Author: LDS Publisher

Judging a Book by its Cover(s)

I’ve never before received an e-mail that had someone else’s entire blog post copied and pasted, followed by the words, “What do you think?”

So go read the post and all the comments over on Six LDS Writers and A Frog, then come back here for my opinion.

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As a reader and book buyer, I have never purchased multiple copies of a book just to get a variety of covers. I have, however, purchased new copies of books when a cooler cover came out. For example, I had the whole set of The Chronicles of Narnia, purchased about 20 years ago. When the movie came out, the market was flooded with reprints, all with new covers. I bought the trade copy with all seven books in one and the picture of the Snow Queen on the front. Did I “need” new copies? No. But the cover was really cool.

Also, as a reader and book buyer, I have browsed books on the shelf, picked them up, then put them back–only to see the same book on a different shelf with a different cover, picked it up for a second look, and bought it. Because the cover was more appealing and enticing to me. You’d think, being in the business and all, I would know better than to select or reject a book based on its cover. But I don’t. I’m just like everyone else–easily seduced by a pretty picture.

As a publisher, there are reasons that justify multiple covers–all of them to do with marketing. Multiple covers are especially good for books that are genre or age cross-overs, like the Harry Potter books. Because they appeal to both children and adults, having a separate cover to target each age group is a good idea. How many adults want to be caught engrossed in a book with little kids on the cover? Okay, bad example. As proved in the U.S., where we only have one cover and no one cares. But you get the idea.

It’s also a good idea with classics and blockbusters, like aforementioned Chronicles of Narnia. You know you’re going to sell a lot of them, so the cost of multiple covers isn’t a big deal. You do a cover that appeals to different types of people to seduce (there’s that word again) them into purchasing a copy. You want to make the book as irresistible as possible to as many people as possible.

Another time for new covers is when a book has been out for awhile and you’re doing a reprint–especially if there is any significant revision of the book (common in nonfiction, not in fiction). Cover art, fonts, and layout go in and out of style. If a book has been around for ten years or longer, you might want to do a new cover to update it and give sales a new shot. We’ve done that with books before. And yes, people will buy a replacement book with the new cover.

We always test market our book covers. Recently we did a book cover in pink, yellow and blue. No one liked the yellow, but the blue only had a small margin over the pink. If we’d expected to sell 50,000 copies, we might have considered doing a cover in both colors, but since we only expected to sell 5,000, we went with the blue. It wasn’t the cost of the multiple covers (which isn’t that big a deal), it’s just that having multiple covers in a small market seems a little silly.

Now for the anti-multiple covers argument. In a small market, like the LDS market, your book cover is part of your branding of the book. Brands are important. They provide instant identification, which you want. If an author has multiple books, particularly if they are in a series, you want to extend that brand as much as you can. A good national example is Danielle Steele. You don’t have to read a thing on her books to recognize the cover as one of hers. Good LDS examples are Heather Moore’s Out of Jerusalem series and the Work and the Glory series (both sets of covers). The cover designs are part of the branding of the series. A bad example of this is Robison Wells’ Wake Me When It’s Over and The Counterfeit. (Sorry, Rob. What was with the cover of that first one, anyway?) You can’t tell by a quick glance that these two books have anything to do with each other; or even that they’re by the same author. In my opinion, that was a mistake–or at the very least, it didn’t optimize the added sales potential of branding.

You want your books to stand out, to be unique, yet very recognizable to your rabid fans. You also don’t want to have readers re-purchase the same book by accident. (How many of you think OSC’s Woman of Destiny and Saints are two different books?) So in our market, the only time I’d do multiple covers is if the book has been around awhile and needs updating for some reason (like the Work & the Glory). Or possibly, if I did both a hardback and a paperback release–but even then, I’d keep the covers similar enough that you could tell it was the same book.

So who wants to argue with me?

Latterday Authors back up!

Hi LDSP,
We are finally back! Still some rough edges to work out, but it would be helpful if you could announce this on your blog.

Our home page is http://www.latterdayauthors.com. There are links to take visitors to the writer’s forum (which I was able to recover thank and the new latterdayauthors blog.

Best,
Patricia Wiles

I highly recommend this forum as a place for LDS authors to chat, ask questions, give answers, support each other, and all that other virtual fun stuff.

P.S. Photos from LDSBA convention coming soon. If you were there and you have photos you’d like me to post, please send them to me this week.

No Brainers by Marlene Austin

Thanks, Marlene for being a guest blogger and describing your experiences as a new author. Marlene is the author of Grave Secrets published by Covenant.


I thought it would be a no brainer. They said that if you are a decent LDS writer you’ll be able to sell as many books in the LDS market as you’d be able to sell in a national market because there’s so much more competition in the larger market. I listened and agreed—meaning I understood the concept, not meaning that I was giving up my idea of trying to sell my first novel in both markets. If I sold well in the LDS market, then sold as many again in a national market, I’d total twice a many sales. And why not?

You can think that way if you live in Massachusetts. Along with LDS friends I’d had half dozen non-members read my book and their responses had been as enthusiastic as the praise from my member friends. “Your book could sell in a Christian audience or even a national market.” one woman who had headed writers groups for years assured me. And a really good book should sell to anyone, LDS or Lutheran, in fact, Mormon or Moroccan. Hey, what percentage of Harry Potter’s readers are witches or warlocks? I was determined to sell to the Mormon market and the history lovers of New England.

I didn’t think about marketing. I should have.

I’d hoped to get some book signings and marketing events calendared near me in advance so I could focus on the western market when the book was released. Right. My first excursions were unplanned side-trips from my grocery shopping to local book dealers. Book buyer weren’t in but I was told I could leave a book so the owner could make a decision on setting up an account with the publisher. Leave a book? Since the book hadn’t been printed yet, that wasn’t going to happen. Account? I hadn’t thought about that. Curious, I emailed my editor about setting up accounts in non-LDS stores. The answers stunned me. In order for the publisher to ship directly to a store, they must have an account—which required an initial order of $1000. To keep the account the store must submit additional order for that much each succeeding year. That wasn’t going to happen either.

At least I could get some books placed in my local library—but not, I was told, until I had a legitimate review to show them. They did accept one free copy.

I couldn’t travel to Utah for the typical signings because of my health, so I sent cards and wondered if that had done any good when they began reappearing in my mailbox, a small black hand stamped near the address.

Pretty much discouraged, I whined on Six LDS Writers and a Frog. The responses were extremely helpful (Thanks, guys) in two ways: I learned about some new marketing strategies and I felt I’d been accepted as part of a family. I realized a computer is useful for more than just writing. With their encouragement and help, I’m entering cyberspace!

I’ve worked from manual typewriters to computers and email, but googling and blogging? I first saw a blog and tried using Google about three or four months ago. I felt like Rip Van Winkle. I hadn’t thought I needed to keep up with the new gadgetry; I was concentrating on writing.

I didn’t think about marketing. I should have.

But I’ll catch up. I’ll have a website soon. I Google all the time. Blogging is harder—there’s nothing like having an audience watch you learn something they’ve done for years. I doubt the spelling of every word, the placement of every comma, then I am so frustrated as I watch the whole thing disappear for no reason I can figure out. I guess I’ll get over that, too. I’ll have to. I need the techniques for long distance marketing and getting some name recognition—and to learn from my new friends.

Traversing cyberspace should help the long distance marketing problems, but I still have no way of showing local shoppers the book. No non-member would recognize any of the website it’s listed on. Any potential buyer has to hear about Grave Secrets from some other source and make an effort to find out how to buy it. There’s no glancing through a shelf of books or a catalogue to find a book attractively beckoning to them. If I make it here it won’t be because it is easy.

It seems that getting name recognition is all important in non-member marketing. One expert suggested finding a newsworthy angle and getting your name in the news. That didn’t seem like me, but after finding a clue that led to the identification of several important ancestors and conversing with several Historical Society presidents this may give me some opportunities later on and possibly some good newspaper coverage. I guess it’s the old adage slightly changed. “If you can’t open one door wide enough, you’ll find one that opens wider.” It’s long term marketing, but it is marketing.

Writing is a joy, marketing—not so much. Or at least not here and not yet. Maybe it is in those, “not here”s and “not yet”s that my real growth and rewards will come. The transition from typewriters to computers has been worth the effort and more. So, I trust, will be a leap into cyberspace. Will I find a healthy non-member market for Grave Secrets? I purposefully wrote the book showing an LDS woman in New England to work for both groups—using a plot line both will enjoy, hoping that each group will learn a little bit more about the other and family history. I don’t doubt that the book can be successful in both groups, but marketing definitely remains the major problem in the non-member market. I think changing my focus, concentrating more on the LDS market initially and getting my own acreage of cyberspace established, then really focusing in on the non-member New England market will be helpful.

And why not? If good people can become more familiar with the universal desires and needs of each other, maybe some of the divisions that split us will blur. Will that help us all? There’s the no brainer.

