Writing & Publishing links for May 7, 2011

Top 5 Band-Aids to Apply Before Querying (about editing your manuscript)

How I Edit [my manuscript]

How To Make a Book Cover Optical Illusion

Why I Chose a Traditional Publisher (by Nathan Bransford)

Social Networking: Twitter v. Facebook

13 Reasons Why You Didn’t Get Followed Back [on Twitter]

The Interminable Agency Clause [in contracts]

Publishing Links for 4/19/11

The Making of a Book Cover

Internet Book Promotion

Facebook for Authors

Social Networking and Your Picture

Hoping for a Movie Deal, Part 1 and Part Two

Pitching Effectively

What the Fiction Editor Looks For, Part 1 and Part 2

Switching Genres

The Joy of Revisions

Where “In Perpetuity” (in a contract) Might Come Back…

Book Fair Bewares

Lies (Dishonest) Fee-Charging Publishers Tell

Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing: Which Way Will You Make More Money?

Writing & Publishing Links for Dec. 23

How to establish your characters: openings

Why less detail makes more believable characters

How to use historical figures in your novels

Using the bystander effect in your novels

How settings make or break your characters

Why smart characters make dumb mistakes

Five steps to building a believable character arc

Plot holes

Some Tips on Evaluating Literary Contests

Why a Books Subtitle is So Important When it Comes to Book Marketing and Book Publicity

As large publishers increase their expectations of midlist sellers, indie presses see an influx

Publishing Your Own Book (text of interview, audio automatically starts to download)

Bookscan Numbers on Amazon

Who decides titles and cover design?

Advertising That Works?

Comparison Doesn't Work

Importance Of Tracking World Rights

Listing of Royalty Rates

Seven Tips on Building a Following

Pick Your Marketing Strategy

Marketing Your Book

Should I Tweet?

Launching Your Career Via Kindle, the Unpublished

Building Your Career on Kindle, the Published

Reversion of Rights

Writing & Publishing Links for Nov. 2

3 Mistakes Writers Make in the Quest for Publication

5 Reasons Nonfiction Writers Need a Book Proposal

Tuning Up Your Writing Mechanics

Middle Grade? Teen? Where Do You Draw the Line?

SF&F query letters mistakes. More mistakes.

Inner Critic vs Inner Editor

How to Use Track Changes.
When Not to Have Track Changes

You Have an Offer From a Publisher...But You Don't Have an Agent

For NaNoWriMo participants, some writing tips/reminders:
Choosing the Right Idea
Goals and Obstacles
Editing As You Go

Writing & Publishing Links for Oct. 7

Defeating Your Inner Critic Part I

Defeating Your Inner Critic Part II

Secrets of Better Writing: The Powers of 1, 2, 3, and 4-or-More

Book Cover Design Resources for Self-Published Authors

To Multi-book, or Not to Multi-book (on multi-book deals)

Working Social Media

Behind the Scenes... "The Call"

In it for the Long Haul

What Do Amazon Rankings Mean To Authors?

Writing, Editing, Proposals, Self-Publishing, & Career

Victoria Strauss wrote The Myth of the Evil Editor and The Importance of Self-Editing.

Rachelle Gardner wrote The Learning Curve That Never Ends.

Nathan Bransford wrote on the flow of an opening paragraph.

Chuck Sambuchino wrote The 8 Elements of a Nonfiction Book Proposal.

David Carnoy wrote Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know.

Jane Friedman wrote 2 Concrete Ways to Keep Your Writing Career Moving Forward.

Pitches, Writing, and Other Publishing Stuff

Nathan Bransford wrote The One Sentence, One Paragraph, and Two Paragraph Pitch.

Rachelle Gardner wrote What if My Agent Doesn't Like My Next Book? and The Value of the Verbal Pitch.

Kristen Nelson wrote Age Is Just A Number and How Enhanced Ebooks Will Cause Havoc.

Sue Collier wrote about Non-Traditional Publishing.

Eric wrote about various departments (and their functions) that make up a publishing house.

kt literary had a post about Can you know TOO MUCH about an author?

Nancy Ancowitz wrote Public Speaking for Introverts.

Jody Hedlund wrote How Essential is an Online Presence to a Writer's Career?

Karen Holt wrote Digital Case Study: Can Goodreads Ads Help Unknown Authors Find an Audience?

Lisa Tener wrote about How to Set Up Book Signings…Strategically.

Jerry B. Jenkins wrote 8 Basic Writing Blunders.

Trade Shows, Critique Groups, and Buzz

The Rejecter wrote about going to trade shows.

Becky Levine wrote about Choosing a Critique Group That's Right For YOU.

Kristin Nelson wrote an ISBN That Could Hurt about giving out free work to build a following and about self-publishing.

Nathan Bransford wrote The Science of Buzz.

Chip MacGregor wrote Estimating a Book's Size.

Advances, Self-publishing, Timing, Editors, & Cussing

Victoria Strauss wrote First Novel Sales: The Data on Advances.

Nathan Bransford wrote Should You Self-Publish? Ten Questions to Ask Yourself.

Rachelle Gardner wrote How long does this process take, anyway? and Should I Hire a Freelance Editor?

Natalie Whipple wrote the Real Problem with Constant Cussing.

Queries and Writing Advice

Jessica Faust wrote Query Pet Peeves.

Rachelle Gardner wrote Common Questions Answered about the querying process and related topics. She also wrote Think Hard Before Self-Publishing.

Jane Friedman wrote The Biggest Bad Advice About Story Openings.

Jennifer R. Hubbard wrote Tension: Desire and Obstacles.

Ronnie Kendig wrote about writing suspense novels.

Steven James wrote Crafting Killer Thrillers.

eBooks, queries, and more

Craig Morgan Teicher wrote The Making of an eBook: Part 1 and Part 2.

Kristin Nelson wrote about how ebooks and iBookstore are changing how the publishing game is played.

Nathan Bransford wrote What Should an E-book Cost?

Jessica Faust wrote about Writing Series and Trilogies and about how you handle revisions.

Rachelle Gardner wrote The Top Ten Query Mistakes and Should You Have a Book Trailer?

Contests and eBooks

Nathan Bransford wrote All About Writing Contests.

Rory Maher and Henry Blodget wrote an article at TBI research on eBooks and who's making a profit on them.

Kristin Nelson wrote about a new Random House policy on eBook rights.

Rachelle Gardner wrote about self-publishing.

Royalty Statements, Writing, and Self-Publishing

Sorry for the late post; I've been sick.

Kristin Nelson wrote Royalty Statements: Lack Of Detail and Sales By Accounts.

Rachelle Gardner wrote Back to the Basics of writing.

Jessica Faust wrote Which Tense Is Best.

Maya Reynolds wrote Should You Self-Publish?

On Self-Publishing

A number of people have been commenting on self-publishing.

Evil Editor gave his opinion about Should I self-publish?

Tess Gerritsen, an author, wrote about self-publishing.

The Rejecter, an agent's assistant, answer a question by someone with self-published books who is now trying to sell professionally.

Miscellaneous Information on Self-Publishing

Miss Snark wrote several blog posts on vanity presses like Booklocker and PublishAmerica. She also wrote about what sales numbers are normal for self-published books.

Here is a news article about a self-published author's success story and what it took for the book the sell well.

Victoria Strauss at Writers Beware! wrote about Lessons for Self-Publishers. They also have a lot of useful information and warnings for anyone considering self-publishing.

The Rejecter answered several questions in a blog post including one about how many self-published books do you need to sell before mentioning it in your query. She said:

In general, unless your book has sold over 3000 copies (which means you didn't sell them all to family and friends or by hand at conventions), it doesn't mean much to us that it was previously published. We will review it like we review any other submission - as potential new material to be weighed on its own merit.

E-book Sales

For those who like to read e-books or are trying to sell an e-book, I thought you might enjoy the following news:

David Rothman wrote on E-Book Sales in 2007, and he said:

American e-book sales in 2007, by “12-15 trade publishers,” jumped to $31.7 million or 23.6 percent higher than in 2006.

News on E-Books

Kimberly Maul reported in an article on The Book Standard that Hachette Book Group USA is the first publisher to officially adopt the .epub format. The other big publishing houses may follow suit. To quote from the article:

"...the new .epub standard...simplifies the creation of digital content, benefiting publishers and consumers alike," said David Young, chairman and CEO of Hachette Book Group USA. "Not only will it enable us to create more digital files more efficiently, it will allow us to provide consumers with more types of digital books than in the past."

Things may be looking up for e-books.

E-Publishing

I thought I'd talk about e-publishing today. Kathleen Bolton at Writer Unboxed has a nice post about the history of e-publishing. It seems that the many of the e-publishers that are doing well started their imprints as a way to distribute books that are outside the bounds of what NY print publishers would normally publish, like gay erotica novels or niche books. Thus, it can be as difficult for an author to get published by a reputable e-publishers as by a reputable print publisher.

According to this Dear Author post, some e-publishers are even taking their e-books into print and getting them into brick-and-mortar stores.

As usual, Victoria Strauss has written an excellent article on electronic publishing, including the advantages, disadvantages, and things to watch out for. Also, The Rejecter wrote a post about E-books, and Jessica Faust at Bookends wrote an informative post on A Look at E-Publishing.

Briefly, the cost of putting an e-book together is substantially less than the cost of producing a print book, so the author gets more money per book sold and often receives that money more quickly due to the shorter time from contract to published book. However, the number of people buying your book is much smaller, so you will probably be paid less overall than if your book was printed by a reputable print publisher. As with print publishers, you need to do your research and make sure that the e-publisher is reputable before submitting your work to them.

The Dear Author blog has several other good posts on e-publishing for people interested in learning more.
What Authors Should Look for in an E Publisher
Will eBooks Revolutionize e-Publishing?
The Marriage of Ebook and Print Can Ring Profit Bells

Hope this was helpful for anyone considering e-publishing or just wanting to know more about it.

