In the increasingly difficult competition to get published, writers know they must put their best foot forward by sending out only a professional, polished, and persuasive new proposal or manuscript to any prospective literary agent or publisher.

Many authors have come to understand the value of objective help before taking the plunge, and I don’t mean from family, friends, or the local writing group. Such support is valuable to have close at hand, but even with the best of intentions, it’s not as useful as professional feedback and guidance.

Full disclosure:  I’m an Executive Editor at Jossey-Bass/John Wiley & Sons and I also work privately as a developmental editor with selected authors.

But I’m not the only such practitioner, and not necessarily the best one for you. There are plenty of other developmental editors out there.

Ask for referrals from authors you know and from agents and editors you meet at writers conferences, expos, or book store signings. It takes hustle and discernment.

Some independent editors have websites that list their services and former clients. If authors are listed, you can try to get in touch with them through their agent or publisher. The authors may be happy to endorse their editors and may well want to lend a helping hand to a fellow writer.

I recommend you be very careful when evaluating and making a final choice. Here are some of the primary considerations I think are important when selecting an editor.

Evaluating a freelance editor

• Professional Status

Is this individual a developmental editor? A developmental editor works with a writer to improve the basic concept of the book, the way it’s focused and structured, the style and attitude of the narrative voice, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction.

In a non-fiction book they’ll help clarify and organize the ideas and information. In a novel, they’ll work on the plot, characterizations, dialogue, visual description, and literary style.

It’s important to distinguish developmental editors from copy editors, who take a manuscript that has already been developed and correct the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and in some cases fact-checking.

Ask about the editor’s educational background and experience. A developmental editor is likely to have a vitae that includes a degree and perhaps graduate studies in literature or a related subject.  It’s also very helpful to have in-depth experience as an editor working with a broad variety of authors in real-world commercial book publishing.

• Track Record

Has the editor worked on books that have been published successfully?  Your prospective editor should be able to provide an author list of published titles that you can examine.  Did the authors acknowledge the editor in their published works?

Ask the editor to provide references and endorsements, and be sure to follow up.

• Compatibility

Don’t be shy. Get in touch with a prospective editor directly. If you live nearby, make an effort to meet. If that’s not feasible, have a good phone conversation. It’s important to see how they respond and to hear their voice, to establish a relationship you can trust and enjoy.

You don’t have to love your editor but it helps to like one another and have an open, honest channel of continuing communication. A good fit is important.

Humor and compassion also go a long way in forging a productive relationship!

• Accessibility

If your candidate is slow to answer emails or never returns your phone calls, that’s a bad sign, a harbinger of future problems. Being busy is normal; being absent or invisible for long periods of time is not acceptable.

Remember: It’s your book

Once you’ve narrowed your search or made an actual choice, I always advise authors to establish the ground rules up front and take an ongoing proactive role in protecting their interests.

Good developmental editors subsume their own egos and enter the world of the writer’s consciousness. They’re not writing their own book but helping you create the book you want to write.

A good professional should never take over a book, conform or contort it to their way of writing, or make any changes unilaterally or without your approval. That’s why the tracked changes tool on your Word document manuscript is so useful. You can see everything in the original with any edits, deletions, or additions, highlighted in another color in a way that can be either accepted or rejected.

Establish clear financial terms

Some independent editors have a written contract, and others don’t, preferring to operate on a basis of trust. In any case, you will want to agree on a minimum and maximum fee, and how payment will be made.

Most developmental editors charge either an hourly rate or a flat fee depending on the length of the book and how much work is needed. Not inexpensive, to be sure, so consider how much this kind of investment is worth to you, and choose very carefully.

Also be clear about your ability to follow up with more questions, brainstorming and feedback on subsequent revisions. Is that part of the original estimate or an additional charge?

Ask for work-in-progress

The editor can you send you at least partially completed chapters as you go along, to make sure you’re on the same page and getting what you expected.

Edits have to be taken in the context of structure and parallel development that may not be obvious at first. But the option to discuss what’s going on with editing during the process needs to be established.

Agree on an exit plan

Before you start, agree about how you can stop in the middle and leave the deal without rancor.

This rarely happens, but if a major problem develops over communication or work in progress that just can’t be solved, it should be discussed in writing so there’s a clear record and no misunderstanding — even if there’s no formal contract.

Maxwell Perkins: A role model for editors

Maxwell Perkins may be familiar to students of American literature as the legendary editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons (now a division of Simon & Schuster) who during the 1920’s and 30’s worked with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Erskine Caldwell, and other famous authors.

Perkins was well known for his intelligence, humility, passion for good writing and unconditional support for the writers he edited.

He maintained close personal relationships with his authors, nursing the alcoholic Fitzgerald through vast improvements in The Great Gatsby. He advocated the then revolutionary publication of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises.  He suffered through two years of persuading Wolfe to cut 90,000 words from his first novel Look Homeward Angel.

Here’s a passage from one of many letters Perkins wrote Thomas Wolfe in 1937 during a period when they were struggling over the length of Wolfe’s second novel Of Time and the River:

My impression was that you asked my help, that you wanted it. And it is my impression too that changes were not forced on you (you’re not very forceable, Tom, nor I very forceful), but were argued over, often for hours. But…unless you want help it will certainly not be thrust upon you…I believe the writer, anyway, should always be the final judge.  I have always held to that position…The book belongs to the author.

Given the success of Perkins’ work with Wolfe, this window into their professional process shows just how sensitive and complex a relationship this can be.

Any experiences with editors to share?

Every successful writer I know has a relationship with an editor they trust.  But it doesn’t always happen easily, or the first time around.  We’re interested in hearing about your own experiences finding and working with an editor, and the impact on your writing and getting published.  And if you have any questions about all this, fire away in comments.

If you want to succeed as a writer you have to realize you’re in the book business, with all its strange ways of doing things.

Publishing is still a relationship business and you need to know the players, the powers that be, who’s making what things happen.

Publishers Marketplace draws back the curtains and reveals the nuts and bolts of daily life and how to gain entry.

How to get in the game 

Years ago it was difficult if not impossible for aspiring or established  authors to know what was going on behind the scenes in the book business. Who were the important agents and editors? What were they selling and buying? How could an author penetrate the higher echelons of influence and power and get published?

That’s changing big time.

I’ve been telling writers at conferences and workshops for years that they should subscribe to Publishers Marketplace, the insider’s connection for crucial book publishing information, and a tremendous resource for every writer.  And now it’s more important than ever with all the changes going on in the business.

Subscriptions cost $20 per month – a bargain, in my view, for the access you gain to information you need to be an informed participant in this business. It’s on a month-to-month basis, so you can try it out and see what you think.

There’s also a free version with limited access, but unless you subscribe you miss out on most of the essential services.

I use Publishers Marketplace every day to learn what I need to know as an acquiring book editor for a large commercial company.  So this isn’t an infomercial, but heartfelt advice.

How I use Publishers Marketplace

• Like every publishing professional, I read a plethora of Publishers Marketplace email reports including Lunch Deluxe, Lunch Weekly, and Daily Deals, which provides news-breaking information on deals, hirings and firing, mergers and acquisitions, and other headline book news.

• Using PM’s immense industry database, I can search recent sales to see which agents are handling the kinds of books I want to publish.

For example, I can search by genre –  self-help, mysteries, cookbooks, memoirs, debut fiction, YA, etc. – and find all the recent deals.  Sometimes I can also learn approximately what they sold for, described in a scale of euphemisms starting with a nice deal (less than $49k), all the way up to a major deal (more than $500k).

• I can find authors with projects I’d like to see by searching Rights News and Offerings (available free) — a reverse chronology of recent books for sale by both agents and individual authors who post them daily.

• I’m able to check out the competition and learn which of my esteemed colleagues has acquired books in categories we share. For me, this is a valuable way to see if our own advance offers are above or below the level the competition is paying.

• Checking under my own name, I see that I have some housekeeping to do to bring my information up to date, as many of my acquisitions are missing — yikes, 15 of the 19 I signed up in the last 12 months — and haven’t made it into the PM database.

• I can tinker with my Members Page (searchable for free) where anyone can see my editorial bio, current genres and specialties, best-known projects, recent purchases, and a photo. The shameless story of my life where everyone can see how old I am, even though I did start at the age of eleven, ahem.

So if you’re a writer who has a book that hasn’t been sold yet or for one reason or other is looking for a better publishing situation, by all means subscribe to Publishers Marketplace.

Features of special interest to writers

• Contacts Search (subscribers only)

Obtain email, phone and address information for anyone in Publishers Marketplace’s extensive database.  Search by name, company or branch of publishing from more than 2,000 listings for agents, 2,500 for editors and hundreds of other specialists.

• Top Dealmakers (subscribers only)

Writers can use this feature to research agents and editors by genre.  For example, you can learn the names of the literary agents who sold the most debut fiction in the past 12 months, including the titles, the editors who bought them and how much they paid. This is important information since a good track record is the best barometer for future success.

• Who Represents Search (subscribers only)

This useful feature searches the database of authors and agents, permitting a user to search by author or title to track down the name of the author’s literary agent.  This provides another way to find agents who handle books similar to yours or represent other writers you admire.

• Search Member Pages (free)

This feature allows browsing and searching of member-hosted web pages, including agents, editors, consultants, book designers and  publicists. Individual bloggers and writers who are members and have established their own web pages are also listed here.

Find out how to reach acquiring editors who have bought books like yours or are looking in your general genre or category. I generally advise writers to get an agent first, but some authors I know prefer to go directly to the publisher’s editor and take their chances. I for one do read unsolicited proposals and manuscripts if there’s something about them that grabs my attention, but many companies won’t even consider stuff in the slush pile.

•Rights News and Offerings (free)

Post your own proposals. Yes, you can describe your book in an abbreviated pitch that if well done can capture the attention of agents and editors.

•Top Reviewers (subscribers only)

Click on a reviewer’s name to browse his or her reviews, sorted by tone (positive, neutral/mixed, or negative) with links to the actual reviews.  Includes reviewers from major newspapers who have at least 25 reviews in the database.

• Publishers Lunch Automat (subscribers only)

Publishing industry news, commentary, financial updates, blog posts and more live from about 200 sources, including trade people (yours truly appears there), literary agents, bloggers, newspapers and booksellers.  A rolling news feed draws on the major headlines.

•Publishers Lunch Deluxe (subscribers only)

If you want to keep up with every bit of news and gossip, this email summary is considered the industry’s “daily essential read, now shared with nearly 40,000 publishing people every day.”

This is where you can learn about new techniques and services that publishers and other authors are using to help authors sell their own books in the brave new world of internet marketing and social networking. All the old assumptions are off, we all know now, and we’re all experimenting with new ideas and ways of selling directly to the reader.

The times when authors could hide in the attic are long gone. Ignore this information at your peril, and make the worthwhile investment of time and money.

More than 600 writers have built substantial member web pages at Publishers Marketplace.  We’d love to hear from you if you have information to share, for example if you’ve found any features at PM particularly valuable.  And if there are any questions, please post them here in comments.

Q:  I’ve heard that New York publishers will only accept books written from a third-person limited POV and no head hopping allowed.

Does this mean I have to rewrite my manuscript to conform to these rules?

A:  No! Stop. Don’t succumb to this kind of advice.

These rumors can start as the result of an editor or agent writing a rejection letter saying a particular book might be better if the author changed the POV (point of view.)

The news starts traveling and takes on steam.  But that’s only one editor’s opinion and it could be wrong.

The great POV debate

The truth is that there are no such monolithic rules.

As an acquiring editor, however, I’ve seen many fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction proposals and manuscripts that suffer from problems with point of view. Writers often struggle with how to tell the story and with choosing the best narrative voice to do the job.

That’s why writers groups, classes, workshops and author blogs debate heatedly the rumors and alleged rules about the “right” POV.

Before going any further, I want to define my use of these terms to avoid some of the confusion I see online.  So for the purpose of this post, here are my simplified versions of four typical points of view:

Four Typical Points of View

1. Omniscient 

The story is told through an observer with the author’s narrative voice. This narrator knows how the story unfolds, though ideally does not reveal all at once.

2. First-person

The story is told from the point of view of the “I” narrator, who only knows what she or he sees and experiences, so all feelings, questions, and internal thoughts are in the narrative voice of a unique individual.

3. Third-person limited

The entire story is told through the perspective of one character, using for example, the pronouns he or she.

4. Third-person unlimited

The story is told through the perspectives of two or more characters, with shifting points of view.

Most writers choose to write in one POV at a time, but since writing is an art and not a technical science, some highly skilled, experienced literary artists may mix and mingle more than one of the above.  For this discussion I’ve omitted the rarely used second-person point of view.

My only rule: Does the manuscript work?

As an acquiring developmental editor with more than 40 years in commercial publishing, including Simon and Schuster, Bantam, and John Wiley & Sons, I don’t subscribe to any rules or generalities about the right or wrong point of view to tell a story.

My approach is strictly empirical. I need to produce books that make a profit. So when I work with a writer, I ask myself: “Is this manuscript working? Will the reader engage and keep turning those pages?”

As the editor, my job is to help the writer develop the book with the POV that works best. Each story requires a custom point of view. When working with a writer I encourage an open-minded approach.

How an editor works with a writer

Here are some recent examples of how I’ve collaborated with authors to revise narratives with point-of-view problems. In each case, reworking the POV produced more publishable manuscripts.

Refocusing the POV

The first draft of this mystery novel was written in third-person unlimited with seven different narrative voices. Inserting my tracked changes one page at a time, I asked the author to clarify who was talking, through whose eyes we readers were figuring out the crime.

I noted that the point of view was rapidly shifting away from the forensic psychologist whom the author told me was the going to be the heroine of a series of mysteries. First the POV switched to a serial killer, then to a string of other characters: a police detective, the most recent victim, a newspaper reporter and others. As a reader, I became confused and frustrated. I couldn’t tell where I was or what was going on.

After around two hundred pages of this kind of head hopping, I requested that the author eliminate the multiple points of view entirely, and refocus on one first-person “I” narrator.  This allowed the reader to discover all the mysterious twists of underlying story from our heroine’s point of view, avoiding any premature revelations or digressive information dumps.

This new focus also helped build more empathy and identification with the protagonist, whom we needed to identify with and admire enough to read about for not just this but other stories in the future.

I call this the Cutting the Gordian Knot school of developmental editing: one sweeping change that unravels the confusion.

Excising a distracting omniscient voice

The author had been working for months on an intense coming-of-age memoir, but hadn’t figured out how to explain what was really behind the apparently insensitive and abusive neglect she experienced as a child yearning for a dead mother and absent father.

The draft she sent me tried to insert an omniscient narrative voice every few pages to explain why her heartbroken father was in denial and avoidance. I suggested she delete that omniscient POV entirely and instead stick with a single “I” narrator perspective.

This permitted the reader to understand how she grew up gradually and discovered the truth about her family’s whole story, meeting elders, cousins, friends and mentors who eventually filled in the details of her earlier life in a manner that helped her to develop as a whole, mature, independent and self-reliant young woman who had a family and children of her own.

Creating a narrative voice to fit the story

Reversing direction, I worked with an author to develop a historical biography that was originally told from the POV of an 8-year-old boy.

The problem was that the writer had a literary style of a 40-year-old man. Mark Twain could get away with this in Huckleberry Finn, but it’s a difficult task for most of us mortals (and critics have pointed out how Twain’s adult voice was evident throughout that classic.)

So we revised the book with a new omniscient narrator to tell the whole story of moving west in a broad social and political context.

 POV Tips and Tricks

1. Know your characters

Who is the protagonist and where is he or she coming from? Is this someone you want to portray as naïve who learns the hard way, or more remote, above it all, controlling the action? Would it be more effective to write from within or observe from the outside?

2. Don’t give away the farm

Whether you choose first person or omniscient, be sure to sustain a sense of gradually unfolding discovery. One of the great pleasures of reading is delving into a parallel universe that accompanies us as we go about our day, just waiting for us to jump back in.

We want to the story to unfold step by step. We want to discover what’s going on for ourselves, through the characters and narration, and not be told or flooded with information, or tricked into believing something that turns out not to be true.

3. Break some rules

Slick genre plots sometimes include a last reversal which turns everything on its head. It may turn out the first person narrator has been lying to us all along, or the omniscient narrator was clueless to the reality of the story until the last minute.

A big surprise on page 123 can wake up your reader and re-engage flagging interest. But take this kind of flyer at your peril, after you’ve become a more confident and accomplished writer and have the skill to pull it off.

Enough said for now. We welcome comments, questions, and sage advice.

An author friend of mine couldn’t figure out why he was having so much trouble selling his new book.  He had a respectable list of published books to his name, a regular schedule of speeches and workshops, and a solid platform in print and broadcast media.

So on a hunch, I looked him up on Nielsen BookScan, an industry service for publishers that reports actual book sales by ISBN number at retailers across the country.

There was the answer in black and white. The sales figures for his last book were dismal.

He was shocked at the news, certain that the numbers were wrong.  In fact, he was only dimly aware of BookScan and didn’t really understand what it was or how it worked.

Big mistake.

BookScan numbers are like an author’s credit rating

All book publishers (and some savvy authors) subscribe to Nielsen BookScan.  The very first thing an acquisitions editor does is check a published author’s Nielsen numbers, when considering a new submission.

Nielsen BookScan tells the naked truth about how many copies a book sells. It produces weekly tallies via electronic links to thousands of cash registers across the country. This is no guess or anecdotal report. It’s all ka-ching, straight from the till.

The numbers may as well be carved in stone.

“We only report what we receive from cash registers, and we never change our numbers,” said Jim King, the go-to guy for book publishers at Nielsen in a phone interview at the company’s White Plains, NY offices.

“The book may have sold additional copies, but not through our reporting outlets. An author’s book might have sold at non-reporting retailers like Wal-Mart or book clubs, but we have no way of including that.  So there’s no way anyone can request us to change an ISBN report.”

Recent BookScan results may determine whether a book is acquired

The most recent Nielsen numbers will therefore have a powerful impact on whether or not a book is acquired in the first place, since publishers take these numbers as indications of the new book’s potential success.

Poor recent numbers may put a damper on a publisher’s enthusiasm to sign up your major new opus. I’ve known authors with a long track record of success slip into a marginal status with a single recent sales failure.

Brutal but true.

How Nielsen numbers impact bookseller orders

Even if a book is ultimately appealing, recent low Nielsen numbers will impact the all-important realistic projections for the new book’s potential sales.

This can affect not only the advance, since most publishers predicate the amount paid on signing on projected first year sales — but also the first printing.  That’s because sales reps know that the major accounts will also consult Nielsen as well as their own internal records to determine how many they’ll order of the new title.

In some case, they may actually pass. That’s right, book buyers may skip ordering any copies at all if the author’s last book had unimpressive performance numbers.

How Nielsen collects sales data

Nielsen says that they cover about 75 percent of retail book sales in the United States.  In a typical week, they track sales of more than 300,000 titles by their ISBN numbers, at nearly 13,000 retail accounts in the United States, including Amazon, the national chain stores like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million and 450 independent bookstores (extrapolated from 1700 total.)

Other sales outlets include some big box discounters like Costco, Target and K-Mart.  Recent additions are some “non-traditional” book retailers like Starbucks and Toys “R” Us.

Keep in mind that Nielsen’s 75 percent of total is an average, depending on where each individual and unique book actually sells. In cases where a book sells primarily in normal retail outlets, the report may be closer to 100 percent accurate.

All this means that we have weekly access to honest sales figures that can’t be altered by agents, publishers, or authors themselves.

A loophole – not all sales are recorded

But as Jim King told me, there’s a caveat.  BookScan’s numbers don’t include sales from every source.  Wal-Mart sales, for example, are not included.  Non-traditional retailers like gift stores and other specialty shops that include books in their product mix aren’t usually hooked up to Nielsen.

Nielsen may also capture fewer sales when significant quantities of your book are sold primarily through the mail, or book clubs, or when the author sells the book directly at non-book store events like trainings and workshops.

Keep in mind also that BookScan didn’t go live until January of 2001, and didn’t begin accumulating data until that time.  So Nielsen won’t have data on books published before then.

This loophole gives authors an opportunity to provide a more accurate picture of their total sales record — if they have the documentation to prove it.

My advice to authors

If you have good BookScan numbers that pop up all bright and sparkly, no problem. If, on the other hand, your most recent book fell a bit on its face, you’ll need to anticipate and come up with a defensive strategy.

1. Be prepared: Know your numbers

Writers can subscribe to Nielsen themselves, for a price: $5,000 a year for total 24/7 access to all titles in the system. A better deal for just finding out your own book’s sales history is $85 for a single ISBN number.

You can contact Nielsen directly to order an annual or one-time report at this address: Brianna.Buckley@nielsen.com.  That way you won’t be blindsided by any surprising numbers.

You can also get this information through your editor and publisher.

2. Check your past royalty statements

If you don’t have copies of your statements, ask your agent or publisher. The statements should provide an accurate analysis of your recent sales and where they came from.  That information can be significant if you have substantial sales from non-traditional outlets or bulk orders bought for non-bookstore channels like corporate premiums, schools, or your own public events.

One catch, however, is that royalty statements usually include a “reserve for returns”, which means that you don’t get full credit for all copies shipped until enough time passes for all potential returns to come back to the warehouse.

Some publishers, especially when accounting for mass market paperback sales, take as much as a 50 percent reserve and wait one or two years before accounting fully. Or, as is frequently the case, maybe you didn’t sell as many copies as everyone told you.  Your advance may have never earned out, and therefore the accounting may have been cursory or incomplete.

3. Have a dynamite proposal or manuscript

One of the best ways you can overcome recent negative numbers, of course, is to have a dynamite proposal or with fiction, an irresistible completed manuscript.

Remember, no matter what you hear:  Publishers are still in the acquisition business, turning out a new list every season, looking eagerly for the next big thing, the terrific book, the first novel with promise of many others to come, the fabulous original or compelling non-fiction proposal.

One author’s solution

In my friend’s case, mentioned above, he was able to explain how many books were sold at his workshops and trainings and found some old royalty statements going back before Nielsen started counting.

The total combined numbers added up to a better risk, and he was ultimately able to find a publisher who liked what he wanted to do and was willing to take a chance.

Your BookScan experience?

If you’ve had a Nielsen Bookscan experience, please share — we’d be interested to hear about it.

