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Inside Marketing: Dressing for Success
BY PENNY FREEMAN
As writers, we’ve all got the fantasy: the six-figure advance comes dancing through the mail, trailing the high-powered agent and Big Five publisher in its wake. NYT best seller list. Movie deal. Fame. Fortune. Oprah. World tour with thousands of adoring fans queuing up to buy one of the stacks of your $35 hardbacks that flank you as you sit beneath a ten-foot banner in the highest-end bookstore in every city along the way. Perhaps it’s even THE word on the tongue of every Intelligencia wag on NPR.
And there, adorning the entire back dust cover shines your glorious face, in all your coifed and tailored glory, the perfect portrait captured by an ace photographer. A veritable work of art.
But, the reality is, you’ve got a stack of rejection letters papering your walls or propping up your computer monitor, you’ve decided to go independent, perhaps with a small boutique publishing house with an alternative business model, and your writing space is the coffee table littered with used paper plates and cats. Your publicity is your own to muddle out, and, in truth, you’re not that chic and suave author with the leather and walnut library lit by stained glass and imbued with the slightest aroma of really expensive pipe tobacco.
You’re just you. I mean, you could name a half-dozen millionaire authors who go out into public looking like back-room denizens of a comic book store, so you surely can get away with a snapshot on your Facebook or web page. After all, it’s not what you look like. It’s what you write. Right?
Wrong. Let’s face it. Although attitudes are changing, most people see “self-published” as synonymous with “bad writing.” Image does count. Readers do judge books by their covers, and, unfortunately, without the right look, even authors signed with independent publishing houses can come off looking like amateurs who got suckered into a vanity press scheme.
You’ve heard the old adage, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” If you want to sell books, the same goes for authors. Portray yourself as successful as you want to be. If money is an issue, choose what strategies will give you the most return on your investment and look professional in those areas. Quality, not quantity. Here are three things you can do without spending a lot of money that will improve your “author” image.
- Personal domain name. Nothing says self-published like janewhozawhatzit.blogspot.com. A personal URL costs $15 a year to register, and a subscription to a web hosting service can be as little as $1.99 a month for the first year. Many online services, such as Blogger, WordPress, and Wix, provide easy-to-use, free templates, but still allow the incorporation of a personal URL. A private domain and a dynamic, contemporary website go a long way in dressing an author for success.
- Author portrait. Forget the snapshot from your cellphone, especially the candid one. There are times and places for those—specifically, blog posts when you want to show the world how cool your life is, but save the front page for the formal stuff. Pull that thrifty-mailer out of the trash and dig out the “free sitting” coupon from J.C. Penney or Sears or K-Mart or whatever, and get down to have your portrait taken. (Spring for the DVD. You’re an author. Respect copyright.)
Or, pester your friend who just bought that new SLR from Costco. At the very, very least, use an honest-to-goodness camera and strike a pose. Present to the world a high-density, high-quality image of yourself—something by which you’ll want them to remember you after they’ve navigated away from your website, blog, or profile page.
- ISBN. Every book published through CreateSpace and most other ebook or print-on-demand services require an International Standard Book Number. It’s that number on the back of books that identifies it in catalogs in libraries and bookstores across the world. This number is attached to the publisher who purchased it. Therefore, if you do not directly purchase an ISBN, CreateSpace will do it for you. If they do, they will be listed as the publisher of your book on all product information pages. If you want to appear professional, buy your own ISBN. Prices vary widely, from $18 for a single ISBN to $125 for a package deal, so do your homework to ensure you know what you’re getting and you get what you need.
I can hear you adding up the ka’chings in your head, but take things one step at a time. This is an investment in your future, and, in the grand scheme of things, a very small one. Whether you’ve signed with a publisher, are going it alone, or are building the foundation of a following, you be in control of your image, your brand. Start out right from the very beginning, and always put your best face forward. Show the world (and yourself) the author you want to be.
Editor in Chief Penny Freeman lives, writes, edits, and markets from her home in southeast Texas. She currently supervises several editorial and marketing projects.
Editor’s Notes: The Notebook
BY RIE SHERIDAN ROSE
No, I am not talking about that movie with Gena Rowlands and James Garner , or even the book it was based on. I am talking about the indispensable tool that no writer should be without.
Last week, MeriLyn Oblad talked about how important punctuation is as a tool. Last month, Jessica Shen talked about how vital it is to have a good beta reader. There have been blog posts on many other aspects of grammar, editing, writing in general, but to me, the most important tool an author can have is a notebook. A writer’s notebook is like a piece of his or her soul. It is more than a mere journal, though it can serve that function in part.
For many, many years—and I have the filled pages to prove it—this, to me, was an actual, physical object. When I was working for a corporation that will not be named, the only thing that kept me sane on some of those overnight shifts was the spiral notebook that just fit into my smock pocket. In down time, on breaks, at “lunch” (at 2:00 AM, it feels funny to call it that) I could scribble down ideas, write poetry, note a plot bunny, whatever I needed. You would be surprised what can trigger a story idea—and when.
Today, with smartphones practically glued to one’s hand, there isn’t really any need for a physical notebook because “there’s an app for that!”—though I would argue that the sensation of writing is its own reward sometimes, and I think I still carry two or three notebooks in my car and purse.
One of my personal favorites, because it can be synced with the new Office 365 over all of your devices is One Note (caveat—I am an Android girl, and have no idea what is available for Apple use) I have been a proponent of One Note for years, and now that Office is all online, the ease of sync is amazing. You can section your “notebook” as needed, and adding pages is a breeze.
Another useful app is Evernote. It performs most of the same functions as One Note, but I personally don’t find it as adaptable to my needs.
When I first got my tablet, I downloaded My Binder, which I really liked, because it had separate notebooks for different things, like story ideas, titles, short stories, poetry, etc. I don’t use it on my phone because the screen is so small, but your mileage may vary.
Choosing the proper notebook is almost as important as filling it—for example, when using a physical notebook, I also prefer to have unlined pages, because occasionally I sketch a prop or costume beside the piece I am writing, but this is also a matter of personal choice.
The process of choosing a notebook should be looked at as an opportunity to express yourself to yourself. Take your time and enjoy the search. I usually browse the journal section in any bookstore, stationary, or paper store I enter. You never know when you will find the perfect writing companion. I usually have my next book (or two, or four) waiting for me to finish my current one.
What do you write in your book once you find it? Anything and everything. Here is a sample of the things in one of my notebooks: email addresses from friends and possible research URLs that I don’t want to forget; scraps of scenes I am working on at any given time; outlines of action to work out plot details; a transcript of a chat session that might make an interesting story someday; plot bunnies; maps of my fictional lands; poems; personal exercises (one volume had swatches of fabric taped into it and then descriptions of the characters who might wear them); and yes, journal entries—personal frustrations, triumphs, fears, feelings, all the things that you would tell a diary.
The important word that kept popping up in the last couple of paragraphs was “personal.”
Yes, you can share your book with friends or relatives if you want, but if you never want to show any of it to another soul, you don’t have to. And you can expand the idea of a personal writing notebook to more than one level. For example, I have my “writer’s notebook” which I carry everywhere, though I don’t always have time to use it, but I also have another notebook specifically for writing down dreams, some of which have later become plot outlines.
What this rather rambling column is getting at this month is that no writer should be without a notebook. Not only does it help you organize current projects, it also makes sure that you don’t lose that precious scrap of an idea that might one day become a best seller.
Most importantly, it keeps you writing, and by daily communication with your silent partner—whether physical or electronic—you keep your creative juices flowing and the wheels of your imagination turning away. Choose the size and shape that best suits you, but always have something on hand. You never know when inspiration will strike.
