A: The short answer is “Yes, absolutely!”

That’s the truth, despite the fear that agents and publishers will avoid a book that falls into more than one genre.

But since this question comes up so often, let’s take a close look at the importance of genre in the book business today.

A long-standing practice

“What’s your genre?” is a question every author gets, right? Authors in classes I’ve taught recently and others who have consulted me as a developmental editor have been seriously concerned about crossing forbidden boundaries that might offend the gatekeepers who stand in their way.

Categorizing a book by genre is a long-standing practice in the book business. It’s a convenient label for agents to slap on a book ahead of pitching the project to an acquisitions editor. It’s also the way bookstore clerks decide where merchandise goes in the store. And it’s how buyers browse and find books.

Categories are breaking down

The hegemony of genre categories, however, is gradually eroding. A book may well wind up on more than one shelf. Popular young adult books, for example, may also be shelved in adult fiction. And now that so many buyers research and purchase books online, they may not know or care about what genre the publisher labeled the book.

Not only that, many very successful bestselling books clearly cross the boundary from one genre to another, with terrific results.

Bestselling cross-genre books

From the New York Times bestseller lists, Stephen King’s 11/22/63 is a science-fiction political thriller that takes its hero back in time to prevent the assassination of JFK. Also on the list is Death Comes to Penderley by P.D. James, which merges a murder mystery with a sequel to Jane Austen’s literary masterpiece Pride and Prejudice. A classic example is the Fahrenheit 451, one of Ray Bradbury’s most famous and bestselling works that crosses from science fiction to a political diatribe on literary censorship.

Similarly, Judy Blume has been crossing highly literary fiction with young adult books about serious stuff from racism (Iggie’s House) to teen sex (Forever) since 1970. She paved the way for many other current cross-genre YA writers like Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, which takes place in a post-apocalyptic future with romance, violence and politics.

And of course there’s the humungous success of Harry Potter, which includes several genres, including fantasy, YA coming of age, mystery, thriller, adventure and romance. Not to mention Stephanie Meyer’s vampire romance Twilight Saga and Amanda Hocking’s My Blood Approves paranormal romance series.

So why not write a literary coming-of-age novel about a young girl who just happens to be a wood fairy? Or a mystery where the killer is found through past life regression. It’s been done and if this is where you’re headed, you can do it, too, no matter what you’ve heard.

How to cross genre boundaries successfully

Here are some suggestions that I recommend to my author clients who are intending to mix genres.

Pick the alpha element as a tag

After you’ve established a successful track record your brand will be you, your name. That’s one of the reasons Suzanne Collins, Stephen King or Amanda Hocking can combine and meander through more than one genre at a time with impunity. But when starting out, choose a label that’s easy to understand and sell. Pick the alpha element in your story — romance, mystery, paranormal — and give your book that tag to provide the marketplace with an initial perspective on where you’re coming from. The other elements in the story, whatever they may be, will remain evident and eventually create the context of your brand identity.

Build your own bandwagon

Any mixed genre story needs to come from your heart rather than from strategic calculation. Avoid the distraction of trendy fashions like Micro, the posthumous cross-genre technoscience adventure bestseller by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, where the half-inch tall grad students get carried off by sadistic beetles. Shades of Gulliver’s Travels and Fantastic Voyage.

Be consistent

Sustain the integrity of the world you’ve created, however unique and unusual it may be, without jumping into any off-the-wall devices. Don’t pile one genre on another for the sake of cliff-hanging thrills or bravura embellishment. If your romance has elements of the supernatural, don’t unnecessarily slip in a murder just for good measure. Use the style and elements of more than one genre only in service of the story and its authentic characters.

Never take no for an answer

Don’t quit if the door is slammed in your face. Try another way to get that agent’s attention, like in a blind date or pitch session at a writers conference, or through a mutual friend. Be sympathetic to the agent, publisher, or retailer’s plight. From their perspective, genre purity makes a book faster and easier to sell.  Be persistant and convince them that you’ve got a great story.  That’s your best ammunition.

Don’t worry

Genre is a convenience, a traditional device that the conventional process of commercial publication has been using awkwardly for centuries.  But it didn’t stop cross-genre authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Charles Dickens all the way up to Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones) and Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife).

We all have to live with this outdated artifact.  At least for now.

What about you?

Are you working on a book that crosses genre lines? Are you concerned about it? Have you met up with opposition from agents or editors? Has it been resolved? We welcome hearing about your experience, and I’ll watch for any questions here in comments.

Are you a writer

You’re not alone

If so, you’re not the only one. One writer put it this way recently on an online forum: “I worry that an editor will erase my voice.” Another said, “I fear I’ll end up with a book I no longer recognize as my own.”

At the same time, authors are discovering that agents and publishers now insist on a polished manuscript that’s ready for production, and won’t accept a draft that still needs work. And since most big-company acquisition editors don’t edit these days, that leaves the author without any editor at all, whether going the traditional route or self-publishing.

So it’s vital for authors to have realistic expectations about hiring and working one-on-one with their own professional book editor.

How a good editor-author relationship works

I’d like to address some of these concerns and perceptions, and what I see as the reality of the editor-author relationship from my point of view as a book editor who has worked closely with writers for many decades.  And later, if there are any questions about all this, I’ll be very happy to answer them in comments.

Perception: I’ll lose control of my own creation.

Reality: The writer is always the boss. Good editors subsume their own egos and enter the consciousness of the author. Any editor who insists on big changes that compromise your core intentions, who demands deletions, additions and new material – or else – isn’t doing a good job. A good editor can’t be a frustrated writer or have a didactic professorial approach to the work.

Perception: I’ll be intimidated, and won’t be able to resist making changes that I think are wrong.  I worry that the book will lose my voice.

Reality: Good editors are sensitive to an author’s literary style, basic story, and core motivation. They appreciate that an author’s voice is essential and precious to preserve, for both the writer’s artistic integrity and unique point of view. They know how vulnerable an author may feel when exposing their unfinished work to an outside reader.

Perception: I can’t tell if an editor is any good or not since there’s no rating system, license, or industry standard.

Reality: An editor’s track record is the best way to judge competence. Have they edited successful books you recognize or may have read? If a prospective editor can’t produce such a list of prior work, either on their own website or by request, you should probably seek elsewhere.

Perception: Agents won’t take on my book if I’ve worked with a private editor.

Reality: Most agents are happy to hear that you’ve worked with a good developmental editor. It means you’ve cared enough to make the investment in making the book as good as it can be, and have had the benefit of professional feedback. They know that virtually every successful writer, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Kathryn Stockett, has worked with an editor.  Agents do, however, worry about freelance editors who are not accomplished or have a negative impact, and rightly so.  So once again, choose carefully.

Perception: If I do get an agent or publisher, I won’t be able to produce another book as good as the first one without help.

Reality: Authors are usually pleased to establish a long-term relationship with an editor they like. Agents, publishers and ultimately readers are also happy about the results.

Perception: An editor will produce a new manuscript and I won’t be able to restore the original if that’s what I decide to do.

