Self-Publishing and Indie Bookstores – Not a Good Match, Really

I’ve been trying to work with a local bookstore, to get them to carry a book by a local author. (It happens to be by an indie-press, my own Crickhollow Books, not self-published, but that’s sort of the same thing in the bookstore’s eye.)

The irony: the author is a member of a writing group that has met at that very bookstore for years. Still, the bookstore owner was resistant.

Why? Because the bookstore owner didn’t really know the title, was afraid it might be self-published, and didn’t think she could get the book through Ingram (which she can, in fact, as the book’s catalog sheet indicates.)

The point: if a good indie micro-press has this much trouble, what chance does a self-published author have with local bookstores? Not much. Is there a thorough review and consideration? Probably not.

It’s less a matter of the quality of the book, clearly. It’s more a practical issue: one of the time and trouble it takes to make the decision, vs. the potential reward. Let’s face it. Bookstores, large and small, survive on the sales of the most popular books by very popular authors: Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling, Stephen King, Sue Grafton, etc.

Then, they sell a good number of new books by major presses, mostly when the titles are new (and so haven’t tapped their audiences). After a few months, those are replaced by other new books by major publishing houses, with entirely fresh sales potential. (By the way, those publishers also often pay for shelf space and premium display, real money that the bookstore gets to keep regardless of how well the book sells.)

In contrast, self-publishing or indie micro-press strategies – going for niche audiences, which are better reached over the Internet, and longer-term involvement in fewer titles – just don’t match up well with bookstore sales goals and the need to be efficient about it, given the stores’ meager margins. (Trust me, bookstore owners are not getting rich.)

I doubt most bookstore owners would disagree. Although they keep a theoretical interest in local authors and regional indie publishing . . . in practice, they have a greater need to set up strong defensive mechanisms to ward off the truly wretched or poorly conceived self-published books, with weak covers, no marketing, priced too high, similar to other better things on the market, etc.

Given the easy access to publishing technology, there’s a glut of poor or mediocre low-budget POD titles. And stores need to fend them off.

Here’s an example of one such policy (note the concern about books priced too high, a real competitive weakness of most self-published POD books):

The policy is from the website of a Missouri indie-bookstore with the charming Twain-ian name, Pudd’nhead Books. (By the way, Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens was a gifted pitchman who knew how to promote his books in advance to potential buyers.)

INFO FOR AUTHORS
Thank you for considering Pudd’nhead Books for placement of your book. Because we are approached several times each week by authors hoping we will sell their books . . . before you leave a copy for review please consider the following:

Technology has made publishing easier, often without traditional professional editing, proofreading, and evaluation of marketing and distribution. Consequently, the number of books we are asked to review continues to rise dramatically.  (. . .) Of principle importance is whether the book will sell in this outlet, with the audience of our customers. We consider the subject, production quality, retail price, and terms, as well as our judgment of the writing and editing.

We regret the need to be so blunt, but we simply don’t have the time to evaluate so many books. We decline many books, including those by well-known and award-winning writers, if they are not a good match for our store. It is never a pleasant task to decline when dealing directly with an author rather than simply reviewing a catalog, but . . . we only accept well less than 1 in 100.

While we are not saying this is the case with your book, many of the books we are asked to try to sell are overpriced compared to similar books, the content is of very limited interest to anyone other than the writer’s friends and family, and/or a lack of editing or even proofreading is obvious. A surprising number of writers acknowledge that they have never paid a similar price for a similar book from an unknown writer and an unknown publisher with no objective reviews, yet expect us to try to sell theirs…

We would love for your book to be the exception. . . . If you want to leave your book for review after considering the above, please carefully read the policies stated on the attached form. . . . If your book is available from Ingram, we will bring it in from them if we decide to carry it. If we decide to carry your book on consignment, we will contact you with the appropriate form.

Thanks for your interest in Pudd’nhead Books, and good luck with your book.

Nikki Furrer, Owner

The ABA (American Booksellers Association.) has been encouraging indie bookstores to set up such policies. They are primarily defensive. Yes, it would be nice if the occasional good micro-title got through. But honestly, if not, it’s not a big problem for the bookstore if they don’t.

