Writerland » Books

Is Self-Publishing the Way to Go?

Meghan Ward — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:27:24 +0000

Today I have a wonderful post from Sarah Baker, a former editor for Viking/Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York, via Constance Hale over at Sin and Syntax. If you haven’t visited Sin and Syntax yet, go check out the Salon. It’s full of great articles about writing and publishing like Gianmaria Fanchini’s post on sliding book advances, which follows up on my Author Advance Survey Results, and Constance Hale’s post on breaking into the publishing world. And now …

Is Self-Publishing the Way to Go?

With a sidebar on what you need to know to do it yourself.

By Sarah Baker

Go to any panel on book publishing these days, and you’ll hear the hoopla over self-publishing. Easy to do! More control! A bigger cut of the profits! At a time when advances aren’t exactly advancing, editors are often too over-worked, and publicists are spending the house’s dimes on blockbusters, self-publishing sure sounds tempting. Add to this the allure of royalty rates of 70 percent or higher instead of the 15 percent (at most) from traditional publishers, and it’s no wonder all writers aren’t going indie.

But, wait. Self-publishing might be the word on everyone’s lips, but is it right for you?

“You have to decide what your goals are,” said thriller-writer and self-publishing guru Barry Eisler at a lecture in November 2011 at the Park Plaza hotel in Boston. For him, it seemed like a no-brainer. He had already published three books with a traditional, or what he calls “legacy,” publisher. He has a following, developed when he pounded the pavement one summer, visited 500 bookstores, and called on 1,200 bookstores in 40 states. Other things in his favor: His wife is a literary agent, so he has access to publishing professionals.

As if his platform weren’t enough already, the press from his decision to turn down $500,000 from St. Martin’s and go indie practically made him a household name. The mighty-marketing-machine Amazon is his publisher. He likes control. He likes business. He’s clearly very good at it.

But not everyone has built what Eisler has. For first-time authors, like Boston Globe reporter Billy Baker, who is armed with a literary agent and a nonfiction book idea, an advance from a traditional publisher is necessary for him to take time off from work to report and write. “I don’t have 50 grand in the bank,” he said.

Other authors make the point that they want the strong winds of a trusted publisher in their authorial sails. Pagan Kennedy, author of ten books including Spinsters and Black Livingstone, doubts she would ever go indie. “If you can live with 1,000 readers and not making any money, then fine. But, if you want an audience of 20,000 for your book—how do you get that?” she said.

So what should a writer weigh when considering self-publishing?

“Self-publishing had a stigma,” said Eve Bridburg, literary agent and founder of Grub Street, Inc., an independent literary-arts center in Boston. But she points out some critical new factors: increasingly sophisticated self-publishing tools are available; you can distribute via the Internet (and not just via the back of a station wagon); Twitter and Facebook can help to spread the word. Then there is the payoff: higher royalty rates. So many more serious writers are self-publishing, she added, that Grub is now offering workshops not only in the craft of writing but in marketing and publishing, as well.

Many people are taking the plunge. An article by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in the Wall Street Journal cites an estimate by R. R. Bowker, which tracks the publishing business: the number of self-published titles exploded 160 percent from 2006 to 2010 (that is, from 51,237 to 133,036.)

Some recent success stories—Amanda Hocking and John Locke, in addition to Barry Eisler—have helped fuel the movement. And let’s not forget that some historic bestsellers (What Color is Your Parachute and The Elements of Style, for example) started out as do-it-yourselfers (DIY), the old-school name for the self-published. They were acquired by traditional houses after they were already successful.

Sales figures for self-published books are difficult to track, and hard to interpret, since people choose this route for all sorts of reasons. Many are printing 10 copies of a memoir for the family or 100 for the business. Amazon.com doesn’t share overall sales figures of books, according to Brittany Turner of their public relations department. But, in an email she was willing to say that “John Locke and Amanda Hocking have both sold more than 1 million books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), 12 KDP authors have sold more than 200,000 books and 30 KDP authors have sold more than 100,000.” Over at Amazon’s self-publishing service site, CreateSpace, she added, former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin self-published his memoir Katrina’s Secrets, which hit the Top 100 Best Sellers in Books on Amazon the week of its release.

(If you’ve seen anyone report on the other end of the spectrum—that is, the number of self-published authors who never surpass their break-even point—please post links in the comments section! The more solid information we all have, the better.)

Even traditional publishers are capitalizing on the popularity. Book Country is Penguin Books new foray into the do-it-yourself world. It’s a place for genre fiction writers to circulate their work, get feedback, and buy self-publishing services. “Self-publishing is a trend that isn’t going away,” said Book Country president Molly Barton to Calvin Reid of Publishers Weekly.

But all of this takes time and ingenuity. Martha McPhee, author of Dear Money and three other novels, said self-publishing would be like pushing a boulder up a mountain, and she wouldn’t know where to begin. Claire Messud, New York Times-bestselling author of The Emperor’s Children, equates self-publishing with home schooling.

Would you consider home schooling?

SIDEBAR: Should you self-publish?

If you want a professional-looking book with a chance of success you’ll need four things: Time, Money, Connections, and Gumption. Traditional publishers have been in the business for a long time and a book contract, despite that many authors accuse them of everything from neglect to abandonment, guarantees a professional process. You’ll have a well-oiled machine behind you so that you can focus on writing and promotion. If you want to replace them you’ll need to:

1. Hire a load of people if you aren’t a jack-of-all-trades: Editor, copyeditor, jacket designer, interior designer, publicist, marketer, rights salesperson (for foreign and first serial), Web site designer, printer, and distributor (for print books). If you’re publishing nonfiction you might need a lawyer to check for libel and an indexer to create an index. But buyer beware—these people work for you, so make sure they tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear.

