To Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish is the Question, and Just Where Can I Get it Done? Part I

Traditional Publishing

Now that you’re all edited to perfection, and formatted, it’s time to decide just how you want to publish. There are a couple of options, and within those are even more options. First, though, you need to decide if you prefer to publish traditionally, with a formal publisher, or if you just want to do it yourself.

There are any number of schools of thought on this, and even more opinions. I’ve done it both ways, so I’ll just tell you how to go about each to the best of my admittedly limited knowledge, and you can decide which on is right for you.

Traditional publishing refers to having your book published by a publishing house. There are many publishing houses out there, some of them big publishers (generally referred to as “the big six”), some middle ground publishers, and then the small or independent publishing houses. Each offer different things, and each individual publishing house will have its own rules or policies.

Who are the big six?

Hachette Book Group (formerly Warner Books, as in Time Warner). More recognizable are some of their imprints, such as Little, Brown & Company, Grand Central, and Orbit

Harper Collins has many imprints, I think somewhere in the range of thirty-ish, such as Harper Teen, Avon, Walden Pond Press, and William Morrow.

MacMillan Publishers also has many imprints, including Rodale, Templar, and St. Martin’s Press. I believe they have around fifty-ish divisions.

Penguin Group just this year overtook Random House as the largest publisher.  Besides Penguin Books, they imprint Ace Books, DAW Books, Signet Books, Viking Press, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, and Jove among many others.

Random House of course includes Crown Publishing Group and Knopf Doubleday Group, with I don’t know how many imprints. Ballantine, Delacorte, Golden Books, Bantam, Dell, and of course, Doubleday.

Simon & Schuster rounds out the six with Free Press, Gallery Books, Pocket, and Scribner to their name.

I will tell you right now you don’t have a chance to even be looked at by any of these big guns without an agent. Direct inquiries, or worse, direct mailing of your manuscript will land your efforts in the trashcan, and can possible even get you blacklisted if you’re a pain in the butt about it. So if you’re looking to be published by any of these guys or their subsidiaries, get yourself an agent.

How to get an agent? You can either google “agents” and search them out, one by one, or you can subscribe to a service such as WritersDigest or WritersMarket, where they have done the homework for you. However, even if you subscribe to a service such as that to narrow your search, make sure to go to each agent’s website and read their guidelines. If you don’t follow their guidelines strictly, they won’t even glance at your query letter, and you will have wasted your time. Make sure you double check if they require exclusive submissions (meaning don’t send it to anyone else until they’ve given you a yea or nay) or accept simultaneous submissions (meaning you can send to as many as you want at once). If you do have simultaneous submissions out, let them know in your query. It’s the polite thing to do.

Ah, yes, the dreaded query letter. I wish I could give you some magic formula for writing one, but I don’t have it. No one does, because it’s all a matter of you writing the right words to catch the attention of the agent you are querying, and to make your book sound like the best thing written since Grapes of Wrath. You can also google this, and read advice from any number of authors, agents, and editors. The most important thing to remember is that agents are busy, and receive hundreds of queries a week. You must catch their attention immediately, within 10 seconds, or you don’t have a shot. And be professional. Absolutely no spelling or grammatical errors or you’re out. There are some online classes you can take to polish your query, and I highly suggest doing this first.

Also, don’t send a query to an agent you don’t really care to work with. What if they offer to represent you, and then you say, “Uh, no thanks, I’ll wait for someone better.” Agents are a fairly close knit bunch, and they will let the others know about this ungrateful author they dealt with. Guess what will happen to your query at the next agent’s desk? Bottom line: don’t waste their time.

Be prepared for rejection. There may be the rare author out there who was picked up by their first agent. I don’t know who they are, but they could exist, right? Do you know that Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help, was rejected 60 times before an agent signed her? Stephenie Meyer was rejected fifteen times. That’s actually a pretty low number of rejections. So be prepared. And be prepared that no matter how prepared you think you are, how tough you think you are, rejection hurts. Don’t expect them to send constructive criticism, either. Remember the line about receiving hundreds of queries a week? You’ll be lucky to receive a form letter rejection.

You can also choose to look at some of the smaller publishing houses, sometimes referred to as independent (indie), or vanity publishers. Many times they will accept submissions directly from an author without an agent, and some of them actually won’t take an author who has an agent.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a big check to come in the mail, either. The face of publishing has changed dramatically. Gone are the days of sending in your manuscript, receiving a fat advance, and then being sent on a whirlwind book signing tour. In some instances, you may receive an advance which is not a “bonus” per se, but rather is the publisher giving you a deposit against future earnings of the book, which means you don’t get paid any more until you’ve made back that amount of money in your earnings for sales.

Should you be so lucky as to find an agent, and then six months to a year later get picked up by a publisher, you’re looking at another six months to a year before actual publication, then six months more until you receive payment for your first month of sales. Conceivably, you could be looking at thirty months or more from signing with the agent until your first paycheck. While this is worst case scenario, best case scenario is being signed by a smaller publisher, who will get your book out within six to nine months, and then pay you six months after that. If you get a check a year after signing a contract, that’s pretty quick.

