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From Amanda: How to Format Your Manuscript for Submission and Kindle Upload

Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

First, I'd like to say I'm sorry for missing my post yesterday. I had some personal things come up and just didn't get around to it. So, we're going to take a slight detour this week, since I know there are a number of people who tune in specifically on Thursdays to hear about building author platform. And, well, we don't want them missing the next installment, now, do we?!

So for today, I'd like to share links to a batch of really helpful tutorial videos my author, the fabulous Jill Williamson, put together. They cover everything you need to know to format your manuscript for submission.

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 1: Page Set Up and Text-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boP5po6aMDk&feature=related

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 2: Page Breaks-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nU1iv2v95s&feature=related

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 3: Paragraphs-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwqvmdWDJto&feature=related

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 4: Cleaning things up-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNOj9ZR88E8&feature=related

Formatting a Manuscript, Part 5: Page Numbers-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOuihsC7SyY&feature=related

In addition to this, Jill put together a series of videos for formatting your manuscript for upload on Amazon as a Kindle ebook.

Formatting Your Manuscript for Amazon Kindle--PART 1-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU2kprKRrGY&feature=related

Using Mobipocket to Format Your Book For Kindle--PART 2-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4szEhEhHy4&feature=related

They're short and to the point...excellent references for anyone getting ready to do something with that polished, perfected manuscript.

Do you know of any tutorials to add to this list? Tell us about them!

And tune in next Thursday when we get back to our discussion on building platforms...the topic? Platform-building blogging. See you next week!

A Writer's Budget

A couple of people read my Monday blog and asked me, "What does a writing budget look like?"

Here's the basic idea...

1. The author sets a financial goal for the year. It's got to be something that is livable (if the writer is attempting to make this a full-time job) and reachable (so there's no setting a goal of "a bazillion dollars"). Let's say, for someone just moving into full-time writing, the goal is $24,000 per year. Skinny, but a real wage for most writers. So figure out how much you need to earn in a year from your writing.

2. I encourage an author to break that annual figure into monthly chunks -- so in our example, the author's goal is $2000 per month.

3. The next step is to add up what the author expects to earn on the writing they are doing. How much in contracts does she already have? What other writing does she know she'll be doing and getting paid for? That will help her figure out how much money is coming in, and how much she needs to add. Let's say an author has a royalty check coming in May, expects to have completion money on a book contract in July, and is expecting to sell a project in October. All you have to do is to figure out the amounts and write them onto your writing calendar. Nothing will give an author more clarity than hard numbers written down on a calendar -- it's a way of saying, "I'm making this...so now I need to work to make that."

4. The obvious thing to do next is to match up dates and amounts. If you know you're going to be working on a book in March/April/May, you can write down how much you're making on that project. By looking at your calendar, you'll see where the holes are that need to be filled with writing projects. And by looking at your budget, you'll see how much you need to make in order to fill in the gaps.

5. And here's an important step... The author should shift his or her budget from a monthly system to a quarterly system. So in our $24k-per-year scenario, the authors stops thinking in terms of "$2000-per-month" and starts thinking about "$6000-per-quarter." That pushes off the immediate, "How-am-I-ever-going-to-survive" worry a bit. Writing income never arrives on a monthly basis anyway, though it's fair for a writer to plan for a decent paycheck four times per year. So you move your income into quarterly groupings, lowering the pressure and giving yourself a better big-picture view of your budget.

6. The conversation then moves to something like this: "I'm going to make $6000 this quarter. It's going to come from three sources -- my completion money, my royalty check, and those magazine articles I'm completing. And the money is going to go toward..." (because part of having a budget is determining where the money goes, not just where it will come from). Remember, the government assumes you're making money quarterly -- that's why they have you pay quarterly estimated taxes. So LOTS of writers and other self-employed people have based their budgets on this model over the years. Thinking quarterly will help you survive as a writer. 

I hope this all makes sense. Oh, and I always remind authors of the MacGregor Formula for full-time writing: 24m(s)+4b=RJ    (Let me translate that for you... If you intend to move toward a career as a full-time writer, you need to have the next 24 months of writing mapped out with enough money to equal a salary, PLUS the next four books contracted. That will equal a "Real Job." Once you're there, you can consider quitting that day job and focus on your book career. If you're not there, you want to be very careful about giving up guaranteed income. Making a living at writing is a tricky business.)

