Snowbooks have a nice post on the good and the bad of being a successful small publisher coming up to (I know, I Know) Christmas.
Here
As PersonaNonData poinst out LibraryThing have been adding some slick features recently and more importantly have recived investment too.
Here
If:book blog has a nice post on the economics of publishing on the web.
here
Update: Sorry about the glaring typo in the header, now corrected. Moral of the story; don’t post while tired!
When I look at the search logs on WordPress.com one of the most common searches is something like the one I have used above. I thought it was about time I jot down a few ideas I have about getting published to satisfy those people and not have them go away empty handed.
The journey breaks down in my mind into three segments:
1) Planning
2) Action
3) Follow Through
That’s seems a little abstract but it will change very soon.
This stage is all about decisions, thinking, observing, reading, learning and basically preparing. If you just start writing with absolutely no thought for where you are going, you might get published at the end of it all but you might also end up like the millions of frustrated writers who leave their unfinished/finished manuscripts at the bottom of a pile of papers or in the drawer of a dresser they never open.
It is vital that you ask yourself why you are writing. Are you writing to become a best-selling author and become famous, are you a self help guru whose ideas have not yet been written down, do you have a compelling personal story that you think the market needs and wants to read, have you researched an obscure but wonderful historical episode that will amaze and astound readers, do you possess some new thinking on an aspect of current affairs or politics that will be lapped up by press and readers alike or are you someone much more modest who feels sure that not many people will want to read your material but who just wants to write and see their work in print?
Once you have answered that question you need to respond to the answer. if you are planning on becoming a best-selling author you need to ask yourself do i belong to a genre of any type? Am I really mass market material? And this is the stage where research is important, reading books by rivals/fellow authors, hunting around amazon for similar books and titles. If you don’t know what is out there than you can hardly tailor your work to fit the market segment you want to write for. Every genre and sub genre have their quirks and attributes. if you intend to impress agents and publishers who publish in that genre then you should make damn sure you know them.
Funny that I mention agents and publishers there because this is also the stage when you should be figuring out who is likely to publish such a book. Fiction, Non-fiction, Illustrated or non-illustrated, English German, Sci-Fi, Romance, Computer Programming or Java Script for beginners, they all have natural homes and it is a bit mistake to send letters and queries tot he wrong imprint/publisher/agent because it is wasted time on everyone’s part. Learn you market and learn your route to market.
So you have decided your purpose, located your market, selected the potential publishers/agents and you think you are ready to write. Well I suggest that you make the planning stage a little step or two longer and brainstorm you book first. Use the brainstorm to research stuff you know you will need for the book but don’t know anything about. for instance if you are setting a novel in an Irish fishing village but know nothing of fishing, village life or Ireland, you might be in for a rude awakening when you send your script for assessment. Research, research, research!
I reckon if you know what you want, know who will want it and know everything you need to know about the subject your are probably ready to write. So write. And this is hard. Some people can write very easily, some it has to be drawn from them. Most people I know who write need to find their own routine and stick to it if they ever intend to finish a book.
You will encounter problems throughout, writers block and mind blanks. Plot problems will arise and no doubt at least once you will question the whole premise of the books (Well hopefully you will or else your book will probably be terrible, a little self doubt followed by renewed confidence never hurt anyone. On the other hand too much self doubt is disastrous [you see the delicate balance a writer must maintain]) and want to stop. In fact some of you will stop. Many of you will stop. Some of you will stop and come back but some will just stop and the book will die.
A few will come through the process of completing a first draft. And you are thinking now I get to submit it. NO YOU DON’T! Now you edit it and prune your work and get out the clunkers and the terrible writing and the inconsistencies and the poor set ups, the horrible bak story that just eats up the first few pages. this is the time for really heartbreaking work. But this is also a great time because you have a manuscript and almost a final product.
Once you have redrafted and reworked the book it is time to thing of moving past action to follow through. I would recommend first having someone you trust (and not family, they will think it is great whether is terrible or amazing) read your masterpiece. If you cannot think of anyone ponder it a bit longer and approach someone independent. You should not need to pay for this service. There are enough good readers with critical ideas out there that you must know at least one. If anyone should pay for the manuscript to be read its the publisher or the agent. DO NOT BE SCAMMED INTO PAYING FOR IT!
Before you get your envelopes ready and your stamps licked think over your query letter strategy. Some publishers might not list a query system so call them and ask. Others may request just a letter or a sample. My advice is to follow advice from the companies themselves if you cannot get it and to read generously from the blogs/newsletters and web-sites of agents and editors. The publishing industry is full of little idiosyncrasies and it’s best to obey the diktat rather than get an immediate rejection. Miss Snark has a very good blog though as the name suggests she has a certain tone and may offend.
