POD’d The How to Guide
… and conversely why you shouldn’t!
By Don Meyer
Smashwords Edition
POD’d The how to guide… and conversely why you shouldn’t! © 2009 by Don Meyer
No portion of this work may be copied, reproduced, transmitted, or used in any form without the written permission of the author.
Cover design by Brion Sausser
I have also created a presentation for this material. If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me at:
Any questions, comments, suggestions, or opinions should be addressed to:
Directory
Introduction
…How did I get here from there?
The Normal Course of Events
… Most will say the ONLY course!
Writing a Manuscript
… Actually creating a product!
Editing a Manuscript
… Why is my manuscript covered in red ink?
The Nuts & Bolts of this here Book Business
… And why you need to know it!
The Road to Print-on-Demand
… Are you Ready?
The Business Plan
… And good God the budget!
What is a book?
… And why should I care about this?
Selecting a Print-on-Demand Publisher
… Time to do your Homework!
The Print-on-Demand Publishing Process
… No Turning Back Now!
Marketing and Promotion
… Yeah, you have to sell the damn thing too!
Web Site
… Yeah, you do need one!
Closing Comments
… Yeah, I get to ramble some more.
Appendix A
… My Journey, A Case Study!
Introduction
… How did I get here from there?
I undertook the task of creating this guide with the hope of helping other writers, like myself that were stumbling (and sometimes floundering) trying to decide what to do, with their manuscript. This is especially true if we (the writer) are considering using a Print-on-Demand Publisher to produce our work. Consequently, it is essential that we understand the publishing process, specifically what goes into producing a book and most importantly, how to put together that book.
Let me also say at the onset that this guide is not the end all, be all, of what you need to know. More precisely, this guide should be used as the basis for you to start your own research and gain a better understanding of what you are about to do. Publishing is a very complex business and the more you know, and more importantly, the more you understand, the better you will be at making an informed decision, about what you are about to do, whatever that decision may be.
The sole intention of this guide is to highlight the publishing and book creation process and hopefully, to leave you with an idea of some of the basic steps. It was not my intention to be the all knowing, authoritative voice on the subject, but simply to open a window or two into this world based on my journey through it. It is up to you to use the information as an overview, a starting point. Take from this guide what you will. At the very least, I hope I will have presented to you an opportunity, that if nothing else will leave you better informed. Ultimately, to make a decision that you can live with.
However, before we go any further, I need to take a moment to explain a term I will be using throughout this guide. Specifically, my use of the word "traditional" as in "traditional publisher," or “traditional publishing.” My use of the term simply refers to the historically accepted standards of publishing. I understand that this is a fairly recent term and that those publishers are commonly referred to as trade, or standard, or royalty, or…
The confusion arises only because with POD we now have a new breed of publishing that forces us to label the other older established publishing method. To say you were published in the past meant you were published by the long-standing publishing industry. There could be no question. Everybody knew what you meant. But now, to say you are published, when in fact you were "published" by one of the POD forms of self-publishing, ultimately clouds the water. In reality, according to the accepted standards, if your book has an ISBN then you are a published author. However, if your book is published by a POD Publisher “the publishing industry” will not recognize, nor will it accept you as a "published" author.
Unfortunately, there is no resolution to this dichotomy. Damned because you didn't, damned because you did. While we could debate this subject forever, let me end it here by simply stating that for all intents and purposes, the industry has established a distinction between who is truly published and those that think they are published. So, for purposes of clarity, I will continue to refer to that standard, trade or royalty publisher simply as a traditional publisher or traditional publishing, whereas the POD published author for all intents and purposes is still considered a self-published author.
To further clarify what I mean here, I will say again that my use of the word "traditional" simply refers to the normal, age old, accepted standard of publishing. In other words that was how it was “traditionally” done. That is, manuscript to agent, to publisher, to public, the normal process, the normal sequence of events. I mean it simply as a way to describe what went before, no more, no less.
Okay, now that I have that out of my system, I’ll stop ranting and get back to business.
In this guide we will discuss the various stages, steps, considerations, ideas, pointers and generally everything else related to the creation of an actual book through the publishing process. Understanding what goes into turning your manuscript into a book should give you a better appreciation of the book business and the industry as a whole.
This is especially true, if you are sitting on the fence, trying to decide what to do with your manuscript, trying to decide if you should you go the traditional route and keep submitting, or do you just take the manuscript to a Print-on-Demand Publisher and be done with it?
At the very least, a walk through this guide will give you some insight into what is involved in the publishing business. Why it is so hard to get your book accepted and what the process will entail if it is “picked up” (although it is more commonly referred to as “a sale of rights”) that is, allowing someone to license your product for distribution.
The other side of that equation is to be your own publisher and do it yourself. Enter the Print-on-Demand Publisher, a vehicle by which you can bring your manuscript to market as a printed book for a reasonable setup fee. And just like that, you have a book!
What I have attempted to do is to create an overview of the publishing world for you to understand how a manuscript becomes a book, while at the same time including a sequence of events, basically a step-by-step overview, of the Print-on-Demand process. As you are about to discover, the concepts are quite similar, with the main difference being who will be doing all the work!
Initially attempting to write a piece or two for publication, I started highlighting various aspects of the journey taken, but the more I wrote the more it grew. That was when I decided I would try to put all of the pieces into some semblance of order and present the project as a whole.
I am a writer. That is what I do (or try to do anyway). Back in the ‘70s, yes the 1970s, I wrote two manuscripts, one non-fiction, the other a novel, which I tried to get published, but never did. I took the stack of rejections, the white bond paper manuscripts and threw the whole mess into a box that sat for some twenty plus years. My writing days were over, and a career and family put those silly thoughts to rest rather quickly.
Fast forward, just shy of twenty-five years later and I find myself in the middle of a move to a new house. In the hall closet, in the original box are those two white bond paper manuscripts, rejection letters, various notes and what have you from my writing days. My first inclination was to throw the whole mess away and leave those silly notions in the past.
Winding down my business career I found myself with a little time on my hands. Once again I opened the box with all that writing stuff inside and looked at those two white bond paper manuscripts. For no particular reason I decided to key the non-fiction work into the computer. In 1978, a typewriter was the only option, but in 2002, we had the computer. The digital age had arrived. The options were endless…
Okay, why not? I set about retyping those pages into an electronic format, a word format, eventually creating a new, updated manuscript. Shortly thereafter, I decided to input the novel as well.
In the middle of this process, I saw an ad for a literary agency that I thought was for a job and I thought why not? However, “the job” actually turned out to be an offer to sell the business. In the end I did try to buy the agency, but was outbid.
However, the agent concept put the bug in me, so I checked around the area. In a short time, I found another agent, a tough old New Yorker with thirty-five years in the business who is mostly retired. We met and discussed some options. For some charitable reason she agreed to take me on as an associate agent on a non-paying basis. Basically, I became the purveyor of the slush pile.
The agency experience gave me a great opportunity to work with other writers, speak at writers’ conferences, work with writers’ groups and to work with writers one-on-one. Working in the agency was a great opportunity to see the business from the inside. Her guidance was and still is invaluable.
During this transformation, I also took a summer internship at a major chain bookstore - at minimum wage - to learn the book business from the retail side. If I was going to get back into the game, I wanted to know what this game is all about.
Working as an agent and bookstore clerk also gave me an insight into the world of publishing. As an “agent,” I worked with several publishers directly and spoke with several editors. As a bookstore clerk, I saw how the publishers influence the trade and the overall world of books on the retail side of the business.
Also, as an agent I was asked to speak at several writers’ conferences and had the opportunity to work with writers directly, a very gratifying experience. I discovered most writers are basically in the same boat… floundering, just like me! I always geared my presentations toward the informative, rather than the preaching. I tried to pass on everything I knew, however little that may have been.
During my travels I came across an author that had published a few books with one of the original Print-on-Demand Publishers. We got to talking about the industry and the process. This had been the first I had heard about the print-on-demand concept. Sure, I knew self-publishing was around, but I hadn’t spent much time thinking about it. At the time I certainly didn’t equate print-on-demand as a self-publishing option either.
After a couple of years, I left the agency to focus on my own writing. As an after thought, I looked up that author and through her help I published my non-fiction manuscript through her Print-on-Demand Publisher. I did it largely to find out what print-on-demand is all about. Not to mention the tremendous ego boost of having my “published” book in my hands!
Eventually, I decided to publish my novel as well, through that print-on-demand concept. For convenience, I used that same Print-on-Demand Publisher. Of course, this was after several rejection letters, from traditional publishers and the continuing development of a why the hell not attitude.
Also during this time, I finished my third manuscript. My next work was another novel that I ultimately decided to publish through the print-on-demand route, without ever sending out any queries. However, this time I took this work to a new and completely different Print-on-Demand Publisher.
At present, I am hard at work on my next manuscript, another novel. Well, that was until I started putting this … well, whatever this is, together.
In addition, my web site: www.dpmeyer.com has a “POD Corner” where I post articles, essays and a Q&A on POD, including a published article on POD. Of course I continue to submit articles for publication on my journey through the world of POD.
As I mentioned above, it was while I was putting together another article, or two, on this topic that I started constructing and suddenly those articles grew into this tome. My thought was to write about this piece and maybe that piece, but also thought I should write about that piece and…
All I hoped to accomplish with these pieces was to give you, my fellow writer, some insight into this world we call writing and publishing, because in reality, it has very little to do with writing. It has everything to do with starting a new business venture. No different than inventing the next whatever and attempting to create the product, set up a marketing plan, promote and eventually sell that new whatever!
Ultimately, we all need to decide what is best for me, the writer? Because, I still keep asking myself, how did I get here from there?
