, but until then more power and profits to me.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Tuesday Tumbling Term~ Indie Author

I picked the theme Indie Author for this week, but I was hard pressed to find a concise definition for the term. In my search I ran across Barry Eisler's definition that fits pretty well with what I wanted to say.


[Barry] Eisler defines self-publishing: ‘it means you keep the rights to your book and publish it yourself using distributor/retailers like Amazon, Apple, B&N, Kobo, Smashwords, and Sony, typically retaining 70% of the cover price instead of the 17.5% offered by legacy publishers (for digital editions). This isn’t what “most people” mean when they say self-publishing; it’s what everybody means when they say self-publishing.

 
Why would anyone want to self publish or indie publish their work? Did they have a choice? Didn't want to waste their time doing the slush pile thing in searching for an agent? They did the agent search and couldn't find representation? The reasons are limitless?

It was the subject recently in Compuserve Books & Writers Forum in this regard. There were several good responses for both from an author's perspective. Now I usually don't blow smoke up your rear end on this blog. I just tell it like it is. The decision to self-publish is a personal one.

My answer to the question was this...

I'm going to chime in here. I am what they now call a hybrid author. I do both traditional publishing and self-publishing although for the past two years it has been mostly indie or self publishing. I walk both sides of the street as it were. I have two agents. One didn't handle one type of nonfiction I wrote.I'm not going to sugar coat this response. The main question is how much time do you have? How much experience do you have? How much do you know about the publishing industry?

For both you need a good book. That's first. Next you need a platform. To me this means a following and marketing. How sellable is your genre? Narrow market like specialty book or broad like romance. I know there is a huge market there and several distinctive qualities in various forms within romance. This applies to both and you have to have an understanding of both.

I usually tell people who want to indie publish to know what sells, gather a like minded group of folks, and start networking before you finish the rough draft. It will be hard work and long hours. You will wear a wide variety of hats. If you are up for and long battle to get your books read for never-ending period and pulling out the rest of you hair, that you haven't pulled out writing your book in the first place, you might want to consider indie publishing. I'm not trying to deter you just stating facts. But all the control of your material is yours and so is the lion share of the profits because you earn them. You may be successful enough to get monthly or quarterly checks. It's quick and not so easy, and a never ending shelf life.

With traditional publishing, you write, edit, and then find an agent.This may take years and then even with an agent your book might not sell. This process could take years. Not very often but it happens. Agents don't represent you if they can't sell your books. It wastes their time and time is money. Or you could have a lightning strike, like our  beloved Diana, and get an offer before you've ever had a chance to do the Snoopy dance of happiness over finding an agent. It could and has happened.

With traditional publishing, it takes a long time between acceptance of your manuscript by an agent and seeing your book on the shelves of bookstores. The agent may suggest rewrites to attract a publisher, the publisher may have suggestions for edits through the various hands your manuscript passes through, cover artists work diligently on your cover during the final stage. On average from accepted manuscript to bookstores is an average between 18 months to two ears. At anytime the publisher can  decide not to continue with the prospect of publishing your manuscript.

Once released there is a flurry of activity for three months.Why three months? Bookstores like to keep their stock rotating so you have.that long to make a sizable splash in revenue for your book to earn back royalties and before bookstores start returning. These sales figures determine whether or not your next book to be contracted.

What the other traditionally published authors in here say is true. Traditional publishing is far from dead. You have the right to withhold or negotiate some publishing rights. Even with my self published works when it comes to international distribution and some others, I prefer to leave it in the capable hands of my agents. A good agent is worth ten times their weight in gold.

For me, I couldn't do the travel needed in the traditionally publishing world. I searched, but couldn't find an agent to handle my type of fiction, and I'm a writer with a publishing background. I decided to self publish because I could do it on my terms and my time schedule. That's it-plain and simple. Yes it would be much easier on me to traditionally publish, but the concessions and trade offs are the hiccup.

