6 Things Writers Should Never Wear

The truth is, there are some things authors should not wear, ever, because those things just don't look good on anyone. Those things just are not clothes. What are they?

Not your typical "catsuit," but you could
still rock it with the right book. Better than
any of these looks, by far!

6. Jealousy

Enjoy your own. Nobody's grass is really perfectly green, and staring at their sparkling emerald-tipped blades is just going to make you too depressed to write or work on your own. If you don't work, yours will never grow, never flower. Instead, try celebrating with them, and rejoicing that someone you admire has achieved success. Who knows. Maybe some of their good habits, or just good luck, will rub off on you, and help you find success of your own. But it sure won't if you give up, or worse, hate them for doing well.

5.  Claiming to know what's best for everyone

You don't. You probably know what's best for you. You probably even know, or are in the process of figuring out, what works well (for you). But publishing and writing isn't a one-size-fits-all career, and others will have different experiences.

4. Perfectionism in drafting

Of course your work should be as perfect and polished as you can make it. When it's ready to publish, it should gleam. But perfectionism in drafting will slow you down. Finish the book first, fixing only what you absolutely must in the process, and then go back and fix and polish at the end, when you know what really needs to be cut. Carpenters don't stain their tables or bookshelves while still cutting the pieces.

3. Signing without reading

Exploration and adventure:
virtues you should wear!

Not just bad-looking, but downright dangerous: the author who signs a contract without reading it. Read the fine print. Know what it means, or hire someone who does. A literary attorney or a professional agent can keep you from being ripped off, and seriously save your career. Not signing a traditional contract? Make sure you know the limits of what you can and cannot contractually do with the retailers you are using. 

2. Not editing

Edit! Your career depends on it. Nothing destroys your career faster than posting your 200K NaNoWriMo fantasy murder mystery with gratuitous scene repetition and explicit chapters of introspection. Revise, polish, fix your characterization. Even a well-written first draft needs some revision and typo fixing.

1. Being rude

Don't turn your nose up at anyone
(unless there's a cheese straw on it). 

Everyone makes mistakes, and giving others the benefit of the doubt is to your own advantage. Meanwhile, cutting out on check and insulting someone else's shoes while telling your (former) friends you're too good for them now is a great way to end up as the body in someone else's suspense book... and the laughingstock of real life, too. And those people you cut off at the elevator? Maybe you didn't know it, but she's the acquiring editor of the publishing house you wanted, and he's on the committee for choosing Bookbub ads.

Whatever your style is,
ROCK IT.

The good news is that these are all common sense. The bad news? Somehow, people still occasionally wear each of these hats.

As for what clothes you should wear? Whatever you love. Personally, I'm a fan of Leanna Renee Heiber's Gothic Victorian style, though I tend to more of a casual business look myself (and, uh, the occasional headlamp or Santa hat). Seriously, your books, your brand. Build the image that fits for you.

Publishing for a Living: The Self-pub process

Publishing for a Living, Part 2b: The process

In December 2010, I decided to follow my dream of being a writer. I knew nothing about how to publish, or about the industry itself. All I had was the ability to write, a dream, and the feeling that I wasn’t happy with where my life currently was. Then, in January 2014, I self-published my first novel.

I now know how common publishing terms are defined, the general process of traditional publishing, the general process of self publishing, and what expectations are reasonable. So, for anyone else who is trying to become an author, I decided to share. Consider this a short guide for beginners: If you've no idea what the self publishing process looks like, welcome to Publishing for a Living 102. It's a constantly changing world, so much as I'd love to say this will always be accurate... well, it's more or less accurate now.

Part 2b, The Publishing Process (for self publishing fiction while following the best practices):

 

Step 1: Write a manuscript. Finish it.

 

Step 2: Edit for plot, voice, pace, and other non-typographical problems.

Step 3: Edit again.

Step 4: Ask someone to help you edit again (a beta reader). Make the edits that were suggested. Or at least most of them.

Step 5: Edit again.

Steps 6-13: Repeat steps 2-5 as often as needed. Then go back, fix your math, and edit again.

Step 14: Fix all grammar and typographical errors that you can find. This will save you money and help in finding a willing professional for Step 16.

 

Step 15: Research for a good editor. The better what you have now, the better price you can get, and/or the more willing others will be to trade services with you. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Also, don't expect it to be cheap. Do your research and find someone who comes well recommended who is a professional who has worked with your genre. Figure out what you'll have to pay, and what services, exactly, are included in your edit.

 

Step 16: Hire (or arrange a trade of equivalent services with) a professional editor.

Step 17: Start writing manuscript #2.

 

Step 18: Receive your edits from your professional editor. Begin revisions.

Step 19: Begin building your platform if you haven't already. (Note: This is probably the latest you should wait.) Build a website. Start connecting to readers on Twitter, Pinterest, FB, blogs, and every other social media you're willing to invest time in. This process should be about making contacts, not about blatantly marketing yourself.

Step 20: Send your manuscript back for another round of edits. Revise again.

Step 21: Create a good blurb. Create several. Get feedback, get proofing. Decide which is best for marketing.

Step 22: Research good cover designers. Look at their current work and see if the current covers are professional quality.

Step 23: Hire a cover designer (or arrange for an equitable trade of services). Again, this is not cheap. $250 is generally considered a good rate, although there is a wide range of prices. Include cover sizes for the major retailers (Smashwords, Amazon, Kobo, etc) and for print cover.

Step 24: If you think your manuscript is publishable at this point, determine a date for publication. Recommended is 3-6 months from this time period. Release your cover.

Step 25: Convert your file to be compatible with all major formats, e-book and print. (The Smashwords guide is a great place to start for e-editions).

Step 26: Upload files to e-retailers. Select the appropriate release date. Add good blurbs. Decide if you want to go with the auto-ISBNs, or purchase your own. Select your price point.

Step 27: Register your copyright with the US government. Don't hire someone else to do this for you. It costs $35. Total.

Step 28: Continue building your social media platform, updating your website, and doing various pre-publication marketing you want.

Step 29: You're published!

Step 30: The road doesn't stop now. Keep marketing, keep publishing, keep track of your sales, learn how to interpret sales figures, play with your blurbs, figure out what the best new practices are...

Congratulations, you’re published!

