Angela Booth's Writing Blog

Seven Self Publishing Secrets – seven reasons to generate self publishing profits

In tomorrow's issue of Fab Freelance Writing Ezine, we discuss self publishing.

Here's an excerpt from the article "Seven Self Publishing Secrets – seven reasons to generate self publishing profits":

In this article, let's look at self publishing in terms of publishing a book yourself, because this is a common form of self publishing, and one that's worth considering.

If you write a book, whether it's a novel or nonfiction book, and go the traditional publishing route, that is, you get an agent and a publishing house, and the publishing house publishes your book and distributes it around the world, the time from idea to print can be anywhere from two years upwards – say three years.

You'll spend a lot of time on your book, and that time is unrecompensed, unless lightning strikes, and the book becomes a bestseller. Most books do not become bestsellers, in fact most books never "earn out" their publisher's advance.

Read the rest in the ezine.

Technorati Tags: self publishing

Writing Books As A Dream Home Business

In Fab Freelance Writing Ezine this week, our article is "Writing Books As A Dream Home Business".

Here's an excerpt:

Writing books is a dream home business. You can write when, where and how it suits you, without a commute, and without a boss looking over your shoulder.

There's something else which makes writing books extremely attractive: since the rights to books are licensed, the author receives a royalty (somewhere between six and 15 per cent of the sales price) for each and every copy of his books which is sold, for years, and sometimes for decades, to come.

Unlike freelance writing for magazines or the Web, or copywriting, authors (writers who write books) are writing for long term income – for twice-a-year royalties arriving in their bank account, for years, as long as a particular book stays in print. Imagine if you've got royalties from five or more books flowing to you twice a year.

Read the rest of the article in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine this Wednesday.

Additional resources: my new membership site for authors and the site's accompanying blog, Just Write A Book Blog.

Technorati Tags: write a book

How much money can you make when you write a book?

Good question. :-)

I might have known this would come up, but I've so far avoided mentioning how much you can make by writing a book on my new write a book membership site. However, I've had several email messages asking this very question, so let's take a stab at answering it.

Brenda Hiatt has a "show me the money" section on her site which is well-researched and accurate. For example:

Romance novels, for Avon/ HarperCollins earn out at:

Average advance (first book): $13,500
Average advance (subsequent books): $24,000
Advance range: $3500 - $100,000
Standard royalty percentage: 8%
Average earn-out: $26,000 Range: $7000 - $100,000

A small advance for a nonfiction book would be $20,000. Of course, your advance may be much more, depending on the projected sales and how well your agent negotiates.

There are many, many variables when you write a book. At the upper end of the pay scale, you've got JK Rowling, who's making billions from her Harry Potter series and the spin offs.

At the other end of the pay scale, you have authors who make a few thousand per book.

Publisher's Marketplace reports on book deals daily, in their Publishers Lunch.

So, how much can you make? The short answer is that it depends on the book. It's the long answer too, because as stated, there are many variables.

On my new membership site, we cover researching book deals and researching the market for YOUR book before you start writing. There's no point in writing a book for which there's no market. So if you're interested in writing a book and making money from it, join.

Technorati Tags: publishing

Can you write a book?

My exclusive new membership site for authors

Of course you can write a book. If you can fill a page with words, you can fill three hundred pages with words.

A book is more than a collection of pages, of course. A novel requires  engaging characters and a page-turner plot. A nonfiction book needs to meet a demand.

A publishable book needs much more:

* Your book needs an audience: the way publishing works today, you must prove to a publisher that an audience exists for your book. So market research is vital, before you start writing.

* Your book needs an agent and publisher;

* While you write, and after your book is published, you'll need to promote your book: as the author, that's a most important task, and all publishers require their authors to take an active role in marketing.

If you've ever thought "I could write a book", my exclusive new membership site will help you to not only write your book, but get it published too.

Join me on a great adventure - writing your book.

Technorati Tags: publishing, write a book

Stealth publishing: getting your book the attention it deserves

You've written a book proposal.

You've done all the heavy lifting: you know that there's a market for your book. You've shown how your book slots into a niche in the marketplace, and you've described how you will market your book.

Excellent. Your proposal is now making its way around the offices of publishing houses and agents. Slowly. Very slowly.

What if you could gee up the process a bit?

There's a sneaky way of both making money from your book before it's published a couple of years from now (traditional publishing takes a LONG time) - and of attracting attention to your book proposal.

Here's the way: create an ebook version of your book, and sell it online. Not only can you make some money while your book proposal does the rounds, you may get an offer on the basis of an intriguing ebook.

I'm writing about self-publishing as a "stealth" process this week in Fab Freelance Writing Ezine.

Book publishing is a rough business

Over on the freelance writing blog, I've just posted "Freelance writing: stop complaining, it’s all about sales".

Apropos of which, publishers do it tough. Read "Bookstore chain puts the screws on small publishers":

Traditionally, when a publishing house is acquired by some big conglomerate, the bean counters take a look at the accounts, turn pale, and have a talk with the publisher. It has come to their attention, they say, that many books lose money, and most of the others make a small profit at most. Almost all the publisher’s profits come from a small number of bestselling titles. “True,” says the publisher. In that case, the beancounters reply, would it not make more sense to only publish the bestsellers?

The more you know about how publishing works, the better you can protect yourself as a writer. Don't be a woolly lamb... or Little Red Writing Hood confronted with grandma's big teeth. :-)

Giggle of the Day: The Book Business - An Industry of Whiners

From "The Book Business: An Industry of Whiners":

Book Reviewers: Writers who Write About Writing, Oh My! When reviewers spend four to seven hours reading a book, they don’t want to write 55 words and give it one to four stars à la film critics.

Book critics want to express themselves by showing off how much they know. They clear their throats, roll up their sleeves, and rub their hands together in order to prove they have the credentials to critique a book. We are forced to suffer through a tiresome account of the reviewer’s intimate knowledge of the subject, the genre and opinions of the author’s previous books.

Classic. :-)

Technorati Tags: publishing

Get published: Self-publishing versus vanity presses

A reader asks: "How much should I pay my publisher?"

The answer of course, is that a publisher pays you. A publisher buys from you the rights to publish your work in certain markets. These rights are clearly set out in the publication contract, and they're limited, unless the publisher buys ALL rights. (It's never a good idea to sell all rights in your work, unless it's work that you're doing for hire.)

Standard commercial publication takes time, and your book can be rejected by any number of publishing houses, so it's not for the faint-hearted. If you don't want to go through the agonies of standard publication, self-publishing is an option. You should consider self-publishing if you're writing nonfiction, and your book is a "niche" topic, in which major publishers aren't interested because of the tiny market.

Self-publishing means that you bear all the costs, and you get all the profits. :-) Note: many writers choose to e-publish, because they're writing for a small target market, and because they can manage the entire process.

Beware of vanity publishers. I'm not a fan of vanity publishing - a deal where you pay a "publisher" to print up copies of your opus. These companies are not publishers, they're printers with delusions of grandeur.

In this blog, I keep hammering the point that PUBLISHERS PAY YOU. It's never, ever the other way around.

Technorati Tags: books, copyright, publishing

Final Sale: Writing for Online Cash

Been wondering whether you should buy Writing for Online Cash?

I've got a couple of new ebooks coming out, so I'm withdrawing Writing for Online Cash on September 8. This brilliant ebook has been very successful and has had a great response among from professional writers as well as novice writers.

If you've been waiting to buy this ebook, make sure to buy it before September 8. Until then, it's at the special price of just $39.99 (previously $97.)

Technorati Tags: ebook, get started freelance writing, make money writing, marketing your writing

It's YOUR book, no one else's

No one cares about your book as much as you do: not your spouse, not your publicist, nor your mother, and certainly not your publisher. You must become the champion of your book.

Take Seth Godin's Advice for authors to heart, especially:

7. Think really hard before you spend a year trying to please one person in New York to get your book published by a 'real' publisher. You give up a lot of time. You give up a lot of the upside. You give up control over what your book reads like and feels like and how it's promoted. Of course, a contract from Knopf and a seat on Jon Stewart's couch are great things, but so is being the Queen of England. That doesn't mean it's going to happen to you. Far more likely is that you discover how to efficiently publish (either electronically or using POD or a small run press) a brilliant book that spreads like wildfire among a select group of people.

