by S. L. Duncan
Once upon a time, I wanted to be a filmmaker. It was college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I knew one thing: I gravitated toward storytelling. So while at university, I structured my curriculum around classes that I thought would be beneficial to nurturing whatever creative abilities I could that might help me later on in pursuing my celluloid dream.
It’s a collaborative art, filmmaking. Screenwriters, actors, directors, and even the money – studios, producers, and executives – all pitch in for the end product. I liked that. It was like a community of creative energy.
My life took a detour into The Law, so my dream of being the next Spielberg never manifested, and yet here I am – an author guilty of writing a Spielbergian adventure of a boy born to save the world.
Authors are, by nature, a solitary species. You’ve heard all the clichés, no doubt. But like filmmaking, there actually is a lot of the process that still is very collaborative. Your agent will help guide you along the journey. When your book sells, you’ll have an editor that will hone your words, Obi-Wan Kenobi-style, into the best version of the book you can write. After a lot of work, you’ll send the manuscript off into the ether, and eventually push it into the back of your mind while you await its release date.
And then, one day, probably out of the blue, you’ll be given notice that your cover is ready for your approval.
This is where I am.
Sometime in the next few weeks, I’ll receive a file containing the thing that above all else, will make or break my book’s impact on the reader. And I had nothing to do with it. Authors don’t really have input on what their own covers will be. There are weird clauses in our contracts that allude to some sort of participation in its creation, but the reality is, your job as an author, at least in regard to the cover, is to simply say, “Thank you.”
Scary, right? After all the work you’ve done to make your work stand out in the world, the one thing that most readers will look to that distinguishes it from all other works is totally out of your control.
In many ways, this is an arranged marriage.
I keep assuring myself that we were meant to be together, my cover and I. That we have the same interests. That we’ll be together, happily ever after. That our future is bright.
Because, make no mistake. This is Ever After. FOREVER after.
But what if I’m not attracted to it?
What if it’s ugly?
What if it snores in bed or hangs the toilet paper backwards?
Could you live with a troubled marriage like that? Well, you’ll kinda have to.
Frightening thoughts. Bad covers happen, though, despite best intentions. So stressing about them is well within your right as an author.
In the end, it boils down to trust. Trust the process. Trust that your agent knows you, knows your manuscript, and knows that the editor he or she submitted to, and the publishing house that offered, has a solid record of manufacturing beautiful covers. It's really all you can do.
But go easy on the anxiety.
Because beautiful covers happen, too.
S. L. Duncan writes young adult fiction, including his debut, The Revelation of Gabriel Adam, due in 2014 from Medallion Press. You can find him blogging on INKROCK.com and on Twitter.
Showing posts with label covers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label covers. Show all posts
Friday, November 8, 2013
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Judging a Book by Its Cover
by J. Lea López
There isn't an author alive who hasn't heard "Don't judge a book by its cover." There also isn't an author alive who doesn't know that readers are judging books by their covers. You can probably point out a few different book cover clichés in your genre. If not, check out this list with 19 of them that you may have seen. Certain "typical" cover design elements can signal to the reader a great deal of information about the story. Usually, it's those elements and that conveyed information an author or publisher hopes will entice a reader to buy.
Sex sells ... or does it?
If you read romance, erotic romance, or erotica, you're well aware of some of the cover trends in those genres. If you're looking for a steamy read, books with covers featuring near-naked bodies are a sure bet. But while a "typical" cover may seem like a guaranteed way to attract "typical" fans of the genre, there's also the risk of deterring other potential readers.
Over the past couple weeks, I've been catching up on some ebooks I'd downloaded to my Kindle during various free promotions. I scrolled through the carousel on my Kindle Fire, which shows the book covers for the books on the device, trying to decide what to read next. I kept passing over one particular book because the cover gave me a certain impression that I wasn't interested in, even though I'd already downloaded the book. I often download books that I might otherwise feel meh about, if they're free. Don't judge me. I know you do it, too. So anyway, in the weeks since I'd downloaded the book, I kept passing it up and reading other things instead, based solely on the cover. I'd mostly forgotten the description by then.
The cover features the muscled torso of what we assume is an attractive man. We don't know, because the only parts of him we see are his pecs, abs, and arms. A woman's hands are groping him from behind. In the background is a cityscape as seen through the window of what we probably assume is a penthouse apartment.
Now let's not forget that I, and other readers, will bring our own reading baggage and preferences to the table when judging a book by its cover. It's inevitable. What I'm about to say may seem harsh, but it's the truth of what I was thinking at the time, and it may mirror the thoughts of other readers more than authors would care to think about. Here's what I was expecting from this book, based on the cover I just described:
A billionaire-themed steamy romance. Not particularly well-written. Probably will require a greater leap of faith to suspend my disbelief than I generally like in books. Most likely will cause me to roll my eyes or shake my head at what I see as utterly illogical leaps of plot or characterization, but that I could still see coming a mile away because I'd read three or four similar romances in the week prior that were scripted exactly the same way.
Not the most flattering picture, right? Still, I finally decided to read it. And something strange happened. I found myself smirking on the first page. Not because I was saying "I knew it. Mediocre at best." in my head, but because I was actually amused at the characters. Their personalities came through right away. The way they met and the details of their first interaction were fresh and fun and a little bit silly, and I absolutely loved it. And I found myself reading chapter after chapter because I wanted to, and not just because I told myself I had to.