What happens once you sign a contract? Well, then the work begins. You will be busier than ever pre-marketing your book. Social networking via Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and the invaluable book blogs begins. You have to start becoming visible long before your book comes out. I won’t get into detail about that here since I’ll be detailing that in a later post, but just know that if you do go on a whirlwind book signing tour, you’ll be footing the bill unless your name is Stephenie Meyer, Stephen King, or Danielle Steele (you get the idea). A publisher isn’t going to dump a bunch of money into something like that on an unknown author. They have no guarantee of making any money on your book. Of course they want to sell your book, because they don’t make money if they don’t, but their end game is to make money off your book, not spend money on your book.

What can you expect to get paid? I would guess your average take is going to be around 15% of the total price, and then deduct from that what your agent makes. Not many people get rich off writing books, unless you can sell millions of books. So if you’re writing, do it for the love and passion of it, and plan to make a decent living if you’re good, but don’t plan to get rich unless you’re amazing. Even then, luck plays a lot into your success.

Next post we will take a look at self-publishing, which is a route many authors are choosing. Even some established, formerly trad-published authors are going that way.

As always, happy writing!

On Writing and Publishing: A Writer Shares Her Limited Knowledge! Part II

Writing: Where Ideas Come From

Who has what it takes to be a writer? My answer to this is, well, anyone. Anyone who has a passion for storytelling, reading, imagining scenarios. Anyone who has the patience to sit in front of the computer, typewriter (yes, I know, what is a typewriter?), or a blank sheet of paper with a pen for an extreme extended period of time. This is usually anywhere from 90 days to a couple of years. 90 days would be a super-fast manuscript, and could probably only be done if you have hours per day to spend on your endeavor. Then, once you’ve finished putting your wonderful, fascinating, unbelievable story down, you have to walk away.

What?

Yup, I said walk away. For at least a couple of weeks, minimum. Why? Because what you’ve put down might have sounded fantastic as you were writing it, but when you go back, you might laugh out loud at what you’ve written. Or you might be pleasantly surprised, sometimes even stunned at what you’ve managed to let leak out of your brain. Those are the best times!

So, now you’ve typed and/or written 75,000+ words. You’re a writer, right? Yup, again. Of course you are; you’ve written something. Are you an author, though? Hmm…that’s a matter of perspective, I suppose. I did not consider myself an author until I had published, sold, and had a few solid reviews on my first book before I felt like an author. I’m sure it’s different for every writer, as to when they feel comfortable with the title of “author”. For me, my reluctance was because it was something I had long dreamed about, longed for, desired. But, out of fear, never pursued. Now, I don’t know why I waited so long!

Anyone who’s ever sat before a blank piece of paper, or a blank computer screen, can understand fully the term “writers block”. We know what we want to fill the whiteness with; it’s the actual execution that stymies us. However, once your pens starts moving, or your fingers start typing, a sort of magic happens. Or at least, it should.

If you want your reader to be transported by your words, then you need to be as well. It doesn’t happen 100% of the time, of course. Well, okay, maybe for some writers, those who write amazing books that pull a reader in and hold them captive until the last page, whereupon the reader will be moved, touched, provoked…at the minimum, upset that the book has ended, that there are no pages to follow. We all wish we could write those, but alas, there are writers few and far between with that kind of immense talent.

Instead, we sit down with an idea, and hope to translate it into something at least vaguely interesting to a few people willing to read our words. But where do those ideas come from?

I can only speak for myself, of course. I’d love to hear from any of you as to where you’re ideas come from. Some of these ideas you can incorporate, some just come from within the strange depths of my crazy brain.

Dreams: It seems cliché, I know, but I honestly do dream up some of my ideas—literally. I can’t say what causes the dreams, but when I wake, if I can remember it, I have an inkling for a story.

Songs: Have you ever listened to a song and heard just a line, even as little as a phrase, and an idea for a story sprouted from there? Maybe it was even just a bar of notes, without any words, that inspired you? If so, write it down. You may not have the whole thing yet, but if you write it down, let it . . . fester, so to speak, you’ll eventually have an idea . . . or not.

Life: I spend a lot of time paying attention. The world is full of stories. You know the phrase, truth is stranger than fiction? It’s true. It’s also far more interesting. Stories from friends, strangers, relatives, even TV shows are great jumping off places. For example, in Geek Girl, I needed a backstory for Jen. One day I was watching a TV show about teens in prison (which broke my heart, by the way) and a boy was telling his childhood story. With a few minor adjustments, voilà, I had her backstory. I’m sadly addicted to true-stories on TV, which always makes me wonder what happened in a person’s life to get them to that point, and from there, I wonder, what if they’d taken a different path, made different decisions? And many times from those thoughts, I have a story. (You need to be careful here to make sure you’re making the story your own, changing it to be completely fiction, so that you aren’t treading on someone’s toes.)