2. Verify your account balance and uncap your pen—you’ll be writing a lot of checks.

3. Buy a Starbucks Card or a Nespresso machine. With the amount of work this will involve, you’ll need your caffeine. Self-publishing is akin to starting your own business.

4. Do the hustle. Work your friends on Facebook, your followers on Twitter, your old colleagues in the media, your local librarian, and your buddies in the bookstores to spread the word and buy the book.

Good luck.

{Formerly a book editor at Viking/Penguin and Simon & Schuster in New York City, Sarah Baker is now a freelance writer and an independent radio producer. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.}

Thanks Sarah and Constance for a great post! What about you? Have you self-published? What has your experience been?

Don’t Be An iPhoney

Meghan Ward — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:25:00 +0000

My life is insane this week. In addition to training for a half-marathon, editing two books, and touring every kindergarten in California, I’ve been left to take care of two snot-nosed kids (literally, there are balls of snotty toilet paper all over the house) alone while my husband is out of town on a business trip. So until I regain my sanity, here’s a reminder not to be an iPhoney:

Writerly New Year’s Resolutions

Meghan Ward — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:36:25 +0000

What are your New Year’s resolutions? Mine are:

1. Run the Oakland Half Marathon on March 25, no matter how slowly. I ran this marathon in 2010, and then in 2011 I wimped out after a 10-mile run two weeks before because I hadn’t trained enough. My ego didn’t want to run it slower than I had the year before, so I didn’t run it at all. Talk about self-sabotage. So this year, my goal is to run it no matter how little I’ve trained and no matter how slowly I run.

2. Publish my book. I plan to publish two books this year—Paris On Less Than $10,000 A Day and a second memoir I’m writing about parenting. I hope to sell the second one on proposal rather than writing the book first. And here is the whopper: I retain every right to renege on this resolution come end of March, but if I don’t sign with an agent by the end of March, I plan to self-publish Paris On Less Than $10,000 a Day. I’ve worked too long and hard on it to let it sit in Scrivener for the rest of the year. And this will give me the kick in the pants I need to really get it out there as quickly as possible.

3. Write the proposal for Book Two and send it out by the end of March. (Notice a theme? All of my resolutions are due end of March. Then I get to spend the rest of the year lying on the couch eating bon-bons.)

4. Continue to read two books/month. I’m starting the year off with Peter Orner’s Love and Shame and Love followed by Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Marriage Plot. Also on my TBR list are the books of all my fabulous bloggy buddies: Samuel Park’s This Burns My Heart, Anne Allen’s The Gatsby Game, Roni Loren’s steamy romance Crash Into You, which—by the way— JUST CAME OUT, Tawna Fenske’s Making Waves (which I’ve already purchased on my Kindle), and Brian Meeks’s Henry Wood Detective Agency.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions? If you need some ideas, check out this great post I found via Kristan Hoffman.

And for those of you who had questions for Ivory Madison about Red Room, she has answers!

2011 Books in Review

Meghan Ward — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 06:01:16 +0000

Happy New Year! Can you believe it’s almost 2012? I feel like I’m living in the future.

Sierra Godfrey’s post last week reminded me that I used to wrap up the year with a list of the books I’d read that year. My goal is always to read two books a month, and with two little munchkins, I just barely made it this year:

1. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
2. 13, rue Thérèse by Elena Mauli Shapiro
3. A Tiger in the Kitchen by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
4. Hold Still by Nina LaCour
5. Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow by Nathan Bransford
6. We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media by Kristen Lamb
7. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
8. Inbound Marketing by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
10. Room by Emma Donahue
11. The Peacock Sings for Rain by Alison Singh Gee
12. How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
13. Plastic by Susan Freinkel
14. Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
15. Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
16. How I sold 200,000 e-books by H.P. Mallory
17. Blindsight by Chris Colin
18. In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
19. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
20. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
21. In the Mirror by Ann Best
22. A Thousand Lives by Julia Scheeres
23. Twenty Somewhere by Kristan Hoffman
24. The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht

I hate to pick favorites because so many of them are really wonderful books, but I did particularly enjoy Room, In Zanesville, and The Tiger’s Wife. I’m a sucker for great literary fiction. What about you? What were your favorite books of 2011? Any recommendations?

Interview with Red Room founder and CEO Ivory Madison

Meghan Ward — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 01:03:53 +0000

Some of you may be familiar with Red Room, a social network and marketing platform for authors that boasts superstar members like Margaret Atwood, Naomi Wolf, Jonathan Lethem, Erica Jong, Salman Rushdie, Dave Eggers, and Amy Tan. What you may not know is that on October 24, Red Room launched the “the world’s only authors’ bookstore” in an effort to go head-to-head with Amazon as a book retailer. Now when someone buys a Red Room author’s book through the Red Room website, that author receives an additional 15% of the retail price on top his/her royalties. This gives authors (and any author can join Red Room) an incentive to link to the Red Room bookstore from their author websites. Here’s Red Room founder, CEO, and Editor in Chief Ivory Madison with details about Red Room’s new online bookstore.

Red Room began as the Red Room Writers Society in 2002, where Madison personally helped hundreds of aspiring and professional writers complete their books. A frequent keynote speaker and panelist on writing, entrepreneurship, and social media, she has been a guest lecturer to the faculty and writing coaches at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the Stanford Publishing Course. Trained as an attorney, Madison was Editor in Chief of her Law Review, interned at the California Supreme Court, and served as a Law Fellow at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Her adventures have also included episodes as a New Orleans restaurateur, radical feminist politico, and torch singer at the Plush Room. Her feminist-mafia-noir graphic novel, Huntress: Year One, was published by DC Comics in February 2009 and is now in its second printing. It tells the origin story of a strong female superhero. Madison is twenty-nine.

MW: What gave you the idea to create a Red Room online bookstore?