We all know it’s cheaper to buy books online or at the big box national discount chains.  I could have saved $12.10 the other day if I had gone on Amazon or over to Barnes & Noble.

But if we’re lucky enough to have a local bookstore nearby we ought to do what we can to help keep it alive, right? So I was happy to spend those extra bucks at Mrs. Dalloway’s Books, a special spot in my corner of town.

A homegrown bookshop inspired by Virginia Woolf

My little neighborhood in Berkeley is called the Elmwood.  There are only about three blocks of shops, cafes and restaurants, and one old deco movie theater.

The Elmwood doesn’t quite fit the image of Republic of Berkeley radical politics.

It’s quiet and slow here — practically a throwback to the fifties — though Ozzie’s funky soda fountain has now given way to a new ice cream boutique, called “Ici” – get it?  A little precious, but very popular, judging from the long lines down the block, even when it’s raining.

We know we’re lucky

At a time when independent book stores are shutting down across the country, here in the Elmwood we’re fortunate to have Mrs. Dalloway’s, a homegrown bookshop inspired by the first line of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 literary novel: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.”

There’s a resident mannequin in the window representing Mrs. Dalloway, usually dressed in witty outfits that evoke both Virginia Woolf and a spirit of the good green world of flowers and gardening.

It’s not a huge place, but open and airy, with tables of recommended books and walls lined with many more titles spine-out.  There’s a conservatory-like feel with a strong ‘green’ motif: eco-friendly seagrass and slate floor coverings, rattan chairs and the fixtures and wood moldings are painted in earthy natural colors.

Catering to the customer

The store has a distinct attitude and approach, and caters to its customers. In addition to literary fiction, current affairs, mysteries, biography, memoir, travel literature, poetry, and children’s books, there’s a large selection of gardening books chosen for their utility in Berkeley’s Mediterranean climate, plus shelves of books devoted to architecture and design.

Beyond books, Mrs. Dalloway’s sells things related thematically to the store’s concept: potted plants, unusual copper, ceramic, and glass vases to hold cut flowers; original art for hanging, including watercolors, photography and weavings, and also English, French, and German botanical and insect prints.

And Mrs. Dalloway’s offers free same-day delivery in the neighborhood.  Take that, Amazon!

Another indie bookstore perk: local author readings

The owners, two longtime friends, program a regular series of events that focus on mainly local authors of literary fiction, poetry, and topics of special interest to the neighborhood.  Michael Pollan, best-selling author of The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and In Defense of Food, has spoken and read there, as have Nafisa Haji, from her novel The Writing on My Forehead, and Eve Pell from her memoir We Used to Own the Bronx: Memoirs of a Former Debutante.

Mrs. Dalloway’s has the occasional sale but doesn’t discount books on a regular basis. I suspect that it’s difficult for them to compete with the big retailers like Barnes & Noble or the giant store-killing colossus of Amazon.

So sure, I could have saved $12 the other day by shopping at Amazon in these tough financial times. But I think it’s worth it to support my neighborhood bookstore, with all its perky charm and passionate devotion to providing what its local customers want.

Do you still have a neighborhood bookstore?

OK. That’s Mrs. Dalloway’s, my neighborhood bookstore. What’s yours? Hope you still have one. Please leave comments and let’s share what we hope will be a continuing tradition of the unique and irreplaceable independent bookstore.

And if you’ve got a photo of your bookstore, send it to alan@alanrinzler.com and we’ll post it along with mine of Mrs. Dalloway’s.  Please write “bookstore photo” in the subject line, and in the email include the name of the store and town.

Your favorite bookstores

Here we go, the first one in from the coastal town of Cannon Beach, Oregon.  The quintessential little independent bookstore, isn’t it?  Makes you want to pull up a chair.  We’d love to see more favorite bookshops, from all corners of the map, so send them over!

Welcome to round two in our series of book proposal critiques. It’s an audiocast, so to get started, just click the play button below.

Three submissions: A novel, a biography and an inspirational self-help book

The first proposal we’ll be looking at today is for an adventure novel with an environmental mission.  The story is set in Africa, and confronts the conflict of our modern lifestyle versus the preservation and sustainability of nature and wildlife.

The second is a biography that promises to reveal the truth about the mysterious death and apparent rebirth of a now-forgotten American  “messiah,” who practiced faith-healing in the late 1800s.

And the third is an inspiring self-help book composed of a collection of stories about women and men who have received a diagnosis of terminal cancer but against all odds lived to tell the tale.

If you missed the first round

If you missed the first round, go here to listen to an evaluation of two proposals, one for a novel and the other for a children’s book series.

For those who are here for the first time, we wanted to provide a snapshot of how editors, agents, and publishers go through and consider proposals:  A behind-the-scenes view of the quick and candid evaluation your proposal will receive when you send it to a literary agent or commercial book publisher.

You’ll hear me discussing what works and what doesn’t in these submissions, and some suggestions for how they could be improved.  The issues I address are fairly typical, so I hope that many readers will find something to take away from the discussion, and that this gives a sense of how I work with writers to help develop their proposals and manuscripts.  For those who would prefer to work with me one-on-one, please check out my Services page.

Is this helpful?

Keep sending in your proposals to alan@alanrinzler.com for the next round.  Check here for instructions.

In the meantime, let us know through your comments if you have suggestions and ideas for what you’d like to see in this feature.

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Agents, editors, and publishers receive queries every day from professors and other academics who say they have a great idea for a trade book based on their research, thesis, journal article or latest discoveries from the lab or clinic.

Sharp editors also scour the daily press for the latest breaking news about scientific discoveries and newly reported studies on topics dear to the heart of the general reader.

Popular translations of recent discoveries

Biology, economics, environmental sciences, genetics, psychology, theology, and neuroscience  are all popular in the media these days, as we learn more and more about human nature, why we behave this way, and what we can or cannot do about it – at least for now.

The New York Times best seller, How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer, for example, is an effective and popular translation of recent discoveries in neuroscience that show how we make up our minds about everything from getting married to making a financial investment. The book’s fascinating scientific revelations are based on new fMRI scans of our brains in action.

Dynamite stuff.

I’ve been involved in many successful arrangements with academics that have worked out for everyone and produced good books that sold well. For example, the best selling Fighting For Your Marriage by Howard Markman, Scott Stanley, and Susan Blomberg, who are all PhD academics with extensive clinical experience. And right now I’m working with a Harvard professor on an exciting upcoming book based upon recent neuroscience research on how to be more productive and creative in our work and daily lives.

Converting academic writing to popular prose

Aside from the usual factors in a decision to represent or publish the work – originality, author platform, competition – there’s usually a special issue with the style of the academic writing itself.

As undergraduates and as grad students, during years of hard work on their PhD theses, then submitting research and scholarship in articles for peer review journals, and ultimately as distinguished professors and scholars, academics are expected to produce a kind of formulaic dry and didactic style of writing that is difficult to understand for the lay reader.

It’s often tough for academics, moreover, to shake off this firmly ingrained style. Consequently, even smart and well-educated agents and editors may be left scratching their heads in confusion. What does this mean? They have perhaps a glimmer of understanding from a few words here and there but these academic proposals are often barely comprehensible and ultimately unreadable.

Nevertheless, because the underlying ideas may be fascinating, important and useful, such projects are often taken on and repackaged with the following basic strategies.

How academic authors produce popular trade books

Three strategies

1.  Editorial Development

If the author has the capacity to revise the proposal and ultimately write the manuscript with major direction from a developmental editor or other dedicated professional, then it may be possible to produce a book that a general reader can understand and learn from.

The editor will work with the author line by line, page by page, explaining, clarifying, reorganizing, polishing, adding important narrative story elements like dramatic case histories and anecdotal examples with dialogue, visual description and characterization.

2.  Co-authorship

Sometimes the solution is to bring in a second writer, identified clearly on the book’s cover or titles page as “with” or “and” their name. In this case, the professorial author may or may not produce a first draft but with it or without, the co-author writes the book.

The original academic author has the ultimate authority and approval over the manuscript, but the writer does all the heavy lifting, including outlining, drafting, interviewing, further researching, and taking responsibility for keeping the production on schedule, under the guidance and supervision of the publisher.

3.  Ghostwriters 

When the original author doesn’t want to advertise that they had help writing the book, we turn to a ghostwriter.

Ghosts don’t care so much if they get credit so long as they are properly compensated. You may find their names buried in the book’s acknowledgements with some vague kind of thanks, but not always.

Co-authors and ghostwriters are highly regarded and greatly sought after. Agents and editors try to assemble a stable of cherished professionals, some of whom specialize in one field or another, but others who are experienced in a variety of types and genres based on their skill and alacrity.

These writers are usually well paid and don’t work on speculation but rather with a negotiable percentage of the author’s advance and subsequent royalties.

This kind of collaboration begins with a written agreement regarding duties and compensation and the possibility of disagreement and dissolution.

My advice: Get help early on

It’s always better to send an agent or editor a proposal that is already in a form that appeals to the general reader. This may mean engaging a developmental editor or co-author. You can find them through recommendations and personal references from your colleagues, meet them at readings and writers conferences, or search them online.

If you go forward on your own, keep in mind that what may seem clear to you may nevertheless need a lot more explanation, example, and narrative polish.

Agents and publishers appreciate it when you acknowledge your willingness to revise and collaborate up front. Then be prepared to compromise and modify your academic way of communicating so your ideas can have a broader readership.

All these techniques – editorial development, co-authorship or working with a ghostwriter — have been utilized with great success, producing books that appear regularly on best-seller lists.

Click on the audio play tab below to listen to the first in our series for writers called My Proposal Critiques.  For those who are visiting here for the first time, we recently put out a call for book proposal submissions with an offer to critique them here on The Book Deal.

Behind-the-scenes snapshot

We wanted to provide a snapshot of how editors, agents, and publishers go through and consider proposals:  A behind-the-scenes view of the quick and candid evaluation your proposal will receive when you send it to a literary agent or commercial book publisher.

You’ll hear me discussing what works and what doesn’t in these submissions, and some suggestions for how they could be improved.  The issues I address are fairly typical, so I hope that many readers will find something to take away from the discussion, and that this gives a sense of how I work with writers to help develop their proposals and manuscripts.  For those who would prefer to work with me one-on-one, please check out my Services page.

Two submissions: cosmic ambitions and scientific fairy tales

The first submission up for critique today is a proposal for an action novel about spirituality, with a large canvas and cosmic ambitions. The second is for a series of illustrated books based upon classic fairy tales to teach children about science.

Keep sending in your proposals to alan@alanrinzler.com.  We’ll be selecting another two for the next round.  In the meantime, let us know through your comments if you have suggestions and ideas for what you’d like to see in this feature.

You might also be interested in checking out the second round of critiques of proposals for an adventure novel, a biography and an inspirational self-help book.

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Every writer needs to know how to write a good book proposal that will stand out and capture the attention of potential agents and publishers.

Consequently, when I appear at writers conferences and seminars, book proposals are often on the agenda.  I frequently offer my critiques of selected book proposals submitted in advance — in remarks I make to the whole group as a way to provide information that’s relevant to all writers.

This has proved to be a popular and helpful exercise, so we thought we’d try something similar here on The Book Deal.

We’re calling this new feature My Proposal Critiques, and it will appear periodically, depending on demand.