Reality: Editors today work with Tracked Changes in Word documents which allow an author to see what’s recommended to be deleted, added or revised and permits them to accept or reject each edit, one by one.

Perception: I’m already in a writer’s critique group and don’t need any other help.

Reality: Members of writers groups are unlikely to have the experience or objectivity you need for professional and candid feedback. Developmental editing is not usually a good job for friends or family.

Perception: I won’t be able to have a close working relationship with an editor since I haven’t found one who lives nearby.

Reality: Most developmental editing is done through email and phone calls. Skype is also a very effective way to communicate these days. Many long-standing editorial relationships – examples like Hemingway with Maxwell Perkins, Raymond Carver with Gordon Lish – weren’t based on close proximity, but on other forms of continuing communication.

Perception: Developmental editing is expensive. Is it really worth the investment?

Reality: The cost of editing varies depending on what you need and who’s doing it. The decision on your best choice and what you can afford is a personal judgment based on your own priorities. But there’s no doubt that the better your book is, the more successful you’ll be in the long run.

What about you?

Have you worked with a developmental editor?  What were your concerns?  Were you able to resolve them to your satisfaction?  Were you pleased with the outcome?  Any suggestions for fellow writers?

For more detail on how to evaluate an editor’s professional status, track record, compatibility and accessibility, take a look at this earlier post, Choosing a freelance editor: What you need to know

Writers often ask me

I’ve heard that literary agents and commercial publishers don’t want to see a book until it’s already edited and ready for production. And if I decide to self-publish, I’m out on a limb by myself. So when during the process of writing a book do I need an editor?

Three phases of writing

There are three distinct phases of the writing process when a developmental editor can make a big difference in the outcome of your book: In the planning stage, while you’re writing, and once you’re done.

Professional feedback and developmental editing are important at each of these three stages.  However, when and how this collaboration occurs can vary, depending on the individual creative process and collaborative relationships. Most successful fiction and non-fiction writers work with developmental editors, with very few exceptions. Here’s how it works:

1. Before writing the first draft

Many authors consult me as they begin their creative process, at a point when there may be only a germ of an idea, a few pages of a preliminary draft, or perhaps a rough outline. We both take careful notes and authors are welcome to record the consultation. Lately, several authors have recorded our Skype video consultations.

We discuss core questions like:

• What’s this book about? In the case of fiction, like a mystery, thriller, romance, sci-fi, or YA, could this be the first of a series? In a memoir, on which part of your life do you want to focus? In nonfiction, what’s the premise, the main take-away, the point of the book?

• Who are the main characters? Who are the essential secondary characters?

• Is this book a work of passion or a deliberate attempt to craft something for the commercial market?  Or is this book intended to enhance a business, individual career, or academic position? How should that impact the focus and organization?

• Deciding on the point of view. Should the narrative voice be an “I” first person or omniscient third person?

• Where to begin, how to incorporate the backstory? Is it essential to have some strategic flashbacks?

• How should it end?

We resolve these issues and put together a working plan, a penultimate outline that usually evolves as the work progresses, but most importantly provides a useful blueprint for launching the writing.

2. While you’re writing

Authors often want and need feedback while producing the first few chapters of their book, since these pages are frequently the hardest to write and require the most revision. It’s like clearing your throat, getting into a groove, finding the right tone, pitch, and pacing. I encourage writers to take the time to be sure they’re on the right track before going any further, since these preliminary problems don’t self-correct and shouldn’t be left unresolved.

Another big reason for consulting a developmental editor while writing the book is if the writer is getting stuck. The original impulse, or even an outline, can go off the track. You may lose interest or passion for a character or element of the plot. You may wonder if more backstory is needed and if so, how and where to bring it in. The ending may no longer make sense.

Help! Call 911! This is when rapid response and a creative partnership with an editor can be invaluable.

3. When the manuscript is finished

There are two distinct circumstances when I see a finished manuscript.

An author may send me a book that we’ve been working on together from the outset for one final read through, since it may need some additional polish to make it as good as it can be.

Or, authors submit completed manuscripts which I see for the first time, seeking assistance before sending to a literary agent or in preparation for self-publishing. If I see fundamental flaws, such as a core problem in the structure, a wrong turn in the plot, characters that require a radical makeover, or the need to change the narrative voice, I’ll usually suggest a consultation rather than a developmental edit. In such a consultation, I offer specific constructive solutions to incorporate in a new draft before the manuscript can be ready for a full edit.

The good news is that it’s never too late to make a book better.

In a full developmental edit, I go through the entire manuscript several times, offering specific page-by-page recommendations, alterations in the plot, concept, character development and visual descriptions, small and large structural shifts, fine tuning the pacing and literary style. I insert tracked changes that indicate deletions within the sentence, or entire paragraphs, sections or chapters. I suggest new language for polish and clarity. And in cases of historical fiction and non-fiction, I do my own research to become more familiar with the background and context.

When completed, I return the manuscript with its tracked changes, along with a lengthy letter that both summarizes and explains the editorial work. I include a subsequent hour consultation with the author by phone or in person to go over remaining questions and brainstorm any new options that may arise. Authors may disagree with or modify the recommendations I’ve made, which usually leads to an even more creative solution.

Finding your own editor

What happens when you first send your work to a prospective developmental editor? Keeping in mind that all editors have individual styles, here’s how I handle submissions: First I request the entire manuscript, which I read start-to-finish without charge. I evaluate the complexity and level of work required, the time it would take, and whether we’re a good fit. Only then do I provide an accurate estimate of cost.

I believe this initial assessment of the whole book, rather than reading only a chapter or two, is the best way to see how the author sustains the narrative arc — creates the premise, develops the action, resolves the problem – and brings the reader to some kind of satisfying personal experience, an emotional landing place, whether it’s inspiring, happy, tragic or just plain informative. I’m essentially previewing the experience any reader will have, and that gives me valuable information about the book’s weaknesses and strengths.

A good editor brings to the relationship both literary skills and human sensitivity. An editor watches your back and anticipates when there’s trouble ahead. But the author is the boss, in the driver’s seat. It’s not the editor’s book, so my job is always to enter the creative world of the author and help fulfill this vision.

I also advise that before investing in an editor, be sure you’re working with someone experienced with a track record of producing books that have succeeded. You should also expect the editor to be available and to complete the edit within an agreed-upon schedule. For more detail, here’s an earlier post with my advice on how to evaluate the best editor for your book.

What about you?

Have you worked with a developmental editor?  Anything you’d care to share about the process?  I’ll watch for any questions, so fire away!

“I want the pride of making a major-league team with superstars on the roster,” a writer client told me recently.

“I want a big advance and that distinctive imprint on the spine. I want to tell my family and friends that I’ve finally made it, that I’ll have that beautiful jacket, that gorgeous type design, and a whole staff of first-class editors, sales and marketing people who think I’m just great.”

It’s a goal worth pursuing for authors who have good connections or the patience to keep pursuing that key gatekeeper, the literary agent; for those who may have already self-published their book and achieved sales numbers that can make an agent or publisher sit up and take notice (10K or more); and for those who are building or already have a solid online platform.

Three top editors tell all

Acquisition editors at major publishing houses are hot to find the next big thing, especially that elusive debut author whose manuscript both inspires their personal devotion and appears to have the necessary commercial appeal. Forward looking editors also see exciting new opportunities for authors coming down the pike, books that are interactive, “books that are more than books.”

That’s some of the scoop from these three savvy, successful acquiring editors I surveyed recently, all VIPs in the field.  Read on for more:

Jennifer Enderlin, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief at St. Martin’s Press, one of the largest publishers in America, with 700 titles per year under eight imprints. Enderlin is a top dealmaker, recently signing a six-book deal for a family saga by Kieran Kramer called The House of Brady and another with New York Times bestselling author Sandra Dallas for a historical novel called The Deliverance.

Chuck Adams, Executive Editor at Algonquin Books, a literary press publishing quality fiction and nonfiction books, often by young up-and-coming authors. Adams signed Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen, a publishing phenomenon on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year with 2 million copies sold.

George Gibson, Publisher of Bloomsbury USA, which published two recent hits: The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson and My Horizontal Life by Chelsea Handler.

Do you sign up many books from “debut” authors?

Enderlin: Signing up books from debut authors is what I live for!

Adams: We publish a lot of debut authors, preferring to take promising but unproven writers and attempt to launch their careers, rather than getting into a bidding war for the next bestseller from an already established author.

Gibson: We publish quite a few debut authors, both fiction and nonfiction

Will you consider authors who originally self-publish?

Enderlin: Absolutely

Adams: Yes, one of my favorite buys in the past year was a self-published memoir by Julia Pandl called Memoir of the Sunday Brunch and prior to that I purchased a self-published novel by Stanley Gordon West, Blind Your Ponies. I think publishers are increasingly open to considering books that have proven themselves, albeit in a fairly limited market, and that’s especially true today, since self publishing has become so much easier, and more writers are taking that route without even attempting to find an agent or publisher first.

Gibson: Yes

What can a traditional publisher offer authors that they can’t get with self-publishing?

Enderlin: The entire business end of it:  everything from designing the cover, to selling it into accounts, to publicizing it, to marketing it online and through traditional methods. There are at least 50-75 people involved in the publishing of your book.  Could a self-published author pay 75 people to do what we do?  Not unless he or she was very rich!

Adams: An established publisher has relationships with the national network of bookstores that an individual can only dream of developing, plus the house’s professional publicity and marketing teams know which reviewers, which publications, which media outlets are most likely to respond to any given title, and they work to get attention for the book in a way that an individual could never duplicate.

Gibson: Editorial guidance, leverage with all major sellers, marketing experience, connections with the media.

Do you acquire most books from agents, from authors, or from your own initiative and ideas?

Enderlin: Mostly from agents

Adams: Most come from agents. In fact, in my entire career I’ve only purchased two titles directly from an author.

Gibson: The vast majority come from agents

What’s the most effective way you’ve found to market books today?

Enderlin: Early word-of-mouth campaigns to key booksellers, bloggers and reviewers. It’s a plus if an author feels comfortable connecting through social media online.

Adams: Marketing begins inside, as publishers work to create a “buzz” around a title. We do this through the machinations of our amazing publicity and online marketing staffs, and through the store-by-store, title-by-title pre-publication hand selling by the head of our marketing department, who focuses his efforts primarily—although not exclusively—on the independent booksellers. They tend to be true “book people,” and if they respond to a title, they will get behind it and help to make it a success.

Having a “platform” is increasingly important in marketing a writer’s work, so when we take on a new author, we always work to create an online presence if one does not already exist. Typically, this involves the creation of a website and establishing active social media accounts, especially Facebook, Twitter, and GoodReads.

Gibson: Good major publicity still is key, but increasingly we’re going direct to consumers online, and it’s working. We also push authors hard on self-marketing.

How has the role of a traditional publisher changed?

Enderlin: I’m not sure it has.  Retailers look to us for quality control.  If we as a publisher are standing behind a book saying, “This is good” then the seller has a better chance of believing it because it has had to pass through so many levels to get there.

Adams: In many ways, the role of the traditional publisher has not changed at all. We still look for talent, for a writer and a manuscript that we feel will connect with a large readership. We develop that manuscript, prepare it for publication in a way that hopefully will attract readers, market and sell it to the stores and other suitable outlets. We pay for all this, plus we warehouse the books and, sadly, still take the returns when a title fails to sell as hoped.

Traditional publishers are also insisting more and more that a manuscript be in a more or less “finished” form when it comes in, meaning that the author and/or agent may have to hire an outside editor to polish their work.

And, obviously, the increasing sales of eBooks is creating a whole new kind of “product.” There are whole new opportunities for books in this brave new world, for books to become more than books, certainly more than anything anyone of us in the business could have imagined only a few years ago.

Gibson: Much of the process is the same: Good books are the key. The big change seems to be in how we reach the marketplace. We used to rely on bookstores as the conduit. As their number has diminished and more business has gone online, we need to learn how to reach the consumer directly.

_______________

So there you have it, the inside track on traditional publishing today, at least according to these three smart acquiring editors. The message is clear: If your dream is a traditional book deal, you’ve got to go in through an agent, it helps if you’re a fabulous unknown, and you’d better be prepared to self-market like there’s no tomorrow.

Both Jennifer Enderlin and Chuck Adams, by the way, will be appearing in person at the upcoming San Francisco Writers Conference, February 24-26, 2012.  I’ll be there too.

What About You?

Are you going for the big enchilada, and if so, what’s your strategy?  Or are you considering alternatives?  I look forward to your comments.

The gold standard for

It shouts “Read Me! I’m certified!”

How does an author accomplish this feat? What does it take for a book to become a bestseller?  Some of the answers are right there in the list. So let’s drill down and and see what can we uncover about writing, getting published and appealing to readers.

♦ What’s the single most important thing an author can do to get on the list? Scroll down for the answer from a writer whose book has been on the coveted list for 117 weeks.

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6 lessons from the New York Times bestseller lists

1. The list is widely diverse

The New York Times now publishes 23 separate bestseller lists. The lists range from Combined Print & E-Book Fiction and Non-Fiction, to Hardcover, Advice, Political, Business,and Children’s books. They include everything from literary novels to thrillers, memoirs, romances, mysteries, sci-fi paranormal books, YA and middle-grade, self-help and how-to, religious, inspirational books, and many others.

The lesson:

Don’t worry about following any so-called trends. There’s tremendous variety and no dominant category of successful books. Put away the notion that if you’re story doesn’t have a vampire or get-rich quick scheme, it’s going to die on the vine. Trying to anticipate what category of book will be selling by the time your book is written or published is a waste of time.

2. Book length varies

In my work as a developmental editor, authors ask me frequently “How long should my book be?” or “I’ve heard no book can be over 300 pages.” My response has always been that a book should be as long as it needs to be and no longer.

