I have had the privilege of editing the second and third editions of Book Magic, and I can’t say enough about this gem. The beefed-up sections on electronic publishing in the new edition are indispensable for any writer hoping to enter, and thrive, in the e-world. I recommend Book Magic to all my editing clients, whether they want to publish commercially, to self-publish, or now to e-publish.
– Joyce Gram, editor and writer, www.gramediting.com, June 2011
Julie H. Ferguson's Book Magic is the one how-to book on getting a manuscript [published] that I recommend without reservation to all my writing classes.
– Eileen Kernaghan, award-winning author and writing instructor, http://www.lonelycry.ca/ek/, May 2010
What I liked best about Book Magic is that Ferguson addresses nearly every type of writer, from those who want to write a memoir for family and friends only, to those seeking bestseller status. Whether you've been writing for years or are just beginning, you'll find something in Book Magic to make the journey easier….
– Debra Purdy Kong, author of The Casey Holland mystery series, www.debrapurdykong.com, May 2010
Book Magic was spectacular. You have saved [me] months, if not a year of discovery.
– Pat Cooper
A very good book—one every writer hoping to get published should read.
– Jim Bisakowsi, Book Magic's cover designer, www.bookdesign.ca, October 2008
BOOK MAGIC
Turning Writers into
Published Authors
Third Edition
Julie H. Ferguson
BEACON PUBLISHING
Port Moody
Copyright 2007, 2008, 2011 by Julie H. Ferguson
First edition 2007. Second edition 2008. Third edition 2011
Smashwords edition
All rights reserved.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Ferguson, Julie H., 1945-
Book magic [electronic resource] : turning writers into published authors / Julie H. Ferguson. -- 3rd ed.
Electronic monograph in EPUB format.
ISBN 978-0-9866401-1-7
1. Authorship--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Authorship-- Marketing--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. Publishers and publishing--Canada. 4. Self-publishing--Canada. I. Title.
PN161.F47 2011 070.50971 C2011-902876-X
Cover image by Kathryn Bell.
Cover design by Jim Bisakowski, www.bookdesign.ca
Edited by Joyce Gram, email@joycegram.com, www.gramediting.com
Beacon Publishing
#5–300 Maude Road
Port Moody, BC
Canada V3H 2X6
For all those I know who weave
magic with the written word
CONTENTS
Three magic carpet routes to publishing a book
Perceiving the North American publishing scene
Publishing grants are your magic wand
Divining your reasons for seeking publication
Reading the omens to select your magic carpet
The wizardry surrounding literary agents
Magic bullets for getting your book published
Fiction categories and sub-categories
Sample query letter–nonfiction
“Five Proven Ways to Improve Your Chances of Getting Published ” by Julie H. Ferguson
“Pitching Professionally: How to Captivate Editors and Agents with Your Nonfiction Book Idea" by Julie H. Ferguson
Some resources to get you started
More books by Julie H. Ferguson
Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public.
Sir Winston S. Churchill, 1874–1965
ABRACADABRA!
Welcome to Book Magic’s third edition.
In the past two years the electronic revolution in the world-wide publishing industry, coupled with the global economic recession, has been profound and destabilizing. The upheavals have rocked many published and aspiring authors, who are now wondering where the industry is heading. Honestly, it’s hard to predict an end point and what it might look like, but I know that the process we are facing will shake down further, the publishing industry will be transformed, and I will have to write yet another edition of Book Magic.
With all writers hungry for direction, Book Magic needed revision and quickly. I have completely rewritten and expanded the chapters “Crystal Ball Gazing” and “Electronic Sorcery” to reflect the explosion in sales of e-readers and e-books, as well as the ease of self-e-publishing today. I have also brought the resource list up to date and made improvements to information in other chapters.
The changes in this version are as current as I can make them to June 2011. They will no doubt be quickly superseded as new revelations materialize, not the least of which will be better software for e-publishing. Please bear in mind that this shifting scene is hard to pin down and morphs every week. Despite this situation, I am certain Book Magic’s third edition will enable you to understand and respond appropriately to the new reality for the time being at least. Enjoy!
-oo0oo-
Book Magic: Turning Writers into Published Authors has nagged me to write it since the early nineties, when I finished my first book-length manuscript and began the hunt for a publisher in Canada. Now, after Dundurn has published three of my four titles on Canadian history and I have self-published thirteen other books in print and electronic versions, I have finally found time to assemble my hard-earned knowledge into this book.