Yeah, this is a lot to choke down in one gulp. Feel free to ask questions if you need me to clarify.

 

Who Needs a Publisher?

In these times of self-publishing, ebooks, bookstore closures, agents turning into publishers, and the crumbling of the traditional publishing model—who needs a publisher?

May I offer an indie publisher’s perspective on that question?

First: Ask yourself if you know the industry. Many writers seem to have no clue about the changes in the publishing market. You need to do your research, learn book marketing, and educate yourself. One day your publisher is going to ask you, “What is your marketing plan?”, and if you say, “I can email my friends and do a book signing…”, there is a good chance your book will fail. No matter what path you take to publish, you will be responsible to market your book. Not the publisher—you.

Second: Ask yourself if want a publisher. You may feel you don’t need a publisher these days, as you can do much on your own. But a publisher can do it faster and better, and brings expertise to the process… so do you want a publisher? (And when I say “publisher” I mean the indie publisher, the new model publisher, the partner publisher, or someone who is not stuck in the old way of doing business. I do not mean the Big 6 or old-school, dying on the vine publishers who seem to think eBooks and news of thinking are evil.)

The fact is, a good publisher can do a few things for you that you can’t do on your own. But that will cost you something. You will give up part of your royalty to cover their services. Think of a publisher as someone who knows 50 people that you need to meet in order to get your book into reader’s hands. All a publisher does is make the introductions:

·      A publisher can get your book into bookstores. To sell with Ingram you need 10 titles before they will even talk to you. You can go through a third party to get in, but it will cost you 10-15% of your sales. Why do you need to be with Ingram? Because they are the big dog in distribution. Most stores buy from them.

·      A publisher can sell special rights, foreign rights, movie rights, mass market rights, blah blah blah… Now to be fair, you could do this on your own, but the publisher knows who to talk to and who is buying. It is all about contacts. Remember when your dad said it is not what you know but who you know? It turns out, he was right.

·      A publisher can work to get you into a better deal through an agent. I know I am going to open a can of worms here, but the agent’s job is changing. They are almost not needed for a book deal with an indie publisher. Why would you give up 15% when you can talk directly to the publisher and hire someone to look over your contract? Most charge a one-time fee for things like that. I use Chip and other agents to sell subsidiary rights—they work and get paid based on the deals they bring in. This works out well for the agents, as they are free to use their contacts to make money without being tied up with the time it takes to sell a book to big OLD publishers.

·      A publisher can put out a better product. Some of the books going up on Amazon are awful. Covers that make your eyes bleed,  no editing, poor layout. With the changes in the industry, many cover artists and editors are leaving or getting fired. Most can be hired as freelancers or go to work with a small press. If you doubt what I am saying, look around Smashwords or Amazon.

·      A publisher can help you market. Notice I did not say, “they will market for you”? They know how to market, so they can hold your hand and show you the ropes. Most publishers market their line of books, not just one book or one author, so they have learned where to go and what to do.

·      A publisher can make the process easy. I can’t tell you how many writers I have worked with that are happy to have someone on their side who knows what to do. Selling books can be like a giant puzzle, but once the various pieces are put together, it gets easier with every try. Why invent the wheel all over again? Besides the industry is changing so fast that if you create a new design it can be outdated as soon as you are finished.

·      A publisher can make you more money. A small press or new publisher usually pays higher royalties than the big guys, (40-60% vs 12-25%). This means you make more money per sale and can make a living on fewer books with lower sales.

Who needs a publisher? If you’re an author trying to make some money writing books, the chances are YOU do.

 

Aaron Patterson is the publisher at StoneHouse Ink, which has sold more than a quarter of a million books in the past two years.

Twitter: @StoneHouseInk

Facebook: HERE

Blog: HERE

Website: HERE

StoneHouse University: HERE

 

 

 

Creating a Career Plan for Writers

I have a background in organizational development -- that is, the study of how an organization grows and changes over time. In my job as a literary agent, I've found it's proven helpful when talking to writers about their careers. You see, my contention is that some agents pay lip service to "helping authors with career planning," but many don't really have a method for doing that. (Actually, from the look of it, some don't even know what it means. I think "career planning" to some agents is defined as "having a book contract.") During my doctoral program at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!), I served as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Career Planning and Placement Office. The focus was on helping people graduating in the arts figure out how to create a career plan, and that experience allowed me the opportunity to apply the principles of organizational theory to the real-world setting of those trying to make a living with words. So here are a few things I like to consider when talking with a writer...

First, I want to get to know the author. Who is he (or she)? What's the platform he brings to the process? Does she speak? If so, where, how often, to whom, to how many, and on what topics? Does he have experience with other media? What kind? What's her message? What books has she done in the past? What other writing is the author doing that could boost the platform?

Second, I want to find out about the author's past -- the significant events and accomplishments. I also like to make sure I'm clear on things like strengths, gifts, burdens... all of that helps give me context when discussing career paths.

Third, we have to talk about perspective -- what is important to the author? How does he define success? What does she need to change? What do they want to accomplish?

Fourth, we sit down together (or talk on the phone), and we talk about personal organization. Every author needs a TIME to write, a PLACE to write, and a GOAL that he or she is writing toward. Do they have a plan in place? Are they moving forward? Do they have a project they are working on? Do they have a filing system to keep track of projects? Do they have a writing calendar, so they know what  and when they are working on each project? I encourage authors to create a budgeting calendar -- something that is very important to every working author. Of course, each writer is unique -- what they are writing and how fast they write it will be different for each person. But knowing their financial goals and what sort of help they need from me makes my role clear.

Fifth, we start to talk about an actual writing plan -- what will the writer create over the next two years? The next five years? What plans are they making? Do those plans reflect their values? Does it all match up with their life purpose? Does it maximize their strengths? Is their spouse in agreement with it all? Knowing an author is at peace with the overall plan is important if this is all going to happen in the writer's life.

These things all work together to create a career map for an author. Various documents are derived from this information -- a writing calendar, a budget, a wish list, maybe a statement of purpose. But my goal isn't to get an author to write some grand purpose statement -- my goal is to help an author create a workable plan he or she can use to move forward in a writing career. I aim to keep writers results-focused. I'll sometimes ask an author questions such as, "What person would you most like to invest in this year?" or "What single thing would you most like to purchase this year?" or "What obstacle seems to be holding you back right now?" In talking through issues like this, we start to gain some clarity as to what an author wants to accomplish.

And, to be completely open about this, sometimes an author will work through the process and decide she really doesn't want to be a full-time writer. And that's okay -- the goal is to figure out the calling. I want the authors I work with to be crystal clear in their two- or three-year career plans. That way an author can understand what "success" is, and each one has a means of measuring progress. Feel free to ask me questions. 

 

Thursdays with Amanda: Success with Writing Articles

NOTE: Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

We’re on week three of tackling the Platform Monster. Week one we talked about numbers as in how big an author platform should be, and week two we took the first step toward achieving those numbers by acknowledging that growing a platform should be like playing with dominos. You move forward, tile by tile, focusing on one thing at a time until the big payoff when everything falls into place and you have your platform.

So now let’s dig deeper. Each week, we’ll take a look at one of those platform components (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Speaking) and I’ll give insight into how to do them right and reap the biggest reward.

This week, we’re talking about WRITING ARTICLES.

I chose this one to start us off, because aside from blogging, it comes more naturally to most writers than, say, YouTube vlogging and public speaking. It also is one of the easiest ways to ensure your name gets in front of lots and lots of people.

Here’s my thinking...you Tweet something or write a blog post or throw something up onto the Internet, and unless you happen to be talking about a trending or searchable topic, it only gets read by your immediate audience. But with articles (especially print articles), your words will be read by a majority of that publication’s readership. And 99.9% of those readers are people that you haven’t met before. So while pitching articles and columns may be a bit outdated, it’s one of the best ways to get your words in front of NEW readers.

So how do you see success with articles? Here’s what I recommend:

1.      Take a look at what you write and identify the topics you specialize in. If you’re a nonfiction writer, this is pretty easy. If you’re a fiction writer, it’ll take a bit more effort. Come up with a list of 5 or so interests that you feel are reflected in your writing. For example, Bernard Cornwell writes spectacular historical fiction geared toward men. When he was in the midst of writing and researching his King Arthur series, he could have identified the following groups of people who would be interested in his work: British history enthusiasts; King Arthur enthusiasts; mythology and folklore enthusiasts; myth, hero, Arthurian and possibly medieval reenactment groups; and of course, historical fiction enthusiasts.

2.      Once you’ve identified your groups of readers, track down publications that serve those readers. You want to dig up as many publications as possible and focus on print publications as well as e-publications (oftentimes referred to as e-zines). Popular blogs may also be considered.

3.      Write a handful of articles or essays for each interest group (some may cross over). If you’re like Bernard Cornwell, you may choose to write about the research that you’re doing. Or, if you’re Susanna Clarke, you may want to write about Magic in Adult Literature – Has Harry Potter Juvenalized the Subject? Whatever the topic, make sure it parallels your writing subject and interests your reader.

4.      Pitch your articles to the publications. Now the key here is to reuse articles so that you’re not always writing something new for every publication. The article you sell to Fitness Magazine can also be tweaked and then used in Self, Shape, and then Oxygen.

5.      When you get a few bites, pitch new ideas to those publications. The goal is to create a relationship with the publication in hopes that they’ll bring you on as a contributing writer or columnist. Also, by frequently appearing in the same publications, you’ll start to develop a readership.

6.      Keep track of how many people are seeing your words. Every print or e-publication has a readership number. For print, they refer to this as their circulation. You can find these numbers on their website or by emailing and asking. For e-publications, you’ll need to get their web stats. I like to rely on www.compete.com to give me insight into how many visitors a website will get per month (Tip: Only search the home page of the website. Don’t search your article’s individual URL).

7.      You should have some sort of website already, but at this point it’s time to add another outlet. Say, Twitter or Facebook. Think of it as placing that second domino right behind the first one.

8.      Come up with a byline that directs your fans to whatever social media outlet you chose in step 7.

If you look at the top of this blog post, you’ll see I have a handy little byline that directs you to follow me on Twitter and visit my Facebook page. And it’s worked. Since writing these posts, I’ve added three dozen or so followers. It’s not much, but imagine if I had been posting these words on multiple blogs and e-zines around the Internet. That group of three dozen could have been a few hundred. In just a matter of weeks.

And that’s it. Success in article-writing in 8 easy steps.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions and questions.

What do I do with my life?

Steve wrote to say, "I have a degree in teaching, and I've taken classes in a professional writing program... but I feel stuck between two careers. What do I do?"

If you're trying to make it as a writer, you've got an uphill climb. But so does everybody who wants to make a living with art. Making a living in the arts (ANY art) is hard. Here's an example I've used several times: I'm a pretty good ballroom dancer. (Really. Publishers love it when I come to their publishing balls, since there will be 300 authors and 6 guys who know how to dance.) I took lessons, was in dance classes, and hoofed it in musical theater. If you saw me on the dance floor at the Harlequin ball, you might think I was head and shoulders above most beginners. But I realize there's a huge gap between being pretty good at the local dance club and asking people to pay $80 to come watch me dance in a show on Broadway. There's a gap between being "pretty good" and being "a professional."

My son is a good guitar player, but there's quite a leap from playing in a garage band and asking people to plunk down $18 for your latest CD at Wal-mart. My daughter Molly could act and was in the plays in school -- but there's a big gap between "being pretty good in the high school comedy" and "asking people to come see me at an equity theater." All of us who grew up in churches have heard really good singers over the years... but there's a big gap between the woman who is pretty good with a solo in the Christmas concert and the professional singer who has been granted a record contract. 

So just because someone is a pretty fair writer doesn't mean she can expect a reader to pay $21 for her latest novel. There's a gap between amateurs and professionals. And that's true with music, with dance, with acting, with painting, with anything. It's tough to make it in any art. Writing included. 

Therefore, what do you do? You work at it. You get better. You study the craft. You take classes. You join a critique group. You locate a writing mentor. You pay a professional editor to review your work. More than anything, you sit your butt in a chair and write a lot. Because nobody gets good by "thinking about" writing -- you get good by actually writing a lot. (The same holds true with all those other arts I mentioned earlier.) Most novelists don't get their first book published -- they write several novels before hitting on a story that's salable, and having the writing chops to be able to tell it well. I used to teach writing courses in Taylor University's excellent Professional Writing Program, and I was surprised to find so few older or non-traditional students in the classes. Most everyone in my classes was in the 18-to-22 year range -- which is fine, since I loved the students, and enjoyed teaching them. But I would have loved to see more returning students who were trying to move forward in their careers, and who had enough life experience to bring depth to their writing. 

