Write That Book Already!: The Tough Love You Need To Get Published Now (3 page)

MINING FOR
GOLD

Along the way everything will get refined, and in the process your book may even morph into something else. Your title may change (actually, this is likely to happen), a subtitle may get added, and the manuscript will need revision—perhaps even a major overhaul. The one-liner “elevator pitch” that you came up with to describe the book may become an altogether different one-liner. The changes will keep coming.

This may be disconcerting, but we suggest that you approach all the roughhouse this way: instead of thinking, “I am the author, and this is my book—what do these people know?” try to think, “This is exciting—people are interested enough in me and my book to invest their time and energy into making it more salable.” This doesn’t mean you can’t fight for what you believe in, especially if it comes down to the integrity of your book or your own core beliefs. But stay loose and open—some of the ideas that are suggested to you may be improvements.

A TRUE-LIFE EXAMPLE TO ILLUSTRATE OUR POINT

For example (just to pull an example out of the air), let’s say you’ve come up with an idea for a combination inspiration/humor book that teaches the reader how to become more playful in life via learning to play the harmonica. It’s a unique idea, but when you describe it to publishing professionals the first comparison title that seems to come to mind is
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
and despite the fact that neither you nor anyone else you’ve talked to about your idea has ever actually read
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
it is a well-known, strong-selling book with a recognizable title that pairs an odd combination of concepts. In other words, your book is a little weird, but so is
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
, and it sold a ton of copies, so maybe yours will too!

Your book,
How to Play,
is sold to a small publisher of elegant design books and earthy humor books, and you are introduced to your editor via e-mail. The editor likes the humor aspects of your book, and asks you to beef them up, so you do. Then she asks for major cuts in word count, so that your manuscript will conform to a required design template. Many of these cuts make good sense— and will make for a stronger book. You get rid of some redundancies and the weaker jokes, but there are a few suggested cuts you simply don’t want to make. This is an instance where choosing your battles will stand you in good stead. If you’ve been a good sport about making changes that weren’t crucial to you, you’ll have more credibility when you stand up for the passages you feel are essential, like the passage where you quote John Belushi saying “I owe it all to little chocolate donuts.” Who wouldn’t fight for keeping
that
in their book?

YOU CAN’T MAKE A SILK PURSE FROM A SOW’S EAR

Getting back to all that selling—the publisher needs to start with good materials. The first and most important matter is a shipshape manuscript, or a good proposal if you are writing nonfiction (including at least part of a well-written manuscript). Next, research the market for your book. Don’t take this task lightly—it will benefit everyone to know what else is out there. This research will tell you what’s selling now or recently that is similar, and how your book is unique—if it is.

Don’t be afraid to face the fact that someone else may have already successfully done what you are attempting to do. This may mean you need to rethink your idea, or even throw it out. It also may mean that there is a huge market for your kind of book, in which case you are planning to jump on the bandwagon and aren’t that concerned with originality. Perhaps you can tweak your idea just enough to say, “See, this is new and different!” even though it really isn’t all that unique. Putting a new spin on a comfortably familiar idea is something that is done all the time. Originality is a complex concept and we are not going to attempt to wrestle it to the ground here. Suffice it to say, each book is a different case. At times it seems as if there is nothing new under the sun, so don’t worry about it, just invent a better mousetrap (and, if you correctly guess the number of clichés in this paragraph, our hats are off to you). From another perspective: each book and author is unique, and you don’t need to try too hard to be the first, the only, and so on—you already are an original. Just keep your mind open to what the world needs and watch for your niche.

Tough Love from the Author Enablers

Do you want to be a published author, or did you really just write this book for yourself or your own private audience? Now’s the time to decide, because once you engage an agent and sell to a publisher your book isn’t solely yours anymore. ‹«

Your editor works with you on your manuscript changes, and then springs another surprise: the sales reps don’t think the title
How to Play
will be easy to sell to their accounts, and they want to change the title to something you aren’t sure works. At this point, it might be prudent to get your agent involved, so she can act as the “bad cop” and insist that more thinking go into the title question, or title/subtitle question if your book is nonfiction—remembering, of course, that your contract likely stipulates that the publisher does indeed have the right to change the title and design the cover as well, not to mention change your name if they don’t like it. No, just kidding about the name thing. We have never heard of a publisher ever insisting on such an outrageous demand. Suggesting, maybe, even strongly. Perhaps misspelling your name on the book jacket by mistake. But never actually telling you to change your name. Really. Who would do such a thing? Hollywood, maybe, but not a book publisher.

A compromise is finally reached, and
How to Play
has become
How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons
. There’s a lot less har- monica and inspiration, a lot more humor. The cover is catchy, and while you worry that it might not capture your original vision . . . well, they may be right and you may be wrong. Who knows?
How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons
just might jump off the shelves into the arms of eager impulse buyers. You do need the force to be with you—the sales force, that is—and this is the title they ultimately agreed they could do the best job of selling.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK (BEFORE YOU GO OUT TO PLAY)

Researching the competition and market can take some time. It is easy to go to the websites of online retailers and get a snapshot of what’s selling now. Amazon and Barnes & Noble both offer search mechanisms and sales rankings, and take our word for it, professionals in publishing use these sites all the time for their own research and to keep an eye on market trends. Publishing professionals are aware that Amazon ranking can be misleading. The ranking is affected by how often the title is searched (and not necessarily sold), and does not reflect sales in other retail outlets. You should also visit a variety of bookstores to see how books are displayed, and which titles are front and center. Talk to the bookstore employees, especially those who seem more experienced, and ask them which titles, similar to yours, they might recommend—and how well those books are selling. Go to your library and do a similar exercise. Make a list of the competitive titles, including author, publisher, publication date, and whether the book hit any bestseller lists or won awards, and write a brief description, focusing on those from recent years and including a few classics of the genre. Read some reviews for these books (these can be found online). Remember, all this research will make you a more knowledgeable, savvy author, and will equip you for making your pitch—and for writing a better book.

Determining accurate sales numbers for the competition titles is harder. Publishers don’t generally reveal these numbers, except when they want to brag (“More than one million copies sold!”). There are services that provide this information for the industry, but it isn’t the author’s job to provide sales numbers in detail—you have enough other work to do. If you do the research above you should have a good sense of which titles succeeded and to what degree, and your agent or the editor can fill in the details.

A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN NEEDS A SOLID PLATFORM

Aside from the competitive research and your daily writing, you can be laying the groundwork for your platform. “Platform” is a term used to define the group of people who know who you are and care about what you have to say, starting with your mother. Platforms are as varied as the authors who are standing on them. Some people develop a platform first, by being experts in fields that make them of interest as public speakers or writers. Perhaps they write articles in newspapers, in magazines, online, or all of the above. Perhaps they go before audiences and speak. Maybe they get on radio or television. Maybe they blog or tweet to thousands, or send out a monthly newsletter. Maybe they do some combination of all or some of these.

If you think about it, this kind of a platform can apply to any number of situations. A popular minister or rabbi can have a platform. So can a teacher or professor, or a health professional or healer, or a martial artist, or a motivational speaker, politician, artist (performing or otherwise), athlete, soldier, astronaut, mother of twenty-two, business person, clown, or horse whisperer. But the list is not limited to people in reputable fields—actors, con artists, people in prison, people who should be in prison, and other shady characters may develop platforms because their stories are unique or they are great salespeople, writers, or speakers. (Concerning the latter two, Sam’s brother Dave comes to mind.) Additionally, a person may have experienced a personal tragedy or overcome adversity and become a spokesperson for a particular cause or issue. The point is, this is someone with something to say that the world wants to hear.

FICTION WRITERS AND PLATFORM

Fiction writers, don’t despair—we know this all sounds like it applies only to the world of nonfiction. And to some degree it does. Your primary job as a fiction writer is to create a good book by the standards of your genre—lots of beautiful sentences with a convoluted, hard-to-follow plot if you are shooting for literary fiction, two dead people and a tough hero character established by page three if you are writing a thriller, a likeable, spunky female character looking for (and finding) a great guy if you are writing a romance (you’ve got to throw in an evil but sexy vampire if you are writing a vampire romance), and so on. You know your genre, or you should. Of course we kid about the stereotypes. No one writes according to such simplistic formulas! Well, yes, they do, but the ones who succeed know how to tell a great story and are exceptional at what they do—and some even invented the formula.

But getting back to fiction writers and platform—the best thing you can do is get some of your writing out there into the world. Write short fiction and get it published anywhere you can. Go to writers’ workshops if you can afford the time and tuition. Teach writing if that makes sense for you. See if you can get a short piece of yours published online or read on the radio. Write topical pieces about unique experiences in your life. It’s okay to cross over and do a little nonfiction writing—good writing is good writing, and getting published or noticed in any way can’t hurt your career.

For you nonfiction writers, the path to building a platform is clearer but also more demanding, because the expectations are higher. Publishers want to know that you already have something going. So here are some ways to get started.

BUILDING YOUR PLATFORM, ONE PERSON AT A TIME

Believe it or not, you can develop fans one person at a time. (Sam has, personally, developed fourteen fans in his life, though not for himself.) Let’s say you do a lot of public speaking about the benefits of green kamut for maintaining digestive health, but the crowds are small. Make some appealing business cards or small flyers and make sure you have a few on hand (in your purse, car, briefcase, pocket, underwear) at all times. Don’t be obnoxious about forcing them on people, but the next time you’re sitting on an airplane and overhear your seatmate burp repeatedly and say “Gosh, I wish I knew more about how to maintain my digestive health,” it’s the perfect opportunity for you to whip out your card and promote your product and yourself . . .
and
you might end up with a new stalker! You’ll recognize your fan when you pick up the phone and the heavy breathing is interrupted by burps. Here are some more ways to build your platform: