You Are Only a First Time Author Once (Part 1)
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 17th, 2009 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
If you are a writer and hope to get your manuscript published, or an author unhappy with your experience and looking to improve sales, there are issues that you need to know about how to do it right the first time.
Getting Your Book Published Can Be Easy
If your goal is to see your name in print, then there are Vanity publishers that can assist you, for a price. You can be an instant author and see your name on the cover of a book in no time. However, if you are searching for a true publisher where your book has the potential to earn a spot on the bookshelf of your local independent bookseller, or make a bestseller list somewhere around the country, that can be a bit more difficult.
The key to being successful is to learn all you can about the business. Seek out information from all sources on what the industry is like and how to succeed in the process. Published authors and writers groups can be a great source of information. Anyone who has spent a considerable amount of time working inside the business or has had a lot of contact with those who work inside the business can be a tremendous resource also.
You need to make yourself aware of how the business operates from the publisher’s point of view. How decisions are made on which titles to buy, what the numbers mean and how all of that can impact your book. As some like to say, try and see the bigger picture. Once you launch yourself into the mix of agents, editors, and publishers, without knowledge of the industry and how a publisher operates from the inside, your chances of having your book successfully published are greatly diminished.
Be Patient
Rather than setting the bar too low with a goal of “just getting published,” take a step back and decide on your long-term goals. You must have a passion for writing and have obviously spent a tremendous amount of effort on your work. Now is not the time to rush into anything without understanding the facts. Some facts about the business may be surprising to unsuspecting writers and entering the fray without understanding the rules can be not only dangerous but also damaging to your career as a writer.
Taking the first offer that comes along may satisfy your desire to see your name in print but it could easily be your last offer. One false move in publishing where your book develops a track record for bad sales, can eventually lead a book buyer to pass on the next book altogether. That means rather than giving your second book another chance the buyer might give you a big fat zero. When an author has a bad track record for sales, which includes a poor sell through they’ve created a hurdle for themselves that is very difficult to overcome.
Writing your manuscript took a tremendous amount of time and fortitude. Take the same approach before jumping at the first chance to get published. Do your research, ask tons of questions, and seek out those with experience before you take the leap. Do it right the first time and you can lay the groundwork for a future as an author. Take the wrong step and your career can be over before it even gets started.
A Small Fish In A Very Big Pond
Being successfully published refers to the fact that competition for attention at the retail level for authors is considerable. If you want to make a career at writing, being an author, your book must have a reasonable shelf life in a retail bookseller. That means you have to sell enough copies to earn a spot in the store, time and time again, with each new title. Considering that my former company was the fourth largest in the country and we published approximately a thousand titles a year, you can understand how your competition for shelf space is intense.
When sales people go into customers to sell books, they go in with the complete understanding that 10% of the titles on their list can easily represent 90% of the billing for that sale. So if they are selling 250 titles at one time, only 25 will get the extra attention of the sales person. Now if your newly published book is one of the other 225 titles, then your chances of getting an order, let alone a good spot on the retail shelf are limited.
However, if you understand how the process works, and how you can gain even a small advantage with the sales people, then you have a much better chance of getting an order for your book. You must seek out this information from someone who has spent years on the inside of a big publisher. READ MY BOOK, where you will find the exact kind of information you need to know to be better informed about the business.
It’s A Production Process
Whether you like it or not, your manuscript is a product, one of many hundreds that need to be produced. You are providing the raw material. The publisher will now take that and mold it into a product they can sell. They will ask you to make revisions, do rewrites, then once it fits a format they feel has a reasonable chance to sell at retail, they will package it, price it and sell it, all as part of the process that results in getting product to market.
Publishing is a business. Publishers produce books, and the entire process is based on the need to get product to market. Books are set on a strict schedule and the sales and marketing process never stops. The company is constantly shipping books to booksellers. They need to ship books so the product can be billed to the customer, allowing the cash flow to remain constant and unimpeded.