You’re invited to submit a proposal

You’re all invited to send in an abbreviated 15-page proposal, fiction or non-fiction, which should include the following elements:

1.  “Hook” or overview (one page)
2.  Chapter outline (three pages)
3.  Platform (one page)
4.  Writing sample consisting of the first ten pages of the book

Please take a look at an earlier post, The book proposal: Here’s what publishers want for more detail on each of these elements.  Again, please keep in mind that for the purpose of this evaluation, you’ll be submitting an abbreviated version — no more than 15 pages total.

When you’re ready, send the 15 pages as a single Word document email attachment to me at: alan@alanrinzler.com  In the email’s subject line please write: My Proposal Critique.

Grab me by the throat

For each segment of My Proposal Critiques, I’ll select a couple of representative proposals that I think will be most instructive to discuss, in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. I’ll draw certain generalities about what gets an agent’s or publisher’s attention when they receive a proposal, and will include my own recommendations for improvement.

For example, when I read the overview, do the first sentences grab me by the throat? Does it strike me as compelling, and original? Is there passion and confidence? Am I persuaded that the author is the best person to write this book?  Why? Or, why not?

Then I’ll take a look at the chapter outline and how it describes each scene in each chapter. Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, I’ll be looking for the narrative arc, with a beginning, middle and end.

I’ll offer my take on how I think agents or editors might respond to the author’s platform and ability to market the book online, direct to readers.

And what about the writing sample itself? Does it live up to the expectations and promises of the proposal? If not, what’s wrong with it and how can it be improved?

On some occasions I may include a critique of a proposal for a book I’ve actually signed up.  We’ll take a look at what worked so well and what we can learn from it.

Listen in

My Proposal Critiques will appear here in the form of an audiocast, a new format for us. We hope it all works smoothly.

I’ll be basing my remarks on whatever you send, so if you feel the need to be anonymous about any details, for example the title or other identifying features, please make any changes before you submit. Once it reaches me, I’ll assume that you’ve given me permission to comment freely in my critique. I’ll be presenting each proposal without the author’s name, in any case, though I anticipate including details from the platform section.

The proposals will not be reprinted here, and I’ll be recording only my comments and evaluation of each selected proposal under review.

Will yours be selected?

I’ll be looking at everything that comes in, though I regret that time limitations will prevent me from responding to all submissions.  So, not every proposal can be critiqued.  But all selected for evaluation here on the blog will have relevance for how to improve your own proposal.

We’ll be looking for your feedback in comments to shape this feature according to what you’d find most useful.  So let us know if you want to see more of this or that.

OK, send in that proposal, and stay tuned.

To listen to round one, go to Proposal critiques: A novel and a children’s book series

For round two, go to Proposal critiques: An adventure novel, a biography and a self-help book

Q :   I know that agents and editors look for writers who have strong voices, but I’m having trouble finding mine.  Any advice?

A :   It’s true. Editors, agents, publishers and, above all, readers do respond most to a writer with a great voice.

Voice is what gives writing energy, authenticity, it animates the narrator and characters  with a unique personality. It grabs your attention and keeps you turning the page.

I remember the first time I read Claude Brown’s Manchild in the Promised Land, and Lenore Skenazy’s Free Range Kids.  What knockouts!  Visit the links to see my notes on working with each of these writers.

Other writers I’ve worked with didn’t always start with a fully developed voice, but were able to grow and improve greatly.

All good writers have a voice. Most writers have many voices – their narrative voice and the voices of their characters.

Here are some suggestions for finding yours.

Eight tips for finding your voice

1. Start talking

Before putting any of your story on the page, tell it to yourself, then to friends and relatives, deliver it out loud, or make a recording.

2. Listen carefully

Does it sound real?  Will people understand what you’re saying?

Don’t be surprised if at first it sounds self-conscious, stiff and stuffy or halting, even incoherent. Many of us tighten up when we try to tell a story, and begin to sound rushed, sloppy, bumbling, or dry, dull, and academic.

If you don’t like what you hear, do it again, until you begin to sound authentic.

3. Be yourself

Few of us are English lords or Russian poets, as much as we may admire them. Your narrative voice must be authentic and comfortable for you, whether you’re from midwest, the American south, or New York City.

Beyond the regional, each of us has our own idiosyncratic accent, cadence, choice of words, and other mannerisms. It’s fascinating to realize how much we sound like our parents, siblings, even peer group models we admire and unconsciously imitate. Listen and study these aspects of your own speech and see which can work and which should be discarded.

4. Use the vernacular

It’s the way people talk.  Use contractions. Similarly don’t be afraid to employ the judicious use of slang or discreet profanity.

5. Distinguish between your narrative voice and your characterizations

If you’re using a first person “I” narrative or an omniscient narrator with individual characters talking, it’s crucial to delineate the various voices in your story.

Many first drafts have people who all talk the same (like you!)  So start by talking our loud the way you imagine your characters to sound. Listen carefully. Be sure each has a separate, real personality and style, then start writing and do it all over again.

6. Picture your reader

Imagine one or two people leaning toward you while sitting in comfortable chairs or across the table. Hear yourself speaking to them or reading a scene on the page before you.

7. Find voice models

Not in other books but from real life. Listen to the way people around you are speaking and pick out specific characteristics that will work for your voice or one of your character’s.

8. Listen to your favorite authors

Each of us has writers we admire for their unique distinctive voices.  Some of mine include Jane Austen, George Elliot, Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Fitzgerald, Phillip Roth, Timothy O’Brien, Junot Diaz.

In each case as you read, notice that you can hear a powerful and distinct voice in the silence of your mind.

New scanning technology, incidentally, shows how reading lights up different parts of our brain, including the visual, olfactory, and aural centers of neurological response. It’s mysterious, but real.

We do listen as we read, simultaneously, and every writer has his or her own special way of – literally — turning us on.

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Please share any techniques you’ve found to develop or improve your voice.  And feel free to post questions you may have about this very important aspect of writing.

Every day more than 5,000 writers and wannabes trek over to literary agent Nathan Bransford’s blog for a dose of some of the smartest, most honest, entertaining and generous advice on the book business I’ve seen online.

Leading the charge

Bransford, 28, an agent since 2005 with the venerable Curtis Brown Ltd with offices in San Francisco and New York, takes blogging seriously, and is leading the charge among the handful of agents out there actively connecting this way with writers on the web.

Bransford’s avid followers are hungry for information and encouragement about getting published.  He says that up to 7,000 visitors stop by his blog every day, with many commenting on his daily posts about subjects ranging from writing query letters to dealing with rejection.

So what can we learn about the future of the book business from a young tech-savvy literary agent?  I spoke with Nathan over lunch last week at Max’s Deli in downtown San Francisco.

Q & A with Nathan Bransford

It’s really exceptional for an agent to maintain a blog like yours. Why do you do it?

I use the blog to give readers an opportunity to get to know me, to see what I’m like, and hopefully they’d conclude that they’d want to work with me.

It’s also frustrating as an agent to have to pass on literally thousands and thousands of projects without an opportunity to provide any feedback, and I saw it as an opportunity to give back and help people make their way in what can be a very opaque business.

Hopefully I’ve been able to help some people along the way.

What do you learn from the readers’ comments you get every day?

I learn so much. I get a pulse of what readers are feeling about books, about their book-buying habits, about their likes and dislikes in potential agents… everything.

Just a couple of weeks ago one of my readers, Steve Fuller, suggested that I could really curb some frustration if I’d just let people send me some sample pages when they query so they wouldn’t feel like they were living and dying solely by their query.

I adjusted my submission procedures accordingly and it’s been a great change – I feel much more comfortable about my decisions now because I can double-check the sample pages, and hopefully everyone now feels like they’re getting a fair shot.

Has your blog helped you get some good writers to represent?

Absolutely. Just about all of my new clients come through the blog.

What do you look for when considering whether or not to take on a new writer?

I’m looking for a relationship for the long haul. I try only to work with people who are talented, professional, and committed, and so far I’ve been very lucky in this regard.

What are some of the books you’ve represented that you’re most proud of and why?

I love every book I’ve worked on, but some notables have been Barry Gifford’s collection of short stories The Stars above Veracruz, which is an incredible work.

I recently handled the movie tie-in edition for a blockbuster movie that’s coming out this summer, and I’m extremely excited about The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard, which is a stunning YA debut novel that will come out in early 2010.

I’m also extremely proud of some of the books that I am representing but haven’t yet sold, but fingers crossed on those.

How’s business? How many sales have you made in the last six months?

A solid handful. I’d be lying if I said business was going like gangbusters. I suspect it isn’t going that way for nearly anyone right now, but I’m staying busy.

Recently your blog has focused on “How to remain positive in the face of negativity.” How are you leaning these days – positive or negative?

I’d say I’m cautiously hopeful. It’s definitely frustrating working in a business that increasingly will spend $5 million on the latest celebrity book but can’t find $20,000 to take a chance on a quirky debut novel.

But I think there are still many opportunities out there, and I’m hoping the emerging electronic publishing will help ease some of the barriers that have held writers back.

What do you think books will look like in five years? With the ability of writers to reach their readers directly, what will be the role of agents, editors, and publishers?

E-books are the future. The devices may change, but just about everyone I know who has an e-reader is never going back. They love them. For convenience and portability, they’re unmatched.

With electronic distribution, however, will come a huge deluge of books, whether from traditional publishers or self-published, and branding and marketing are going to become even more important.

The role of publishers especially is going to change dramatically as there will be tremendous downward pressure on prices and publishers increasingly retrench behind “known” commodities and bestsellers.

Publishers will live and die by their big bets if they aren’t cultivating any small bets that have the potential of panning out in a big way.

Are there any publishers whom you admire for their response to the big changes happening in the book business?

On the major publisher level I think it’s impossible to ignore the recent success of Hachette up and down their imprints, from children’s side all the way up through the quality books at Jon Karp’s imprint and the incredible roster of suspense novelists at Grand Central.

They know what they do, and they do it well. Sometimes it’s not brain surgery.

And on the small press side, I really admire what Benjamin LeRoy is doing at Bleak House, connecting directly with readers through blogs and podcasts, and enjoying some terrific success.

The future new voices in literature are often going to come from small presses giving them a launch, and it’s going to take people like Benjamin to connect them with readers.

What specifically will the role of agents be for the increasing numbers of writers who choose self-publishing?

Agents will be the navigators and experts in a publishing world that is growing more and more chaotic.

I think you’ll see agents snapping up self-published books that are catching on and working out distribution deals and selling sub-rights like film and translation.

One of the other reasons I started the blog was to build an audience and hopefully give my clients a boost by the publicity it affords.

Agents are increasingly going to serve as tastemakers and gatekeepers, and hopefully I’ll be able to afford my clients a “brand” and publicity platform that I’ve built through my blog and existing clients.

Have you heard about agents who are starting to work with self-published writers to package and market their books?

Absolutely. The possibilities are still somewhat limited because of the financial demands of self-publishing and the distribution barrier, so it’s not for everyone.

But there are tremendous opportunities in this arena, particularly for authors who come with a pre-existing platform and the ability to forego an up-front advance.

And if you fit this description, e-mail me, please.

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Readers, what do you think of Nathan Bransford’s concept of a literary agent’s blog providing a potential brand and publicity platform for writers?  ~Alan

Are you an author who’d rather spend time with your fictional creations than with a real significant somebody who’s waiting in the next room?