Some of these policies are a bit one-sided. One I saw gave the bookstore the right to unilaterally mark-down the price. In theory, that could be to $1, in which case the author would get $.60. In my view, that’s a little extreme to include in a consignment agreement, asking an author to sign it to get their book into the store.

On the other side, indie bookstores aren’t really a great sales venue for the author or micro-publisher, either. There are too many hidden costs for slim possible revenues. Most micro-press sales happen through specialty shops (museum stores, gift shops, etc.) where books are narrowly chosen and displayed face-out. Or through “long tail” avenues like Amazon, where niche books can do quite well, and survive in print for a long, long time.

I love indie bookstores, and spend a lot of time and money in them. I just expect to find mostly a good, smart selection of titles by major publishing houses. That’s their bread-and-butter.

So if you are a self-published author, look at where books like yours are really sold. Through personal networks. Or events, where people get to meet you. A holiday gift fair at your church is as good as a bookstore. And probably, that non-bookstore site will be far more happy to see you!

In the case of that book I mentioned at the beginning (Patton’s Lucky Scout, a World War II memoir of amazing adventures by a scout for General Patton, working mostly behind enemy lines), great local venues are available through VFW posts, military history clubs, extended families of other members of the retirement home where the veteran now lives, etc.

Art of the Self-Interview – Web Marketing for Book Authors

If you’re a book author, a great feature for your professional website is an author interview.

Surprisingly, one of the best approaches is a self-interview.

At first glance, this might seem immodest or an inferior version of a “real” interview with an outside journalist. But done well, it can be as good . . . if not better.

There are some things you can do in a self-interview that you can’t in a regular one.

1. Get it done, anytime, on your schedule.
2. Control the questions, to highlight the best features of your book or other work.
3. Range freely, to bring in any offbeat, auxiliary, cross-marketing info.
4. Show your humor, skill with words, insight, and all-around scintillating presence . . . which may lead to additional outside interviews, while impressing web visitors about your book.

Here’s a glimpse of a self-interview, done very, very well. It is by author James Morrow, author of The Philosopher’s Apprentice, The Last Witchfinder (Starred Review, Publisher’s Weekly),  Only Begotten Daughter (World Fantasy Award), and other impressive books. He’s been interviewed elsewhere often, but chose to do self-interviews for his books on his website.

It’s a great tip for book marketing for writers of all sorts. The same kind of thing can be done by freelance writers, poets, anyone with a glimmer of moxie (and a creative personality).

For the Morrow interview, I’ll just give some of the questions. To enjoy the fun, interesting answers, you’ll just have to visit the James Morrow website!

James Morrow Interviews James Morrow on
The Philosopher’s Apprentice

Q: Your new novel, The Philosopher’s Apprentice, has an intriguing title. Who is the philosopher and who is the apprentice?

Q: Does Mason succeed in giving Londa a moral compass?

Q: Why is Londa’s mind a blank slate?

Q: So what is The Philosopher’s Apprentice really about?

Q: Morality is a mystery?

Q: It sounds as if you’re a novelist who benefits from interacting with editors.

Q: Is that why you’ve described the book as a cross between Shaw’s Pygmalion and Nabokov’s Lolita?

Q: Your previous novel, The Last Witchfinder — which is quite a good book, by the way …

Q: The Last Witchfinder also centers on a teacher-student relationship. The heroine, Jennet Stearne, is tutored by her beloved Aunt Isobel in “natural philosophy,” that is, science.

Q: Those scenes, yes. What the heck is going on here? On one level, the immaculoids are sympathetic, but I don’t think of you as being in the “pro-life” camp. The Last Witchfinder was a very feminist novel.

Q: You’re avoiding the question, Morrow. By bringing those wretched immaculoids on stage, don’t you end up endorsing the anti-abortion position?

Q: You obviously have a taste for grandiose themes. Where does that come from?

Q: So, for you, novels are a good way to keep experts from impoverishing our minds?

Q: We’ve talked about Shaw and Nabokov as influences. One of your pre-publication critics, covering the book for Kirkus Reviews, notes that The Philosopher’s Apprentice also “tips its hat with style to Mary Shelley.”

Q: It’s always nice to meet a fellow geek.

Q: Somebody once remarked, “Henry James chewed more than he bit off.”

