Writing and Publishing News

Nearly two weeks ago, I left sunny, warm California laden down with a heavy coat, knit scarves and an umbrella for a fall color cruise along the Eastern seaboard. We hit some cold, rainy weather and some exciting high seas, but few signs of autumn—at least where the trees are concerned. We had a wonderful time, nonetheless. I’m grateful for the experience, the time away to refresh and family and business to come home to. I’m not happy about returning to some kinks in my Internet service, however.

I don’t know how things are with your Internet service this week, but I’m experiencing problems. At this moment, I have no service. Earlier, I was unable to print emails when I used Internet Explorer. And the Internet service on shipboard was really expensive, slow and unreliable.

Isn’t it a pain when we are suddenly unable to depend on something we’ve become conditioned to rely on to such a degree? It is especially annoying and frustrating when it is so strongly connected to our businesses and our lives.

I am hoping that, by the time I complete this blog entry in Word, I will be able to post it.

When your Internet system fails or falters, do you adopt new practices so as to avoid so much dependency on the system? Or do you at least consider changing the way you do things related to email and Internet research? It would be hard to go back to the way we used to do things, wouldn’t it? Our servers have a pretty strong hold on us. They offered us the world (via the Internet). They sold us on the idea of email communication. They hooked all of us and now we can’t function well without their services.

I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty much crippled when I don’t have access to reliable Internet. Much of my business, research and communication is done via the Internet and using email. When the system is down or unavailable, I find myself automatically clicking on it to send an email, to look for one I’m expecting, to post a blog, to add something to the SPAWN site, to check on facts, etc. It’s like when your power goes out. You automatically click on a switch, momentarily think about ironing/blow drying your hair/turning on the TV, etc.

If you are an author or a freelance writer who does a lot of research, you probably use the Internet frequently. Having it unavailable when you are on a deadline or when you are on a roll with your story or nonfiction manuscript, is immensely frustrating. So what do you do when your server goes down? Can you easily shift direction? Do you have other projects lined up? Do you take care of other tasks—editing your manuscript, filing, cleaning, etc.? How flexible are you in such situations?

Let’s hope that I can post this blog for you today and that there are no problems in the future with the system in any way.

Now is a good time for you to present your requests. Do you have questions I can answer via this blog? Are there subjects you’d like me to revisit or to pursue through the blog? Email your requests: PLFry620@yahoo.com. Or leave a comment. I will be here (as long as I can access the Internet) until late November when I head out to speak at the Cat Writers Association Conference in New York.

In my books, my brochures, my workshops, my consultations and at book festivals, I often invite authors and freelance writers to contact me with questions. When I sell a book, I say, “Please, once you’ve read the book, if you have any questions, email me.” During my workshops, if someone asks me a question that requires research or if it’s something that entails time to explain, I say, “Email me with that question and I will respond in full.”

I have an open-door policy. Yet, few people take advantage of what I offer. Too many of them go it alone, neglect to do appropriate research, make choices based on whims or, worse yet, advertisements. Or they allow members of their writing group to sway them or they rely on information they’ve passed along rather than checking with an expert in the field.

I’m sure that other professionals find this to be true, as well. If we hear from an author at all, it is after they’ve made some poor and costly decisions. By then, they’re blaming the economy, the industry and all of the people who didn’t warn them about the big bad wolf in publisher’s clothing. They’re angry with the people who didn’t tell them what to expect after publication. If only they had asked. If only they had explored their options and learned something about what to expect.

Don’t find out about publishing and book promotion the hard way. Read “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book” NOW. I advise this whether you are just thinking about writing a book, you are starting the process of writing, you have finished your book and you are seeking publication or you have a newly published book in your hands. And I have to tell you that “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book,” does not dictate how you should write, publish and sell your book, but it gives you options, information and resources. It lays them all out in front of you and guides you in making all of the right decisions for you and for your project.

No two book projects are the same. And no two publishing experiences are, either.

Once you have read this book or you’ve taken one of my online courses (Book Promotion, Writing a Book Proposal, Breaking into the Article-Writing Market or How to Self-Publish), I invite you to contact me with any questions. If you have not taken my courses or read any of my books and you have a question about your project and/or the process of publishing or book promotion, contact me. PLFry620@yahoo.com. If you don’t take advantage of this potential benefit, you are only cheating yourself.

Of course, I can’t answer every question, but I can usually point you in a direction where you can find the answers you need. And not every hopeful author is ready to hear every truth. I still meet people who want to produce a book, but have no intention of doing any promotion. I had an email from a gentleman last year who insisted that his book would sell itself. There would be no need for him to be involved at all.