Are you in love with your characters?

An intimate relationship

As an editor, I like to see writers emotionally involved with the people in their books.  A story is always more successful when the writer inhabits and holds these alter egos close to the heart.

Fictional characters may take on a life of their own, surprising their creators with the twists and turns the story may take. But the source of the character’s identity and the ultimate guide to where they came from and where they are going remains only the author.

That’s why authors often enter into an intimate relationship, a kind of lopsided romance with their characters, no matter how virtuous or flawed they may turn out to be.  No part of writing a novel is more important than this visceral, under the skin, psychological connection.

The reality of your character’s existence

Whether the story is told as a first person narrative or omniscient third person focused on a character’s exclusive point of view, the author must live with their protagonist and become committed to the reality of their existence.

This means creating a back-story life, whether all of it is eventually used in the book or not. A place of birth, family of origin, biological parents, siblings, family and friends. Plus the teachers, mentors, childhood development, teen years and coming of age to the point where the book’s story begins.

Like any good and committed lover, the author must be honest and accepting of all the character’s weaknesses and strengths, including the less then admirable, vulnerable, as well as the heroic.

It’s important, therefore, that authors research and do their homework in creating the characters they care about the most.

Creating a back-story life

1.  Know how your character speaks. In fact speak the lines out loud to be sure the words capture an idiosyncratic style, background, accent — different from anyone else in the book.

2.  Have a portrait in your mind of how the character looks, including height, weight, skin color, hair, posture.  How they smell.  Their favorite foods.

3.  Know how they dress from coat to underwear, even if it never appears in the light of day.

4.  Inhabit the character’s deepest feelings – both admirable and not, so long as they are authentic and true to the person’s role and experience.

5.  Understand their habits and skills, including special talents, obsessions, fears and aversions, traits found far beneath what the other characters in the book may perceive or understand.

Notable alter egos

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about Nick Carroway with a far deeper self-identification than he felt with the enigmatic Gatsby.

Virginia Woolf knew exactly what Mrs. Dalloway was thinking in her most private thoughts, as she created a heroine who was not so honest to either her husband Richard or former romantic interest Peter Walsh.

A friend, the mystery writer Rosemary Harris is so fond of the sidekick character “Babe” in her Dirty Business mystery series that she wrote a short story prequel that was all about Babe and published separately.  Rosemary says she dearly loves Babe as a part of her own personality; someone who couldn’t be the main character but is essential to the writer’s enjoying and animating the story’s level of humor and balance with the more heinous deeds.

“My characters force me to adopt their hobbies”

Best-selling author Patricia Cornwell inhabits and writes from the inside of “Kay Scarpetta,” the fictional forensic pathologist who is the lead sleuth in a number of her books.

To research the Scarpetta books, Cornwell hung out in a coroner’s morgue to get acquainted with forensic corpse dissection, learned to fly a helicopter, and overcame her aversion to scuba diving so she could experience the necessary verisimilitude for a scene about a deep sea body search.

Take a look at this Cornwell book trailer, not only to hear the author describe her own intense process of bringing her characters to life, but also to watch an expertly produced work of author promotion.

Is it love?

Is that devotion? Commitment? Affection?

You bet, and more. It’s what makes writing fun and rewarding. If you achieve that level of love for at least one character in every one of your books, your readers will benefit in the end.

How about you?

How about you?  Have you fallen in love with your characters?  Anything you’d like to share?

Book publishers know that web promotion is the best way to reach readers directly, so for help they turn to experts like Fauzia Burke.

“It’s our job to find an author’s audience online,” says Burke, founder and president of FSB Associates, one of the first firms to specialize in internet book publicity and marketing.  “Our strategy involves developing the right target markets for each author and book we represent.”

Web marketing is here to stay

There’s still a place for traditional book marketing like cooperative advertising, endorsements and reviews, but publishers agree that web marketing is here to stay and has reached a level of universal acceptance.

In practice this means that sometimes publishers — but often authors themselves — have to do a lot more of their own heavy lifting.  It means starting up web sites dedicated to one or more of their titles; spending hours a day blogging, posting comments and samples of their work on other websites and blogs.

Or they can hire their own web marketers to help them plan and execute internet campaigns.

That’s when pros like Fauzia Burke enter the picture.  Regular readers here might remember the name FSB Associates from a profile we ran on “superstar” literary agent Sandy Dijkstra, who recommends the web publicity firm to her own authors.

The inside scoop on running a successful web campaign

We reached Burke by phone at her offices in New Jersey, and she agreed to give us the inside scoop on the kind of comprehensive web campaigns for which FSB Associates is known.

What are the basic elements of a web marketing campaign?

We develop websites, book trailers, podcasts, social media strategies, and extensive online publicity campaigns.

We have relationships with literally thousands of web editors and bloggers for both general interest and niche audiences. With these relationships, we pitch a book and its author to contribute reviews, “expert” features, pod and webcasts, email interviews, guest blogging, and content syndication.

We’re able to provide these websites with ready-to-use electronic content making it as simple as possible for them to update their sites. These types of features are the most effective form of marketing today. They happen faster and last longer than other types of media coverage, giving the buzz about a book not only a quick start but also longevity.

For example, we arranged for Suzanne Bates, author of Motivate Like a CEO: Communicate your Strategic Vision and Inspire People to Act! to blog for the Huffington Post on President Obama’s communication style.

And here’s an example of  a plug in legendary columnist Army Archerd’s blog at Variety for author Adam Victor’s The Elvis Encyclopedia, which linked directly to an in-depth description of the book.

Once you’ve put together a plan, what do you expect authors to do on their own and how much direct assistance do you provide?

Authors hire us because they either don’t have the expertise to promote their book online or don’t have the time to do so effectively. We believe our job is to use the author’s time and resources to the best advantage. Many of our authors don’t want to blog regularly or spend hours making friends on Facebook; others love it and look forward to it.

We look at the goals and availability of each author, and then advise them about the online tools best suited for their goals. For the publicity campaign, we handle the whole thing.

Authors are welcome to share ideas and sites with us and we’ll make sure we incorporate them into the campaign, but it is our job to find their audience online and promote their book. The best way for an author to help is to write op-ed pieces and timely articles for distribution and placement on the web.

How tech-savvy must a writer be, or do you take charge of all the technical aspects?

Authors don’t have to be tech-savvy at all, though it’s helpful for us to be able to communicate via email. We’re happy to help our clients navigate the options and priorities of web marketing. We believe strongly that we are a marketing and publicity firm and not a technology company.

What about author websites?

We design individual websites for our clients and they vary depending on each author’s goals, budget and needs. We develop these sites in-house, with our staff graphic designers and programmers. We have designed and still maintain a number of sites which you can view on our website portfolio.

We’ve designed sites for many authors, including Mary Higgins Clark, Clive Cussler, Ram Charan, Sue Grafton, and others. Recently, we created this site for Logan and Noah Miller which has some interactive features including a video of the authors.

How do you measure the success of a web campaign?

This is an excellent question, without a clear-cut answer. It is difficult to quantify any publicity effort, even among traditional channels like television and print media. However, there are a few key advantages of promoting books on the web. Online features have longevity. They last a long time and show up on every Google search.

Buying a book is a click away, and building an author platform online is a lot less expensive and much more effective than using traditional methods like traveling across the country trying to arrange your own events, print and broadcast media.

What’s your approach for an unknown writer, as opposed to someone with a track record or at least beginning platform?

It certainly helps the campaign if an author has had a track record. Nevertheless, sometimes an unknown author is especially exciting for us when can help them break out, as we did with Dr. Arthur Agatston, the author of The South Beach Diet and Kim Edwards, who wrote The Memory Keeper’s Daughter.

What do you think of video book trailers?

Just as we use articles and excerpts as content on various sites and blogs, videos can also be considered useful on sites that will accept them. The only concern would be whether it’s worth the investment. Will it sell books? Sites such as YouTube are really popular, but are so saturated that a book trailer can get lost in the crowd.

If you have a website, posting it there is a great way to connect with fans. But an author should not assume a video will automatically sell books and “go viral.”

Many authors have heard about the “virtual book tour.” What can you tell us about that?

Many people refer to a “virtual book tour” as something you do online for a week or two, moving around among websites and blogs. Each site features a little information, maybe a couple of interview questions; part of an excerpt; a raffle — and then points visitors to the next site with a suggestion to “tune in tomorrow for more.”

In my opinion, that approach of presenting partial information does a disservice to readers. It’s a tease that may not actually sell the book, because who knows if the reader will really come back tomorrow?

We take a different approach. During a two or three month campaign, we feature our authors on podcasts, and carefully place their book excerpts and articles for maximum effect. Each of these features is complete, and “makes the sale” right off the bat. They also help bolster the author’s search results on Google and build a comprehensive campaign that helps an author’s brand and platform to grow.

More authors seem to be taking charge of their own marketing. Are you seeing this too? 

We’ve definitely noticed a trend in authors hiring us directly. What’s more, because our author-clients are committed to maximizing their exposure, we’ve seen tremendous growth in the more expensive three-month campaign option we offer – up more than 400 percent in the first quarter of 2009 over the same period last year.

We find that publishers with budget restrictions tend to choose the more affordable two-month campaign option.

Some of our current author-clients include Steve Farber, author of Greater Than Yourself; Kamran Pasha, author of Mother of the Believers;  Elizabeth Flock, author of Sleepwalking in Daylight; Diana Kirschner, author of Love in 90 Days; Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap and Laura Berman Fortgang, author of The Little Book on Meaning.

What do you charge for your services?

The cost for a campaign, which lasts for at least two months, ranges from $5,500 - $12,000. We hand pick our projects to be sure we can deliver the best possible results.

At this time, 60 percent of our clients are publishers and the rest are authors. We see that changing, however, as publishers cut back on their marketing budgets and more authors invest their own money to promote their book.

Do you offer services to self-published writers?

We don’t take on a self-published author unless the book has been picked up by a commercial publisher. We need to be sure that a book is accurate and reputable, and we rely on traditional publishing’s professional editing, design and manufacturing.

But things are changing rapidly. In the coming months we plan to explore self-publishing as we know the market is growing quickly.

How’s business in general?

Business is rather good. We had a slowdown last fall as some publishers went through a budget freeze, but so far this year they have more than made up for it.

Authors and publishers know that their buyers are online, and with the shrinking print media, web publicity is the best way to reach them. It’s less expensive than advertising, book tours, and traditional publicity, and has proven to be very effective for selling books.

Authors who have spent years writing are not about to give up at publication. The weak economy is all the more reason to invest in cost-effective methods to promote their books.

Reach Fauzia Burke online at FSB Associates ____________________________________________________________________________

Alan’s Two Cents:

Right now the book business is very volatile, with big changes, shifts, new experiments every week. All the old bets are off and former approaches to marketing are giving way to more creative ventures. There are a lot of smart people in the book business out there trying to figure out how to survive in the current economy.

Please comment with your thoughts on web marketing for books, and your own experiences so far.  Does it make sense to hire a consultant, or is this something you can do on your own?

Self-confidence is the single most essential ingredient an author needs to succeed, since good writing is never that quick or easy.

To keep at it requires energy, discipline, and a sense of humor.

