When Is A Book Trailer Not A Book Trailer?

by Ron Hogan (reprinted by permission from GalleyCat, a Mediabistro blog)

When is a book trailer not a book trailer? When it's a human interest story.

Apart from a slightly-too-long opening segment of silent title cards fleshing out the context (what takes roughly forty seconds to read could probably have been said in ten), I really like this as an example of promoting a book without really ever talking much about the book at all, and it hardly even feels like seven minutes. Now, granted, it helps that Pleune and Watkins have an amazing story to tell, an intimately personal story that resonates with historical significance. So it sounds a bit facile for me to say "find the story in your book that's that powerful"—let's put it another way: "Find the story in your book that inspires that kind of passion within you." If you can find and share that, you're well on your way to finding an audience.

(Although, as always, there's still the question of where a video like this is supposed to end up. It's all well and good to catch readers one at a time through Google searches, or being lucky enough to have your video embedded by admiring bloggers here and there, but what if there were a substantial destination site—a lens, in Seth Godin's parlance—where readers could pick and choose from a variety of book trailers? A site that wasn't tied to any one publisher or video production company? For that matter, is there already a site like that I've been blind to?)

© 2008 mediabistro

---

photo by Miriam Berkley

About Ron Hogan

Ron Hogan created Beatrice.com in 1995, making it one of the oldest continuously running literary websites on the Internet. He also writes about the business side of publishing at GalleyCat.

He speaks frequently at book festivals and industry conferences, to both aspiring and published authors, about the bookblog phenomenon and other transformative trends in book publishing. Newspapers and magazines also call upon him to discuss such issues:

• The New York Times
• Newsweek
• The Boston Herald
• The Washington Times (and again!)
• The Los Angeles Times

He is the author of The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane, a visual tribute to '70s Hollywood Publishers Weekly called "one of the year's most fun" coffee table books when it was published in 2005. He also contributed to the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning.

He has published an e-book of his "translation" of the Tao Te Ching that is downloaded by more than 25,000 readers a year in various formats.

Ron Hogan is represented by Channel V Media for publicity and speaking engagements.

Get Twitterpated

by Angela Wilson

When I first saw Twitter, I thought, “So what?” I could see the use if I were traveling, or if a friend needed to send roving updates I could pick up via cell, but every day?

I started an account for both myself and my alter ego, Kitty Malloy, but left it virtually untouched for about a month. Then, while working on a client blog, I stumbled upon an innovative use of Twitter’s instant communications site by Tobacco Free Florida. To help smokers kick the habit, this techno-savvy nonprofit hooked up with Twitter to create the Quitter network. Here, smokers could sign on and use Twitter technology to communicate with other Florida smokers for virtual support while quitting.

That one Web site sent my mind racing. I started using Twitter daily to watch how others used it, especially news and marketing departments. I realized just how effective Twitter could be for cross-pollinating messages from Web sites, blogs and streaming video sites into one simple format.

Twitter allows users 140 characters to send followers a message. It can be anything from, “I’m home sick—BLAH!” to “My latest book launched today.” One day, I followed the uStream feed. UStream constantly updated Twitter followers with a stream of Michelle Williams’ Destiny’s Child. The posts said she was live, she was singing and viewers instantly knew when Williams said she supported Senator Barack Obama for president. The online shoe store Zappos uses Twitter to respond to customer queries. FoxNews and CNN inundate Twitter followers with short blurbs of breaking news, along with TinyURL site links.

And now, with sites like Twitter Feed, your Tweets will automatically update, thanks to RSS technology - and you won't have to do a thing.

Twitter isn't the only game in town. You can grab a Friend Feed, Hello TXT or other account and microblog away. These are great because you can integrate all of your social network blogging into one feed, and post it on your social networks and Web sites.

These are great examples of how you can use one venue to share your online presence with your fans. and increase your sites’ traffic. As a self-promoting author, it is vital to cross-pollinate yourself on the Internet using a Web site, blogs, podcasts, videocasts, streaming video, guest spots and more. You can use Twitter to direct people to your various sites and keep them posted about upcoming book signings, contests, speaking engagements and conferences where you will be networking.

When attending an event, encourage your Twitter followers (who are similar to MySpace friends) to get device updates. This way, each time you update your travel progress, they can get a text message via Twitter. If you don’t have PC access, you can send tweets via text message. If you are trapped on a runway on the way to a conference, you can text a tweet telling fans and friends that you are running late. It also is beneficial for touching base with fans and other writers when attending a large conference. You can send a text message tweet to indicate where you are, so they can meet you for lunch or at a certain room for autographs or business talk. Twitter is also an excellent tool to promote book or gift basket giveaways and to direct followers to sponsor sites. You can also direct followers to the sites of fellow writers.

Twitter also offers the code to put your updates on your blog, MySpace, Facebook or Web site. Grab that code—or have your Web designer do it—and paste it there. Encourage your fans to sign on. Also search Twitter for new friends to spread your marketing message. I type in various hobbies and work-related terms to find new followers, including write, edit, market, PR, painting and read.

Twitter is a simple, free, fantastic online venue to promote all of your Web sites in a one-stop shop. If you are not already tweeting, set up an account at www.twitter.com. Be sure it reflects your name or something about you so people can find you easily. Then, start posting. My tweets are available at twitter.com/angelawilson and twitter.com/kittymalloy, my fiction alter ego. Be sure to use your cover art creatively on your Twitter page - it is GREAT free advertising!

Those who use the Firefox browser can download add-ons like TwitterFox to make it easier to post updates and follow your friends. TwitterFox is a much better option than TwitterBar, which is sometimes fickle and not as user friendly. If you are sending a long link, use the TinyURL button to create a more manageable link. The site also allows you to create an easy-to-use button for your toolbar.

Copyright 2008 Angela Wilson

Social media diva Angela Wilson loves to write paranormal fiction, drink tea and walk at park trails. She blogs about marketing strategy for authors at the St. Louis Book Marketing Examiner and Market My Novel, which offers a detailed list of blogs that interview authors and review books. She is also the editor of Pop Syndicate's Book Addict blog. You can find her everyday on Twitter, talking writing, social networking, politics and life. She is owned by cats who are determined to keep her single and leave hairballs on her printed manuscripts.

Why Writers Shouldn’t Pay for Software

by Ian Barker

You may think that writing lost some of its romance once it was no longer necessary to scratch away with a quill pen or bash each draft out on a battered Remington typewriter. But like it or not, being a writer today means that it’s almost essential to use a computer. And whilst there are adherents of the prophet Jobs and his Way-of-the-Macintosh, for most of us a computer means a PC running Microsoft Windows.

Of course you need a bit more by way of software to be able to do anything productive. The one thing you absolutely can’t do without as a writer in the early part of the 21st century is a word processor. Most of you when you read that last sentence will have thought of MS Word or WordPerfect. A heavyweight commercial offering bulging with clever features, but hold on a second... Do you really need all of those bells and whistles? There’s also the fact that – unless you happen to get one bundled with a new PC – office suites are expensive. Even discounted versions of MS Office such as the student and teacher edition cost fairly serious cash. Fortunately, there is another way, you don’t need commercial offerings at all, you can get all the software you need without ever having to reach for your credit card.

There’s been a free software movement pretty much since there have been computers, but it’s often dismissed as the domain of bearded geeks churning out hand-knitted programs for people of a similar persuasion. You may be surprised to learn that nowadays there’s some top quality freeware around that can match and often better the stuff you have to pay for. What’s more, because there’s no profit motive driving freeware’s production it can cater for niche markets, and that includes the needs of writers.

Okay, now that your appetite’s been whetted, let’s take a look at some of what’s on offer. We’ll start with one of the flagships of the free software world, OpenOffice.org. If you need a full-fat, high-caffeine office suite but can’t afford a commercial package – or simply don’t want to put more cash in Mr Gates’ pocket – then this is for you. It’s every bit as good as MS Office and can even read and write Office document formats, so you won’t have a problem exchanging files. The latest version, OpenOffice.org 2.0 supports the OASIS open document format for compatibility with a wide range of other systems including Linux machines and it has built-in filters to allow it to open WordPerfect documents, something which required a plug-in for previous versions.

In addition there's now a multi-pane view allowing you to look at documents side by side. The word count feature has been improved too, so that you can easily check a highlighted block of text rather the whole file. Support for creating PDF files (something you can't do in MS Word without an add-on) has been upgraded so that the program now handles thumbnails and hyperlinks correctly and allows you to define compression levels for embedded images. Other improvements include better mail merge features and floating toolbars with greater customisation options. Even if you're already using the previous version of OpenOffice, it's well worth switching to 2.0 as you're bound to find at least some of the new features valuable.

If you decide you don’t need a complete office suite and just want a word processor, you should take a look at AbiWord. It's a more lightweight solution than Word or WordPerfect, though it offers all of the features you need on a regular basis such as formatting text with bold, underscores and italics. It also lets you insert images and tables into documents. But it's much more compact than the commercial offerings without many of the less-used features, which means it's ideal for older computers. It's very user-friendly too, so you should have no problems getting to grips with it. Like OpenOffice it can handle Word and WordPerfect files so you'll have no compatibility problems. For day-to-day typing tasks, the program is ideal and because it's open source you can suggest features that you'd like to see in future versions or report bugs via the official website. You can view a complete AbiWord user manual on the Web too.

Both the above packages are general-purpose office software that anyone can make use of, but what if you want something that's more tailored towards what you do? Take a look at RoughDraft, a word processor built for writers, by a writer. It has specific modes for books and plays and can automatically create cover pages. There are multiple clipboards allowing you to take notes or cut and paste items in and out as you go along and you can spell check in British and American English. Files are saved in Rich Text Format (RTF) which is pretty much universally compatible with other software. You can also create HTML files using RoughDraft if you want to publish your work on the Web. It's rather more limited in its functions than some other word processing packages, but if you just want to write there's nothing here to get in the way and several neat touches that will actually help.

When you're writing a novel, one of the hardest parts can be planning how it all fits together. Using yWriter allows you to break your work down into a series of easily managed scenes which you can shift around as required. For each scene it records the viewpoint character, goal, conflict and outcome. It will also help you create a summary of the structure for the complete book, and it creates a log file to track your daily progress. While we're on the subject of planning, you might want to try TreePad Lite, a database to track all the notes, articles, webpages, etc that you invariably accumulate whilst writing a book.

If you want to create screenplays there are a surprising variety of tools available, though most of them want to relieve you of some money. Of the free ones ScriptMaker from www.freefilmsoftware.co.uk is worth a look. The same site also has a story development tool called SLang that uses virtual index cards to help you put a plot together and let you see how events relate to each other. You'll find a story-boarding package on this site as well though that only offers a 30-day free trial before you have to pay for it.

Poets and songwriters needn't feel left out whenit comes to freebies. Several free rhyming tools are available, including a downloadable version of the McGill Dictionary of Rhyme. Or for something a little simpler try Lyricmaker from www.vocalist.org.uk/songwriting.html.

Cheating just a little (because it's a website rather than a program), the invaluable Wordcounteranalyses blocks of text for repeated words so that you can quickly spot the ones you're overusing. A similar tool that you can download to your own system is Textstat.

Once you've finished your work and want to submit it you'll find free software that can help you track where it's gone and what the outcome is. Slushomatic is aimed at submitting pieces to magazines but would easily adapt to the needs of submitting books to agents or publishers. Alternatively try the Ultima Thule Writer's Database from www.ultima-thule.co.uk which lets you quickly spot what you've sent where and see those works that are still outstanding.

Those of you who've joined the blogging revolution might want to take a look at w.bloggar. Using this handy program you can create your blog entries offline before posting them to services such as Blogger, TypePad, Blog-City and many others. If you have multiple blogs on different services the program lets you control them all from the same interface. Alternatively, if you have webspace provided by your ISP, Thingamablog lets you create your own stand-alone blog with no need for a third-party hosting service. It has an easy-to-use, wizard-driven interface that enables you to produce your blog with no need for any HTML programming, it even lets you set up syndication via RSS feeds. It's possible to turn out some really professional-looking results with Thingamablog, links to some examples are on the website and there's an excellent tutorial available to get you started.

This has been something of a fly-by of the free software field, and I've concentrated on PCs because that's my area of expertise. There's plenty more to choose from if you hunt around the Web's freeware sites, you'll find stuff that caters for Mac users too, so it's always worth checking to see if there's a free tool that does what you want. Even stuff like firewalls and anti-virus tools can be had free for personal or non-profit use. So remember, whatever type of program you need to pursue your writing goals, there's absolutely no excuse for going out and buying one!

Ian Barker has worked in information technology for over 20 years and is currently editor of PC Tools magazine. This article was written using OpenOffice.org.

Dos and Don'ts of Asking for Book Reviews

by David J. Montgomery (reprinted from The Backspace Book Promotion Network)

1. Know who the reviewer is. If you don't know who you're asking for a review, then why are you writing to them?

2. Address the person by name. At least have the good manners to find out who you're writing to. (And if you're going to do this by mail merge, at least make sure it's not blatantly obvious.)

3. State upfront why you're writing. For example: "I'm a mystery author with a new book coming out and I'm hoping for a review." (You can say it more elegantly than that.)

4. Give the pertinent details: Author's name, book title, publisher, format (hardback, paperback, etc.), publication date.

5. Include a short synopsis. No more than a couple sentences.

6. Briefly include any interesting hook that might appeal to that reviewer: you're a local author, it's a debut novel, you're an FBI agent, you just won the Edgar. (If you don't have a cool hook, nevermind. You don't have to have one.)

Things you shouldn't include:

1. Blurbs.

2. Press release.

3. Excerpts from other reviews.

4. Long summaries.

5. Attachments.

6. Claims that this is the best book I'll ever read (and other assorted puffery).

Remember: your goal is to make it as easy as possible for the reviewer to say yes. Reviewers always have many more books than they can possibly read, much less review, and they also tend to be cranky SOBs. Don't give them a reason to say no before they've even considered the book.

HOW NOT TO TALK TO REVIEWERS

I get emails almost every day from authors, telling me about their books, asking for reviews, etc. And that's fine. I make my email address public and easy to find so that people can always get in touch with me. I like hearing from writers, readers, etc. That's part of why I do this.

Occasionally, though, those emails do more harm than good. Obviously, the crackpots who demand that I review their PublishAmerica masterpiece -- and then just won't let it go -- are among the worst. But sometimes even well-meaning authors say the wrong thing.

For example, I find it irritating when I get a message that reads: "You should have received a copy of my new book by now. I look forward to reading your review."

Or, even worse: "I hope you enjoyed reading my book. Please let me know when the review will appear."

I don't know if this is something they teach in management school, or whether some advice guru suggested it or what, but it's annoying.

I am not susceptible to the Jedi Mind Trick. I will not review your book just because you sent it to me. (I get a couple hundred books a month and only review a handful of them.) Most of the time, I can't even read your book. I wish I could. I wish I could read everything and write about most of it. But that's not reality.

Contacting reviewers is fine. Asking if they received the books is fine. (Although you may not get a response.) Anything more than that is probably not a good idea.

_____________________________________

David J. Montgomery writes about authors and books for several of the country's largest newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe.

In the past, he has contributed to such publications as USA Today, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Kansas City Star, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and National Review Online.

He lives in the Washington, DC suburbs with his wife and daughter.

MySpace as a Business Tool

by Barry Eisler

Today, let's talk MySpace.

MySpace is big enough (the site claims 125+ million registered users) to mean different things to different people. If your business is writing, here's what it should mean to you: MySpace is a collection of self-generated, electronically connected, motivated customer leads.

In business, a "customer lead" is a person with higher than average potential to become your customer. Someone who signs up for a mailing list would be identified by the business running the list as a customer lead. Someone who buys laundry detergent at a supermarket would be identified as a lead by the detergent manufacturer, who might then use coupons or otherwise try to entice the person to purchase fabric softener and related products. Someone whose last child has just left the house for college might be identified as a lead by a company building condominiums in the area.

If your business is writing, anyone who reads books in your genre is a customer lead. MySpace users can list books and authors they like, so you can search for users who identify themselves as liking books by authors who write stories like yours, then contact those users so they can learn about your books, too.

That's a key phrase: "identify themselves." MySpace customer leads aren't extrapolated from other behavior. The products they like -- that is, the books they read -- are so important to them that given a chance, they tell the world. It's one thing for someone, for example, to use a Mac computer (I do). It's another thing for the person to put a Mac bumpersticker on his car. Someone who identifies so closely with a product that he not only uses it, but wants the world to know he uses it, is a motivated lead. And the process by which MySpace customer leads are created (self-generation) self selects for motivated readers -- people for whom books and reading are particularly important.

Of course, it's not just the books and writers MySpace users list that can identify them as leads; it's their wider interests, as well. You should know the "hooks" in your story and look for people who will be, well, hooked by them. Have you written a gardening mystery (I'm sure they exist)? Your leads would include people who are into gardening. Model airplanes? Furniture making? I write a thriller series about a half-Japanese, half-American assassin, and my leads include anyone who expresses an interest in deadly martial arts, exotic Asian settings, realistic tradecraft, and tantric sexual techniques. Kidding about that last one (sort of); just want to make sure you're paying attention. Anyway, you get the idea.

Of course, the basis for lead generation can get pretty broad -- say, people who read generally, rather than people who specifically read books like yours -- but at some point, the connection between the person's behavior and the product you sell becomes so attenuated that people in that class are no longer particularly valuable as leads. If your lead generation criteria are too narrow, you won't generate as many valuable leads as you otherwise could. If the criteria are too broad, you'll generate too many leads, and waste time separating the wheat from the chaff.

Because MySpace is an electronic community, it also automatically selects for people who are comfortable with electronic media. MySpace leads have the built-in ability to instantly tell many other users about your books. When you combine that ability with motivation -- by contacting a lead and turning her into a customer -- there's a good chance the person will make you one of her "top friends," which translates essentially into long-term advertising on the customer's profile page.

Writers have been slow to understand MySpace (I was, anyway); I think because the medium is relatively new. Every new medium is initially understood in terms of the old, and therefore initially misused. When television first came out, people thought of it as radio with pictures, and so the first television broadcasts were of talking heads. Sure, you can use TV this way, but it's not what it's best at. Similarly, you can post a static resume on MySpace and never come back, and it won't hurt you. But it won't help you the way it would if you use the medium for what it's best at: interactivity.

So how do you go about it? That's something individual authors have to decide for themselves. How much time do you have? What are the opportunity costs? How comfortable are you contacting and interacting with strangers? Etc. But the fundamental thing you need to understand is this: what makes MySpace tick is its interactivity. It's not just a new forum for a website or other static "resume" type of presence. To derive maximum value from MySpace, you have to be willing to spend time there, and interact with leads. I find the place weirdly addictive, and it can suck a lot of time out of your day if you don't manage it carefully.

Some people find MySpace to be a great opportunity for spam. If you spam people by using bots to contact people, respond to messages, and leave comments, you might get some value -- after all, the theory of spam is that the cost is zero, so any benefits you derive automatically represent a net gain (spam can be thought of as overly broad lead generation that "works" because it's cost free). My sense, though, is that people are so aware of spam, and so turned off by it, that any benefits you might accrue will be small, and likely to be outweighed by that sinking feeling you get when you look in the mirror and see... a spammer.

One common MySpace mistake, I think, lies in being too aggressive. When you contact people, don't try to sell them your books. Selling is a seduction, and most times, the establishment of a relationship precedes the relationship's consummation. Would you approach a woman in a bar and say, "Wanna sleep with me?" If not, why would you contact a stranger and say, "Wanna buy my book?"

So relax. Meet people. Get to know them. Think in terms of what you have to offer them instead of what you want them to offer you. Do you blog? You can post your blogs on MySpace, and send a bulletin to all your MySpace friends announcing that you've posted -- and announcing anything else you want, too. Think about other ways you can offer value. Sure, you're hoping to sell books, but stop thinking about that -- the sales will happen when people feel you're offering value in other ways.

If you're in business, MySpace is a sales tool, and you can't use a sales tool if you don't know how to sell. Read some books on the subject. Listen to some tapes. Understand that what makes a great sales person is liking other people (which comes from liking yourself) and believing in your product. Combine those qualities on MySpace, and you'll make a lot of people happy and wind up selling a lot of books, too.

(You can read more excellent articles for writers at Barry's website.)

---------------

After graduating from Cornell Law School, Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA's Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan International Judo Center. Eisler's thrillers have won the Barry Award and the Gumshoe Award for Best Thriller of the Year, have been included in numerous "Best Of" lists, and have been translated into nearly twenty languages. The first book in Eisler's assassin John Rain series, Rain Fall, has been made into a movie starring Gary Oldman that was released by Sony Pictures in April 2009.

Posted by AlteredReality at 6:00 AM

Writing Without Writing: 10 Ways to be a Better Writer... With a Twist

by Jael McHenry (As originally appeared on Intrepid Media)

You already know how to be better. You know all the pitfalls, all the traps, all the flaws. You know that to be a better writer, you need to hone your manuscript over and over. You need to work on it until it's the best possible piece of writing you can make it. You need to write and rewrite and re-rewrite. You need to craft your sentences, build your plot, develop your characters. You need to polish that sucker til it shines.

Forget all that for now.

There are 10 things you can do to be a better writer that have absolutely nothing to do with working on your writing project.

You can succeed without doing any of them. Sure. Know what? You'll be a lot better off if you try at least some. And I'm coming at this from a novelist's perspective, so that's where I'm picking my examples from, but a lot of this applies to short stories, memoirs, poems, essays, the whole bit.

Without further ado:

1. Buy a book. It's stunning how many people want to be published novelists and rarely, if ever, go to a bookstore and buy recently released novels. I'm not saying buy a book to read it and see what's working in the current environment. That's folly. I'm saying buy a book because you're supporting another writer by doing it. Not read a book. Buy a book. If you don't, who will?

2. Critique someone else's novel, all the way through. Ongoing critique groups are great. I've been in several that have changed my life and my writing for the better. But if you're going along getting critique on one chapter at a time, you can end up with a lot of beautifully polished chapters that add up to one gorgeously written, completely unpublishable novel. (Speaking. From. Experience.) Questions like pacing, scenes to include/exclude, character development and arc... these require a reader who gets a look at the whole thing all at the same time. You should provide that service for a fellow writer. Maybe it's tit-for-tat and maybe it's not. Don't go into it expecting that this person will necessarily give you a complete critique in return. Go into it because you as an outside reader can perform an incredibly helpful service for someone who, like you, will keel over in joy when he sees his book on the shelves.

3. Go to a reading. See how it's done. If you're lucky, someday you'll need to know.

4. Meet writers in person. If time and funds permit, go to conferences or workshops. Local, national, it doesn't matter. Some conferences hook you up with agents and editors, and these are great, but if you focus only on the agents or editors you're not getting your money's worth. Meet the other writers too. Establish a connection. Talk writing with these people, in person and then later over e-mail. What challenges are they struggling with? How do they feel about, say, first person present or books over 100K or agents who still only accept queries via snail mail? Encourage each other.

5. Meet writers online. If you can't do #4, #5 will do. Or do both. I am a sucker for Backspace for several reasons, but here's the important one for you: it costs $40. For a whole year. To have access to forums where intelligent, dedicated writers are talking about writing every single day. You can do the same for free at Absolute Write, if $30 is a problem. Or just go hunting. There are all sorts of groups out there. And all of those people, whether they're published or not, whether they're writing in your genre or not, have something to teach you. Go learn it.

6. Practice your hook. "What do you do/What are you up to?" "I'm working on a book." "What's it about?" "Uh... it's the story of a woman who... I mean, she's different... she has these problems and her husband is cheating on her and her kids are acting up, so she runs off with this guy, and then they break up and she's alone, so she tries to find her way back, but then a whale eats her, but then spits her out, and... hey, where are you going?"

Have a hook. Also called the premise, also called the pitch. One sentence spoken out loud. Even if you think you don't have one, you do. Figure out what it is. Then tell people what it is and watch their reaction. If you get "oh", it needs work. If you get "wow!", you're golden. You may think that this isn't relevant to the type of book you're writing, but it is. Every book can be summed up in a sentence. Make yours sing.

7. Learn how to write a query. "But it's so hard to sum up my book in a paragraph!" Well, that's your first problem. You're not supposed to be summing it up. You're supposed to be telling the agent just enough about it to make them go "That sounds awesome!" and scroll down to the sample pages. Get on the interwebs. They'll help you. Here's a great place to start.

8. Join in. Join writing groups, yes. But more than that. What's your book about? Now is the time to establish yourself, where appropriate, in online communities or offline associations that include your future readers. If your book is about food, join eGullet. If your main character has Asperger's syndrome, bookmark the forums at WrongPlanet. Okay, those happen to be examples that work for my book and not yours, but seriously, there are groups specializing in every single thing under the sun, so chances are there's some group out there that's relevant to your book, whether you're looking for homeschooling moms or Godzilla fanboys, Anabaptists or Zoroastrians.

9. Comment on agent blogs. Reading them is a great first step. Start there. But when you're ready, start talking back. Ask questions if you have them. Offer opinions if you have those (and you should). All these experts are just sitting out there wondering what you, a writer, want to know. Tell 'em. (Politely.) Maybe commenting on an agent's blog and building name recognition with them is a step toward getting a positive response to your query when you send it. Maybe it's not. Do it without assuming it's some sort of magic ticket. It's just good practice.

10. Learn about publishing. I don't mean that you have to figure out which editors at which houses are buying which books, because that's what you hire an agent for. But learn the basics. Why is the fiction buyer for Barnes & Noble one of the most important people in publishing? What's a realistic expectation for publicity on a debut novel? What is a print run? Why is getting your book bought by Random House better than self-publishing anyway? Can you sell a memoir with a proposal and sample chapters? Can you sell a novel that way? Do your research. All this information is just sitting out there like a ripe peach. Pluck it. Otherwise you may find yourself sitting in a meeting with a bigwig editor and you'll say "And I'm willing to write the screenplay!" and they'll say "So what?" and you'll feel like a tool. An amateur tool.

What do all these things have in common? They bring you into the community of writers. You may be able to succeed without it, but why try? Why wouldn't you want to step out of the cold lonely fistfight of writer-vs.-book and get into somewhere warmer? What do you gain from holding yourself apart from a huge group of people who have the same desires and goals you have?

Pretty much nothing.

Get out there and do all the non-writing things writers do that make them -- us -- better writers.

-------------------------------------

Jael McHenry is the editor-in-chief of Intrepid Media, where she has written a monthly pop culture column since 1999. Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, Antietam Review, and Queen’s Head & Artichoke. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from American University. As a Tufts University college senior in 1995, Jael appeared on “Jeopardy!” as a semi-finalist in the show’s annual College Championship. Her consolation prizes included Klondike bars, an electric toothbrush, Hooked on Phonics, and of course, the home game. She lives in Philadelphia, PA.

An Introduction to Web Promotion

By Lisa McMann (from an interview by Kelly Spitzer - used by permission)

Lisa McMann is the author of Wake (Simon Pulse, 2008) and its sequel Fade (Simon Pulse, 2009), paranormal young adult novels with a “splash of romance.” Wake is a NY Times Bestseller, a Borders “Original Voices” nominee for the month of May, and is eligible for the Original Voice of the Year award. It has received favorable reviews from Kirkus and Publisher’s Weekly, among other places, and is sold in bookstores all over the USA and Canada. Lisa is currently on tour for Wake. Find details on her website or Myspace page.

Wake has achieved tremendous success. Will you give us a brief plot overview, and discuss the marketing strategies and hooks utilized in launching Wake to bestseller status?

Seventeen-year-old Janie gets sucked into other people’s dreams. She can’t stop it. She can’t tell anybody about what happens – they’d never believe her, or worse, they’d think she’s a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn’t want and can’t control. Until she gets sucked into the nightmare of a guy named Cabe, and for the first time ever, Janie is no longer just an onlooker in someone else’s twisted psyche, she is a participant.

Marketing was a serious team effort. From the day I got the book deal I started marketing. I went out to find my readers on MySpace, message boards, Facebook…meeting teens, adults who love to read teen lit, librarians, teachers, booksellers, reviewers – even though all I had to sell at the moment was a paragraph-long hook from a query letter. I knew I had one shot at this – and if I failed, it wouldn’t be for lack of trying.

I began this journey like any other novelist – thinking that if the book is going to sell, it’s totally up to me. I expected to spend my entire advance on promotion. I came up with some catch phrases. “Don’t dream and drive” plays tightly into the story, and I used it on promotional t-shirts, postcards, posters and dogtags. I held regular contests on MySpace and gave away ARCs and bling. And most of all, I talked to people. I made personal connections. One very cool thing about this biz is that authors don’t have to be in competition with each other. There are tons of readers and readers don’t have to choose one author over another – they can read both. So I spent a lot of time discussing other YA books I liked with my future readers, and that is not only enjoyable to me but it grew my fanbase before I had a right to have fans.

What happened? My publisher saw my efforts. They also began hearing early praise for WAKE from the national sales team. Things began to stir. Over time, the publisher support grew and grew. They went all out on a fabulous cover (designed by Sammy Yuen, Jr.). They decided to send me on tour – a huge commitment financially for them. They put together an amazing book trailer. They did promotions with teen groups like Bookdivas.com and the Pulse-It Board – Simon Pulse sent out a thousand free copies of WAKE to teens around North America right before publication to get the buzz going. And then they worked with the cool people over at fanlib.com and came up with a dream-writers contest (wakecontest.fanlib.com) with prizes like a Wake-skinned Wii, iPods, and signed copies of WAKE.

Once Pulse decided WAKE would be a lead title for them, we worked together and it was terrific – I found readers, they catered to them and grew them exponentially. It was a delicious combination. I am more than lucky to have had this experience. I wasn’t expecting it, and I continued marketing the book as if I were going it alone. I worked very hard. I think that’s really important.

Where did you learn these self-marketing techniques?

By watching other authors. Reading as much as I could from other authors’ websites, blogs, etc. And having been a Realtor, I knew a lot already about the importance of establishing a presence for a product. Much of it is common sense — you use the channels you have or can create to build buzz. There are many great books available on the topic, too. And for those that can’t stomach it, one can always hire a publicist. Check out Bella Stander’s website — she offers all sorts of help with book promotion and public speaking, and she’s a wonderful woman who really helped me out when I found out I was going to tour (and would have to speak in public!! Talk about overwhelming fear). I highly recommend her.

Writers having to promote their own material is a fairly new trend, isn’t it?

I have heard this, yes, but I don’t know how new it is. I also have a hard time imagining someone writing a book, being one of the few to land a publishing contract, and then not doing everything in her power to sell the thing. So I would imagine that writers have always done some means of promotion for their own material, at least through word of mouth, but with the Internet, it has become much easier to do things at a very low cost, and more of that falls to the author now. I’ve heard publishers are on a tighter profit margin. I believe something like only one out of five books actually earns money. So yeah, I think that promotional stuff has gotten far more concentrated to the lead titles and many more authors are left to fend for themselves.

Let’s talk about MySpace, Facebook, and other internet venues where people congregate. I have a hard time understanding the allure of such sites, but they proved vital in getting Wake noticed. How important is it for an author to have web presence in today’s market? Do you think an author’s success rate can depend on it?

I think it is absolutely vital to have a web presence if your goal is to sell books or be read. If your goal is simply to say, “I have a book published,” then no web presence is necessary.

Many aspiring authors have a distaste for MySpace, Facebook, etc. One thing I did NOT want to do was get on MySpace and maintain one more site (on top of website, blog, Amazon.com blog, etc). But I bit the bullet and once I got my MySpace rhythm, my attitude changed in a hurry. Think about it, Kelly — if you cross-posted this blog on a MySpace blog, you could reach a whole new group of readers and have a great way (through bulletins and blogs) to alert all of your friends to a new post with the press of a button. Yes, it takes time and persistence to build up your readership, but you can target the people who would most likely be interested in reading what you write. And with MySpace, you have tangible means of watching that readership grow through friendships. A few months later, I started a Facebook page too.

I know that I have already sold hundreds of copies of books to readers who otherwise wouldn’t have heard of me — these are my MySpace and Facebook friends. It’s all about connections. Five of my MySpace friends (whom I’ve never met in person before) showed up on my tour to buy books and have them signed — and most of them drove more than an hour to see me. They made special WAKE T-shirts and sent flowers and chocolates to the bookstores where I would be signing. They take photos of themselves holding WAKE and post them on their pages — free advertising — and suddenly I’m not just reaching that one friend, but all their friends, too. They absolutely LOVE to read — and if I hadn’t been on MySpace, I would really be missing out — not just on sales and readers, but on friendships. I care about these teens and I have a place where I can communicate with them regularly — it’s much more personal than a blog or website. And now that the book is out, my MySpace page has become an automatic stop for those readers I don’t know. I have my MySpace address in the back of the book. It’s amazing that now, after a year of seeking out readers, the readers are seeking me out. The buzz is there. The momentum grows and builds and when book two hits the shelves in February, hundreds (thousands?) of my MySpace friends will be waiting anxiously with me for FADE, just like I waited anxiously with them for Stephenie Meyer’s ECLIPSE to come out, and Cassandra Clare’s CITY OF ASHES, and Harry Potter 7, etc. And the best part is that these sites are totally free advertising.

Is this sort of thing better for a YA author than it would be for authors in other genres or age groups? Maybe. But successful authors like Barry Eisler and J.A. Konrath swear by it, too.

It’s worth it for me. But some people just can’t stomach it. I can respect that.

Are you introverted? How do you recommend an author overcome his/her shyness?

I’m not a complete introvert, but yes, I’d much rather be alone than in a group (or standing in front of 100 skeptical teenagers). I was so afraid to do a book signing, I couldn’t breathe. It was absolutely terrifying. Just thinking about it made my stomach churn. And I feel for the person who is horribly shy — I really do. But the question I’d ask is this: How badly do you want it? Do you want to be a successful author badly enough to suck it up and talk to people? Before you got your book deal, how badly did you want it? Don’t forget that hunger. Put your computer down and get thee to a Toastmaster’s meeting. Go to your kid’s school and talk to the class about what it’s like to be a writer — I don’t care if they are Kindergarteners, just get out there and get used to standing in front of humans. Walk into a bookstore with a copy of your book, introduce yourself and spend thirty seconds telling the clerk or manager about it. Sit your family down in the living room, stand in front of them, and say five coherent sentences about your book to them. Then do ten the next day.

There are millions of people who would give anything to be in your shoes. How badly do you want this? Enough to step out of your comfort zone and go get it? Enough that you don’t want to have to start this process over again because you were too afraid to promote your first book and it’s failing? If you want it, if you want this life as an author, if you ever want to sell another book, your goal needs to be this: You must do everything in your power to make this book succeed, because if you don’t, and this book fails, nobody gets fired…except you. The ultimate responsibility lies with you. Sure, books still fail even when an author does everything he can. But if you did everything you could possibly do and the book still fails, at least you will never look back on the experience with regret and say, “I wish I had tried harder.”

Try harder now.

---

Lisa McMann is the author of WAKE and its upcoming sequel, FADE (Spring, 2009).

She was born and raised in Michigan and has been a blueberry picker, bindery worker, bookseller, and Realtor. In 2004, Lisa and her family moved to the Phoenix area and now she writes from a green chair overlooking the Superstition Mountains.

Sometimes she wears a cowboy hat.
She’s not really a cowboy.
She just likes hats.

Many of Lisa’s short stories are published online and in print, like the one about homelessness. It won a cool Templeton award.

Now why not go friend Lisa over at MySpace or at Facebook?

Should You Sign with a New Agent?

by Victoria Strauss

“Everyone has to start somewhere.”

This is the justification used by countless aspiring writers for signing with an agent who a) has no relevant professional credentials, b) has no track record of sales (sometimes after many years in business), c) has a website/contract/correspondence laced with mis-spellings and grammatical errors, or d) all of the above.

Just as every published writer was once an unpublished writer, this reasoning goes, just as every surgeon was once a medical student and every master carpenter was once a kid playing with a plastic hammer, every agent was once a non-agent. Everyone has to start somewhere.

Well, sure. But you don’t just wake up one day and decide you’re a surgeon. You don’t buy yourself a box of woodworking tools and call yourself a carpenter. You don’t graduate from college and immediately apply for a job as a senior editor. You need training. Knowledge. Relevant professional experience.

If you’re thinking this is pretty obvious, I agree. To do a skilled job, you need job skills. Duh.

The trouble is, huge numbers of new writers seem to feel that literary agents are exempt from this basic principle. All a new agent really needs, they think, is a website, some determination, and a can-do attitude. So what if the agent doesn’t know the ropes? She can learn them on the job. So what if her spelling’s a little erratic? Anyone can make a mistake. So what if it takes her a while to make a sale? Everyone has to start somewhere.

But it doesn’t work that way. Agenting isn’t like selling Avon products. You can’t just grow into the job with enthusiasm and a good work ethic. Agenting is a highly skilled profession that requires a range of specialized expertise (such as an understanding of rights and contract terms), negotiating savvy, a deep knowledge of the publishing industry, and personal contacts (since publishing is still very much a deals-over-lunch business). These are not skills that are easily acquired outside the publishing industry itself--which is why most successful agents have either worked in publishing in some capacity, or trained at a reputable agency. Nor are skills acquired in other professions--advertising, say, or sales--necessarily transferable. Publishing is a universe unto itself. The sort of selling and negotiating that goes on between agents and editors doesn’t much resemble the selling and negotiating that happens in the business world.

People who come to agenting from non-publishing-related fields rarely manage to make a go of it. I’m not just making a generalization here. Documentation gathered by Writer Beware over the past eight years bears me out. We have scores of files on inexperienced agents who gave up after a couple of years of fruitless trying. We have scores more on amateur agents who turned to fee-charging or editing schemes in order to keep their non-manuscript-selling agencies afloat. Many writers think that scam agents are their greatest danger, but amateur agents--who actually outnumber the scammers by a good percentage--are just as bad.

I’m not really sure why so many writers have a tough time believing this--why they think that anyone, experienced or not, can hang out a shingle as an agent and have as much chance of success as someone who has been an in-house editor for twenty years. Hey, if it were that easy, why would you need an agent at all? Possibly they don’t grasp the level of expert skill involved. Or maybe it’s because, apart from college creative writing programs, there’s no formal training for writers. Anyone can be a writer; why shouldn’t it be the same for agents?

In many cases, of course, it’s because the agent tells the writer what he most desperately wants to hear--that he’s talented, that his manuscript will sell. These are powerful promises, especially to someone who has experienced a lot of rejection. And if the agent is a failed novelist who turned to agenting because she thought she could do a better job than all the nasty agents who sent her form rejection letters, or a retired grade-school teacher who took up agenting because he thought it would be a pleasant home business and in three years of agenting has yet to make a sale, what’s going to be the more powerful motivator for the writer--the practical considerations of job experience, or the ego-boost of recognition, with all the dreams of success it invokes? Will the writer say This agent doesn’t have the skill to sell my manuscript? Or will he swallow the dream, and tell himself Everyone has to start somewhere?

So think twice before approaching new agents who don’t have an industry background. Avoid agents who’ve been in business for years and are still struggling to establish a track record. Run far and fast from agents who make spelling mistakes or grammatical errors or haven’t bothered to proof their websites. These agents started somewhere--but where they are isn't anyplace you want to be.

* * *

Excerpted with permission from Writer Beware's blog, maintained by Victoria Strauss and Ann Crispin. Writer Beware is the public face of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Committee on Writing Scams. Like many genre-focused professional writers' groups, SFWA is concerned not just with issues that affect professional authors, but with the problems and pitfalls that face aspiring writers. The Committee on Writing Scams, and the Writer Beware website, founded in 1998, reflect that concern.

The Writer’s Middle Finger: Part Three

(Dealing with the business of publishing a book while remembering what really matters.)

by A.S. King

By now, you know how I feel about writing advice. If you don’t, here’s the gist: what works for others may not work for you. What works for you may not work for others. In many ways this mirrors the kind of thinking you will need to get through the business side of this journey, as well.

But I want to make this clear. Your writer’s middle finger is for when you’re writing. You have to save it for the important stuff. Save it for the days when you doubt your own vision or gut or read advice that makes you feel confined. Once you publish a book, you will feel the urge to raise that finger in all sorts of directions, but say it with me, reader, “Books are like snowflakes. I want to make a blizzard.” (If this seems obtuse, read The Writer’s Middle Finger Part One.)

If you use your writer’s middle finger to flip off things you can’t control, it will lose its magical powers. Sometimes it’s easy to forget why we started this journey. Which is why today’s blog is about a few things that might suck, because they come along with being a published writer, but do not deserve our valuable middle finger.

Dealing with negative reviews and commentary

Everyone has a different way of dealing with bad reviews and commentary. If you must look, try to have a sense of humor. When I got my first snarky review, I was pretty bummed out for a few days. I wanted to say stuff about it. I felt defensive and angry. But what could I do about that review? Nothing. Reviews are like haircuts. Of course, if you get a bad haircut, it will grow out. Unfortunately, bad reviews do not grow out. But tell me: is a bad haircut a reflection of you? Or the hairdresser?

If you try to please every complainer who writes you a letter, you will make very boring books. (If I was to remove what some people complained about from The Dust of 100 Dogs, I think there might be two pages left.) If you’ve published a book, there’s a decent chance someone will think it should be set alight. If these people approach you in person, smile and nod.

Remember this: "What other people think of you is none of your business." –Unknown

You have an even more powerful tool than your writer’s middle finger to deal with this stuff, if it tends to bug you. Break Up With Google. Stop Looking at Reviews. Stop Caring About Negativity. Then, Write More Books.

Dealing with the publishing business

Editors and agents move or quit or get fired. Publicists get you a gig at an empty warehouse with rats for an audience. Your local Barnes and Noble treats you like month-old garbage. Contracts fall through. Books don’t get stocked. Co-op gets pulled. Promoting gets tiring. The list of hurdles is long.

Set your own goals and adjust accordingly. If you don’t like online promotion, or touring or school visits, that’s fine. I like bookmarks, but some people swear by postcards. You set out to write children’s books, but you found yourself writing a memoir or a science fiction novel? That’s fine. Keep at it. Adjust your sights. There is no wasted time when you’re writing. Everything you write will be practice for the next time around. And there is no doubt about this—the publishing business is not in a hurry.

A successful author friend said to me recently, “Remember when you used to think that when you reached a certain point, it'd all be gravy?” What a smart guy. It’s never gravy. It’s a job. It requires work and involves stuff that might piss you off some days. But it’s good—with all its weirdness and uncertainty and its knack for moving at the pace of a stoned tortoise. Without the publishing business, we wouldn’t meet editors who make our work sparkle, or publicists or booksellers or librarians or fans. Without the publishing business, we would not have an outlet for what we love to do most. You are responsible for juggling the love and the bullshit. Only you can dictate just how many balls you have up in the air at once. (For the record, I try to only juggle the love, man.)

The separation of writing and business

I keep the writing and the business in different mental rooms. That way, it’s easier to remember what my number one job is. I wrote for fifteen years without being paid a penny. You probably did, too. So when you finally make a buck off this? Remember what the most important thing is. Writing. Snowflakes. Blizzard. Block out the uncontrollable bullshit. You may think that because you’re getting paid money, that it makes the business more important than the writing. But you did this long before you got money for it. You did it for free.

Here’s my theory: The uncontrollable bullshit is what the money is for. Eating the toasted craptart that is getting a bad review and licking the melting poopsicle that is getting unsolicited criticism from your child’s teacher or a guy who knew you in grade school. The money is for dealing with covers you might not like, or a new editor who can’t remember your name.

Here’s my cure: Each time something negative happens to you in this business, write yourself an imaginary $100 check as compensation. Then, go back to the desk, stretch your middle finger, and write for free.

(This post originally appeared at Mystic Lit)


A.S. King’s short fiction has appeared in a lot of great journals and has been nominated for awards. Her first young adult novel, The Dust of 100 Dogs, was published by Flux in February 2009 and was an Indie Next List pick for teens and has been nominated for YALSA's Best Books for Young Adults. Her next novel, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, is due in Fall 2010 from Knopf.

New Rules for Authors

by Bella Stander

My rules are inspired by the authors I constantly encounter who don't think about having a website, or don't update their site with information about their latest book, until just before--or worse yet, after!-- publication date.

Rule #1:
Having a website is not an option; it's an absolute necessity.

Rule #2:
You must have a website domain (preferably yourname.com) registered by the time your book's catalog and jacket copy are being written.

Rule #3:
Your book's catalog and jacket copy should include something like, "Learn more about Jane Author at her website, janeauthor.com." (Some publishers have a policy against this. I hope they wise up soon.)

Rule #4:
Your website must be live and UP-TO-DATE by the time your publisher's catalog is printed. Why? So that journalists, book review editors, writers' conference and book festival organizers, etc., can learn more about you and your book, and find out how to contact you directly.

Rule #5:
Update your website at least once a month. Make sure your book news and events calendar are current. (No howlers such as "Coming in May 2007.") As soon as an item in the "Upcoming" section is past, move it into the "Past Events" section. Add new blurbs; quotes from reviews, interviews and news stories, with links to the full pieces. You don't have to be a techno-nerd to learn how to do this yourself; your site designer can show you how.

Publicity expert Bella Stander is a writer, the publisher of Bella Terra Publishing and a consultant to the Virginia Festival of the Book. Formerly the book editor for a Virginia lifestyle magazine and a long-time contributing editor at Publishers Weekly, she has also reviewed books for Entertainment Weekly, People, The Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. She is a member of the Authors Guild and National Book Critics Circle. See her writing website, BellaStander.com, and blog, Reading Under the Covers.

Online vs Print

By Becky Tuch

You have just written a great short story. Let’s call it “Trucking.” It is, afterall, about the guy who picked you up in his truck while you were hitch-hiking in Chile. Though the story is funny and light-hearted, it goes deep into the characters' minds and probes socio-economic conditions. In short, what you have in your hands is a work of literary fiction.

Now, what do you do with it?

In the old days (circa 2005), you would get a copy of Writer’s Digest's Short Story and Novel Guide. You would scan the list of literary magazines and submit your story to your top five to ten journals, maybe places like The Paris Review or Glimmer Train. If these places rejected your piece, you would go back to your list and send out your story again. This time, you would submit to journals with a smaller circulation but which were still credible, places like Alaska Quarterly Review or Nimord. If you got accepted, you’d dance around your living room. If you got rejected, you’d shrug and move on down the list until, eventually, you found a home for your work.

This is a perfectly reasonable way to go about your business. That is, assuming you follow the submission guidelines for the various journals, submit only to journals that accept simultaneous submissions, and notify them if your work is accepted elsewhere. And, assuming that you do enough research on the journals beforehand, so that you don’t submit “Trucking” to a journal that specifically wants speculative historical fiction or poems about jazz. If you do it right, this process is thorough and systematic, and if your story is as good as you think it is, it will likely find itself a home sooner or later.

But in the past few years, the literary magazine market has expanded so incredibly with the proliferation of dozens of on-line journals. In addition, the respect for on-line journals has increased, so that to have work published on the internet as opposed to print no longer carries the stigma that it once did.

So, given the many options available to you, what do you choose? Should you even consider on-line and print to be different categories? Or do you merely seek what’s reputable, regardless of the medium? What’s most important to you—prestige, visibility or being spotted by agents? Are you trying to build your resume or your readership? Can you do one or all of these at the same time?

The following are some things to consider when looking for a home for your latest, greatest, work of writing:

Visibility. If your goal is to cultivate a readership, that is more likely to happen on-line. When your work goes live, you can send the link to many people. Conversely, if you tell people you’ve published in a journal, how many will actually go to the bookstore to seek it out? Or make the effort to order the journal and shell out the money? On-line, your work is there for the taking.

Staying Power. If “Trucking” comes out in December 2009, it will still be easily accessible in 2012. With print journals, you’d have to order a back issue, and it’s not likely anyone would find it unless they actively sought it out. This is changing, as more journals post their archives and current contents on-line, but not every journal does this now.

Being Caught in the Act. Greater visibility may not always be desirable. If you never told your parents that you went to Chile and hitch-hiked, they might learn more about you than you’d like. Issues of writing about people you know, satirizing life at your office, or revealing deep parts of yourself become more pressing when you publish on-line. For better or for worse, anyone can find your writing in a Google search. Before publishing on-line, you'll want to make sure you’re comfortable with the material’s exposure, more so than you likely would with a print journal.

Self-Promotion. Reading on-line is a much more fluid, integrative process than print reading. In your bio, you can link to your web page, or other places where you’ve published, and a reader can quickly, easily learn more about you. Readers can also contact you, and are more likely to do so. Many writers say that getting published on-line has generated emails from enthusiastic readers, and these dialogues have been tremendously rewarding.

Where Agents Fear to Tread. For some writers, the goal of publishing in a journal is not to cultivate a large audience, but to get the attention of one specific person—a literary agent. For such a writer, it makes sense to seek publication in top tier journals (agents generally pick from the best of the best.) Though there are highly reputable on-line journals and many agents do mine these for talent, it still seems that agents mostly make their selections from print journals.

The More, the Merrier. It can all come together though. If you publish “Trucking” in Glimmer Train¸ an agent who loves your story might then Google you. If s/he discovers other work that's on-line and likes what s/he sees, this can be beneficial for everyone.

Why not just have a blog? Yes, if someone Googles you, your blog would also show up, and an agent could see more of your work there. But just like publishing your novel through a reputable publishing house shows that someone has screened and approved of your work before publication, publishing through an on-line journal gives your piece an added stamp of approval. Anyone can have a website or a blog. But publishing credits show that you are serious and hard-working, other people value your work, and you approach your writing in a professional manner—all traits that agents regard highly.

Are you Super Duper Creative? Writing a story or a poem is pretty cool. But have you ever wanted to read your story out loud to an illustrated clip of cartoon sequences? Or have a local chorus sing your poem alongside animation? On-line journals create more opportunity for not just one, but several creative powers to co-exist. Visit ElectricLiterature.com to see how these editors are doing story-telling in truly innovative ways.

Want to see your work in Korean? Getting published on-line does create some sticky copyright issues, which may be worth consideration. Some writers are shocked to find that their work has been taken off a web page and translated into several different languages without acknowledgment. You might be flattered if this happened to you. Or you might not like it at all.

Want Students to Share Your Work in Class? On the other hand, when a professor tells her students to find a good short short story they like, nowadays students will look almost exclusively on-line. If you have a short short published on a website, it could get passed around a classroom and be discussed, or printed out and hung on some struggling writer’s bulletin board somewhere. Many on-line journals, however credible, get thousands of hits a month, which means your work has a greater potential to find curious readers and also inspire.

So, how do you determine which on-line journals are reputable? How do you find the absolute best home for your piece? The answer is the same as it's always been: Homework. Research what's out there. Choose a few journals--on-line and print--that publish work you admire. Read reviews of on-line and print journals at places like Newpages.com and TheReviewReview.net. Remain open-minded about the possibilities for your work and the technology that's available to you.

And most importantly, don't forget: Before you submit your work anywhere, take a deep breath and pat yourself on the back. You wrote something wonderful.

*****

Becky Tuch has won several awards for her fiction (from Briar Cliff Review, Byline Magazine and The Tennessee Writer's Alliance) and received Honorable Mentions from the 2008 Pushcart Prize Anthology and Writers' Journal. She is also the Founding Editor of TheReviewReview.net, a website which reviews literary magazines and offers publishing tips to writers.

How Agents Build Writers' Careers

by Richard Curtis

A literary agent's life involves far more than reading, lunching, and deal-making. His or her services embrace the literary, legal, financial, social, political, psychological, and even the spiritual; and the jobs they are obliged to tackle run the gamut from computer troubleshooting to espionage. But because our business is a day-to-day, book-to-book affair, we tend to lose perspective. With our preoccupation with advances and royalties, payout schedules and discounts, movie rights and foreign rights and serial rights and merchandise rights, with option clauses and agency clauses and acceptability clauses and termination clauses, it is all too easy for us to forget that our primary goal is to build careers, to take writers of raw talents, modest accomplishments, and unimpressive incomes and render them prosperous, successful, and emotionally fulfilled.

This endeavor demands the application of all the skill and experience we command, plus something else: vision. Vision in this context may be defined as an agent's ideal of the best work an author is capable of achieving, matched to the best job his publishers can perform. An agent's vision should illuminate the author's path, oftentimes far into his future, if not for his entire career.

In order for our vision to be fulfilled, three conditions must be met. First, we have to learn and understand what the author's own vision is. Second, we have to align that vision with our perception of the author's talent: do we believe he or she has what it takes to realize that dream? And finally, we have to help the author fashion his or her work to suit the demands and expectations of the marketplace.

I cannot overstate how much easier said than done the process of building an author's career is. Human nature being what it is, the forces militating against success are heartbreakingly formidable. The agent's vision and the author's vision may be at serious odds with one another, or at odds with the publisher's, and sometimes it's at odds with the vision of the fans! Authors' talents or stamina or financial resources may simply not be up to the task they have set for themselves. Their publishers may not like or understand their work. Their audience may reject it. Every imaginable contingency may beset an author along life's path: death and disability, divorce and disaster - the same ones that beset everybody else, plus a few that are indigenous to creative people. The attrition rate for authors and their dreams is extremely high, and the odds against talent flourishing under perfect conditions are prohibitive. With so much at stake, it should come as no surprise that agents approach the building of their clients' careers with the utmost solemnity.

When a writer becomes my client I sit down with him or her to explore immediate and long-term goals. I ask writers how much it costs to live comfortably, how much they earn per book, and how long it takes them to write. It should then be a matter of simple arithmetic to determine what I must do to keep their careers on a steady keel: simply divide their yearly expenses by the number of books they are capable of producing annually. This gives me the amount of money they must earn (after commission, I hasten to remind them) per book to make a living.

Unfortunately, life is not a matter of simple arithmetic. Even in the unlikely event that authors live within their means and nothing untoward befalls them and their family, there is no room in the above equation for profit, and visions of greatness require an author to earn a profit.

Now, books that earn a profit for authors are not easily come by (not, at any rate, as easily come by as books that earn a profit for publishers). Good luck and good agenting may sometimes make one happen, but it is unwise for an author to depend on either. This means authors have to make it on their own by writing a breakout book. But how can they do that if they can't afford to buy the time?

Even if you are blessed with an unexpected windfall, there is no guarantee that you will achieve your dream, thanks to Fehrenbach's Law. T. R. Fehrenbach, the brilliant Texas historian, once wrote to me that, "Expenses rise to meet the cost of every sellout." In other words, the profit that authors make does not necessarily go into the fund marked, "This Time I'm Really Going to Write That Book." More likely, it will go toward something that is easier to grasp, like a new Buick, a home theater with all the bells and whistles, or a two-week vacation on Lake George.

The truth is that writers are no better equipped to fulfill their dreams than are other middle-class people, because compromise is an easy habit to get into when it is rewarded with comforts and luxuries. Austerity, integrity, sacrifice, relentless determination, and other virtues associated with uncompromising artistic endeavor are seldom a match for a brand-new living room suite or wall-to-wall carpeting for the master bedroom. And so an author's dream gets postponed a bit longer, and a bit longer after that, until perhaps that terrible day comes when the dream deferred pops, in Langston Hughes's phrase, "like a raisin in the sun." Death and disability, divorce and disaster are not the only terrible things that can befall an author, or even the worst things. Giving up his dream is the worst thing, and that is truly tragic. I believe it is an agent's sacred duty to keep this from happening, to keep the flame of hope burning in the author's breast, to encourage him or her in every way possible to seize the moment when an opportunity to reach for greatness presents itself.

Just as importantly, the agent must make a judgment as to whether your talents are up to your ambitious projects. They are not always, by any means. Authors are no more objective about their strengths and weaknesses than anyone else, and when their self-perceptions are deficient, it is vital for their agents to shed light on those blind spots.

Another way that agents help authors build their careers is to match their "product" - an unpleasant but useful word - to the demands of the marketplace. In other words, to make it commercial. It is not enough for a writer to fulfill his dream if his dream happens to be to write perfect imitations of Virgil, parodies of Thackeray, or metaphysical poetry. The agent must therefore be as intimate with publishing and reading trends as he is with the soul of his author, and to make sure the author's work plays into those trends.

The problem doesn't always lie with the author. Some publishers are simply better at publishing certain types of books than others, and an author's development may eventually reach the point where the publisher simply can no longer accommodate it. Then it may be time to move the author to a house that understands the author's needs and work and offers an environment in which these can be nurtured properly. It is not always greed that motivates agents to switch authors to new publishers. (Most of the time, yes, but not always.)

If all goes well - and we have seen how seldom it does - you will gradually, or perhaps suddenly, move on to a new and lofty plateau, maybe even onto the very summit itself. Hand clasped in your agent's, you will breathe the heady, rarefied atmosphere of success. You will have fulfilled your dream, your talent will now be a splendidly fashioned tool, and you will be published by a publisher that knows how to realize every dollar of commercial value from your masterpieces for your mutual enrichment. Only one thing remains to be done to place the capstone on your sublime triumph.

Why, fire your agent, of course.

- Richard Curtis

Copyright © 1990 by Richard Curtis. All Rights Reserved.


This article was originally written for Locus, The Newspaper of the Science Fiction Field. It's reprinted in Mastering the Business of Writing. You can read more terrific articles by Richard Curtis on the eReads blog.

Ten Secrets to a Successful Website

by Marshall Turner

In the digital world of today, if you do not have a website you do not exist. It is that simple! Having a website to promote yourself and your work is as essential as having a business card and email. You know this, but websites, computers and technology are both technically challenging and cloaked in mystery. Some of the mystery is because there is a lot to understand and there are many opinions about what is best. But some of the mystery is because the high priests of web technology do not take the time to explain in plain English what you should know. Here I will reveal ten secrets to having a great website.

1. Buy your domain name now
An author recently called to discuss our website services and during the conversation she asked if her name was available as a domain. I ran a quick check and found the name had been registered just a few months earlier. If that was not disappointing enough, I found that someone had just put up a one page website in memory of their deceased mother. So here was an author with a book ready to launch whose name was a website saying she had died! With a domain name costing less than $20 per year, you should buy “yourname.com” today and hold on to it forever. And while you are at it, go ahead and buy your “booktitle.com” too. If you change the title later, you can let the registration expire – think of it as inexpensive insurance.

If you find your name is not available, you can try variations such as adding an initial or using just your initials. By registering your name now you will be able to coordinate your domain name with your professional name. It is much easier for people to find you if the name on your book, article or other writing matches your domain name.

2. Stick to the “.com” web address
The “dot whatever” (e.g. .com, .net, .org) part of a domain name is referred to as the Top-Level Domain, or TLD. Most people are aware there are other TLDs besides “.com” but do not confuse them by using anything else (unless you are a non-profit organization and then you should choose .org). It is ok to buy other generic TLDs to match your .com if you want to prevent someone from using them. To protect your name, I recommend buying the .net and .org as these are the mostly widely known. You may also consider buying the .biz, .info, .name and .us. But since there are more than twelve generic TLDs and more than 250 country and other TLDs, you should not try to buy them all.

3. Launch your website a minimum of 3-6 months before you think you need it
You should launch your website as soon as you consider yourself a professional writer, even if you are not published. Two reasons are that it helps project your professionalism and it provides a way for people to find and contact you.

At a minimum, you should launch your website three to six months ahead of when you think you need one. Why? It will take that long to show up in all the search engines, especially Google. Plus it takes times to build links, see “Developing inbound links” below.

4. Keep it professional
Your website should reflect the professional writer that you are. That means good design, crisp copy, focused content. If you are also a graphic artist you may want to create the design yourself. If not, have the design created by a professional, whether with a custom designed site or a professionally designed template. A template is a website design developed independently from your site and it may be used by other websites. It is ok to use a professionally designed template as this should save you a lot of money. However, the templates included with some software may be too easily recognized and are best avoided.

Resist the urge to include cute, frilly, extraneous content on your site. Your kids may be talented, your pets adorable and your vacation fun, but do these have anything to do with your writing? If not, leave it out.

Spinning and flashing graphics look cheap. Having music play automatically is annoying and potentially embarrassing for someone viewing your site from work. Heavy graphics will make the page slow to load for those on slower connections. Do not go with a “free” site that does not use your own domain name or that put ads on your page. These types of sites say you are cheap and unprofessional. Think about the sites that you do business with – what level of professionalism do you look for and expect? You are a business too! Have your site support your platform as a professional writer.

5. Use it to sell your book.
Surprisingly, some author sites overlook the basic purpose of selling books. There are several ways to sell your book online, make sure your website does at least one of these.

Tell them to contact you. The simplest way to sell is to tell someone to contact you to buy your book. Whether by email, phone, or mail, provide visitors the information they need to get in touch with you to buy your book.

The most common way to sell your book online is to direct buyers to another website. That is, provide a link visitors can click to take them to a site where your book is sold. This may be your publisher or one of the online booksellers (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Booksense.com or an independent). If possible, link to the specific page so your book will appear rather than having a buyer search for you at the site. These sellers handle the sale and fulfillment (shipping) of the order.

If you are handling fulfillment yourself, you have a couple of choices.

Setup up a PayPal account and put a link on your website to your PayPal page. PayPal is easy to setup and use, but suffers from an image problem because of its heritage as an auction site payment system and some quirks regarding accepting credit cards.

Use a shopping cart. Generally, a shopping cart and the related merchant account for accepting credit cards are too much trouble and expense for a single author site. However, some website systems provide a shopping cart you can use for a reasonable fee.

6. Make your site search engine friendly
The subject of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often obscure and mysterious. One reason is that the search engines do not disclose exactly how they work. So there is a lot of guessing and trial and error. A lot of good information can be found at the search engine’s website, but here will I cover some of the basics.

First, have a clear hierarchy and make sure every page is reachable from at least one static link. Second, use text rather than images to display important information such as names and titles. Third, give your pages a clear and meaningful title. Finally, make use of meta tags such as key words, alt, and descriptions (meta tags are invisible to a visitor but used by some search engine robots).

If you are having your website custom built, your developer should know these things and will incorporate them into your site. If you are using one of the easy-to-use build your own website systems, you should find out how their system handles these suggestions.

Do not try any tricks on your site to deceive the search engine robots, these can get your site banned. Tricks such as hidden text and links, sneaky redirects, irrelevant words or duplicate content are considered deceptive or manipulative behavior.

Don’t participate in link schemes that promise to link many sites to yours. This technique is considered spam by search engines and could result in a lower ranking for your site.

7. Submit your site to only 3 search engines, if at all
Three search engines have nearly 80% of the U.S. search market. Google has almost 50%, followed by Yahoo and MSN. Plus many of the other search engines get their content from these three. So if you choose to submit your site, do not worry about the others. The exception is if there is a particular specialty search engine that your target audience uses. If you know your audience expects you to be listed on a particular search engine, be sure to submit your name to that site.

Google says it is not necessary to submit your site because their automated robots crawl the web following links and finding sites for inclusion. This is true for the other search engines too. That is why having links to your site is important.

To go a step further, you can submit your site to The Open Directory Project at dmoz.org. This is a human-edited directory of the web. A directory differs from a search engine in that a directory uses humans to classify a site. A search engine collects content and displays the results based on the words you use in the search. Yahoo.com has the best known directory and it was the basis for their early success. However, you must pay for inclusion in their directory. Do not confuse Yahoo’s directory with their search engine. They now have both, having added the search engine as others such as Google became popular.

It is worth mentioning that dmoz is a volunteer project and it does not accept all sites that are submitted. When you submit it is up to you to find the category that best fits your site.

To submit your site, use the links below or go to the search engine or directory website and search for a link to submit your site. There is no charge for submitting your site.

Google
Yahoo
MSN
dmoz

8. Develop inbound links
These are links from other websites to your website and another reason you should launch your site well ahead of when you think you will need it. You will need that lead time to get other websites to link to your site.

Why get other sites to link to yours? Google pioneered the idea that the more links you have coming in and the higher ranked the site that provides the link, the more valuable your site is ranked. This is the “linking economy” – the value of your site is determined by how many inbound links you have plus how many people find and click on your site from a search engine.

So how do you develop links? There are several ways. One is to provide your website address to anyone who interviews you or reviews your work and to include it with every email, letter, book, article or other writing. Another is to identify websites that your audience visits and contact them. But before you contact them you should visit the site and find out all you can about them and why they would want to link to you. In some cases you may be able to entice them by offering a link from your site to theirs. But unless you have an established readership and people visiting your site this may be more a matter of courtesy than real value.

9. Track your websites performance
There are several ways to keep track of what your website is doing. The simplest method is a counter. You have seen these at the bottom of some web pages. In my opinion, the problem with a counter is that it is ugly, unprofessional, very simplistic and rather dumb. Simplistic because it only reports visits to one page and dumb because you can hit the refresh button on your browser and watch the count go up.

A step up from a counter is a tracker service. With this service you put a tag on your webpage and the information is collected for you. Generally the free services require their icon appear on your site and typically for a fee it can be hidden.

The most complete and powerful way to track performance is to analyze your website logs. All web servers are capable of logging activity on a website. Some hosting services provide access to an online log analyzer which you can view with a browser. For deeper analysis you can get the logs and purchase an analysis program and do it yourself. Generally, an online analyzer from your hosting company will give you more than you need. Ask about tracking your website performance when you consider a hosting company.

10. Keep your site up-to-date
Nothing shouts unprofessional like a stale, neglected website. Not that you have to update your site every day, but it needs to be current and correct. If you are having a site developed, ask about being able to do the updates yourself. One of the overlooked costs of a website is the ongoing cost of updates. Simple updates like changing copy, adding a clip and adding new events to your calendar are tasks you should be able to do easily and quickly. Search engine robots like fresh content and will visit more often if you are making changes.

Summary
Take my advice and get started today on assuring the success of your website. If you follow through on these ten secrets, you will be well on your way.

Marshall Turner is the President of Turner Technology, Inc. and creator of www.WebforAuthors.com. WebforAuthors.com provides authors and writers an easy-to use system to create and update their own websites. He can be contacted through the WebforAuthors.com or at mturner@webforauthors.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .