Here we are, folks, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel, and I am certain you’ve all been holding your breath – all three and a half of you – in glorious suspense.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.
It is finally time to reveal (oh, I’m reveling in this! I’m sure you’re hanging on my every second-hand word!!) to hear what Dan, Dan the lavatory Editor Man had to say about
“The Secrets Behind Writing and Publishing Your First Book”
But in true informercial style, before I get to the good stuff I’m going to take the opportunity to sell something completely different to you, namely myself/my blog, and point out that I have just added a Facebook Fanpage link to the blog so please pop over and add yourself as a fan (obviously don’t do that if you think MTFF is a load of gobshite) and I also encourage you to subscribe to this blog. or sign up to have new posts sent to you by email.
The reason for this sudden self-aggrandizing scramble? All of these things make me look popular and add to my PLATFORM which I will be explaining shortly – it is related to today’s lesson.
You, too will be wanting a platform by the time you get to the end of this post and we’re not talking about the ones that Thomas, Percy and Gordon pull into. (If only we were, because I’m really good at those!)
These are the basic lessons he taught us:
- How the publishing industry works
- How to find an agent
- How to write a query letter
- How to prepare a good proposal
- What really stupid things not to do
- How to be realistic in our expectations in terms of being an author
- How to tackle the business of selling your book both before and after a publishing deal
As there was so much information to take in I have decided, after much deliberation, to just give you the best and most entertaining bits, and also to drag this all out over a few more posts. We’ll get to the query letter today and I’ll continue with the rest of it a bit later. The extremely factual and numbers-related bits you can find out on the internets anyway (see Taking Responsibility, one of DDTEM‘s favourite phrases) and I loathe being boring. Intentionally boring, anyway. I take it that you’ll be too kind to tell me if I’m sending you to sleep by accident, or else you’ll just drift off elsewhere?
So, here we go, point one. A bit dry, but I did promise..
How the publishing industry works:
Here’s the scoop: There are about 200, 000 books published in the US every year.
“How are you going to make yours one of them?” DDTEM asked us meaningfully.
“I’ll get me coat” thinks MTFF.
It used to be that the big NY publishers were the be all and end all of all things book-related in the US (btw, this was all US slanted advice).
No more. Where there were around 15 major houses, now there are 5, and their power base is crumbling. The big booksellers (Barnes&Noble, Borders etc) are losing money hand over fist and the indies have long been a dying breed.
Coming right up: the gem I paid my $125 to hear:
The most powerful booksellers in the United States right now are (wait for it) Target, Wal-Mart and Costco.
I sort of love that, don’t you?
It’s so hard to get through to the hallowed halls of Random House, but they have to kiss ass at the place where I buy nappies to get their books on the tables so Two can drop free sample cookie crumbs on them.
DDTEM predicts that in a few years Amazon will be book king of the world, becoming direct publishers as everyone will get a Kindle, or printing on demand and they will cut out the middle men who are currently the big publishers.
Interesting. Very interesting.
He also informed us that whether you go with a big publisher, or look to a smaller house, the fact remains that they will probably do little more for you, as a first time author, than print your book and find you distribution and act, in a small way, as a bankroll for your project. The most important thing he stressed, over and over again, was that YOU HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR BOOK.
It is unlikely that you will be put on a book tour. Or if you do that many people will come unless you have been lucky enough to be picked up by a national TV show (again, he stressed that this was unlikely unless you have engineered it yourself). He said you were far more likely to have a 21 year old college intern lacklustrely making a couple of half-hearted calls on your behalf, if you were lucky. Best to organise it all yourself. Take responsibility.
I actually felt myself brightening at this point because I’m quite good at doing everything myself – I have a deep-seated and fundamental belief that I have to do everything that keeps the planet turning anyway, so why should this be any different?
