Writing « Robin Writes

Yeah, here we go again. But I read something the other day that said book events can cost an author $500, and that’s just not accurate.

Well, unless you count the therapist bills before and after . . .

Most authors are absolute crap at selling their books. The biggest reason is distribution, if you’ve self-published. You’re competing for shelf space with professionally produced books, but even if your book is very well done, those other books have distribution. Booksellers can pull up a website and order them in about five minutes, and that’s after they’ve seen the book in some publication or other and decided their customers might like to read it.

You, however, have to depend heavily on yourself and other people, most of whom are not book professionals.

If someone tells me his book is great, I’m going to take it with a grain of salt. Of course you think it’s great, you wrote it! If your mom or your best friend tells me the same thing, again, grain of salt. If someone whom you’ve paid to read your book, or exchanged books with, tells me it’s great, re-read the first two sentences in this paragraph.

Your cover, front and back, will tell a bookseller that your book is interesting, or not. The interior formatting will tell him if it looks professional; the story will tell him that it will sell, or not. And all that has to be damn good to get your book on a shelf in a bookstore.

Of course, you can sell your book other places, and this is where a book event comes into play.

Contrary to the article I read, you seldom, if ever, have to pay to host a book event. Most bookstores will do it for free, IF your book meets all the above criteria: cover, interior, story. Some will do it anyway. If you want to do an event elsewhere, sure, you might have to pay a nominal fee.

Your other costs are purely optional, like swag, cards, bookmarks, posters. Some will help, some won’t. Depends on a number of things.

And of course, books will cost you because often you have to provide your own copies and work on a consignment deal.

If you self-publish, and your books cost you $5, you can sell them directly for $10 and make a nice profit. If you’re doing consignment, you’ll only get a percentage of that $10—on average, 60%. So you make $6 and pocket that extra dollar.

Does that sound painful? Not really—authors under contract with a publisher would make about the same in royalties. This is not a get-rich business, this authoring stuff.

If a bookstore takes 40%, and your publisher gives you a decent discount on your own books, you can have roughly the same result if you have to do a consignment deal. If your publisher gives you 40%, you’ll break even; any less than that, you’re losing money.

Maybe that’s where they came up with the $500.

Oh, right, the therapist bills:

It’s really, really hard for introverted authors to make calls and go into bookstores to schlep their books. Nerve-wracking, even. Therapist Bill #1.

It’s even harder and more anxiety-producing to talk to bookstore customers about your book. Therapist Bills #2-10.

But, sorry, you have to force yourself. Remember, a bookseller is not there to babysit you—they have customers, some of whom you hope to sell to, and they should, ideally, be busy ringing up those customers. So it’s up to you.

The best tip I can give you is to take someone along to that book event, a friend, or even another author. It’s SO MUCH EASIER to talk about someone else’s book—the two of you can switch off, and talk about each other to potential readers. Piece of cake.

BUT.

Do make sure that you and the friend or the other author DO NOT SIT AND TALK ONLY TO EACH OTHER. In fact, don’t even sit. Stand, be approachable, smile, make eye contact, etc., etc. TO POTENTIAL READERS.

Oh, and something else I’ve noticed: don’t check your phone, don’t let it make noise. If it’s an emergency, they’ll keep calling and you can excuse yourself. That email is not important either. Focus on the here and now, on that potential reader.

And sell books.

Or, how to get your manuscript accepted by a book publisher.

I blog about this quite often, it seems; why? Because of the sheer number of submissions I receive, approximately three a week, on average. Now, considering that window is open twice a year for 2-3 months each time, that works out to nearly one ms sent to me each day. Maybe half of those authors actually follow the guidelines on our website.

First, yes, it really does help if you know someone—networking, ya know? That doesn’t mean your odds of a contract are better, but you’re more likely to have your ms read, at least.

Second, how you introduce yourself matters. If you send a blank email with your ms attached, it probably will go straight to the rejection file. On the flip side, if you send a long-winded into of yourself, your book, your mom, your cat, and so forth, the publisher will be bored by the third paragraph and will probably send the whole thing off to “reject.”

Third, the manuscript itself is, of course, the most important part. Numbers one and two will get you to that point quicker. Speaking for myself, I look for several things:

Good writing—this means spelling, punctuation, flow, etc.

Unique viewpoint/story.

Do I get excited or get chills or want to keep reading?

And finally, can I sell it? Is this something readers will want to buy?

Once I have positive answers to these things, I’ll look at the author and see what kind of platform he has, how easy he is to get along with—if you’ve sent me three emails re the same ms, and a few follow-ups, forget it. You seem desperate, but even more, we don’t even know each other and if this is an indication of future communication, I’m not interested. Typically, I don’t even look at that ms.

And don’t use a thesaurus to beef up that cover letter/query—I can tell. If you use three-letter words and then throw in something like “antidisestablishmentarianism” when another three-letter will suffice, I’ll know. I probably won’t look at that ms either.

Platform IS important. Do you have a website? Blog? Facebook page and other social media? If not, you better get something fast if being published and selling books is important to you. RHP is a business, like most or all publishers, and no one wants to spend a thousand dollars on a book if the author himself isn’t interested in selling a lot of books.

All of these things, combined, will increase or decrease your chance of a publishing contract. But sometimes your ms isn’t accepted for other reasons. It could be that we’ve received a glut of the same type of story, or the same genre. It could be because we think another publisher could do a better job—and in many cases, we pass your ms along to someone who might be interested.

Note: if you hear from a publisher you don’t know, such as Smoking Gun, Deadly Writes, Blank Slate, or others, it’s not a scam—just professional courtesy.

Why haven’t you heard back? Many publishers do send rejection letters. Frankly, I don’t know how they do it—no one wants to tell someone “no.” I don’t. I hate that. But I don’t have time, either, to send detailed reasons for that “no.” Usually, you won’t hear anything if your ms is rejected. I’ve mentioned this before, but if you haven’t heard anything in a few months, follow up. Once, please.

And one last thing: follow the publisher’s directions. I can’t stress this enough:

Do not submit when submissions are closed.

Do send the format, size, file type, etc. requested.

Do remember to attach whatever you’re asked to attach—I’ve had a number of those lately. “Here is my ms.” Um, where, exactly? Hey, it happens! Check spelling, too, even in the subject line of an email. Received one the other day and the subject was “fubmission.” Seriously. Once, I misspelled an agent’s name in the subject line. Oy. Someone I know misspelled his book title. Oops.

Usually, though, it gives a publisher a nice chuckle . . . But if funny is your thing, make sure it’s actually funny . . .

So, read, learn, practice, and increase your chances of acceptance. Remember, just because you want to write and you “have a story inside,” doesn’t mean it should always come out and be viewable to anyone else. Just because your mom said you should write a book, doesn’t mean anyone else wants to read it. Harsh, but true.

In light of all the posts on this topic, and the many questions I receive, I’m now offering a new service: Query That! Just click on the letter icon, top right on the sidebar, and copy/paste your query into the email. Be sure to put QUERY in the subject line.

Cost is $10, via PayPal.

I’ll critique and proof your query and provide one follow-up email, in case you have additional questions. Turnaround time is three days.