Rie writes, edits, and proofs for The X from her home in Austin, Texas. A prolific writer, her short story, “Seven-year Itch,” is featured in Terra Mechanica: A Steampunk Anthology. Her first project for The X, Relative Evil by Debra Erfert, was released in July, 2014.
Editor’s Notes: Tearing It Down
BY JESSICA SHEN
Making Your Hero Suffer
On Editor’s Notes, we’ve talked about all kinds of things that will make your story better, from how and when to break grammatical rules , to choosing a good name for your character. Today, let’s turn to the dark side of storytelling: how to make your hero suffer.
Some of you may relish in the idea of being the evil puppet-master, while others may dread the idea of causing harm to your precious character. If you’re as devious as I know some of you are, great—you’ll need no encouragement. For the reluctant ones, think of yourself as the archetypal hard-ass dad—the one who (lovingly) breaks their kids down to “build character.” You know who I’m talking about.
So, why would you want to do this? Why do you want to make life harder for your hero? You’ve already got a good plot in hand, you know how he or she is going to navigate through those twists and turns.
Let’s pause for a moment and talk about bodybuilding. One of the central tenets of bodybuilding (and strength training in general) is to work to failure. By the end of your workout session, you want the muscle group you’ve been working to be exhausted. While you’re huffing and panting lifting those weights, what you’re doing is creating tiny tears within your muscle fibers. As they repair, the muscle fibers grow bigger, much like scar tissue. Your muscles will never grow any bigger if you don’t tear them down, first.
Now, let’s put two and two together. Your hero, like your muscles, will never come out stronger if you don’t break him down, first. Think about what is your character’s strongest trait. Maybe she’s a math whiz, or a track star, or the best jiu jitsu fighter in the county. Maybe he’s super level-headed and logical, or has exceptional powers of observation. How can you take these traits away from your character? What makes your character strong, and what can you do to make him weak? How can you take your characters to the very edge of their sanity? How can you break them down? Answering these types of questions is what will get your readers invested in your story. If nothing of consequence happens, if your hero can skate through the story without ever getting to the breaking point, what’s the point?
To that end, don’t be afraid to be dramatic. Don’t be afraid to put it all out there. Of course, your entire story can’t be a 10 on the intensity scale, but when it comes to the climax—don’t hold back. This should be the point in the story where it’s do-or-die for your hero. She’s sad? Make her devastated. He’s weakened? He should be at death’s door. She can’t run anymore? It’s probably because she’s worn her feet down to the bone and now she’s leaving bloody trails in her wake. You know what I mean. The worst thing that will happen is that your editor will tell you to tone it down—but honestly, if you do it right, the chance of that will be pretty slim.
So, whether you want to play evil puppet-master or the reluctant character-building dad, make your hero suffer. Treat him like Arnold Schwarzenegger would treat his body during a training session. Because at the end of the day, after being broken and beaten down and left for dead, when your hero is able to come back from that precipice, your story, like Arnie’s famously bulgy muscles, will be all the stronger for it.
Jessica Shen knows of what she speaks and has a legion of tormented souls to show for it. Kingdom City: Resurrection by Ben Ireland, was released in February 2014. Her latest project, Vanguard Legacy: Reflected by Joanne Kershaw, was released in March 2014.
Jessica’s next project, On The Isle of Sound and Wonder, a Steampunk fantasy by Alyson Grauer, is slated for release in November 2014. Jessica lives, works, and tortures from her home in northern California.
Editor’s Notes: Interview with an Editor
BY LUCINDA WHITNEY & MCKENNA GARDNER
The following is a reblog from Author Lucinda Whitney, when she interviewed our senior editor, McKenna Gardner from August 21, 2014.
Lucinda: Today on the blog I have McKenna Gardner, who is an editor at Xchyler Publishing.
Tell me a bit about yourself and your background. What did you study in college?