Q: Nevertheless, when you named your main character Londa Sabacthani, you were obviously trying for a symbolic effect. Her name evokes Jesus’s famous cry from the cross in Matthew 27:46.

Q: You’re lying.

Q: I’m afraid we’re out of time.

Blogs for Writers: Simple Thank-You Posts

(This is part of a mini-series for writers, with marketing value to almost any small business. For related posts, click here: “blogging for writers.”)

In the last post, I talked about the benefits of a low-key, minimalist blog: one that functions as a mini-website, an online business card or directory listing. You post your contact info, bio, and services, and be done with it.

Except . . . hey, now your blog exists . . . and can be used for a couple of easy online marketing applications!

One is to post a public thank-you note, as a simple blog post, at the end of a project completed.

Here’s an example of a company that has a website-like blog that mostly is just that: Juxtaprose.

It doesn’t take long to write a short paragraph or two about a project, thanking the principal players and mentioning what was done.

But note: there are a couple of real benefits to you in that brief post that go far beyond what a traditional thank-you note would do.

1. You create a link to that company’s site.
This creates a little permanent linkage, for political benefit. If you praise the company or someone in it, you are doing that publicly. (And that person can share it by sending the link for that blog post to others in their company, which they probably will . . . if it speaks well of their company . . . and of that person in it . . showing them . . . and you . . . in a good and generous light.)

2. You get get to tell others specifics of services you offer.
By describing a bit of what you did for that company, you create search-engine terms in your thank-you post that highlight your services. It’s good to be both specific and general, so both types of terms appear.

In other words, you created a “press release for online use” (general service) and it was about the “independent bookstore scene in Milwaukee, and the economic challenge of running a small storefront business in the recession, and the growing awareness of the Buy Local / Shop Indie campaign” (which is in your area of expertise . . . or is now if it wasn’t before). Now you’ve created helpful key words to encourage search engines to notice your blog when someone is searching for info about that topic down the line.)

3. You get to reveal a little about how you work.
Are you cheery, experienced, detail-oriented? That can come through in your blog entry. What sort of tools are you in command of? How do you approach problems or concerns within a project (at the start or as things pop up). If you talk about those – briefly, positively, with pizzazz – you begin to build a better image of your business and its brand (what distinguishes it from the next shop down the Internet road.)

The ability to describe what you did in a positive, appealing way will help attract new potential clients who check out your blog. (They see it because you mention it to them; more about very simple ways to get the right people to read your blog in a later post in this series.)

Thank-you posts are similar in structure, which makes them easy to write. Just personalize them, add a couple of interesting details, and link to the client.

You may also want to send a hand-written note to the client . . . but the online blog post is a nice touch and doesn’t take long.

Let see now, did I put the right key words in this post? I’m saying this out loud for your benefit, to encourage you to realize that it’s a useful part of blogging. Business blogs, blogging, writers, small business, online marketing, branding, Litwave (my affordable coaching service to help writers, authors, and consultants set up effective, low-key, market-savvy blogs) . . . yes, I think I’ve hit the right notes.

(Next post: using blog posts as FAQ material.)

Blogs for Writers: The Benefits of a Low-Key Approach

You’re a writer (or run a small business).
Do you have a blog?
No?

Really? Why not?

I recently gave a talk (on story structure and practice) for the Independent Writers of Chicago (IWOC, excellent networking for freelance writers . . . thanks Dave Epstein for arranging my program!). As part of it, I asked how many had blogs (as a good place to develop their own business stories).

I was amazed at the small percentage, given the high level of experience and skills of that group. But I find this is true when I ask the question elsewhere.

My question stands: No blog? Why not? What’s the down side?

The answer, of course, is an impression that having a blog means (a) a requirement to post frequently,  (b) resulting in a blog that is useless unless hyper-active . . . and is doomed to soon be abandoned, due to a lack of time.

Plus, it’s not clear to many professional writers where to draw the line between the online journal of blog blather (what I had for breakfast . . .) and the glib, personable, über-blogger whose business success is related to the gift of gab. You know who I mean, those who were born to blog.

Let’s tackle those concerns.