With a husband who is terminally ill, I just can't drop his care and traipse off to this writer's conference, book signing, or interview. I just couldn't do the three month big promo push anymore. I had to limit my traveling to day trips instead of weeks or months. But I wanted to publish again, and there was no wiggle room in my schedule for anything more than him. There still isn't.  It's made even worse since my stroke.

The stigma of self-publishing today is gone, for the most part.  In reality that's part of the problem. So much so that separating the wheat from the chaff is difficult. Everyone is becoming an author and not everyone should. The market is flooded with e-books. It's the new "in" thing. Eventually all the hub-bub will die down, if it isn't starting to already. This is made even more difficult with traditional publishers, better late than never, jumping on board the digital marketplace.

Have you got the temerity for going the distance? 

You might make it as an indie author.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Writerly Ways ~ Surprise! You Are a Business

This week, as you might have noticed, I'm talking about the business end of writing. Surprise! As a published author, you are a business. As a business, there is a long laundry list of what you have to know about being a business entity. Most of it you already know, but some you may not have thought of.

• Production
• Scheduling
• Promotion
• Distribution
• Accounting and tax laws
• Business license
• Marketing

I hear you groaning out there. And you only thought you had to write a good book. You knew as an indie or traditionally published author, you'd have to do marketing. Even if you are traditionally published there are things you have to do to promote yourself. You'll attend conferences, meet the author events, public speaking events, and book signings.

I'm not going to take these in order. I'm going to hit your panic buttons first. Over the course of a few Wednesdays, I'll cover the other topics list above and even combine a couple.

Public Speaking/ Promotion

Putting yourself out there is not for the faint of heart. You'll be in a room full of strangers all eagerly awaiting to hang on every word that comes out of your mouth. Sounds scary, huh? Relax. Just remember a couple things when faced with a room of dive, ten, one hundred, or several thousand strangers and no, I'm not going to say picture them all naked. That could make you sick in some cases...

• Breathe -Everyone has a sense of uncertainty when faced with a room full of strangers. Plaster a fake smile on your face, if you have too. Before long, your smile will be genuine.
• You know at least one person there or maybe two- the coordinator that made the arrangements so it is not a room of total strangers.
• Strangers are people you haven't met yet. Usually before an event there is a general chat session while things are being renailed down. Walk up to a small group of maybe two or three people like you would do at church to welcome new members. No pressure. You don't even have to mention that you're speaking or the anything. Just some general chit-chat.
• You may have your speech written out on cue cards- don't. Instead put one word on each card and a couple of touch points. 
• You are the expert on your book. You lived, breathed, sweated and cried about it for months if not years.  How many parents cannot think of something to say about their babies? This book or books are your babies.
• You are not talking to a group. You are talking to this person or that person that you already met.
• They all want to be you. That's why they came. Of course, they could have come for the rubber chicken and the overcooked roast beef served at dinner also.
• These people took time out of their busy lives to be here, to learn from you, and meet you because you wrote those books or that book. They are there to support you as an author. They are friends and fans you haven't met yet.

Do you look at events any differently. I've had decades worth of public speaking events.

The hardest one for me was a television spot for the Arthritis Foundation. But I practiced the above. I'd made a point of meeting the person beforehand that was holding the microphone and the camerman. The hard part was looking at the camera alone after I was given the microphone.

I had talked to a couple of actor friends I know, some are quite famous now, about how to ignore the camera and speak naturally. The best advice I got was carry something I cherished with me to place above the lens. I talked to the cameraman, and he agreed to placed my ceramic teddy bear on top of the housing. The teddy bear was one I'd used as a focal point during Lamaze childbirths with my older two girls. It worked. I got through the speech exactly as it was scripted.

Other times, a small object will do. I used to have a key shaped stick pin I'd wear on my jacket, until the pin broken from too much wear and tear. It was my personal key to success. It was a reminder to me that if I wasn't successful, I would not have been asked to speak. Now it's a pen my mother bought me over thirty years ago when I published my first article. She told me at the time, "You'll be signing autographs with this pen on day."