Great advice. If you follow it, you will be a happily published author, not a bitter one, wondering "what the heck happened?" three years after your book comes out.

What do I mean by "champion"? Seth nails it here: "a non-fiction book is a souvenir, just a vessel for the ideas themselves. You don't want the ideas to get stuck in the book... you want them to spread."

Similarly, if your book is a novel, realize that a novel is just a container for an experience. Who will the experience of your novel help, intrigue, entertain, amuse? When you know that you're creating experiences when you write novels, it makes your novels both easier to write and to champion.

Technorati Tags: books, branding, Business, publishing, writing

Yet another blogger with a book deal, and more

NY Daily News has a story on Stephanie Klein who writes the true-confessions Greek Tragedy blog. She's signed up for a two-book deal and a TV pilot for NBC. (Hat tip to What's Next Blog).

Writing a book? Blog about it!
If you're writing a book, BLOG it, or blog about it. I've written about bloggers with book deals here.

Blogging is the easiest way to get publishers' attention. It saves you years of frustration if you're trying to get a publisher.

Technorati Tags: blog how-to, blog your writing, blogs, get started blogging, make money blogging, monetize blog

The Long Tail and writers

I've just written a blog entry on The Creativity Factory about Chris Anderson's Long Tail theory.

The Long Tail theory has massive implications for writers. Please read the Wired article on which the book is based.

Whether you write fiction, or nonfiction, this article should give you ideas for the direction of your writing career. Essentially, you no longer need to worry about blockbuster ideas. Write what you want to write. Your audience will find your work via the Long Tail.

Technorati Tags: Planning, proposals, publishing, write novel, writing, Writing Tip

Beyond plagiarism: thief-take-all

Denny Hatch's great article: "Book Pirates! Diary of an Amateur Web Sleuth" tells the story of the theft of his father's book, which was still under copyright - not plagiarized, stolen. Essentially this was made possible by the advances in Print On Demand (POD) technology.

As Denny says:

Print on demand represents the future of book publishing. Rather than the old-fashioned model where huge investments had to be made in warehouses filled with books stacked floor to ceiling and gathering dust, the new book warehouse is in a computer hard drive where books and their covers are stored electronically.

Order a book and a computer somewhere tells a book printing machine to print one copy (or 10 copies or 100 copies) of that title. The efficiency of the new system is truly elegant.

POD means that anyone can take a published book and offer it for sale with horrible ease, as Denny says: "We hijack books. Catch us if you can."

If you've got books in print, or Out Of Print, and you hold the copyright, keep an eye on them. Some unscrupulous operators may just decide to snatch your hard work without so much as a "May I?"

Technorati Tags: books, publishing, copyright

Giggle of the Day: type-in domains, oh the horror

Cute "the sky is falling" story at Publishing 2.0 about type-ins/ parked domains. As dozens of commenters have pointed out, there's nothing new about this. What's tragic is that this practice is just coming to the attention of someone from the world of traditional publishing.

If you're an author, you've got to laugh at the outrage in this story -- and feel some grim satisfaction.

From an author's point of view traditional publishing has been broken for decades. A traditional publisher aims to publish as many books as possible, hoping to make back their investment. This is at the expense of authors, who unknowingly in many cases, subsidize publishers. An author trusts a publisher to make the most of his words, whereas the publisher just wants a fast return on investment.

The Internet has leveled the playing field for authors/ writers AND publishers. If you're a writer, you no longer need traditional publishers: you get to sink or swim on your own, and so do they.

Technorati Tags: Web publishing

Getting published: how hard is it?

If you're a new writer, getting your first book or article published can seem overwhelmingly difficult.

Good advice here:

Crof," he once told, "all you need to be a writer is ego and energy." He was right, but the energy isn't just for cranking out text—it's for cranking out still more text, learning from your own work, and pushing it until finally some editor is desperate enough to take a chance on you.

I know it seems hard to believe, but all you need to do is write, write, and write some more, and energetically MARKET what you write.

Publishing is a business.

All publishers, from the mega-corps to the humblest online journal, stay in business by giving their readers what they want.