He spoke a bit about self publishing and how it is losing its stigma. Technology has enabled this to become a very reasonable way of getting a book out. Again we looked to Amazon. They can print on demand, give you an author blog, rent you designers for the book covers etc. This can be a very viable way to get started. What you don’t get is distribution, PR, editors, etc. But you do get straight onto Kindle, and into the marketplace. And if you self-publish there is an entire industry of freelancers to assist you – you can hire PR people, hire editors (like DDTEM!), hire all kinds of other professionals and this way control a huge amount of your work. It’s the ultimate way to take responsibility for your book. And many people have gone on to be picked up by publishers after this, so it’s worth considering. Of course it all costs money, so you’ll need some of that. You probably won’t make a lot of it.
Most publishers will not accept unsolicited material.
This means they don’t want you to send them anything. Don’t.
If it’s a really small publisher, they may have guidelines on their website for submission. If so, follow the guidelines precisely and don’t be tempted to do something different. You’ll just end up in the bin.
Publishers, on the whole, will prefer to have an agent offer them new material.
So. You need an agent.
How to get an agent:
First of all you need to identify the right agent for you. Don’t send an agent who represents fiction your ‘How to cook courgette hats’ manuscript, or your hooker memoir to an agent who represents children’s books. Do your research and find someone who represents books from the same genre. Then find out where they are and send them a query letter.
If you have the good luck to find an agent who is interested in you, remember that you are interviewing them just as they are you. It should be a good, trusting relationship and you will be stuck with that person throughout the life of the book and you have to believe that they believe in you and that you can work together well. They should take 15%, no more, and never ask for money up front. They will probably shop your book for you for a maximum of 6 months and if they haven’t found you a deal by then, they’ll probably let you go.
DO NOT SEND MATERIAL UNLESS IT IS REQUESTED OR THERE ARE SPECIFIC SUBMISSION GUIDELINES. It will be chucked out and you will annoy people. Don’t annoy anyone. Be professional. It is a business.
How to write a good query letter:
I suspect most of you reading this blog are actually rather good at writing letters, but just in case, I’m going to give you the outline. Keep it professional (Dear Mr. Blogs/Ms Smith) and make sure you spell their name correctly. Then you tell them that you are writing to them specifically because you like their work and you have a project you think will interest them (obviously put this in your own words).
You are not supposed to outright lie in your query letter. Dan, Dan, the editor man said this several times. But I’m sure you’re supposed to make yourself as attractive as possible. However, in the interests of entertainment and for bowing and scraping purposes I might have told an untruth or two in this example, see if you can spot them.
Dear Ms Smith
I am writing to say that I loved “Bad Mother” by Ayelet Waldman and to congratulate you on its success. It has been a big influence on my own project Motherhood:the Final Frontier
Then you give them a short (SHORT! 2 sentences) description of your own book)
which is a narrative/memoir/fuckknows* based on my blog of the same name that provides an insight into the world of a former British pop star-turned-reluctant-Stepford-wife/eleventh-hour-parent who suffered a midlife crisis due to the humbling role of parenting after the glamorous life of rock-n-roll but then found her true life’s purpose in amongst the dirty diapers and illuminating trips to Costco, Target and Wal-Mart. And Amazon.
*don’t say this
Then a short (SHORT!!) Author biog. Anything that legitimizes you as a writer or your experience on this matter. This is your Platform. Do you have a blog? Are you already a magazine writer? Do you have Twitter followers? Do you have a ready made audience of any kind or any authority in this area? This is where you get a couple of sentences to brag about it. Not more.
In my career as a pop star I sold over 100,000 records worldwide including top 40 hits in the UK and USA. I have a regular parenting column at www.bambinogoodies.co.uk which reaches over a million readers every week. My own blog has sixtygazillion subscribers, a hundred hits per nanosecond and has over 400000000 Twitter followers, all who swear they’d love to buy the book. MTFF is also listed as one of the UK’s top 100 parent bloggers.
Then you tell them what you can send them next (one of the following, and you’d better have it ready, guess which one is true, don’t do that one)
¨ I have a manuscript of 50,000 words upon request
¨ A comprensive proposal if available upon request
¨ An outline and sample chapter available upon request
¨ A few old posts and some sketchy ideas not really put in any kind of order available upon request
Thank you in advance for your consideration,
Mothership
A big hint from Dan, Dan. Type it on white paper. Do not use glitter pen. Do not send pictures of unicorns. Do not make it ‘personal’ or arty in any way. Just very businesslike. Everything else gets binned.
