Friday Fun – Traditional vs. Indie Publishing

Friday Fun is a group post from the writers of the NHWN blog. Each week, we’ll pose and answer a different, get-to-know-us question. We hope you’ll join in by providing your answer in the comments.

QUESTION: It’s the million-dollar question – would you rather get that traditional publishing deal, go the entrepreneurial route with independent publishing, or come up with a hybrid arrangement? Explain your preference.

Diane MacKinnon: I’m in my 40′s, so I grew up imagining myself a published author with one of the big publishing companies, with an editor assigned to me and a big marketing budget! Well, that dream’s gone, but I still think it would be fun to have a publishing company want to publish my book. Having said that, I don’t think self-publishing has as much stigma as it used to. It depends what you are looking for. I can see the benefits of both. A lot of my coaching friends have self-published and they are very happy with with money they are making and the credibility they have gained from becoming authors. I think I’d still go with a traditional publisher if I ever finish the novel I’m working on (I’ll finish it, just not in the very near future.) I love that many authors are now publishing their own work and that publishers are then asking to represent them after the fact. I think a more equal playing field between publishers and authors is a very good thing!

Wendy Thomas: If we’re talking about hopes then I’d have to go with a big publishing house. It’s the same dream of an actress who wants to see her name in lights. If we’re going with reality, however, I think it’s more likely that I would go with an indie press. They seem to have a bit more marketing skills (hitting the specific audience) than the bigger houses do. To date, I have not looked into an indie press, but if and when the day comes, you better believe that I will put a lot of research into it. While there are some incredibly upstanding and reputable independent publishing houses out there, there are still far too many whose goal it is to part you from your money.

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Deborah Lee Luskin: My first novel was published by an independent micro-publisher with considerable success – including helping me have a choice of agents for my second book, which I’m hoping will come out with a mainstream house. If I were publishing non-fiction to a niche audience, I would definitely go indie by setting up my own imprint. Breaking into the market for literary fiction is harder. I learned a lot about both publishing and marketing with Into the Wilderness – and I took it as far as I could without an even greater investment in time, money and energy. In the end, I was glad to receive critical success with reviews and a prize and to sell 2,000 copies. It’s still available as an eBook, and I hope it will become available in soft cover again. The rights have reverted back to me, and I think about bringing it out myself, but right now I’m engaged in writing a new book, and I don’t want to break my momentum.

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Lisa J. Jackson: All of the above! For my novels I’m hoping for a traditional publisher, for romantic novellas I’ve gone with an e-publisher but now have my rights back and will be self-publishing, and for business non-fiction I’ll look into indies to see what’s out there. I’m open to whichever avenues seem to fit my needs best at the time. To land with one of the Big Houses for my mystery novels would be spectacular, but I know a lot of successful novelists with smaller houses, so I’m open to that, too. As long as I’m writing and publishing to reach my audience, it’s all good.

Julie Hennrikus: Boy, is this a good question. I have a book I have been working on for a long time. And I may go the independent route with that at one point. But I also aspire to a traditional, mass market paperback deal. (Remember that I write mysteries.) There are so many opportunities for writers these days–the important thing is to make a deal with a reputable company, to know you will have to help (or do) marketing for you book, and that the business is a tough one. And learn from others, as much as possible.

Susan Nye: Definitely the traditional route. Many people distrust the taste and skills of publishers. They point to the twelve or thirteen publishers who turned A.J. Rowlings down. However, one didn’t. Publishers understand the market better than my family and friends who love my work. Not because it’s any good (even if it is) but because they love me. An editor will ensure that my book meets a certain standard of both interest and quality. He or she will then work with me to help make it the best it can be. Once published, the publisher has the knowledge, staff and network to provide marketing support and sales infrastructure. And yes, I know brand new authors need to do much of their own marketing but I don’t underestimate the connections a publisher has with the press, blogosphere, book wholesalers and retailers.

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The Scientist Writes

Regular Live to Write – Write to Live blogger Deborah Lee Luskin wrote Most Improved Writing Student earlier this month.

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Here’s a guest post by that student, Daniel Chamovitz, author of What A Plant Knows

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I don’t consider myself an author; I am a scientist. I spend my days and nights considering levels of gene expression, pondering the intricacies of protein structure, and guiding my students on their nascent scientific paths. A fair amount of academic administrative duties and a heavy, but immensely satisfying, load of lecturing fill out my schedule. And when all this is finished, I still have endless grant proposals, reports, reviews and articles to write.

