Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need To Get Published Now (15 page)

The pub date finally arrives! (Pub date, you no doubt gathered, is short for the publication date. See our handy glossary for more on this and other publishing lingo.) Tony comes home from work and throws his Goofy head down on the floor, almost hitting the lovely fruit basket sent by his publisher to mark the day. He checks his messages and carefully goes over the itinerary sent by his publicity team—some readings in local bookstores over the next few weeks, several phoned-in radio interviews, and one trip out of town. Thanks to Laura’s efforts, the publisher found money in the budget to send him to that vampire/dog show event in Austin after all.

Tony takes a drive down to his local bookstore, and there it is, right on the New Fiction table, five copies of his first published book . . . next to a huge stack of John Grisham novels.

No, the world doesn’t stop for Tony’s publication date. But he’s now a legitimate published author with a new book that has “buzz”—and he has Laura to thank, in large part, for that. He has yet to experience his first fan letter, or the first time he sees a stranger reading his book on an airplane. Those will be wonderful moments, but none is quite as lovely as seeing his book on the New Fiction table for the very first time.

IF THINGS DON’T TURN OUT TO BE PERFECT (AND WHEN HAVE THEY EVER?)

In a less-perfect scenario, Tony’s editor might not be as competent or attentive . . . or might leave the company altogether in the middle of Tony’s book’s publication process. When an editor leaves mid-book (to keep the parental metaphor going) the book and author are described as “orphaned” and it’s not a good thing. The new editor won’t have the same level of interest in a project she did not acquire, and may even see some value in its failure. If an editor is inattentive or simply incompetent (or clearly too busy with that John Grisham title to care much about yours), you won’t be as lucky as Tony.

There are some things you can do to remedy these situations, and they have to do with—go figure—graciousness, charm, and walking the line between being a good communicator and a pest.

In a best-case scenario, your original editor would let her authors know that she is leaving and put you in touch with her replacement. When you are introduced to your new editor (either in person or by phone or e-mail), propose an in-person meeting if that’s possible. Do what you can to develop a good relationship; then get out of the way. If you feel like your concerns are not being addressed, or worse, this would be a good time to ask your agent to act as your advocate and get you a little more attention from the editorial department. Most of all, trust the process and don’t take your frustrations out on your new editor just because your old editor decided to move, or go to graduate school, or run for president, or something.

With an editor who simply isn’t good at his job, if you can afford the extra expense you might want to enlist the aid of a professional book doctor or freelance editor, just to make sure your book is the best it can be. However, it’s worth noting that the in-house editor has the final say on edits, and the publisher could end up rejecting a freelance editor’s changes. But please don’t assume that these unhappy scenarios will be the case.

BOTTOM LINE

Most editors are true professionals who really care, who will do the very best they can to help your book succeed, and who will still be working at the same house when you are shopping your second manuscript. And we firmly believe there’s no book in the world that doesn’t benefit from the intelligent and judicious attention of a skilled, experienced editor.

What the heck
is
marketing, and how do you do it for your own book? We’ll try to provide a simple overview to this complicated question.

But before we discuss marketing and publicity, we want to make it clear that the most important thing you can ever do for your book is write a great manuscript. A wonderful book makes everyone’s job easier. The sales people want to sell it, media producers want to book the author, and booksellers are enthusiastic. But what is a great manuscript? Now, for another twist: instead of thinking only about how beautiful or revolutionary or clever your writing is or how intensive or groundbreaking your research is or the reasons why your book is destined to become a classic, think instead about who your audience is, why anyone should pick up your book (or click on it online) and buy it. Why would a bookseller steer someone to your book? Why would a producer be interested in you? It is this combination—a timely manuscript on a subject of interest by a qualified, talented, disciplined author— that makes for a terrific, successful manuscript. Write a good book, because a great marketing plan will not always overcome mediocrity.

MARKETING

The goal of marketing is to ignite a word-of-mouth campaign so that your book will begin to take on a life of its own. Without this, interest in the book will die out and the publisher will, logically, move on to the next project. The hard truth is that most books don’t make enough money to warrant the publisher keeping the title in print and many don’t reach the point where the publisher starts paying the author royalties, which can only happen if the book has “earned out” (more about this later—also, see the glossary). Publishers make their money on the minority of books that succeed.

We’re not trying to discourage you. In fact, we are trying to encourage you to take your writing and your role as author seriously enough that you challenge your own preconceptions about this process. What kind of book are you best suited to write? If you want your book to lead the pack, you must write in a genre and deliver a manuscript that suits you as an author, in terms of both your talent and skills and your background and education (formal and informal—for some books, for instance, time spent in prison can come in handy), and write on a subject for which there is an audience, in a manner that communicates your story and message. All this is to give yourself the best possible shot at finding the readers who will buy your book.

In a trade publishing house—one that publishes for the general consumer market—the marketing department develops materials designed to help the sales force get orders from retailers. These materials include catalogue copy, cover design, in-store displays, advertising, online presence, giveaways and promotions, outreach to organizations and mailings, and anything else they can come up with to get attention in a crowded market.

HOW MARKETING WORKS

Here’s how it usually works: after a book is acquired by a publisher, a publicity and marketing plan and budget are put together before the manuscript is completed. Plans can change, but the initial budget is based on such factors as sales projections and early media interest. Your company-assigned publicist will start sending out copies of your book to reviewers several months before your publication date. These can be in the form of a simply bound manuscript, galleys or advance readers copies (ARCs), or finished books. Once the book is in stores you’ll have about six more weeks of her attention before she has to move on to other projects. Keep in mind that this publicist is working on several other books at the same time, has to go to way too many meetings, and in the case of first-time authors is working with a very small budget.

There are ways to supplement your publisher’s efforts. Several months before publication, ransack your address book and provide names and addresses of your personal media contacts and any authors or prominent people you know who might give you endorsements; set up some book-signing events in areas where you know a lot of people who are likely to show up; and let your publicist know when and where you plan to be traveling on your own, in case there’s media or bookstore interest in other cities.

Tough Love from the Author Enablers

Don’t bug or harass or whine at your publicist to the point where she has to spend so much time talking to you that she doesn’t have time to publicize your book, and might even grow to dislike you. Be polite, friendly, and informative, but don’t use her as a punching bag or therapist. The more time she has to spend talking you down, the less time she’ll have to work on your book. ‹«

We can’t overemphasize how important it is to determine the demographics of the audience for your book (twelve- to fourteen-year-old girls and their moms, middle-aged football fans, armchair archeologists, etc.). A clear sense of the audience will help your marketing and publicity team as they develop the appropriate materials.

MORE WAYS YOU CAN HELP MARKET YOURSELF

Maintaining your web presence is a low-cost and effective means for getting the word out about your book, upcoming appearances, reviews, and so on, so make sure you have an appealing book-related website, whether or not you, your publisher, or both of you are handling updates and maintenance.

Watch the news for opportunities to present yourself as an expert to local and national media outlets. Remind your publicist that you can be called upon to comment on breaking stories. Always make sure you have a copy of your book on hand, even when you travel. Keep networking, and look for opportunities to participate in group readings with other authors—which is, by the way, one of many good reasons to be nice to and maintain contact with your colleagues.

PUBLICITY

As you come close to your publication date, the publicity element of your book’s campaign kicks in. There is no sharp line between marketing and publicity; the two are different approaches to the same goal: getting attention for your book so it will sell.

THE PROS AND CONS (AND TIMING) OF HIRING YOUR OWN PUBLICIST

Many authors consider hiring an independent publicist to supplement the efforts of the in-house publicity team. Knowing that most in-house publicists are working on several projects at a time and have a limited window in which to concentrate on any title, this can be a great idea—but there are several factors to consider before making this commitment, which can be an expensive proposition since it will most likely mean shelling out money from your own pocket.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to hire a publicist once your book is released, and many of the best independent publicists will not consider signing on to a project unless they have the opportunity to do so well in advance of the pub date. For example, long-lead magazines choose their content at least four months in advance, and you want to coordinate the coverage of your book to fall into the crucial window between the time your book goes on sale and two months later, when the publisher and the world begin to move on. This time frame varies with different types of books, but in general those first two months are when a lot of things are going to happen—in other words, it’s show time.

Then there’s this simple fact of (human) nature: if your assigned in-house publicist knows that you’ve hired someone else to do the heavy lifting, he may be tempted to concentrate on other projects with the limited time available.

Still, the right publicist, hired well in advance of the pub date, can do wonders for a book. It depends on you, the subject matter of your book, your comfort level with the in-house marketing plan, and your budget. We don’t recommend taking out a second mortgage to finance your publicity campaign, but if you have the extra bucks handy then the investment might make sense. For instance, let’s say you are an aspiring children’s book author who has written the
Boopsie and Wigglebottom
adventure series, and you also just met a publicist who is a genius at publicizing children’s books. In this situation, by all means, hire the publicist.

In the best of all scenarios, the freelance publicist will work well with your in-house team, everyone will supplement and enhance each others’ efforts, and you, Boopsie, and Wigglebottom will hit one out of the park.

PLAN AHEAD

Whether you’re thinking about publicity or any other aspect of your publishing journey, it’s crucial to remember that by the time a book is published it is too late to make suggestions or complain or decide to hire a publicist or, really, take any action at all that will affect the publicity campaign at or close to the on-sale date. (The on-sale date is the term used in publishing for, duh, the date the book officially goes on sale. Sometimes retailers ignore this date and sell early, but they’re not supposed to.) Decisions are made and budgets are set long before this time comes, and that’s why it’s important to meet your deadlines and communicate with your publisher every step of the way.