I'm sure you're familiar with Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 Hour Rule," in which he argues that certain people (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the Beatles, Robert Oppenheimer, etc) became great at what they did because they invested 10,000 hours in their roles. Basing his theory on a study by Anders Ericsson, Gladwell offers a theory as to why some people become "great" in their roles. It's fascinating stuff, and I think he makes a very compelling argument for writers (if you're interested, download a copy of the book, Outliers, published by Little-Brown). But his basic argument is that a person needs TIME AT THE CRAFT to become really good. 

So back to your question, Steve... what to do? I think it depends on your passion, your motivation, your calling, and your innate ability. Some people need to teach full time and write when they can. Others need to teach part time and write part time. Still others write full time and maybe do some fill-in teaching as needed. I don't know your situation, so I'm not going to offer any career advice... other than to say, "What do YOU think you should be doing with your life?"

 

A Series of Fortunate Events - a guest blog from Gina Holmes

It's not everyday that a debut novel becomes a bestseller, which is perhaps why people are curious as to why and how Crossing Oceans made its way on to the CBA, ECPA, Amazon, and PW Religion lists. 

Anyone who regularly follows the bestseller lists for a few months will notice that while the book titles change, the authors rarely do. People like Ted Dekker, Francine Rivers, Karen Kingsbury, etc show up there over and over—making it difficult for a new name to squeeze in. (This is true in the CBA as well as the general market).

There is, of course, no single way to turn a book into a bestseller. If there were, everyone would be doing it with every book. I can’t speak for the rest of debut novelist’s who were lucky enough to break in, but this is how it went for me:

·      I had a champion.

Actually several. It started with a top-notch agent, Chip MacGregor, who championed the book and sold it to Tyndale House. Karen Watson, Associate Publisher there, read a partial manuscript and became passionate about it. She took a risk and gave an untried author a chance.

 This wouldn’t have happened though if the idea had been poorly executed. It took years to hone my skills. Over the course of ten years, I'd written several manuscripts that were ultimately rejected, read every how-to writing book I could get my hands on, and aligned with the toughest critique partners I could find. 

Lucky for me, the rest of the team at Tyndale House also got excited and additional resources were thrown at the book. One "higher-up" from Tyndale commented it was one of the best debuts he’d  ever read. That’s the kind of excitement that helps sell a book.

·      I had a great editor.

 I doubt I have to convince writers how important this is. Kathy Olson saw my vision for the story, suggested changes and heard me when I had questions or disagreed. We listened to each other, and there was compromise on both our ends.  She didn't change the essence of the story, or my voice, which I'm truly thankful for. What she did do is make a good story better.

·      They listened.

Right from the beginning stages, I worked with a team that wanted, and heard my input. They suggested changes they thought would improve the book. They also invited my feedback from everything from the cover design to the portion of endorsement we ended up using.

I was grateful when my (fan-stinking-tastic) marketer ran ideas past me about ad displays and which outlets they planned to advertise with. I offered insight, which could have been ignored, but wasn't. When I saw a PR tie in, I wrote to my publicist and we brainstormed and then acted. Sometimes she pitched an angle, sometimes I did, depending on who we thought would get the best results. There were no egos involved on either end, just a desire for the book to succeed.

·      Serendipity 

A major book chain buyer, (God bless her!), fell in love with Crossing Oceans and got the stores excited about it too. She ordered lots of copies, gave it placement at the front of the store. It was put on sale nationwide, which helped introduce it to readers. I couldn’t have planned that if I wanted to.

Another national chain made it their book club pick. This certainly wouldn’t have happened if Tyndale hadn’t pitched it to them or if it wasn’t a story that resonated, but I’m sure lots of other books were just as worthy. Like I said, serendipity.

Kindle offered it as a daily deal, dropping the price to $1.99 for the day. This also introduced me to many readers who wouldn’t have discovered me otherwise. Again, not my doing.

·      Word of mouth

Word of mouth normally only happens when enough people, the right people, (read The Tipping Point), read a book and become passionate about it. My publishing team took care to submit it to the "who’s who" of reviewers and outlets.

On my end, I worked to gather up early readers and to create buzz. I spent probably on average 2-4 hours a day on publicity. That’s a lot of time, but you only get one chance to debut. Many outlets are more curious about your first book than subsequent ones. It pays to pour everything you have into the first 

It also helped that Tyndale offered up Crossing Oceans as a freebie on Kindle and Nook. It stayed at number one free download on Amazon for most of that two weeks and then stayed in the top one hundred paid for weeks after. That’s a lot of potential for word of mouth.

