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5 Factors that Influence the Decision to Publish & How to Address Them as a Writer: If you’re a writer you need to know this

5 Factors that Influence the Decision to Publish and how to address them as a writer.
  1. Suitability of Text
  2. Author Track Record
  3. Comparable Titles
  4. Author Platform
  5. Buzz
Profit Not Public Service: Publishers are surviving in a capitalist society, just like us.

Book Failure= Financial disaster, not just for publishing executives but everyone in the publishing industry chain.

Taking a chance on an author is a risk for the entire chain with very real consequences. So any reticence to taking on big risk should be seen as responsibility for employees, not just conservatism.

The 5 factors all contribute to creating a picture of risk vs. reward, profit vs. loss.

1. Suitability of text

this issue before in previous parts of this Demystifying publishing series, please refer to them for more details on suitability of text.

Text must be enjoyable and suits: the intended audience, publisher’s catalogue, direction of trends and, vision for future of publisher’s list.

2. Author Track Record

Author’s sales record is indicator of future success or future commercial failure.

“But what if I’ve never Published a Book?”

So, fortunately for you, this is actually a Schrodinger’s cat kind of situation and BETTER than having a bad sales record. There’s no record of failure yet, so there’s equal possibility of failure or success, the only way to know for sure is to see what happens next.

3. Comparable Titles

Comparable titles are used to build a case for the financial viability of your book (MSS) Mention them in any submission to either agent or editor.

So “You Matter” “All Because You Matter” and “I Believe I Can” are titles comparable to each other because they have similar themes.

Good comparable titles must be: recent, specific and, successful.

Bonus Points if it’s from the publisher or agent who you’re submitting to.

On Comparable titles

For the love of everything do not compare your story to HARRY POTTER or THE CAT IN THE HAT or, GOODNIGHT MOON, etc.

Don’t do this when querying an agent, or an editor, or an influencer reviewer, just don’t do it.

It tells everyone you don’t actually read children’s books because you don’t know the current market.

Also it kind of makes you sound like an ass.

4. AUthor Platform

Authority: Relevant credentials are key for Non-Fiction authors

Less important for fiction authors.

Relevancy is key here, if you have a PHD in Psychology, and you’re writing about Rocket Ship Engineering, that is not relevant. So, not really helpful.

Quantifiable visibility within target audience: aka do you have people who will buy your book?

“Influencers” & Author Platform

Unlike every other luxury consumer good industry (which is exactly what book publishing is,) publishers are slow to see Social Media Influence as genuine proof of money making platform.

This attitude is changing and some big publishers are now producing books by influencers.

This shift will partly be thanks to the NYT article from March of 2021 “How Crying on Tik Tok Sells Books”

Most publishers don’t know a lot about Social Media Influencing and change will continue to move slowly. But it’s happening.

5. Buzz

Are people actually in the industry talking about your work?

How can you get them talking about you? Twitter is actually a good place to start, a lot of publishing industry people are on Twitter. And if you follow me you know I’m abysmal at Twitter, I just don’t enjoy it, not enough pretty pictures, so this is a piece of advice I do not take for myself. I’d rather cry on Tik Tok.

Attending industry events, book launches, meeting people. Doing this in the pandemic might be harder but not impossible. Virtual events are hosted all the time and often you’ll find editors or other senior members of publishing houses showing up to them.

Having a well respected agent is also key for generating industry buzz, see my previous blog in this series on Literary Agents.

Profit & Loss Assessment

So when you put all of these things together, along with some other numbers for production, distribution, etc. They start to build a profit and loss statement, they will assess the commercial viability of your manuscript proposal, and from this statement they can decide whether or not to offer to acquire it and also, how much money they can offer you as an advance.