Yes, it was a billionaire romance, which is something that has never really appealed to me. But that aspect of the story was treated in a way that made sense for the characters and added to my enjoyment most of the time. And yes, there were a few things that went the usual way seemingly because that's the way a romance should go, regardless of whether it was the way this particular story and these particular characters should have gone, given everything up to that point. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Writing about it now makes me want to go back and read it again, which says a lot.
But I almost didn't read it because of the cover.
I realized after reading it and revisiting the Amazon page that I had downloaded it in spite of the cover because the blurb was interesting AND it was free at the time. Once it was on my Kindle and I completely forgot what it was about, the cover really held me back from reading it sooner because it conveyed a type of book that I was not very interested in.
What does this mean for readers? Obviously, don't judge a book by its cover! But it's hard not to, and I don't think there will ever be a time where we don't judge books by their covers. Especially in an increasingly digital marketplace.
So, then. What does this mean for authors and publishers? I think it means we need to be a little more careful with the messages we choose to send with our book covers. This particular cover will attract quite a few readers who like to read certain things. I'm not denying that. But there's a potential market that it's probably missing as well.
I know we can't appeal to all readers all the time, nor should we try to. But I think there's a more nuanced balance between hitting your target market square between the eyes and roping in your target market without completely alienating readers who might really like what you're writing, but they just don't know it yet. Like me. I'd probably read this author again in the future, knowing that if she has a cover that would normally turn me off, there's likely a better story inside. (And if you're curious, the book I've been referring to is She's Got Dibs, by AJ Nuest. Check it out. Even if you don't like billionaire romances.)
What are some books you've read and enjoyed despite a cover that would've made you think otherwise?
J. Lea López is a shy, introverted writer with a secret world of snark and naughtiness inside her head. She writes character-driven erotica and contemporary new adult stories. Her first novel, Sorry's Not Enough, and her free short story collection, Consenting Adults, are available now. She'd love to tweet with you.
There isn't an author alive who hasn't heard "Don't judge a book by its cover." There also isn't an author alive who doesn't know that readers are judging books by their covers. You can probably point out a few different book cover clichés in your genre. If not, check out this list with 19 of them that you may have seen. Certain "typical" cover design elements can signal to the reader a great deal of information about the story. Usually, it's those elements and that conveyed information an author or publisher hopes will entice a reader to buy.
Sex sells ... or does it?
If you read romance, erotic romance, or erotica, you're well aware of some of the cover trends in those genres. If you're looking for a steamy read, books with covers featuring near-naked bodies are a sure bet. But while a "typical" cover may seem like a guaranteed way to attract "typical" fans of the genre, there's also the risk of deterring other potential readers.
Over the past couple weeks, I've been catching up on some ebooks I'd downloaded to my Kindle during various free promotions. I scrolled through the carousel on my Kindle Fire, which shows the book covers for the books on the device, trying to decide what to read next. I kept passing over one particular book because the cover gave me a certain impression that I wasn't interested in, even though I'd already downloaded the book. I often download books that I might otherwise feel meh about, if they're free. Don't judge me. I know you do it, too. So anyway, in the weeks since I'd downloaded the book, I kept passing it up and reading other things instead, based solely on the cover. I'd mostly forgotten the description by then.
The cover features the muscled torso of what we assume is an attractive man. We don't know, because the only parts of him we see are his pecs, abs, and arms. A woman's hands are groping him from behind. In the background is a cityscape as seen through the window of what we probably assume is a penthouse apartment.
Now let's not forget that I, and other readers, will bring our own reading baggage and preferences to the table when judging a book by its cover. It's inevitable. What I'm about to say may seem harsh, but it's the truth of what I was thinking at the time, and it may mirror the thoughts of other readers more than authors would care to think about. Here's what I was expecting from this book, based on the cover I just described:
A billionaire-themed steamy romance. Not particularly well-written. Probably will require a greater leap of faith to suspend my disbelief than I generally like in books. Most likely will cause me to roll my eyes or shake my head at what I see as utterly illogical leaps of plot or characterization, but that I could still see coming a mile away because I'd read three or four similar romances in the week prior that were scripted exactly the same way.
Not the most flattering picture, right? Still, I finally decided to read it. And something strange happened. I found myself smirking on the first page. Not because I was saying "I knew it. Mediocre at best." in my head, but because I was actually amused at the characters. Their personalities came through right away. The way they met and the details of their first interaction were fresh and fun and a little bit silly, and I absolutely loved it. And I found myself reading chapter after chapter because I wanted to, and not just because I told myself I had to.
Yes, it was a billionaire romance, which is something that has never really appealed to me. But that aspect of the story was treated in a way that made sense for the characters and added to my enjoyment most of the time. And yes, there were a few things that went the usual way seemingly because that's the way a romance should go, regardless of whether it was the way this particular story and these particular characters should have gone, given everything up to that point. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Writing about it now makes me want to go back and read it again, which says a lot.
But I almost didn't read it because of the cover.
I realized after reading it and revisiting the Amazon page that I had downloaded it in spite of the cover because the blurb was interesting AND it was free at the time. Once it was on my Kindle and I completely forgot what it was about, the cover really held me back from reading it sooner because it conveyed a type of book that I was not very interested in.
What does this mean for readers? Obviously, don't judge a book by its cover! But it's hard not to, and I don't think there will ever be a time where we don't judge books by their covers. Especially in an increasingly digital marketplace.
So, then. What does this mean for authors and publishers? I think it means we need to be a little more careful with the messages we choose to send with our book covers. This particular cover will attract quite a few readers who like to read certain things. I'm not denying that. But there's a potential market that it's probably missing as well.
