DennigerBolton.com - Article - You Can't Judge a Book by its Author

Article - You Can't Judge a Book by its Author

You Can't Judge a Book by its Author:

Despite the Odds, You Can Get Your Book Published

Writing your manuscript is taking a road less traveled. In the grand scheme of things, although 80% of Americans want to write a book, not that many actually start it. Out of 100 writers who start writing a novel, only 3 finish it. Not too many. That’s 3%, right? Getting your novel published is not even a road it’s trail through the woods. “Maybe the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason,” said Jerry Seinfeld. But it’s what I have wanted to do since I was 14 and I’ve learned some things these last 20 years. Would you believe 30?

According to Somerset Maugham, author of The Razor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage, “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.”

HEAVEN/HELL JOKE

A novelist died and was sent to St. Peter for processing. Pete gave the novelist the opportunity to check out both heaven and hell and decide for herself where she wanted to end up. So down to hell she went. There was a special room just for writers. They were chained to a desk and forced to write day and night, and whacked by these big long wooden rulers by someone who looked like your 3^rd grade teacher. Not liking that, she went up to heaven and it was the exact same scene. All the writers were chained to their desks. Forced to write. Whipped my Sister Mary Petronella.

“Wow, St. Peter, it’s just the same.”

“Not exactly, in heaven you at least get published.”

I’m here to share a little about what I’ve learned about writing and creativity. And as you know from the intro, I am invested in a publishing company.

Writing is an art and publishing is a science. And creativity overlays them both. Creativity is a gift. Here’s a quote from Buckminster Fuller, “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.” You don’t know when you start a book what the final result will be.

Or as Michelangelo reputably said about his sculpture David, “ I merely chipped away everything that wasn’t David.”

WRITERS & PUBLISHERS

Writers and publishers are two different animals, aren’t they?

Writers, like all artists, all inspired types, are right brained. We think of writers as creative. In business, writers are the Design department.

Publishers, on the other hand, operate from their left brain. Bottom line oriented. Publishers are the fulfillment part. They take what the writers give them and run with it. Production and Marketing. In 1890, William James said, and I quote, “Publishers are demons, there is no doubt about it.”

I went to a publisher conference last year. Everyone was nice. Un-demon-like. But everyone was concerned not so much with the merits of the, but how to sell it.

Whole Brained

This little talk will be whole brained since it covers both the writing of the novel (right) and the publishing of it (left). It took both sides of my brain to manifest this baby. (SHOW AUDIENCE HIPPIE HOLLOW).

This is my book. Hippie Hollow – Murder on a Nude Beach. I describe it as a murder mystery with humor. And a love story, and I am sure to include this angle this since the biggest sellers in fiction books are romance novels. A lot of Austin in it. It has sex, drugs, rock & roll, actually more like country/western, yes, there’s some boot scootin’ involved, religion, politics. Keep Austin Weird characters. It’s “Carlos Castaneda meets Hank the Cowdog.” And I know you will find this amazing, but there are autographed copies available for sale at the back of the room.

Writing a novel

First it was an idea I had. From this in due course became 300 pages and 100,000 words all arranged in sentences, paragraphs and chapters. Like magic it morphed into a manuscript. Stephen King calls it taking it to the basement where there is a man who actually writes his stories. (PAUSE). But however you see it, there is a creative force that will help you get ‘er done. And I don’t care who you are, we need all the help we can git.

Once I got it. The manuscript, that is, I took the traditional route and shopped it to literary agents and eventually found one who was interested in at least reading it. I figured if I contacted 50 agents, I would find at least one who would like it. I fired off 25 query letters and got 3 positive responses. And one who really liked it. Said she liked my voice. I was so proud. So she and I banged our heads against the heavy oaken doors of traditional publishing and actually got an offer, which I turned down and I’ll tell you why. It was horrible. There had to be a better way. Then came the realization that with a little help from some of my friends, I could hire a book printer, a cover designer an illustrator, and start my own publishing empire.

First let’s take a look at writing, and then we’ll look at publishing.