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Literary Agents: The Fairy Godparents of Publishing

Demystifying Publishing Part 4 with @readwithriver

Demystifying Publishing Part 4 with @readwithriver  
Literary Agents:The Fairy Godparents of Publishing
A very practical Cinderella story.
What does an agent do?  Why do you want one? How do you choose one?
Saves and Shares are appreciated!
Fairy Literary Agents 
A very practical Cinderella story.
Once upon a time there was a writer who could not get to the publisher’s ball to have her manuscript read. “Oh how I wish I could go to the ball.” Then one night after many years of wishing one of her queries* was answered! An agent appeared.  
*See part three on How to Query.
Fairy Literary Agents
Pumpkins and Glass Slippers
Her Fairy Literary Agent used her editing magic to dress up her manuscript and get the writer past the gates into the publisher’s ball to dance with the editor.  Most editors especially at big houses will only look at manuscripts brought to them by agents.  These editor-agent relationships are cultivated over many years.  Even for publishers that accept open submissions (see part 3) manuscripts submitted by agents are seen faster and are given a response even if it is a reject.  Instead of six months, you can expect half of that time frame or less for a response.
Fairy Literary Agents At the Ball
Once the writer’s work was past the gates, it was up to the writer to make the editor fall in love with her work.  A Fairy Literary Agent can help you streamline your work, they can get you an audience with the best editors but, they can’t force an editor to love it or to like you.  That’s your job.  Editors call a meeting with the author before an offer is made to see if they will be easy to work with.  You CAN talk yourself out of a book deal. 
Fairy Literary Agents Finding you the right prince!
Not every publisher is one you want to work with.  Agents look for skeletons in editors’ & publishers’ closets and steer their clients away from sketchy partnerships.  They have a history of working with various editors and teams and they will know who will be the best fit for you and your work.  Traditional publishing is a team sport.
Fairy Literary Agents Contracts
Standard contracts are NEVER in the author’s best interests. Your agent negotiates for you until it is. Beforehand: financial matters like royalty percentage &, production matters like cover approval. During: intervening in decisions that negatively affect the integrity of your work.  After: making sure your work continues to be in print and if it is not, fighting to revert rights back to you to resell.  This is just a fraction of what they negotiate.
Fairy Literary Agents, agents succeed if you succeed. 
Agents usually make 15% of the author’s cut, from advance and royalties.  They only get paid if you do.
This is NOT lucrative. Agents sometimes have second jobs, or take on more clients than they can reasonably handle to make a living wage.  This is a career people choose because they love doing it, not because they’re trying to make a mint.  A good question to ask an agent before working with them is how many clients they have and how much time they will have to work with you personally.  No one is more personally invested in your success than your agent, their livelihood depends on it.
Fairy Literary Agents: Finding the right agent for you
Having an agent is a relationship that ideally will last many years.  It’s important you get along well.  Often agents will take a client on for only one manuscript as a trial period.  It is vital you have an agent who you trust & who shares the same editorial vision you do. Head to readwithriver.ca for resources in finding an agent & querying.

Resources to help you find Literary Agents:

https://www.writersunion.ca/literary-agents

http://www.ardorlitmag.com/literary-agents.html

https://literaryagencies.com/literary-agents-childrens-books/

https://www.pw.org/literary_agents

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Demystifying Publishing Part 2 with @readwithriver: Which is better for Authors Traditional or Self Publishing? A Cakefographic

So you’ve invented a great cake recipe (story) and you want to share it with the world and ideally make a little coin too. You have two major options, sell your recipe to a Bakery (a traditional publishing house) or sell it yourself, homemade (self-publishing.) Your friends and family all love your recipes (writing) and are encouraging you to make the leap and get yourself out there. Which option is best for you? Well, that really depends to be totally honest on what it is you want to get out of it.

Production! The baking and decorating of the actual cake!

