Writing and Publishing News

What do you need/want most from your writers group or publishing organization? Now I’m serious! I want your comments. I want to know what your needs are as a writer/author.

Do you join groups/organizations for the peer support—you find it empowering to be with like-minded people who understand your passion and your challenges?

Is it information you are after?

Would you like to join an organization where a benefit is one-on-one help/guidance with your project?

Do you want specific direction rather than the opportunity to network?

Perhaps you are seeking promotional opportunities.

Maybe you want someone to find you an eager agent/publisher for your project.

If you were to design the perfect organization that will meet your publishing needs, what would it look like? Now be reasonable. What do you want in an organization that is possible to provide and what are you willing to pay for it?

I’ll post responses anonymously in an upcoming post.

You can leave your comment here or email me at PLFry620@yahoo.com. Put “Perfect Organization” in the subjectline.

When we go to big events like the recent Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, we get a lot of visitors to our booth and they ask a lot of questions. Common questions are, “I want to publish my story, how do I go about it?” “I want to write my memoir, what is the procedure?” or “I’ve written a manuscript, what do I do next?” Perhaps you have similar questions.

So today, I’ve outlined some steps that might help you through the publishing process:

Step One: Think through your book subject or genre. Is this something that is needed or wanted? Does your nonfiction book idea respond to a challenge that many people face? Will it help people adopt a new/healthier way to think about something or live? Does it offer solutions that others might not have thought of? For fiction, is it a genre that is popular or that has a strong niche audience?

Conduct your own research to discover the answers to these questions. Use the Internet to find out if your subject is viable. Look at books offered at online as well as downtown bookstores on this topic. Is the idea being well-covered or is there something more you can add that would be useful? Is there an interest in books in your genre? Why would anyone want to read your memoir?

Step Two: Follow Step One with a wide open mind and the thought processes of a businessperson. Once you’ve uncovered the absolute truth about the topic or theme of the book you propose, use it to plan a more viable book—the one more people will likely buy. This may require you stepping down from your high horse, humbling yourself and letting go of your attachment to your original story or nonfiction book.

Step Three: Study the publishing industry before writing even one word. Well, you can be practicing your writing skills and techniques. Practice, practice, practice. In the meantime, however, read books on the subject of publishing, subscribe to newsletters related to the industry, attend writers’ conferences and writers’ group meetings and join publishing organizations.

Step Four: Write a book proposal. This process will teach you volumes about your project, your audience, your responsibilities as a published author, your abilities and aptitude for succeeding in this business and how you can make your particular book a success.

Step Five: Start writing the book. If you’ve absorbed all of the wisdom available out there, you are now ready to write the right book for the right audience.

Step Six: Hire a good book editor to fine-tune your manuscript.

Step Seven: Seek a publisher. In Step Three, you studied the publishing industry, which means that you became familiar with your publishing options, the possible consequences of your choices and your responsibilities as a published author. By now, you should have a clear idea of the best publishing option for your project. If you haven’t done so already, do some stringent Internet research to discover if these publishers are legit, they have acceptable contracts and they offer exactly what you want/need. This is no time for assumptions or impatience. These two postures have created more publishing failures than you can imagine.

Step Eight: Plan your marketing strategy. In fact, prepare for a lifetime of promotion. In other words, prepare to promote your book for as long as you want it to sell. Stop promoting and your book will most likely die.

What happens if you do not follow these eight important steps? What if you continue down your original path and produce the book of your dreams, even though your research demonstrates that there probably isn’t a market for it? What happens if you avoid studying the publishing industry and decide to just wing it? Millions of people do so every year. And they fail. In fact, nearly 80 percent of all books sell fewer than 100 copies total.

If you are serious about producing a book of value to a segment of people and presenting it to your audience, you must enter into this business with knowledge, information and realistic expectations.

Two useful books for authors at any stage of their projects are:
Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author and Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author. http://www.matilijapress.com

Also available at Amazon.com, B&N.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.

As authors, we tend to want things our way. We want to write what we want to write and present it to our public in a fashion that suits us. Do you know any other business where you can do that and survive?

I heard it again yesterday—“I know someone who is an amazing writer. She came out with a book, but she doesn’t want to bother with promoting it. She just wants to do what she does best—write. So how does my friend get her book out there?”

It’s almost an oxymoron—you write to be read, but you don’t want to tell anyone about your book. You want your readership to know you, but you don’t want to know them. You don’t want to reach out to them. You have this fantasy that they will find your book among the millions of others without your help. Something is very wrong with this picture.

Personality sells books, I tell you. Readers, today, want a relationship with the author. In fact, they rarely know a book exists until the author or a friend tells them about it. How does the author get word out? Through public appearances, meeting people at book festivals, submitting articles/stories to appropriate publications, having an Internet presence—in other words, showing up where his audience congregates, where he hangs out on the Internet and in what he reads.

And when should this author introduction begin? As soon as you know you are going to write a book. In fact, you can start the process by blogging. Use Twitter to invite people who are interested in your topic/genre to your blog. Also write articles/stories for the publications your audience reads. Build a website featuring your book sometime before your book is a book. Continue to build an amazing email list and use it to create an interested audience for your enewsletters, for example. Connect in some way with established websites related to your subject/genre. Participate in popular forums and discussion groups within that realm.

What you want, dear author, doesn’t matter. Authorship is sort of like parenthood. You may want a baby for you. But once the child is here, it is all about him/her. Likewise, you may want to enjoy the process of writing a book and dream of selling millions to interested readers everywhere. But once the book is born, it becomes all about your audience. That’s where you must focus your energies and creativity.

Prepare mentally for this reality. Start the process of becoming known in your field/genre. Begin, now, developing a readership.

For serious assistance with the process of becoming a successful author in a horrendously competitive and difficult publishing industry, read my latest book: Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author.

http://www.matilijapress.com Also available at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores.