Blog here about anything to do with being a writer today.

The book publishing world changed while I was writing my book. The way to get a new book into readers' hands is simpler. Hence this thread. The better we understand our new world, the easier it is to take that next big step: Market the book we wrote.

I'll start with reflections on the change I missed while writing The Phoenix Diary.

YESTERDAY'S GONE

I dreamed the future but of course forgot it on waking up. All I have left is the vision of being in a red brick building watching men move stacks of books on forklifts. Light from dirty windows illuminate dust in the air. Cries of anguish ring from a pot bellied man in a three piece striped suit and bowler hat, "Out, damned Kindle! out, I say! - Nook: Kobo: Publishing is murky!"

Not murky at all. Book publishing is being replaced by book marketing: This Notebook I write on can publish what I write and distribute it worldwide tomorrow. No factory of men and equipment are needed, no shipping, no bookstores. Just people with ereaders. Writers no longer need publishing services, we need marketing services.

Traditional books will be remembered by collectors, much as I and others collect old silver coins. What new ones are made are inconsequential. Modern currency itself is now mostly bits & bytes.

Writers like Atthys Gage (Spark) and you and I live between press and chip, between the vanishing world of traditional publishing and the here & now of the Internet. Right here right now you see these words. I wrote them yesterday.

Hi GD,

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The big plus for me in this brave new writer's world is that (I believe) you can replace your ebook, update it at the drop of a hat. My story expands, like a cancer, from every point. I expect it will eventually settle down. And I will insert revisionist thinking in subsequent material, as remembrance, etc. 

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I plan to offer my novella/teaser very cheaply, just to try to cover the expense of printing a paper doll. A poster. A bumper sticker. The idea of a printed book appeals to me hardly at all. I'm thinking ninety-nine cents for the thirty-thousand word novella and a premium starter paper doll, and plenty of freebies. A free download to any member of the Atheists of America, for instance. I am more interested in getting my kicks than in making money. My editor says, your quirky style tells readers, I don't care whether you like this or not. Yeah, she's right. Anyone put off by my rambling, disjointed, intrusive, and somewhat philosophical telling, go read somebody else.

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I'm feeling my way. As are we all.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/8/2015, 1:53 PM--

The Serendipitous Path to a Publisher

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that I now have a publisher! Booktrope will be re-issuing “High Strung, A Glass Bead Mystery” and publishing new books in the Glass Bead Mystery series. And while this is exciting news, at least for me, the story behind how I ended up with a publisher is the stuff that good tales are made of: fear, dumb luck, bravery, and ultimately, a happy ending.

In January I sat in a cafe drinking coffee with my friend Kim. The San Francisco Writers Conference was coming up in a month and I told Kim I was thinking about going, but that I was nervous about it.  I was worried that I was not a real writer, even though I had self-published a book the previous year, and that I wasn’t professional enough to attend a conference for authors.  I hadn’t been writing for long and was worried that someone would find out that I was an impostor or that I’d embarrass myself by being such a newbie.

Kim told me to go and just “breathe the air” at the conference. She encouraged me by saying that I didn’t need to do anything but be there and absorb what information I could.  The next day I sat at my computer, shut my eyes, and I clicked the Submit button on the registration form for the conference. I was going.  And I was nervous.

A month later I stood outside the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, ready to dive in.

I can do this.

I had arrived ridiculously early, so I sat in the lobby chatting with a couple from out of town, giving them sightseeing advice. When it was time for the first session, I filed into a large conference room with the rest of the attendees. The first thing that the moderator did was ask anyone who had brought a book with them that they had written to hold it above their head. I held up my empty hand and told to the moderator in my strongest voice that I had sold the book I brought to the tourists in the lobby.  Maybe the weekend was going to be okay after all.

I hadn’t signed up to do the the Pitch-a-Thon, that was over-the-top intimidating to me. For the uninitiated, a pitch-o-thon is like speed-dating with agents and publishers, instead of potential mates. Authors move from table to table pitching their story in 4 minute segments with the hope that an agent or publisher will be interested in seeing a full manuscript. The prospect of pitching my book scared the hell out of me, so instead I went and sat on a bench in the park across from the hotel, soaking in the sun during the pitching session. I had breathed enough conference air for the day.

In the final hours of the conference, I sat at a round table in a ballroom with many other attendees. I’d learned a lot about book marketing and I’d found other new authors like me who were there to learn and to meet people who had a love of words, books, and stories. I was feeling good. Maybe I wasn’t an impostor after all.

There was a raffle and I won a prize—a free pass to go to a Pitch-o-Rama hosted by the Women’s National Book Association in San Francisco. Ugh! Of all the prizes, this was the one that I didn’t want. I was going to have to pitch my book to publishers and agents.  And I was scared as hell all over again.

Emboldened by my success at the writers conference, I decided I would go and pitch.

I can do this.

I sorely miss the days when traditional publishing was the only way to go. I don't much care for ereaders--reading off them doesn't give me the sense of 'this is a book' . . . and gives me a headache after a bit. I want to hold a paperback or a hardcover novel in my hands while I read, not squint at a computer screen. Without traditional publishing, libraries are going to go obsolete in time. And that's a darn shame, in my opinion.

Amber

@JanPeac

ConGrats! Janice That is tremendous news. Nothing wrong at all with "fear, dumb luck, bravery, and ultimately, a happy ending." Did you connect with the publisher at The San Francisco Writers Conference pitch-o-thon? Never heard of those before but I've lived a sheltered life since I discovered that if you do, no one notices.

Be sure to post more of this story as it unfolds. I can't be the only one here who wants to hear details from other writers about how their books gets into the hands of readers.

@Mimi

LOL Mimi! Maybe, a Sly! The Voodoo Doll?

@Amber

Yup, I agree with you. I bought a few beautifully bound & illustrated books as objects of art. And my grandkids love handling them and looking at them. But they prefer to read books on their phones. They'll think nothing is amiss with a world where the library is a database you phone to download a story.

GD, I do get cranky sometimes. When I do, just ignore me. Yes, the paperdoll will be Sly, of course. With a wardrobe of hats and boots. Who is it meant for? It will be a promo piece for the novel, and a fun item for a younger audience. I have a children's story almost done. I'm working out the last kinks now. Very short verse, another piece no one thinks is quite for children, but enormous fun, an afternoon in Sly's bullied/loner childhood, his play pirate adventure on a pretend pirate ship, his best friend Ferd the crew. (Ferd is a frog.)

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/9/2015, 12:29 AM--

My name is Paul David Powers, I am the author of the Telly Tales Trilogy, with the third book of the series, Telly Tales III Telly Owl, Family and Friends released in 2014. The premise of the book involves Telly Owl Leader of the Swamp Creatures, an allegory like Jesus being the Good Shepherd of his Sheep! Themes include, Morris the Yellow Spotted Frog-(Prejudice), Mother Tully's "The Greatest Love" Story of Christ & for the Salvation of Mankind, Teddy the Turtles and the Shell Game, (Joy) in the Midst of  Tragedy, Rock the Croc's encounter with Hunters in the Swamp, (Danger), Bunny Love, Telly & Tully Owl's Ascension, (Rapture), Thomas Telly Owl Succession as Leader, (Struggles, Self Doubts), for more see http://www.tellytales-tellytheowl.com

My Question is how can I get exposure for my books when the work is self published and a limited income? PaulDavidPowers@Yahoo.Com.

@Paul

Well, you exposed the beating heart of the dilemma. Tradition publishing includes book promotion because they want a return on their investment. If they could sell books without spending money to do so, I am sure they would.

Selling eBooks is cheap -no printing costs, no shipping & handling. Just a download on the 'Net. And, given a world population of 7 billion, it is probable that a significant number of English readers like what I write and would buy my book if they knew where it was available. Without a traditional publisher promoting my book to the public, it becomes my responsibility to find my readers.

JanPeac just found a traditional publisher by attending a San Francisco Writers Conference. So of course old ways still occasionally work. But the majority of us have to learn to cope with the new world of self publishing.

One thing that might work for me is I had lots of different people read The Phoenix Diary as it was being written. Thanks to them, I have an idea of what kinds of readers like the story. Now, I can spend a little on advertising where they might see the ad. Small ads. Just a brief description & a website address for those interested.

& I'm sure that others here have more and better ideas. Hence this thread about being a writer today. The more writers who tell us what it's like for them in today's world and especially their success stories, the more likely we will all learn new ways to find our own readers.

--edited by GD Deckard on 7/9/2015, 4:38 PM--

Let's get some nuts-and-bolts ideas going. This weekend is one of the two big library book sales of the year in my area. I'm not ready, but I'm thinking about next year. I'm going to ask the library staff:

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1. Would they let me put up posters of Sly? Set up a display in the lobby?

2. Would they let me put dispensers on the tables with bookmarks? Give away bumper stickers?

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This ain't gonna be easy. We've got to get creative. I better start researching the Atheists of America. That's definitely on my list. NPR, somebody, might just run that, it's screwball enough. Think big, folks. What have you got to loose?

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If only I could get one of our cats to wear a pirate outfit, I could make videos and put them on YouTube.

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Way way back, on TV, some collectible show, I saw a car with stuff glued on all over it, tiny Eiffel towers, the Statue of Liberty, all kinds of neat found stuff. I loved it! I absolutely adored it. There wasn't an inch of that car that was bare of decoration. Damn! I could have a cat car. I always wanted to have a mobile piece of art like that. Only thing is, my husband might flip out. Gotta feel him out on that, carefully. Real carefully. Every time I say, you know, I used to be a hippie, he barks, I hated hippies. I would have avoided you like the plague. During that period my husband was a fighter pilot in the Luftwaffe, a real life Top Gun, military all the way. 

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Well, he's got me now. And he doesn't seem to be unhappy about it. I don't wear tie-dye anymore. But I still have my hand-dyed, fringed, beaded Indian dress in my closet. Think Cher, circa 1975, but more covered up. That's the dress I got married in. To my darling's dismay, I'm afraid. 

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/10/2015, 2:39 AM--

Where's the road to publishing? - now that's something I should ask Siri! But I can't help go back to Mimi's thread about the "hand-dyed, fringed, beaded Indian dress... (as in) Cher, circa 1975, only more covered up." Luftwaffe or not, her husband got a good one - a lady with a flair for character, and probably a bit more moxie! Nothing wrong with that,

JanPeac had the stars line up just right when she connected with Booktrope. And to be honest, they have a different business model than the big guys. That said, I think their collaborative style sounds great. I am hoping for the best for Janice. I have read her first book, purchased a copy as a gift to my oldest daughter, and now eagerly await the second book. Booktrope is in my set of plans A, B, and C for publishing my books. The worst kept secret for Janice? The stars worked for her because she had a book ready to go. She had beta readers review it, make suggestions, and she (I am certain) spent many hours/days working on edits. You never know when opportunity is going to knock, but if you haven't built the door, you will never hear it. Great job, Janice!

Paul David - indeed you are in a very specialized market. One thing you may want to try is visit any and all Christian bookstores in your area, or peruse their websites. See what books they offer, and learn who publishes them. You may be able to connect with one of those companies, and perhaps they would consider taking on your book, too. Back to the bookstore, ask the managers if they would consider adding your book to their catalog. It never hurts to ask! As well, visit Christian conferences. I recently attended one where over 50 vendors had tables set up, selling everything from bibles to clergy robes. Even if you just visit, you can hand out your card (with your website listed) and talk up your book. The more people know you, the more likely they might buy your book! Also, many churches have book clubs. Our has two. As you speak to people, mention how your book might be used in that environment. I have a 30 minute presentation on myself and my books for book club and library events. This is a great way to market your books! Again, selling books, as GD and others have said, is now about marketing. The more people know you - you get the picture. Lastly, check out Kristen Lamb's book on social media marketing for writers: We Are Not Alone. Kristen is on of my heroes.

GD and Amber - yes, like it or not, we are in a transitory phase of book publishing. Me being the son of a rare book collector, and having worked in the family printing business back when slugs were put into trays, and cut and paste really meant cut and paste, I hope the paper version never disappears. I may end up deciding to ePublish with BookCountry, but even if I have to build my own letterpress and Gutenberg this thing - there's going to be a paper version of my books.

Sorry for the rambling. I'm a writer. It's what I do.

--edited by D J Lutz on 7/10/2015, 7:13 AM--

@Mimi

Good idea & please let us know what the Library does. My bank offered to display my book; I'm just waiting for the roll out to include Barnes & Noble. I'll let y'all know how it goes with the bank.

@D J Lutz

Have you read  Kristen Lamb's We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media? I'd love for it to be a good insight into book marketing for the individual author. But, at $100 for the paperback, I want to know if it's a) up-to-date and b) worth reading. That is, the book was published in 2010, meaning written before that, and there have been technological revolutions since then. Then there's the whole "How-To-Be-Successful" snake oil legacy to overcome. (No offense intended -these are honest questions.)

WoW, Lucy! Thanks, those really are clear, practical, useful tips:

"10 Tips for Writers on Creating Perfect Social Media Posts."

It's coming close to the time when I have to join those sites. I want to get my novella finalized, then, while I work on illustration, I'll explore that mysterious stuff. 

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I figure I've already got the "Be Sly" covered. lol.

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There! That's the first time I've ever used 'lol'. Everybody says it, drives me up the wall. Can't we be more original? I know, that defeats the purpose. I'm gonna work on creating my own alternate shorthand. That's the sort of game I love. I can get into that. 

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lol: Look Out Lucy (here comes another of my smart-ass comments)

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/10/2015, 12:06 PM--

Mimi, you really do amuse me--and that's a compliment.

lol

Amber

G.D. - $100 for a paperback? I love Kristen like a sister, but there is no way would I pay that much unless Socrates autographed it as a co-author. The book is out of date as far as the tech aspects go, but the gist of the book deals more with how authors actually use, or should use social media. You can get most of everything from wandering through her website and the offshoot: wanatribe.com. The basic message is not to use social media just to advertise (spam) about your book; rather, use social media to build relationships and community.

I do understand the concern about snake oil. There's more than a few bottles of it out there under the guise of how to be a bestseller. Using Kristen as an example, she has a community of thousands that follow and interact with her on Facebook, Twitter, and via her blog. When she mentions the ship date for her newest book, she gets thousands of pre-orders. Does it work for everyone? Nope. But it works for her! I am hoping it will work for me, too.

OK, GD, I'm taking you at your word: anything. I'll call this post 'Don't Neglect Your Research, You Never Know What You'll Find.'

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I'm looking up the history of the Dodo bird. I have Sly calling someone a Dodo, so I have to check the timeline. 1598: first recorded mention by Dutch sailors. (Close enough, I need the bird to be known in 1575 or so.) So some Dutch sailors were lax in writing home about them.

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The name Dodo has been ascribed by some to the Dutch word for sluggard. Others link it to 'dodaars' - 'fat-arse' or 'knot-ass'. Apparently the bird had a huge rear end. Sounds like something I made up, no? I invent stuff like that all the time. But I didn't make it up. You'll find it in Wikipedia.

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I see that I'm going to start putting footnotes into my children's book. I'm not going to be able to resist. Hell, it's not really a children's book, except in the sense that The Ship's Cat was a children's book. (Look it up, it's marvelous.) Both that one and mine fall into the 'Read-It-To-The-Little-Insects' genre. My favorite, even more than 'Wise-Guy-Animals-in-Pants'.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/10/2015, 11:29 PM--

OK, folks. I've got my children's book nearly done. In my defense: it's no more complicated/adult than 'The Ship's Cat', a romp published thirty years ago when, apparently, they saw it as something for children. I use 'thieve/on the qui vive' as one of my rhymes, that tells you something right there. 

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Am I an idiot, to think this might go with kids? 1181 words. Here's a sample. (Sly's speaking):

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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That's it! I cry. I'm for Mumbai! Marvelous queer, it would appear. Ma! There's a snake long as a rake, a lethal bite, an appetite for little guys about my size, but pipe a tune, the thing will swoon into a daze, transfixed. It pays to play the flute! You know I toot a fine ‘The Humble Columbine’.  

You'll never last! Ma cries, aghast. Shall you survive? You'll be et, live! Upon my soul, in one gulp, whole! A beastly clime, most of the time. A brutal heat! What will you eat? Chickpeas, or rice, nothing half nice. The grub’s damn odd. You'll get no cod!

That's best. That's smart. I'd break my heart. A taste of home; me, on the roam. I'd start to pine for all that's mine: my books, my Ma, her hugs, and Da, his goofy glare. (I'm in his chair again, sunk deep and half asleep, upon my lap, a ragged map of gay New Spain and her brave Main.)

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Crap! I just realized I've used map twice. (map/lap - maps/perhaps)

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I'll sign off now. I'm about to get incoherent. I'm on my second glass of wine. We just lost water. Me, in the middle of watering the yard, last night's dishes not washed, no today shower, No water, I go ballistic. Update: OK, my husband somehow got it going. Third glass of wine, from relief. Me, showered. Dinner, started. What a day!

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/13/2015, 12:47 PM--

BookStubs!