[Authors note: As part of an attempt to sell my second work (the novel) to a mass-market paperback publisher (the secondary rights market), I had to “beef” up the word count of that original work, because of the minimum word count requirement of that publisher for submission acceptance. By doing so, I significantly rewrote the story. However, not being successful with that sale, I further rewrote the story into something new and fresh.
Because of the significant change to the original story, I decided to pull that earlier work from production (terminate my contract with the POD Publisher – another advantage of POD is that you retain your rights) and pitch this as a new work. I then began the rounds of agents and small publishers, but only met with rejection after rejection, even though I continued to polish the pitch and the manuscript after each batch of rejections.
The phrase “… hard at work on my next book, another novel” refers to a follow up to the novel discussed here, not a sequence, but a new work using those same characters. I also have the outline done for a third work, again using the same characters. Consequently I have decided to package these works as a new trilogy, with that reconstructed (ever more so now) as the first book.
However, this new wrinkle doesn’t change any of the facts of the process I went through to get that novel out with my original POD Publisher, discussed in the following pages, referred to as my second book, or work.
One last point, after giving the process a year plus, I have decided to re-launch that novel through a different POD Publisher that I hope will be the home for my new trilogy. Yes as of this writing, I plan to launch all three books through this publisher (go home with the one I brought to the dance this time!). This will be my third POD Publisher (the second one I used decided to become a traditional publisher – so I had to start over) and fourth (fifth and sixth) book I will be taking through that process. By the time this posts, there will be only three books listed on my “books” page, which are actually my first, third and fourth book.
Sorry for the run on, but I wanted to clear this up before we continued.]
The Normal Course of Events
… Most will say the ONLY course!
For purposes of illustration and further understanding, let us briefly review what the traditional process of publishing a book entails. This is considered the normal course of events. Actually, the only acceptable course of events.
These events are also referred to as the stages of book development, or the sequence of actions that leads to a published book. I have read, I have seen, I have heard discussed and referred to and in general been classified as “the process.”
Writing:
Obviously, the first step in the process is writing. Developing a story or concept. Putting pen to paper so-to-speak. Creating a manuscript with presumably some hope of ultimately selling the work to a publisher.
It doesn’t matter if it is a work of fiction or a non-fiction project. It only matters that this is the best version (best product) that the writer can create, which means several rewrites, a full read through, or two, or three, possibly a rework of plot, characters or both, timelines, flow and cohesiveness. A tight, completed piece of work.
Editing:
Once a manuscript is created, the manuscript should be edited, preferably by a person that is capable of editing it – not your aunt Sadie that thought it was nice – but a person that is qualified to edit the type of work the writer has created.
For non-fiction work, it might be helpful to have a person familiar with the area that the manuscript covers. In a work of fiction, it may be necessary to have someone that can perform a copy edit, as well as someone that can perform a content edit, or someone who can do both. (There will be much more on editing later.)
Once the manuscript is edited and the changes have been made it may be necessary to have another run through, especially if there were concept, plot, or flow changes. Reworking often leads to reediting and vice versa.
Submissions:
At this stage, the normal course of events would be for the writer to put together a submission package.
The package would usually include a cover letter, a brief synopsis, some sample pages (or chapters), an author biographical sketch and an SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope). It is imperative that the writer check the agent’s or publisher’s web site (or listing) to insure that the writer only submit what is asked for and the form in which it should be submitted. For non-fiction it is customary to submit a book proposal with a sample of the work. Again, we are looking for perfection here. The cover letter should be perfect (no typos) and the package put together professionally. No half-stepping here, make it the best you can.
With a non-fiction proposal there should be a focus on how this book will be marketed. I believe this to also be true with fiction. It doesn’t hurt to have some idea of how the work can be marketed. What genre of work will it fit in? Why is it better, or similar, but different, than other books in this area? Why will anyone care about your book? It is the next … or in keeping with … or … Something that will give the agent or editor (publisher) a step up on what they are looking at. Help the person reviewing the submission understand how this work will stand above the others. With the enormous number of manuscripts being submitted, any little thing that will set your manuscript above all the other submissions will certainly help.
Agents:
Once the package is completed, you are ready to start submitting your work to agents. That is, trying to convince an agent to represent your work to ultimately sell that work to a publisher.
The question often comes up as to whether to use an agent, or not. Well, for one thing, the agent can knock on doors that you, the writer, never could. Most importantly, there is someone working with you to get your work to the next level (read “marketable” here) that is saleable both to the publishing industry and ultimately to the buying public.
An agent is a necessary evil (I say with all affection) in the quest to get to the next level. Once you’ve sold them on your work, you will have the strongest ally in helping you join “the club.”
Publishers:
There is also the option of contacting publishers directly, especially the smaller houses, or independents that are willing to look at material not represented by an agent. However, at the end of the day, once again, the work has to be beyond perfect as you will not have that extra someone, the agent, to work with you.
Manuscript Sale:
Even though, I said “sell your work to an agent,” you aren’t really selling it at this point. You are hoping to convince an agent to represent you in the ultimate sale of this work to a publisher. However, you are still doing everything you can to “sell” this work to an agent or independent publisher.
Now, let’s take a moment to clarify another statement. You never really sell the work, but more specifically you sell the rights to your work to a publisher to reproduce the work for sale to the public. Those “rights” can be sold over and over again, depending on your contract (publishing agreement). Typically, an agent will sell those rights to the publisher, then possibly to a secondary market, or foreign distributor or even to the film industry. But, hold on, we are getting way ahead of ourselves.
In the grand scheme of things, the agent will sell your manuscript rights to a publisher to turn your work into a book. Typically, that sale may include an advance - monies against future royalties - or front money based on the probability of future sales of your book. The agent will take a commission, usually previously determined in the representation agreement. This advance can be all over the place, anything from $5,000 to $100,000. Well, hold on a moment, don’t start spending that money yet. First time authors should expect the very low end.
However, a good agent can get you a nice amount, based of course on the quality of the work. In addition you can expect that advance to be paid out in stages, one half on signing, the other half on publication. Another scenario would be one third on signing, one third on submitting an acceptable manuscript and the final third on publication. Of course there could be more, but these are the ones I have heard about so far.
There is another option with the sale of those rights. On a direct sale, the agent has convinced a specific publisher to buy the rights, “or made the sale.” However, if the agent has interested other publishers as well, there may be more than one publisher interested in purchasing this work.
If that is the case, one of two things may happen. A particular publisher may offer a preempt. That is, offer enough money up front to close the deal before the other publishers can get involved. The other scenario is to have all the publishers interested bid on the work, with the agent taking the highest bid, or choosing the publisher that would be best for the work, with an appropriate offer. This is a very good thing, for an author, either way.
Publishing:
Publishing is an industry, comprised of conglomerates of major houses, independents, university presses, small presses and specialty houses. However, first and foremost, publishing is a business, and a “club” that takes care of its own.
In order to join this club, you will have to have created a marketable product. A product the publisher believes will make them money, preferably a lot of money. It is as simple as that. With the mergers and acquisitions of most of the older established publishing houses, decisions are not made simply on a project basis. These decisions are based on a number of factors that both lend themselves to the business acumen overall, as well as, how this project will fit into the business model of the parent company or companies.
Book success is based on sales, not story content, or any other wide-eyed idea. Now, there is no magic formula that determines that any given book will be the one, but at the very least it has to be perfectly done (clean, crisp, free of errors) and something the marketing department, yes the marketing department, believes they can promote and sell to the buying public. No different than any other product.
There will be a much more comprehensive discussion on the world of publishing in a later section. Suffice it to say, in order to be successful you, the writer, need to understand how all this works to better help you to get there some day, whether it is through traditional means or through a Print-on-Demand Publisher, or any self-publishing venue for that matter. Because, to understand what publishing is and how publishing works, will help you when you become your own publisher, as you will with Print-on-Demand Publisher (that is, self publishing).
Retail Sales of a Book:
In the normal course of business, the publisher will print a set amount of copies (25,000, 50,000, 100,000 or greater) that will be distributed to places that sell books to the public. These are typically the major chain bookstores, the independent bookstores, the big box discount houses that also sell everything else and the online venues that sell books with all their other products.
Books are sold at many venues with varying degrees of discounts, which will have a direct effect on sales, as well as royalties. There are a tremendous amount of books vying for shelf space at the major chains and the competition is fierce. The life of a book on a shelf is pretty short, especially at a major chain bookstore. Fortunately, it is not as fierce, or as controlled in the independent bookstores.
The next time you are in or near an independent bookstore, buy a book, whether you want it or not, because without them we budding writers have no chance. They keep us alive and give us hope.
Secondary Markets:
If the book is successful (and sometimes even if not that successful) the rights may be sold to the secondary markets.
A popular hardcover will often spawn a mass-market paperback, or maybe a trade paperback and/or mass-market paperback. Your work may be sold to foreign markets. A very popular book may ultimately be optioned for a movie, or film rights. It is very possible to make a lot more money through the sale of these secondary rights then you would by selling actual books. Of course, logic states that it would have to be a successful book to be valuable to the secondary market.
Remainders:
One last point, the flip side of sales are returns. Bookstores have the option of returning books back to the publisher at any time, for no particular reason. It is an industry standard dating back to the Great Depression.
If sales start to slow drastically and the publisher feels the book has run its course, the remaining books may be inventoried for awhile, but eventually, as activity dwindles, and no further print runs are produced, the book will go “out of print.” The returns and the remaining stock will ultimately become remainders, that is, the publisher is finished with promotion and sale of these books and will want to unload the inventory, which basically signals the end of your book.
These bullet points are but a brief reflection of the publishing cycle in the traditional life of a manuscript, some of which will be covered in much greater detail in later sections.
While the above is a lot of information to review, for now we will focus on the first two steps of the process. The writing and editing that is solely in the writer’s control, regardless of what future direction the writer may take. Because if the writing and the editing is not the best it can be, the rest will not matter. In fact there probably won’t be anything else to worry about, unless you do go the print-on-demand rout, in which case the writing and editing need to be better than perfect.
Okay then, let’s get started.
Writing a Manuscript
… Actually creating a product!
Why should we have a section on writing a manuscript? Isn’t it assumed that if you are reading this guide, that you have written a manuscript already? Well let’s assume you have a manuscript, or are about to finish one. Since writing a manuscript is the first step in the process, we need to take a moment to understand what a manuscript is and why you wrote it.
I wrote my first manuscript on a manual typewriter and my second on an electric typewriter, both of which gave me a deeper appreciation of what I had created. Imagine if you will, no backspacing, no fixing the word, sentence, or paragraph. Every change, no matter how minor required a complete page do over!
However, with the advent of the computer age, anyone (and I do mean anyone) can just crank out a manuscript (and unfortunately they do), without a true appreciation of having created something special.
Hold on now, before you start yelling and toss this guide across the room, let me explain what I am inferring here.
Isn’t it a fact that all writers sit down and start pounding out words on paper for our own personal edification? It would be hard to imagine any of us would take on this daunting task with the sole purpose of marketing, or with only a sales oriented concept in mind. Besides, that in itself would be a problem, but I could be wrong. Let’s see, let me write this novel so I can sell it later, what should I write about? A tad far fetched, but I’m sure some writers may do it that way. Let’s assume not. Let’s hope not!
I would imagine we writers sit down first and foremost because we want (need) to write this story. We have an idea in mind for a story that we want to grow and explore or maybe just to write, no strings attached, no fore thought of what to do when it is finished. Maybe you want to create a work of nonfiction, a how to manual, self help guide, some enlightening piece of work, or whatever vision you may have. Isn’t that why most of us write in the first place? Sure, we always have the idea that once we are finished we can envision the day when this work will be in print and… well, we are getting ahead of ourselves.
The point I am trying to make is that most writers don’t put pen to paper (or actually strike a key on a keyboard) with any idea of how to sell this work. Maybe in a nonfiction work that focus is more prevalent, but us novel writers, we are a bit more unfocused. In fact there are those that say you should have a marketing plan before you even put the first word on paper. Now that may sound a bit drastic, but it’s not far from the truth.
I often wonder if we writers still had to sit at a manual typewriter to create our white bond paper manuscript, how many of us would still do it? How many of us would be able to do it? But, to sit in front of our keyboard and computer screen, what does it matter? When we are done, we hit the print button and three hundred (four hundred) plus doubled spaced pages spill out of the printer and, like magic, we have a manuscript. Yeah, it really is that easy. Scary, huh?
Imagine if you will, to have sat in front of a manual, or even an electric, typewriter and written three hundred doubled spaced pages on white bond paper, which we then somehow made a copy of. Some writers were even known to use carbon paper to create their copy. Yeah, that sheet of inked tissue you stuck between two sheets of white paper and when you struck a key on the top sheet the character was copied to the bottom sheet.
We then safely stored the original and sent the copy out to agents or publishers and if it got lost or destroyed in the mail, we painstakingly made another copy. There wasn’t a shop on the corner that made copies. (Often times we had to submit the original and if rejected the manuscript would be returned to send off to the next publisher or agent and if that original got lost, well…)
That writing process definitely gave us a deeper appreciation of what we did. If you don’t believe me, try writing a short story on a manual typewriter. That is, if you can!
However, with the advent of the computer, there is less appreciation. It is just too easy. Now, writers can just sit at the keyboard, pound out a story, run a spell check, hit the print button and we have a three hundred (four hundred – hopefully not much more) plus page double spaced manuscript. Good God, perish the thought!
I’m sure we all write for a wide variety of reasons. I consider myself a storyteller that is learning to become a writer. I’ve always been able to tell a good story, which I keep trying to translate into a printed work.
Obviously, the single most significant enhancement to us writers is the computer, but it is also our greatest hindrance. With the ability to just pound out a piece of work, just about anybody can do it and unfortunately they are doing it, which brings us to the problem.
With so many manuscripts being created and ultimately being sent out to agents and publishers, our chances of being discovered or “picked up” are greatly diminished, as we all become lost in that jungle of paper. In addition, with the onslaught of these manuscripts being self-published through the Print-on-Demand route, we become buried in that quagmire of books as well. Consequently, facing that uphill battle we have to ask ourselves why in the world are we writing at all? What can we ever hope to accomplish?
Writing for most writers is the joy of writing, of creating that story, or piece of work that we can share with others. Of course we have hopes and dreams for that finished work. Will it become a book on a shelf in a major bookstore, optioned for film rights, sold to the secondary markets, foreign distribution…? Of course we want all of that, but reality speaks differently. Reality says that we must greatly lower our expectations - while at the same time we must significantly elevate our product standards. We need to figure out how to rise above the rest, or at the very least stand out from the crowd.
Again, let us assume you have finished the manuscript (or are in the process of completing one), so what do you do now? The first thing to consider is what makes your manuscript different from the others? Here we go with the first stage of marketing. How will you package the work? How will it entertain or benefit readers? Has this theme or concept been done before? And if so, what makes yours different?
The dichotomy here is that you want to leave your work as you wrote it, because that is the way you created it. But, you have to consider, is there anyway you can go back and refocus, rework, or retell the story that makes it stand out? Or at the very least, how will you frame the work so it rises above, or is somehow different than the others?
These are all things you need to consider before you even think about starting to pitch to agents or publishers. Now you are entering the product stage. How are you going to present this manuscript? You have to sell this concept to an agent or publisher. Same as you would the buying public, if you are considering going the Print-on-Demand publishing - the self-publishing route.
At this point, we should start putting together a business plan to determine what we will do with this work, because to do any less puts us at a great disadvantage in the sea of all those other manuscripts floating out there.
We can’t just blindly start sending the manuscript around. We need some focus, some idea of what this is and what we are trying to do with it, because if we don’t know, certainly anybody receiving our package won’t know either. That uncertainly will only help to make it easier to reject the work, whereas a focused pitch just might help to keep your work in the slush pile a little while longer.
Writing a manuscript is so much more than putting a bunch of words on paper and hoping for the best. Writing a manuscript is the process of creating a piece of work that is now perceived as a finished product, which we need to thrust upon the buying public, whether they want it or not. Writing a manuscript is only the beginning of the journey, for all intents and purposes the easy part. To be a writer these days, we have to be so much more.
Writing a manuscript has become the launch of a product and if you are not willing to make that commitment, or “jump into the game” all you are doing is putting a bunch of words on a lot of paper. You have not created a manuscript and you have not earned the right to move forward. This is simply true, because if you don’t do the work, no one will do the work for you.
So, before you sit in front of that keyboard and start pounding away, think about what it is you are about to do. Think about what happens when you finish your story, but more importantly, think about what your commitment will be. For those of you that have a finished manuscript, think about what you want to do with that work and why and what that will take to get there.
It may seem like I am rambling here, but all too often I have spoken with writers that just don’t get that. They assume that all they have to do is put words on paper and the rest will follow. Unfortunately, they languish, in the publishing process, then get frustrated and jump to Print-on-Demand Publishing for all the wrong reasons often times creating those very books that make us all cringe when we see them, because those writers become even more unfocused going the print-on-demand route.
The irony here is that if you use the advice offered in this guide, but more importantly, create the best possible product you can, determine what it is you have, what you intend to do with it, how you are going to do that and formulate a marketing (business) plan, you may have just significantly increased your chances of landing an agent, which is still the best, the very best, way to break into “the club.”
The last point I would like to make here is that, yes you need to focus in on everything presented here, but don’t let it stymie your creativity. Go ahead and create your manuscript, get the story down, complete the work, then start to focus on what to do next. If by some chance, during the process, you can review what it is you are creating and what you plan to do with the work, it just might help you to be more in tune with the next steps.
With that in mind, there is one more area you need to address before you thrust your manuscript on the unsuspecting world and that is editing. No manuscript is complete until it has been fully edited by a competent editor, which brings us to the next section.
Editing a Manuscript
… Why is my manuscript covered in red ink?
There is no more important task than having your manuscript edited. Even if it is for no other reason than to have an objective eye give it the once over. However, the hard cold truth here is that most of us (probably all) need to have a trained eye review our work for everything from grammar, to structure, to typos and transpositions, wrong right words or right wrong words (like there, they’re and their and so on), because as the writer, we can no longer see the words, but only the story.
In addition, we may need, and should probably have, a content edit. Does the story flow? Is there a cohesive beginning, middle and an end? Does the story come together and not jump around, or just jump?
Remember, editing begins at home. You can’t expect to have a clean manuscript right out of the gate, even if you do, or think you do, you don’t. It will usually take a couple of (possibly several) passes to get an actual completed manuscript.
In my world there are several stages I take in finishing a manuscript. The first pass gets the story down. What it is I’m trying to say, basically the beginning, middle and end. It doesn’t matter if it is ten pages, a hundred or whatever the length may be. I usually write the basic story concept first.
Think of your manuscript as a three-act play. The first act, the beginning, is the opening of the story, the introduction of characters, setup of the conflict or potential conflict. A chance for the reader to get a grasp on what is about to happen, or has happened. The second act, the middle, may introduce more characters, sometimes sub or filler or secondary characters, starts to bring the pieces or facts together, further introduces or strengthens the conflict or creates obstacles. Or just generally moves the story along. This is usually where it all happens, this is the guts of the story. The third act is the end. It is where everything wraps up. The story comes together, conflict is resolved, the questions are answered and the suspense has ended with a resolution.
A successful writer once told me that the beginning is the opening line of the story and the ending is the final line. All the rest is the middle. Interesting thought …
As a matter of style, I always add one more chapter after the true ending, as a sort of post action. That way if you open one of my books and read the last page or so, you will not read the end of the story, but rather a wrap up chapter I have finished with. Just a thing I do.
The next step is filler, scene setting, the back-story and character development, making or helping the pieces fit, which usually takes several tries and for me takes far longer to do than to write the original story.
Once I have what I believe to be the “finished” manuscript, I start to review for flow and continuity (and grammar and such, best I can). I eventually reach the point where I am finished. This is it. My story is done. I’ve done all I could. It’s time to let go. At this point I’m ready to send the manuscript to my editor. But, that’s just me. You may have a totally different approach. Again whatever works for you?
Well, before you sign off on that manuscript, let me suggest a couple of thoughts to consider. Once the manuscript is initially finished, one thought would be to create a reverse outline, that is, walk backwards through the manuscript, specifically to check to see if the ending supports the middle or beginning or both. Can you get here from there?
It is a great device for linking the parts together. Nothing fancy, a pencil and paper will do. It will also help you to determine if the scenes flow, do the characters flow through, don’t just appear or disappear, will the plot carry through, so that the ending works. How the story gets there and how it all wraps up. Pretty basic stuff, I know, but not always obvious.
Usually, I start with a chapter outline to see the story flow. I then add story scripting, a way of packaging the story and last but not least I have a characters list. Who are they, how do they fit in, what are they doing, do they still fit into the story once I’ve finished? Do I need to add a character or characters? It gets a little deeper than that, but I believe you get the point.
Another option is to break down your manuscript by each chapter and read and proof each chapter separately, preferably out of order. That way you are more inclined to focus on the parts. Reading your manuscript from beginning to end lulls you into a routine. You no longer see the chapters but become engrossed in the story. By proofing each chapter individually, you will not be caught up in the story, but rather you will focus on the flow of that passage. Besides you already know how it ends, so it doesn’t matter where you start!
As I mentioned, I worked as an agent for two years, largely as the purveyor of the slush pile, so I had a real opportunity to read hundreds of samples, partials and full manuscripts. I can tell you that I encountered problems from one end of the spectrum to the other. In many cases, if the writer would have had at least one other person read through the manuscript, or even the sample pages before the work was submitted, I’m sure that would have made a significant difference.
There were stories that started great, but died quickly, stories that might have been good, but started badly. Sometimes I think the writer ran out of gas, maybe had a good idea, but didn’t know where to go with it, or had a good ending but didn’t know how to get there. Not necessarily bad stories, but stories that needed work.
I won’t even get into the typos and grammar issues, because those are a given. You cannot submit a manuscript to an agent or publisher with those kinds of problems. You especially cannot have a manuscript with typos and grammar issues that you may be considering sending off to a Print-on-Demand Publisher – self publish your manuscript.
Since I am a writer as well, I tried to be very forgiving and more understanding, but my boss added to my pile everyday and eventually I started looking for ways to reject rather than accept. Typos were an easy reason, second was grammar, third was readability and last was story content. Even though I tried to be more personal in my rejection letters and point out problems, I reached a point where I used more “form” rejection letters than personal ones.
You have to understand that there are so many submissions, that the agency could only do so much. I regret to say that even when I found something I thought might be worth looking at, my boss, who had thirty-five years in the business, would raise her eyebrows and that was usually the end of the conversation. On rare occasions, I was able to get her to look at a couple of submissions. Work she would actually consider for a while, but ultimately reject. She would simply point out why and I would send the letter.
Remember that the agent takes over your role once she accepts your manuscript. She has to pitch the work to editors, so the better your product, the easier her job may be. It is often easier to reject a work for a myriad of reasons, rather than to go through the steps to finally accept a manuscript.
The work has to win her over at the onset. It can be anything from the pitch letter, the “hook,” the angle, or simply the writing itself. The only chance you have is to get it all right and hope one of those pieces piques her interest. To do any less makes you an easy rejection, maybe for all the wrong reasons. Without question, you have to rise to the top of that pile, which gets bigger everyday.
The point is that the agency received so many submissions, that I wasn’t necessarily finding things that were good, they were just not as bad as the rest, which is a really depressing way to say that.
When I did come across that sample that I liked, I would request either a partial or a full manuscript. When I found one that I did enjoy and thought might have potential, I was usually able to work with the writer. On several occasions, I requested a second (corrected) manuscript, which most authors were willing to do.
However, there were several authors that were not willing to change anything or work with me on suggestions and were sometimes combative about it. Hey, as a writer I fully understand that position, but as writers we need to be receptive to criticism, we don’t necessarily have to accept it, but at least we should be willing to learn from it.
If an agent is willing to contact you, dear writer, and suggest ideas, at the very least you should listen and do with those suggestions what you will, but arguing or becoming combative is not an option. Take the hit and move on. Appreciate the effort. Consider it part of the editing process.
The hue and cry I have read (and heard) from many agents, is that if they do offer a helpful suggestion or criticism, it suggests to the writer that they would look at a revised or updated version of the manuscript that they have already rejected. In fact, the reverse is the case. The fact the agent has offered a helpful hint or criticism is just that. Take the advice and move on.
I can attest to that situation as well, as it happened many times to me in my agent days. Consequently, form rejection letters have become very basic and succinct. Believe me, if an agent wanted your work, they would be on the phone or email contacting you directly, not writing a letter. As I said above, take the “hit” and move on.
I remember being at a used car dealer looking for a second car. I found one I liked, but when we opened the trunk, it was full of water. The salesman smiled and motioned for the porter, who brought a vacuum and cleared the water from the trunk area. The salesman, still smiling, said simply: “I don’t want to lose the next sale.”
The point here is, while he may have lost my sale because of what I saw, he corrected it for the next potential buyer. Use the same analogy for your manuscript. You may have lost this opportunity, but take the suggestion or criticism, make the changes and move on to the next opportunity. It really is as simple as that. Keep remembering it is a business, nothing personal and in business, you don’t dwell on what might have been, but what may be. Keep pitching, keep perfecting and keep pitching again.
A final thought. I am often asked about writers’ conferences, or workshops and if they will help. Writers’ conferences are a good place to “rub elbows” with other writers and of course to listen to various topics discussed by industry professionals. Writers’ workshops are usually more focused than writers’ groups and study groups. In addition you can take college courses on writing essentials all the way up to an MFA. All good things for a writer to do, it can only help to perfect your craft.
However if you don’t practice, practice, practice, then none of it will be useful. Too many times, I have met a writer at a conference or some other function and when I asked how the writing was going, I was met with a stare and a sheepish “well, I haven’t actually written anything yet.”
If you want to “learn” to be a writer, that is certainly okay, but you don’t become a writer until you start writing. The quality may be good, bad or somewhere in the middle, but you need to write. Start with short stories, or just create passages. Conferences, workshops and especially writers’ groups are all very helpful to your writing career, but at some point you do have to write to become a writer. Use these functions as a bridge to perfect your work, and hopefully long before you ever consider turning your work over to an editor, or agent or publisher.
In closing, I have used an editor for all of my works and someone who is qualified to do an edit. And yes this tome came back covered in red ink! When I gave him his copy of my third book, I also gave him a box of red pens, because I was sure he had used up every red pen he had on that manuscript. This manuscript is no different, gloriously covered in red for a myriad of reasons.
No matter how hard you try or how good you think the work is, another set of eyes, especially someone who is capable of editing, can make a huge difference to the finished work and make it the finished product it needs to be.
As I said, I gave my editor a large box of red pens last time, so I believe I can get another manuscript by him before I have to hit the supply store again. Best investment I ever made, those red pens…
The Nuts & Bolts of this here Book Business
…And why you need to know it!
Before we go any further in the process, let us digress a moment. I thought an overview of the business as a whole would be in order, because we have reached a crossroad here. Do we continue on the normal course, or do we change direction and do it ourselves?
The very first thing you need to understand is that publishing is a business. You, the writer, are creating a product that you have high hopes of selling to someone else, hopefully for a profit, or at the very least, a recoup of your expenses. To believe any less puts you at a disadvantage right from the start.
Yes, of course you wrote this because it is your passion and it doesn’t really matter if you make money or not, you just want to get your story out there, and all that… However, no matter the reason, you still need to focus in on the fact that publishing is a business. Everything you do after your manuscript is completed is business oriented. How will the author take that manuscript beyond a stack of dusty papers sitting on the desk? How does the manuscript become a book? What is the process to make that happen?
To answer that question let us review what is involved in the traditional way of taking a book to market. A subject we will touch on briefly here, but will also delve into more deeply later.
We often think of the book business in simple terms. We write a manuscript and then we will get it published. What else do we need to know? A reasonable question and one this guide will hopefully shed some light on.
The purpose of understanding the “Nuts & Bolts” of the book business is to help you to gain a better understanding of how it all works, as well as a better appreciation of the process as a whole. Too many times I’ve heard from writers that truly believe all they have to do is write something and the rest will just happen.
The more the writer can bring to the table, the better the chance the product will get to market. This is especially true if the author intends to pursue the Print-on-Demand route (self publish) and do all of this on his or her own, without any backing. The more that is understood about the book business, the better informed the writer will be in making a decision, whatever that decision may be.
Okay, ready? Let’s take a walk through.
In the traditional course of publishing a writer has created a manuscript. Let’s give the writer the benefit of the doubt and assume that someone qualified to do that type of work has edited the manuscript. Okay, we have a completed, edited manuscript, what’s next?
The next logical step would be to put together a submissions package, comprised of a cover letter, a synopsis, sample pages (chapters), an author bio and I believe it should also contain some marketing ideas as your basic items.
There are various books, articles, blogs and everything in between on how to write a cover letter, a synopsis and putting a package together. It would be in your best interest to review those and create the best letter you can. It will be the first item the agent will see.