The most accomplished and productive writers I work with are able to sustain a level of assurance and optimism. And that’s even when they’re  feeling blocked, burned out, and unappreciated.

It’s admirable and a little amazing they’re able to do this, since there’s so much hard work and delayed gratification in writing a book.

I’ve worn two hats in my professional life – as an acquisitions and development editor and also as a licensed therapist specializing in crisis intervention. This has given me a useful perspective on what helps writers sustain their confidence during the often grueling marathon of producing a good book.

There are no universal cookie-cutter techniques writers can use to keep up their hopes and dreams. Each writer is unique, with an individual temperament, culture, and developmental process. But here are some general suggestions all writers can consider to help soldier through periods of doubt.

Stay connected

Withdrawal and isolation can be debilitating and reduce creative energy. Writers can work with other people doing research, brainstorming plot ideas, and building characters, but ultimately writing is a solitary occupation, with hours alone facing that blank screen or that big empty pad.

Consequently a conscious effort to reach out is the only way to prevent isolation and loneliness. Maintain contact with other people, loved ones, family, friends, and colleagues. You don’t have to ask for help, just engage as much as possible in regular human relationships. Look for people who can make you laugh out loud. Get out of your head, get out of the house, go and talk to another person. You don’t have to be alone. Repeat: you are not alone.

Keep writing

Even if you don’t love what you’re turning out, keep putting those words on the screen or down on paper, regardless. What may feel like a massive writer’s block may be only the need to pause, or to work out the story on an internal, unconscious level. You can always polish or delete what you’ve written, but sustaining the discipline will be encouraging and ultimately valuable. You will actually build confidence by sticking to the task at hand.

Revive your passion

Go back to the source of your motivation, your real reason for writing and what you are determined to produce. Whether it’s a novel or narrative non-fiction with a terrific story, a well-argued polemic about something important, a love letter to a lost relationship, an angry response to perceived hurt and damages, or any other desire to understand and make meaning out of your life – be honest about it and renew your devotion to this mission.

Keep yourself in good mental health

Some writers exercise, others maintain a spiritual practice like meditation or positive visualization. Others devote themselves to a righteous cause, or become passionate about domestic arts like gourmet cooking or building beautiful things with their hands. Many paint or make music to relieve their creative tensions. Some go to therapists, regularly, or on an as-needed drop in basis. Whatever it takes: do it.

Get editorial help

The best writers I know use editors. Not family and friends who love you no matter what, or other colleagues who may have a personal agenda, such as flattery or competition, but professionals with proven experience.  Writers under contract may already have an editor at the publishing house.  Other writers can engage an editor on a free-lance basis. Choosing the right editor is crucial, so track record and compatibility are a top priority.

Read

Good writers love and appreciate other good writers. It’s inspiring, not necessarily as a direct literary model, but as a process example and goal achieved. It can be done!

Expect rejection

Even the best writers have their work sent back as unacceptable, in some cases after acclaim and riches. Bad reviews, a fickle market, unpredictable changes and abandonment from their publishers — it’s a jungle out there!

Get used to it. Agents and editors don’t always behave rationally, and occasionally say things that just don’t make sense, like “This isn’t a good fit for us.” What does that mean, anyway?  Learn to distinguish constructive criticism from glib and thoughtless remarks.

And for a reality check, consider that Chicken Soup for the Soul was rejected 140 times before a publisher finally took a chance.  So take heart!

Be patient

All evidence and historical example shows us that it takes many years of rewrites and heroic perseverance to endure the creaky slow risk-aversive decision-making process of the book business. To get published, it’s essential to have realistic expectations about how long it will take. Think years, not months.

Embrace irrational exuberance and obsessive compulsions

During the course of writing a book, it’s ok to be a little over-the-top in your focus and devotion to the work. What may seem to others as a bit crazy can actually serve you well. Many writers succumb to an extreme level of behavior that really keeps up their confidence during the hard work.

Then, when it’s done, they relax, wind down, take a vacation, enjoy their time off – at least until they are compelled to start again.

___________________

What works for you? Have any suggestions to pass along?  Please post them here.

Q : I submitted my manuscript to an agent and she said the plot was confusing and needed a lot of work. I was crushed!  What should I do?

A : Telling a good story is the writer’s most important task. But constructing a great plot with so many ideas, characters and actions careening through your seething neo-cortex — and getting it all neat and organized on the page — isn’t easy. A reader can tell right away if it doesn’t work, especially that literary agent you’re hoping to impress.

Whether you’re writing a novel or a non-fiction book on 14th century agricultural techniques, you’re telling a story. It’s a narrative. The same rules apply. You need a great opening, a first, second, third act, and some kind of closure, denouement, maybe even an epiphany.  For more detail on this, take a look at an earlier post on constructing the narrative arc.

Many authors have problems plotting their stories. Here are some solutions for the most common issues:

1. First, you need an outline!

The most important first step for coherent plot building is to make a plan. Write a chapter-by-chapter outline. The finest writers I’ve worked with, literary artists on many levels, with the exception of the boy genius Tom “Tommy Rotten” Robbins, all have at least a rough private outline before they get started, so they know where they’re heading.

Don’t close your eyes and rely on the muse to whisper in your ear. That could be a mischievous imp with some very bad advice — unlike the hardworking elves in the cartoon above who obviously know their stuff.

As a discipline, start with fourteen chapters, three or four scenes per chapter. Use a personal shorthand to write out as much detail as you can, then study it carefully. Pretty soon, I’ll bet you’ll notice material that’s in the wrong place, can be compressed, or just has to be tossed.

Then move around the remaining pieces by cutting and pasting, or on index cards, or on a big erasable white storyboard like they use in the movie business. I’ve done it with writers using all of the above and it works, believe me, and it will save you a whole lot of time and trouble.

2. Start like you’re jumping on a moving train

Some writers are afflicted with a compulsion to keep clearing their throat on the page. They have a hard time getting started. They don’t know where to begin or how to nail that fabulous first sentence. So they dither around, groping in the dark, all the while putting down words about this, that, nothing, usually digressive and meandering. Nothing said. Nothing happening.

Instead, start with something real that represents the essential theme and thrust of your narrative, a crucial moment in time, including one or two major characters in the story engaged in significant or symbolic actions. Like the faux ending of a relationship (to be remedied later, or not), or a crucial point in your political argument, history, or biography that cuts to the core of your idea or characterization.  For more on this, you might want to check an earlier post on the power of the opening sentence.

To get the juices flowing, browse through your own collection of books to find a good opening. Here’s one off my shelf, Sister of My Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni:

They say in the old tales that the first night after a child is born, the Bidhata Purush comes down to earth himself to decide what its fortune is to be. That is why they bathe babies in sandalwood water and wrap them in soft red malmal, color of luck. That is why they leave sweetmeats by the cradle. Silver-leafed sandesh, dark pantuas floating in golden syrup, julipis orange as the heart of a fire, glazed with honey-sugar. If the child is especially lucky, in the morning it will all be gone.

3. Careful with the flashbacks

The flashback can be a wonderful technique in telling a complicated story.  Recent literary successes such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides have made very effective use of shifts back and forth in time.

But I see many manuscripts that rely way too much on this literary device.  Most common is the big-bang school, an explosion of climactic action as the opening scene, then flashing back to the beginning of the story to explain how the characters got to that point.  This particular kind of flashback – slamming the story into reverse from point 9.5 to point 1.0 — has become so familiar it can seem canned and formulaic.

Another popular flashback device is to start at the beginning of something important, like a birth, or first meetings, or the launch of an idea or event, then flashing back to the historic antecedents or legacy that led to this scene. This is more like a 3.5 to 1.0.

In both cases, a very common and unfortunate technique is when the writer has a flashback within a flashback. That is, the story opens with characters in a climactic embrace or other significant end-game event, then the time shifts abruptly to an earlier time.

The poor reader tries desperately to get re-oriented when suddenly there’s another flashback to an even earlier climactic moment.  So the pattern becomes 9.5 to 4.5 to 3.7 and still not back to 1.0. It’s bewildering, and ultimately annoying. Prospective agents, editors, and publishers will put that down in a hurry.

4. Let your story tell itself

A common problem is the irresistible urge to explain what’s happening in the alleged story with a huge reservoir of meaningful and significant information that ranges over paragraphs, pages, or even an entire chapter, usually at the opening, but often at other inconvenient spots in the book. The point of this information dump, the writer thinks, is to keep the reader alert regarding background, progress, prognosis. It’s a form of omniscient voiceover that has no place whatsoever anywhere in the book and should be banished, exiled, and forbidden to appear. Please!

Another aspect of this issue is the familiar mantra for writers everywhere: Show, Don’t Tell. Many clichés are true and this one of my favorites. There’s nothing more tedious than the intrusion of the omniscient narrator giving us a filtered summary of a scene instead of letting the characters speak in quoted dialogue, including sounds, smells, visual details, and all the other dramatic accessories of a real-life event.

5. Create characters we care about

Reading a book involves an altered interior universe we carry with us throughout the day.  So we the readers need to engage with your characters, especially the leading protagonist. We have to care about what happens to them, one way or another. It’s better yet if we can identify with or be inspired by their quest, their transformation from beginning to end.

In a misguided attempt to create anti-heroes or realistic villains, many writers alienate or fail to attract readers with their completely unappealing characters, people you don’t want to know or care about. Villains need to be interesting.

For example, Satan is definitely Milton’s most interesting character in Paradise Lost. He has passion, he bleeds and rages and plots against God, whom he also loves, whose approval and re-acceptance he yearns for. Yes, he may represent an ultimate evil to some, but he’s also a nuanced, very believable human representation.

So remember that your central characters need to go through changes, develop, improve maybe or at least be fully realized as three-dimensional personalities who receive their just deserts.

6. Fire that gun

“One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it,” Anton Chekhov famously wrote in 1889.  That maxim, known as Chekhov’s Gun can be applied to every character and event in your story. If you introduce a person at the beginning of your story they had better have some relevance to what happens after that.  And if you invent a dramatic incident, it needs to lead to something else and not stop dead in its tracks, never to be remembered, like some kind of coincidental disaster.

This is the kind of issue you can resolve in an outline, as recommended above. Watch out for anyone or anything that doesn’t reappear at some point in a significant way.

7. Read your story aloud

Not necessarily to other people, at first, but alone, as if you were explaining something important to a loved one or friend. See if you want to hurry past some parts. That’s a bad sign. Or if you remember something important that should be added at precisely one spot that you somehow forgot to mention.

Remember it all started sitting around the fire in some cave millions of years ago. Humans have an inexorable compulsion to tell stories, to make meaning of their lives, to select the most important moments, events, words said by others, and use it to build connections, influence, explain, or inspire. It’s in our genes.

Once you have a book contract, the editor is your best friend in the company.

It’s your editor’s job to not only help you develop a great manuscript, but to shepherd the book through the all-important stages of copy-editing, design, production, manufacturing, publicity, and sales.

You need your editor’s dedicated support

At each stage of this process, your editor makes sure everyone is paying attention to your book and doing the best possible job on the fine-tuning copy-edit, the original jacket art, compelling type design, and especially the crucial marketing of the book.

Around publication date, that make-or-break four to six week period, your editor plays an enthusiastic and aggressive role as mid-wife, advocate, nudge, and passionate champion of the book. Without your editor’s dedicated support, your book can easily slip through the cracks, get ignored, and disappear without a trace as the staff rushes on to the next list of titles.