I just got a stack

BookStubs are plastic gift cards with your book's cover in full color on the front and a promotion on the back offering a free copy from the Book Country bookstore. They can be given to anyone who you think might promote your book. I just sent one to my local paper's book reviewer.

@Mimi

If you're not writing humour, you ought to be. You could write like the offspring of Jonathan Winters and Chelsea Handler.

GD, Ah! Apparently you haven't peeked at my stuff. It is smart-ass tongue-in-cheek humor all the way. 

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Well, Sly - The Poem, not quite. More terminally bemused. I'll be posting it tonight. I'm about to make an announcement in Announcements. With a short defense, it's another difficult Mimi-vision, but I do believe, with illustration, it might go.

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Verse is damn hard. My kind of verse, the old-style stuff that rhymes. I've been struggling with one damn new couplet for the last three days. I think it's good. I take a break, go back, and want to tear my hair out. Not what it needs to be! (That is, couldn't possibly be better.) What I had was a bit forced, not outrageously so, but it bugged me. After thirty years of writing verse, I know that if I keep at it, I'll get it eventually. I want it sound as natural as prose. I've structured it as prose. So you read it and say, Oh My God! This damn thing rhymes!

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I think I've finally done it. A lot of pain for forty-five words. Write verse, if you're a masochist.

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Shit! Took another look. Still not quite right. I'll put it up as is, and continue to agonize. Close, but no cigar. 

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/14/2015, 2:34 PM--

Google

Anybody know anything about using Google to promote your book?

I thought the thing about Google was the keywords. In other words, marketing the hard way. A broad-cast appeal, in the original sense of the word. I'll be watching for advice from anyone who knows more than I do.

 Google AdWords

I wish you all the luck in the world. I count on you to lead me down this primrose path. I'm saving all this information in my file named 'Marketing'. This is tough, but if we were crazy enough to write a book, we're crazy enough to torment ourselves further by trying to promote it. I call it good company, the company I'd rather be in than any other. Especially you, GD. You're the best.

Seen the book, An Incomplete Education? Purports to supply you with all the knowledge you missed out on in school. This poem is my Incomplete Education. I needed a word to rhyme with gunnery. I grabbed my rhyming dictionary. Found snee! What's snee? 

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Googled it. An archaic Dutch/English term, no solid definition. I figure it is related to sneer. Fine, that works. I go to the Urban Dictionary: * Slang for a screech that expresses any form of surprise, delight or alarm. (That works too.) * A word to say whenever the hell you feel like it. Especially if it causes confusion to outsiders. (Even better.) * When someone’s nipples get really hard and show through their shirt. (I think you could say this of guns sticking out gunwales.)  

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Many words would work. But I'm looking for interesting words. Scree: detritus on the side of a mountain. (Guns poked out gunwales high on the side of a ship?) Filigree: delicate decoration, often of metal. Hmm, can a bank of guns be called delicate? Well, he's making a joke. 

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Filigree is a finishing touch. I gotta go with this one. Guns would be installed last, sit at the edge of the deck, like beading on the neckline of a dress. Love the nipple thing. But this is a children's book. Sort of.

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Would my brat be likely to know the word filigree? This is way before his foreign travel and insertion into chi-chi circles. I feel another footnote coming on.

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He would certainly know the word snee. Archaic is a plus. This story is set in the sixteenth century.

--edited by Mimi Speike on 7/17/2015, 10:12 PM--

I personally don't think all is lost in the publishing industry. Every writer will need (at the very least) an editor. A cover artist is a good idea too if you aren't up with what's hot in the industry. 

I also think that there will always be traditional publishers and libraries. Many libraries are "getting with the times" and offering eBooks on a borrowing basis. They are also doing many programs to bring children and readers into the building. Some even have book signings!

Publishers today are also "getting with the times" and offering much more to the author. I also think it's a little easier on them in today's world then before. Publishers used to take a HUGE risk on a new writer and that's why you didn't see so many new ones 15-30 years ago. The ones that did manage to rise, were generally writing in a genre that was popular too. Today publishers don't have to take as many huge risks with a new writer-- or even a sub-genre since most writers develop a following before they sign a contract. The potential sales from the following are positives for both sides.

I think eBooks are here to stay too. They have gained a big portion of the market, but don't rule out print books. They have increased in sales this past quarter. 

The only draw back I see in the publishing industry is that a writer does have to produce often enough for people to see your work. Gone are the days where people want to wait a year or two between books. There just isn't enough hours in the day to write, write, write. LOL!