BAKERY (Traditional Publishing)Homemade (Self-Publishing)
Whole team of editors that specialize in each step of the editing process to refine your manuscript! They may have ideas you don’t like and compromises are made.
There are several types of editors that work in a house, structural, line, copy, proof and, production editors.
You are your own editor, or you hire a freelance editor,
ideally multiple editors to ensure the best quality.
There are a number of companies that offer freelance editing services.
Contracts and works with professional illustratorYou contract and work with illustrator at your own expense. You may want to hire an illustrator to do a small commission first of one page, before committing to the whole book, to ensure quality, but also that they can deliver on time.
Team for lay out, cover design and, printing. Cover design is separate from the illustrator.If you are printing a whole run yourself (as opposed to print on demand services like Amazon where they take a cut of the profit) then the printer often offers lay out design services for a fee (expect that fee to be over $1,000) If you wish to order a sample of your book before committing to a print run, a sample single copy will probably cost about $300. And then people order print runs in numbers of about 500, 1,000, or 2,000 copies at a time. Which you’ll have to store somewhere.
Will meet house standards and conform to house brand on every level. A traditionally published book is a team effort and a team product. The standards of your book will be whatever you set them at, but every single choice, from the binding to the paper type to the set of the font is going to be your choice.

Marketing and Distribution: Awareness of product, and where/how it is sold.

Bakery (Traditional Publishing House)Homemade (self-Publishing)
After printing and binding your book, publishers have warehouses where they store your books before shipping them off to retailers.Either you find a place to store your books (I hope you have a big cellar) or you do Print on Demand services where the profit margin is much lower, and you have less control over the quality of the final product.
If you only sell E-copies of your book then it’s much easier you can avoid a lot of this. But if it’s a picture book, you’re going to have a limited audience, people generally do not buy E-Books for children.
Your new book will be sold and marketed in all of the major stores that sell books, Costco, pharmacies, airports, grocery stores, major bookstore chains, independent bookstores, library wholesalers, and online retailers like Amazon.
Publishers also arrange for marketing within these stores for your book.
You will need to find accounts (stores) to take your book stock and sell your books. Call up libraries, library wholesalers, go to indie bookstores and talk to the owner, book fairs, craft fairs.
The internet is your friend here, there are many options for selling your book online.
Marketing includes online paid advertisement as well as in store co-op placement for visibility. Some things you might not realize are paid marketing in fact are, those tables in the bookstore with the “picks” are not genuine recommendations usually, they’re in-store co-op placement. They have been pre-arranged with the publisher for discounts.
Online marketing can look like featured books on the homepage of Amazon or Indigo.
Marketing is paid advertisement and paid placement. Awareness is key, if people aren’t aware of your book no one is going to buy it.

Money Money Money: Making a book costs a lot of money

Bakery (Traditionally Published)Home Made (Self-Published)
Pays author an advance on sales. After that advance is earned out the author receives royalties that can vary between 7-15%. If the author has an agent then that agent usually takes 15% commission on their royalties and advance. Author retains 100% profit or up to 75% when using services like Amazon.
E-royalties for digital sales are a standard 25% this is a very good deal for publishers over time because they only pay for the base costs of creating the book, editing, lay out etc. Eventually those costs are covered and they don’t have to worry about PBB costs (paper, binding, printing,) shipping costs, the e-copies just continue to rake in revenue. A lot of authors do not like this!Successful Self-Published authors of adult novels (and there are many authors who are very successful selling e-books on Amazon) will try to retain their electronic rights when publishers try to buy their books. So that means they will sell the publisher only the print rights or co-edition rights (translations) but keep their full rights to their e-copies which continue to exist on Amazon.
Publisher takes on all the financial risks. If the book fails, the publisher suffers, the author walks away with their advance (but their sales history in tatters, recovering from a flop of a book is even harder than getting a first book published.)Author takes on the complete financial risk for everything, and you’re looking at total investment of $10-15,000 to do book that is comparable to a trade published book.
Kick Starter and other crowd funding options are also possible, anyway you slice this cake, you’re going to be doing a lot of jobs you’ve never considered.