(Step 31: Hopefully manuscript #2 is now ready to begin the publishing process. One-hit wonders are rare. You probably won't make profit off your first book in your first year... though there are exceptions.)

Optional steps: Join writing groups, enter contests, take writing classes, attend conferences, write a career plan, bribe friends and family into putting up with your rants, decide traditional publishing is easier and go that route, take up belly-dancing, form support groups, join a critique group, join a blog group, create an anthology with writers of similar books, print bookmarks

Suggested steps to not take: Start Twitter-spamming with ads, be rude to anyone, take up streaking with the name of your manuscript painted over your body, sacrifice a goat on the alter of a made-up book god, condescend to readers or other authors, refuse to revise, lock yourself in a tower and make your family feed you by a system of complicated pulleys, publish before revising, publish without editing, tell everyone they're doing publishing wrong because they're taking another path, expect to be an instant millionaire, spend more than you can afford, hire a vanity publisher...

Official Cover Reveal!

My novel Into the Tides has a cover!

Release scheduled for this winter or early next spring--details to come!

Tone-deaf Kelly considers her inborn music magic to be mostly useless--until her stopgap control over it gives her a clue on how to collapse the bubble of wild magic enveloping the American South and its millions of people, including all of her own family except her twin brother. The catch? To do so, she'll have to enter the magic herself. That's something neither her twin brother nor her kitchen-invading, green-eyed neighbor Derik will let her try alone, since failing means becoming one of the lost, and they're not about to lose her. Trying to save everyone might just cost her everything she has left.
 

This amazing cover was put together thanks to Samantha Collins and her incredible Photoshop skills.

(If you're looking for some Photoshop cover help of your own, you can inquire about rates at collinssamanthac@gmail.com).

Myth-busting: Self-publishing to pick up a publisher

You've got an amazing, awesome, terrific book. It just needs a little editing and a good cover, and it'll be a hit. So someone says you should self-publish it in hopes of picking up a traditional publisher and getting published.

Towel Bunny says,
"It's a trap!"

MYTH

A very common myth, and one many, many debut authors fall for. I do mean it's exceedingly common, which is why I'm posting this. Here's why it's a myth:


1) Self-publish. When you self-publish a book, you are published. 100% published.

2) Traditional publishers do sometimes pick up self-published books, stick covers on them, and officially distribute them. They do this with self-published books that have already hit the best-sellers chart. If you've sold over 20,000 copies, or about 1,000 copies a month, this might be an option. Otherwise, shop another book.

Traditional publishers are out to make money. Therefore, when they look for a self-published book to pick up, what they're looking for is a proven money-maker. See #2. If a book does not have large sales already, it's a proven non-money-maker, or at least evidenced as not being earning potential. They're not interested in purchasing a book that has been published, thus already having been marketed to potential readers and possibly tapping out the market, that has not already made money. It's technically possible that you'll get picked up--technically.

It's sort of like selling cupcakes at a roadside stand, hoping that the local festival would give you one of their 30 designated food stands for that very night--if people aren't lining up by the hundreds to get more because they're just that good, well, you've already sold cupcakes to most of the people who are hungry for them. Why would the festival want to risk selling cupcakes when they could give that spot to the pie-maker, whose pies haven't been out on the market yet? Nobody's had their pie craving filled yet, so the festival (we assume it earns a commission based on your sales) will probably earn more from pies.

That's why publishers are more likely to pick up unpublished authors than self-published authors unless the self-published author can bring in a guaranteed clientele. It's no benefit to the traditional publisher. They have to invest money into cover art and editing, for sales that might already be tapped out, for a book that's possibly already gotten a reputation for being poorly edited.

On the other hand, the news isn't all bad if you're one of the many who have fallen into this myth. Since you plan on being a career author anyway (I assume you are, since the best way to sell books is to write more, and the only way to make a continual salary is to write more--you won't be able to support yourself for a lifetime from the income of single book!), you've got another manuscript in the works/ready to go/formulating in your head. Shop that one to publishers. It can be published under a different name if they're worried about your brand.

Or, decide to go completely self-publishing. Write that second book, edit it, get professional cover art. Learn the ins-and-outs of self-publishing. Become business savvy and go the self-publishing route on purpose. You can make a sustainable living through self-publishing, and with the higher royalty rates, you can do so selling fewer books than you'd have to through a traditional publisher to make a living. Yes, it's a higher initial investment--but it can pay off.

Lots of authors are going the self-publishing route these days. It is a financially sound decision, and there are good reasons for it, just like there are good reasons to traditionally publish. There are also the authors who go hybrid, traditionally published authors who self-publish, and successful self-published authors who make traditional publication deals after reaching that 20,000 sales mark.

Either way, your first step is to clean up your first, self-published book. Get it edited. Get a better cover. Take down the old version and put up the improved version. Track your sales, network, and learn the ins-and-outs of marketing (you'll have to do that any route you take).

No, you shouldn't self-publish a book you want to be traditionally published. But there's no reason to be discouraged if you did--after all, you can write a different series and traditionally publish that, or decide that self-publishing is the right route for you, after all.

A better deal: Why knowing the business gives you power

If your publisher was going out of business, and offered you a choice between taking a below-industry-standard royalty rate and a less-than-ideal rights grab, or losing your work in legal limbo forever, which would you choose?

For a while, that's what the authors of Night Shade Books were afraid of. Night Shade is going under, and to stay solvent (and thus not have their assets seized by the government until the debts are resolved, assets including the copyrights of all their authors), they are planning to make a deal with Skyhorse and Start. Skyhorse and Start will then use the authors who sign the deal to start a new imprint, but the deal will only go through if 90% of the authors sign on.

Then Skyhorse and Start sat down and looked at the internet response to their terms, and talked with the Science Fiction Writers of America, and revised their terms to be pretty much industry standard--in some points slightly better than industry average. In other words, the publishers talked with authors and agencies that represent authors, listened to the feedback authors and readers left them, and improved it.

It's happening all over. Thanks to the internet, the ease of self-publishing, e-books that allow better royalty rates, and writers having a multitude of options, authors everywhere are getting better deals.

Not every author, every time. Certainly not. And there are some things that are getting consistently worse, like the winnowing of the author advance. But on the whole, authors have something that was previously lacking: power.