Building a positive relationship

Authors can inspire their editors to have an enthusiastic, high-energy commitment to their book’s success by building a positive relationship based on mutual trust and respect.

Of course nobody loves your book as much as you do. It’s your baby. But to ensure that your book gets every break it deserves, here are nine tips:

1.  Trust your editor

She’s a professional wordsmith, gadfly, devil’s advocate, literary partner,  whose job it is to help you write and rewrite and produce the best possible book. She’s probably done this before. Listen to her. Treat her with respect.

2.  Count to ten

Wait before responding to your editor’s deletions and suggested changes on your first draft manuscript.  Resist calling him an “illiterate Philistine.” I’ve had that experience, and it can be quite off-putting. Stop and think. You may ultimately agree that the editing improves the book.

3. Remember that you are one of many authors

Your editor may be publishing up to 40 titles at a time, so you might not be #1 on the list of things to do today. It’s hard to accept, I know. Some authors have big but fragile egos. They often suffer through mood swings from grandiose over-confidence to self-doubting insecurity. It’s tough to be an author: taking risks with your ideas and relationships, exposing yourself to ridicule and contempt, going out on a limb psychologically or professionally.

But I’ve known authors to go over the line in their sense of entitlement, narcissism, and expectation that they are the center of everyone’s universe. In fact your editor may have other writers who are likely to sell more copies and have a bigger advance to earn out.

4. Think ahead

Ideally you want to establish a good working relationship with an editor who likes your work and is devoted to the development of your literary career. If you experience a bumpy time together, I nevertheless don’t recommend burning any bridges, since you never know what might happen down the road. I’ve kissed and made up with a few writers, but there are a few whom I’ll never edit again.

5. Play it straight

We hate it when, after we’ve declined to give you an additional 200 free books to autograph and sell on Ebay, you call the Publisher, President of the company, or Chairman of the Board to complain about what a thoughtless scrooge we are. That’s below the belt, but believe me, it’s happened.

6. Don’t hit the “send” button

Refrain from sending an editor, or any other person at the company, seven six-page emails in one day. A marketing colleague of mine was brought to tears recently by such behavior. “This author has sent these emails every day this week, like she’s the most important person in the world and I don’t have six other writers whose books have an even tighter deadline!”

7. Put down the phone

If you happen to have your editor’s personal number, refrain from calling unless it’s a true emergency.  One author, who shall remain nameless, used to phone at all hours, for example reaching me while I was out hiking on Mt. Tam on an early Sunday morning — to share her newest great ideas for marketing her book.

The same author phoned repeatedly after hearing I’d been sick, with a series of questions like “What’s the President’s name? Can you count backwards by seven?” The point of this mental status test was to see if I was intellectually up to speed, plain and simple. Yep. It happened.

8. Remember your editor’s name!

I’ve been addressed as “Adam”, or even “Ellen” (forgot the gender too), or Al (OK, I’m touchy about that, but nobody calls me Al.) It can be dehumanizing to be called repeatedly by the wrong name, especially after several corrections.

9. Remember your editor in the acknowledgments 

An editor friend of mine told me a few weeks ago “I can’t believe it. I spend four months, nights and weekends, sacrificing my quality family time, slaving over this book, making the author look good, as if he’d done this on his own, and in the acknowledgements he thanks the dog-walker and his long dead cousin, but not a word about me.”

Editors have feelings too.  You don’t need to knit me a scarf or bake brownies for my team. But some authors have done just that and surprise — worked like a charm!

Writers don’t always realize that how they behave may alienate their editor. Editors commiserate behind the scenes about the author who is high maintenance, above-average difficult, needs special hand-holding or heavy lifting. I’ve seen it get to the point where everyone agrees that they’ll never work with this author again. No kidding.

Don’t become one of those authors who got fired, without ever knowing what happened.

Does my book really need an index? And I have to pay the indexer?  Wait, isn’t that the publisher’s job?  OK, well can I just put it together myself?

I often hear questions like these from authors I work with. So I explain that an index is an indispensable tool for almost every non-fiction book.

An index enhances the ultimate value of a book

The ultimate value of your book is greatly enhanced by the ability of a good index to locate all the places throughout the work that address specific interests and concerns.

And readers absolutely expect to find one in the back of the book.

Producing a book’s index is one of those little understood, mysterious but essential parts of publishing that happen once the manuscript has been copyedited, checked over by the author, returned to production, and then made into page proofs. Indexing usually begins simultaneously or immediately after final proofing for typos or other egregious errors. At that point, an outside professional indexer steps in.

Here’s the kicker: the author pays

In most publishing contracts, the author pays for the index.  That comes as a surprise to many first-time authors, but it’s because the index is considered part of the book’s content – and the author is responsible for providing all the content of a book under contract.

It doesn’t mean the author sits down and writes a check, but rather that the cost is applied to the royalty account as an additional advance. If this advance is never earned out, as is frequently the case, the publisher absorbs the cost in the end.

Nevertheless, who pays for the index often comes up during my negotiations with the author, or more likely, with the agent.  This negotiation usually ends in a compromise which caps the author’s contribution at some reasonable figure, up to $750 - $1,000, and the publisher pays the rest.

Why we don’t let the author provide the index

“But no one knows the book better than I do,” an author may say. “Can’t I just get one of those cheap indexing programs and let it scan through the pages looking for keywords?”

Nope — there’s a big difference between an alphabetical list of keywords, which is what indexers call a concordance and a real index that organizes and cross-references the theme and message of the author’s intentions according to topics, individuals, and relationships.

To provide some real expertise on the subject, I interviewed Sylvia Coates, a professional indexer with a reputation as one of the best in the business.

Why does an author need a professional indexer?

No computer software program can provide on its own the professional skills of a good indexer.  I respect that the author knows the book best, and I always recommend that an indexer work very closely with the writer to be sure that all the topics, subtopics, and thematic relationships are accurate and arranged in the most useful way.

Indexers also know the conventions and press specifications for providing a professional looking index. An amateurish or poorly executed index can damage the credibility of an otherwise well-written book.

What’s the process of creating an index?

I always read the book very carefully. You have to start with that. And of course it helps if you know something about and understand the subject. Many indexers specialize in certain areas. For example, I would never take on an index for an engineering book. Not for me.  But an indexer can be found for any subject.

After reading the book, I determine the main headings and entries by subject, topic, subtopics and thematic relationships.  It’s also essential to choose the best terms for each of these, which come from the vocabulary of the work itself.

Do you still keep track of everything on those little index cards?

Oh heavens no. There are some excellent high-end programs like Cindex, Sky or Macrex that are very useful, much better than the kind of inexpensive keyword programs an author might purchase.

I do all the creative and intellectual work of creating and organizing the index, but the software is indispensable in alphabetizing, merging, paginating, and changing the pagination when an entry is added or revised because of a correction or addition in the text.

What do you say to the author who wants to go it alone?

Indexing requires special skills.  It’s both a craft that can be learned and an intuitive art that involves a way of understanding, conceptualizing and organizing a book.

I’ve been teaching indexing for almost ten years using an approach based in part on research comparing how children and adults conceptualize differently by Emilie Lin and Gregory Murphy. Their findings were that children conceptualize using a thematic approach, while the majority of adults have adopted a classification approach. I use these ideas to help my students adopt the proper mindset allowing them to create the thematic framework required for a successful index.

Three tips for authors

 1.  An index is essential if you are writing a non-fiction book you want to be useful and long-lasting

 2.  Don’t try to do it yourself. If you’re self-publishing your book, save the money you would spend buying indexing software, and use it to hire a professional. Most indexers charge about $3.75 per printed page, while others structure payment per entry fees, hourly fees, and flat project fees.

 3.  Respect the indexer’s art and craft and also check to make sure they haven’t missed anything. If it happens, they should welcome your participation.

Sylvia Coates is one of the many people who work behind the scenes in publishing to ensure that the books produced are polished and professional.

“I love being an indexer,” she said. “It’s allowed me to stay home with my four sons when they were little and have an interesting career, working with authors I respect, producing something that greatly enhances their work.”

Reports about the demise of book publishing are once again premature.

Traditional book acquisition is alive and well.

This despite all the free-floating anxiety and doomsday scenarios about money drying up, massive cutbacks and publishing houses closing up shop.

I know this from personal experience. I got blown out of the water by aggressive colleagues at other publishing houses who were willing to spend more – a lot more — for two recently auctioned projects.

How I just lost two big book auctions

Both proposals were submitted by Todd Shuster , a New York agent known for getting top dollar for projects that have potential – and are written by authors who aren’t necessarily brand names.

In one case we ponied up a six-figure offer for an unknown author who was writing a relationship book heralding a “new way to change the one you love.”

Great! For years marriage counselors have been telling us we can only change ourselves and must bite our lip and just accept our loved ones as they are.

Instead this book tells readers what they really want to hear: Yes, you can get more perfect partners!  And we also believed it when they said Oprah loved this author.

Closing day humiliation

On closing day, Todd listened patiently to what we could put on the table, but kindly told us never mind, he had an offer that was “at least” twice that. I couldn’t believe it. We were rebuffed, laughed out of the room, humiliated.

Dauntless, we resolved to do better next time.

A week or so later Todd held an auction for yet another new author with a terrific idea – and this time with a co-author who had a long-term reputation for pulling out New York Times best sellers.  Here was a psychological self-help book with an enticing promise: a new way to understand and escape the dark clutches of mood swings we experience throughout the year.  It had a dynamite title and a telegenic, well-connected psychiatrist author.

But once again, we lost out to another publisher who this time offered more than four times our quite handsome offer!  Jeez! What were we missing?

What happened to all the caution, prudence, and new mandatory fiscal conservatism we’d been hearing so much about?  Wasn’t the book business in financial crisis?

An irrational, emotional, unscientific profession

The reason I lost these two auctions to competitors willing to spend so much money despite the current doom and gloom is precisely why I’ve been in this business for so many years.

It’s an irrational, emotional, unscientific profession.

Those of us in the book business are both the beneficiaries and victims of an authentic passion. Editors literally fall in love with books, authors, ideas. It’s our job. I’m always prowling, scouring the print media and internet, stalking writers and creative thinkers at parties and conferences.

I still wake up every morning with acquisition anxiety.  If I don’t sign, I don’t thrive.

Houghton Mifflin’s clumsy blunder

The crisis in book publishing has been big news.  First came Houghton Mifflin’s remarkable announcement on Nov. 21st that they wouldn’t be acquiring any new books, a statement that provoked guffaws of disbelief among book publishing veterans.

“That’s like a butcher shop proclaiming it had stopped ordering fresh meat,” the New York Times wrote.

Most of us attributed this clumsy blunder to HM’s inexperienced new private equity-fund owners. There are other ways to cut spending in the book business – paper, printing, binding quantities, staff – but to stay alive you need new acquisitions.

Then came Black Wednesday

Then came Dec. 4th, now known as Black Wednesday in publishing.  Doubleday and Bantam were to be “reorganized” and folded into Random House. Broadway Books merged with Crown. Top executives were fired, with rumors of more to come.

On the same day, other big publishers weighed in with alarming news.  Simon and Schuster, Penguin, and religious publisher Thomas Nelson announced layoffs, downsizing and wage freezes.