1. Does it take a lot of time?
No. You can easily limit the time. In fact, you can put up a totally static, minimal blog (like a mini-website) in a few minutes, post a description of your services and contact info, and then walk away.

2. Cost?
Free, if you do it on a public-platform site like Blogger or (the one I use) WordPress. (I like WordPress for its multiple page options, making it look like a mini-site.)

3. Does it take long to put up a basic blog?
Maybe 15–30 minutes. Create an account, pick a blog name, register it, then take your contact info, bio, and services description . . . and dump that into an “About Me” page or post (or two).

4. But don’t you have to blog a lot to get attention?
You’ll hear about the search-engine attention you’ll get if you do a lot of short posts: 3 per week, or something like that. Yes, that’s true. But who’s got that kind of time? (Unless this is a major focus of your service.)

But you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to do anything. Think of it as a mini-website. You can put it up and walk away. It’s there, online . . .  and just might help someone find you if they search for your name, business name, city, specific products, publications, etc.

The hyper-active blogging is important only if you’re trying to move high in an topic that’s very popular. But if you want to start a blog about your services in your particular city . . . there’s a lot less competition.

Then, the nice thing about a blog is if you want to add something, it’s there and easy to access. You can do it remotely, at home or in the office or on the road. So if something good does happen (an article is published or you get an award) . . . or something newsworthy happens for you or a good client . . . or you stumble on an interesting professional thought or resource that you’d like to record and share . . . you can post a note in a minute. Without any need to go through a web master, without cash expense!

5. What the minimum I should post?
Hey, there’s no minimum! For a very low-key approach, just commit to one good, helpful, or interesting post a month. Seems like so little. But at the end of a year, you’ve got 12 posts. Twelve points of online contact. And they stay up and accumulate.

6. So what’s the cost/benefit?
Cost in dollars: nil. Time: not much for a minimalist business blog. Benefits: a bit of extra online exposure. It’s a versatile, extra directory listing, leading to you, without a drain on your checkbook.

Of course, I do have a short list of good things to do on a blog that don’t take much time (and can use existing material you probably have. . . .)

In the next post, I’ll address some specifics ideas for a few good things that might be good to blog about, once you have that business blog set up.

Of course, I do help individuals and small business set up market-savvy blogs. Check my website LitWave for more. It costs very little to get me to help you.

Or just check back here in a few days and I’ll post a few more thoughts about good things to blog about . . . for a literary professional like you.

Create a Rev/Test Page (reviews & testimonials)

For a writer’s website, one item I recommend is a single page of reviews and testimonials. This is sometimes referred to as a “rev/test” sheet (or web page).

Besides creating this online compilation of many brief blurbs of praise as a part of an online press kit (for a single book or for overall professional services), it’s also helpful to have a formatted version to print or email to interested contacts as needed.

(In general, “reviews” come from published sources, and “testimonials” are bits of personal praise or endorsement from individuals. A “blurb” is just a brief, often excerpted version of either type.)

A page of collected praise often leads with: “Read what people are saying about . . .” or “Praise for [you and your writing]” or “Testimonials from satisfied customers/clients” or something in that vein.

This page compiles your best blurbs from the most influential sources. It’s nice to have perhaps six to ten great quotes, short and sweet, praising your work. I recommend excerpting liberally with ellipses (. . .) to highlight the best phrases. Let the reader fill in the blanks. You want to give the impression that this is just a fraction of an immense pile of praise.

There’s a bit of an art to this. First, I usually skip a review (even if well-meaning) that hints of too-faint praise. Ditto for blurbs that are purely descriptive without any sense of the work being good and recommended. (Unless sometime notable is mentioned, like “includes an appendix of resources for . . .”). But better is a blurb that at least says “good” or “useful” (or better, “great” or “essential”) or some statement of real quality.

You need more than one or two blurbs to make it worth doing a rev/test page. At least one, especially a lead quote, should come from an impressive, influential source. A sheet of praise citing only minor sources looks weak.

However, minor sources are great to fill out a page once you have one or two big-time reviews. “Minor” means sources unlikely to be known or impressive to most readers. (Minor ones often can offer details not covered in the main reviews, or come from sources significant to a particular segment of your audience.)