We, as writers, own the copyrights of our work until we sell them. Not long ago, I had someone ask me if they had to pay their publisher a royalty when personally optioning foreign rights. Did the publisher have the foreign rights as part of the contract? No. Was there anything in the contract stipulating they'd have to pay a fee to option other rights? No. (And what a horrible contract that would be if the answer had been yes!) Therefore, no, the author owed the publisher nothing. The publisher had no claim to those rights in the first place, so the author could do anything he or she wanted with them.

Everyone wants in to the rights-grab: publishers will try to take as many rights as they can, because it makes them money, and making money is their first business. But, they also know authors have power. Authors have the right to say no, and the ability to go elsewhere, which enforces that power. If a publisher makes an insulting offer, it knows it won't get an educated author. So, proving you know something about the industry means you'll get a better deal.

Teach yourself. Know your options. You have power, and publishers do--really do--listen to you.

What are some of your favorite publishing sites? Where, or to whom, do you go to learn about the industry?

Publishing for a Living, Part 3: Realistic Expectations

In December 2010, I decided to follow my dream of being a writer. I knew nothing about how to publish, or about the industry itself. All I had was the ability to write, a dream, and the feeling that I wasn’t happy with where my life currently was.

One year later, I now know how common publishing terms are defined, the general process of traditional publishing, and what expectations are reasonable. So, for anyone else who is trying to become an author, I decided to share. Consider this a short guide for beginners: If you've no idea what the traditional publishing process looks like, welcome to Publishing for a Living 101.

Part 3, Realistic Expectations:

On average, it takes between two and ten years for a manuscript going through traditional publishing to be published after being completed. Some authors get published before; some after.

In recent years, advances have been diminishing. Depending on the publisher and the genre, advances for a first novel may be 2-5K or less. The advance may not arrive all at once. It’s not uncommon for it to be broken up into three parts, such as upon receipt of manuscript, upon receipt of final manuscript after revisions, and upon actual release date.

The average total income for a traditionally published, stand-alone romance novel is usually around $17,000, from the time the book is first published to when it goes out of print. Romance is generally accepted to be one of the more profitable genres. Total income can be much higher or much lower. Here are some assorted articles, surveys, and blogs on what you can earn as an author, both through traditional and self-publishing.

I have not met many published authors whose first manuscript was published. In cases where it was, it typically went through a very large number of revisions first.

Rejection letters are part of the business. Form rejections are common. It is very, very rare for an agent to provide feedback on why a query or a manuscript was rejected.

Most agents get hundreds to thousands of queries a year, and can only represent a few. They probably won’t remember your name.

Submitting a manuscript to a contest can provide professional feedback. In many contests, the judges offer explanations for their scores. A wise writer will accept the feedback and use it to improve her manuscript. Most manuscripts do not win their first contests.

The most successful authors put significant effort into marketing and publicity. They write more than one book.

Most publishers don’t expect to make a profit on an author’s first book. Therefore, they rarely publish authors who do not intend to write more than a single book.

And last but not least:

Being a published author is a career, not a hobby. To be successful, treat it that way. But also keep your day job until after you’re making a living wage from writing.

Did you find any of these surprising? Are there any other publishing-life expectations you’ve found that you think writers ought to know?

Publishing for a Living, Part 2: The process

In December 2010, I decided to follow my dream of being a writer. I knew nothing about how to publish, or about the industry itself. All I had was the ability to write, a dream, and the feeling that I wasn’t happy with where my life currently was.

One year later, I now know how common publishing terms are defined, the general process of traditional publishing, and what expectations are reasonable. So, for anyone else who is trying to become an author, I decided to share. Consider this a short guide for beginners: If you've no idea what the traditional publishing process looks like, welcome to Publishing for a Living 101.

Part 2, The Publishing Process (for publishing fiction through a traditional publishing house):

Step 1, write a manuscript. Finish it.

Step 2, edit for plot, voice, pace, and other non-typographical problems.

Step 3, edit again.

Step 4, ask someone to help you edit again. Make the edits that were suggested. Or at least most of them.

Step 5, edit again.

Steps 6-13, repeat steps 3-5 as often as needed. Then go back, fix your math, and edit again.

Step 14, fix all grammar and typographical errors.

Step 15, start writing manuscript #2.

Step 16, research agents who represent your genre and who might be interested in your particular manuscript.

Step 17, submit queries to up to 5 agents at a time. Do not CC: or submit to multiple agents in one submission. Send each agent a personalized query. Wait to hear back. It may help to attend conferences and pitch to agent in person. (Pitching and querying resources)

Step 18, if none of the queries received a request, rewrite the query.

Step 19, (after receiving a request), send the requested material to the agent.

Step 20, wait. Maybe up to 6 months, depending on the agent.

Step 21, if the agent says she is interested in representing you, interview her and make sure she is a good fit with your career plans. If yes, then accept her offer.

Step 22, wait. The agent is shopping your manuscript. Do whatever else she suggests you do while she is shopping your manuscript. This may include further revisions.

Step 23, your manuscript has been accepted by a publisher. The publisher will suggest further revisions. Revise again.

Step 24, begin marketing your own novel to supplement the publisher’s marketing. Your novel has not yet been published. Build an author website, author webpage, and whatever else your agent suggests.

Step 25, after another 6 months-1 year, the manuscript is finally available in print and is being distributed. Continue marketing and building your audience. Start attending author signings. Follow your agent’s advice.

Congratulations, you’re published!

(Step 26, Hopefully manuscript #2 is now ready to begin the querying process. If you’re lucky, a publishing company may offer you a contract or a several-book deal. They also may not.)

Optional steps: Join writing groups, enter contests, take writing classes, attend conferences, write a career plan, bribe friends and family into putting up with your rants, decide self-publishing is easier and go that route, take up belly-dancing, form support groups, join a critique group, hire a professional editor

Suggested steps to not take: Get arrested for agent-stalking, be rude to anyone, take up streaking with the name of your manuscript painted over your body, sacrifice a goat on the alter of a made-up book god, condescend to agents, refuse to revise, lock yourself in a tower and make your family feed you by a system of complicated pulleys, tell self-publishers that they're all vanity publishing without know what vanity publishing really is, pretend there is a "one true way" to publish, expect to become a millionaire overnight

Questions? Inspirations? Noteworthy examples of steps not to take?