Honestly.
So here we are at the end of Part Deux. I rarely write anything of any practical use, it’s usually something faintly onanistic and self-serving, but hopefully some of you will have found this helpful.
I will continue in a day or two with the remaining points if anyone else is interested, but please don’t hesitate to tell me if you’re bored titless.
And if this WAS useful, please don’t forget to subscribe via RSS or email and facebook fanpage because now that I am thinking of writing my book for real, I have become a revolting PLATFORM WHORE and will be getting out my proverbial hotpants and shaking my (thankfully) virtual booty at you for a bit. But then I’ll forget because I’ll have those urgent cups of tea to make and everyone will be safe again.
Mothership xoxo
{ 15 comments }
As one who has been mired in the bog of trying to get published for more than five years (and you’d really think I’d have got the message by now), this is qjuite simply the best piece of writing I’ve read on the subject. Best of all, it made me laugh at the industry. And mysef. Which was the best bit.
“Most publishers will not accept unsolicited material.
This means they don’t want you to send them anything. Don’t.”
Sublime. Just sublime.
Thanks.
I actually coughed up my tea reading this! Brilliant! I’m unsurprised by the big sellers – it’s the same here Tesco are a major bookseller now. I hope you do write your book – I will be one of your eagerly awaiting buyers.
A note on Amazon – Kindle is certainly big although not sure if it’ll replace paper books to a large extent. However, after selling an ebook direct for over a year (very nice money as no royalties), I will be using their createspace service to put it in print and sell via Amazon. Oh and you should have put the BG having a million readers a week in red – jaysus, that’s a nice thought but nowhere near that…yet!
Very interesting! Hubby has been insisting I can “make it” as a writer ever since I started my blog (he loves me, bless) but this is some great concrete advice to what was an abstract concept in my mind. Assume the UK market works similar to US?
just want to say, really wish you all the luck and best wishes. xo
Loved this post.
Am going to join your platform, or whatever it is, to boost your numbers.
Had to look up ‘onanistic’ – so you have educated me not only on the publishing industry.
I subscribed, and found out that I already subscribe. It’s just Bloglines, isn’t it? I thought it was going to be some fancy new thing that I didn’t know about. I’m always several steps behind in the blogging techie stakes.
So now I have you on my Bloglines feed twice, but sshhh, I won’t say anything if you don’t.
Gosh, it does sound like you got your money’s worth, doesn’t it?
Very interesting – thanks for sharing.
There was an article in the New York Times the other day about Target and books. Apparently they quite often choose books by new authors which have already been out for a while and haven’t done particularly well, and turn them into bestsellers. So to get your book into Target is the equivalent of getting it mentioned on the Oprah or Richard & Judy book club.
Reluctant Memsahib: I do hope you get something out. I love your blog and am sure your book would be delicious. This advice was just the start and I’m sure that you could easily approach an agent or even self publish if you are prepared to do the homework yourself. I’ve found LOADS more info on the interwebs about this since I took DDTEM’s class, though most of it was a trifle snoresome. Good luck! I will buy the book.
Natalie – very impressed you have an ebook out – there is NO END to your energy, woman! What is it and where can we buy it? I don’t think Kindle will replace paper altogether but the print-on-demand thing is going to rule the world, at least according to DDTEM. As I didn’t have actual facts to hand, I felt I was merely exaggerating rather than lying, thus the omission of the red;) Compared to my humble readership it feels like that anyway..
All Grown Up: I don’t know very much about the UK market directly, but have heard that fiction sells better in the UK than nonfiction and the reverse is true in the US. However people are finding ways to genre bust ALL THE TIME so I’d just go ahead and do what you like and see where you can get. It’s always best to do what you love, not worry about the money and see what happens, I find (says she, scrambling for 20p..)
exromana, thank you so much, my sweet! And where is your foodie blog with delicious dhal recipes????
Iota: Glad you liked the post. And that I gave you a new word, if not a very savoury one;) How funny that I made you subscribe twice, and yet mysteriously my numbers went DOWN today. How can this be? I’m driving you away in flocks!