I had a platform which I’d spent years building: www.novelrocket.com. With a strong base of supporters, it was easy to scare up folks who were happy to help me get the word out. (When you take time to help others, expecting nothing in return, you tend to get the boomerang effect. Hint. Hint.)

This isn’t a conclusive list, but it’s a good representation of how and why Crossing Oceans launched so well. A bestseller tends to happen when you have a well-written & sticky, (again—see The Tipping Point), book, a great team of champions, and an author willing to do their part.

It’s important to point out the obvious—some great books don’t sell so well despite all involved doing everything right. And some maybe not so great books sell very well despite little effort. 

I think God sometimes smiles on certain projects for reasons only He knows, and perhaps some books are meant to reach many, while others are meant to reach a select few—but that’s a topic for another post.

What I do know is that we could try our best to recreate this series of fortunate events I experienced with Crossing Oceans, but probably will fail miserably because most of the best breaks weren’t within our control.

What we can do is to write the best book we can, do as much to promote as we can, hope that our publishing team and readers "get" us, and say our prayers.

 

Gina Holmes is the author of CROSSING OCEANS, her debut novel that hit the bestseller lists and won numerous industry awards, and her latest, DRY AS RAIN, which has been getting very strong reviews. Both books were published by Tyndale publishers. 

 

How is money paid on a book contract?

Cherice wrote in to ask, "Can you explain how money is paid on a book publishing contract? I've got a contract in front of me, and I don't understand it."

Happy to, Charice. First, most authors are paid an advance against royalties when signing a book contract. There's a long tradition of publishers paying advances to authors, since it allows the author to survive while he or she is working on a book. This isn't free money -- it's sort of a no-interest loan that will be earned back after your book releases. Let's say the contract calls for a total advance of $20,000. Typically you'd get one-third of this on signing, another third upon turning in the completed work, and the last third upon publication. (That said, there are a million ways to divide the advance. Some pay half on signing, some pay a percentage when the author completes the bio and marketing forms, etc.) So when your book releases, you're now in the red $20,000 to the publisher. You've been paid that amount, but you haven't earned anything back yet. 

Second, as your book sells you are credited with  money for each sale. That's your royalty money, and with each sale it slowly reduces that $20,000 debt. Most trade publishers in the general market (that would include Random House, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, etc.) pay a standard royalty on hardcover books: 10% of the book's retail price on the first 5000 copies sold, 12.5% on the next 5000 copies sold, and 15% thereafter. Royalties for most trade-paper books are 7.5% of the retail price, and mass market books pay a bit less than that. (Be aware: Most CBA publishers don't pay on the retail price of the book -- they pay on the net price, which is the amount of money the publisher actually receives from the bookstore. And you negotiate royalties on each book. Though CBA royalties may seen higher, you'll have to do some math to determine which method will pay you more money.)

If your book is a $25 hardcover, you'd be making $2.50 for each of the first 5000 books sold. (Did you see how I got that figure? $25 x 10%.) What happens is that the publishing house keeps track of that figure, and applies that as a credit to your account. So if you sell one book, you no longer are in the red $20,000 -- you're now in the red $19,997.50. After the first 5000 copies have sold, your earnings jump to $3.12; and after 10,000 copies have sold, you are earning $3.75 per book. With every book sold, they credit your account  the appropriate amount. Eventually you erase the $20,000 debt, and you begin making money that will be sent to you a couple times per year. Once you've passed the $20,000 mark (or whatever your advance was), it's said that your book has "earned out." Now you're in the best possible situation -- a company is going to send you checks on a book you finished a year or two ago. There's no better feeling than getting a healthy royalty check and remembering that you're making on a project you're no longer working on.

Some publishers pay once a year, some twice a year, and some four times per year. Whether or not your book has earned out, you should be receiving a royalty statement from the publisher with each pay period, stating exactly how many copies of your book sold, what your earnings are, and either (A) the amount of money you are being paid or (B) the amount of money you're still in the red. And by the way, I've used the terms "debt" and "in the red," but an advance is really not a loan, in that you're not generally required to pay back an unearned advance. Does that make sense for the basic economics of getting paid? Feel free to ask me follow-up questions. 

 

Failing Forward - a guest blog by Alton Gansky

A 2010 issue of Wired magazine contains “The Master Planner,” an article/interview with Fred Brooks, an early computer programmer and former department head for IBM. Thirty-five years ago he wrote a small book, The Mythical Man-Month in which he argued against the idea that two programmers can achieve twice as much work as one in a month. This became known as “Brooks Law.” He has written another new book The Design of Design, a collection of essays dealing with leadership, hardware systems, and more.