IM: Well, it didn’t make any sense to me that authors were doing all the work marketing their books—on Red Room, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites—and then handing the profits and the customer relationships over to Amazon. We wanted to change that and dramatically improve the future for authors.

I’m also concerned about the stranglehold Amazon has on our culture and our
industry. Jeff Bezos was a hedge fund manager who evaluated numerous retail
categories looking for the one with the biggest upside at the time, which
was books. I think I read it was almost women’s shoes. To Amazon, books are
a retail category, period. But to you and me, books are *not* just another
retail category. They are the world of ideas. They are our culture. They are art, politics, parenting, history—books are everything. Books change the
world.

The reality is that at least half of all book sales have moved online. Of
course we want you to shop at your local independent bookstore, and people
reading this blog probably do more than the average American, but most
people buy most of their books from Amazon. We want back that half of
American book sales that take place on Amazon. They make more money from all
of their other products, so we can take back books and they won’t even feel
it because we’ll be buying everything else on earth from them. And
regarding independent bookstores, we’re trying to figure out right now how
we can support them through Red Room. One idea on the table is to allow
shoppers to pick an independent bookstore, and we’ll give that bookstore
part of the profits. We want to preserve book culture, and there may be a
way to do that *without* ignoring that most consumers buy from large online
retailers and are not going to stop. So we’ll build an online retailer that
supports book culture.

As a side note, I’ve *always* wanted to run a bookstore; I love bookstores
and libraries. I worked at Book Passage [a local independent bookstore]
when I was fifteen years old. In my twenties I looked into opening my own
bookstore, but economically, I could see it was an almost impossible
business model. I used to go to the library all the time, before the
Internet. One of my [unpublished] novels stars a librarian working at the
San Francisco main branch.

MW: Does the Red Room bookstore carry all Red Room authors’ books? If not, why not?

IM: We carry about 95% of our authors’ titles. Since we don’t want our authors to miss a single sale, if we don’t carry it, we offer a link to other retailers. We’d like to carry 100% of our authors’ titles. Right now, we’re working with the largest distributor in the world, and they have almost everything, but we will work with other distributors, too, so we can fill in the gaps.

MW: What does an author have to do to get stocked in the Red Room bookstore (and how much does it cost)?

IM: Soon we’ll be selling *all* books, not just the books by our authors. So you’ll be able to find any book on Red Room that you can on Amazon. It’s completely free for you to join as a “Community Member” and for us to stock your book. Free to shop. And consumers don’t need to set up a public profile in order to shop.

However, just because your book is stocked, doesn’t mean readers will find
you. If you’re an author, you’ll want an annual “Premium Membership” so you
can take advantage of how we help you market your book. When you’re a
Premium Member, your profile looks and feels different with numerous
additional features. We’ll showcase all of your titles on your homepage, and when
people view your book, they’ll see a personal note from you about it, what
other authors are recommending it, and lots of other premium benefits
designed especially for authors.

Premium Membership costs $250 a year. For authors doing the math, part of
that is you get unlimited “Red Room Royalties” of *15% of your book sales*, so unless you sell fewer than about 85 books a year, you’ll make back your membership fee and be enjoying Red Room for free, and we’ll be sending you checks. Also, we know that authors who are really broke need this program the most, so we offer scholarship rates for authors in financial need—if you’re an author who can barely pay, send me a note, we want to help you be a part of this.

And I want to reiterate that people who aren’t marketing their book—readers,
journalists, librarians, publishing industry folks—can all create a profile and blog and shop and participate for free.

MW: To clarify, although all authors will eventually see their books stocked in the Red Room bookstore, only premium members will benefit from the 15% commission?

IM: Yes, in the near future, we’ll be selling “all” books and ebooks, at which time only authors who are Premium Members will get “Red Room Royalties” (15% of their sales).

So, at that point, if you’re an author there are three possibilities: Your book could be for sale and you aren’t a member (no benefits or special marketing), your book could be for sale and you are a free “community” member (same—you get nothing), or your book could be for sale and you are a Premium Member (so you get all the benefits).

MW: Besides the 15% Red Room royalties, what other advantages are there for authors selling their books through Red Room?

IM: IM: Ah! I forgot to mention the biggest thing. We call it “Red Room Relationships,” and it means that for the first time in history, you meet your book buyers. Imagine if you had the names and contact info for everyone who bought your last few books, so you can market directly to them on your next project. For a bestselling author, this could change your life.

On the author side, the author writes a customized thank-you note for each of
her book titles in which the author can say something that pertains to that book,
and then the note is automatically sent to her book buyers. The customer’s info then gets sent to the author’s “customers” file. Red Room is a social network, so this is similar to when people like you on Facebook, but it’s much more useful, because it shows their real name, ZIP code, what book they bought, and when. Readers are *excited* about being connected to their favorite authors—that’s why they don’t generally opt out.

When I talk to bestselling authors, like Po Bronson or Maxine Hong-Kingston, the thing they are most interested in is not the money, it’s the customer relationships. Think about if you’ve sold millions of books and if you had all the names of all of those customers, so you don’t have to start from scratch when your next book comes out. “Red Room Relationships” can deliver that if an author plants the seeds wherever they link to buying their books.

MW: The Red Room website states, “We’re not offering a new publishing model, we’re offering a new retail model.” Can you explain what that means?

IM: Sure. Right now, everyone is talking about disintermediating the publishing supply chain, meaning cutting out publishers and printers and agents and distributors, leaving only the author and the reader with whomever is attempting the disintermediation (Amazon, for example) in between. Red Room’s model doesn’t cut any of these traditional players out.

Despite the big hype around a few successful self-published books, most
books being purchased are traditionally published books, and despite the
excitement about ebooks, at the moment, the majority of books being sold
are still print books. So how can authors make more money on the majority
of books selling today? We’ve come up with a way. You can double your income if you successfully route your sales to Red Room.

