|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Hello all!
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Welcome to our Friday After
Hours Forum.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I hope you've had a very nice
week and that you're thawing out if you got hit with that spring freeze in
the southeast.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Market lists abound both
online and in the bookstore.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
And they're very useful and
necessary. They contain the submission guidelines and contact information
for a lot of publishers of all sorts
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
and most are neatly arranged
into categories so that you can search mystery publishers for example.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
But the market list alone is
not really a totally adequate marketing tool.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Your local big box bookstore
-- Barnes and Noble, Crowne -- is a great place to do some marketing
homework.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If you're working on
nonfiction magazine articles you'll usually find a host of magazines.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Browse them for inspiration.
Where could you sell an article or a personal narrative?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
What are those editors looking
for?
|
|
xana
|
What about Amazon?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You can do it, but what makes
the bookstore easier is that you'll find the books categorized and easily
visible to a sweep of the eye.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
All mysteries are here. All
historical fiction is there.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Also...you have ALL books on
amazon.com.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That makes it a good place to
take a look at small press publishers and their output.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
But if you are planning to
pitch to the big publishers that distribute nationally, you're going to
find only those publishers at Barnes and Noble and the other chains like
them.
|
|
xana
|
What about your local library
for browsing magazines?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That's a good one, too.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You can spend more time
reading them and copy articles for future reference (fair use -- no
copyright issues).
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Most bookstores simply have a
wider range of magazines than the libraries and you want to see what is
being published NOW so that's the bookstore.
|
|
redwagon
|
browsing a bookstore can give
you Titlemania inspiration too.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
No kidding. And it can simply
give you inspiration. :-)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
So what are you looking for?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
In the magazine section you're
looking at all the niche magazines, thinking about your own hobbies, people
you know, any experts you could call on.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You'll probably find
inspiration in a half dozen magazines. 'I could write something for them'.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Write down the names and check
them out in your market list.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That's where you find the
actual needs and submission guidelines as well as the editorial mailing
address.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If one seems like a
particularly good fit, go back and buy an issue or three.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Read them from cover to cover.
Ask yourself 'what does this editor seem to want?'
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Ask yourself 'what style are
these articles in?'
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
'who reads this magazine?'
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
(You can figure that out from
the ads. )
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That allows you to slant a
piece specifically for these readers and to write the query letter in the
style of the magazine so that the editor thinks 'hey, I could just drop
something from this writer right into the magazine. No editing!"
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
As far as books go, book
publishers use very vague guidelines.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They might tell you in their
guidelines that they want SF.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Well, what kind of SF? Space
Opera? Near Future?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Military?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Start looking for books like
the one your working on...similar in some way.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Who published that book?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Make a note of the name.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
The publisher's name, I mean.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Look at a lot of books by that
publisher. What seems to be the common denominator? They all involved hard
science?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They all involve space travel?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They're all near future
thrillers?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Each publisher tends to
publish a certain subset of the large genres.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
One mystery publisher might do
hard boiled PI fiction.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Another might do amateur
detective mostly.
|
|
xana
|
Say you find a book something
like yours. Is there any way to find out who the author's agent is?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Not unless the author mentions
the agent in the aknowelgements page, Xana.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Some do.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
(I don't. My agent gets paid
for doing this. :-))
|
|
janecj333
|
If a publisher is doing space
opera today (bought two years ago), how do you divine what they want to
buy, today?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Not from the bookstore!
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
But what the bookstore can
give you is the general type of fiction that publisher is putting out
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
and it will give you a sense
of what the publisher is probably overstocked with right now.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If you're seeing a lot of
vampire PI stories, it's a good bet that the editors are moving on right
now.
|
|
xana
|
What about publications like
Publishers' Weekly? Do most libraries carry this?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Many do.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If yours does not, ask them
to.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If several people ask, they'll
probably consider getting it.
|
|
janecj333
|
What if your book
idea/plot/theme doesn't strike a chord with the agent/publisher? Are we up
a creek?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Well, Jane, there are a TON of
publishers out there, from the big NY houses to the small press and the new
ebooks companies.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If you have written a good
book, I suspect you'll find someone who wants to pay you to publish it
sooner or later.
|
|
xana
|
Are any authors making any money
from ebooks?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Sure.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I just had lunch with Judith
Glad on Wednesday. Uncial Press. They're ebook.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Their authors are making
money. But making money and making 100,000 dollars are two different
things.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
No, ebooks are not equaling
Nora Roberts sales figures...but nobody is doing that. :-)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You have to decide what
constitutes 'published' to you.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If it's a NY house only then
that's your list to work with.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If it's a matter of getting
SOMEBODY to pay you to publish your book you have a lot more options.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If your goal is to make that 100,000
then your options are very limited and highly dependant on luck.
|
|
xana
|
So can an author expect to make
in the hundreds or thousands or ten thousands with an ebook publication -
or less than for one ebook?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Right now I have not heard of
anybody making more than 1000 from an ebook, but I don't know of many
authors who have had books out in eformat for more than a year or two.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Since they can be in print forever,
that might end up being more money.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I know authors who make money
in the low thousands in small press -- fiction we're talking here.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
But that's about what you're
likely to make with a NY publisher and your first book.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Maybe 3000 - 5000 dollars.
Unless you break in with a mainstream thriller to a NY house.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That is VERY hard to do, but
there you're looking at 5 figure advances.
|
|
janecj333
|
I don't need ,000. I just want
to be able to buy groceries and pay rent.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Then you really need to write
nonfiction, Jane.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Unless you're willing to do
'rent work' and write well and fast in genres you don't much like but that
pay.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
A lot of rent writing is
erotica, true crime, stuff like that.
|
|
xana
|
Or teach along with writing :-)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That's my preference. :-)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
The way to make a living as a
writer offers you about three options.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Option one: Write any fiction
that anybody pays you to write, write if fast, dirty and use a pen name.
Write the work you care about under your name.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Write nonfiction and fiction
you care about.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Write fiction you care about
and teach.
|
|
quixote
|
Argentina: I'm many miles from a US bookstore - options?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Amazon.com quixote.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Just pay attention to what is
current and what is old.
|
|
geezer
|
Are you aware of any Christian
publishers that are in New York?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I don't know the Christian
market well, geeze. They are pretty decentralized as a whole. I would look
at the Christian Bookseller Association website.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I bet they list all CBA
accredited publishers.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
And you really do want to
publish with a CBA approved house.
|
|
charie'
|
For browsing bookstores on-line,
look up the subject (non-fict) you want to write about, see what is no
longer available and write a book to replace it/update it.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You mean nonfiction, charie?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
The nonfiction market is also
fad-driven remember.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
See what the bookstore shelves
are heavily stocked in and avoid that topic for now.
|
|
charie'
|
Subjects like geo-caching,
building custom metal frames for motorcycles
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
It's a good idea to read the
publishing mags if you want to keep a finger on the pulse of publishing.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Publisher's Weekly, Locus if
you write in the fantasy/sf/horror fields, that sort of thing.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Writer and Writers Digest have
some publishers news but they're more geared to writers than the publishing
industry.
|
|
builder guy
|
Hi Mary. I was reading the
transcript from Wild Rose Press. Let's say this small press decides to
publish you and it turns out to be a good seller. Can other larger presses
recruit you if they see something they like?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Actually that's a very good
way to get attention from big publishers, builder.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Two friends of mine have gone
from small press to NY publishers in the last year or so simply because
they had good sales numbers in small press.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They won't buy the book you
have published with something like Wild Rose Press, but they might buy your
next romance.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
BUT you have to have good
numbers.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Like three thousand books sold
in a year.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Those are BIG small press
numbers.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
It says to NY that your book
is popular enough that people are looking for it.
|
|
labtekki
|
How do find out which ones are
selling best?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You can check their amazon.com
rating against similar books, labtek.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
See where this book ranks
against other books.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You can find some editor/agent/publisher
blogs on the internet.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Miss Snark is an agent.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
A Tor Books editor has a blog.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They're not the only ones.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
While you need to take all blog
postings with a healthy shake of salt, still you can get a feel for the
gossip inside the industry anyway.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
The main use of the bookstore
is to keep you from wasting your time sending your book to a publisher who
doesn't want this type of book...
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
AND it gives you something to
put into your query letter to an agent.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
My book takes the next step
from today's eco thriller like XXXX into the future when...
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
and you go on to tell the
agent why your book is going to do that current bestseller one better.
|
|
sss1208
|
any information on Harlequin ? it
seems like a lot of authors start with them? are they NY or Canadian?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They're mostly UK, sss, although
they have some US lines, too.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They are the 1000 lb gorilla
of the romance market.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They have dropped their
Bombshell line, by the way. That's some hot gossip I just heard at the last
authors lunch.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
So if any of you planned to
submit to Bombshell, don't bother.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
The bookstore is a great place
to figure out which little niche of the publishing world your book fits
into.
|
|
quixote
|
do any of the large bookstores
have useful newsletters?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They have newsletters that
tell you what's coming out.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Publisher's Weekly is probably
your best bet for a look inside publishing as a whole.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
It's very spendy to subscribe
to, but your library may well have it.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If you're writing in the
SF/F/Horror fields you should subscribe to Locus.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If you're interested in small
press, talk to your independent bookstore owner.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They're likely to know the
good small press publishers.
|
|
sss1208
|
what is a good one for
non-fiction
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
http://www.freelancewriting.com/
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
This one has a lot of links
and news.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They'll try to sell you stuff,
too.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/bookwire.html
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Bookwire is a good one for all
genres.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They're the best I've found
for publishing news in fiction and nonfiction.
|
|
lore alley
|
how 'bout mainstream? any
newsletters etc for that?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If it's not a specific genre
it's 'mainstream' lore.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Publishers Weekly covers
everybody. So does Bookwire.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
The more you know about the
industry as a whole, the more informed you will be and the better your
choices will be.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Getting a feel for what is put
on which shelf in the bookstore is going to help you write a better query
letter to that agent.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If you can compare your book
to another one that's out there (hopefully one that is selling very well)
it gives your agent an idea of where he/she might send it right off the
bat.
|
|
sss1208
|
what does query with outline
mean?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Just that, sss -- the agent
wants a query (a one paragraph pitch) and a brief outline of the book.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
You can do it in synopsis form
-- for fiction they rarely if ever want it in the form you used for
outlines in high school English class.
|
|
abkitsme
|
Would they want something like
the writing prompt you had us do?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Yes. :-) Why do you think I've
been giving you writing prompts like that? :-)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Ever the teacher.....
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
But in truth, that IS why I have
that story summary prompt. Most people are awful at doing that until they
practice.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I'll do a 'pitch your book'
prompt one of these weeks. You wait. :-)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
We'll we're about at the end
of our hour and I have to go tutor tonight.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Any final questions?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Hey, it's a great way to spend
a rainy spring Sunday -- browsing the bookstore shelves.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Just leave your wallet home if
you're like me! Bring five bucks for coffee and a cookie.
|
|
quixote
|
Are "best seller"
lists (say 1 t0 10) a sign of the market?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Yes and no.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
They're a sign of what is
selling very well now (and those lists can be manipulated and are)
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
but you CAN notice trends.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
If the top best sellers are
all romance or all self help books in the NF lists...that tells you what
people are reading.
|
|
charie'
|
Talk to your bookseller and ask
which books readers want but aren't on the shelf yet.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
That's an excellent
suggestion, charie.
|
|
geezer
|
How many lambs?
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Four, geeze. Two singletons
and one set of twins. My three ewes are all young. I'll have more twins
next year.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Well, I'll post the transcript
of this in the usual place.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Writing Craft: Forum
Transcripts.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Do join me on Sunday for our
casual chat.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
I missed last Sunday! I'm
feeling deprived.
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
Thanks for coming, all!
|
|
Mary Rosenblum
|
See you Sunday. If it's
raining this weekend, hit the bookstore.
|