Two comments from the interview caught my attention; comments that deal with life and creativity. Author/editor Kevin Kelly brought up a statement Brooks made about some of his early work. Brooks called the IBM 360 OS “the worst computer programming language ever devised by anybody, anywhere.” When Kelly asked him about the frank self-appraisal, Brooks said:

"You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you’re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.”

This bit of honesty is difficult for some to swallow. People in my profession are often insecure about their work and become defensive. Who can blame them? They work alone and try to create from nothing a piece of work that will entertain, educate, and please not only readers but a phalanx of editors, pub boards, professional reviewers, amateur reviewers, bookstore managers, and more. Sometimes writing for publication seems akin to baring one’s back for flogging. So, we become sensitive souls; tender in all the wrong places.

Writing, however, is a craft and an art, one which requires the writer to have the guts to commit to self-examination. You need to know this: I am the poster boy for insecurity. I always have been. I’ve felt that way in every career I’ve had--and I’ve had several of them. Yet I’ve learned that creative growth comes faster when I focus on what I could have done better rather than what I did right.

Writing is a continuous process of learning. I have trouble reading my books after they've been published. Not because they're bad, but because I keep seeing little "failures."

The second quote—an anecdote—that caught my eye is this:

"Edwin Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera once said that his method of design was to start with a vision of what you want and then, one by one, remove the technical obstacles until you have it."

I’ve heard similar statements, but this one hits the bull’s-eye. What do you want from your creativity, from your writing? Can you see it? Does it seem real to you? Good. What stands in your way? Start removing obstacles. Al’s Axion #45: See it, believe it, do it.

Consider Brook’s quotes together: Learn your from your mistakes; start removing obstacles. The key is to learn to fail forward.

Alton Gansky is a professional used-to-be who is now a full-time writer, the author/principle writer of over 40 books including novels and nonfiction work. He is also the director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference (www.brmcwc.com). When not writing he likes to torture hardwood into furniture or capture reality with his Canon digital camera. (Who is he kidding, he's always writing.) www.altongansky.com

Thursday with Amanda: Growing a Platform Is Like Dominos

NOTE: Amanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent.

So now you know what to shoot for in terms of numbers (if you missed it, last Thursday we talked about how big an author platform should be). But as many of you pointed out, those numbers seem impossible. The time and effort required to grow such a following had some of you envisioning yourself with an impressive platform sometime in the year 2030. While others flat out admitted that they didn’t have a single sales bone in their body. You’re artists, after all. And artists don’t always make the most sociable, friendly, outgoing, spin doctoring bunch.

So what’s the secret? How can these numbers be achieved?

Let me explain it like this...most authors, when embarking on a quest to tackle the platform demon, treat it like spaghetti. They throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. They start a Facebook group, a Twitter account, a blog, a website, a Goodreads account, a newsletter and on and on and on until they feel they have all of the possible platform-building areas covered.

And then they’re surprised when nothing happens. When their Facebook group hovers around 50 followers—most of which are personal or family friends. When their Twitter account has more spam followers than real followers and their website stats don’t climb above 30 visits a day. They’re surprised by this, because they’re doing everything they’re supposed to do and nothing is working. And more than anything, they’re exhausted. They’ve spread themselves so thin, they can barely keep track of what was said where. At this point, most give up. They tried their best, and it didn’t work.

But platform is nothing like spaghetti. It’s more like a game of dominos (as in the game in which you set them all up and they fall over). Select one thing. One thing out of that list of 10 or so possibilities. Pour all you have into that one thing. Your time, your creativity, your resources. Stick with it, and when it starts to go, you’ll find that if you already have some of the other platform-related areas set up (most of us do), they’ll start to grow with it. And if you don’t have those areas yet set up, then you’ll find that it’s that much easier to get them going.

More importantly, you’ll find that you won’t be selling your soul to SOCIAL MEDIA. Sure, it takes sacrifice and commitment. But focusing on one thing and doing it well will save you from burning out and giving up.

Ok, so I know your next question is going to be how? How do I grow my Facebook? My Twitter? My blog?

We’ll get there. Come back next Thursday and we’ll start to talk about the how. See you then!

P.s. I loved the discussion last week. Feel free to weigh in again!