Why should you give Amazon your customers, anyway? Red Room’s new retail
model breaks down what I call “the retail wall” between the author and the
customer. It’s going to change everything. Authors do all the work marketing themselves all over the web—we make it possible to close the sale with exponentially more benefits.

We give you some of the most important benefits of an author’s collective,
except that you don’t have to take turns dusting the shelves or cleaning
the kitchen. Just update your blog, please. I know some readers are going
to say, I’d rather clean the kitchen!

MW: Amazon heavily discounts books. For example, the list price for Haruki Murakami’s new hardcover, 1Q84, is $30.50; the Amazon price is 50% of that—$15.25. What motivation is there for readers to buy books at list
price through Red Room when they can get them for half that on Amazon?

IM: This is the million—wait,* **eight-b**illion*-dollar question. Our first task is to eliminate every other advantage Amazon has, and then we will be in a position to address this. First of all, studies have shown that price is not the primary reason people shop on Amazon. The number one reason you buy on Amazon is because you’ve bought previously from them and they have your credit card info and shipping address on file. That’s referred to as “convenience.” And shows how important initial customer acquisition is.

Also, Amazon often only discounts books 20%, and the majority of
books only 2-5%. Once we’re selling a higher volume of books, we may be able to compete on price—so buy on Red Room, please! The biggest challenge for
us is that they discount the bestsellers 40-50%. We may someday be able to
do that, but books cost retailers between 45%-65% of their list price
through most distributors or publishers, depending on your volume, so we
may get close but not all the way.

There was an op-ed in The New York Times recently that was essentially saying, “What Price Amazon?” A Pulitzer-Prize winning author, whose name I forget, argued that while their prices may be lower, it hurts local communities, destroys our local tax base and infrastructure, and our culture as a nation.

I don’t know how many consumers, out of the $8 billion in Amazon book
sales, will be willing to switch, even if they’re encouraged to do so by
the authors. If Walter Isaacson’s book on Steve Jobs had been on Red Room
in the first two weeks it was out, and Isaacson had, when promoting his
book, directed readers to Red Room, Isaacson could have made up to an
additional $3 million more than he did. Not to mention that he would have
gathered the names of 500,000 of his customers to sell his next and his
backlist books to. Anyway, let’s say he only got a measly 10% of his book
sales to move to Red Room from Amazon. That’s still $300,000 and 50,000
names.

The authors are already their own sales force, Red Room is a mechanism that
allows them to get more out of closing the sale, wherever and whenever
they’re marketing themselves.

MW: How many authors use Red Room? How many authors sell their books through the Red Room Bookstore?

IM: Three thousand authors use Red Room. About 500 of them haven’t filled out their profile enough for us to sell their books yet, but the other 2,500 sell their books through the Red Room Bookstore. And when we launch selling “all” books, not just our official Red Room author titles, the other 500 authors’ books will show up, plus we’ll have about eight million additional
titles. I’ll let you know when that launches.

MW: How can Red Room authors reach more potential readers through Red Room?

IM: We have numerous testimonials from authors saying they get far more readers of the same blog posts on Red Room than they do on their other platforms. Some authors have reported between 15,000 and 500,000 readers. We provide analytics, so you can see your traffic on Red Room. Blogging regularly (something I don’t like doing, and I understand why others don’t like to do) is, as everyone knows, a good way to get new readers. You’ll be showcased
on our blogs page, and we can feature you—if you wrote something fantastic—on our homepage or in our newsletter. Another great way to promote yourself is to comment on the blogs of other authors you authentically like. Don’t sell, just add to the conversation. Readers will see you there and look you up.

I gave an hour keynote talk on how to market your book through social media
at the Stanford Writers Conference a while back, so I have a whole
methodology I suggest to help people spend a limited amount of time online
but make the most marketing impact. If you’re on Red Room, call me and I’ll
give you a short coaching session tailored to your situation. Seriously,
I’m happy to do it. I don’t like authors out there feeling overwhelmed or
intimidated or guilty about what they “should” be doing on the Internet. I
like to see authors getting their next book written, blogging and
participating strategically in a limited way that doesn’t waste their time, and gathering over time a lengthy email list of real book buyers. We get notes all the time from authors saying what a support we were and how much we helped them succeed. That’s what we’re here for.

MW: For authors who already have a website and a blog, what advantage is there to blogging on Red Room? Do I have to have a Premium Membership to blog on Red Room?

IM: You can have a beautiful Red Room home, and you can blog on Red Room for free. It’s called a “Community Membership.” (As I mentioned earlier, you only have to get a Premium Membership if you want us to showcase and carry your books.) Blogging on Red Room is the most pleasant blogging experience you’ll find on the Internet because of the quality of the people on Red Room—no weird comments, no spam comments. And you’ll be in really good company, as you know, from seeing who’s already on Red Room. Plus, it’s an elegant site. We just rebuilt and redesigned the site from the ground up, and it looks great. And we always provide email and phone support from our editors in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Red Room isn’t exclusive. You can still post elsewhere and sell books
elsewhere. But we’ll become your favorite. Most of our authors are on
Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Red Room. A significant number also have
a personal website and a blog elsewhere. We know it’s time-consuming to
maintain all of these sites, so we keep up with technology and improve the
design, so Red Room can be your only home if you want it to be, but we also
don’t mind you linking to and showcasing your activity on other
sites. Because you’ll start linking where to buy your book from all of
those other sites back to Red Room, so you can find out who’s really buying and so you can earn your Red Room Royalties of 15% of those sales. We amplify the
success you have on all the other sites. We play nice with everybody.

Except Amazon. Which is kind of ironic, because I think I would get along
really well with actual amazons.

* * *
Thank you, Ivory, for a great interview! Readers, what do you think about Red Room’s new online retail model? Do you use Red Room? Will you buys books through Red Room? If you are a published author, will you link to Red Room on your website?