Read my book. Order it from me or Amazon.com. If you’d like to help support my efforts, remember that I get more of the profit when you order it from my website: http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

And let me know if you have any questions that I might be able to help with. PLFry620@yahoo.com. If you lose my website address or my email address, just do a Google Search using my name, Patricia Fry. You’ll find me in an instant.

Fall and spring seem to entertain many writing and publishing conferences. So this is the season. I notice that the majority of authors who attend my workshops and those of others are open and eager to receive the generous helping of information that is so expertly communicated. There are also people in attendance who close their minds to the possibilities which lie outside their realm of understanding, who block concepts that don’t fit within their comfort zones, who refuse to consider some ideas that might actually increase their opportunity for publishing success.

There are usually a few closed-minded authors in attendance at the seminars, conferences and book festivals I attend. I occasionally receive phone calls and emails from authors in this category. They come for help and information and then they argue with everything I suggest.

Is this you? Have you developed such a strict agenda that, even though you show up at conferences and seminars and read books by professionals in the field, you are closed to new, pertinent information? Do you just want to be validated? Do you want others to say that you have an excellent book that will sell well and that you’re making all of the right decisions, even though:

• you claim that you are writing a book for wide distribution, but refuse to consider your audience?
• your approach to your subject is likely to turn off the very readers you hope to reach?
• your topic is unpopular, outdated or will appeal to only a very small segment of people?
• you don’t have a promotional plan?
• you haven’t bothered to research your publishing options?
• you have entered into publishing with a writer’s heart rather than a business head?

I can only hope that my presentation, my books and my consultations will open minds and save at least a few rigid authors from making these mistakes.

If you’re in the process of writing a book or you are just thinking about doing so, here’s what you need to know:

1: Publishing is a business and must be approached as such. Once you decide to publish your book for wide distribution to the masses, you really must stop thinking of it as your baby or as your amazing contribution to the world. Once you decide to publish your book, it becomes a product and you are its business manager.

2: Is there a market for your book? Is it a viable product? Is it a genre that is popular and/or a topic that is current? Before writing that book, make sure that it is needed/desired. If it is a subject that has been overdone, can you come up with a fresh twist, a new angle or a different solution to an old problem? Study the market for books like yours. Check out the competition. And the time to do this is BEFORE you start writing it.

3: Who is your audience and how extensive is it? Some authors hope to change minds with their books. They envision their audience as folks who need to be educated or informed for their own good. These authors believe that smokers will embrace their stop smoking book, that junk food junkies want to learn healthy eating habits, that Christians will eagerly read their book on atheism. But there is a difference between a self-help or how-to approach and cramming an unwanted book down readers’ throats. Consider who WILL read this book, not who SHOULD read this book.

4: How will you locate your audience? As I point out in my presentations, most first-time authors plan to sell their books by the truckloads through bookstores. I did. This was my expectation the first time I produced a book for distribution to a national audience (as opposed to a regional audience). While bookstores might comprise a small piece of your distribution puzzle, they probably won’t provide your bread and butter—not in the beginning—not until your book has proven itself.

You’ve heard it before: the author must promote his/her book. But this is impossible unless you know who your audience is and where they are.

5: What is your platform? What can you contribute to making your book a success? Platform means your following—your reach—your way of attracting your audience. What are your credentials, what’s your expertise? Do you have experience in this field?

6: What promotional opportunities can you build into your book? Here’s another good reason to stop, look and listen before you plan your book. If you just play on through and write it without considering the previous five points, you will miss out on the opportunity to build promotion into your book. What does this mean? How can an author build promotion into his/her book? Here are some examples of how I built promotion into my local history book, “The Ojai Valley, An Illustrated History” (a 360-page comprehensive history of the area where I live in California).

• I interviewed about 100 people for this project and listed them in the book. Don’t you know that most of them bought at least one copy of the book?
• I profiled many early pioneer families and included as much statistical information as I could find—birth and death dates, number of children, when they arrived in the village, etc. This made the book valuable to descendants of these folks as well as genealogists and other researchers.
• I featured interesting sites, annual events and businesses. This made the book appealing to tourists and locals with some connection to or interest in these places and activities.
• I created a massive index and a bibliography. Thus, the book is convenient for librarians and other researchers.

For a novel, you can build promotion into your book by giving a character a disease such as diabetes. Show this character in a positive light and you might be able to get the American Diabetes Association (for example) to finance the publication, to promote your book or to purchase thousands of copies to use as premiums. Widen your audience base by giving your heroine a horse, twins, a motorcycle or lupus, for example.