For most blurbs, I like short and punchy. Why? Because this emphasizes the words you want people to remember. Think of the blockbuster novel described as “spellbinding” or “a real page-turner.” Do you really need to hear more?

For instance, for The New Writer’s Handbook, I often use this:

“Surprising and satisfying.” Library Journal (Starred Review)

A slightly longer version can work:

“. . . from the preface by Erica Jong to the closing piece by Mary Pipher, it surprises and satisfies.”
– Library Journal (Starred Review); Sept. 15, 2007

But keep it short and sweet. Often it’s the source as much as the exact text. For librarians, the Library Journal name and the “Starred Review” phrase is as important a selling point as the review text itself.

Here’s an example of a rev/test sheet as a web page. (It’s from an occasional blog I maintain for odd bits of lore and literature about old-time music & fiddling. It’s a low-key spin-off from a book I wrote years ago, Farmhouse Fiddlers, from interviews with older fiddlers, mostly around rural Wisconsin, about the role of homemade music in community life.)

Praise for Farmhouse Fiddlers

That’s seven blurbs, an award or two, book specs, where the book is available. It’s the essential rev/test page.

Publishers often do this for a book’s press kit. However, as an an author, you should create and maintain your own version. Reviews and praise might come in long after a publisher has lost interest in updating a press kit or their website.

It’s an important part of your resume. It should be on your professional website or blog.

Marketing for Writers 101, dude! The “long tail” effect.

Here’s another version, from Trevor Corson’s website (for two books on lobsters and sushi). This is a great website, by the way. It illustrates how to develop an impressive site, reaching out long after a book’s pub date to collect news, photos, and far-ranging stuff on the book’s topic.

Praise for Trevor Corson’s books

Yes, you can repeat the best blurbs, sprinkled throughout your site. But a single page, with a long list of praise, has special impact.

Why is a rev/test page (and in general, any good review or testimonial) so important?

Let’s face it: You or your publisher can say your writing is the greatest thing since sliced bread. But that’s obligatory and obviously self-serving.

But if a third party (with some prestige) says that voluntarily, it suddenly becomes more believable!

Show me a half-dozen diverse sources that agree, and you’ve got a pretty good case that it’s actually the truth.

Online Marketing Tips (Use These Today!)

I’ve recently run into two great posts elsewhere chock-full of powerful marketing advice for authors. These are too good not to read!

Of course, there are too many good ideas in the world and not enough time. So the trick is to pick the best combo that will work for you . . . strategically (right position? right direction? right attitude to fit your work and make it distinctive?) and tactically (cost? time? skills needed to execute the activities well?).

As a consultant (Litwave marketing services for authors), I recommend picking fewer core activities and doing them well: consistently, well integrated, and with continuity over time, to build a literary career.

That said, check these out:

Jeff Fisher & Social Networking Sites (a visual case study)
Graphic designer Jeff Fisher, of LogoMotives, wrote a great post with screenshots of his social networking pages on different sites (MySpace, FaceBook, LinkedIn, GoodReads, etc.). Excellent overview! It’s a basic principle: have more than one spot on the web where individuals (and whole networks) can connect with you (and find you in the first place, and quickly check out your credentials).

This post is a great way to eyeball the sites and see what one successful creative professional is doing with a bunch of them. You probably won’t want to do this many . . . but can you add one site?

Chris Brogan & How To Promote Your Book Online
Chris is working on a book (Trust Agents, with Julien Smith), and on his blog incited a flurry of excellent (and sometimes contradictory) advice from some very insightful colleagues, in the detailed comments to his post, on how to market a book, especially in advance.

Check this post out (as one respondent said, “I am soo printing all this out!”). You’ll find more than one thing in the comments you’ll want to do for yourself! (As always, don’t follow advice blindly but ask: will it likely work for me? and is it worth it?)

Blogging for Book Authors
I’ll mention my own recent article on blogging for book authors that I stuck on my LitWave site. I’ll comment more in coming posts on the role of the market-focused blog for writers, but this will give you some grist for your literary blog mill.

New Writer’s Handbook, Vol. 2, Now Available!

News flash! My latest project, The New Writer’s Handbook, Vol. 2, is just hitting the streets.