Therefore, if you want to be published, don't focus on publishers, focus on READERS.

Know the genre you're aiming for if you're writing a novel. (See our fiction genre workshop on Pro Write.)

Know the demographics of any magazine where you're aiming to sell your work.

Keep writing, and keep marketing, and you WILL get published.

Self-publishing: free class

I've just written a "cheap marketing" post on my new fabwebmarketing blog, so I'm in marketing mode. :-)

Here's a posting about a free self-publishing class you may want to check out if you've got writing lying around and don't know what to do with it.

The class sounds fun and informative, and if you're not au fait with how you self-pub, the class is a cheap (free) way to learn.

Technorati Tags: publishing

Written a book? Great. Now's the time to sell it

Now you've written your book, you have several options. Let's look at a few of them:

1. Find a traditional publisher;

2. Self-publish;

3. Self-publish online, using your book to gain online advertising revenue.

To work with a publisher, you’ll need to send out query letters and/or a book proposal. This is a letter or a few pages briefly describing your text, why it is unique, characteristics of your target market and how you can help market the book. Most publishers don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts, so you’ll need to convince them to read yours. If they request that you forward your entire manuscript, you have one foot in the door. Be prepared to send more than one query and don’t expect a response next week.

There are writer's guides that serve as excellent resources to find publishers who specialize in your particular genre. These guides list the percentage of new authors published as well as the percentage of sales they pay. You may find pay rates ranging from 5-10% of sales. Some pay on wholesale sales and others on the retail amount. Do the math. Perhaps your book will retail for $14.95 and the publisher will pay 6% on retail. This means you will earn 90 cents per book sold. Of course don’t forget that the publisher is doing all the printing, distributing, and marketing of your text.

Another route you may want to consider is self-publishing. You will be responsible for all the printing, distributing and marketing costs involved, but you will also get to retain all the profits. There are book printing companies as well as companies that specialize in assisting the self-publisher through every step along the way.

You can also opt to self-publish online. This is the easiest option. However, you do need to learn the basics of online publication: how to buy a domain name, get your material uploaded to your server, and get advertisers.

Which will you choose?

That's up to you. It's your book.

Technorati Tags: books, Business

Great advice: start at the top

Science fiction author Wen Spencer offers excellent advice if you're marketing your novel.

If you've finished a novel, before you hand it over to the lowest rung on the ladder, try using it to get an agent.

The only -- ONLY -- time I would recommend going the ebook route is that you've had 100 agents tell you that it stinks and you don't want to do a major rewrite to make it better.

Yes, it's "marketing". You've written the novel, and now you're aiming for publication by marketing it. Writing and marketing are two completely different activities. It's difficult (at first) to separate them in your own mind, but you can become adept at it. Many writers hate the whole idea of marketing their work. That's fine, but only if you don't want publication and are writing for friends or as a hobby. If you want to sell your work, get comfortable with marketing.

And while you're marketing -- keep writing. :-)

DIY publishing

Excellent article on the benefits of self-publishing, "Scribblers are doing it for themselves".

Your book may attract the attention of a major publisher:

It does happen. Look at GP Taylor, author of the children's novel Shadowmancer, which was bought by Faber in 2003. He now has a £3.5m six-book deal, and a film deal worth millions. The American rights to Shadowmancer were sold for £314,000, rumoured to be more than three times JK Rowling's cheque for the American publication of the first Harry Potter story.

Taylor, was a 43-year old vicar in Cloughton, North Yorkshire. He was advised that no publisher would touch his tale of good and evil set on the North-East coast in the 18th-century. So he sold his motorbike and published Shadowmancer himself for £3,500.

The Great Agent Hunt: Just write a brilliant book

Some new writers working on a novel -- or in some cases if they haven't even started working on a novel -- decide that they need an agent, and set out on the Great Agent Hunt.

This is nonsense. Forget agents. Write the book! No agent worth his or her 15 per cent is interested in an unwritten book. In fact, if you're a new writer and an agent does express interest in your synopsis you should keep your hand on your wallet.