Go ahead and write a book your way and hold to your outdated, unrealistic belief system and you may soon find yourself stuck with a book that nobody will buy. Or seriously consider the 6 points I’ve outlined here. Really do your homework like any professional would do and you have a much greater chance of experiencing the success that is possible as a published author.

For more detailed information, instructions and resources, please read “The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.”
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

There’s a good article in the October 7th Book Promotion Newsletter by Fern Reiss on the future of publishing. She tells it like it should be—no “returns” policy or hard-copy galleys required, publishers should market their authors’ books even online and she suggests changing the whole book model. Good article. I recommend you read it. If you agree with her points, perhaps a campaign could be launched.
http://www.bookpromotionnewsletter.com

Yes, there are a lot of annoying things about the publishing industry and some of them were negotiated or otherwise adopted years ago. Things have changed dramatically. And with natural or even unnatural (forced) changes brought about by the digital age, for example, there must be some willingness toward flexibility, at least. But nooooo. Some of the policies are simply non-negotiable and rigid.

We all know what can happen to a rigid tree in the wind, don’t we? It will eventually snap under the pressure. Which way will it go? What will be the end results?

In the meantime, we can do our part on behalf of our projects by continually striving to improve our writing, by producing quality works that are wanted/needed, by representing our books from a professional standpoint and by keeping our fingers on the pulse of the publishing industry.

Member Survey Brings Surprises
We’ve been running a survey at SPAWN to find out what our members need/want from a publishing support organization. Most, who have chimed in so far, are interested in becoming more educated within the publishing industry. They want to know how to produce an excellent product, what publishing option to choose, how to navigate the publishing maze, how to negotiate a publishing contract, how to promote their particular books and so forth. We just had a conference call board meeting and decided that we can best serve our members at this juncture by presenting webinars featuring experts in publishing and publishing-related fields.

Subscribe to SPAWNews (it’s FREE) and be among the first to learn about our webinar schedule for 2010. Actually, I think we’re going to present one session in December. Oh, did I tell you the sessions will be free? Subscribe to SPAWNews and receive a free ebooklet: “Promote Yourself! 25 Ways to Promote Your Work Whether You’re an Author, Artist or Small Publisher.”
http://www.spawn.org

There’s no way you can go wrong—everything I’ve mentioned here is FREE. And that does not mean they have no value.

Surprises in Patricia Fry’s Array of Books
I’ll be traveling for the next 10 days and someone else will be plugging in blog posts that I have prepared for you. It won’t be a daily post, but watch for posts coming probably on October 10, 13 and 15.

He is also shipping books for me. So it’s okay to place your order this week. See my array of books—some of my titles might surprise you. Did you know that I published a metaphysical memoir some years ago? It is an absolutely fascinating read. It’s called, Quest For Truth. I also have a book (and ebook) of true cat stories. You’ll see the gorgeous cover featuring our white odd-eye cat, Winfield on the home page.

If you are an author or hope to be, the book you need is The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book. Order it now before you make any more mistakes with your publishing project.
http://www.matilijapress.com

Most authors today make costly and embarrassing mistakes the first time around the publishing merry-go-round. How do I know that? The statistics tell us so. In 2006, 76 percent of books sold fewer than 100 copies. To me, that indicates failure. And if the book failed, it’s because the author made some poor choices—mistakes, if you will.

So how does one recover after a disappointing publishing experience? How does a disillusioned author regroup?

Many do not. Well, they might recover emotionally, but they don’t recoup their money and they give up on their dream of publishing success.

Those who do recover and regroup, generally go back to square one. They study the publishing industry so they have a better understanding of how it all works and how to proceed. They reevaluate their projects. Some come to realize that they’ve been marketing to the wrong audience. Others see the need to go back to the beginning and rewrite their books.

If you have entered the publishing field through a side door or a transom window, for example, rather than the traditional, tried and true front entrance, you are probably feeling terribly overwhelmed—like a fish out of water. You did not take the time to learn the basics such as, “Publishing is a business and it must be approached as such.”

Order my remedy for publishing failure, my ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit. I wrote it for those of you who walked into this arena with your eyes, ears and mind tightly closed. It is designed to help you breathe new life into a failed or struggling book.

http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html

You might also go back to square one. Study the book you should have read in the first place: The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html

And contact me with your questions if you feel you need some personalized assistance. PLFry620@yahoo.com