If you allow your work to fall into the production line, along with all the other writers who want to be authors, without fully understanding what is happening, your book has only a slightly better chance at being successful as you have at winning the Power Ball. That is why it is very important to understand what is happening and why. The only way to learn that is to seek out sources of information about the industry, publishers, and the marketplace.
Relying On The Experts Can Spell Disaster For Your Book
Anyone who works for a publisher does so because they love books, not for the pay or the benefits. The requirements to get one book to market, let alone hundreds of titles a year, is overwhelming. Those hard working employees in the various departments that make up a publishing company spend long hours, wear many hats, and labor under tight deadlines. Those top 10% titles get special attention from everyone because the fortunes of the company rest on the success of those books. The remaining 90% get only enough attention to get the job done and the book to market.
The experts, the department heads and their top assistants, barely have time to stop and give the attention needed to the top titles, let alone one of the many that fill the pipeline. When the company holds their meetings to discuss titles, the ones that get the most amount of discussion are the ones that also get top billing. When your bottom to the middle of the list book gets any significant amount of attention from anyone, let alone the department heads or experts, it is usually when something goes wrong. That is not when you want to be the center of attention.
There are ways to assist the experts, to help them in the decisions that surround your book. Positioning yourself and your book to be in a situation to assist is time consuming and needs to be done in the proper way. The departments do not have time to allow every single author a chance to voice their opinion on every single title, so they can often restrict your access to the decision makers. Understanding the pecking order and how to work around it is important.
Participate In The Process
Most writers turn their manuscript over to the editor and wait for things to happen. Editors are working on plenty of books at one time, constantly getting product ready for market. You are but one writer with one book, so leaving everything up to the experts can be a big mistake. I advocate a different approach, one that allows you to participate in the process of getting your book to market without becoming the dreaded pain in the neck.
First you need to understand your market. If you are unaware of how books in your genre are being published, then you really need to go back and READ MY BOOK! There I explain in detail what you need to know and give you the steps on how to get the information.
Assuming you understand your market, you work your way through the many individuals that handle your book and become a voice of reason, one that makes good suggestions based on a clear understanding of the process and how it works. Your suggestions may or may not get the consideration they deserve, but being in a position to voice your suggestions will create a ripple effect throughout the company that will soon earn you the reputation as a writer who knows from where they speak.
This is the end of part 1, understanding your status as a first time author. Join me for part two where I’ll explain why it’s important for your career as an author to understand your product.
What Writers Should Know About Publishing
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 17th, 2009 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Publishing used to be about the books, the writers and their readers. Circumstances today have forced the industry to become nothing more than production facilities for the printed word. Ownership of the largest trade publishing houses and their need to meet financial projections has caused the need for product, mass produced, to be over-distributed to as wide a market as possible to generate billing for the sake of meeting corporate financial goals.
The emphasis on exceeding numbers has caused the book to be looked upon much the same as any consumer product on the market today. This pressure and the resultant over distribution of books has resulted in a tremendous amount of waste, not only in paper but in transportation, production, and man-hours, not to mention the harm to the careers of unsuspecting authors.
Publishing has evolved into a bad business model that survives on the thinnest of margins. The need for revenue in an extremely mature market is causing decisions to be made that are often not in the best interests of the writers or their books. That is why it has become vitally important for writers to become familiar with what goes on INSIDE The Business of Publishing. Writers need to know what goes on behind the scenes of those large trade houses and how to position themselves in such a way that their books have the best chance at selling more copies at retail.
To be successful in the Business of Publishing, a writer needs to recognize that there are two distinct facets of their work: The first, of course, is the writing of the manuscript, hiring an agent and signing a contract with a publishing company. The second begins when you sign that contract and continues to the day your book hits the streets. Your awareness of these two areas and the recognition of the need to partner with your publisher in such a way that you can make valuable suggestions on every aspect of your books production, sale and distribution, is what’s necessary to be successful as an author.