What the New York Times lists reveal is a broad range of lengths in both fiction and nonfiction. Kathryn Stockett’s best selling novel The Help is a heavyweight at 544 pages, while Blind Faith by CJ Lyons is 392. On the nonfiction side, Heaven is for Real by Todd Bupo is only 192 pages, but Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is 496.

The lesson:

Don’t pad or cut to fit any arbitrary length for your book. If you have nothing else to say – stop. If there’s more essential story or information – keep going. I always do recommend, however, that a book should include nothing that will be never missed, so avoid any self-indulgent tangents or digressions.

3. E-books are the future

Earlier this year, the New York Times began running four new bestseller lists that include e-book sales, and it’s about time. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Book Industry Study Group of Bookstats show unit sales growth of e-books increased a whopping 1039.6% between 2008 and 2010, with 114 million units sold last year. This number only includes those reported by traditional publishers, not all e-books sold by self-publishing authors, so the actual numbers are even greater.

The lesson

The old days when hardcover was king are over. You can sell large quantities of your book in a virtual e-book format that’s either self-published or traditionally published. Authors can pick their own formats and channels.

4. Self-published books can compete

Here’s an astonishing fact: Three books on the top ten titles on the Combined Print and E-Book Fiction Best Seller List are self-published: #4 Blind Faith by CJ Lyons, #5 The Mill River Recluse by Darcie Chan, and #6 The Abbey by Chris Culver. Wow. The speed with which self-published books have risen in acceptance and success is something traditional publishers never anticipated.

The lower cost of e-books have made waiting for mass-market reprints of higher-priced hardcover or trade paperbacks increasingly obsolete. AAP and Book Study Group reports show that mass-market paperbacks are down 13.8% during same period.“The people who used to wait to buy the mass-market paperback because of the price aren’t going to wait anymore,” says Liate Stehlik, publisher of Morrow and Avon at HarperCollins.

The lesson:

Think about self-publishing as an honorable and attractive option to the frustration of trying to find a literary agent and traditional publisher. Self-publishing is increasing exponentially. It’s not easier. You still have to write a good book and sell it largely on your own. But it’s faster, you have more control over it, and you get a bigger share of the profits.

5. Film and TV tie-ins are changing

The #1 hardcover fiction on NY Times Combined Print & E-Book Fiction list is The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the 544-page blockbuster novel about African-American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. Originally published in 2009 it has spent 107 weeks on the Hardcover Fiction bestseller list. The film based on the book was released in August of 2011 with what these days is a modest budget of only $25 million. It’s a big hit, grossing more than $123 million to date in the US alone.

The lesson:

Think film, and not only if you’re writing a conventional thriller, mystery or romance. Don’t assume your book has no chance of becoming a major motion picture.

6. Bestselling authors are avid self-marketers

The top ten combined print & e-book fiction and nonfiction authors are able self-marketers, including famous writers with big track records, like Lee Childs, Kathy Reichs, James Patterson, J.A. Jance, John Grisham, and Johanna Lindsey. The newcomers are also at it, including Rebecca Skloot, Chris Culver, Darcie Chan, Alexandra Fuller, Erik Larson, and others.

The lesson:

No one can sell your book as well as you can, whether you already have a big platform or not. Publishers have finally realized that readers want to have direct contact with authors, not with publishers. They don’t really care who published the book but look for reading advice from book bloggers, online reviewers, websites, blogs, tweets and Facebook posts from people they know and trust.

_______________

What’s the single most important thing a writer can do to make it to the list?

For an answer, we turn to Garth Stein, whose novel Racing in the Rain has been on the New York Time Trade Paperback Fiction list for 117 weeks, this week at #8.

“Well, not to sound simplistic or anything, but the single most important thing has to be having a good book, doesn’t it?  I mean, I’ve heard there are clever ways to spend a lot of money to get on the list, and once on the list, there’s a little bit of self-sustaining momentum.  But that doesn’t last unless it’s a good book and people want to read it and they buy extra copies for their friends and family and so forth.

I’m all about marketing and social networking and rah, rah, rah!  And it takes a lot of work from a lot of different people, like the publisher, sales force, booksellers, and the author to land on a (or “The”) list.

But if the emperor has no clothes, the readers will see it right away. So write a brilliant book first.”

Thanks Garth.  Easy to say, right?

What about you?

Do you monitor the bestseller lists?  Or do you avoid them entirely?  I’m interested in your own observations and insights as writers, which I hope you’ll share here in comments.

Both established authors and self-publishing newcomers with short-form pieces that once appeared only in places like literary and news magazines are finding brand new markets with Kindle Singles and other digital venues like Byliner and Atavist.

Scroll down for my advice and tips for authors of short works

What’s a Kindle Single?

Kindle Singles is Amazon’s newest publishing imprint, launched earlier this year and designed for “compelling ideas expressed at their natural length”. That includes short stories, reporting, essays, memoirs and other narratives that are typically between 5,000 and 30,000 words long. Works are published using the Kindle Direct Publishing platform and authors choose a selling price from $.99 to $4.99, receiving royalties of 70 percent. Like all Kindle books, the singles can be purchased and read on Amazon Kindles, and all devices using the free Kindle reading apps, including Mac and PC computers, iPads and smart phones.

There were about 75 Kindle Singles published the first half of this year, with six of them reaching the Top 20 bestselling titles in the Kindle Store, which includes all Kindle books. Not bad! Take a look at the current Kindle Single bestseller list. At #6 today is The Bathtub Spy, a 15-page “offbeat but tender” short story by Tom Rachman, the New York Times bestselling debut author of The Imperfectionists, published by Random House. Rachman appears to have self-published his Kindle Single story.

Byliner and Atavist

Amazon’s not the only player in the short-form arena. Two other recent start-up digital publishers include Byliner and The Atavist, both focused on investigative reporting and other works of nonfiction narrative. Both also distribute their published works on Kindle Singles, with several starring on the bestseller list there, including The Fearless Mrs. Goodwin (Byliner) by Elizabeth Mitchell, a 44-page true-crime account of a brutal bank heist taking place in turn-of-the-century Manhattan, and Blind Sight (Atavist) by Chris Colin, a 38-page nonfiction narrative about a Hollywood movie producer’s horrific car wreck that killed his new wife and his subsequent 10-year journey recovering from devastating brain injuries.

Mainstream publishers are also taking advantage of these new channels, notably Tor.com, the science-fiction imprint of MacMillan, and Penguin eSpecials, both publishing low-cost short-form works by their existing authors in the form of excerpts, reprints and original new pieces.

Fingers crossed

Book publishers and agents are hoping with fingers crossed that these new venues will develop into reliable income streams, and will also draw readers to their authors’ full-length books. The senior VP of digital and audio publishing at Hachette Book Group told Publishers Weekly recently that author David Baldacci’s Kindle Single 15-page short story No Time Left, priced at $.99 was “tremendously successful” for them and characterized the publisher as “extremely satisfied with the results.”

A big appetite for short works

Readers have made many best sellers out of traditional books of short form work, including Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, and the perennial best-selling The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Meanwhile the appetite for essays, articles, and in-depth journalism remains unabated, for example What the Dog Saw, the current bestselling collection of essays by Malcolm Gladwell.