I know we can't appeal to all readers all the time, nor should we try to. But I think there's a more nuanced balance between hitting your target market square between the eyes and roping in your target market without completely alienating readers who might really like what you're writing, but they just don't know it yet. Like me. I'd probably read this author again in the future, knowing that if she has a cover that would normally turn me off, there's likely a better story inside. (And if you're curious, the book I've been referring to is She's Got Dibs, by AJ Nuest. Check it out. Even if you don't like billionaire romances.)
What are some books you've read and enjoyed despite a cover that would've made you think otherwise?
J. Lea López is a shy, introverted writer with a secret world of snark and naughtiness inside her head. She writes character-driven erotica and contemporary new adult stories. Her first novel, Sorry's Not Enough, and her free short story collection, Consenting Adults, are available now. She'd love to tweet with you.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Five Things I’ve Learned About Self-Publishing
By Matt Sinclair
As many of you have heard by now, several of us at FTWA were involved in a short story anthology, Spring Fevers, which was e-published in February and is now available via print-on-demand. I’m proud to be the publisher of the work, and we will be doing another later this year.
In the meantime, I thought I’d share some bits of learning I picked up from our publishing venture.
Matt Sinclair, a New York City-based journalist and fiction writer, recently published a short story anthology called Spring Fevers, which is available through Smashwords, Amazon, and in print via CreateSpace. It includes stories by fellow FTWA writers, including Cat Woods, J. Lea Lopez, Mindy McGinnis, and R.S. Mellette. He also blogs at the Elephant's Bookshelf and is on Twitter @elephantguy68.
As many of you have heard by now, several of us at FTWA were involved in a short story anthology, Spring Fevers, which was e-published in February and is now available via print-on-demand. I’m proud to be the publisher of the work, and we will be doing another later this year.
In the meantime, I thought I’d share some bits of learning I picked up from our publishing venture.
- Know your goals before you start. Why are you doing this? Is it to see your name listed as an author? There’s nothing wrong with that. Do you expect to sit back and watch a tsunami of e-money flow into your account? Sitting back and watching a tsunami up close is never a good idea, especially when the wave doesn’t arrive. You’ll need to do more than write something excellent. For us, the goal was creating an audience for a band of as yet little-known writers. Oh that reminds me: we priced accordingly.
- Assemble a strong team. This was by no means a one-person job. With the emergence of electronic publishing tools, it’s relatively easy to publish just about anything your heart desires. But if you’re like most of us, your talents will take you only so far. You’ll need help, whether it’s for the cover, or the design, or the publicity. And before any of those considerations are given much time, secure an editor—someone who will tell you the unvarnished truth. Not to put too fine a point on this, but you need an editor, not a proofreader. You might also need a proofreader, but make sure you have an editor. We were so fortunate to have Robb Grindstaff edit these stories. Excessive typos certainly won’t endear you to readers, but neither will weak characters and plotlines, inconsistencies, and perspectives that hop from head to head.
- Your cover is absolutely critical. I lost count of how many cover ideas we went through for Spring Fevers. That’s not counting the hundreds of images that I skimmed and knew immediately the answer was no. Plus, I wasn’t the only person looking for images. Our cover designer, the wonderful and talented Calista Taylor, provided sage advice at every step of the journey. She and R.C. Lewis, our book designer, came up with what I think is a very attractive look that captures the overall atmosphere of the stories within the anthology. Keep in mind that covers are different these days as they need to work at the thumbnail size for electronic publishing. As the e-publishing trend continues and expands, look for titles to be shorter and covers to be less busy. I also expect, at least for now, that image details will need to work in both color and black and white.
- Embrace social media and develop your audience. Sure, you could send press releases out to local papers and talk to your local bookstore about a meet-the-author event and reach out to book clubs. That approach is a wee bit 20th century, but it still has its place. But being active on tools such as Twitter and Facebook can help you reach people you’d never have reached before. And those are just two of the most obvious. Blog tours are another. Indeed, there’s a lot you can do to reach out to readers. Consider all these ventures part of your audience development. Never stop developing your audience. Don’t quit marketing and pitching your work. There’s an old truism in advertising that people see an ad seven times before it finally registers in their brain. People won’t buy your book if they don’t know you published one. That said, keep things balanced. I wouldn’t recommend flogging your book at Aunt Grace’s funeral, no matter how supportive she was of your creative efforts.
- Writing more books will sell more books. I’m talking about audience development, but to be honest, I’m saying this on faith, since our team has only produced one book together. I don’t like to spout unverified information, but I know from writers I’ve enjoyed reading that I’m more likely to seek out their previous works when I like the book through which I discover them. Indeed, we’re counting on it.
Matt Sinclair, a New York City-based journalist and fiction writer, recently published a short story anthology called Spring Fevers, which is available through Smashwords, Amazon, and in print via CreateSpace. It includes stories by fellow FTWA writers, including Cat Woods, J. Lea Lopez, Mindy McGinnis, and R.S. Mellette. He also blogs at the Elephant's Bookshelf and is on Twitter @elephantguy68.
Friday, November 4, 2011
eBook Cover Design
by Calista Taylor
More and more authors are turning to e-publishing as a way to build a platform and get their works read. Whether you're publishing a short story or a full length novel, your cover will often make or break you.
A graphic artist can certainly help you get a great cover, but if it's not in your budget, then you can always make your own. There are a few basics which can help you make an awesome cover, but the most important will be a sense of adventure—that means you can't be scared to experiment.
Here are a few tips to get you started. Remember, these are the basics for an eBook cover, not a print cover. Also ... a bit of a disclaimer. I've learned how to make eBook covers by experimenting, and am completely self-taught. But hey, if I can do it, then so can you!