Thanks for letting me blog. And good luck to us all!

Marlene Austin

Tidbits

Just a bit of this and that.

Keith/Attending LDSBA: Usually, individuals cannot come to the LDSBA convention. Some publishers schedule book signings during the convention and provide name badges for the authors, but usually only those who have a new book the publisher wants to promote. You can purchase a name badge at the door for $25, but this is NOT the time to be talking to publishers. They are busy promoting authors they already have and selling their books to the bookstore buyers. They will not have time to talk to prospective authors. If you come, plan to walk the aisles with your hands firmly in your pockets and your lips sealed. You can observe, but don’t interfere.

Jannette/Book Covers: I’ve seen some really bad covers too. The one that really sticks out to me is one where the heroine of the book is in her 40s, but the woman on the cover could not possibly more than 25. Geez, did the publisher/illustrator even read the book?

Incognito at convention: No rose wearing for me. I have allergies. I understand that this is particularly unfair because I know who most of you are, recognizing you from your books or your posts which have photos. Sorry about that, but life is full of unfair circumstances.

LatterdayAuthors.com: I love(d) this site. I’ve recommended it multiple times here. I think it is a huge support to authors. Unfortunately, if any of you have clicked that link lately, you will have gotten an error message. You can read an explanation for that here.

Guest blogging: PLEASE send more. Please, please, please. Also, please copy and paste your guest blog within the body of the e-mail. Do not send it as an attachment. Since my computer crash several months ago, I’ve become very paranoid about viruses.

LDSBA Convention

This is “heck” week for most LDS publishers. Next week is the annual convention of the LDS Booksellers Association. We’re putting the finishing touches on our displays and marketing materials. The convention starts next week. Tuesday we set up our booths, then the convention itself runs next Wednesday through Friday (Aug 15-17th).

This year the theme is on working together as a team—which I really like. It’s especially important for the smaller companies to act like a team, supporting and encouraging each other, rather than as competitors. If we don’t work together, we could all be in trouble.

Here’s the logo:


If you want to know more about the LDSBA convention, click here to read last year’s posts. I plan to get some pictures of the booths again this year and post them here for everyone to see.

Just out of curiosity, who’s going?

P.S. This may be the last post until after the convention. We’re busier this year than last year and I need to concentrate on making that filthy lucre. If you’ve been thinking about submitting a guest blog, NOW would be the time to do it.

I’m Not Testy; I Have a Positive Self Image

Found in the comments section of yesterday’s post. I moved it here because a lot of people do not read comments and he has a legit concern, complaint. A lot of first time authors ask these kinds of questions. (Although most of them do not call me “testy” or refer to my treatment of their ideas as bull-dozerish.)

Why is that editors get so testy when an author dares to tread upon their creative world and suggest a cover design or a title, but they drive their bulldozers all over the author’s creative world like so much ado about nothing. I know. Covers are what they pay your for. Editing is what they pay you for. But for heaven’s sakes, will there ever be an editor humble enough to recognize that an author just may have a good sense about a cover that will market their book well. Or that an author just may have a better title than the marketing guys across the hall. Probably not!

Anonymous


When I went back to the comments to copy and paste them, I discovered that Robison Wells had answered the question—and he is dead on. Here is Rob’s reply.

Anonymous, I like to compare it to royalties. There’s a reason that authors only get 5-15% of a book’s cost: it’s because the author is only one piece of a very large puzzle. It’s a vital piece, certainly, but it’s still only one piece.

If an author has as much good marketing sense as you stated–if they know that their title/cover/marketing ideas are great–then why not just self-publish? Richard Paul Evans is the perfect example: he was a professional marketer, and he’s made gobs of money.

Besides, most publishers are very willing to discuss titles and covers (though they’ll almost all maintain veto power), but they don’t want to look at those ideas during the submission process. You, as the author, are asking them to make a very big investment in you; the least you could do is show a little professionalism and respect submission guidelines. There will be PLENTY of time to discuss titles and covers and illustrations once your book is accepted.


I would add a few things, based on my 26 years in the industry as a professional (I just love that word) editor and/or publisher:

  1. If you submit a good title, we will keep it! We kept the author’s original titles on the last two books we published. Others titles I tweak by one or two words. Sometimes I’ll reject the original title, but have the author send me a list of alternates. Usually I can blend that into something really good that the author is happy with. But creating titles that sell and writing a story are two entirely different skill sets and some are just really, really bad.

  2. I have never, in 26 years, seen a book cover created by an author and sent with the manuscript submission that was anywhere close to usable. They are usually way too dark, use clip art and dated fonts, and don’t have an appropriate balance to the design. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, or you don’t know why these would be a problem, then don’t try to make your own cover.

  3. I have, a couple of times, had an author who was also a graphic artist. After their books were accepted, they very professionally asked if I would take a look at their ideas. Of course I did. These two covers were wonderful. One we kept exactly as it was. The other we had to tweak a little to fit in the bar code. The point is, they approached me about it after acceptance.

  4. The publisher always retains veto rights. As Rob said, if I am going to invest thousands of dollars in you and your book, I need to control that investment in the way that my experience tells me works best. If title and cover art are deal breakers for you, then by all means, self-publish.

  5. You’re assuming that the author will not like my title/cover art better than what they’ve created. Most of our authors love what we do with their books—even if we don’t use any of their suggestions.

  6. I never, ever bulldoze my authors’ creative world. I’m not investing in a one book deal. I want this to be an ongoing relationship. I want my authors to be happy. At the same time, I am not going to let an author sink a book due to personal preferences. We test our titles and book cover designs on our target market and run them past at least a dozen design, marketing and publishing professionals before we finalize something.

  7. And one last comment: You, as an author, have to invest a certain level of trust in your publisher. You have to believe they know what they’re doing, that they will make decisions based on what is best for your book, that they are current on what is hot in the market, and that their years of experience are more valuable than yours. If you don’t trust your publisher enough to title your book or design your cover, then you’re with the wrong publisher.

Have I answered your questions?

10 More Things Not to Do When You Submit a Manuscript

Here’s another list of things not to do when you send your manuscript (based on true-life examples from manuscripts that I have received in the past 30 days):

1. Do not single space. I know I’ve said this before, but apparently I have not stressed it enough. I CANNOT read, let alone edit, a manuscript that is single spaced.

2. Do not leave large spaces between paragraphs and type [Insert illustration here]. Especially for a book intended for adults.

3. Do not send illustrations with your adult-audience book.

4. Do not tell me in those big gaps [See illustration # whatever] and expect me to go looking to the back of the book and hand count the illustrations to get to the page number you want me to look at.

5. Do not 3-hole punch the manuscript and send it in a 3-ring binder.

6. Do not put your manuscript pages in sheet protectors and send them in a binder.

7. Do not design a cover and send me a color print out of it. We won’t be using it and I don’t need your sample to visualize what the front of your book could look like. I’m a professional. Visualizing covers is what they pay me to do!

8. Do not print your manuscript double-sided on the paper.

9. Do not send your manuscript, then call me two weeks later and ask if you can bring me a new copy because you’ve re-written a significant number of scenes. If I’ve already started reading, you’ve wasted my time. If I haven’t already started reading, I’ll think you’re a nut case.

10. Do not drop by my office (without an appointment) and ask if I’ve finished reading your manuscript yet, and when I say no, ask if you can “borrow” it back for a few weeks because your daughter-in-law wants to read it and you don’t want to spend all that money on paper and ink to print out another copy and you don’t mind at all looking through my huge stack of manuscripts to find yours.

Sometimes I think I’m a wonderful person simply because I never resort to physical violence.

Hollywood or Bust

What is the likelihood of my LDS novel being made into a movie? Is there any possibility at all? Would I be asked to write the screenplay? Would the movie possibly get national release or would it be a “Utah” movie? Is this something I should be thinking about while I’m writing my novel? Should I create scenes, etc. that would look good on the big screen? And assuming my book was made into a movie, does the author have any control over who plays the different characters?


Oh, geez. First off, finish your novel. This isn’t even a conversation we should be having until after the book is published and has a phenomenal sales record (as in, hundreds of thousands of copies sold in a very short period of time). While writing, concentrate on creating scenes and plots that are good for the story. Don’t cheat your readers by throwing in something that doesn’t belong just because it might look good in the movie.

Now, as to possibility: yes, it’s possible that an LDS novel can be made into a movie for national release. Work and the Glory. The Other Side of Heaven. It is also possible that a movie could be made by an LDS production company. Almost every year at the LDSBA, someone stops by my booth to ask if I have any books that would do well as a movie. I give them a free copy (because I am an eternal optimist and you never know…) but I never tell the author because most of these companies are out of business by the next LDSBA.

As to probability: slim to none. For a book to be made into a movie by “Hollywood”, it either has to be a runaway NYT best seller (but that doesn’t guarantee it), or someone in the movie industry has to love it (someone who also has the power, influence, and financing to produce it). Chances are infinitesimally better (slender to none) that it will be picked up by an LDS production company. The LDS movie buying population is just too small to support the cost of making a strictly LDS movie (except for those based on the scriptures, for example, the Liken series or those produced by the Church).

Assuming the Red Sea parts and you find yourself with an offer to produce a movie based on your book: No, you would not be asked to write the screenplay. No, you would not have any control over who the actors are. You would also have no control over the title, the director, which scenes from the book are included, which are deleted or which are totally changed to the point that your original story is barely recognizable. Yes, some authors do have control over these things written into their contract, but for 99.999…% of us the only control we have is whether or not to accept or reject whatever the production company offers us.

Formatting Your Manuscript

I was asked this question over on my blog, and to be honest, I’m clueless.

I did a blog on formatting and mentioned putting the author’s name, copyright symbol, and the year on the right at the top. That’s what I’ve always been taught to do, then someone said they’d been taught to never use the copyright symbol and wanted to know if the rule has changed. Help?

I read your post. THE most important formatting rule is your manuscript must be easy to read and to mark up–12 pt Times, double-spaced, 1″ margins, white paper, single-sided, page headers with name & page numbers. Everything else is a matter of preference.

The second most important formatting rule is to follow the preferences of your publisher/agent. These are usually listed on their website.

The copyright mark and All Rights Reserved are unnecessary. You have copyright protection from the moment you put your first word in tangible form. It is understood that all rights are reserved until you sell them. I’m a professional. I know this. You don’t need to remind me. However, if it makes you feel more comfortable you are welcome to include this. I won’t make fun of you, not even in my mind.

Everything else in your post is fine. I have a personal peeve with using style sheets in Word instead of the hard indent. I prefer the hard indent because Word can go all skeewampus when we convert it to our typesetting program and we sometimes end up with some paragraphs converting to a hard indent and some converting to a first line indent and then we have to go through and fix it manually. (If you’re using WordPerfect, don’t.)

Just Do It by Rebecca Talley

It’s approx three weeks until LDSBA and I have way too much on my plate. So thank you, Rebecca, for being today’s guest blogger.

I’ve always loved to write, but life has had a way of getting in the way.

I wrote poems and short books as a youth, but placed writing on the back burner while I attended, and graduated from, BYU, married, and began having a multitude of children. During this time I took piano lessons, learned to knit and crochet, redecorated my house(s), studied how to raise horses, and chased my kids from one end of the day to the other.

One day, I told my husband that I’d like to get back into writing. He encouraged me to pursue it, but, once again, I let life get in the way. I figured that when I stopped having kids, I’d have time to write. Or, when the laundry mountain wasn’t as big as Mt. Everest. Or, when I could cook and freeze several meals so I could get ahead of the cooking. Or, when the dishes grew legs and walked themselves to the sink. Or, when life slowed down. Or . . . .

Then, my epiphany. Life would never slow down and I would never stop having kids (okay, maybe that will happen someday). If I truly wanted to write, I needed to stop making excuses why I couldn’t write and just do it. I needed to focus on the one thing, besides my family and the Church, that was most important to me.

I stopped taking piano lessons, put away my yarn and needles, suspended the redecorations (my husband was quite thankful for this resolve), gave the foal to my daughter for her to train, and tried to stop chasing my kids all day long (well, that hasn’t happened, yet).

I focused the little time I had on writing. I read books, took classes, attended conferences, joined email groups, asked thousands of questions, and surfed every writing-related website I could find. Oh, and I wrote. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I have notebooks filled, and many half-filled, with things I wrote—I kept misplacing the notebook I was using and had to keep finding other ones. (Important safety tip: keep your notebooks in obvious places and/or ban your children from ever using any of your notebooks as an artist pad).

I still had babies. I even homeschooled my other children for a time. I served as Primary President. I attended my children’s activities and cooked and cleaned and regularly climbed Mt. Everest, but I made time to write because it became a priority. With my newfound focus, I managed to publish a children’s picture book (Grasshopper Pie, Windriver, 2003) and sell stories to online and print magazines, including the Friend.

No, I didn’t learn to be Wonder Woman (though I’d love to look like her in that costume and have her lasso of truth); I learned to focus on writing. I learned to make writing my priority over knitting, playing the piano, and repainting my house. I learned I couldn’t do everything well, but, maybe if I put all of my effort into that one thing I enjoyed the most, I might be able to learn how to do it well enough to share it with others.

We’re all busy. We all have demanding lives. Writing should never become more important than our spouses, families, or fulfilling our duties in the Church, but, if we truly want to write, we can find the time to just do it.

Rebecca Talley
www.rebeccatalleywrites.blogspot.com

LDS Content, National Market

Suppose an author has a finely written, solid manuscript that that deals with universal issues (family, friends, self-worth, love, etc) and is set in an LDS community and has mainly LDS characters. Assume you believe the story would sell well in the LDS niche, but would also have some appeal to the mainstream market.

In your opinion, would it be better to focus on the LDS market, where the book would be seen as a great success, or try for the mainstream press, where even double the sales volume might be seen as a lackluster performance? Is there a point where you would recommend one path over the other?

Most of the time when authors tell me they have a cross-over novel, they really don’t. Either they have an LDS book or a national book, and it seems clear to me which it is. But assuming it really is a story that could sell in either market…

This is one of those questions that you’ll have to answer for yourself. It really depends on what your goals are, the type of story it is, and which audience (LDS or national) you feel an allegiance to. There are valid reasons for choosing either approach.

If it were me and this was my first novel and the setting and characters were LDS, I would go with an LDS publisher simply because it would be easier to make the sell. After I had 4 to 6 LDS best sellers under my belt, I would strategically plan the best way to create a cross-over novel—whether to have the LDS publisher take it national or to use my LDS market best-seller status as a springboard to getting a national agent/publisher. (If this was my long-term plan, I’d make sure there was nothing in any of my contracts that would prevent this.)

Having a novel with an LDS setting and characters published nationally can be done; it has been done. Two that immediately come to mind are Saints by Orson Scott Card and Charlotte’s Rose by A.E. Cannon. However, both these authors took the opposite route—they were successful as national, non-LDS content authors first, then wrote an LDS content novel.

I know there are some readers of this blog who are making that cross-over to national publishing right now. What I don’t know is if those national novels will have LDS characters or settings. I’d love to hear some of your opinions on this.

ARCs and Galleys

What is an ARC?

An ARC is an advanced reading copy. They are usually printed before the regular print run is done, either using a short run printer or a POD service. They often have a plain cover with just the title and author info. They are usually perfect bound, although I have seen some with spiral bindings. ARCs are sent out to key reviewers in advance of the release date to get the marketing buzz started. They may also be sent to bigger buyers to review before they place an order. There were no ARCs for HP #7.

What is a galley?

A galley is the press proof. There are pre-press galleys which are printed after typesetting but before they go to press. Authors are usually given these as their final proof copy—last chance to make corrections (meaning small typographical changes, NOT rewrites). But the usual use of the word is for the final proof from the printer. Publishers review this to make sure the printer has all the pages in the right order and all the fonts are printing correctly, etc.

E-mailing Queries

I got an e-mail this morning with nothing in the subject line, nothing in the body of the e-mail, and with an attached file. This happens occasionally. I always wonder if it’s an author sending a query who doesn’t know any better…but I am not curious enough to actually open that attachment. This is a common way to pass viruses and I am not going to take that chance. Last time I got a virus, my computer was in the shop for a week and they had to completely wipe and reformat the hard drive. I cannot tell you the problems that caused.

When you submit a query via e-mail, write it in your word processor. Double check for spelling and grammar, etc. Then when it’s polished and ready, COPY and PASTE it into the body of your e-mail. Do not attach it. And always put “Query” somewhere in the subject line.

Now, I am aware that some publishers have a downloadable form on their website for you to fill out and return as an attachment, or they say to go ahead and send your query/submission as an attachment. If they say that, then fine. Go ahead and do it. But there are also those that say to query within the body of the e-mail, no attachments. When in doubt, take this safer route.

Recognizing Harry Potter

All the ado about Harry Potter reminded me of a submission story attributed to Rowling where says she was at a party and an editor came up to her and said he wished she’d submitted to him because he could have done a better job for her. Her reply was that she had, and he’d rejected her.

So I’m curious, do you think you’d recognize something that had the potential of a Harry Potter? And would you accept it?


Well, I certainly hope I’d recognize it. If I couldn’t, I should be doing something else, like selling shoes at the mall.

We have no way of knowing what shape her original manuscript was in nor how much work it needed to make it publishable. But let’s say it was 90% as good as the final published copy of book 1. Yes, I think I would have liked it. I think I would have thought it would be a good seller.

Would I have imagined that the series would have become the bombshell franchise that it has? No way. Nothing quite like this has ever happened before.

But recognizing a good story is not the same thing as being able to sell that story. Different people have different tastes. Markets go in and out of style. Companies have certain preferences and guidelines. There’s more to the decision making process than just how good the story is. If I don’t think I can sell it, I can’t accept it, regardless of how much I personally may like it.

But I will say this, if you have a manuscript that is as good as Rowling’s, I think you will eventually find a publisher. You may have to submit to a lot of companies and you may have to wait for your genre to become “hot” again, but if you keep at it (keep writing and submitting), you will find a publisher that is a good fit for you.

You Like Me, You Really Like Me!

The Thoughtful Blogger Award is for those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others’ feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping other bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

Tristi gave me an award. That was very sweet and thoughtful of her. Maybe all those posts about blogging weren’t a waste of time after all.

It looks like now I’m supposed to pass this award along to others. I would give it to Tristi because she comments here a lot and is always trying to be helpful and answer questions from her perspective—but she already has it.

This is tough because a lot of you have been sweet and kind and helpful to each other here on this blog. I thought about it a long time. I’m awarding the Thoughtful Blogger Award to two blogs:

The gals at Writing on the Wall for all their specific help on developing writing as a craft. I check them out periodically and agree with their advice about 97% of the time.

Also to the gang at Six LDS Writers and a Frog for letting us share the ups and downs of a writers journey.

So someone from those two sites come get your award. Just copy and paste the image into your blog, then pass it along to someone else.

A Rose by Any Other Name…

Do you think authors need to stick with one genre to build readership? Do you think readers will read other works by an author in a different genre? Should authors use pen names if they jump around to different genres?


This is one of those “it depends” questions. There are pros and cons to both sides of the argument.

In the beginning of a career, I think it’s wise to stick with one genre, or perhaps two closely related genres (like suspense/horror; sci-fi/fantasy). It helps build readership. But sometimes authors get bored with that; or they have way too many ideas and want to branch out. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it needs to be handled carefully. You & your publisher or agent should make the decision on pen names together, after weighing all the pros and cons.

Many authors write in several different genres successfully. However, most of them will have a different pen name for each genre—at least in the beginning. (Ex: Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb; Elizabeth Peters/Barbara Michaels; Janette Rallison /Sierra St. James; Obert Skye/??-is he still keeping this a secret?)

I think this use of pen names is wise because yes, readers will read other genres by their favorite authors. Use of a pen name keeps the successful author’s name “safe” while they’re experimenting in other areas. For example, let’s say an author* is a hugely famous best-seller in sci-fi/fantasy. Then they decide to write a few romances and they stink, at least compared to the sff. So here’s what happens. Rabid fans of the sff read the romance and hate it. Next sff title comes out. The bad taste of the romance is lodged there in their memory. They may still buy that new title, but maybe they won’t wait in line on release day. And from the other direction, readers who like both romance and sff may stumble across the sub-par romance novels first, then be unwilling to give the sff a chance, thinking the quality of the writing will be the same.

Or let’s say someone is a well-known writer of sweet middle grade readers. Kids love them; parents trust them. Then they decide to write a racy YA novel. Past fans read it because of the author’s name. The little kids are shocked. Parents are outraged. Suddenly all books by this author are suspect and sales of the middle grade readers drop.

Now, if the second genre is as big a hit as their first, publishers will let it leak out that the two authors are one and the same, which then boosts sales of both genres as fans of each will try the other.

In the middle grade/racy YA example, I’d probably try to keep that a secret for as long as I could, although it didn’t seem to hurt Shel Silverstein (or is that an urban myth?).

From another marketing point of view, writing under a pen name is like starting out as a brand new author. You don’t have a following yet. The publisher is going to have to invest more in marketing the new book. That can be a pain. The upside is that the new book under the pen name is likely to be better than the author’s original first book, simply because of the experience the author has gained as a published writer. But the downside is some authors think they can write in a second (or third) genre, and they really can’t.

As a publisher, I don’t mind if an author writes in multiple genres, as long as they keep producing books in their stronger genre on a reasonable time frame. As a reader, I hate it when the next novel in a series is slow coming out because an author is off playing under another pen name. (cough-Robert-cough-Jordan)

Does this make sense?

*10 points to the first commenter who knows who I’m talking about.

Rejected Again

LDSPub,

Let’s say you request a full. The author sends it to you and for whatever reason you reject it. How often (on a requested ms.) do you do a form rejection as opposed to stating the reasons for rejecting?

If you sent a standard form and an author asked for more information so they could improve on their next manuscript they sent you, would you respond?