The Mother. Oh, I certainly did. DDTEM was v. good value. And my classmates provided even more entertainment fodder, but more on this later..
NappyValleyGirl: OOH Another reason to love Target (you do know one must pronounce it Tar-jjjay, as if French to make it sound posher, don’t you?). I may make it part of my Platform Whore marketing plan to meet and seduce head buyer of Target book program. (main flaw: said person probably 26 year old gay man who recoils in disgust at agenda-filled Mrs.Robinson in hotpants and glitter shoes)
That was fascinating! I wish you every success. And I will attempt to subscribe, but I am pretty useless at that kind of thing. I will definately buy your book when it comes out though. Am looking forward to it.
Very interesting! I had noticed that the book section in Target had grown increasingly diverse, and I have even picked up books there. I had snobbishly been whisking my cart straight past it, unless I wanted some lowbrow chicklit trash, when one day I found a really good fiction book! I buy almost all my books, used and new, on Amazon now, since I never have luxury of time to go to a specific store to buy books. The last time I was in a bookstore was at the airport! Thanks for sharing. There may be a book in me somewhere trying to get out, if it ever gets the chance!
Fabulous, usefule, and have you thought of charging us for this service?
amjustme: Oh, it’s easy to subscribe, believe me. Or do the email thing (you just give it your address and then click on the confirm link when it sends you an email to check you really want my posts!) That way you don’t even have to bother dropping by! And thanks in advance for the purchase of my book (scribble, scratch, crumple)
Geekymummy. I must also go and look at the books at Target now, if I can drag myself awy from the cheap clothes and attractive knicknacks and BOOTS RANGE OF BUBBLEBATH THEY NOW STOCK OMFG! I actually order most of the books I want at the library and get them to put them on the hold shelf for me because there is no time to look at an actual shelf with Two around. Love the library. Ours is well funded so lots of great stuff there.
Potty Mummy. I AM charging you. You ARE going to buy my book, aren’t you?
MTTF – another virtual blogger friend (Fraught Mummy at http://britsinbosnia.blogspot.com) pointed me in your direction.
I laughed out loud at your posts I and II and will definitely be following from now on. You have given me inspiration, thank you xx
Quite brilliant I wish that I had read this before I was published (non fiction – recipes for children). I didn’t have an agent – I was just lucky. I heard Tim Rice speak recently, when asked how would he guide someone in the music industry, he said that a lot boils down to LUCK. The first question I was asked at a drinks party (when I said that I was writing a cookery book) was,’ Who, is your agent’’. The journalist was stunned when I said that I didn’t have one.
The wordsYOU HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR BOOK jumped out at me, this is so true. Most of the publicity has come from connections that I already had and grabbing expenses for book tours seems to be a bonus. A small television piece arose because of the cookery deck but the TV company had previously mumbled thoughts about a programme, in part due to Masterchef and in part due to a children’s food column that I write, so I already had a small profile. I have just been asked to go on a radio show but have since received an email requesting books for prizes; all losses for the publisher .
In defence of my publisher, she doesn’t have a great deal of money and with Amazon selling so cheaply (and naughty reviewers selling books second hand on ebay, days after their publication date), I have real sympathy for those trying to earn a crust in the publishing industry.
Because I am published in the USA too, I had to be guided by the publisher and this meant some loss of control. If, I could change one thing, I would have insisted on proofing a hard copy. PDFs on the computer screen are really hard work, especially as there is a tendency to read what you should have written (not what you actually have).
Reviews are important Prue leith has been generous and this has encouraged others to look, but again, I had had the opportunity to meet Prue, albeit it only the once. The introduction is worthy of note (Mothership); our eldest son told Prue that his mother was wonderful and that she should come and meet her…. so after all those years of snotty noses, wellies on the wrong foot, tantrums in the Coop of the Glens, nunber one child has grown up and helped his mother big style. If, I hadn’t had six children I wouldn’t have written the cookery book, I’d have had a working life after university and perhaps a happier bank manger but right now I wouldn’t change a thing.
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