(By “streets,” I mean the polished hardwood shelves of your favorite indie bookstore just around the corner . . . or the mocha-loving halls of big chain booksellers (Barnes & Noble or Borders, for instance) . . . or the ethereal Amazonian shelves of Internet bookstores.)

If you’re new to this blog, or didn’t grab the first volume released in Fall 2007, what is the Handbook?

It’s my vision of how we writers might share best advice (yes, through my selective lens) for our craft and career, in a concise, not overblown fashion (short pieces, with concentrated nuggets of useful thoughts), in a reasonably priced paperback ($16.95) and with lots of points of view (65 articles).

I’ve always seen it as an annual refresher, a professional-development seminar in a book. Much of the book might be most useful to early-stage, emerging writers, but a good number of pieces I think are useful and thought-provoking for experienced writers as well.

My goal: that any writer would find at least one piece here that would really make a difference in their writing career in the coming year . . . and a good number of other pieces that would help improve their results in many small ways.

(And many professional writers also need teachable ideas to share with students and apprentice writers . . . so this Handbook also serves as a pretty good teaching tool.)

But, as my motto goes: the proof is in the pudding. I believe books shouldn’t be over-hyped, that readers are the only judge of how useful a book is to them and their specific needs. As Mark Twain said,

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.

I’ll do a few posts in coming days with more glimpses of this year’s contents, to help you decide if this book is one that can help you.

In the end, I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy of this year’s New Writer’s Handbook and will use it to become a better writer.

And as always, let me know if there’s any other way I can help you in achieving your writing goals.

The Goose and the Golden Egg (on Specializing)

Behold, the fool saith, “Put not all thine eggs in the one basket”
– which is but a manner of saying, “Scatter your money and your attention;”

but the wise man saith, “Put all your eggs in the one basket and
– watch that basket.”

- Pudd’nHead Wilson (central character of the 1894 novel by Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens)

Why specialize as a professional writer? Samuel Clemens also wrote: “The ruin of any work is a divided interest. Concentrate – concentrate. One thing at a time.”

Specializing allows you to:

• focus your creative energy
• keep track of important details
• build Rolodex and customer contacts
• focus your marketing to a smaller audience
• build your expertise, becoming more valuable to your clients

Many of us writers, myself in particular, are fundamentally interested in many, many things. Maybe too many. We want to see what’s behind every closed door. We hope to serve all potential clients. We think everyone should read everything we write.

Each new project, idea, or networking contact has a natural intrigue because of their freshness. There’s an excitement in tackling new, untraveled mountains to see if they can be climbed. When I was younger, I hitchhiked each summer to the Rockies, Grand Tetons, Sierra Nevadas, to explore the heights, often rambling solo through sun and storm like my hero, John Muir. My first published work, in fact, was a poem, published in a mountaineering magazine, based on experiencing a tremendous storm in the Tetons.

But I’ve learned over time that there’s much to be gained by walking the same path over and over. The trails through the ancient woods near my Milwaukee house, a magical place of towering beeches, maples, oaks, basswood trees called the Seminary Woods, are never, ever, the same. The place changes with the weather, the time of day, and the seasons. Not to mention with my moods and thoughts.

By walking the woods over and over, I get to know them really well. I discover the smaller trails. I find where the different types of spring ephemerals bloom: trout lilies, trillium, spring beauties, jack-in-the-pulpit, marsh marigolds, skunk cabbage, bloodroot. I discover the tree where the great horned owl lives, get to hear its call on the winged hunt.

For writers, learning to become a specialist will advance your career tremendously. It’s a core concept of personal branding.

For a great book on the subject, I recommend one I worked on as editor some years ago: Ready, Aim, Specialize!, by Kelly James-Enger. Her own career is exemplary. (Her other book, Six-Figure Freelancing, gives you an idea of her earning power – an income goal she achieved in her sixth year of freelance writing.)

Ready, Aim, Specialize!: Create Your Own Writing Specialty and Make More Money (2nd edition, Marion Street Press, 2007) teaches you the ins and outs of specializing. It includes:

• 20 queries that nabbed assignments for new writers
• Why to develop a niche of your own
• The top ten writing specialties and how to break into each (health, parenting, home & garden, travel, business . . .)
• How to better market your work; how to research and write more efficiently
• How to find experts and data for articles in each of the ten areas

Check out either of Kelly’s book. Then, choose your basket, gather your eggs, and keep an eye on them. And think strategically about how to find the special goose that lays the golden egg for you.