Watch Out For...Publishers

In the Writer's Beware article mentioned in the below POD post, there are several warning signs given for identifying questionable publishers. These signs include:

Is there a fee? Many indies can't afford to pay advances, but they don't ask for money....

Fee-charging publishers are often inventive about hiding their fees. They may bury them in the fine print, so it's not until you actually read the
publishing contract that you realize you have to pay a "setup" charge.... Don't be fooled by token one- or two-digit advances--this is usually a marketing ploy designed to produce an appearance of legitimacy, rather than a sign of legitimate practice....

Are the books professionally-produced and of good physical quality? Order one or two. Have they been edited? Does the print look good? Is the formatting uniform? Is the text free of errors? Bad writing, sloppy formatting, and large numbers of typos or grammatical errors indicate a less-than-professional operation....

Is the pricing reasonable? As noted, POD has a higher unit cost than offset [printing], and prices can be correspondingly higher.... A reputable POD-based publisher will make an effort to keep prices at least generally comparable to traditionally-printed trade paperbacks, which run between $12 and $18.

Does the publisher accept returns? Again, this is a sign of a more professional operation, and gives the publisher a better chance of selling its books into stores. Beware, though--some POD-based independents put so many restrictions on their returns policies (for instance, limiting the return period to three months, or offering returnability only on bulk orders) that booksellers won't find them attractive....

Are the books reviewed in professional venues (Booklist, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, etc.)? Reviews in these [professional] publications, which are read by booksellers and librarians, indicate that the company is sending out advance reading copies--an important component of marketing to the book trade....

Can you order the publisher's books in a brick-and-mortar bookstore? Even if a bookstore isn't willing to stock POD-produced books, it should at least be able to order them....

What's the focus of the publisher's website? Is it designed to promote the publisher's publishing services, or to promote the publisher's books? A reputable publisher's marketing will be book-focused--it will publicize its authors, and try to attract readers....

Is the contract standard? ....A questionable or amateur POD-based indie...can ask you to sign your life away and then some.

Typical problems include demanding all rights for the full term of copyright without an adequate reversion clause, claiming subsidiary rights the publisher isn't capable of marketing, basing royalties on net rather than gross income, retaining a financial interest in the author's work even after the contract has terminated, claiming the right to edit at will without seeking the author's permission, tying next-book option clauses to current contract terms, tying rights reversion to purchase of overstock, and offering a contract that's not negotiable.

If you're concerned about the publisher you are considering, I'd recommend reading the full article written by Victoria Strauss.

Q & A #3: Print on Demand

Q: Print on Demand is a technology, not another name for "vanity press." So why do some agents recommend not mentioning a POD book in your query letter as a publishing credit?

A: You want to be a professional author with your book published by one of the big publishing houses, but your rejection pile is growing larger and your options are becoming slim. You're tired of all this waiting. You see an ad for a company that promises to publish your book promptly and even let you control a lot of the publishing process. It sounds tempting, but are alternatives to traditional publishing worth the risk?

Print on demand (POD) is a digital printing technology that allows a complete book to be printed and bound in a matter of minutes for a decent cost. This technology may be a great way to get a small number of books published for certain uses, but be careful when considering POD publishers as a way to print your "break out" book that you think will make you famous. I highly recommend reading the Writer Beware--Print on Demand article. First, keep in mind that most companies offering POD services aren't offering true self-publishing. Second, don't expect to make big sales on your book even if you work hard at selling it. According to the Writer Beware article:

POD services' own statistics support these low sales figures. The most recent online Fact Sheet for AuthorHouse reported 27,000 titles in print in 2004, with total book sales of over 3 million. It sounds like a lot, but averages out to around 111 sales per title. iUniverse's most recent Facts and Figures sheet reports that the company published 22,265 titles through 2005, with sales of 3.7 million: an average of 166 sales per title. (Obviously some titles can boast better sales--but not many. According to an article in Publishers Weekly, only 83 iUniverse titles had sold more than 500 copies as of 2004). A 2004 Wall Street Journal article revealed similar stats for Xlibris: 85% of its books had sold fewer than 200 copies, and only around 3%--or 352 in all--had sold more than 500 copies.

Sales numbers like these don't impress agents or editors. Unless it's a niche book with sales in the thousands, most agents say that they view a POD book credit as indicating that you don't have the patience to deal with the slow pace of the publishing business. They say it's probably better to write a new novel and submit it rather than spend all your time and money trying to sale your POD book. If you have a POD book, agents generally recommend not mentioning it. If they find out about it, then just tell them that you learned from the experience and want to do it right this time.

Yes, some valid independent publishers--one that rigorously screen submissions and professionally edit, design, and market books--use POD technology. If you have a book published by one of these publishers, understand that you're still fighting the POD stigma. I haven't seen any agent answers on how to deal with this situation in a query letter, but mentioning the name of the publisher and the sales figures might help let the POD book mention work in your favor.

Hope this helped.