The Best (and Funniest) Explanation of Book Design You'll Ever See

When I tried to figure out how to explain why this colorful TEDtalk by a book designer who's been around since the '80's is crucial watching for any author, I was stumped.

All I can say is, this not only made me fall in love with books all over again, it also made me wish I had this guy on my team. (Not to mention I suspect he'd be a riot at Friday night cocktails, but I'm getting off topic....)

The Mr. Kidd's barely-repressed hostility towards e-books aside, whether you design your own books or not, you've got to watch this:

 

Are You Two-Faced Online...By Accident?

No matter what kind of publishing we're pursuing, we all hear the
mantra "build your platform!"

Unfortunately, I think a lot of authors new to the idea of building a
business often mistake blog or twitter followers for a "platform". But
the truth is, the numbers on your page aren't necessarily an accurate
gauge of the reach of your brand.

I've had the opportunity to run my own business in the past - after I
worked for a guru in branding and business development. The following
are three simple mistakes I see a lot of authors making:

1. Two-faced Branding

If your blog URL is www.writerdreams.blogspot.com, your twitter
account is @snazzywriter and your facebook page is Aurora Beguiling,
you make it a lot harder for people to find you.

I think the common misconception is that if another writer finds you
on twitter they automatically look for your links to your blog and
facebook, etc. But the truth is that people's online habits vary
greatly. Most will happen across your blog and twitter separately. And
if they don't go looking for you on facebook directly they may never
get linked to your account. If they follow your blog, they may link to
it via blogger or Google, so unless you make a marked impression right
out of the gate, they probably won't remember that "Aurora Beguiling"
is the same person as "@snazzywriter".

The good news is, the solution is simple: Choose one name and one
picture and use them across the board. Make your URL, your twitter @
and your facebook name the same. When you use a photograph on one, use
the same or a visibly similar shot on others. Make it easy for people
to recognize you when they find you by accident and they'll start
noticing you more and looking for you.

2. Two-faced Audience

A huge misonception in author circles seems to be that having 15,000
followers on Twitter equates to several thousand books sold. This
couldn't be further from the truth IF you make and take a random
following.

See, most people on Twitter are after the same thing : more followers.
You can hit the airwaves and gain hundreds of followers a week if you
get out there enough. But what good does it do you as an author to
have 5,000 business accounts, 3,000 Gleeks, and 4,000 rabid dog
lovers following you? In terms of books sales I can guarantee you that
following will garner you next to zero dollars in the bank. What you
need as an unestablished author is a lot of book lovers following you
- especially those who are solid fans of your genre.

The solution here is simple, but vastly more time consuming: you've
got to get selective about who you follow and who follows you. The
best way to do that is to choose a theme and stick to it. Only follow
writers, readers and publishing professionals. Then make sure the vast
majority of what you put out there applies to that audience. When
you're following back, only follow those with an interest in writing
or books. Don't clog up your own airwaves with motivational speakers
and fitness fanatics. Stay focussed. Get into conversations with
people who might have an interest innbuying your book one day, and
improve your odds by connecting with people who state that in their
twitter account bios.

As a writer your theme is books, writing, reading, etc. Of course
there's room for personal connection and stories too, but beware of
point number three below. Your goal has to be to make your name
synonymous in followers minds with whatever you're going to want them
to buy in the end. Nothing (and I do mean, nothing) else.
3. Me-faced Themes

Okay, here's the biggie. Please don't shoot the messenger.

Very few people are interested in you (or me) as a person. It sucks,
but its true. Accept it and move on.

Most people will only keep coming back to our blog / twitter /
facebook accounts if they get something out of it FOR THEMSELVES.
People are inherently selfish, especially with their time. If they
don't know you or your work, or if you haven't achieved something they
wish they had, they don't care.

If, however, you can find a way to make your own journey benefit
others you've got a much better chance of repeat business in terms of
blog views, retweets, shares and likes, etc.

The solution here, quite frankly, is to stop assuming others are
interested in your life or feelings. That's not to say you should
never get personal - quite the contrary. Only that you need to find a
way to connect that benefits the other person.

For every blog post, tweet or status update,ask yourself one question:
What's in it for the reader? If the answer is consistently only
"getting to know me better" or "nothing" then you have a problem.

So how do you turn your daily life into social media interest from
potential buyers? I can't answer that for you directly, but I can give
you some clues.

First off, remember: humor is a payoff to just about anyone. If you
can break all the rules in a really funny way, you'll go far. But if
you can't, here are some guidelines.

DON'T: Spend a lot of time tweeting / blogging about how cute your cats are.

DO: Spend a lot of time tweeting / blogging about things you learned
about writing while trying to evade the advances of your overly
amorous cat who's currently in heat.

DON'T: Give a lot of airtime to your rejection letters and why they
were or weren't correct.

DO: Give a lot of airtime to analysing which parts of your query
letter worked (or didn't) in Mr. Snarlies Query Boot Camp.

DON'T: Spend all your tweet replies or blog comments telling other
people why they're wrong.

DO: Encourage other writers in whatever endeavors they are pursuing,
then use your own platform (blog or facebook) to express an opinion
and open dialogue on whatever topic is close to your heart. Invite
other people to tell you what they think. Or in other words, be the
kind of tweeter / blogger you wish everyone else was. Someone who's
interested.

Okay, I'm sure that's enough food for thought today. Go ahead and
comment with your thoughts. And yes, I do invite debate and dialogue
here at Seeking the Write Life. So if you disagree, go ahead and break
Don't #3 and tell me why. I am actually interested!

Bringing the Backlist Back

We all know there's a lot of change in the publishing industry right now. Personally I love when I see authors stepping into the new arenas. Here are a couple who have, with the help of their literary agency, brought previously out-of-print books back into availability:

- Deborah Camp (Contemporary and Old West Historical romances)


- Dan Streib (Thrillers)

They've got the agency behind them, along with standard amazon channels, etc.
 
So tell me what you think - are we going to see more of these kinds of endeavors in the future? Would you go this route with any out of print (or unpublished) works? Does knowing these titles were out of print affect your interest in them?
 
It's a bold new world out there. What do you think about it?
 
See you Monday with more self-editing tips.

The Dirty Business of Writing - Part II

We interrupt this blogpost to bring you a message from the author:  I was really grateful for all the positive support on my last couple of posts.  Thanks lovely writerly friends.  You've made blogging fun again. 

Now back to our scheduled programming....

A couple months back I read a really interesting blog from Kidlit.com.  You can read it here, but in short it is a response from an agent to the following question from a writer:

"What can we do to ensure that an actual agent sees my query? I’ve received rejection letters directly from assistants, therefore I know that the agent hasn’t seen my query or sample work. Perhaps the agent would have liked it, but if he or she wasn’t able to see it, then both the agent and I miss out on what could have been a wonderful opportunity."

The agent's response focused on something she called 'Assistant Attitude' and essentially warned writers never to underestimate the opinion of support staff in the industry.

It's a good post and I'd highly recommend reading it - especially if you've never worked in an assistant role yourself.  I'm lucky enough to have worked as a personal assistant one more than one occasion.  I'd not only agree with everything she says, but take it one step further:

You never know who's listening.  You never know who's watching.  Always conduct yourself as if the person who could make your career is on the other end of whatever you're dishing out.

On top of my experience as a Receiver of Assistant Attitude, I also used to work as a Recruitment Consultant.  Despite the fact that we were in competition with all the agencies in the city, all the Consultants knew each other - many of us worked together at various times.  We went to the same training conferences, attended the same client functions and shared countless contacts.

We talked.  And rarely about the good things.

In recruitment you're always on the lookout for the Freak in Sheep's Clothing.  No one wants to get saddled with Interviews-Well-But-Has-Anger-Issues Guy, or Cries-When-She-Doesn't-Get-Her-Way Lady. 

Why?  Because if I put Cries-When-She-Doesn't-Get-Her-Way Lady in a job and she causes problems, I look bad.  Client is unhappy and starts to question my judgement.  Friends of CWSDGHW Lady don't want to list with me because she's told them I'm a jerk. 

In short, no one wins.

So, we'd talk.  We'd warn each other - and on the occasions an alarm bell or two was ringing, we'd ask around. 

Discretion may be the better part of valor, but it ain't the currency of networking. 

If I apply this experience to the writing industry, that means if I'm obnoxious on twitter, sulky in an email, demand attention at a conference, or accuse an agent of something then other people in the industry are going to hear about it.  I'll be unfollowed, blocked, avoided or downright pilloried. 

This is business.  But sometimes business gets personal.  The way we writers handle ourselves in our online correspondence and networking says truckloads about what we're like to work with. 

So, next time you're tweeting, blogging, querying or commenting, I'd say Think It Through. 

Don't ever believe the comment you make to the Receptionist, or the 'funny' rant you let loose on your blog didn't get noticed. And the worse it was, the more people are fascinated with retelling it.

Stories will be told. Names will be mentioned.

Careers will be stopped in their tracks.

If you want to be part of the population of Publishing Town, suck it up and pretend you're a professional, even if you aren't.

Don't make this author's mistake.

Your Turn:  Have you seen something online (or in person) that gave someone a bad name?  Tell us about it - or better yet, post a link! 

The Dirty Business of Writing - Part I - NO MORE OSTRICH

Here's something I've observed consistently in two years of daily reading writing blogs (from editors, agents and writers):

- Some writers don't recognize writing is a business. 
- Some writers see their work as art - but they want to sell it commercially.
- Some writers resent the idea that another person has the 'make or break' call on their careers.
- Some editors / agents are tired of the aforementioned writers.

Maybe it's because my background is in business and marketing.  Maybe it's because I've been self-employed before.  Maybe it's just because I'm wired this way... but I can't understand why writers want to stick their heads in the sand about the business aspect of writing.

I'll make this short and sweet:  If you want to make money - any money - from writing, then you are in business.  Period.

You can pretend you aren't.  You can ignore the implications.  You can pay other people to handle the logistics.  But that doesn't change the fact that you're in business.

And here's the kicker:

If you want to be a cog in the wheel of the traditional publishing machine, learning how to function as part of the mechanism is unavoidable.

Why?  Because broken pieces of machinery are taken out and replaced with sparkly, new pieces that run smoothly and don't make a lot of noise.
You can hate it, fight it, rail against it... but your cog will still be removed... or worse - never given a shot at the BIG MACHINE in the first place.

And if you don't believe me, listen to these folk:

Rachelle Gardner
Sally MacKenzie via Jessica Faust
Steve Laube

The next post will be about how we conduct ourselves in the world of Writing-as-a-Business .

Your Turn: Do you see your writing as a business?  What do you do to make your business more successful?