25 Ways to Build Your Author Platform Before Your Book is Published

Meghan Ward — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:10:11 +0000

If you’re a writer, you’ve had the importance of building your “author platform” drilled into your head like the multiplication tables were in fourth grade. Most people associate building an author platform with Facebook and a blog, but there are many ways to create a following. Here are 25:

1. Blog
Not every writer needs to or should blog, but blogs are a fantastic way to connect with potential readers without spending much money. I recommend paying for hosting, so you can use your own domain name (blog.yourname.com or www.yourname.com/blog).

2. Tumblr
If you don’t have time to write 300-800-word blog posts, but you have photos, links, and insights you want to share, consider setting up a Tumblr account. Tumblr is for microblogging.

3. Twitter
Twitter is a great way to connect with a LOT of people without spending a lot of time online. Granted, those who do spend a lot of time on Twitter have higher Klout scores, but then again, who cares about Klout?

4. Facebook
Wait! I thought the point of this post was that building your author platform did NOT have to involve social media! Facebook is THE social network! Yes, yes. But Facebook DOES matter. Publishers want to know how many Facebook friends and/or likes you have. They want you to customize your Facebook Page. They want it to look awesome. Don’t want until your book launch. Start right now.

5. YouTube
You can build a subscriber base through your YouTube account. Here’s an example: This guy has instructional videos on how to make origami things. I watched this video to learn how to make cranes over the weekend. And more than 2 million other people have watched it, too. Think about what useful information you could impart through videos. Make 20 of them and link to them on your blog, your Facebook account, your Twitter account, and Linked In.

6. LinkedIn
Use it! Some marketing Guru once said to me, “Linked In is my business card; Facebook is my greeting card.” LinkedIn is a valuable resource if you’re looking for a job, looking to hire someone, looking for an expert in a particular field, etc.

7. Google+
For all you writers who rely on Google Friend Connect to advertise how many blog followers you have, I have news for you. Google Friend Connect is going to disappear for all but Blogger bloggers, and the rest of us will be left with Google+. So get on it. Start adding people to your circles and post a Google+ button on your blog.

8. Teaching
I went to a reading by an MFA teacher friend a few years ago, and the bookstore was PACKED with her students. Teaching is a great way to build loyal fans. Just promise them As if they give your book a 5-star review on Amazon. Kidding!

9. Speaking Engagements
Some authors make a living giving speeches and seminars. They get paid a lot of money by corporations to tell people how to get off their “buts” and think outside of the box. At the same time, they’re selling themselves to the audience. If they have a book out, they may sell it at the seminar (this is a great way for self-published authors to find an audience). Or they may simply have “George Trottinet, author of ‘Where’s my Camembert?” written at the bottom of all their handouts. It’s a great way to build your author platform.

10. Mixers
There’s no better way to connect with people than in person. Attend workshops, conferences, conventions, and networking events—and talk to people. Be sure to update your business card before you go, and don’t be shy about handing it out. That way people can reconnect with you after the alcohol has worn off and they’ve forgotten your name.

11. Podcasts
Visit Dane Golden of Hey.com for an example of how to podcast. Dane does live video interviews with his subjects via Skype like a real news anchor. Very cool. Other options are recorded video podcasts or audio podcasts. Dane’s secret? Keep ‘em short.

12. Get Published
I don’t mean get your book published. I mean get book reviews, short stories, and articles published in newspapers, magazines and literary journals—whether in print or online. You’ll build up your resume and get your name out there. Best of all, you’ll give readers a sample of your writing. Be sure to include your website, blog, or Twitter ID at the bottom.

13. Win Awards
When you win a big award, it will be announced in newspapers and on blogs. People will Tweet about it and share it on Facebook: “Congratulations, Susie Q, on winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction!” Even small awards are a fantastic way to build your platform.

14. Get Famous
Celebrities have the biggest platforms of all, so if you have the chance to marry a prince, star in a film, or have octuplets—go for it!

15. Start a newsletter
Some people abhor newsletters, but they are a great way to connect with potential readers. And e-mail marketing can be cool, too.

16. Join a writers’ group
Writers’ groups are a great way to build a support network with other writers. You can all Tweet and blog and share each other’s work, attend each others’ readings, and buy each other’s books. Plus, it’s a great way to make friends!

17. Read Your Work
Every city has monthly or weekly author readings. In San Francisco, we have Porchlight, the Monthly Rumpus, Inside Story Time, Litquake, and many many more. Read! It’s a fantastic way to: 1) Let others hear and fall in love with your work 2) Get experience reading in front of strangers. You’ll be doing plenty of that when your book comes out, and you won’t want it to be your first time.

18. Get Involved
Run for the school board. Volunteer. Get active in a writers’ or journalists’ association. All of these are ways of making your name more public and expanding your network.

19. Sell merchandise
I saw a bumper sticker the other day for Story something-or-other (dot) org. If I’d had a pen I would have written it down. If I’d had an iPhone, I would have typed in the link. The point being, it caught my attention. You can use T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, book marks, and more to advertise your brand. (Okay, I’m not going to get T-shirts made that say, “Meghan Ward, author” across the chest, but I may get ones that say “Writerland.com” on the back. Why not?

20. Blimps, skywriting, and billboards
I’m kidding. Kind of. When I lived in LA, there was this woman, Angelyne, on billboards all over the city. She wasn’t famous for anything other than being ON THE BILLBOARDS. She was blond, of course, and had abnormally large breasts. Someone said she was the girlfriend of the owner of the billboards. Whoever she was, all of LA knew her and her pink Corvette. A more realistic equivalent may be posting flyers around your neighborhood or taking out Google and Facebook ads advertising your services (in my case, editing). Eventually, people will recognize your name when they see it, and hopefully that will be on the cover of a book.

21. Website
You need a website! In addition to Twitter and Facebook and your blog, make sure you have a hub where people can contact you, sign up for your newsletter, subscribe to your YouTube channel, read your bio and a list of your writing credits, etc. This is the number one most important step in building your author platform.

22. Guest blog
Don’t just blog on your own site. Land a gig blogging for an established publication, guest blog regularly—or just once in a while—for other bloggers. And have other bloggers guest blog for you. Their readers will visit your blog, and your readers will visit their blog. Everyone wins.

23. Make a viral video
Easier said than done, of course, but it doesn’t hurt to try. The best ones aren’t planned as viral videos, but if you’re clever enough, you can do it. There was one video a friend sent me that was very sweet, frame after frame of mothers holding up signs with suggestions on how to improve the world (or something like that; I forget exactly). But it was all too perfect, the writing on each sign too similar. And then I saw it at the end of the video, the name of a bra brand. It was a VERY clever advertisement. I think it was created by Scott Stratten’s Unmarketing. If you haven’t checked his site out, do. Right now. Then create your own Unmarketing Plan to build your Author UnBrand.

24. SEO
Read Inbound Marketing to learn more about SEO and how to improve yours. You want your blog or website to come up high in Google searches, so when someone does a search for “awesome fiction writers,” your name comes up first. The best way to do this is to have your blog ON your website, and update your blog frequently. But there’s more you can do with tags and metatags and things that are beyond me, so read Inbound Marketing and get some techie person to help you implement their suggestions.

25. Know your local booksellers
What a better way to get people talking about your book than to know them personally? Talk to the booksellers at ALL your local bookstores. Get to know them, so when your book comes out you won’t wish you had.

Can you think of other creative ways to build your author platform?

18 Holiday Gifts for Writers

Meghan Ward — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:04:48 +0000

Yes! It’s that time of year. Time for the Writerland 2011 Gifts for Writers Buying Guide! In addition to the usual case of wine, Moleskine notebook, nice pen, and day-at-the-spa gifts that all writers love, here are 17 other great ideas:

1. Come On All You Ghosts by Matthew Zapruder
I work with Matthew, and he is one damn talented poet whose book was chosen as one of the New York Times 100 notable books of 2011. Matthew’s poetry rocks. And he’s a ridiculously nice guy. And every writer needs more poetry in his/her life. It’s inspirational, it’s thought-provoking, it takes us out of the daily grind of fiction and memoir writing (not to mention day jobs and housework.) Buy this book!

2. A Grotto class
The Grotto doesn’t offer gift certificates YET, but you can buy someone a Grotto class. This winter we will be offering a book proposal writing workshop with a real live agent as well as a performance workshop in addition to the usual novel, memoir, and nonfiction workshops, the social media class that I teach, blogging for journalists, and many more. (I want to take the performance workshop, in case you want to buy me a gift.)

3. A subscription to Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, or a literary journal like Zyzzyva or Tin House.
Poets & Writers and Writer’s Digest are both great publications full of author interviews, advice for budding writers, MFA program listings, writing contests, etc. Zyzzyva and Tin House are fabulous literary journals and a great way to support your favorite writers as well as give them gifts!

4. Tin House Writer’s Series
For $49.95 you can get the complete Tin House Writer’s Series, including Plotto, The Writer’s Notbook, The Story About The Story, and The World Within. It’s an MFA in a box! (Well, almost.)

5. Rumpus mugs
If your writer doesn’t have a “Writer Like a Motherfucker” mug, he needs one! Or if your writer is too prude for a motherfucker mug, you can buy him one of these other awesome Rumpus mugs.

6. Little Thinker Literary Plush Dolls
Ever wanted to sit down for tea with Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Shakespeare all at once? Now you can with these literary plush dolls and finger puppets. UPDATE: Also check out these fabulous handmade literary dolls on Etsy.

7. Book Bags and Kindle and iPad cases
These are no ordinary book bags. These are hand bags made from recycled hardcover books, and they are gorgeous (I want one!). You can even custom order the book cover of your choice. Also available: iPad and Kindle cases!

8. Book Journals
Along the same line, book journals made from recycled hardcover books. Love these, too!

9. Boxed Set of Books
If you’re rich enough to buy your writer a $2000 gift, you may be interested in this boxed set of books at Anthopologie.

10. Angry Writer T-Shirts
I listed these T-shirts last year, but they’re still awesome. I like “Beware the Plot Bunny” – reminds me of Monte Python’s Holy Grail. “It’s just a harmless little bunny isn’t it?”

11. Rory’s Story Cubes
Now available as an iPhone app! This game looks super fun. I want to play it.

12. Literati
This game looks super difficult. I’m intimidated to play it.

13. A subscription to the New Yorker
If you have a love/hate relationship with your writer, (s)he will soon love/hate you, too. (S)he will love you for the fantabulous stories and articles in the New Yorker, and (s)he will hate you for the anxiety the weekly delivery causes as issues stack up unread while (s)he tries to finish his/her novel/memoir/short story collection. It’s a win/lose situation.

14. An Amazon or Apple iTunes gift card
If your writer reads e-books on a Kindle or an iPad, this is one of the best gifts you can give her.

15. Kindle, Kindle Touch, or Kindle Fire
At $79, everyone should own a Kindle! Even if you already have an iPad! That way you can read your Kindle e-books both at night and in bright sunlight.

16. Scrivener 2.2
If your writer has Scrivener already, upgrade her to Scrivener 2.2! Scrivener is an indispensable software application for writers working on book-length projects.

17. Other awesome books
Steve Jobs, IQ84, and 11/22/63 are my top pics for this holiday season. Running a close second: The Marriage Plot for Jeffrey Eugenides. All books that you should buy me the writer in your life this holiday season.