Publicity: Publicity is Buzz created around a book that is FREE (not a paid ad)

Bakery (Traditionally Published)Homemade (Self-Published)
Have connections to traditional media, Industry magazines, Newspapers, TV shows. Cold call traditional media, local newspapers, etc.
Have a network of reviewers and influencers.You need to develop a relationship with reviewers and influencers (a professional one.) Publicists at traditional houses have databases of influencers who they have cultivated a working relationship with overtime. When looking for influencers you may want to send your book to, check their highlights for their policies around accepting self-published submissions, it’s usually laid out clearly for you, and if you don’t follow them, you won’t get a response.
Make sure you have set aside a budget for physical review copies, influencers will not feature self published e-books.
set up tours for authors.You can arrange your own tours! Libraries, independent bookstores, local fairs or events, schools. There’s even a website where authors who are available for school visits can put their information in.
They have a professional reputation which gives them authority in finding publicity opportunities. Build an engaged social media following. No short cuts. It’s not about the number up top but the number who care enough to actually buy your book and leave reviews on places like Amazon and Good reads. Fake followers will not buy real books.
launch party set uplaunch party!

Quality Control: Standards are key

Bakery (Traditional Publishing House)Homemade (Self-Publishing)
Standards vary from house to house, but there is a house style, there are expectations.
Remember that not all publishers are the same, some are tiny operations and some are gigantic worldwide corporations, so expectations will vary.
Bigger doesn’t always mean better, in fact some of the smaller publishers are known for taking the time out to produce much higher quality work, for example Enchanted Lion, Flying Eye, are both smaller publishers who produce top notch work.
You’re setting the standards of quality here. However at the end of the day quality may come down to how much you’re willing to spend, and a little bit of luck in choosing the right thing if this is totally new to you.
the first time you bake a cake, it’s not always a great cake. There’s a learning curve here.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, just to be kind to yourself if it’s not what you imagined.
Mistakes can still be made.
I’ve seen plenty of boring crappy books made by traditional publishers.
Mistakes can be made, however self-published authors can be fastidious and take proofing very seriously. If anything they have an emotional connection to the work that will drive them to check five hundred times, that you may not always have with a traditional team.
Entire teams of people checking it at every step of the way to ensure that it meets the standards of quality of the publisher. You’re responsible for checking every step of the way, from little things like margins, to space between the lines. It helps to find multiple opinions and when possible print samples BEFORE committing to anything.

Homemade Options: If you’re going to do it yourself, do you have to do it all by yourself?

Type of Self-PublishingDescription
Fly SoloFrom editing, to lay out, to printing, to storing, shipping, marketing, publicity, you are responsible for all of it. It’s entirely yours.
AmazonYou do all of the editing, lay out, illustrations etc. When you are done you upload a PDF to Amazon and sell through their service. You will receive between 35% to 70% royalties depending on the price of your book and which of their programs you use.
For adult E-Books this can be very successful.
Their print books are absolutely awful quality however so it’s much harder to do this with print picture books and have them look half decent. I have seen a couple that were so good in content that they overcame the terrible quality but they’re incredibly rare.
This is the best option if you don’t want to spend any money at all, if you just want to put a story out there, and have it out there, you can do this for free, and if any of them sell, you will get a cut.
Pay to Play (sometimes called “Vanity Press.”)Companies that print your book for a price (you pay them.)
They vary in price, quality and services provided.
Some offer full services that a traditional publisher provides, they hook you up with an illustrator (often not a very good one) and they do lay out, get it printed, some of these services even take on the marketing for you and approach influencers on behalf of their clients for reviews.
CAUTION: There is a huge variety of reliability with these companies, they can be incredibly predatory, some will take your money, then print your book on Amazon. I’ve heard of people who got their books missing pages. DO NOT jump into the kitchen with the first company advertised to you on Google. You might be swindled.
Check for reviews, check for product quality (order other books they’ve produced), find authors who’ve worked with them and reach out to ask about their experiences. It’s a lot of money to flush down the toilet.