It’s not “just about getting published” anymore, it’s “being smart about getting published.” The more you know about your competition, i.e. other writers in your genre, your market, and how books are distributed, marketed and merchandised, the better chance you have of positioning yourself and your book within the company. In today’s competitive climate, you must market yourself in-house the same as your publisher markets your book to the consumer.
And it starts with your editor, the one person you will have the most contact with inside the company. But it doesn’t stop there. It continues throughout every department to every person that has a hand in the production, sale and distribution of your book. And you need to position yourself to make suggestions that carry weight. How do you accomplish this? By educating yourself about what goes on Inside the Business of Publishing and the process of bringing your book to market.
As with any business there are the key decision makers. From the day you sign your contract and begin the process of working with your editor to bring your book to market, you need to find out who they are and how, as an author, you can have your suggestions heard and acted upon. Any writer, short of the mega-best-selling names we all know, will have a difficult time influencing the department heads to make meaningful changes to their book. However, there are ways to have your voice heard, and it begins with your knowledge of the marketplace.
If you’re not an avid reader, you should become one. If you don’t have a keen sense of awareness about what is happening at the retail level, then develop one. The more you know the better your chances of the company acting upon your recommendations. Go into an independent bookstore (preferable over the chain stores) and walk the aisles, observe the titles, covers, prices, categories, authors, and the merchandising that is going on with books that are being published today. One day that will be your book, and once it hits the streets, the results are out of your control.
So you need to make the most of what time and opportunities you’ll have to actually influence the direction of your book. And to do that, you need to have a basic understanding of the two most important aspects of publishing. Numbers and Distribution. When your agent calls to tell you that the announced first print for your book is 40,000 copies, do you know what that means? What if your editor calls to tell you the announced was 40,000 but we are only printing 25,000 copies. How will you know if that’s good or bad? You’ll know by learning how the numbers are developed, where the budgets for titles comes from, how the announced first prints are arrived at and what all that means to you as an author.
And once you understand the numbers, then you need to learn distribution because they go hand-in-hand. Learning one without the other is like learning to drive a car without an understanding that it requires gas and oil. Your success as an author is dependent on selling as many net copies at retail with the fewest returns, thus giving you the highest sell-through possible. In a perfect market, if you do this, then each successive book should sell more than the previous book, thus securing your place as a successful author.
Successful distribution is placing the right number of books in the hands of the right customers, giving your book the best possible chance of selling through at retail. And if you don’t know what I mean when I say sell through, you need to learn…Or…read What Writers Need to Know About Publishing for more information on the language of publishing. This is how you grow your sales as an author. Distributing the highest number possible of your books to the marketplace is not necessarily in your best interests. Forget what your agent or editor may be telling you, it’s not how many copies that get distributed that’s important, it’s where those copies go and in what quantity that’s important.
As an author, it’s important to understand that your job doesn’t end when you sign a contract with a publisher. That’s just the beginning. To be successful, you should strive to understand what goes on INSIDE The Business of Publishing.
How to Get Your Manuscript Published
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 16th, 2009 | 6 Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Writers need to understand how to sell themselves—as well as their book—to their publisher and their audience. Selling yourself is the art of separating you and your book from all of the other authors and titles. One way to sell yourself and your book is to decide how to publish your manuscript and know how to attract the attention of consumers, agents and big publishers.
Four Ways to Get Your Book Published
Any writer can get published. There are plenty of companies that will take your money and put your name on the cover of a book. In fact, there are companies that will take a full-fledged manuscript written by a ghost writer without a single word of your own and put your name on the cover so that it appears to all your friends that you are an author—all for a price. Always remember, it’s easy to get published, but difficult to sell books. You can be published in one of four ways: (1) by a large major trade publisher, (2) by a small or university press, (3) by a print-on-demand, referred to as author originated publishing, or (4) by self-publishing. It is beyond this book to delve into the areas of academic or specialty publishing. Our discussion will stay inside the world of trade or traditional publishing.