Getting Started
Have you tried to make your own eBook cover? Do you have any tips or recommendations?
More and more authors are turning to e-publishing as a way to build a platform and get their works read. Whether you're publishing a short story or a full length novel, your cover will often make or break you.
A graphic artist can certainly help you get a great cover, but if it's not in your budget, then you can always make your own. There are a few basics which can help you make an awesome cover, but the most important will be a sense of adventure—that means you can't be scared to experiment.
Here are a few tips to get you started. Remember, these are the basics for an eBook cover, not a print cover. Also ... a bit of a disclaimer. I've learned how to make eBook covers by experimenting, and am completely self-taught. But hey, if I can do it, then so can you!
Getting Started
- You'll need a graphic design program. There are several free programs available, such as Gimp and Paint.net. I personally like using Photoshop, but it's an expensive program, though it will offer you the most options, especially regarding brushes (kind of like a stencil). One option is to pick up a used copy via Craigslist or eBay (I know I've seen them there, though I'm not sure of the legality of reselling the software), and there are also student versions of the program available. One more thing ... there are often 30-90 day trials of software.
- Determine the "feel" you want for your cover—does it feel modern, edgy, romantic, sweet, dark, etc. It will be a lot easier to find images with the right feel versus trying to find the exact image that you have in mind.
- You'll need to find some stock photos. Make sure you check the copyright regulations of the image you plan on using. There are stock photo sites, but prices can vary. I've found BigStockPhoto to be very reasonable. Also DeviantArt has a stock photo section (be sure to check each artist's rules for use), and some artists have pre-made backgrounds available for use (search pre-made background). Flickr is another great option, and has an advance search option for photos that are part of Creative Commons.
- Pinpoint your genre and then investigate what the covers for that genre look like. Your cover should immediately bring to mind your genre. It's not that you can't stray from the norm, since you obviously want your cover to stand out, but readers need to easily identify the genre of your book at a quick glance.
- Take the time to look at covers and see what works and what doesn't. When looking at these covers, really look. Look at the font, the position of the various elements, any effects used, the perspective of the images and how they relate to each other.
- Play around with the program you'll be using to familiarize yourself with the basics. If you're not sure how to do something, use the help feature. YouTube also has some excellent tutorials. And don't forget to right click on items, since they will often bring up a completely different menu option, depending on the program.
- Remember, any images, fonts, etc. will need to translate when viewed as a thumbnail, and will also need to look good when viewed in grey scale (for e-ink readers).
- Your image size can vary a bit, but I usually set my size to 6.6" x 9.5" and my resolution to 300 pixels/inch. As a side note, many like to use the size best suited to an iPad screen, which is 768 x 1024 ppi. To me it feels a bit narrow, and I like having the extra space my size gives me.
- "Cut out" whatever images you will be using. These can be saved as a .png in order to give them a transparent background. When using an image, make sure the image size isn't too small, since that can lead to fuzzy and pixelated images (usually anything over 800x800 is ok).
- Start to layer your images. Each image or effect should be on a different layer so that you can adjust the opacity (and/or fill) of each layer. By varying the opacity, you can start to blend the images so that they don't feel like they're sitting there separate from each other.
- Pick a font (copyright free) that will once again give you a sense of the genre or story. This font will also need to easy to read in a thumbnail. To make the letters "pop" and standout against the background, use the drop shadow option, and adjust it so that it spreads behind the letters to give them a backdrop.
- When layering and picking images, keep in mind the perspective of the images in relation to each other. It's too easy to have people floating around a cover.
- Draw a reader's attention by using a bold graphic or a bright color.
- If available to you, use brushes (they act like stencils) to add little details to your cover. These little details will help your cover look more polished. A variety of free brushes can be found once again at DeviantArt.
- Once you're ready to upload your completed book cover, save it one last time (under a different file name) and change the ppi to 75. This will ensure that your file isn't too large for uploads and downloads. The reason to work in the higher ppi is because you'll retain a clear image if you're decreasing the ppi, where as if you ever need a higher ppi, you will not get a clear image if you try to increase the ppi from a smaller number.
- As a side note, I also like to add the book cover as the first page of my manuscript before I save, format and convert it for uploading. Since some e-readers don't show the book cover, posting your book cover image as the first page gives the reader the chance to visually remember your cover and story.
Have you tried to make your own eBook cover? Do you have any tips or recommendations?
Monday, July 18, 2011
Letting Go to Help Our Book-Babies Grow
by Sophie Perinot
Our books are our babies. They’ve kept us up nights, and acted badly in front of company (like those agents we queried too early), but we love them to death and we are very, very possessive of them. And, like most parents, we have high hopes for them. We dream that someday they will leave our laptop, pass through the wheels of publishing, and grace a shelf (wooden, virtual or both) somewhere.
Sometimes the “possessive” author part of us and the part that wants what’s best for our books are in direct conflict. What do I mean? Have you heard of the “helicopter parent?” I would argue the “helicopter author” also exists—she’s in all of us (guys, you can read “he’s” if it makes you feel better) and if we don’t keep her under control our book will suffer.
Repeat after me—“I am a wordsmith, I write, I write really well. But it takes a lot more than writing to make a book a success—it takes a village (it’s okay, you can steal that phrase from Hillary Clinton, everyone else has). Once I have a publisher I will let the professionals who work there do their jobs.”
That’s precisely what I told myself when I signed the contract for my debut novel (The Sister Queens). Despite being type-A, I was going to make a conscious effort not to micromanage every step on the publication trail, and not to freak out when I discovered that I didn’t have the political capital to do so anyway. So far, I am pretty proud of myself, and I am going to share the secrets to my tongue-biting success.