Jeff Savage
(But then again. Who is Jeff really?)


It really depends on what else I’ve got on my plate at the time. Publishing is more than just a vehicle for putting food on my table. I am emotionally invested in helping authors succeed. (Why else would I do this blog, relatively faithfully, and for FREE?)

If it’s a great read, but not a good fit for me, I almost always say so. I try to put one or two personable sentence on the usual form letter to encourage the author to keep trying.

If it needs work and I’ve got the time and I can capture the problem in a sentence or two AND if it’s not LDSBA time or Christmas rush, I try to let them know

But if it really needs a lot of work, I assume that a few quick pointers wouldn’t help because if the author knew what I was talking about they would have done it already. And it’s not my job to teach an author how to write.

Sometimes when I’ve rejected someone and they’re particularly rude about it, I’ll just send form letters to everyone for awhile. Until the sting goes away.

Writing Organizations

Should writers join organizations like SCBWI or LDStorymakers?


You don’t have to, but yes, I think you should. And RWA, and SFWA, and MWA, and LUW (or your state’s equivalent), and Latter-day Authors, and other writer groups and forums, and reader groups and forums, and…

There are all sorts of groups out there that provide wonderful information, networking opportunities and support. Don’t join them all or you’ll spread yourself too thin and never have time to actually write. And don’t join any that are out of your budget. But check into some of them and find one or two that fit your needs.

Readers, which organizations have you found to be most helpful?

Rejections

What’s the number one reason why you reject manuscripts?


There is only one reason I reject manuscripts—I don’t think I can sell the book.

Only a publisher would make that distinction, but it’s an important one to understand. It’s the reason why great manuscripts are sometimes rejected, while lesser manuscripts are sometimes accepted. I will sometimes accept a good (but not great) book because it fills a hole in my product line, or it’s really timely and there’s nothing else out there like it.

I always reject bad writing—poor technique, grammar, boring, unrealistic, facts and/or citations wrong, etc. The majority of my rejections fall into this category. I haven’t done the math, but off the top of my head, I’d say about 90%.

I can’t, however, always accept great writing. I will sometimes get a wonderful book that I have to reject because it’s not right for my market (mainstream LDS) or I just published one that is too similar or I don’t publish in that genre or I don’t have the budget required to market it effectively. When this happens, I try to make it clear to the author that it is not the quality of the work I’m rejecting. These books nearly always find a home somewhere, and only rarely does an author feel the need to rub my nose in it. I forgive them because they clearly do not understand the distinction between accepting a book because it is good, and accepting a book because I know I can sell it.

Favorite Book

What is your favorite book of all time? Why? Plot, characterization, description, setting? What made you remember it?

Did Jeff Savage put you up to this? He’s always trying to trick me into revealing my secret identity.

Seriously, while I won’t give you specific titles, the novels I like best are very strongly character driven with plot twists that take me at least two thirds of the way through the book to figure it out. I need solid, clever dialog. Setting is almost completely unimportant to me, as long as it’s believable and I only need enough description to give me a sense of place.

Christmas in July

I am working on the final edits of a novel that takes place during Christmas time. It is not a “Christmas book” per se, but I’ve begun to wonder, because it’s my first book, if I ought to change the season for marketing reasons. Does the season a book takes place in have any bearing on a publisher accepting a first time novelist?

Not really. We might schedule the release date based on the season of the book, but that wouldn’t make any difference for acceptance.

I’m assuming there was a reason your book takes place during Christmas, so I’d say, no, don’t change it unless a publisher asks you to.

Guest Bloggers

Yes, I know it’s not Wednesday yet, but I will be out of the office for a couple of days and may not be able to get anywhere near a computer.

Which brings up my summer convention schedule. I’ll be traveling a lot between now and September and doing a lot of conventions. Getting to a computer on a regular basis is hard. Finding the time to write the posts, in between regular catch-up work is even harder. So, I thought I’d open this up to guest bloggers.

If you’d like to guest blog here, write your post and e-mail it to me. Do not send it as an attachment. Paste the text within the e-mail itself.

Posts need to be about writing and/or publishing–what to do, what not to do, personal experiences. They need to be well-written, interesting and/or entertaining. I need to agree with the main premise. Include your name and credentials and your web/blog address(es) for linking. Other LDS publishers get first consideration. Published authors get preference over non-published.

I will respond to all submissions as soon as possible. If I won’t be using yours, I’ll let you know why and you’ll have a chance to rewrite and resubmit. If I will be using yours, I’ll give you a ballpark posting date.