Publishing for a Living, Part 1: Terms

In December 2010, I decided to follow my dream of being a writer. I knew nothing about how to publish, or about the industry itself. All I had was the ability to write, a dream, and the feeling that I wasn’t happy with where my life currently was.

One year later, I now know how common publishing terms are defined, the general process for traditional publishing, and what expectations are reasonable. So, for anyone else who is trying to become an author, I decided to share. Consider this a short guide for beginners: If you've no idea what the traditional publishing process looks like, welcome to Publishing for a Living 101.

Part 1: Terms

If you're new to the field, here are some common terms that you've probably heard, and might just be wondering about. Some of these seem quite intuitive, but you might be surprised:

Traditional Publishing, Self Publishing, Vanity Publishing, ePublishing, small publishers/regional publishers, the Big Six, Imprints, Advance, Royalties, Author, Writer, Editing, Editor, Word Count, Page Count, Agent, Query, Partial Request, Full Request, Synopsis

Traditional publishing means getting published through a royalty-paying publishing house. The publisher provides services such as thorough editing, the book cover, some marketing, and a larger distribution than either self- or vanity-publishing offer. Traditional publishing has the most prestige of the three types of publishing; because it requires going through the ‘gatekeepers’ of agents (usually) and editors, it is the most difficult to achieve. Because of the services provided, the author receives smaller royalties than in self-publishing, but because of the wider distribution and the opportunity to earn an advance, traditionally published writers on average earn more.

Self-publishing is when an author publishes the book herself; that is, she writes it, edits it herself or buys editing services, purchases the cover herself, and makes it available on a self-publishing site. These include both sites such Smashwords and Print-on-Demand publishers such as Lulu. The writer gets the majority of the earnings, but has to do her own marketing and has to purchase all her own publishing-related services. It is possible that the writer will earn more self-publishing than traditionally publishing because of the higher royalty rate, but it is infrequent that this happens. There are no advances offered, although the stigma once attached to self-publishing is diminishing due to the number of respected self-published authors.

Vanity publishing is when a writer pays a publisher to print her book for her. Again, she does her own writing, marketing, and editing, and often has to provide her own cover work. It is rare for a writer to make a profit off these books. There are no advances offered. Vanity publishing is typically categorized as a type of self-publishing and was once used interchangeably with any type of self-publishing, but ‘vanity publishers’ are specifically publishers who require the author to pay a fee for being printed. The interchangeability of ‘vanity publishing’ and ‘self publishing’ has diminished with the introduction of eReaders and millionaire self-published authors.

ePublishing: ePublishing is the publishing of eBooks or other electronic forms of books. Both self-publishers and traditional publishers take advantage of ePublishing; it should not be used synonymously with self-publishing.

Small publishers/regional publishers: Traditional publishing companies that are not the Big Six and typically print only small runs of books are considered to be small publishers. They may print up to 1-2 thousand copies, but often sell fewer, and they often sell primarily to a niche market. Regional publishers are a type of small publisher. They are likely to print nonfiction, poetry, or fiction dealing exclusively with the region in which they publish. Not all publishers that are not the Big Six count as small publishers.

The Big Six: The biggest publishing houses in America are called the “Big Six.” These include Random House, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Hachette Book Group, and HarperCollins. Most ‘imprints’ (Harlequin, Berkley, Gotham Books, Prentice Hall, Tor/Forge, etc) are owned by these companies.

Imprints: Looking on the spine or in the front cover of a book will reveal a publisher’s name. Usually, this is the ‘imprint’ publisher; that is, the brand name that reveals the genre and certain other features of the book. A book published by Tor/Forge, for example, will probably be science fiction or fantasy; a book published by Harlequin will be a romance. Sometimes there’s overlap between imprints within the same company, and sometimes there’s not.

Advance: An advance is an amount of money paid to an author before a manuscript begins earning royalties. Sometimes this is a lump sum; sometimes it is split into parts. The original idea of the advance was for the author to use the money for marketing. Most advances these days are not enough to live off of for long. The first royalties earned go towards ‘paying off’ the advance; like the name implies, the money is expected to be compensated to the publisher. Until the publisher has received the equivalent of the advance from the author’s royalties, the author gets no additional money for that manuscript. After the advance has been paid off, the author begins receiving royalty checks. Agents may encourage writers to accept a lower advance for a higher royalty percentage, which means the author would get paid less initial starting money but would pay the advance off quicker and possibly earn more money in the long term.

Royalties: For every book sold, the author gets a little bit of money. This money is a royalty. In cases wherein the author was paid an advance, first royalties are not actually received by the author. The money goes instead to pay off the advance.

Author: An author is someone who has published a manuscript. Self-published writers are generally considered authors for most publishing industry purposes, although there are some situations in which they are not, and they frequently have to deal with stereotypes against them. With the rise of the eBook and a number of established professional and even millionaire writers turning to self-publishing, this stigma seems to be diminishing.

Writer: Someone who has written or is writing. All authors are writers, but not all writers are authors.

Editing: Contrary to popular belief, editing does not mean fixing typos and grammar edits (although those fixes are usually included in an edit, writers are on the most part expected to have few to no grammar errors or typos in their manuscripts by the time it's being submitted.) Editing focuses on storyline changes and other holistic changes for the purpose of making the manuscript more interesting, more saleable, and/or easier to follow. It may include rewrites of entire scenes or characters. It may also include the insertion of subplots for the purpose of expanding a word count, or eliminating scenes for reducing a word count. Traditional publishing houses offer some editing as part of their services. Editors may also be hired individually by writers for the purposes of improving a manuscript.

Editor: Not just the person who reviews and suggests changes, an editor may also be the person in a publishing company who decides which manuscripts the company will publish. This latter job is called an ‘acquisitions editor,’ but the full term is rarely used. If a writer is writing to an editor at a publishing house, this is the editor to which they are referring.

Word count: The word count of a manuscript may be determined by either a computer count, or by performing a character count and dividing by 6 (for an average of 5 letters per word, plus one space.) The latter is what most agents desire when they ask for a word count, although some have begun asking for the former. Different genres have different expected word counts; while some manuscripts above or beneath that count are accepted, one that falls outside the range is less likely to be published than if it were within.

Page count: Because of font, margin, and spacing differences, the page count is determined by dividing the word count by 250. This is the ‘average’ number of words per page by standard publishing layout, even if it is not exact. When an agent asks for page count, this is what she is asking for.

Agent: An agent is a person whose job it is to try to sell manuscripts to publishing houses. (They do other stuff for writers, too, but let's keep it simple.) Agents typically have personal connections with many people within traditional publishing houses, and most manuscripts that are traditionally published through large publishing houses are agented. Only about 60% of manuscripts that are agented are published, however, so having an agent does not guarantee publication. It does, however, greatly improve the chances. Self-published authors do not necessarily need agents.

Query: A query is a short letter sent to an agent (or an editor) asking for representation (or publication). It is typically 250 words or fewer, but not always. A query includes enough of a description of the manuscript to catch the agent’s interest and get the agent asking for more. Many agents currently prefer to receive queries over e-mail, but some still prefer snail-mailed queries. Queries should be professional and contain no errors if at all possible.

Partial Request: An agent may ask for the first few chapters of a manuscript to see if they like the writer’s writing style. Any percentage of the manuscript that is not the entire manuscript is considered a partial request. This is often referred to simply as “a partial.”

Full Request: An agent may also ask to see the entire manuscript. This is called a full request (often just “a full”), and agents almost never agree to represent a fiction manuscript without seeing the full manuscript first.

Synopsis: Agents and editors will also sometimes ask for a synopsis. This is a summary of the entire manuscript, frequently written in 1-5 pages (depending on the agent.) It should include the most important plot of the manuscript, but might not include subplots or even all the characters. It should include the final resolution of the story, and it should be written in story form, not in bullet points. It is also considered an example of a writer’s writing, so it should exemplify the same voice as the manuscript and contain no errors. (links for "how to write a synopsis")

Note that, for every "most," "almost," and "usually," there are exceptions. These are general rules, and I'm sure you can find counterexamples for almost every single one of them. The idea, though, is to give you a general definition to go by, so don't think too hard about any of these. You can always do in-depth research later.

Questions? Additional definition requests? There are a lot of terms writers are expected to navigate, so don't be afraid to ask! Also, I suggest checking out Jessica Faust's expanded list of publishing definitions.

Visions of the Future

I think traditional publishing houses bring value to the market. I don’t want to see them disappear. But I think there’s a few things that will need to be revised in order for them to stay in the now-evolving publishing game. With the advent of the e-book, the market is changing rapidly, and old methods of business need to be revised to keep up. With a new year beginning, I’ve written down what I think needs to happen in this year (okay, and probably in the next few years) for authors, agents, and publishing houses to all obtain the most favorable long-term outcomes. These ideas aren’t set in stone – a well-structured, well-supported argument can change my mind on any point. But right now, this is the model I think would work best.

What I want to see:

I want see authors’ work continue to have value, with the market accepting that e-books costing more than $.99 are worth purchasing.

I want to see e-books less expensive than paper-and-ink books.

I want to see traditional publishing houses stay in the game, because I feel the houses offer substantial services to writers and force us to improve ourselves through setting high standards for entry into the market, and because I feel these houses offer the most formidable competition for Amazon’s book trade.

I want to see more people buying books, and a growth in the overall book market, encompassing both e-books and print-and-ink books.

I don’t want Amazon to successfully become a monopoly.

This is the e-book industry approach I think is needed to obtain these goals:

 

E-books costing at least $1 less than paperback versions, but no more than $2 less

Looking only at traditionally published books here, and not self-published books, I feel that e-book versions should be offered between $1-2 less than paperback versions.

A virtual book is less inherently valuable than a physical book. It’s a virtual asset versus a tangible one, and the e-book is actually license to possess and read the book, which is not true ownership. It can't be traded back and forth; it can’t be resold at a used book store; you can’t dunk it in the tub and shrug it off with an, “oops; time to buy a new copy.” It can’t be signed and propped on a shelf to display. And while you can carry more at once in less space, if you lose one, you loose them all.

Add to that the actual cost of an e-reader. At minimum, we’ve got a $79 Kindle, a basic system that lets someone download and read e-books without many extras. I’m not going to make an investment that won’t save me money in the long-term, especially if the asset I’m getting is of less value than the alternative (again, I consider virtual books to be inherently less valuable than physical ones.) At $2 less a book, that’s at least 40 books before my investment pays for itself (assuming I don’t get a nicer e-reader!). Yes, I could read that many in a year or two. Most people who read for pleasure would read that many in 2-4 years. That’s a reasonable time period for an e-reader to pay for itself. But if e-books cost the same as physical books, I’m not going to invest, because then I’m losing money. An Aug 2011 survey shows that only one in five Americans owned e-readers or tablets in May 2011. The other four must therefore rely on print.

The cost of actually printing a book (ink, paper, etc) really isn’t that much. Most of the money goes to paying for intangible benefits – editing, branding (the Publisher’s mark), advertising, etc. Therefore, the prices should be relatively close, because the reader is paying for the work, not the paper and ink. We’re talking a year or more of writing, editing, and rewriting. Years of a person’s life. I’m paying the writer’s salary by purchasing her or his book. I don’t mind stocking a writer’s cabinets with food – writing is a job, a hard job, and a writer deserves to be able to eat from it. Maybe even buy Christmas gifts for the family, and go to the doctor once in a while when little Johnny gets sick.

Discounts on e-books when a physical book is bought, and visa versa

Recently, Barnes & Nobles had the great idea to offer a James Patterson e-book free when two physical books have been purchased. Great advertising for e-readers! Will the concept of buying a physical book and getting the e-book free last in the long-term, or get extended to all books? I don’t, honestly, think that this would be a sustainable dream. Buy the book, download the free copy, hand off the paperback to a friend as a gift. I don’t see the current industry accepting this as a rule.

On the other hand, I do think that steep discounts would fly in a long-term situation. If you’re buying the paper-and-ink version first, it makes sense that the less valuable, economy version would be offered as a bonus at a steep discount. Because you’ve already bought the words. You just want a more portable version. So, for $1-2 more, you can buy the e-version that usually costs $5.99.