1) I keep my eye on the BIG picture—book sales. I want to sell books. My publisher wants to sell books. We both want to sell books to people who are not ME (and not my friends and family for that matter). So what I like—in terms of a cover, or a title or blog-ad copy, etc.—runs a distant second to what a majority of book-buying, cash-carrying potential readers will like.
And the truth is, I am not in a position to predict what will catch the eye of the average book buyer. I am not trained to do that (nor have I conducted studies or otherwise made it my business to keep my fingers on the pulse of such things). Which leads to my next point.
2) I remind myself as often as necessary, that years of experience and professional training DO count for something. Publishing is a competitive industry. The folks my publisher hired didn’t just walk off the street and say “this looks better than working at McDonalds.” They are professionals. The marketing and art department folks are trained to know what gets a book picked up off a “new releases” table. They have been designing covers and brainstorming titles for years. With this in mind, I decided, even as I was offering my own cover ideas (as my editor asked me to) I would stop well short of trying to “direct the brush” of the cover artists, and I would accept that they might know best.
Similarly, my editor has been polishing manuscripts since well before I thought of writing them. So, when I received editorial suggestions from my editor, instead of growling “my baby is perfect as I wrote it,” I consciously adopted a listening frame of mind, and seriously considered every suggestion. My editor gave me the gift of “outside eyes” and not just any old eyes, veteran eyes.
Was ceding some control over a novel I’ve lived with and loved easy—not all the time. Did I take every suggestion my editor made—no (ultimately it’s my name on the cover). But neither did I assume I knew best (or if I did assume that for some, giddy, amount of time—I made sure not to email my editor until the feeling passed).
Bottom line: I wanted a deal with a major publisher precisely so that I could tap into the resources and experience of “the best.” Disregarding the type of accumulated expertise a publisher has to offer is just stupid and stubborn. It is like going to the hospital and insisting on doing your own appendectomy.
My novel has now moved on to the production department. Just recently I saw sample pages. Am I happy with the results of my “campaign of collaboration?” Yes. My novel is still my baby, but she has my editor’s eyes. She looks spiffy in the cover designer’s custom creation. She’s all grown up and ready to hit the shelves in March 2012. In case your wondering, I’ll be the woman in Barnes & Noble snapping pictures of her on display like she’s a kindergartner getting on the school bus for the first time. “Say Cheese.”
Our books are our babies. They’ve kept us up nights, and acted badly in front of company (like those agents we queried too early), but we love them to death and we are very, very possessive of them. And, like most parents, we have high hopes for them. We dream that someday they will leave our laptop, pass through the wheels of publishing, and grace a shelf (wooden, virtual or both) somewhere.
Sometimes the “possessive” author part of us and the part that wants what’s best for our books are in direct conflict. What do I mean? Have you heard of the “helicopter parent?” I would argue the “helicopter author” also exists—she’s in all of us (guys, you can read “he’s” if it makes you feel better) and if we don’t keep her under control our book will suffer.
Repeat after me—“I am a wordsmith, I write, I write really well. But it takes a lot more than writing to make a book a success—it takes a village (it’s okay, you can steal that phrase from Hillary Clinton, everyone else has). Once I have a publisher I will let the professionals who work there do their jobs.”
That’s precisely what I told myself when I signed the contract for my debut novel (The Sister Queens). Despite being type-A, I was going to make a conscious effort not to micromanage every step on the publication trail, and not to freak out when I discovered that I didn’t have the political capital to do so anyway. So far, I am pretty proud of myself, and I am going to share the secrets to my tongue-biting success.
1) I keep my eye on the BIG picture—book sales. I want to sell books. My publisher wants to sell books. We both want to sell books to people who are not ME (and not my friends and family for that matter). So what I like—in terms of a cover, or a title or blog-ad copy, etc.—runs a distant second to what a majority of book-buying, cash-carrying potential readers will like.
And the truth is, I am not in a position to predict what will catch the eye of the average book buyer. I am not trained to do that (nor have I conducted studies or otherwise made it my business to keep my fingers on the pulse of such things). Which leads to my next point.
2) I remind myself as often as necessary, that years of experience and professional training DO count for something. Publishing is a competitive industry. The folks my publisher hired didn’t just walk off the street and say “this looks better than working at McDonalds.” They are professionals. The marketing and art department folks are trained to know what gets a book picked up off a “new releases” table. They have been designing covers and brainstorming titles for years. With this in mind, I decided, even as I was offering my own cover ideas (as my editor asked me to) I would stop well short of trying to “direct the brush” of the cover artists, and I would accept that they might know best.
Similarly, my editor has been polishing manuscripts since well before I thought of writing them. So, when I received editorial suggestions from my editor, instead of growling “my baby is perfect as I wrote it,” I consciously adopted a listening frame of mind, and seriously considered every suggestion. My editor gave me the gift of “outside eyes” and not just any old eyes, veteran eyes.
Was ceding some control over a novel I’ve lived with and loved easy—not all the time. Did I take every suggestion my editor made—no (ultimately it’s my name on the cover). But neither did I assume I knew best (or if I did assume that for some, giddy, amount of time—I made sure not to email my editor until the feeling passed).
Bottom line: I wanted a deal with a major publisher precisely so that I could tap into the resources and experience of “the best.” Disregarding the type of accumulated expertise a publisher has to offer is just stupid and stubborn. It is like going to the hospital and insisting on doing your own appendectomy.