There’s so much good short form writing out there, past and present. Choose from classics and contemporaries like O’Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Katherine Mansfield, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, J.D. Sallinger, Alice Munro, Stephen King, Malcolm Gladwell, John McPhee, John Updike. It’s inspiring, so read and enjoy!

You might be interested in an earlier post called Why Book Publishers Love Short Stories – take a look.

More success stories

Three Cups of Deceit, best-selling author Jon Kraukuer’s 75-page expose of Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea, has sold 30,000 copies, according to a reliable source.

Leaving Home, a 43-page story by Jodi Picoult, the well-known author with 14 million copies of her previous books in print, submitted to Kindle Singles by Picoult’s agent Laura Gross Literary Agency and reported among the top 20 bestsellers of all Kindle Books.

Pakistan and the Mumbai Attacks: The Untold Story, by foreign correspondent Sebastian Rotella sold 1900 copies in its first two weeks by ProPublica which published the 38-page work of investigative journalism as a Kindle Single that went as a high as #2 on the Kindle bestseller list.

Russ Grandinette, VP for Kindle Content at Amazon has said “Ideas and words should be crafted to their natural length, not an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price at a certain format.”

Hear hear!  Authors of short form fiction and nonfiction reading this post will no doubt agree and look for a way to sell their own short-form work online. But as an insider who champions digital and self-publishing in all its various new options, I nevertheless urge you to consider the following tips and precautions.

Tips for writers

1. Price flexibly

Kindle Singles permits pricing from $.99 to $4.99. The Bathtub Spy is priced at $1.99 for 15 pages, while No Time Left by bestselling author David Baldacci is only $.99 for a story of the same length. Stephen King’s 80-page novella Mile 81 is selling for $2.99, though some readers are griping that the last 20 pages are really only a preview of an upcoming book.

My advice is to set the lowest price you can and hope for volume rather than testing a shot-in-the-dark higher price that the market might or might not tolerate. Readers are used to paying lower prices for digital writing these days, particularly when many short- form works are available as time-limited free samples on author web-sites.

2. Read the fine print

Many reputable vendors have dense boilerplate legal language in their standard agreements that grants them exclusive rights, license and ownership of your intellectual property. This is not to your advantage, needless to say, so don’t just sign whatever they give you. Get legal advice if you need it.

3. Market as usual

The same principles of online self-marketing apply as with long form fiction and nonfiction. There is no proportionate slackening of effort permitted if you’re serious about being an author in these times. Balance your marketing and work at a comfort level where you can do both and still get a few hours sleep. Nobody said it was easier now than it’s ever been!

4. Be sure your work is ready for prime time

Short-form work needs to be tightly focused and carefully organized. In these respects it can be more difficult to write than a full-length book. So be sure your work is fully baked before sending it out.

Even seasoned veteran writers can make mistakes – there were some scathing reader reviews on Amazon of Lee Child’s Kindle Single Second Son, with one disgruntled fan posting: “This left me cold and disappointed. The sketchy plot went nowhere…”  And more than a few readers of David Baldacci’s story No Time Left wrote blistering comments.  One reader, describing himself as a “rabid fan” of Baldacci’s novels, posted this: “This is the weakest writing that I have ever read from Baldacci…This first efort at a kindle short story is predictable, implausible, and never links the character motivation that drives the ending.”  Whew!

Many successful writers now use private professional developmental editors prior to submitting work for publication. Full disclosure: I work with a limited number of private clients, but I’m not the only developmental editor around. There are many others out there, and here’s my advice on how to find the best editor for you.

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What about you?

Are you a writer of short stories, or narrative nonfiction? Are you considering submitting your work to Kindle Singles or another of the short-form venues out there? If you’ve already done so, please share something about your experience, positive or otherwise.

This is the best

Especially for those in the vanguard: the self-publishing writers at the cutting edge of the brave new turbulent world of literary art and commerce.

I say that with some authority. As a worker bee from deep within the trenches of the book publishing industry, I can tell you from the inside that we’re living in an era of topsy turvy shifts in the balance of power and major changes in the core business of the book publishing industry.

Authors are steering the ship

What’s emerging is a new paradigm. That was the message loud and clear at Book Expo, the publishing industry’s behemoth annual convention, held recently in New York.

The advent of digital writing and publishing and the spontaneous democratic practice of social networking has in fact revolutionized the book business, challenged and changed how books are written and published irrevocably and forever, and shifted the balance of power from the commercial book publishers to the author.

Yes, you. The authors. The iconoclastic, idiosyncratic, garrulous, shy, outgoing, charming or grouchy writers working at home, courageously facing the blank screen or typewriter paper or yellow pad, getting up early before work or when the kids are still sleeping, up in the attic, down in the basement – you writers now have the upper hand.

Publishers confess they’ve goofed

Here’s why: Book publishers have been very slow to realize this but gradually began to admit that they really didn’t know all that well what they’re doing.

Seriously. They don’t. And they know it. Did you know that nearly all published books – conservative estimates range between 80-90 percent – lose money? These books don’t earn out their advances, don’t have second printings, they sell in the low four digits at best, are returned from the retail accounts and pulped or recycled.

The rest have to make up for it, and often don’t. What kind of a business is that?

So as book publishers have begun to admit to themselves and even publicly that they can’t really predict what will sell or not, they’ve also realized that the old methods of selling, of marketing a book have stopped working.

That $50K space ad in the New York Times? Forget it. It’s only for the author’s mother. The twenty-city bookstore tour with first class airplanes, limousines, and hotel suites? A waste of money.

Not even an appearance on the Today Show can guarantee more than a brief spike in sales. And Oprah, bless her heart, isn’t around anymore to guarantee sales for the very small number of titles she once had as her book club picks.

The old ways don’t work, and smart people in book publishing know that and say it openly now.

It’s all about buzz

What works, all agree, is the creation of “buzz”, one person telling another, “Hey you have to read this!”

This is where you, the author, come in. What creates buzz is when the author connects directly with the reader. Readers don’t care who published the book; they want a relationship with the author.

Authors today can reach their market without an intermediary. Not through the publisher, not through advertising or the mass media. Authors now have the technology to connect directly with interest groups, book bloggers, websites, to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social networking channels to reach precisely the readers who might be interested in knowing about their work, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, whether it’s an ambitious literary novel or genre romance, sci-fi and mystery, paranormal or super-wholesome faith-based inspirational stories.

You can connect with these readers through the new art of self-marketing which has its own etiquette and best practices, which does require time and effort, but which can be done powerfully and effectively without every leaving the house, while still in your pajamas.

For years publishers have preached “platform, platform, platform” but now they realize that this platform is not built only on media or celebrity status, but most importantly on the author’s ability to reach readers and create visibility and connection online.

Why more authors are self-publishing

So now publishers expect all authors they acquire to be the bedrock of the work’s marketing plans. It’s often in the contract: the author must be available, willing to spend time and energy, willing to figure out the skills of self-marketing.