Now let’s look at it the other way around. You buy the e-book, and love the book. You’ve already bought it – why waste money getting another copy when you can read the original again on your Nook? Why will people continue to buy paper-and-ink books, even when they have an e-reader? Because books then become the luxury item, a physical embodiment of a favorite book that can still be read while visiting the relatives out in the electricity-free boondocks, that can be shown off in a shelf with the first page opened to show off the author’s autograph, that can be prettily wrapped for Cousin Sharon’s birthday. The likelihood that a person will invest in a hardback book will go up. I suggest, therefore, that proof-of-license (i.e., a receipt or bringing the book in on the e-reader with a “I bought this, not borrowed it” mark that publishers would need to develop) would earn a consumer either a $2 or a 20% discount, whichever is larger.

35-40% royalties for authors through e-books

That’s a lot more than most publishers are currently paying (the standard seems to be around 25%), but much less than most self-publishers get per book. Why the increase? Because there’s a growing industry of self-publishers, and I want traditional publishing houses to be able to stay in the game. I don’t think traditional publishing houses will continue to be able to compete in the e-book market if they don’t offer a higher royalty rate than they currently do with the growing competition. But, it’s unreasonable to give authors a 70% cut. Why? Again, writers are paying for things like editing, advertising, use of the publisher’s brand, and marketing. Those are valuable services, and worth taking the royalty cut.

Transparency in industry costs

If publishing houses are going to continue to take a cut, they’re going to have to justify it to both authors and consumers. Emerging authors are faced with the choice of self-publishing or traditional-publishing. Why take 35% instead of 70% royalties? If traditional publishing houses don’t want to get cut out of the market, they’re going to have to market themselves. So it only makes sense that they shout from the rooftops all the services they offer – or, more importantly, shout from every book’s purchase page. That’s what’s going to keep authors coming to them, instead of going it alone.

Why is this e-book worth $5.99, when that one is $2.99? Publishers will also have to justify to consumers the difference between a higher-priced, legacy published book and a self-published, cheaper book. Consumers want to know what extras they’re buying. Everyone likes extra. Everyone likes quality. When a publishing house says “These are the services you’re paying for, and this is where your money is going,” the consumer feels like they’ve paid just a little more for a bunch of extra services. This may require renaming some services (“brand licensing fee” instead of “company profits,” for example), but if the publishers are completely honest about where the money’s going, then they should see both authors and consumers drop some of the questions raised in recent months (“Are publishers worth their price?”)

Branding – logos on e-book cover art

With traditional publishing houses explaining all the services they’ve provided, consumers who buy an e-book from a traditional publishing house will feel they’ve gotten a better quality product than if they’d spent less on a self-published book. Maybe they haven’t. There’s lots of really good self-published books out there, and there always will be. But if traditional publishing houses are smart, they’ll make their mark – they’ll make it big, and they’ll put it on the cover. With prominently displayed logos on the cover art of their e-books, readers will begin to associate the logos with quality. It’s pure marketing. Make it easy to see who published it, and readers will start paying attention.

Self-published e-books will never lose their market. There may be a hit in sales, but consider: The books are usually cheaper; there are many, many high-quality self-published e-books out there; self-publishing is easy to do; and there are verified accounts proving the ability to be successful through self-publishing.

Call it branding. Call it building snob-appeal. Call it building a market. Call it anything, but if traditional publishing houses want to stay in the game, they’re going to need to sign up now. Publishers have traditionally been relegated to the background of books: when asking for a recommendation of a good book, do you ask who published it? So if publishers want in on the action, they need to take steps to change the consumer mindset. Make purchasers recognize the logo first. And that means making it obvious.

50-60% royalties for e-book-only contract extensions

Eventually, the services offered by publishing houses (editing, cover art, formatting, initial advertising, possibly even advances) will be bought out. Contracts usually come with time-out clauses, because after a while, print copies cease to earn significant revenue. If a publishing house doesn’t make money off an author, they’re not going to continue publishing them. Therefore, when an author’s contract is finally completed, the author usually gains back full rights (and full royalties, for those who then self-publish or republish the book). On the downside, the author is no longer in print by that publisher, and subsequent books will no longer have that publisher’s name on them.

What if, however, the author wants to continue having the publisher’s brand but doesn’t expect enough sales to succeed in a second print run? In the e-book industry, if traditional publishing houses are smart enough to start “branding” themselves, I expect there to be a market division between traditionally published works and self-published works. What if the publisher’s brand mark increases a book’s sales?

I’d suggest publishing houses offer a “contract extension” for authors for contract-expired e-books only. Most authors I have personally met, when their rights revert to them, self-publish the novels in e-format. In exchange for another 2-3 years of using the publisher’s mark in e-books, the author gives the publisher a cut of the earnings. Most e-books show higher profitability the longer they’re on the market, while physical books show the most profitability in the first couple of years.

There’s no (or at least few) new costs incurred by continuing to offer the house’s endorsement. What this is, is a mutually beneficial arrangement: The author gets the publisher’s endorsement (see ‘branding’), and the publisher continues to make a cut from the author while being able to say the author is part of their company. And, if the book gains enough sales, it makes it easier to print a targeted second run (With the current market-research internet tracking programs out there, do you really expect me to believe that the industry won’t know who bought which books?).

Amazon prevented from becoming a monopoly

Monopolies, historically, are bad. I want brink-and-mortar bookstores to continue to thrive. I want publishing companies to continue to exist because Amazon is very much set in a position from which it could undercut all competition. What’s to stop them from opening their own publishing house? Oh, wait, they already have. They’ve also already got Smashwords. There’s a lot of talent on that site. While many self-publishers bash traditional publishing, I don’t think they’re looking at the whole picture. 

I can see Amazon becoming a monopoly (both a horizontal and a vertical monopoly, at that). This is one way I think it might happen:

Amazon would love to make Smashwords the best, and biggest, and then only, legitimate site for self-publishing. Now say they begin printing paper-and-ink books from their best-sellers, recruiting new publishing deals from the self-published established writers. Amazon doesn’t need brick-and-mortar stores to sell books – it mails them. They offer books at discounts to grow readership, and with their price-check app, they can easily price-match or undercut brick-and-mortar stores. Authors do most of their own marketing (welcome to self-publishing!). So over time, brick-and-mortar stores start to phase out, because Amazon can cut costs and offer a cheaper product. Good-bye, B&N; hope I can buy as many cheap books as I did when Borders closed.