My novel has now moved on to the production department. Just recently I saw sample pages. Am I happy with the results of my “campaign of collaboration?” Yes. My novel is still my baby, but she has my editor’s eyes. She looks spiffy in the cover designer’s custom creation. She’s all grown up and ready to hit the shelves in March 2012. In case your wondering, I’ll be the woman in Barnes & Noble snapping pictures of her on display like she’s a kindergartner getting on the school bus for the first time. “Say Cheese.”
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Back to the Future: Practitioners of Historical Fiction Look at the Future of Their Genre & the Publishing Industry
by Sophie Perinot
June 17th to 19th marked the 4th North American Conference of the Historical Novel Society. I am a sucker for this conference. I’ve attended them all. Why? Well in addition to the fellowship (and this group of writers feels and behaves like one big, happy, and occasionally dysfunctional family) I go because I LEARN. I learn about my craft, and I learn about the trends and issues in my genre.
There have been a number of super “wrap ups” of the HNS conference. If you want to savor the minutiae—who sat with whom at dinner, the details of a particular panel—I suggest you have a look at one of them (e.g. Kate Quinn's or Susan Higginbotham's or Dora Levy Mossanen's). Just remember whatever you read about me in the lobby of the hotel at 2 a.m. on Saturday night is likely an exaggeration.
My goal in this post is not to recount all that happened during my 3 days in San Diego, but rather to highlight a few, select, personal impressions & conclusions that may be useful to those pursuing publication.
Reports of the death of traditional publishing are premature. Sure “It’s the wild west out there” as editor Shana Drehs of Sourcebooks (largest woman-owned publisher. 11 national best sellers in the past 5 months) put it, but if you can land a spot with a traditional publisher they still “add value” to your product. Some examples: production, editing, meta data management, distribution, licensing and rights, tradeshow attendance ... the list goes on.
Yes, all authors need to be their own (or if their advances warrant it, hire their own) publicists, but your in-house publicity and marketing departments will do more than all the big-house-trashing on the web these days might lead you to believe. This can include coop (placement on that coveted “new release” table), store level promotions, hardcopy marketing and advertising, coordinating blog tours, and sending out reams and reams of review copies (ARCs), and more.
And let’s not forget there are purely practical, sales related matters attendant upon self-publishing (at least in paper copies). A conference highlights these. No, people were not selling books out of their suitcases or trunks. In fact, that would not have been possible because conferences have vendors. For example, at the HNS conference a vendor was selected to set up a conference bookstore. This vendor only “ordered in” books that could be returned if they didn’t sell (basically books published by large publishers and established indie houses). So, those authors with micro-houses or whose novels were self-published had to supply copies of their books on consignment (with all the lugging or shipping of books that entailed) and pay a percentage of sales to have their books stocked.
Finally, though it may not be politically correct to bring it up, the intangible “cachet” of being with a major publisher is still there. It may be waning, but it’s not gone. I am not going to belabor this, but attend a conference yourself and you will see what I mean.
If you write historical fiction, big-name historical characters still have value. Are marquee names really necessary in writing (and more importantly selling) a work of historical fiction? There was an entire panel devoted to this, folks, and a heated panel too. Yes, we’ve come along way in introducing “average people” and giving their stories value and importance (both in academic history and in historical fiction) but my conclusion is that famous names sure do help—especially if you are a debut novelist seeking to break in and stay in.
Why? Look around you, folks, we are a celebrity-fixated culture (but don’t feel bad, we always have been). Real characters (preferably famous ones) DO attract more attention and big names can equal big sales. BUT—and this may be the most interesting idea I brought home from the conference—the “marquee” that hooks an agent, an editor and ultimately readers DOESN’T have to be your main character; heck, it doesn’t even have to be a person. IDENTIFY what is marquee in your story and bring it forward—it could be your setting (major historical event, time period that fascinates readers—Tudor period anyone—etc), it could be a secondary character that your MC interacts with (or more than one, someone at the conference mentioned a book in which the protagonist interacted with numerous famous figures including Shakespeare). But, if you can’t find someone or something that’s “marquee” as a hook for a story that you are passionate about telling, write it anyway. As multi-published author C.W. Gortner said, “It doesn’t sell until it sells—it is never, never in publishing.”
Titles and covers matter (a lot). According to one publishing house insider, more books fail because of titling and positioning than any other factor. As for covers—we denizens of the historical genre are often obsessed with accuracy (is the costume on the cover figure right? Why is the figure standing on a moor when there is no moor in the book?), but being INTRIGUING is more important than being accurate. If your cover doesn’t catch a reader’s eye in a split second you are in trouble! The art & marketing departments at publishing houses know this business. They (and your editor) often reject many versions of a cover before shouting “that’s it” (Shana D from Sourcebooks told us the record for a book she’s edited was 120 cover versions. Yeah 120).
Don’t be tyrannized by fact. This is not academic history we are writing. Does accuracy matter in historical fiction? You bet your farthingale it does, but “fictional art can show truth that goes deeper than a collection of fact; it can show us what it felt like to be a particular person at a particular time.” (Susan Vreeland). And besides, “as soon as something happens people start lying about it” (Cecelia Holland) so “truth” in history can legitimately be debated.
Award winning author Susan Vreeland pointed out that selection (and correspondingly, elimination) of facts is part of the process of writing compelling historical fiction. As an author you need to select only those aspects and events in a character’s life or time period that relate to or reflect the themes and premise of your book. It doesn’t matter how pivotal an event is (Susan gave the example of the death of a beloved brother that stuck with one of her main characters for the rest of his life), if it doesn’t move the plot of your individual book forward than it needs to be left out.