Fantasy: I’ve always entertained myself by making up stories in my head. This is a great way to pass time, particularly if you’re bored. Even if you’re not—when I’m on my Harley, it’s my favorite activity to do, and that’s in the middle of having the time of my life! Usually fantasies star yourself. That doesn’t mean that you can’t later take the same idea you just had and transform it into a fictional story using fictional characters. Again, it’s just a jumping off point.

What You Know: This comes in handy best when dealing with non-fiction, but also works for fiction. Had an experience at some point that made a deep impression on you? Put it in your story. In Heart on a Chain there’s a small scene where Kate enters middle school, and is shut out by her friends, destroying any last vestiges of self-esteem she had. Guess what? That happened to me. It was very painful, and so it was a good scene to show Kate’s final push over the edge. Of course, my life was nothing like hers, I found new friends. But it made an impression. So I put it in. Anything you know, that you’ve dealt with, places you’ve lived, people you know, difficulties you’ve survived through—those are all worthy of being used in your books.

What If?:  This is The Big One. All stories begin with, “What if . . .” So once you have an inkling of an idea, just decide what the “what if” is that you want to answer, and you’ve got the conflict of your story.

Those are just a few ideas of where to look for a story to tell. Now comes the fun part—the actual writing. And it should be fun. Like I said earlier, if you aren’t enjoying writing it, it’s doubtful anyone will enjoy reading it. But if you have a passion for writing, I strongly encourage you to get out there and share it with the world. Put it down electronically or on paper, however you prefer, and then fine tune it.

Oh, ugh, I just reminded myself: You have to fine tune it! (*groans*) That’s the un-fun part. But that un-fun part leads to the best part: Becoming a Published Author!

I’m getting ahead of myself here. Those are subjects for later posts. So for now, don’t worry about the rest. Just sit down and write. And then write some more. When you’ve hit the magic mark of 75,000 or 100,000 or 150,000 words (or however many you need), and you feel that your story is complete and has come full circle, give yourself a pat on the back, treat yourself to some ice cream, walk away from your manuscript for a couple of weeks, then re-read it. If you feel like it’s still good, then you have a potential book. Yay!

Next blog, we’ll get into the un-fun. In the meantime, I’d like to hear from you: where do you get your ideas from? Please feel free to leave comments about this, or anything else you’d like to comment about.

Have a happy week! :o)

On Writing and Publishing: A Writer Shares Her Limited Knowledge!

INTRODUCTION

One of the things I’m asked about quite frequently is how I went about publishing my books, and how I market them. If you are self-published, you are the one who will write, edit and format your book. If you are traditionally published, you are still the one who will write, and edit your books. You’ll have an editor look at it and give you suggestions, but ultimately, it will be up to you to make sure the product out there on the market is the product you want your name on.

If you have self-published, you are your own marketing director. If you are traditionally published, guess what? You are still your own marketing director. I speak from experience, as well as from reading of others’ experience. Unless your name is Stephenie Meyer, Danielle Steele, or Stephen King, your publisher is not likely to run out and drop thousands of dollars on marketing your book. They can’t. It wouldn’t make sense for them financially. They can help you, give you ideas, arrange book signings, etc., but beyond that, it’s up to you.

So I decided I would run a series of articles on my blog addressing some of these things. I’ll start at the beginning (such as it is) and try to coherently follow each article with the next step in the process that I used. Of course, if I follow true to form, I’ll later remember things I forgot to include, so will include them in later articles, with a note to make you aware of these brain blips.

I would also invite those of you who wish to contribute to either add comments below the articles, or if you’d like to guest blog on a specific subject, I would absolutely love to have you. I’ve added the “sign-up by email” feature on here for those of you who want to see the articles, but don’t want to have to search them out when I get around to posting them. I promise to never use your emails for any nefarious purposes, including but not limited to selling them to spammers.

Here is a basic outline of the articles I have planned (subject to change upon my whim):

1.       Introduction

2.       Writing: Where Ideas Come From

3.       Editing: A Necessary Nightmare, aka the Un-Fun Part of Writing

4.       Formatting: And You Thought Editing was a Nightmare!

5.       To Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish is the Question, and Just Where Can I Get it Done?

6.       The Price is Right, Right?

7.       Marketing Part I: Beginning to Market Your Book Without Breaking the Bank

8.       Marketing Part II: Selling Your Book—or Not—Without Sinking Into an Irreversible Depression

9.       Marketing Part III: Getting Yourself Interviewed, Reviewed, and How NOT to React to Criticism

10.   Marketing Part IV: Getting Your Name Out to Readers and Not Just Bloggers—As Wonderful and Necessary as They Are!

11.   When is Enough Marketing Enough, and When to Start Writing the Next Bestseller

Hopefully that will cover all of the areas that I pretend to know about. I do not in any way, shape, or form claim to be an expert in any of this. Hence, the free advice. And that’s exactly what it is—advice. Take it with a grain of salt, understanding that I can only speak from my own experience, and that what works for me may not work for you (or vice-versa), and that I am limited in my knowledge. I am constantly learning, and will come back with corrections, updates, or new ideas as I discover them.

So, with that disclaimer, let the games begin…oh, what am I saying? Other than the writing part, it’s all hard work! But absolutely worth it. I promise.