Then Amazon begins to pressure traditional publishing houses into offering large numbers of books at cheaper and cheaper rates. They’re already doing this; without brick-and-mortar stores through which to sell their products, publishing houses will have no choice but to comply. They become unprofitable and, one-by-one, let themselves and their existing contracts be bought by Amazon. Now the only places to buy books are from Amazon or small, local publishing houses that Amazon deems fit to continue existing to satisfy the Department of Justice that there is sufficient ‘competition’ for them to not be considered a monopoly.

This sets Amazon up to become the final say in how much authors earn. Authors either go to small publishing houses, and hope they’ll be one of the two or three authors each year that Amazon discreetly makes internationally successful as proof that the small publishing houses are a legitimate ‘threat’ to them (while the majority of authors sell less than 10,000 books over the book’s lifetime due to limited market), or go to Amazon and have a larger chance at becoming reasonably well-known and decently profitable. Amazon will pay authors just more than they’d on average earn with a small publisher, which is what will stop any of the small publishing houses from emerging as a new Big Six.

Forget advances. Forget agents. Amazon might, in a move of good faith, hire on agents to scour the ranks for self-published geniuses, just to say they’re not putting the agents out of their jobs. The agents would still be talent-hunters, and they would still get to read for a living. Only, they’d be looking for already self-published geniuses to become the new paper-and-ink generation.

I don’t think authors will come out better from this model. Nor do I think consumers will. When Amazon obtains its de facto monopoly, it can raise book prices to just below small-press level. And that means books will cost more than they do now. Authors, meanwhile, will find their royalties slowly getting squeezed smaller and smaller, and advances disappearing entirely. Writing becomes a vanity hobby, but because people like to write, it continues. Only because fewer people make survival-level money from it, it’s a hobby. Less money is spent on editing, since writers are responsible for finding their own editors, and thus, less editing is done. While good writers and great books continue to exist, refinement begins to be lost in the majority of the market, and the average quality of new books goes down.

I don’t like this vision of the future. I want Amazon to run into a few solid walls in lieu of achieving this world. Traditional publishing houses are one of the walls they might run into, so I want traditional publishing houses to continue to succeed, even if it means taking a new approach. There are enough great self-published writers for that side of the market to continue being profitable, even if branding occurs and somewhat diminishes self-pub sales, but I don’t think writers (in the long-term) will be benefited by elimination traditional publishing.

To sum up:

Personally, I feel like e-book and physical book sales complement one another. As e-books gain popularity, their convenience turns reading into a daily habit - even in people who were formerly non-readers. This means that the market will grow. But how it grows has a lot to do with how the industry presents itself. Will new readers purchase only cheap, self-published works? Or will traditional publishing houses continue to have appeal to the next generation of readers? I believe some changes are necessary to continue competition, and while some of them may be, in the short-term, less value for writers, in the long-term we'll benefit.

That’s my six cents. What’s your opinion? And why? What future do you see?

A completely random and baseless prediction

It's dangerous when I think.

No, really.  Having a task which engages my hands but not my mind has led to antics such as the time I reenacted the French Revolution with tomatoes at work.  (Not my fault - the tomato slicer makes a sound exactly like a guillotine.  And I was on task the entire time... I just happened to be marching aristocrats from the Roma family to their beheadings as the masses lined up on the cutting board cheered.  See?  You wouldn't be able to resist, either.)

One of the things rolling around with the marbles in my head recently has been the concept of branding, as applied to e-publishing.

First of all, this is an idea based entirely out of the (il)logical confines of my head - there is absolutely no support for this that I've seen to date, no studies suggesting it, and nothing but my very basic grasp of marketing, American consumerism, and brand labeling driving it.

That said, I sincerely believe the concept of brand marketing is going to significantly impact the sales of e-published works within the next 2-3 years.

Why?

Because spamming in the self-publishing world is beginning to take off. Because, for every self-published writer who edits her works thoroughly and actually has a plot to her novel, three more do not.  Because a book bought through a traditional publishing house will always have had someone look at it and say, "this is worth reading" - meaning it's passed some minimal set of standards for readability and plot.

Therefore, I expect to see branding to become the next big thing on the e-bookshelves.  Publishers will start making their icon large enough to be seen on the cover art in a thumbnail, so that browsers will know the book has passed their inspection.  And browsers will probably begin creating brand loyalty such as formerly been absent in the literary world (Do you buy your regular books solely based on who published them - or do you buy them based on the pretty cover art and the intriguing blurb?)  If I know that Baen, for example, typically prints books with higher-quality plots and better editing, I'm going to be more likely to purchase from them online than a book from a publisher I've never heard of.

Obviously, this would be Bad News for small publishers and self-published authors.

As a writer, one of the things on my contract wishlist would therefore be that my ebooks include a visible publisher logo on the cover art (maybe discreetly in the corner, but still large enough to be seen on a thumbnail.)

Do you think this particular prediction has any basis in reality?  As an author, will you require a logo for your own ebook cover art, or do you think it's too soon to start the branding process?  Theoretically, what do you see this doing to the market?  Do you see a solution to help small publishers and self published authors stay in the game?

Suggested Links

Just a compilation of suggested links, which I'll add to as time goes on:

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/  BookEnds Literary Agency Blog - the writer had a lot of very helpful articles on everything from writing queries to what to expect when you're publishing.

http://queryshark.blogspot.com/ QueryShark - if you're working on writing your query, READ THIS.  It made all the difference for me.  While she's harsh, the author is good, and being able to see her feedback on other people's work means you won't have to swallow the same kind of feedback on your own.  Assuming, that is, you follow her advice.

http://www.rwa.org/ Romance Writers of America - Join, and you'll have access to their lists of romance agents, articles, writing contests, local chapters, and much more.  Great networking tool, and if you intend to be a professional writer, you should join a professional writing association.

http://www.heartofcarolina.org/ Heart of Carolina Romance Writers - The local chapter of the RWA for me.  Actually sitting down with published writers and talking to them?  I can't stress enough how much that helped me.  Really.  I learned as much during a tea and dinner as I learned in three weeks of research, and most of it was entirely informal.  Of course, if you're not a romance writer, you oughtn't join, but I'd suggest finding the equivalent of your genre.  Not in North Carolina?  The chapter does make exceptions for writers who live in states without a local chapter.  Of course, I'd probably suggest going for the closest state and asking them if you can join.  That way, you'll have a chance of being able to attend in person a little more often (theoretically, anyway.  I know  - it's hard making the time to go to meetings!  But try.  Trust me on this.)

http://www.ncwriters.org/ NC Writers - Where will you find your genre-equivalent of HCRW?  Check here (or your state's writing network).  What's the benefit of writing conferences?  Getting to meet an agent in person, talking to other writers, general networking, and taking seminars that will prepare you for the next step.

http://virginiakantra.com/Links.html Virginia Kantra's website - she's been highly recommended to me by all of the members of HCRW as having excellent articles about writing, and those that I've read so far have been helpful.

Square One, Book Two: Moving Forward

I've finished a novel.  What next?

Part One: Edit!

After putting the final touches on my rough draft, and editing to my satisfaction, I sent my story off to my beloved beta readers: aka, my friends who also write and/or read romance and who've agreed to give the story a look-over.  I've already taken out as many errors as I could find and rewritten most of the scenes that I didn't like, taken out whatever extras I could excise, and added a Prologue to make the beginning make more sense.  Now what I'm looking for from my friends is for them to catch what I've missed: mostly word choice errors ("He reached into his back and pulled out a packet"... ouch!!!) and plot holes created by my rewrites.  You might think I should already have caught those plot holes (and I do wish I had!), but remember: I already know what I'm thinking, and I've all the background information on my story and my characters floating around in my head.  That means I'm actually less likely to spot little plot errors, or even major ones, because I've still got the original storyline in my head - including the parts I cut out! 

As my lovely, awesome betas read, they point out mistakes, and my job is to go back and fix as much as I can.  Some errors simply can't be fixed without a massive storyline rewrite.   For example, I completely rewrote how magic worked in the world about halfway through, and thus an island that sank into the sea had originally a reason to do so; now it just sort of happens.  It's kind of pivotal to the plot later in the series, so what do I do?  Band-aid: My mages sink it on purpose, casting a spell for that reason, in the middle of a spell-casting bonanza that I already had in the story.  Note that the island also mysteriously shrunk by three-fourths a mile, and moved nine miles inland.  It's not what I first planned, but then, the story isn't, either.

What's important is that it flows, and that it makes sense. 

I'm writing a story to be published.  My story is polished, but like all writers, there will be things that continually bother me, that just aren't good enough.  I'll keep trying to fix them, but I'm too much of a perfectionist to ever be truly satisfied with everything.  Therefore, editing will last only until I succeed in my next step: Sell!  I don't know when I'll have to stop, so fixing goes in stages, with every edit leaving the story saleable without further editing.  Remember that you should never submit an unedited manuscript to an agent.  Therefore, if you don't think your story is polished enough to be a finished product, you're not ready for selling it.  By the time it goes to agents, the only changes you should be making are minor tweaks.

Part Two: Sell!

Hey, that's the point!  I've already sent out five query letters to literary agents, but now I need to keep sending.  The publishers I'm looking at all require submissions to be agented.  Therefore, I'm looking for agents who are reputable and who publish my particular genre.  Paranormal Romance that isn't urban fantasy is a tough niche to find an agent for.  I'm avoiding agents who require a reading fee, because those are often scam artists (read Writer Beware before seeking an agent), and I'm researching each agent I find to discover what they usually publish. Remember: do your homework!  When you're looking for an agent, it's important to spell their name correctly!  And even more important is to choose people who actually represent what you write.  Don't waste their time; they get enough junk mail already.  Also, follow their instructions for submittals precisely.  If they don't want the first five pages, then don't send them: the agent won't read what you've sent, and they'll probably just delete your e-mail (or trash it, if you're going snail mail) for the crime of being unable to follow directions.

I'm also keeping an eye out for local literary agents.  Yesterday, I heard about a website (NCwriters) that I plan on researching over the next couple of days.  I also heard about a writers' support group (Write 2 Publish) that meets about once a month in Raliegh.  I went to talk to the host bookstore personally to find out more, and discovered that they sometimes have literary agents show up, plus they often have authors in all stages of publication.  They next meet April 2, at 6:30, so I'm marking my calendar.  I plan to show up with several copies of my first five pages and a book-back plot synopsis to catch interest, but I know they might not ever get read.  That doesn't mean I'd be disappointed if I got no leads.  Networking is a big part of selling.  Since I don't personally know any published romance authors or agents, I have to do a little legwork before I can hope to be noticed.  "Solicited query" is a much better place to be than "unsolicited query" - the previous has a good chance of getting at least a request for a partial (that is, when the agent asks for the first few chapters to get an idea of your writing style, but not the full manuscript), while the latter is just another e-mail in an inbox.  Here's hoping I find an agent soon, but I'm not about to hold my breath as I wait.  Instead, I'm going to hedge my bets by starting to work on another novel.

Part Three: Start planning another!

Although my first novel sets itself up for a sequel, the next story I plan on writing will be entirely different.  Why?  Because if one storyline doesn't catch an agent's attention, another might.  That's right, I'm hedging my bets, giving myself two 'rummy' cards, increasing my odds... however you want to say it!  Since I write quickly, I can complete a stand-alone novel and still write the second in the series within a reasonable period of time (four-five months for each is my goal).

This is going to be a very complex story.  I'm going to have to work hard to keep it to a reasonable length.  That means I'll need extra planning, but I still want to start writing by the end of the week... hopefully by March 7, no later than March 10.  I know some plot elements will develop as I'm writing, so I'm not too worried if I'm not perfectly ready to begin, as long as I have a starting point... I'll start writing, and let the ideas ruminate in the back of my mind while I work.  And sure, I'll have to go back and edit portions later, but that's okay.  After all, every story starts as a rough draft - it's expected to be less than perfect.  What matters is that's it's written, because you can't fix something that doesn't exist.

So it's off to lunch for me, and then a quick bout of editing before work.  Planning is this evening, and if I'm awake, a little research, too.  Wish me luck, and remember - you're not an author if you don't write!