And that’s why more authors are asking: If publishers don’t know what they’re doing and rely on the author to sell their own books, why should authors endure the long, frustrating, seemingly impossible job of finding a literary agent and selling your book to a commercial book publisher?

And more are saying: “Hey I’m tired of running up against brick walls. The book business is an impenetrable fortress. I can’t get anyone to pay attention to me. No one returns my call or answers my query letters. Months are passing and I’m getting nowhere.”

Meanwhile we’ve all read about Amanda Hocking, The Shack (ten million copies sold), Chicken Soup for the Soul, John Locke, Stephanie McAfee (Diary of a Mad Fat Girl), Bella Andre, and the phenomenal success of Joe Konrath and his many self-published titles.

That’s why more authors are diving into self-publishing.

The myth versus the reality of doing it yourself

Self-publishing has become the tsunami, the 9.6 earthquake, the paradigm shift of the literary world, overwhelming book publishing with more titles published by authors than by mainstream publishers in the year 2010.

So now let’s take a good look at what self-publishing is and what it isn’t.

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Three Myths about Self-Publishing

#1 Commercial publishers won’t touch a self-published book

Not true!

Self-publishing has become the most powerful and effective device for test marketing your book around. If you can sell five thousand books or more on your own, you can prove there’s a market for your book and you know how to reach it, whether it’s through the media, social networking, back-of-the-room sales, whatever.

Conversion from self-publishing to mainstream commercial publishing is becoming more common, frequent, and normal – IF that’s what you want.

Many self-published authors, however, don’t want to convert. They want to control everything themselves: the content, design, marketing of their book and most importantly the division of royalties, since instead of the 10-15 percent of list price publishers pay, an author can receive 70 percent or more of list price and make a lot more money. Do the math. But be sure to read the fine print, since there may be strange restrictions and adjustments in the boilerplate of agreements reached with any vendor, agent, or publisher.

There’s a lot of experimenting going on with lower-pricing, greater volume, and fluctuating royalty deals, but generally you can make a lot more money self-publishing – if your book sells.

#2 Agents won’t represent an author who self-publishes

Wrong.

Top agents have begun to represent self-published authors, including such leading lights as Jim Levine, founder and principal of the Levine-Greenberg Agency and Jane Dystel, President of the Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.

They’re representing translation and film rights for these self-published titles, and they’re selling self-published books to traditional publishers, if that’s what the author wants.

Agents are also beginning to help self-publishing authors to get professional outside developmental and copy-editing, a great jacket designer, set up their website and learn how to social network, make a video for YouTube, get on Facebook, and learn how to strategically blog and tweet.

So agents are becoming managers and coaches in the career development of self-published authors. Not all agents, but more and more of the hipper, younger ones who understand how to do this.

#3 It’s easy to succeed as a self-published author

Absolutely not. Here’s why:

You still have to write a good book. No mean feat. Successful writers I know – whether they’re published commercially or self-published – need to write and rewrite their books many times, usually with the support of a developmental editor, not someone who does spelling and punctuation but a creative partner who is able to identify and solve problems with the story, structure, characterization, dialogue, visual description, literary style, pacing, the narrative arc – with a first, second, and third act that engages the reader and reaches some kind of epiphany or denouement that entertains, illuminates and provides emotional satisfaction for the reader. Read here for my advice on finding your own developmental editor.

You need to put as much time and energy as you can on self-marketing. You need to be online with your website, you need to start blogging, tweeting, connecting on Facebook and making short videos for YouTube.

You still have to expand your platform, be visible, let people know about yourself and your book. The old cliché about platform, platform, platform is still true. Ask anyone who’s made it and most will agree. However you do it, if you want readers to know about your book you have to sell it yourself. It’s part of your job. It’s essential for success if you want to be a writer today. There’s no guarantee it will work, but it’s nearly impossible to get readers without it.

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Forecast: Mostly sunny with a chance of rain

Self-publishing offers more control, an accelerated approach to the market, and a much greater share of the profits. But beyond the myth, our reality is that it’s just as hard as ever to write a good book that generates and sustains the buzz, a book that people want to tell their friends about, a book that produces major sales.

That part is as hard as ever. But it’s still the best time ever to be a writer, don’t you agree?

When Amanda Hocking, the

“I only want to be a writer,” Hocking said. “I do not want to spend 40 hours a week handling e-mails, formatting covers, finding editors, etc. Right now, being me is a full-time corporation.”

OK. After a brilliant start as an indie author, she’s turned over the onerous heavy lifting for four new books to a mainline commercial book publisher. So now seemed like a good time to survey some friends of mine, including fabulously successful writers and savvy literary agents, who weigh in here on Amanda’s big score, and what may be in store for her next.

You’ll be working just as hard, if not harder

“Good luck, Amanda. Having a publisher to deal with marketing and publicity is wonderful in concept, but remember that no one loves your book as much as you do.  My publisher Harper sent me on tours and launched plenty of great marketing initiatives, and they have been terrifically supportive of The Art of Racing in the Rain.  But having done this before, I wanted to do more; after Harper was finished, I stayed on the road, pretty much non-stop, for the first 2-1/2 years after publication, much of it at my own expense and with me doing all the organizing.  And now, nearly three years after publication, I still spend hours a week attending to business, e-mails, ongoing initiatives, and book clubs and such.

It has all paid off, which is nice.  But don’t think it gets easier because you have a big publishing house behind you now!  I’m constantly struggling with the balance between marketing, family, and writing my next book.  I’m sure you’ll do fine, Amanda, but if you think having a publisher behind you will free you up to write all the time, I respectfully suggest that you may be mistaken.  I have a feeling you will be working just as hard, if not harder, on your new books as you did on your previous ones.  Because I think you will agree with the truth of a fortune cookie I once received:  He who has a thing to sell and goes and whispers in a well, is not as apt to get the dollars as he who climbs a tree and hollers!”

– Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain [HarperCollins], now 94 weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list, and more than 1.5 million copies sold to date in hardcover and paperback, also How Evan Broke His Head, and Raven Stole the Moon

I thank the gods that I came of age before barbaric electrons ate the printing press

Legendary author Tom Robbins says he knew little about self-publishing until a young author he’s been mentoring convinced him that avoiding the traditional route was the best choice for getting her work out quickly and under her own control.

“Her detailed explanation of how difficult it’s become for a young novelist who isn’t a Twitter diva or Facebook star to get published these days made me thank the gods that I came of age before barbaric electrons ate the printing press.”

–Tom Robbins, bestselling author of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Jitterbug Perfume, and many others

Surrendering control can be a gift

“What Hocking has accomplished on her own is incredible. But I think it’s absolutely a good move for her to see what an established publisher can do for her and her books. The drawbacks are clear. To sell your work to a publisher is to surrender a lot of control. Though the content remains your own, decisions about cover art, marketing strategies, where it falls in respect to the other titles on the list, etc. are now out of your hands. But this can also be a gift. Hocking already has a huge fan base and St. Martin’s will be able to expand her readers to those not as tuned in to the blogosphere. Sacrificing some control to gain even more readers and have more time to write seems like a wise career move.

Though self-publishing has a great indie, renegade spirit to it, and accounts for a thriving and valuable part of the market, being a major house’s author gives a writer an instant credibility that those who self-publish have to work harder to achieve. It provides a huge team of allies and advocates, people whose professional purpose is to bring books to the world and make sure those books reach as many readers as they can. After working on her own behalf for so long, I imagine that having this dedicated team of people behind her will feel pretty great. And if it doesn’t, she can always return to her roots in the future, now with an even larger base of readers.”

– Nina Lacour, author of the YA books Hold Still (2010) and The Disenchantments (2012) [Penguin]

Writers want more than money

“I love Amanda Hocking’s publishing story and not just because I come from pioneer stock and am a huge fan of perseverance.  What she’s accomplished with eBook sales is impressive. And closing such a big deal with St. Martin’s is impressive in different ways. Yes, it’s great money. But at the end of the day I’m not sure what a writer wants can be calculated in dollars alone.

I imagine that being the engine of your own machine both creatively and business-wise would be exhausting. Maybe she wants to partner with St. Martin’s for her next four books so she can have some of her personal responsibilities lifted. Or maybe she wants to feel part of a publishing family. I enjoy working with the different departments at Random House or Disney-Hyperion or Simon & Schuster. They make me feel very supported.

She only committed to four books and she still has the ability to write eBooks while under contract. I don’t think she’s losing anything. She tried publishing without a house and was wildly successful. Now she’s publishing with a house and has a wildly successful track record and a big pile of money. She’s young and talented and resourceful. I’m sure she’ll gain something useful working with St. Martin’s whether she continues to publish with them or not. Seems like a smart deal.”

– Kristen Tracy, author of Lost It [Simon and Schuster], A Field Guide for Heartbreakers [Disney], The Reinvention of Bessica Lee [Random House] and others.

Self-publishing would make me crazy

“I can see how frustrating it would be to not even be able to write because you’re so busy with all the other junk that a publisher is supposed to do for you. So regardless of money or “career move,” I’d say this would be invaluable to any author who just really wants to write. I know I would never want to self-publish. It would make me crazy.”

– Amy Reed, author of the three-book YA series Beautiful (2010), Clean (July 2011) and Crazy (now in copyediting), [Simon and Schuster]

Marketing and publicity muscle will broaden her audience

“I think that signing a traditional deal (especially one that exceeded $2 million) was a good move on her part.  By bringing on a traditional publisher, she’s getting the editorial help she wanted, along with marketing, publicity and sales teams that will get her work even further attention.  And with that level of investment, the publisher is sure to broaden her audience, even if she never sees a dime over the advance.

Since she plans to continue self publishing eBooks between now and publication of the first St. Martin’s book next year, she can continue to grow her audience and make some money.”

– Michael Bourret, Vice President, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management

Will her fans pay more than $2.99?

“The million books she sold on her own were at a much lower price point, so this will be a good test of how loyal her fans are, and whether it was the $2.99 and 99 cent price tags that attracted them.

Hocking has said, “Right now, being me is a full-time corporation.”  SO, now she’s HIRED a ‘full-time corporation’, St. Martin’s Press, where they will, I do believe, get her even bigger sales, AND free her up to be the full-time writer she wants to be.”

– Sandy Dijkstra, Dijkstra Literary Agency

Will St. Martin’s be able to build on her success?

“Amanda Hocking’s deal for four books for $2 million in today’s economy is an aggressive number. I don’t know how her books have done in print, and she says she wants to be with a traditional publisher for better distribution.  But will there be a big print push for her books?  Or will they just be tapping into her eBook platform?  Will they be able to build upon her success, I wonder. And Hocking pricing her eBooks at $2.99 and 99 cents made a difference.  Will St. Martin’s Press price her eBooks at the same level?  We will see how much price matters here.

Hocking says she welcomes the editorial process a traditional house can offer. YES! That’s validation of the process that’s been in place for decades — if not generations — for honing a manuscript.  Not to mention the amount of editorial work we agents do in order to sell a work, and sometimes on the back end as well.

Every week I’m having conversations with writers about their interest in self-publishing or new online ventures they’re undertaking. The authors who are savvy and following the news and have platforms and audiences already are of course incredibly interested in this—they’re the ones who have the best chance at electronic self-publishing success.  A quality product from a known quantity at a competitive price will rise to the surface.”

–Susan Raihofer, David Black Literary Agency

Congratulations, Amanda! But I’m sticking to self-publishing

Amanda Hocking is smart. She’s proved herself as a writer that readers buy, so she’s totally in the power seat. Of course publishers were eager to out-bid each other for the privilege! She’s the unicorn in the forest of publishing!

But here’s why I’m self-publishing:

• You own the rights when you self-publish.
• You don’t have to pay an agent 15% of everything you make.
• You earn more royalties. I’ll get about $6 per copy self-published. But just $1-$2 if I had a publisher.
• Publishers decide in advance which books get the marketing dollars, and only 20 percent of any list has a major budget.
• The self-published author has total control. I’ve chosen my own editor, my artwork, and my paper. Good luck ever getting that much choice at a publishing house.

Self-publishing used to have a real stigma attached to it. To be self-published meant your work was SO BAD that not one publisher would take you seriously. But that’s just not true anymore. Readers just want a great book to read.”

– Kaia Van Zandt, author of the forthcoming historical novel Written in the Ashes [self-published]

Plucking the diamonds from the carbon

“Amanda Hocking made the papers here in England, too, because everyone loves a story about someone making it huge bypassing the normal channels. Her story has two morals: Don’t trust the experts — but also let’s be wary of everyone doing their thing, because without some professional quality control, how will the reader know diamonds from carbon?

Agents and publishers have a role to play in establishing standards, though we all know they are entirely subjective. While self-publishing eBooks offers writers great opportunities, how do readers find a foothold in a tide of mediocrity? Of course you leave it to the individual judgments of readers, but with millions of titles to choose from, how do you make an informed choice without mediation by people whose opinions and taste you recognize and respect?

So there’s still good reason for going the literary agent and commercial publisher route.”

– British literary agent Peter Buckman

The issue for Hocking is how to maintain her success

From what I’ve read, Amanda Hocking seems like an unusually thoughtful young author.  She’s obviously figured out to become financially successful by self-publishing, but has also assessed how much time and effort she needs to spend being a publisher to maintain that success.  She wants to spend more of her time writing and perhaps free up the rest of her time to have a life.  How could anybody argue with – or second guess – that decision?

– Jim Levine, founding partner of Levine Greenberg Literary Agency

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The jury is out and questions remain

Will readers buy Hocking’s new books at a higher price? Will her $2 million advance be earned out? Will the sales on her self-published books continue to boom and ultimately eclipse the St. Martin titles? Will she really have more time to write?

What do you think?

Are you a writer who’s self-published?  What do you think of Amanda Hocking’s big score, her choices, her reasons?  And if you’re a writer who’s published by a commercial house, what’s your advice for Hocking?  Or if you’re as yet unpublished, what’s your takeaway?