18. Writes of Passage This last one comes to us courtesy of Karen Elliott, who commented below. Huge board game fan that I am, I had to include it.

What about you? What are your favorite gift ideas for writers? What books do you want someone to buy you?

Author Advances: Survey Results

Meghan Ward — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:45:02 +0000

Thank you so much to the 105 authors who took the author advance survey! Here are the results (now with author comments added below):

Average and Median of All Advances

Five people reported multi-book deals (four two-book deals and one four-book deal), which skewed the results a bit. Below are results counting the multi-book deals first as one deal, then as separate deals.

Counting each multi-book deal as ONE deal
Average advance: $73,897
Median advance: $25,000

Counting each multi-book deal as SEPARATE deals
Average advance: $63,776
Median advance: $25,000

Big 6 vs Non Big 6

64.8 % of authors surveyed sold books to Big 6 publishers (Random House, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster)

27.6% sold books to small publishers

7.6 percent sold books to medium- to large-sized publishers other than the Big 6 (Norton, Harlequin, McGraw-Hill, etc.)

Percentage by Genre

30% sold nonfiction books (including narrative nonfiction)

22.9% of authors surveyed sold Young Adult books (Disclaimer: I added the YA category after 13 authors had already taken the survey, but only one of those first 13 sold a novel, so this number is likely correct)

21.9% sold novels (including one novella)

19% sold memoirs/personal essay collections

3.8% sold short story collections

2.9% sold “other” books, including an art book, a humor book, and an illustrated art/style book

0% sold poetry books

Percentage of Advances by Year

1990 .95%
1997 .95%
1999 1.9%
2000 .95%
2002 .95%
2003 3.8%
2005 8.6%
2006 9%
2007 6.7%
2008 9.5%
2009 17.1%
2010 18.1%
2011 24.8%

First Book vs Subsequent Books
61% of authors surveyed said the advance was for the first book they sold.
37% said the advance was not for a first book.

Agented vs Non-Agented Authors
82.8% of authors surveyed were agented at the time of the sale of the book
17.2% of authors surveyed were not agented at the time of the sale of the book

Disclaimer: This question was added after approximately half of the authors had already taken the survey. If you were one of the authors who didn’t get a chance to answer this question and you want to add your response, you can e-mail me at meghan (at) meghanward (dot) com.

And now for the graphs!

Number of Authors/Advance Category

This graph shows the number of authors who received advances in each category. For example, the first (and tallest) bar is $0-$20,000. The second is $20,000-$40,000, etc.

Number of Authors/Advance Category II

This graph shows the same data split out into smaller categories on the lower end. (The numbers are $2k, $5k, $10k, $20k, $40k, $60k, $80k, etc.) Multi-book deals are counted as one deal, including the million dollar deal for four books at the far right end of the graph.

Advances by Year and Genre
The following graphs show first all genres combined, then each genre separately, divided by the year the advance was received. The red portion of each bar is Big 6 advances; the blue portion is non-Big 6 advances. There wasn’t enough data to make graphs of short story collection or “other” advances. 2008 was a great year to sell your book—right before the Kindle changed the publishing world

All Advances by Year

Nonfiction Advances by Year

Novel Advances by Year

Memoir Advances by Year

YA Advances by Year

Big 6 vs Non-Big 6
The following graph shows average advances for each genre given by Big 6 vs non-Big 6 publishers. The lefthand side shows advances given by non-Big 6 publishers, and the righthand side show advances by Big 6 publishers. This graph is a bit confusing because it includes a two-book deal for a short story collection and a novel that went for $315,000, and a humor book that sold for $125,000. However, it is evident from a quick glance at the graph that Big 6 publishers tend to garner higher advances than small publishers.

Agent vs No Agent
This graph divides authors who were agented at the time they received their advances (Y) vs those who weren’t (N), and then further divides those groups into first-time advances (Y) and non-first time advances (N). The clear message is that agented authors tend to get higher advances than non-agented authors. Disclaimer: Because I added the agent question after about half of the authors had already taken the survey, this data is based only on the second half of responses.

Minimum, Average and Maximum Advances by Year
This graph plots minimum (blue), average (red) and maximum (green) advances by year. The peak for both average and maximum advances was in 2008.

Scatter Plot of All Advances
This is one of my favorite graphs because it plots every advance reported, with multi-book deals divided into separate deals (eg. $80,000 for two books is listed as two separate advances of $40,000 each) according to the year in which the advances were given.

Advances by Genre
Lastly, we have a pie chart of all reported advances by genre. Nonfiction book deals are the most prevalent.

* * *

Author Comments

Author who reported a $15,000 advance for a nonfiction book sold in 2009:
“Am currently shopping around a second proposal and since we didn’t earn out our advance, my agent thinks our chances of securing another contract are almost nil (even with major press coverage from the first book and a lengthy appearance on Dr. Phil!). Considering self-publishing the second time around.”

Author who reported a $60,000 advance for a memoir sold in 2005:
“Agent negotiated. Small bidding skirmish—first offer was $50K, another offered $55, RH topped it at 60. I went with RH for their reputation as much as the $ but later wondered if I would have had more editorial and publicity support with the other (a smaller imprint of a bigger company).”

Author who reported a $15,000 advance for a novel sold in 2008:
“Still waiting for my advance from my publisher, who owes money to everyone!”

Author who reported a $100,000 advance for a YA/Middle Grade novel sold in 2011:
“I sold 9 books to penguin between 2005 and 2009. My advances were between $5000.00 and $7500.00. I’m now self publishing via amazon and make that amount and many months more than that.”

Author who reported a $5000 advance for a novel sold in 2006:
“The advances are now given out in a way that makes even a large advance not enough. I got one quarter on signing (minus my agent’s cut), will get another quarter on acceptance (not delivery, an important distinction), another quarter on publication and the last part on publication of the paperback. No wonder authors are always broke.”

Author who reported a $2500 advance for a crime fiction novel sold in 2011:
“I have four books, one each in the last four years. The advances were: $3000, $3000, $2500, $2500. The first three did not earn out. The fourth has done much better and may have lifted the first three past the threshold. I don’t yet know precise numbers yet, but I do know the fourth earned out in its first month and has continued to do well. Still keeping my day job though.”

Author who reported a $25,000 advance for an illustrated art/style book sold in 1990:
“I have published more than 20 books with traditional publishers. Now I am thrilled to be developing my own publishing enterprise.”

Author who reported a $150,000 advance for a memoir sold in 2010:
“I had two strong platforms. I don’t think my advance is the current memoir norm.”

Author who reported a $120,000 advance for a nonfiction book sold in 2008:
“I was the second author. The book sold mainly on the platform of the first author, an expert in his field. The original advance was actually higher, but the publisher bullied us (through our agent) into giving back part of it for reasons beyond anyone’s control.”

Author who reported a $60,000 advance for a nonfiction book sold in 2010:
“My advance was a little less than HALF what I made for a very similar book (which has been very successful) in 1998. But: Great house, known for smaller advances, great marketing. I intend to make the money on the back end rather than the front end. Still, it bites.”

* * *
And there you have it! Questions? Comments? Observations?

Survey: Author Advances

Meghan Ward — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:04:38 +0000

UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey! (All 105 of you). I’m still analyzing results and will post data tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 2.

It’s survey time! If you are a published author who has received an advance or who is contracted to receive an advance, please take a minute (it literally takes a minute; there are five questions) to fill out the survey below one time for each book you have sold, and please pass this on to any published authors you know. (You may have to open the survey in a separate browser to take it more than once. Otherwise you an e-mail me your answers at meghan (at) meghanward (dot) com and I’ll add them to the results. They will be anonymous and confidential.) The deadline is midnight Halloween night. I’ll post results Tuesday, Nov. 1. Thank you for participating!

Meghan

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Why I Write: Join the National Writing Project in Celebrating the National Day on Writing

Meghan Ward — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:07:01 +0000

It’s National Day on Writing today! To celebrate, I have a guest post by Grant Faulkner, managing editor at the National Writing Project.

Grant Faulkner is a prize-winning fiction writer. His stories have appeared in The Southwest Review, The Rumpus, Gargoyle, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Word Riot, The Big Ugly Review, Used Furniture Review, Ink, and Transfer. He’s currently the managing editor at the National Writing Project and founding editor of 100 Word Story www.100wordstory.org. He’s also working on his first novel, Elsewhere, and blogging about about books and writing at Lit Matters.

Why I Write
The urge to write is a mysterious calling. If you type the words “Why I Write” into Google, it’s surprising how many results you’ll get. Everyone from George Orwell to Joan Didion to Terry Tempest Williams and an assortment of other writers, famous and not so famous, have pondered this simple yet obviously meaningful act.

Orwell formally started the conversation with his seminal essay “Why I Write,” saying that he wrote “because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.”

Joan Didion stole his title, but took a slightly different angle, focusing on the I of writing. “In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind. It’s an aggressive, even a hostile act.”

To learn. To explore the world. To keep from going insane. Whatever one’s feelings about writing, one thing is sure: writing sharpens thought, spawns ideas, and connects us with one another in crucial ways.

Writing has been fundamental to human civilization since the first hieroglyphs, and it becomes more important everyday in our world that streams with emails, text messages, tweets, and blog posts. We are all writers, yet the why of writing is a topic of continual exploration.

That’s why the National Writing Project (NWP) is sponsoring the “Why I Write” campaign with The New York Times Learning Network, Figment, and Edutopia. In an age when our policy makers are emphasizing the STEM subjects—science, technology, engineering, and math—we don’t want people to forget the significant place that writing has in critical thinking across the disciplines.

How to Participate
There are many ways to participate—join the national conversation by tweeting to the theme of #whyiwrite on Thursday, October 20—the National Day on Writing—or post why you write on your Facebook page.
If you’re a teacher, check out the amazing resources that the New York Times Learning Network has posted (interviews with Times reporters, writing prompts culled from their “Lives” column) or have your students publish their essays on Figment. You can also join the conversation via the blog posts Edutopia will publish.

Also, the NWP is hosting a radio show on Thursday at 4 p.m. Pacific with New York Times education reporter Fernanda Santos, New York Times Learning Network editor Katherine Schulten, Figment founder and New Yorker staff writer Dana Goodyear, Figment teen writers, and NWP teacher and author Ashley Hope Perez, among others.
If you need inspiration, check out these quotes from the many “Why I Write” essays on the NWP website.

“I write, in part, to learn,” says popular science writer Timothy Ferris.

“Writing is my search engine; it is the medium through which I try to make sense out of life,” says New Yorker Writer Mark Salzman.

“I write to slow down the passage of time,” says Charles Limb, a renowned researcher in otolaryngology and music.

“I write because to write a new sentence, let alone a new poem, is to cross the threshold into both a larger existence and a profound mystery,” says poet Jane Hirshfield.

“The short answer as to why I write is to share what I know and love about jazz, to shine a little light on a mystery for which I’ve never found a rational explanation,” says music critic Gary Giddens.

“Effective writing is just a vital to science as mathematics is and plays a tremendous role in moving scientific research forward,” says regenerative medicine specialist Dr. Anthony Atala.

“To communicate ideas others aren’t already forwarding, to have an influence on the culture, and to occasionally entertain,” says film critic Susan Gerhard.

Yes, to entertain, if not others, then ourselves. To make things. To create. Just for the heck of it or because of a overwhelming urge to tell the world something—to assert Joan Didion’s I. To be.

* * *
What about you? In a sentence or two, why do you write?