Major Trade Publishers
The major trade publishers in this country are constantly looking for new books. They must have new product on a continuous basis. The largest trade publishers will no longer accept unsolicited manuscripts. That means you have to attract an agent who will accept you as a client and then, in turn, sell your manuscript to a publisher. However, if this is not the way you choose, there is another way of getting their attention: by selling thousands of books working with a small press, print-on-demand or through self-publishing.
Small Publishers and University Presses
The small and university presses have a more personal feel to the books they publish than do the larger publishers. They handle each title in a way that’s similar to how the larger companies did it fifteen years ago. If you want a more hands-on situation with your book’s publication, then a small or university press is the way to go. However, the smaller presses do not have the marketing muscle of the bigger publishers. They don’t have the distribution network with the largest booksellers and they distribute in much smaller numbers.
All of this is not a bad thing; you just need to be aware of the differences. You will be expected to promote your own book, much the same way a member of a publisher’s sales team would a lowly positioned title on the seasonal list of a big publisher. You will have to be bold and smart to gain attention in the marketplace, because you need to sell copies. However, good solid sales with a small publisher is a good way to gain the attention of the larger houses. Now, rather than having to attract an agent, if you publish with a small press, manage to sell books and generate publicity, you can gain their attention and work from a position of strength, where they pursue you.
Print-On-Demand
Print-on-demand (POD) is often referred to as author-originated publishing and is the least expensive way to publish your manuscript. With POD there is no inventory of books. After some up-front fees paid by the writer, consumers or booksellers can order and pay for books that are printed on demand. You have a lot of control and can make a nice profit on each individual unit sold. However, the print-on-demand companies exert little or no editorial control over what they publish. They are in the business of printing and publishing books. Any book, with the exception of pornography or extremely controversial subjects (determined by the POD company), is published for a price.
This lack of editorial control, explained as exercising their first amendment, has resulted in a poor reputation of POD books industry wide. This means that many booksellers refuse to order and stock POD titles because of the poor editorial content. This hurts many excellent books simply because the printed format takes away from their ability to sell copies in the marketplace. Further, these POD companies do not have a national distribution network that will help you distribute copies to retailers or distributors around the country. Some do have marketing departments that will help market and promote your book, all for a healthy price. This can be an excellent option for the author whose goals match the publishing philosophy of the POD companies and whose budget for publishing extends to the menu of options these companies charge.
Self-Publishing
Self-published is the hardest road to getting your book published, but the one with the most control and highest profit margin per book. It is the easiest to achieve from the standpoint of getting your book in print, but it is also the most difficult to promote and sell. There are steps to take and money to spend to get your book in print. There are numerous books on the subject of self-publishing, so spend some time reading them and then talk to a professional who understands publishing and the marketplace before you spend your hard-earned money and end up wasting valuable time.
An individual who self-publishes does not have the advantage of a built in customer base like the small press and especially the larger publishers. You have to beat the pavement to get your book sold to booksellers. However, if you do it intelligently and focus on the areas outlined in my book, you can get copies in stores.
To be successful at self-publishing and gain the attention of a major trade publisher you have to work hard and your timing needs to be right. If you can sell several thousand copies on your own you will more than likely attract the attention of a major publisher. That doesn’t mean they are going to buy your book, it only means that you will fall onto a large publisher’s radar. This will improve your chances of getting them to pick up and publish your book and you will have done it without the help of a small publisher, POD company or a literary agent. Of course, the question is, if you can sell several thousand copies of your own book, would you still be interested in signing a contract with a large trade publisher?
If your goal is to gain the attention of a major trade publisher, there are four ways to go about it: (1) attract an agent, (2) publish with a small or university press, (3) use the services of a POD company, or (4) self-publish. There are pros and cons of each, so be smart about your decision. Know your goals, be honest with yourself about your willingness to knock on doors to get your book sold and placed on bookseller shelves. Most importantly, generate as much publicity as possible to sell as many copies as you can.
A final word of caution—talk with a professional before you make a decision about how to publish your book. There are a lot of so-called experts in publishing who are willing to make promises and take your money. Be smart, invest in a discussion with someone who knows the business and is not trying to sell you one of their services.