All good editors love

To us, writers are special people, compelled to put words together as they look at the world.  They can’t stop, must return to whatever is in their heads, what they’re thinking and feeling, making sense of their lives, to explain, to teach, so write they must.

I spend every day with at least one author’s ongoing story in my head, puzzling over the issues and needs of this particular work and figuring out how to help develop the manuscript from rough draft to the point of publication.

For me, it doesn’t get any better. I’ve been an acquisitions and developmental book editor since 1962, and yet it’s fresh and new every time, like a spiritual retreat, a transformative adventure to another world, since each author’s book is different and unique. It’s my personal passion, and I feel privileged and often honored to have a job like this.

A writer’s best friend and secret weapon

Every author is different. But each writer I work with becomes the most important person in my work life as we go back and forth in the intimate and challenging process of producing a successful book that’s ready for prime time.

I’ve found that most writers appreciate working with an objective helping professional. When we can hammer out a solid relationship of trust and mutual commitment, an author can be quite relieved to have a creative partner who subsumes his own feelings and intellect to their own.

What I’ve learned from working with writers

Writers are brave. It takes courage to write, to expose oneself without compromising either the need to express sometimes painful feelings, or the demands of impatient readers who are distracted by a desire for rapid gratification. As a faithful ally in this struggle, a good editor can work shoulder-to-shoulder to defeat unexpected roadblocks, wrong turns, and internal self-censorship.

Writers are often insecure. Even the best and most successful authors I’ve worked with can be troubled at times by self-doubt. They’re not always satisfied with what they’ve done, worrying that they’ve failed to fulfill their deepest intentions, haven’t explained themselves adequately, missed the high water mark of their last or best work. My job is to be both honest about what they need to do but also encouraging, firm in my belief that they can in fact do it.

Writers are sometimes lonely. I know how facing that blank screen or empty page can be terrifying. There’s no one else who can extricate and put down those words, at least until someone like me can read them and offer new choices, changes, cuts, and other constructive suggestions.

Writers can be defensive. Who wants to hear negative criticism? The trick for me has always been to frame my changes and requests in a way that grows organically from the author’s original intentions.

Writers are always stimulating. What original ideas! Such intelligence, humor, romance, mystery, amazing twists and turns of the plot, new research and instruction, prescriptive, inspiring, emotionally satisfying, disturbing – writers can help us understand our lives and create meaning out of random chaos and otherwise inexplicable events. My job has always been to sort through the working drafts of manuscript as a typical reader and make sure it’s clear and understandable, sometimes needing to deconstruct and put back together the pieces from the creative jig saw.

Finding your own editor

Given the attrition in commercial publishing houses, you can search online and choose among professional editors with experience bringing books to publication. It’s great if you can meet in person at first, since trust and personal chemistry are important. It’s not essential, however, and email exchanges or an explorative phone call can also work. I’ve worked with writers from Australia, England, Canada, South Africa, Thailand, Brazil and other points near and far.

The author-editor dynamic is a personal relationship – often close, intense,  time limited and usually fun, in my experience. But before choosing your own editor, be sure to check out experience, past books edited and published. Are these authors you’ve heard of? Are their books ones that you personally respect or admire? Have they sold well? Seen any of them on the best-seller lists? That’s the acid test.

You should also ask a prospective developmental editor for references. Many clients of mine have done that and other authors I’ve worked with have obliged, mentioning warts and all.

Choosing a developmental editor can require some initiative and intuitive judgment. Ask authors you might know to recommend their editors. Go to bookstore readings and lectures where writers, agents, and publishers appear. Seek them out at writers conference to ask for references for a good editor. Trust your instincts to evaluate this advice and where it came from – that’s what smart sensitive writers can do.

For more on evaluating prospects and avoiding potential problems, take a look at this earlier post, Choosing a freelance editor: What you need to know

A persuasive quote from a big name or a well-connected expert can have a major impact on the level of attention we give a new submission, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction. It shouts out “Hey! This book is for real!” And not just a blind shot from an unknown author.

Don’t bury the blurb!

A piece of advice: Put the endorsement up high, on top! It’s surprising how many submissions arrive with the blurbs hidden in the platform materials or elsewhere. That’s risky. A reader might not get that far! If you have an endorsement that could make a difference, let us know about it first thing.

It’s how Hemingway got discovered

Endorsements, of course, have been around a long time, going back famously to the time F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his editor Maxwell Perkins at Scribner’s in New York about a new young writer whose work he’d been reading in newspapers, noting that the upstart might well “outlast his own scribbles.” Heeding Fitzgerald’s endorsement, Perkins tracked down the writer and that’s how Scribner’s came to publish Ernest Hemingway’s first novel The Sun Also Rises.

Closer to home, a well-placed endorsement led me to a new writer who has since become one of the most prolific authors at Wiley & Sons. A well-known psychologist, Nathanial Branden, whose book we’d recently published, wrote me about a young special-ed teacher’s proposal for a book on parenting. He said that I’d love her work and that he’d give us a blurb for the cover. That immediately got our attention, so we kept reading, met the author Michele Borba, and ended up publishing her book, Parents do Make a Difference. She also procured a major blurb from Jack Canfield, co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul. We went on to publish seven more books by Michele, who’s still going strong and has also become the resident parenting expert on the Today Show.

What if you don’t know any celebrities?

OK. We don’t all hang around cafes in Paris or hobnob with famous authors. Don’t worry. That’s not the only way to get an endorsement. Here’s where some self-promotion and ingenuity can help.

Target

Make a hit list of authors or experts who’ve written books something like yours. Whom do you admire most?  Try to find a direct contact email or address. It may be on their personal website or available through their publisher. Send them the proposal with a persuasive letter filled with respect, affinity, and chutzpah.

Meet

Attend bookstore readings, workshops, lectures or other public events where your target authors are appearing. Enroll in writers conferences like the San Francisco Writers Conference, Vermont’s Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, the Cape Cod Summer Conference and others. There may be pitch sessions, and other opportunities to meet with an established author and talk about your book.

Then follow up the next day with an email, a hand-written note or a phone call reminding the author that you’ve met and enclose the proposal for endorsement. This is no time to be shy.

Recruit

Experts in your field may be teaching or otherwise working just around the corner. Think about people in your business or personal life within a few degrees of separation with expertise or a professional connection to your writing.

If the chef of a famous restaurant where you dine regularly likes your ethnic family cookbook, for example, that can help a lot. If the head of the neuroscience department at Harvard Medical School, reads and endorses your book about the relationship between the brain and falling in love, that can help get the attention you need.

So can a top executive at a brand name company like Dow Jones, if you’ve written a muckraking expose of recent financial blowouts.

So could an author whose book is at #5 on the New York Times fiction bestseller list, especially if it’s in your genre. Remember, with fiction you need to have your completed manuscript ready to offer, since a partial doesn’t tell the whole story.

What about you?

Are endorsements part of your strategy to land a book deal?  Or to find a literary agent?  Have you found prospects willing to endorse your book?  Please share something about your experience, successful or not, here in comments.  I’ll watch for any questions.