But I wasn’t invited to last month’s Brattleboro Literary Festival because of my academic record; I was invited as the author my recent book, What A Plant Knows.

What brings a scientist to lay down the pipette and pickup the pen?

My impetus in writing a trade book was twofold: First, I wanted to educate. I get endlessly annoyed at public ignorance of science in general and of plant biology in particular. While many people I speak to are surprised to discover that plants contain the gene for breast cancer, they have no problem in quoting the scientifically lame book, The Secret Life of Plants, and believing that plants don’t like to be yelled at. But I came to realize that my colleagues and I are partially responsible for this ignorance, as we have done a pitiful job extolling the wonders of plant biology.

Scientists from other fields have greatly influenced public perception through their books: Hawking has done a great service to astrophysics with A Brief History of Time; Dawkins explains evolution in The Selfish Gene, and mathematics is brought to life in Simon Singh’s Feremat’s Last Theorem. Perhaps arrogantly, I set out to write the plant version of these wonderful books, a book that would open the amazing world of plant science to the general public.

Second, for years I’ve had a secret desire to write something that was popular, and not strictly and professionally scientific. While much of my success as a scientist has been due to my writing ability, that writing – of grant proposals and research articles – is very structured and repetitive, and admittedly reaches a very limited audience. Could I go beyond the secure world of professional scientific writing? Could I take this skill one step forward and write something that would be both interesting and intelligible to a non-scientist?

I quickly learned that the literary world is not so different from my world of academic science. Success in science is not only a function of intelligence, but also of diligence, deferred gratification, risk taking, and an ability to know when to learn from – and when to ignore – rejection.

Success in science is also influenced by serendipity – just as in publishing.

Once I made the commitment to writing a trade book, I knew that I had to find an agent to reach a broad audience. Having no idea how to find an agent, I looked in the “Acknowledgments” of the last two books I read, to identify the agents who had sold them. The rest is an author fairy-tale: One query letter and 22 months later: a published book!

Now four months post-publication, a rush of publicity events, and wonderfully kind words from new friends and readers, and I’m back in my lab. I have a 10,000-word grant proposal due next week, two new scientific manuscripts to write, and a new course to teach. But in the back of my mind I’m working out the general shape of a new book proposal based on an idea inspired by my visit to Vermont. Maybe publishing and science are similar in another way as well – both are addictive.

Daniel Chamovitz, Ph.D., is the Director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University. He studied at both Columbia University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his Ph.D. in Genetics. He has lectured at major universities around the world. www.danielchamovitz.com

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Getting the most out of a writer’s conference

If you’re a writer, attending conferences can benefit your efforts to be successful.

On this blog, we’ve talked about meeting other writers and the benefits of networking. Attending a writer’s conference brings these together – especially if you plan ahead.

Conferences generally offer a mix of professional development sessions in the forms of workshops and panels. Options generally range from the big-picture view of the writing business as a whole down to topic-specific. And offerings can be for newbie writers to multi-published professionals.

There are a wide variety of conferences available that cover all types of writing, so researching what fits you best is imperative. If you’re an animal writer, attending a travel writer’s conference probably won’t do you much good.

Once you know where you’re going and when, spend time preparing. You want to have questions ready for editors you’ll meet. Maybe you can even take advantage of pitch sessions, so work on a few pitches and take advantage of the opportunity.

Sometimes conferences will post names of attendees. You can start networking with people before you meet them by taking advantage of social media.  Connect with them, if you can, on Facebook or Twitter.

One important tip is to try not to plan to do too much. It can be enticing to want to pitch to every editor possible. But you’re only human. Focus in on 1 or 2, no more than 3 editors or agents you want to meet. And prepare. Know the person you will be talking to.

At the conference:

• Ask intelligent questions. Show the person you are speaking with that you know what magazine or publisher she represents. Sincerity goes a long way to turning an initial contact into a long-lasting relationship.
• Have your business card ready. Make a note on the back before you hand it over, noting the date and place of the meeting to help the person remember you after the conference.
• Attend with an open mind. You make the best choices you when planning, but once at the conference,  you will (most likely) learn something new, find a contact that fits your goals better. Sometimes, the most successful meeting is the one you don’t anticipate.
• Be real and know that you probably won’t land a contract or be asked for a full manuscript that day. It can and does happen, but know that patience is important, and developing relationships takes time.

After the conference (for me it takes a couple of days to come off the ‘high’ of being with other writers), there are a few things to do.

• Go through your notes to (1) make sure you can read them and (2) address any items you starred or highlighted. If you made a note to e-mail someone, do it!
• Connect with your new acquaintances, friends, editors, and agents through social media. You probably received a lot of contact information during the conference, use it!
• Dig deeper into the publications, publishers, or agents that now have more of your interest. It’ll improve your queries and pitches.
• Follow-up or connect with people in a professional, yet casual way. You want to build relationships that help you reach publication, so take care in how often you contact someone.

These are just a few pointers I can recommend. Writers conferences exist for everyone. I’ve always found Shaw Guides a great place to start my search.

What do you think? Is preparation a key to getting the most out of a conference? Do you have any other tips to recommend?

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She’d be a writing conference junkie if her finances allowed it.  She writes fiction as Lisa Haselton, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is on the staff of The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on Facebook or Twitter. 

 

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Finding an Agent

There are many ways to find an agent. I know, because I’ve tried most of them. In the past decade, I’ve queried over sixty agents about two different books – and had contracts offered from three. No question, the agent search has been the most frustrating part of my writing career. But part of it’s my own fault.

The book I sent out in 2001 was still rough. Of course, I thought it was brilliant, and so did an assistant for an agent who was hot at that time. The agent said, “It needs work,” but gave the assistant permission to take me on. She didn’t know what she was doing any more than I did, and after collecting rejections on my behalf, she lost her job.

By then I’d written another novel. One agent who read it sent me a one-paragraph evaluation and said he’d look at it if I revised. I did. Six months later, I received a standard rejection. I’m still grateful for the editorial advice.

What I learned – very slowly – was that my work was good, but not yet good enough, so during the next seven years, I’d go through stints of revising followed by spurts of researching agents and sending out queries. Some agents sent form rejections, some never replied, and some wrote letters telling me I was a “splendid writer” and that “someone else will snap up these lovely pages.” I also received letters rejecting someone else’s novel – the first glimmer I had of what a nightmare record-keeping might be at the agents’ end.

In between bouts of submissions, I’d engage in bouts of revision. Each time, both novels improved. I published some of the chapters as short stories, even winning a prize. But I was so demoralized that I stopped sending the books out. Even after I learned about a new, independent, micro-publisher interested in regional fiction, it took me eight months to muster the courage to submit. A month later, my book was accepted, and a year after that, Into the Wilderness was in print.

Having a published novel was thrilling, and I still hear from readers, which is absolutely the best. The novel won a prestigious award, but marketing it was incredibly hard work. I spent a year on the hustings, and sold nearly 2,000 copies. I learned a lot – including the limits of my reach as a solo publicist.

I decided to give the mainstream route another try, and pitched the unpublished book to an agent at a writer’s conference. It was six months before I heard from her, but she loved my work and wanted to represent me. Then she disappeared. Twelve months after we met she sent me an agency contract and said she could send my book out the following week. I was leery. We talked on the phone. I asked for some time to think. In the end, I saw too many red flags: One was she worked by herself, and I found myself worrying about her safety and health. I decided I needed an agency, not just an agent. Then, after several weeks of flattery, she insisted I had to rewrite the book – and told me how. In the end, I didn’t feel confident that she was reliable. With considerable regret, I turned her down.

Meanwhile, I tried another tack. A friend of a friend of a friend gave me the name of an agent who only represents cookbooks; she suggested three agents who handled literary fiction. I used her name in my query, and they all asked for a sample. Two asked for more, and one called to talk. This agent spoke as an advocate for the reader and told me where she stumbled while reading the story. She’d look at it again if I cared to rewrite. I did. I also looked her up.

She’s a principal in a well-established agency with a handful of agents. Every time I submitted, she’s replied within the promised six-week timeframe. Every time she’s read the book, she’s said, “This is where I have a problem with the story,” leaving me to write my own fix.

We’ve signed an author-agent agreement, and she has the book now. I’m crossing my fingers – but not holding my breath. Literary fiction is a hard sell, and Elegy for a Girl is a dark story. But that’s her problem. Mine is writing my next book.

Deborah Lee Luskin often writes about Vermont, where she has lived since 1984. She is a commentator for Vermont Public Radio, a Visiting Scholar for the Vermont Humanities Council and the author of the award winning novel, Into The Wilderness. For more information, visit her website at www.deborahleeluskin.com

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