Once you have sent your query be sure to track dispatches, responses, requests for more and rejections. Best to do so on a spreadsheet or paper if that is your thing. You should always pay close attention to the actual words and tone used to reject your manuscript or query. Agents and publishers are subject to the same constraints as other businesses and sometimes manuscripts are rejected not because they would not work but because they already have enough in a certain genre, have no funds to expand their representation, feel they would not be able to do justice to a title or for myriad reasons which have nothing to do with he quality or lack thereof of you manuscript.
Last but not least if at first you don’t succeed, try try try again. keep at it and keep taking on board the advice and the ideas put to you by the professionals. They may be annoying and indeed a little obnoxious but they may well know what they are talking about!
Remember the balance of the steps is yours but the three segments are good guides:
1) Planning
2) Action
3) Follow Through
Hoping that helps a little
Eoin
I thought (given my recent praise of Miss Snark) that listing a few of the agents I have stumbled onto on the web might be worthwhile. Jennifer Jackson has an interesting blog and a nice site and she works with the Donald Mass Agency.
Pub Rants is a very nice blog by Kristin Nelson.
Rachel Varter works in New York with Lowenstein-Yost Associates and writes a blog (with a great entry on text length [one of my secret bugbears] from the end of August which I meant to link to but forgot) on livejournal.
I really like DesignObserver and I think many people will too. But don’t just take my word. Go read.
Some nice points by a blurb.com user and a nice writer’s blog.
Monday 4th September 2006: They build you up just to drop right down again
Tuesday 5th September: Penguin Don’t get it
Wednesday 6th September 2006: Google News Archive! This is very important
Saturday 9th September 2006: Books aint broke
Sunday 10th September 2006: MASSIVE Google Book Search News
Wow how the hell did I miss this? And why was there not more chat about it? The long and the short of it is that one publisher DIANE Publishing has opened their entire list on Google Book Search to the public:
Good news for policymakers, researchers and others looking for key government documents. Recently, DIANE Publishing, which reprints a wide variety of government publications, made all of its titles in Google Book Search 100 percent viewable. While the Partner Program’s default settings limit people to viewing 20 percent of any title, you’re now free to read every page of every DIANE publication in the index.
The rationale is given by Herman Baron, the President of DIANE Publishing, on the post on Inside Google Book Search:
Our mission has always been to carefully select U.S. government reports and publish them to make it easier for readers to access this valuable information. Google Book Search provides a way for us to make these documents available to Google users worldwide. The free flow of government information to a democratic society is utmost in our mind. We’re pleased to offer everything from the U.S. Army War College Guide to National Security Policy and Strategy to a 1997 House committee hearing on Protecting the Future of Social Security to this GAO report on deterring the illegal diamond trade.
Now I think this is great news. It was only a matter of time before a publisher made a decision like this. Will it result in more book sales? I guess time will tell. I expect one way or the other to see more publishers following suit over the next while.
Happy and excited by this development
Eoin
The kind of discussion I like best is one where my premise is challenged and I am either forced to rethink my position or defend it. I love being shown to be wrong. Yes it can be slightly embarrassing but it is also a wonderful experience to be honestly forced to consider someone else position.
What is even better (and largely the reason for this post) is when someone says something that has been in your mind but you have not put into concrete terms. That happened the other day when someone commenting on my blog said:
Technology is going to wrap itself around books not the other way around!
That seems innocuous but it isn’t it’s actually a very interesting concept. The reality that can be missed in the daily grind of comment on the demise of print and the rise of digital is that the technology that is proven to last, proven to work, proven to sell and works everywhere is ink on paper.
And it is not just that it has a lot to prove, it has to figure out so many thing as it matures that each stage is going to seem like a new era. For all the challenges of physical existence books are a superb piece of technology and they have survived huge changes and tumults over the millennia. When my blog can be retrieved by a researcher in a thousand years for examination and be a useful tool in describing my reality to people with a completely different experience of reality, then I will believe digital can replace physical books.
Well companies try to make digital work in the place of books they come up with concepts like IRex’s Illiad and the Sony E-Reader. E-readers based on the E-ink technology e-paper. Companies know that in order for digital books to be successful they have to mimic physical print. Of course they cannot currently and they are trying to re-invent the wheel. Sometimes it depresses me a little.
But the logic of the statement is clear and brilliant. Companies are wrapping themselves around books and they are trying to become books. They are the ones trying to prove themselves. Books have nothing left to prove and even if some years from now digital books make the shift they need, then books will still remain invaluable. If you doubt that this interview with Seth Godin is worth re-reading.