Ya gotta love mothers for their undying love and devotion to their children.The only book I ever autographed with it was hers. It's too precious to me for daily use even more so since her death in 1988.

Are you afraid of appearing in person and talking to strangers?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Writerly Ways ~ How do You Know...

As an indie author, how do you know when it is time to publish? This is a toughie. There isn't just one answer. For me I could spend years tweaking sentences and never publish. So how do you know?

As a rule of thumb, my books will pass through six editing passes. It will go past six set of eyes at a minimum and critique group. It will be read aloud line for line, passed on to beta readers for content, and finally published. This process can be long or short depending on all of the parties involved, but still there will be some errors.

That's twelve pairs of eyes besides mine! With traditional publishing, that's how many hands your book will go through. So what's the difference? The people who view your book through professional eyes.

What does it take to have professional eyes, a degree in English, maybe. A slew of published books, maybe. Market savvy, maybe. Fortune tellers, ding,ding we have an answer. They foretell what the reader will be interested in reading 18 months to three years in the future. I don't know about you, but what I was interested in two years ago is nothing like what I am interested in now. And with traditional agents and publisher, they do it all in the first 50 - 250 words written.

Traditional publishers are also known as the gatekeeper. They dictated what the public reads. The indie authors have proved them wrong by appearing on the NYT best sellers list by storming the gate.

So how do you know when a book is finished? For me, it's when I think I've done everything I've done has worked. Will it be error free, probably not. But there's always the hope, that it is. Even the professionals aren't error free, but the author rarely hears about it as much as the indie published author. Someone in the publishing industry hears it first, maybe.

The indie author hears all. Readers expect perfection and hold the author to higher standards than the traditionally published author.  After all, they can put the blame on one person. It's simpler for the critics. All I can say is put your best foot forward as you possibly can, and hope for the best. It helps to have a thick skin too.  When you publish is up to you.  :o)

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Tuesday Tumbling Terms and the Indie Author

It's Tuesday so it must be the Tuesday Tumbling Terms. < Quick look at my clock> Yes, it's Tuesday. <Whew!> These days I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached.

Now for the word of the day is...

per·se·ver·ance
[pur-suh-veer-uh ns]
noun
1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
2. Theology . continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.

Now while two definitions are given here I could change the second definition to fit this blog by changing a few words to read- 2. Continuance through turmoil to the end, leading to publication.

You can twist anything by changing a word or two in any definition.But in reality, it's the first definition that applies to writers. We write a book and submit to agents who will attempt to sell the manuscript, that's if the agent is interested. The agent could say "no thanks" at any time unless you are under contract. The legalese may mention a termination date for the contract. Most agents will not represent you unless they feel strongly about selling your book. They get no money if it doesn't sell, so they are in it with you. They DO earn their fee. Can an agent carry you under contract without selling your manuscript? Yep, they can and no, they don't like it anymore than you do.

Many would-be authors dream,or start a book but never complete it. So many authors do not edit thoroughly. This is probably the most daunting task next to finding an agent or publisher facing authors. Many give up the hope of publishing after a few rejections. It takes perseverance in spite of all of this.

Even if you did like I did and become an indie author, it still takes perseverance to market day in and day out to eek out a living writing. It still takes the effort to finish a manuscript. It still takes strong editing skills. It still takes everything you need to be standardly published and more.

I often talk about the hats I wear and they are many as an indie published author. I am the writer, the editor, the formater, the proofreader, the cover designer, the layout exec, the marketer, the public relations firm, and mother/wife/grandmother/pastor. It isn't easy, but I do it by choice.

If you decide to follow in my footsteps, be forewarned. There is nothing to stop you except you yourself. There is also a no greater reward for a job well done.

Do you have perseverance or have what it takes to persevere?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.