Writing

Now that people are seeing me as an author, no matter where I go, I get asked the same 3 questions, so I thought I’d give you the answers first. The answers are:

About 4 years.

4 a.m. to 7 a.m.

And yes I am.

Oh, you want to know the questions.

How long did it take you to write Hippie Hollow? About 4 years.

Do you have a certain time of day set aside to write? Yes, I write from 4 a.m. or sometimes I sleep in to 5 a.m., writing until 7 a.m. That’s 2 to 3 hours a day. I have had, through most of writing of this book, a day job. Pure Luck Farm and Dairy. Might have heard of that. We make goat cheeses. So, after 7 or 8, I launch into farming and dairying. I find my creative time is not late at night and being a morning person, I feel better and more creative early in the morning. You would have to figure this out for yourself. Easy enough.

Just a hint. If you feel you are too busy to add writing to the mix, you maybe ought to give up some things. TV. Crossword puzzles. Reading. Sleep. Those are all things I had to work on. At this time I am going for writing and publishing full time but I still get up early and write, which is my creative time, and do other things throughout the day, like make sales calls and speaking and paperwork and accounting. I do save creative accounting for early morning hours. (PAUSE)

And the third question I get asked which is more of a marketing question. Are you making any money with the book? Are you able to support yourself? That’s two different questions, isn’t it? I’m doing okay. Have gotten into Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book People, able to do some retail with the web site and working at fairs and festivals. I’ve done pretty well at farmer’s markets. I even go to the flea markets and do signings and readings at coffee shops. But that’s another subject but right now we’re still talking about writing. If you want to know more about marketing a book you can ask a question in our Q&A afterwards, or see me at the table back there.

The Secret

The secret to writing a book, as I see it, is to get words on paper, or on the screen. You’ll need a story, a plot, some characters, and in the novels like I write, a good guy, a bad guy. You’ll need words that will become sentences and then paragraphs and chapters and then a manuscript. A novel or any book is something you build. Like building a house, it’s a long term project.

Oh, and you also need your own style. And a belief in something that will take you from the idea onward to the completed manuscript. Maybe it’s the help of the Universe, God or your Muse, the guy in the basement, or whatever you call this thing called Love.

“The worst thing you write is better than the best you didn’t.” Unknown

How many mystery writers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Two. One to screw it in almost all the way and a second to give a surprise twist at the end.

Before we move into publishing, there are 4 things to consider about writing:

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

Be more or less specific.

Ask yourself, who needs rhetorical questions?

Last but not least, avoid clichés like the plague. They’re old hat.

Publishing

How many publishers does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Three. One to screw it in and the other two hold down the writer.

“How often we recall with regret, that Napoleon once shot at an editor and missed him and killed a publisher. But we remember with clarity that his intentions were good.” Mark Twain

Editors are a whole nother subject.

“Publishers are notoriously slothful about numbers, unless they’re attached to dollar signs- unlike journalists, quarterbacks and felony criminal defendants who tend to be deeply aware of numbers at all times.” Hunter S. Thompson

There are two paths you can take in getting your book published. Traditional and Independent.

Traditional Publishing

Knocking, or banging your head, against the heavy, oaken door, approach. The advantage is being picked up by a recognizable big named publishing house. Simon & Schuster. Doubleday. Random House. Penguin. That’s about it for benefits. It is suggested that you go through an agent to get into these people because editors will not read unsolicited manuscripts. I understand they toss them into a pile in the corner.

And to get an agent, you need to come up with a proposal on non-fiction and a query letter for fiction. There are books written about these subjects.

Having someone market you, the publisher, seems like it would be a benefit, but unless you’re John Grisham, you’re still going to have to do the marketing yourself.

Your cut of the profits is not going to be that much either. 5% is about it for a first timer. You might get an advance which has to be paid back in earnings before you make any more money. The big boys go for hard cover, so on a $30 book at 5% you make $1.50 per book. You sell a million books, that’s $1.5 mil. You sell 100 books that’s $150. Whoopdedoo.

Nielsen Bookscan reports of the 1.2 million books sold in 2004, only 10 authors sold over a million, not much of a chance of any of us doing that. On the other end of the spectrum, 950,000 authors out of those 1.2 million sold fewer than 99 copies, that’s 80% of all writers selling less than 100 copies. Sell over 100 and you are in the top 20% already.

Independent Publishing

There is a different formula. I’m not including Print on Demand POD where you print up a 100 or less books at a much higher price per book.

Here to get a good price, we would be talking about printing a 1000 minimum. The preferred book type is what is called a trade paperback. This one (HOLD UP HIPPIE HOLLOW) is 5 ½ by 8 ½ which is bigger than this (HOLD UP PAPERBACK), the mass paperback which sells for $5 or $6 dollars. That’s another game too. It’s big. Very few of us can play that game.

The trade can sell for up to $20 ($19.95 since that sounds so much cheaper). Costs per book which covers printing, freight from the printer, cover and interior design, editing, all the various numbers can be $5 per book on the first printing and $2 thereafter (design and editing, the numbers having been paid for already). Simple math gives a profit of $15 to $18 per book on a retail sale.

You give away 40% to an independent book store (where you deliver directly to the store) and 55% to Amazon dot com and to a wholesaler, who sells to Barnes & Noble and Borders. If you hire a distributor to sell for you that’s another chunk of the profits. It’s the same in every business, the closer you are to the end user, the customer, the reader, the more you make.

So selling 100 books at $15 per book, your profit is $1500. 1000 books at retail instead of $1500 made through a traditional publisher, is now $15,000. That’s what I’m talking about.

There is the investment because basically you are starting up a new company and have to do all the things Simon & Schuster does: The Library of Congress number, the ISBN which includes a bar code so the store can pick you up at the cash register, copyright, and on it goes. In addition to taking home more of the profits, the time to press is much quicker, a few months as opposed to a couple of years, and a very important benefit, you as the owner have complete editorial control. Or as Woody Allen once said, “I sold the memoirs of my sex life to a publisher. They are going to make a board game out of it.” He also said, “80 % of success is showing up.”

There is a handout in the back that lists a half dozen books that can help you if you want to check out independently publishing your manuscript.

Statistics

You ought to know that statistics are against you completing your novel. Out of 100 writers who begin a novel, only 3 make it to the completed manuscript stage. Then, out of all the manuscripts that are mailed to agents and editors, very few make it into book form. The sad fact is, very few even get read.

“I always find that statistics are hard to swallow and impossible to digest. The only one I can ever remember is that if all the people who go to sleep in church were laid end to end they would be a lot more comfortable.”

Statistics are just statistics. Nothing more. We don’t have to be scared of them. Success in reality depends much more on whether you make sure it’s a good book. Here’s a thought. Maybe it’s 97% of all manuscripts that are bad. Maybe only 3% are good enough to make into a book. Yours needs a good looking cover, professional looking, You should be able to read it from 10, is well written, a well thought out back cover, eye catching title and spine. If you take the independent approach, you will need to get your costs down especially if you sell to B&N and Amazon. And you got to get your price up as high as possible. If it’s a quality book, printed at the lowest cost possible and priced at the highest, your chances of making it are much, much better.

Marching right along. You’ve gotten your manuscript in excellent shape. You have it designed and have printed a 1000 copies.

Wife: “I want to make one thing perfectly clear.”

Husband: “What is that, dear?”

Wife: “The garage.”

The next step is selling it. Getting your car back in the garage.

There’s a saying from Wayne Dyer that you won’t see it until you believe it. How many have seen the movie “What the Bleep?” There’s a scene in there about when Columbus’s ships where off shore and the natives couldn’t see them. The shaman knew they were there from the ripples and wakes and stood there on the shore opening his eyes and mind until he final saw them. What was going on here? If you haven’t seen it, if there is nowhere in your belief system to accommodate three big ships, they won’t be real. If you don’t believe you can have this, you won’t.

But the good news, if you can see for yourself, you can have it. It’s a gift.

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