In the post "Finding an Agent" Crawford Kilian offers:

The advice I give my own students is to market the first novel directly to publishers (again with a query letter and maybe a sample of the script if the publisher says it’s OK). You can reach more publishers in a hurry, and if you do your homework you won’t waste time on publishers who refuse to read unagented scripts. If you do get a positive response, and then a contract, you can then call almost any agent you like, and invite her to get a better deal for you. Since you’ve proven you can sell, you should be able to sign on without much fuss.

Yes, it's unpleasant to imagine that you might write an entire book of 100, 000 words and then find that no one is interested in it, but there are benefits. Really. :-)

The first benefit is that you've written a book. This is A Good Thing. You now know that you can do it. Many, many people who want to write novels discover that writing a complete book is hard. Write a complete book that strangers will pay to read is even harder.

The second, and even bigger benefit is that you've learned a lot. Your next book will be better. And the one after that will be better still.

Keep writing. Keep sending out partials (chapters and outlines) to publishers. Sooner or later, you'll get a handwritten note on a rejection letter which says: "please try us again" or similar. Yes! Now you know you're close. Keep writing.

One day, when you least expect it, all your work will pay off. You'll get an offer. Then you'll get an agent.

And after that, the world changes, right? Choirs of angels sing, and your path is strewn with rosepetals and everyone loves you...

Well -- NO.

Nothing changes. You just get to keep writing. So do what works, and write, already. :-)

Magic words: We want to publish your book

Nothing beats hearing the magic words from an editor: We want to publish your book. Nothing.

From the article "Steal This Book. Or at Least Download It Free." --

The advance was just $4,000, "but it felt like I'd won the lottery," Mr. Adler said. "It was the defining moment of my life."

Yep. When MacDonald Futura made an offer for my first novel in 1980 I walked on air for four days. The feeling doesn't last, but the memory does. :-)

Saving and storing the digital age

The British Library is gearing up to store digital publications:

The new collection will include both items "born digital" and those that have been digitised, such as Shakespeare's Quartos and newspapers from the 19th Century.

The British Library's collection already covers every information format from oracle bones to kilobytes and it is determined to provide the same infrastructure for holding a national collection of digital items as it does for its 160 million strong collection of books, manuscripts, sound recordings, patents, stamps and maps.

Technorati Tags: Publishing

Seven days to a book proposal

We've got the pitching workshop on Pro Write, but if you want a complete step by step process to creating a book pitch, my ebook writing manual helps you to create a book proposal in seven short days.

 

It's your writing career, don't kill it: NEVER shoot off rude replies

Want to commit professional suicide in your writing career? Send off a rude note to an editor.

 

Publishing is a very small world. Not only do people know other people, they communicate with each other. Before you know it your snippy: “Thank you for your kind consideration, but my book _______________ was neither a child’s book nor fiction.....but thank you for your consideration....I am sure that I can find a publisher that will actually read the book...your loss” will return to bite you.

 

The above quote is from Terry Whalin's post "Snappy Comebacks Leave Lasting Impressions".

 

He's an editor. Do you reckon he'll remember that gratuitous reply? He'll share the writer's name with other editors, too, and I can’t see many editors who'd sign a contract with someone with so little grace. Without even trying, that writer has managed to blacken his/ her reputation, and for what?

 

Yes, you're aggrieved, and yes, you feel frustrated, but don’t let it show. And never, ever put it in writing.

 

Giggle of the Day: Home-baked books

Great post on home-baked book marketing:

 

>>> 

Many homemade web sites -- we're all guilty of them, so don't anyone turn up your nose -- are tragic. They should fall into the dirt somewhere, but they don't. And their authors are determined to save that hundred bucks by working out of that Websites for Dummies book. You militant do-it-yourselfers, don't yell at me and say you can't afford a professional web designer. Not when you spend a thousand bucks to go to a conference so you can, yes, sit at a card table and sign five copies of your novel.

>>> 

 

I admit I don’t understand that particular marketing ploy: why would you go to a writing trade conference and try to sell your books to other writers?

 

If you're going to a conference, go to connect with editors, or to give a workshop. If you've got a publisher, let the publisher push your books at publishers' trade conferences.

 

Does this mean you shouldn't market your books? Of course not. But market where it will do some good, not at a writers' trade conference.