Author Platform: 4 Things It Does to Lift You Up

An author platform. To pitch a nonfiction book, you need one . . . because literary agents want you to have one . . . because publishers want you to have one. . . .

But what are author platforms and what do they do?

Let’s tackle the second part of that: what do they do? Think of passing by a room in a hotel convention center with an open door. You peek in and see a speaker up on a platform, ready to speak to a big crowd of people, seated and ready to listen. What’s your impression of that person and their influence? A person on a platform, speaking to an assembled crowd, has many advantages in getting heard compared to a similar person, perhaps with just as much knowledge, sitting in a chair in the hotel lobby.

The person sitting in the lobby can get their message out to a single person who happens to sit down beside them. The person on the platform will quickly get the message out to many more people. And if it’s a good idea, that message might then spread exponentially, much more quickly.

So a platform for a speaker is a tangible, existing, powerful tool. Well, a literary platform for writers does just what a physical platform does. Here’s what it gives you:

1. Visibility. A platform lets you be seen and heard by the people farthest in the back. With a P.A. system, you can be heard in a large auditorium; if outside, across a large public space. With a platform’s amplification, you say what you have to say once . . . and many hear it.

2. Community Experience. A platform lifts you up so many can hear your message all at the same time. This creates a community experience. Think of the buzz in the room after a great speech. People can discuss what they heard with others, verbalizing the core themes, comparing what others valued in the talk. This makes everyone more able and motivated to share the ideas with others not at the speech. This is the heart of buzz . . . knowing that what’s exciting to you is exciting to others. You believe that others want to share what they think about the matter, and you begin to look for more opportunities to talk about it.

3. Aura. Let’s face it, just being seen on a platform probably means some influential people have wanted to promote what you have to say. You’ll instinctively be more impressed by a person welcomed onto a platform, introduced as an official speaker, than a person met at a party or standing on their own little soapbox in a corner of a park or sitting alone in a hotel lobby.

4. Experience. A person who has been on a platform again and again, speaking to crowds, has gotten a big benefit from that experience. They’ve learned how to better craft and deliver a compelling message, how much preparation is needed to engage and sway a crowd . . . and how simple and clear the best-heard messages are. Speaking from a platform to many requires different skills than a good storyteller sitting at a dinner table, telling tales to a small circle of friends or family to pass the time. A large crowd gathers for a talk expecting to hear someone with the skills to deliver a valuable message in a way that it is understood, is convincing, and includes take-aways, the memorable bits that an audience carries away and holds in their minds.

For a writer, “platform” is often more than major speaking venues. It can be a popular blog (Seth Godin and Guy Kawasaki have huge virtual platforms) or a large mailing list of your own or a column in a major magazine or a high post in an influential professional organization.

The need for a platform for a nonfiction book, of course, reflects that publishers buy these works based on a pre-book proposal, long before a full manuscript exists. And on any given topic, any 20-page proposal may look not so much different from the next. The difference is often the author: how much they bring to the table in the way of a proven sphere of influence, with previous succcess in marketing themselves and their ideas — to real networks that will want to hear the newest ideas that person has on his or her topic of expertise.

Sit in the publisher’s chair, and think how you would choose between fairly similar book proposals. If one person has been successful in developing their own big platform, they would seem a better bet as an author to help sell books than an untested speaker. And at it’s core, publishing (from the point of view of publishers) is all about making good bets.

So, the easier you make it for them to bet on you (the better you can help your agent convince an editor to help convince an acquisitions committee), the more likely you are to get that nonfiction book contract.

You, Mr. or Ms. Amazing Writer (on branding)

For a while, I’ve been sorting through ideas about business development for writers, and I wanted to share some thoughts.

First, let’s take a quick look at your basic web presence. When someone looks for you on the web, can they find you? And if they do, does what they find properly and positively present your brand?

For more on personal brand, you might skim this article on the concept of “Brand You” as extolled by Tom Peters. In a nutshell: brands are everywhere, brands are influential, you are the CEO of your own business, you need to think about your brand.

