The Road to Publication: Backroads vs. Superhighway

Hi there! Summertime has invaded life, and kept me busy (plus a new job). But today I'm blogging over at Writing from the Peak. We're talking about whether it's a good thing to enjoy a rapid path to publication, or if there's some benefit to the process being dragged out (many times far longer than we'd like!). Stop by and say hi.

What did I do last weekend?

What a weekend! I'm so sad the Pikes Peak Writers Conference is over, but I don't think I could have continued at that pace for one more day. I'm still recovering.

Workshops
The workshops I attended (between my volunteer responsibilities) were fantastic. Among them:

• Hooking your readers in one paragraph--or less, with historical novelist David Liss. Liss covered famous and not-so-famous first lines and paragraphs, analyzing what makes them entice the reader, and which ones (surprisingly) don't do the job well.
• Creating Dazzling Worlds, with YA author Laura Resau. Though I'd never heard of Resau, I was really impressed with her writing exercises to help bring freshness and dimension to both storyworlds and characters. Her excerpts from her books made me want to go read them.
• How to avoid the sophomore slump, with Barry Eisler. He explained techniques to make your second novel as good as, or better than the first.
• Ghostwriting Panel. This one was interesting, with three authors talking about their experiences both working for book packagers (and ghostwriting for some seriously famous people), and using your writing skills to barter for services. Something to think about.
• The Neuroscience of Writing, with DeAnna Knippling. Such a fascinating workshop, helping writers understand exactly why they should avoid cliches, among many other topics.
• Plot, structure, and pushing your characters, with agent Hannah Bowman. A seriously helpful and interactive workshop, with a plot diagram you've never seen before--but it makes so much sense!

Pitches & Critiques
I pitched both formally and informally--one of the best things about going to a conference!

• Pat Van Wie, editor at Bell Bridge Books. Though Belle Bridge hasn't published YA historical fantasy, Pat was willing to take a look at my manuscript and see what she thought.
• Barry Goldblatt, agent with Goldblatt Literary. Though Barry has represented both fairy tale retellings (Shannon Hale) and YA historical fantasy (his wife, Libba Bray), he felt that the market wouldn't support more books in the fairy tale genre.
• Hannah Bowman, agent with Liza Dawson Associates. I caught her in the hall and asked her opinion, and she disagreed with Goldblatt's assessment. She recently sold a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and the publisher is marketing it specifically as a fairy tale. She'd like to see my pages.
• Pam van Hylckama Vlieg, with Larsen Pomada Literary Agents. I spoke to her while driving her to the airport. Like Bowman, she feels there is still room for well-told fairy tales. She'd like pages, too. And while I was talking to Pam, I had author and actress Amber Benson (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in the back seat. Such a crazy weekend!

Meals
Meals at conferences are a great way to network with other attendees, and spend time with faculty in a more relaxed setting.

• Lunch with SourceBooks editor Deb Werksman was so much fun. Though she edits romance exclusively, she was so kind to genuinely engage the three male sci-fi writers who happened to sit at the table. I also had a great time going along on her Colorado tour and yarn shopping.
• Nicole Resciniti, agent with The Seymour Agency, is so well-read and smart. I think I'll definitely query her.
• Dinner with author Libba Bray was amazingly fun, as was her keynote speech the next night. She could easily make a living as a stand-up comic. And she was kind enough to sit down with my daughter and her friend and work through their story worlds.

•  Barry Eisler (who went from traditional publishing to indie) gave a keynote that shared the different sides of publishing. Some industry professionals did not take it well. If you want to know more, read the recap on Joe Konrath's blog.

 All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I can't say enough about how much fun it is to volunteer at a conference. Have you ever volunteered at a conference?

Free Publishing Teleseminar: get your questions anwered by three professionals

 You've heard their names before. I've blogged about them. Former publishing CEO Michael Hyatt. Uber-agent Chip MacGregor. Up-and-coming agent Amanda Leudeke.

Next Wednesday, April 10th, at 8pm Eastern Time, writers everywhere have an opportunity to participate in a free teleseminar with all three. It's called the Get Published Teleseminar.

The seminar is one hour long, and will answer many publishing questions, including questions on platform (which Michael Hyatt wrote a book about). Even if you can't make the meeting, sign up, and you'll receive an MP3 link replay after it's done.

When you register, you have the chance to ask any question you want--great if there's a few things you really want addressed.

If a writing conference isn't in your future, make sure to take advantage of workshops like these.

What is the publishing question you'd most like the answer to?

Self-Publishing Tips for Indie Authors

 These days, you can barely click a link without hearing something about ebooks, self-publishing, or indie authors. Along with all the other decisions and jobs a writer undertakes, this one is a big one. I still don't know which way I'll go when my manuscript is ready, so I figure it's a good idea to stay on top of what's happening.

And there's a lot happening.

A new title.
There's something new. Authors who start out putting their own book up for sale and later accepting print deals are now called 'hybrid authors'. Agent Kristin Nelson explains what's going on with hybrid authors.

One of those authors is Nelson's own Hugh Howey, the author of Wool. Nelson (and many other agents) courted him. A nice way for things to work out, right? Check out Howey's own account of how things went down.
 
Another author enjoying great ebook sales that led to a print deal is Jennifer L. Armentrout, with her book Wait for You. Forbes published an article on her, titled The Fast-Track to Making a Million Dollars from Writing Books.

A new perception.
There used to be quite a stigma attached to those who took on publishing themselves. There's still some stigma, but not like it used to be. In fact, indie authors are increasingly proving that they don't need publishers at all--or might accept them on their own terms. Check out this post called Self-Publishers: The New Generation of Cool Kids.


Even the Big Six (or five) are discovering huge sales in the ebook market. Lucrative electronic sales were documented by Publishers Weekly.


A new opportunity.

Many authors are discovering the benefits of publishing single short story titles and anthologies in ebook form. Author and writing teacher James Scott Bell promotes this idea. He's got a nice list of traditionally published books, but found extra money by publishing his short story titles. His article (which includes some great plotting info for short story writers) will encourage writers who have found little success querying literary journals. And speaking of literary journals, it was fascinating to read how one writer used an actual New Yorker story to query literary journals. His results are worth reading in The New Yorker Rejects Itself: A Quasi-Scientific Analysis of Slush Piles.

A new perspective.
Pricing ebooks remains a murky area. With hundreds of thousands of individuals making their own decisions, as opposed to a handful of long-standing publishers, there's a huge number of different ideas on pricing. One idea is to offer the first book in a series free, in order to entice readers to take a chance on a new author. Writer Jordyn Redwood examines this idea in Is Free Always Good? On the other hand, some authors believe that free or low-cost pricing devalues the product. Dean Wesley Smith makes some pertinent points on the subject in The New World of Publishing: Book Pricing from Another Perspective. Definitely worth some consideration.

So where do you fall? On stigma, pricing, perception, etc. Is the idea of going the indie route attractive to you? Have you already taken the plunge?

To post your novel online or not . . .

Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng

Just a short post today. I'm sitting in an ICU room with a family member, and after two nights with snatches of sleep, I'm having a hard time stringing coherent thoughts together. So I'm sending you over to the very worthwhile blog of Kendra Merritt, a fantasy writer I met at a query workshop earlier this year.

Kendra is a writer full of amazing ideas. Her twist on fantasy includes main characters with disabilities. Kendra herself makes use of a wheelchair, the result of a spinal cord injury three months before her wedding. I can't wait to read her books when she's published. What fantastic plots she's concocted!

Her recent post shows her thought process as she's tried to decide whether or not to post some of her work online in order to get feedback. You know the argument: you need feedback to make it better, but what about all those people who are poised to snatch your words away? Kendra cuts through the confusion with some real wisdom and clarity on why you might want to post your work on your blog.

You might be interested in checking out more of Kendra's posts, like Breaking the Block (if you're experiencing writer's block), or What's In a Name?, where she includes a great link to search for names by meaning or country of origin. Definitely something I can use.

How do you feel about posting excerpts of your novel online? Would the benefits outweigh the risks?

21st Century Inspiration from Donald Maass

As promised here are some highlights of Donald Maass' keynote speech from the 2012 Pikes Peak Writers Conference. This is what agent Weronika Janczuk tweeted after his talk:

Maass gave three predicitons for 21st century fiction:

1. Selling books will be harder, but once you have an audience, selling will be easier. Online sales are harder because you can't see the physical product.

Maass believes there are only two main factors in pre-purchase awareness: in-store displays and word of mouth. You're probably saying, "But what about the internet? Social media?" Maass shared the statistics, and part of the least helpful kinds of marketing included social networks, print newspaper ads, publisher emails, book blogs, reviews, and even bestseller lists.

He said if you walk into a bookstore, just strolling one aisle will expose you to far more books than a chunk of time browsing on Amazon.

2. The whole concept of genre is dying. Ignore genre boundaries. Make your own sub-genre. Don't put yourself in a box. He gave examples of novels that do this already and do it successfully. It makes me realize it's up to writers to find the stories that straddle genres and entice readers.

3. There will be novels that change the world. Maass spoke of his recently adopted son, who is just starting to read. He wondered which books (yet to be written) will affect his son's life. Who will write these books for him?

Maass ended with a fantastic line:

Selling books may be harder, but selling great books has always been easy.

What do you think of Maass' predictions?

What Defines a Bestseller?

While researching literary agents, I've come across something similar on many of their websites. When describing what they're looking for, quite a few mention they would like to find books "at the intersection of literary and commercial". 

What does that mean? It sounds like a vague description of a book that reads like literary fiction, but enjoys commercial success. But how does an agent identify which manuscripts will sell well? I guess they guess.

Recently, agent Rachelle Gardner asked readers for questions she could answer on her blog. So I asked, "What are some examples of books that fall into the mysterious literary/commercial intersection?"

Today she answered.

Head over to Gardner's blog to see how she responded. The comments are interesting, with a lively discussion of what some consider to be good examples of this hard-to-define kind of book.

What do you think? Have you read books that seem like good examples of literary and commercial success? And do you think your manuscript would qualify?

Who Are the Big Six Publishers?

Now that my contest entry is finished and sent, it's time to catch up on my NaNoWriMo word count. So today's post will be brief.

When you're trying to wrap your mind around publishing as a business, it's really hard to visualize all the imprints and the parent companies they're connected to. I searched online to see if anyone had done a kind of "family tree" of publishers and imprints, but I had no luck.

Fortunately, a couple of bloggers have compiled the information:

Steve Laube is a literary agent with an excellent blog. In Who Owns Whom in Publishing, he lists the Big Six along with their imprints. And being a Christian agent, he also includes a list of privately-owned Christian publishers.

And author Scott Marlowe has a similar list: Publishing's Big Six: Who are they? His list includes clickable links to each of the imprints. Marlowe's list was compiled in early 2010, so there are likely some changes.

With all the imprints out there, it's surprising that only six companies rule the publishing world. Of course there are many indie imprints. You can find out more about them at All Indie Publishing, and Indie Publishing on the Cheap.

Have you researched which imprints or indie publishers would be a good fit for your manuscript?