Invention is also a part of historical fiction—embrace it. Invent characters, invent events, put words into the mouths of your characters, but make sure your inventions contribute to the narrative arc of your story and are in keeping with what your research has revealed to you about the nature and personality of your characters. Author Margaret George suggested this quick “gut check” for whether your invention is appropriate—imagine you are writing for the character herself/himself. Would he/she be pleased? Margaret also posited that if someone was writing about you, you might be very happy to have some things fudged.
Fess up when you stray. The general consensus among attendees was that pointing out where you deliberately deviate from the historical record in a good author’s note is a must (and not just to save you from ranting, 8-point-type, single-spaced letters from readers who feel you gotten something dead wrong). You need not point out the obvious (like you imagined the dialogue between characters dead 500 years) but if you’ve moved a battle by a year, etc. then come clean (but don’t apologize).
The author to reader connection is closer than it has ever been. As writers we need to be accessible to our readers—that means having a home base (website) but not just staying there sipping coffee and eating bon-bons. Think blog tours, think social media, think outside those boxes as well. But most of all, remember that the author-to-reader relationship is NOT about you. Make it all about the reader and her/his experience and you will sell books better.
The pace at which consumers are learning to love e-books is exponential. Here are one publisher’s numbers. In September of 2010 6.7% of publisher X’s $ from sales came from e-books. In January of 2011 (that’s 4 months later) 35% of $ from sales were e-book generated. While only 25% of print books sold are adult fiction, fiction has a much bigger slice of the pie in the e-book world. Why do readers buy e-books: affordability, ease of download (allowing readers to connect with books anytime and any place), searchablity, and portability.
I will close with a few “sound-bites” answering “ever wonder” questions:
Ever wondered how historical fiction writers handle conflicting historical sources?
There are three main approaches to this—each with its devotees. First, you can “pull back” to a point where there is general agreement in the historical sources (but this can leave you in limbo if your narrative arc demands an answer to a certain historical question). Second, you can go with “majority rules” (but if you want to paint a picture that goes against the grain this approach will not suit). Finally, you can view this as “writers choice,” picking the facts as you need them and knowing that you do have a credible source (or perhaps more than one) to cite if challenged.
Ever wonder why it takes so long for a book to hit the shelves once it’s acquired?
Here’s the breakdown of the time from a publishers perspective—3 months for editing, 7 months for production, 5-6 months for pre-publication publicity (including getting the accounts on board) = a minimum 10 months from acquisition to publication.
Ever wonder what three questions editors ask when they look at your manuscript?
1) Is it good? (obvious)
2) Will it sell? (data helps answer this—especially sales data on comparable titles)
3) Is it right for our list? (this is the one an author can’t control)
Ever wonder how can you think about positioning for your novel?
1) Familiarize yourself with your book’s subcategory inside and out. What sort of things are being written and about whom? Do you want to go with the grain of existing novels or against it?
2) Consider how you would tweet what your novel is about (try it—140 characters is not a lot)
Ever wonder when this post will come to an end? Relax, you just got there.
June 17th to 19th marked the 4th North American Conference of the Historical Novel Society. I am a sucker for this conference. I’ve attended them all. Why? Well in addition to the fellowship (and this group of writers feels and behaves like one big, happy, and occasionally dysfunctional family) I go because I LEARN. I learn about my craft, and I learn about the trends and issues in my genre.
There have been a number of super “wrap ups” of the HNS conference. If you want to savor the minutiae—who sat with whom at dinner, the details of a particular panel—I suggest you have a look at one of them (e.g. Kate Quinn's or Susan Higginbotham's or Dora Levy Mossanen's). Just remember whatever you read about me in the lobby of the hotel at 2 a.m. on Saturday night is likely an exaggeration.
My goal in this post is not to recount all that happened during my 3 days in San Diego, but rather to highlight a few, select, personal impressions & conclusions that may be useful to those pursuing publication.
Reports of the death of traditional publishing are premature. Sure “It’s the wild west out there” as editor Shana Drehs of Sourcebooks (largest woman-owned publisher. 11 national best sellers in the past 5 months) put it, but if you can land a spot with a traditional publisher they still “add value” to your product. Some examples: production, editing, meta data management, distribution, licensing and rights, tradeshow attendance ... the list goes on.
Yes, all authors need to be their own (or if their advances warrant it, hire their own) publicists, but your in-house publicity and marketing departments will do more than all the big-house-trashing on the web these days might lead you to believe. This can include coop (placement on that coveted “new release” table), store level promotions, hardcopy marketing and advertising, coordinating blog tours, and sending out reams and reams of review copies (ARCs), and more.
And let’s not forget there are purely practical, sales related matters attendant upon self-publishing (at least in paper copies). A conference highlights these. No, people were not selling books out of their suitcases or trunks. In fact, that would not have been possible because conferences have vendors. For example, at the HNS conference a vendor was selected to set up a conference bookstore. This vendor only “ordered in” books that could be returned if they didn’t sell (basically books published by large publishers and established indie houses). So, those authors with micro-houses or whose novels were self-published had to supply copies of their books on consignment (with all the lugging or shipping of books that entailed) and pay a percentage of sales to have their books stocked.
Finally, though it may not be politically correct to bring it up, the intangible “cachet” of being with a major publisher is still there. It may be waning, but it’s not gone. I am not going to belabor this, but attend a conference yourself and you will see what I mean.