Your brand is less how you perceive yourself; it’s more how (quickly, clearly, positively) others perceive you. What do they think of when they think of you – in our case, as a workers in a literary field. Prompt? Reliable? Do you deliver the goods in a friendly or fun or folksy or cool professional manner? How do others decribe you if they are recommending you to another person?

With a few easy steps, you can improve the quick, clear, positive attributes of how others see you. To stand out, to be seen as different (in a good way), as a writer, take a few moments in the coming month to work on your brand.

A brand, says Peters, is “a promise of the value you’ll receive.”

Peters suggests: “Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors – or your colleagues. What have you done lately – this week – to make yourself stand out? What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy . . . personal trait?”

Let’s look at a few ways to check your brand online.

• Do you have a clear brand identity; is it easy to find online?
• Do you have a website (and/or blog) that presents you and your work?
• Have you asked someone (other than a close friend who knows you well) to look at your website to give feedback about what sort of image it presents?
• What comes up in a Google search if someone’s looking for you? In a Yahoo search?
• Do you have an online “resume” in places other than your own website?

When I created this basic list, I had to ask myself if I’d answered them well in my own literary business. While I think I have a reasonably good brand and web presence, I realized there were some things I might need to tackle.

One big issue for me is my common name. If you web-search for me as Philip Martin, you’ll have a hard time finding me, a single tree in a forest of Philip Martins online.

For instance, one Phillip Martin (two Ls in the first name, and African-American; but search engines don’t necessarily care) is “a unique, soulful musician . . . Phillip ‘Doc’ Martin; preferably known as ‘Doc Martin,’ a rising saxophone stylist whose heartfelt, humble melodies are wooing live audiences on stages across the country.”

Or “businessman Philip Martin, with a criminal past,” one of four campaign co-chairmen for the defunct Fred Thompson presidential campaign.

Then there’s the Irish pianist, the ag professor in California, the infantry “grunt” in Iraq, the screenwriter for the Doctor Who show . . . all not me. I don’t show up for quite a few pages.

Okay, my approach has been to use Great Lakes Literary as my main brand, with The New Writer’s Handbook (book and now this blog) as a secondary brand. My name, honestly, comes in third in my branding. But I can and should improve that . . . in case people want to look for me online by name.

Some things for a writer like me (and you) to consider:

1. Post a Wikipedia entry, to cite significant publishing credits and professional history.

2. Consider adding a middle name or other identifier. (For the record, mine’s Nevin. An old British Isles name, given to me to honor some obscure relative. Never was all that keen on it, but now I’m rethinking. I started writing as Philip Martin before the web was such as key tool. Now, I need to think about being more distinctive, namewise.)

3. Register your profile on LinkedIn. I’m getting a listing this weekend. Why? Because it’s an important place to put your profile; from there, it gets discovered (and given some extra ranking significance) by search engines.

Here’s a bit on that from a good recent post on the LinkedIn blog (by Jack Chou):

LinkedIn is all about letting you control and promote your brand identity as a professional. We want to help you be found by others in ways that will help you professionally – whether it’s reconnecting with old colleagues, getting contacted by business leads, or hearing about that next great career opportunity.

A key part of that is allowing our members to maintain customizable public profiles that are indexed by the top search engines – thus making sure that anyone looking for you via Google or Yahoo! search will find you.

And because you can control the details included in your public profile, you’re in complete control over the information that shows up here.

4. Contribute an article or two to a free online article repository, such as Ezinearticles.com.

Why? In my case, I have my own website, with recent articles for writers posted there for my monthly newsletter. But contributing an occasional article to a free article database online can put your profile out there in a powerful, well-ranked, searchable way.

The goal is to establish a number of clear paths – an online web presence – that present your professional profile in a consistent, brand-conscious manner. It’s not hard; it only takes a few steps. But establishing your web presence (and looking beyond your own website), putting your brand out there in several visible places on the World Wide Web, is an important part of your writing platform.

You don’t know who might be looking for you and can’t find you. Or who might stumble across you by chance and want to know more.

Hey, I might be interested in the music of a saxophone stylist who plays cool jazz. And didn’t know about Phillip “Doc” Martin . . . until a search engine put his website in front of my eyes. Now that’s cool.