Reality Check

So what’s going on here?  How can we reconcile big spending for new titles with massive layoffs?  Here’s my two cents.

Cutbacks & consolidation are overdue

Why should there be dozens of separate sales forces and back-office departments when far fewer can handle the same volume at less expense? Who needs 170,000 new books in 2007 and more in 2008? Some of us therefore interpret the conglomerate cutbacks as an opportunity to catch up with best practices.

Books aren’t dead, just in transition

We’re in the middle of a huge transition from print to digital publishing. It’s what the MBAs in the front offices call a “paradigm shift” (ugh.) The dinosaur book business is being dragged into the 21st century world of E-Books, the Kindle and the Sony Reader, subscription open-source periodical publication, independent self-publishing, cell-phone novels, twittering, websites, web marketing, and blogging.

The initial shock and awe has evolved to some smart experimental moves by publishers like Penguin to establish a stronger internet presence with dedicated applications for iPhone, among others, for marketing, distribution, and sales direct to reader.

Stories don’t stop, ideas keep coming

Luckily human beings are compelled to illuminate and explain their lives. Science is discovering so many new things about the brain and why people behave the way they do. Politics is a source of fascinating news, analysis, history, Bush’s end, Obama’s victory. New novelists continue to explain and inspire our society. We’re seeing more radical thinking in psychology, parenting, relationships.

People keep writing books! There’s no way to stop them and a certain small percentage are really good, important, invaluable.

Agents still sell, editors still buy

Therefore, smart and optimistic editors from all the major houses are still plunging eagerly into auctions generated by Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, Molly Glick at Foundry, Jeff Kleinman at Folio, Linda Loewenthal at David Black, and other hot agents.

Acquiring editors may occasionally panic and pay too much, goaded to unreasonable heights by the fear of losing the project, wanting to show management that they have the energy and optimism to keep that pipeline filled with potential hits.

So acquire I must. I’ll figure out how to package, digitize, twitter, and reach the reading public in one form or another.

But first I have to acquire the project, sign the deal, and have what to work with.

Attention authors: keep writing!  Because remember, always, in the beginning is The Word.

“It’s a contact sport.”

That’s how one author summed up his experience in a refreshingly frank and illuminating first-person account of what it’s really like to publish your own novel.

A minefield with roads forked in every direction

David Carnoy started out with a literary agent and high hopes for placing his novel Knife Music with a traditional publisher. But after failing to land a deal, the executive editor of CNET Reviews began to investigate the options available in self-publishing, and found “a veritable minefield with roads that forked in every direction and very few clear answers.”

In the end, Carnoy published Knife Music with Book-Surge, the Print On Demand (POD) arm of Amazon, where the novel is now #26 in the category “Medical Thrillers,” with an overall sales rank hovering around #33,000.

Carnoy learned a great deal along the way, which he’s distilled into “Self-publishing a book: 25 things you need to know” and posted in his regular column at CNET.

Hire your own book doctor

I agree with many of his opinions and observations.  For example #14: Buy as little as possible from your publishing company, where Carnoy writes, “Self-publishing outfits are in the game to make money. And since they’re probably not going to sell a lot of your books, they make money by selling you services with nice margins.”

Examples include Book-Surge, iUniverse, Xlibris and others, which all offer menus of pricy frills like book doctoring, copy-editing, and higher quality jacket designs. Other companies offer big packages of publishing services that including publicity, marketing and sales for which they charge $25,000 or more.

Instead, Carnoy recommends hiring your own book doctor, and designing your own book cover with professionals you can retain and work with directly. Good advice. In the interest of full disclosure, in Carnoy’s post, he links to this blog as well as to others, and I concur that writers have many good independent developmental editors from which to choose.

Sober advice

Carnoy gives sober advice about many details, decisions and challenges that self-publishing authors face, from setting the retail price of the book to getting it reviewed (Carnoy mentions Kirkus Discoveries, a reviewing service that charges up to $550 for a critique.)  Other issues include optimizing Amazon product pages and purchasing an ISBN number so it doesn’t remain with the self-publishing company.

The self-publishing author, Carnoy advises, must understand the difference between books that are meant for friends and family and other more ambitious work that has a larger potential audience (you hope.)  And have no illusions about quick or easy success.

A major commitment to self-promotion is necessary for success

In #18: Self-publishing is a contact sport, Carnoy acknowledges that the biggest mistake authors make is not realizing that to sell books, they have to be “relentless” self-promoters.

As I’ve said elsewhere in various of my own blog posts, self-promotion for any author requires a major commitment of time and energy to building a platform before the book is even completed.  You might be interested specifically in taking a look at “Build your author platform: 10 tips from a pro” with excellent concrete advice for writers.

I expect the authors I publish to create a website, learn to blog, build a community and social network, reach out to comment on other websites and blogs, and perhaps even seek feedback to work-in-progress by posting chapters online.

Self-published authors must do all this and more, since they don’t have the advantage of a traditional publisher’s marketing staff support.

They also need to cultivate relationships with local bookstores that will be interested in having readings if they can draw a crowd, and help them sell a significant number of books.

And don’t forget the all-important media. Self-publishing authors can contact regional radio talk and cable TV shows that are interested in a local angle. This kind of aggressive publicity, perhaps guided by a hired publicist, is responsible for the few extraordinary successes we hear about in self-publishing.

What do traditional publishers think?

I’m a great fan of self-publishing but always encourage writers to have realistic expectations, particularly when there’s no chance whatsoever that the book should be any more than a keepsake memoir for your grandchildren.

On the other hand, Lulu insiders say that around 5 percent of self-published books convert to commercial publication.  That means that after a book has reached a noticeable level of success — like 5,000-10,000 copies in retail sales, with more sales likely in the future — through the strenuous efforts of the self-promoting author, then a traditional publisher may pick up the book and republish it.

In my own experience, I recently lost an auction to McGraw-Hill for a self-published book on women’s anger that I really wanted to acquire. I’m now in the middle of signing another self-published book on the therapeutic value of memoir writing.

So this traditional publisher thinks self-publishing can be a way to do an end-run around lengthy and frustrating rejection, and create a business career-building calling card, or even, if you’re passionate and devoted and believe in your work, a successful publishing launch that reaches a level where you can get serious attention.

Nothing in the publishing process seems to provoke more conflict than designing the book jacket.

Every editor, designer, sales person and publicist in the company can have a different point of view, often causing intense turf battles, expensive start-overs, blown production schedules, and snarky rants hurled between colleagues like:

“Sure, go ahead with that pretentious Picasso rip off, but my buyer at Barnes and Noble hates the blue period and will never order a book with that jacket.”

Or: “If we don’t use that retro Boy’s Life type design I showed you, we’ll sell 20,000 copies less and kiss our year-end bonuses goodbye.”

Or: “This book will sit on the shelves if we use that cheesy drawing of the two women kick-boxing on the cliff.”

Or: “We can’t afford an original piece of art for this mid-list book that’ll only sell 5,000 copies — if we’re lucky! We have to use one of those cheap stock illustrations.”

Who’s in charge?

A jacket should truly represent the content, artistic intention, mood and style of the book. It should be beautiful and meaningful, but also have the punch, drama, and color to rivet any potential reader’s eye once they see it face-out on the shelf or table of some crowded book store.

Take a look at the covers pictured here. These are the current #1 best selling books in their respective categories on the New York Times list. What’s your opinion? Do you think any of these jackets helped the book’s success?

The lines of authority regarding directing and approving a book’s jacket tend to shift with the case-by-case politics of each situation. The numbers of participants with strident opinions in any given project, moreover, are proportionate to the size of the advance, projected sales, and budgeted net revenues.

The players

The Editor…who acquires and develops the book from scratch, maybe even inventing the book, commissioning the idea with a chosen author. Either way, the editor is the original champion and producer whose job it is to shepherd the book through the production process while maintaining the book’s integrity, and at the same time satisfying the need to sell the book. That means playing ball with the requirements and opinions of the sales, publicity, and marketing people.

The Art Director…who’s responsible for interpreting the often inarticulate and muddy-headed ideas of the editor. For example, attempted dialogue between editor and art director can regress to something like this:

Art Director: “Who’s the book for?” Editor: “Well, uh, hmmm, well there are millions of people who will just love this story as much as I do!”

Usually overworked and underpaid, a good art director can be a brilliant creative partner, but unfortunately is often handling 40 other covers at once and they’re all due next Thursday.

The Author…who probably wants complete approval over the jacket — but only a tiny percentage have the leverage to get it. Most have to settle for some kind of guaranteed “consultation,” meaning only that they get to see a nearly final proof. Nevertheless, editors want their authors to be happy and will often listen seriously to their wishes.

Hunter Thompson, for example, came in with a friend’s drawing of the leering skull we used so effectively for the original edition of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Many authors have excellent ideas for what their jacket should look like, and good taste too. So as their front-line champions, editors often struggle with their colleagues to keep the author’s best ideas in currency, despite opposition from all sides.

The Agent…who can be a powerful force in the process, especially if the literary rep is one with whom the editor may want to do a lot more business in the future. Agents may not necessarily agree with the author, in fact they often have their own idiosyncratic notions of what it the cover art should be. Editors ignore these wishes at their own peril, and often have to shuttle back and forth to caucus between superstar prima donna agents and recalcitrant sales reps.

The Sales Reps…those hard-nosed denizens of the real world, who are compelled to present 60 new titles in half an hour, and are most concerned with the idiosyncratic taste of key account category buyers, like the guy at Books-A-Million who doesn’t like Garamound or any other type over 16 points. Sales reps have a frightening amount of power since you literally can’t live without their support.

The Publicity People…whose interest may be to have the author on the front cover, if she’s famous or attractive. Or the opposite if not, and then not even on the flaps. Their clients are the national TV producers, bookers at National Public Radio, columnists for the New York Times and other media. These days they also want a jacket that will reproduce well on a screen for internet blogs and websites, where more and more books are publicized.

Five tips for what an author can do to help

With all these conflicting parties stirring the pot, the actual book jacket often suffers from the compromises of consensus. So if you’re an author trying to influence the jacket design for your book, here are five tips:

1. Try not to assume that you know what’s best for the book, even if it’s true. Cultivate good relations with everyone at the company and maintain a position of modesty, humility, and cooperation.

2. Don’t bring in your 9-year-old child’s cute little pencil drawing of her horse for the cover, even if the book is about how to ride bareback Western Style. The only exceptions to this rule are genius-level kids with their own TV show.

3. Muster empathy for the sales and publicity people who may seem to be marching to a different drummer but have mutual interests to share. Keep in mind that they have to sell your book, and without their enthusiastic efforts you’ll be severely handicapped.

4. Remember that in the end, this isn’t a science and we don’t always know what ultimately sells a book. Books with less than fabulous jacket designs have become huge sellers anyway. Take a book I published, the Scarlatti Inheritance by Robert Ludlum. I thought the cover was boring and that it didn’t say anything about the book itself. Nevertheless the historical thriller was such a hit that the design was used again for subsequent titles. See it here.

5. Once the jacket is designed and chosen, put aside any regrets and do everything you can to help sell the book, including your own strenuous on-line web marketing, blogging, twittering, and other brilliant new techniques that emerge in these rapidly changing times.

 

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The Book Design Review blog has released a compelling list of favorite covers for 2008. Take a look and see what you think.