When I tentatively dipped a toe into the world of Canadian book publishing in 1985, I found it bewildering. But I did not withdraw my toe; in fact, I pushed my whole foot in and then the rest of me, determined to stay. By the late 1980s, although I had had articles published in national and regional periodicals, I knew little about the proper approach to acquisition editors, broke many rules and committed most of the cardinal sins of submission. Looking back on my antics, I am surprised I had my first manuscript published at all. But without exception, the Canadian publishers understood my naivety and mistakes, taking time to initiate me into their world. Not one horror story resulted from my early exposure.
Flying by the seat of your pants, as I did, is not an option two decades later. Indeed, editors/agents will detect it if you try. You need to get on a more effective broomstick. There is no excuse anymore for saying, “I didn’t know.” Today, resources are readily accessible to guide aspiring authors in approaching publishers or doing it yourself.
I believe writers improve their chances of getting published by receiving practical assistance, current information and support from published authors throughout their journeys to publication. Reading Book Magic is one way to discover some basics of this essential knowledge. Other ways include taking courses and workshops, joining a local or virtual critique group, attending writers’ conferences, and/or hiring a coach. Knowledge is power, as they say, and becoming fully engaged in your book project and writing community will save you much heartache and energy.
I must acknowledge individuals who assisted this book’s purpose: the experience and input of Eileen Kernaghan and Debra Purdy Kong for the section on self-publishing fiction was invaluable. I offer my heartfelt appreciation to Joyce Gram—simply the best editor and formatter any author can have—and to Debra again for her insights and encouragement. As I do in all my books, I thank Port Moody’s writers’ group to which I have belonged, off and on, for over twenty years. Without its members, I probably would never have had the confidence to approach a publisher in the first place. All of you are part of this book too, and an enduring support.
Book Magic: Turning Writers into Published Authors has had several incarnations as workshops and presentations. But none conveyed what I experienced when Dundurn accepted my first book in 1993, and so I changed the title and transformed the content. Getting published is truly magical.
Together, we will weave some unique spells to remove obstacles and boost your chances of getting published. We will explore the wizardry surrounding agents, query letters, book proposals/synopses and phone calls to editors. We will peer into a crystal ball at trends in North American markets and take a long look at electronic publishing, the current craze. We will pull aside the veil that obscures how the Canadian publishing scene differs from the American, and reveal how approachable small and medium publishers really are.
When you have finished reading this book, you will have a better idea about these aspects of the publishing world:
- The American and Canadian publishing industries
- The role and place of literary agents and whether your work-in-progress will attract one
- Why early research into publishers is so important to your success
- How to decide between commercial or self-publication, print or electronic
- How to deal with limited qualifications
- How to approach publishers without an agent
- How to pitch verbally to agents and editors at conferences
- The explosion in electronic publishing and how you can benefit
And overall, if you follow the advice, you will improve your chances of getting published.
The content, examples and resources, which I use in my live presentations, are an integral part of this publication and its appendix. I have also written several other books, each of which amplifies some of the key points in this book. For a complete listing, see the appendix.
Book Magic will ease your anxiety about approaching commercial publishers and banish the rampant misconceptions surrounding the process. Alternatively, it may help you decide if self-publishing is for you, in print and/or electronically. Above all, Book Magic will encourage you to persevere towards your goal of seeing your book(s) on bookstore and virtual shelves across the nation, hopefully around the world.
Join me as I wave my magic wand and take you … from inspiration to publication!™
Myths abound. But myths are especially prevalent in the world of writing and book publishing, where they cloud the scene, at least from a writer’s perspective. Canadian writers are drowning in a sea of advice from American sources that do not apply in Canada. American writers envy Canadians for their access to publishers. The hype about the competition that aspiring authors face is extraordinary, even in specialized publications that should know better. Writers who have not achieved publication tell horror stories that suck the rest of us into believing we will never jump high enough to succeed. But the facts paint a different and more hopeful picture.
Here are the top seven myths about getting published that we must dismiss:
1. Publishers want fiction.
2. The competition is too fierce.
3. You must have an agent.
4. You must be an expert in your field of endeavour.
5. Self-publishing is only for the desperate.
6. Just submit a query letter.
7. Never phone an editor or agent.
The greatest of these myths and one we hear all the time is: You must have an agent. It is nonsense. Phew! Feel better already? Later, more about agents. But let’s explode the other myths that can intimidate us.
1. Publishers want fiction.
Statistics have changed this assumption over the last fifteen years, at least in print. In 2005, Hal Niedzviecki, fiction editor at Broken Pencil, predicted an even greater decline in the novel after judging Humber College publishing students’ assignments to develop a print publishing business. Not one team chose to publish a fiction list. He wrote in the Globe and Mail, October 13, 2005, that the students “were eerily in step with global and domestic publishing trends.” The intervening years have proved Niedzviecki correct.
As Statistics Canada detailed studies are out of date (2004) and their 2009 stats are hopelessly inadequate, I can only provide the US 2009 figures from Bookwire. However, these are indicative of the fiction global market and inform us in a broad sense, which suits the purpose of this book. Only 15.7% of the print titles commercially published in 2009 were novels.
Nonfiction print titles therefore comprise nearly 85% of titles published in the United States, and though lower in Canada, they still outnumber novels.
Nonfiction has a longer shelf life than fiction and provides a better return on investment for publishers; that is, they make more money from them. Novels have an initial burst of sales and then are quickly superseded by the next bestseller. Mass-market books (paperbacks on racks) have less time to prove themselves; if they don’t sell well in three to six weeks, they are returned to the publisher, never to be seen again.
Fiction has always been a risky proposition for print publishers. Certainly, the gigantic bestsellers by novelists like Dan Brown and Diana Gabaldon make the news and continue to sell, but they are the exceptions. Most print novels don’t sell enough copies to pay out the advances publishers give their authors. However, the electronic novel is outselling e-nonfiction and changing the industry paradigm. Print nonfiction is like the Energizer® bunny—it keeps on going and going, often for years.
Publishers definitely do not prefer fiction.
2. The competition is too fierce.
In fiction, there are three categories: literary, mainstream and genre (formula). Within the second and third, the sub-categories are numerous and include mystery, romance, horror, fantasy, science fiction (SF), etc. (See more sub-categories in the appendix.)
Nonfiction has dozens of categories—almost as many as there are subjects, and unfortunately, they are not standardized. You only have to look at the sections in a big bookstore or in a library. (See the appendix for more information.) Many categories are further divided into sub-categories: for example, History–World War Two, Business–communications, and Sports–kayaking. If you’re lucky enough to identify a neglected area that interests people, you’re almost guaranteed to get published if you write reasonably well.
The key here is to remember that fiction and nonfiction books only compete within their categories and sub-categories, rather than with the whole market. This nugget dispels the futility some aspiring authors experience as they commence the process of submitting their manuscripts.
The fierce competition is less than authors imagine.
3. You must have an agent.
There are over five hundred medium and small publishers in Canada, and no one needs an agent to approach any of them. Eighty percent of all titles published north of the forty-ninth parallel are written by unagented authors. However, acting as your own literary agent means weaving together magic and personal effort, but writers do it successfully every day. Boning up on how to write and submit query letters, synopses, book proposals, etc., can usually be achieved in a city near you or online.
Aspiring authors who wish to approach the top six publishing conglomerates in the United States (New York) must be represented. Editors there do not accept unagented manuscripts, period. The six US conglomerates publish 80% of all American titles sold (not published):
- BertelsmannAG (Random House Inc.)
- Penguin Group USA
- News Corporation (HarperCollins)
- Holtzbrinck Publishing Group (Macmillan, St. Martins Press, etc.)
- Time Warner Book Group (Little Brown and Company, etc.)
- Simon and Schuster, Inc.
Four of these huge corporations are foreign owned. Each has a stable of different publishing divisions called imprints that is often huge. Google the names above and take a look.
The rest of the US publishing houses, and there are over 86,400, do accept submissions directly from writers. These smaller companies publish about 78% of all titles in the United States; they just don’t sell as many as the big boys.
No aspiring author must have an agent.
4. You must be an expert in your field of endeavour.
Certainly it helps, but it isn’t a requirement. I’m living proof—my first two books were about the Canadian Submarine Service, a most unlikely subject for a woman who was neither a submariner nor a historian. Given also that my credentials are in physical therapy and I was unknown, I clearly succeeded in circumventing the issue of expertise. But to be honest, I found it an uphill battle for a while, and I worked at it for a long time, mostly alone. The workarounds for lack of qualifications are in the chapter “Shape-Shifting for Expertise.”
Aspiring authors do not have to be a credentialed expert in their field.
5. Self-publishing is only for the desperate.
Not anymore! The stigma has declined substantially for professionally created print books and is non-existent for self-published e-books. Sometimes self-publishing is the best option for the writer.
Self-publishing is for everyone.
6. Just submit a query letter.
Published authors often toss out the words, “Oh, you just send a query letter to an editor/agent.” Well, it isn’t quite that simple.
Yes, any unpublished author’s first approach is by query letter, but you need also to be ready to send along more material if the acquisition editor requests it, and they may ask for it “next week.” Additional material can include a full book proposal for nonfiction with three sample chapters (my first proposal was 120 double-spaced pages); it might be a long synopsis and half or the full manuscript polished to a high gloss for a novel; and, almost certainly, a one-page bio. The point is this—as an unpublished author, your other material needs to be perfect before you send your query, just in case.
When I sent out my query for my first nonfiction book as an aspiring author, I discovered that the publishers I approached were reassured when they learned that my manuscript was finished—that is, polished. To them I was an unknown quantity, and they had no idea if I could meet a deadline. My ready-for-delivery manuscript, or ms, gave them confidence. Once I had proved myself with one published book, I simply had to query my publisher with my idea without a ms even started. Once I even pitched an idea over breakfast and had a contract by lunch. Magic!
Another consideration to think about is which publishers or agents you are going to target with your query. This takes research and effort on your part to ensure you hit the mark. More later …
Submissions are not just query letters!
6. Never phone an editor or agent.
Phoning editors was the first of many mistakes I committed in my journey to publication. I didn’t know I shouldn’t phone. But I proved that in Canada at least, publishers were accessible and didn’t mind too much.
Only later did I realize my faux pas had provided me with some valuable lessons to pass on, including the importance of writing a verbal pitch.
Authors can phone editors or agents to pitch, but I wouldn’t recommend it anymore. If you do, do so with great care and a verbal pitch handy.
CRYSTAL BALL GAZING
Trends are slippery customers. When you think you’ve got them nailed down, new ones slip onto the publishing stage and into the spotlight. Sometimes trends creep in; a few roar in like a category five hurricane. Publishers and writers have just experienced the latter, and my crystal ball exploded.
No writer can have missed the recent revolution in publishing. People are using e-reading devices everywhere—on buses and trains, in waiting rooms and lineups, in airports, on planes. Wherever you look! You’ve probably also heard the astonishing news that self-published print titles surpassed commercially published books for the first time in 2009—now they number three times as many; and in April 2011 e-book sales surpassed all print book sales. Writers are not only blown over, we are swamped, and all this happened during a global recession!
The stats, the anecdotes, the chat, the media all point to a future dominated by e-reading and e-publishing. No, I don’t think it means the death of print as some commentators predict, but it does mean it’s time for us to reassess our publishing plans.
One thing is crystal clear—you must climb aboard the electronic express. Here’s why:
- 85% of Canadians enjoy reading books; 56% of Americans.
- The over-fifties buy more e-readers and e-books than any other age group (Pew Internet polls, October 2010).
- E-book sales are surging and have shown no sign of slowing for the last two years. By February 2011, they chalked up another spurt of 208% growth over 2010.
- Amazon has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books, hardcover and paperback, since April 2011.
- Independent (a.k.a. “self-pubbed” or “indie”) authors make 35% to 70% royalties on all e-sales.
- A few (very few) indie authors are selling nearly half a million books per year.
- Adult hardcover fiction and mass-market paperback sales declined 40% (Publishers Weekly, February 2011).
- Most e-books are cheaper than print books, more portable and use fewer trees.
- Fiction is the hot ticket for e-reading.
- Owners of e-readers are buying 3.3 times more books than they did when buying print copies (Harris Interactive Polls, September 2010).
- Libraries lend e-books.
- Most major publishers are busily producing current and older titles in e-formats if they are suitable for conversion.
- Free e-publishing services like Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing have made it easy to self-e-publish.
What do your readers read? What devices do they read on? What’s the most suitable e-format for the type of books you write? Here are some pointers:
- E-fiction is the best bet at the moment.
- Top-trending e-novels are fantasy and speculative fiction; graphic novels and comics sell well for tablets like iPads.
- E-nonfiction that is mostly text—biographies and history—are popular categories.
- Highly illustrated nonfiction like cookbooks and textbooks do not convert well to dedicated e-readers; neither do those with formatting like sidebars. However, these books work well on tablets.
- Children’s and young adult titles are less popular electronically because most kids don’t yet own e-readers, but print sales are increasing.
- Nostalgia and retirement titles are increasing in print and will probably do the same electronically as the boomers close in on sixty-plus.