I grew up all over the country. Though born in Idaho, I’ve lived in twenty-five different homes and learned at an early age to adapt, make friends, and find joy in the little things. My childhood was spent pretending one scenario after another. My three older brothers and I would often act out battles between elves, trolls, dwarfs, and humans. (J.R.R. Tolkien was a big influence in our home.) As I grew up, I discovered that I enjoyed writing poetry and even research papers at school. I could always crank out a ten-pager in one brief sitting. I didn’t read as much as I wish I had, though. Much of my free time was spent out of doors and in sports where I thrived. Even today, I spend a lot of time backpacking, camping, rock climbing, and exploring.
In college, I studied recreation and ended up with a Bachelor’s of Science degree with a minor in Health Science and Sociology. It doesn’t help me much with my writing or editing, but it did help me to know how to write properly and succinctly. I have spent the last fifteen years trying to make up for the lack of reading I did as a child. Sometimes my family thinks I’m trying to squish fifteen years worth of books into a few days, but I do pop my head up every once in a while. After starting to write fiction about twelve years ago, I found a new passion and that’s what brought me into the world of editing, starting with my own amateur work. I like to think both skills have improved over the years.
What is your position at Xchyler and what do you do there?
I am the senior editor at Xchyler Publishing. I’m entering my third year with the company. It has been an adventure, that’s for sure! My responsibilities include working with authors as a content editor, line editor, proofreader, or final approval editor. These each represent different stages for the manuscript. I also work with authors in developing their “brand”, including author photographs, marketing, and ensuring they represent their work in the best way possible.
As senior editor, I also work closely with the graphics department. I help assign ISBN’s, develop distribution plans, create ARCs for review, and find images that might work well for covers and marketing.
Sometimes I’m responsible for new editors and making sure they get their feet wet in a productive way. I also do my best at supporting Editor in Chief Penny Freeman. She’s a literary powerhouse! Above all else, I offer my resources and aid to authors. We all have difficult days when we simply want a sounding board. I love experiencing “aha” moments with my authors. They really are the cream of the crop at Xchyler!
What are your favorite and least favorite things about your job? What frustrates you and what excites you about this job?
You can probably guess that I love my authors and all the hard work they put into their creations. I haven’t found a perfect first draft yet, so I always appreciate when they are willing to improve and comfortable with defending their position on something. I certainly don’t have all the answers, so when they feel passionately about something, I enjoy respecting that and finding the best possible way to communicate their ideas to readers.
I struggle at times with balancing the workload. There’s just SO much to do in such little time, but it’s worth it when you finally release a labor of love out into the world. Occasionally, I come across authors that are unwilling to change or think outside the box. It’s definitely a challenge to work with that type of personality, but I find a way to make it work unless they are compromising the standards that Xchyler has worked hard to establish.
I’m excited about the direction business is going. We continue to grow exponentially and find artists that insist on blowing our minds. It’s very rewarding.
Can you tell us a bit about taking a new manuscript through the editing process? What does that entail and how long does it take?
I think I offered a glimpse into the work required to publish a book, but there are so many stages, it’s hard to list all the facets involved. Simply put, there are a few initial meetings to develop a plan of action, editing begins (content, line, proofreading, final approval, and final proofing), marketing develops their plan (distribution, video trailer, bloggers, Goodreads, reviews, interviews, Facebook release event, etc.), graphics gets involved with the cover and any promotional artwork, and then ARCs go out to readers. Reviews are very important in the publishing industry. Especially good ones. The book is usually uploaded and available online before the release date and party. We love throwing parties for our authors to celebrate their hard work! Afterward, it is a team effort to continue promoting the author and their book long into the future.
The entire process can happen within a few months, but six months or more is ideal. At this point, our docket is full until fall of 2015, but we are still accepting promising authors.
You also work as a freelance editor. How different is it from working for a publisher? What’s that process like and what does it involve?
Oh, it’s much, much simpler. When you remove all of the marketing, graphics, and distribution, everything becomes pretty cut and dry: guide an author through the process of making their work better than before. There are certain things you learn from operating in the publishing industry that someone may not know before (what trends are popular, what trends are not going so well, what publishers are looking for, what frequent mistakes authors make, and what ideas are overdone). It’s my responsibility to stay on top of those things so I can best serve my authors.
I like the simplicity of freelance. I’m not having to balance too many things at once. Instead, I can just dive into the work and focus solely on that. I find great fulfillment in editing, whether that’s helping develop a character more completely, making the “world building” more solid and consistent, or suggesting different ways of opening scenes. It’s also important that I stay on top of language changes. It’s a dynamic field! There are specific requirements when it comes to punctuation, grammar, and word-usage, but I also need to be aware of how to make an author’s language and voice stronger, active rather than passive. It’s a large responsibility by itself, so adding the publishing side can be a handful!
Can you talk about some of the books you’ve worked in (both for the publisher and indie)?
This question made me go back and think through all the manuscripts I’ve had my (virtual) nose in! I counted 25 just within the past three years. They cover many genres: children’s, middle grade, young adult, adult; fantasy, thriller, suspense, romantic, paranormal, comedy, steampunk, science fiction, and dystopian. I’ve had dragons and wizards, mechanical men and steam-powered trinkets, women on the run and female warriors, men who give up everything to gain everything, and spaceships that cover both space and time. The stories that make me happiest provide two important elements: interesting worlds and dynamic characters. I probably prefer character-driven books, but I’ve seen some decent plot-driven ones, too.
I’m always searching for brilliant artists, so anyone can contact me for a consultation. Those are always given freely.
Thanks so much, McKenna, for stopping by and answering these questions. It’s a fascinating process, for sure.
Lucinda was born in January of 1971 in Lisbon, Portugal, and raised in Braga, Portugal. She has been in the U.S.A. for a little over 18 years. She lives west of Salt Lake City, Utah, with my husband and four children (and four cats). She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which I joined when I was eighteen years old. I write in the genre of LDS contemporary romance.
Lucinda received a Master’s Degree from the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal, in Portuguese/English Teaching. She is an active member of the American Night Writers Association and the League of Utah Writers. She has attended the annual conference with LDS Stormakers and the Winter workshop with the iWritenetwork.
Lucinda blogs at http://lucindawhitney.com.
Inside Marketing: Stay True to Your Characters
BY CELESTE COX
I am the publicist for Xchyler so it might be odd that I’m not writing this blog post about marketing, but in a way this subject has everything to do with marketing.
With social media comes a way to connect with public figures. It’s great for those of us in fandoms. It’s a great day to be a fan in 2014. Celebrities might re-tweet something your say online! But here’s the problem with all that: we, the fans are altering the very thing we love the most: the writing.
If you don’t know what “shipping” is, it’s wanting certain characters to fall in love and mixing their names together. Example: Katniss and Peeta could be Keeta. Shipping is fun in its own way but because it’s all about publicity these days and going with what the fans want, writers are putting couples together based off of popular consensus.
And not just romantic relationships either! Villains, plot twists, any drama to throw out there even if it goes against that characters’ personality entirely. I can name countless TV shows, movie sequels, and sadly, too many novels that have done this.
But here’s the thing you have to decide. Do you want the most superficial drama for the sake of drama story, or do you want your characters to live through your writing?
Don’t follow the craze! Stay true to your characters. Let them be who they are even if it’s not popular. I promise, your readers will notice authenticity no matter how exciting the plot is.
The best writers are the ones who can make even the smallest of moments feel real.
Be one of those writers. Stay true to your characters and you’ll stay true to yourself.
Celeste Cox is a superhero by day and a writer by night. She’s also the publicist for The X. When she isn’t performing all her superhero publicist duties, she spends her time on her blog, A Happy Messy Life, and wishing she was a mermaid so she could swim at the beach all day. Celeste loves the marketing world and figuring out what makes it tick.