If you write historical fiction, big-name historical characters still have value. Are marquee names really necessary in writing (and more importantly selling) a work of historical fiction? There was an entire panel devoted to this, folks, and a heated panel too. Yes, we’ve come along way in introducing “average people” and giving their stories value and importance (both in academic history and in historical fiction) but my conclusion is that famous names sure do help—especially if you are a debut novelist seeking to break in and stay in.
Why? Look around you, folks, we are a celebrity-fixated culture (but don’t feel bad, we always have been). Real characters (preferably famous ones) DO attract more attention and big names can equal big sales. BUT—and this may be the most interesting idea I brought home from the conference—the “marquee” that hooks an agent, an editor and ultimately readers DOESN’T have to be your main character; heck, it doesn’t even have to be a person. IDENTIFY what is marquee in your story and bring it forward—it could be your setting (major historical event, time period that fascinates readers—Tudor period anyone—etc), it could be a secondary character that your MC interacts with (or more than one, someone at the conference mentioned a book in which the protagonist interacted with numerous famous figures including Shakespeare). But, if you can’t find someone or something that’s “marquee” as a hook for a story that you are passionate about telling, write it anyway. As multi-published author C.W. Gortner said, “It doesn’t sell until it sells—it is never, never in publishing.”
Titles and covers matter (a lot). According to one publishing house insider, more books fail because of titling and positioning than any other factor. As for covers—we denizens of the historical genre are often obsessed with accuracy (is the costume on the cover figure right? Why is the figure standing on a moor when there is no moor in the book?), but being INTRIGUING is more important than being accurate. If your cover doesn’t catch a reader’s eye in a split second you are in trouble! The art & marketing departments at publishing houses know this business. They (and your editor) often reject many versions of a cover before shouting “that’s it” (Shana D from Sourcebooks told us the record for a book she’s edited was 120 cover versions. Yeah 120).
Don’t be tyrannized by fact. This is not academic history we are writing. Does accuracy matter in historical fiction? You bet your farthingale it does, but “fictional art can show truth that goes deeper than a collection of fact; it can show us what it felt like to be a particular person at a particular time.” (Susan Vreeland). And besides, “as soon as something happens people start lying about it” (Cecelia Holland) so “truth” in history can legitimately be debated.
Award winning author Susan Vreeland pointed out that selection (and correspondingly, elimination) of facts is part of the process of writing compelling historical fiction. As an author you need to select only those aspects and events in a character’s life or time period that relate to or reflect the themes and premise of your book. It doesn’t matter how pivotal an event is (Susan gave the example of the death of a beloved brother that stuck with one of her main characters for the rest of his life), if it doesn’t move the plot of your individual book forward than it needs to be left out.
Invention is also a part of historical fiction—embrace it. Invent characters, invent events, put words into the mouths of your characters, but make sure your inventions contribute to the narrative arc of your story and are in keeping with what your research has revealed to you about the nature and personality of your characters. Author Margaret George suggested this quick “gut check” for whether your invention is appropriate—imagine you are writing for the character herself/himself. Would he/she be pleased? Margaret also posited that if someone was writing about you, you might be very happy to have some things fudged.
Fess up when you stray. The general consensus among attendees was that pointing out where you deliberately deviate from the historical record in a good author’s note is a must (and not just to save you from ranting, 8-point-type, single-spaced letters from readers who feel you gotten something dead wrong). You need not point out the obvious (like you imagined the dialogue between characters dead 500 years) but if you’ve moved a battle by a year, etc. then come clean (but don’t apologize).
The author to reader connection is closer than it has ever been. As writers we need to be accessible to our readers—that means having a home base (website) but not just staying there sipping coffee and eating bon-bons. Think blog tours, think social media, think outside those boxes as well. But most of all, remember that the author-to-reader relationship is NOT about you. Make it all about the reader and her/his experience and you will sell books better.
The pace at which consumers are learning to love e-books is exponential. Here are one publisher’s numbers. In September of 2010 6.7% of publisher X’s $ from sales came from e-books. In January of 2011 (that’s 4 months later) 35% of $ from sales were e-book generated. While only 25% of print books sold are adult fiction, fiction has a much bigger slice of the pie in the e-book world. Why do readers buy e-books: affordability, ease of download (allowing readers to connect with books anytime and any place), searchablity, and portability.
I will close with a few “sound-bites” answering “ever wonder” questions:
Ever wondered how historical fiction writers handle conflicting historical sources?
There are three main approaches to this—each with its devotees. First, you can “pull back” to a point where there is general agreement in the historical sources (but this can leave you in limbo if your narrative arc demands an answer to a certain historical question). Second, you can go with “majority rules” (but if you want to paint a picture that goes against the grain this approach will not suit). Finally, you can view this as “writers choice,” picking the facts as you need them and knowing that you do have a credible source (or perhaps more than one) to cite if challenged.
Ever wonder why it takes so long for a book to hit the shelves once it’s acquired?
Here’s the breakdown of the time from a publishers perspective—3 months for editing, 7 months for production, 5-6 months for pre-publication publicity (including getting the accounts on board) = a minimum 10 months from acquisition to publication.
Ever wonder what three questions editors ask when they look at your manuscript?
1) Is it good? (obvious)
2) Will it sell? (data helps answer this—especially sales data on comparable titles)
3) Is it right for our list? (this is the one an author can’t control)
Ever wonder how can you think about positioning for your novel?
1) Familiarize yourself with your book’s subcategory inside and out. What sort of things are being written and about whom? Do you want to go with the grain of existing novels or against it?
2) Consider how you would tweet what your novel is about (try it—140 characters is not a lot)
Ever wonder when this post will come to an end? Relax, you just got there.
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