Other Considerations: Errant thoughts

On Hiring Illustrators

If you’re going to do a picture book, the illustrations are almost more important than the actual words. People can forgive meh writing in a picture book, but they absolutely cannot forgive bad pictures. So be wary of hiring random people on Craig’s list that promise to illustrate your book for a thousand dollars. There are a few artists out there who churn out self-pub books like a factory, they take the money, give what’s basically clip art, then move on to the next one. The result is not professional quality by any stretch of the imagination.

A really excellent illustrator might charge about $10K, if it’s a full 32 page picture book, and then after you’ve sold that amount they will likely require that you split royalties with them going forward. Unless you negotiate to pay them outright.

You might be able to find promising illustrators who will work for less, consider college art students who are new to the game.

Making the leap from Self-Pub to Traditional

There are many authors who are unable to find traditional publishers to take their Mansucripts, so they self-publish it. If it does really well, then publishers buy the rights and re-release it. A few examples of picture books and authors that started out self published and were then picked up are:

“Race Cars” by Jenny Devenny which was picked up by Quarto and further edited by Charnaie Gordon.

Dr. Cara Florance whose self-published Biology picture book was discovered by Chris Ferrie of the Baby University book series, after a social media post. She now writes for the “Baby University” book series, and has her own book series called “Baby Medical School.”

“Hey, Boy” by Benjamin Strouse and Jennifer Phelan was also self-published, then picked up by Simon & Schuster.

So if you want to be traditionally published, it’s not impossible to start your path with self-publishing and then make that leap.

Where do you make more money?

So if you’re only selling e-books, then conceivably you could make a lot more money. However, it’s more complex than just the percentage of the money you make per book. It’s about how many books you’ll be able to sell overall, that requires marketing, publicity, etc. A traditional publisher has the means and connections to distribute widely for you, world wide even.

Additionally if you’re selling print copies, traditional publishers have the ability and the set up to keep production costs down, print larger print runs, and have the distribution network to sell at every store. You may only make 7% royalties on one book, but if you’re printing your own books by yourself in a run of only say a thousand books, then you’re only going to make a your larger percentage of profit on a very small number of books. If your Publisher can sell fifty thousand copies, and you can only sell maybe five thousand, where is the better deal for you?

At the end of the day, do what feels right for you. It just matters how the cake turns out.

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Dear Artists, Creators &, Writers, Please Please Please Stop Saying “I Don’t Do it For the Money”

High up on my list of things that upset me is the phrase often used by creatives “I don’t do this for the money.” 

I’m not sure exactly when art went from being seen as the work of a highly skilled paid craftsperson, to being a quasi spiritual pilgrimage to be endured only by destitute geniuses with wicked cool hair.  But somewhere along the line, that happened, and the creative community has never recovered.

It’s really the most insidious idea that we’ve all embraced without question. One that we’ve been fed by a patriarchal capitalist society that actively feeds off of the unpaid and underpaid labour of it’s creatives. That to truly be an artist of substance, we should do it entirely for free. And on an even deeper level, that artistic work, just isn’t worth money.

There are so many consequences of this. For example, why are most children’s books made by white women? A huge part is that writers and illustrators of most children’s books make almost no money from it, so generally the only people who can afford to devote their lives to it, are white ladies who are already financially secure. To be able to say “I don’t do it for the money” is a privilege and by perpetuating this as acceptable, we are complicit in shutting people who cannot work for free out of the arts.

So if you’re someone who likes to proudly say “I don’t do this for the money” especially when receiving a negative review, I would kindly ask you to please cease and desist for the well being of the entire creative community.  Encouraging each other to value our time, and our work, is necessary if we ever want the rest of society to value us as well.  By pushing for a shift in values, we work towards change and better conditions for artists in the future.

 And if you’re someone who unfollows and abandons creators who monetize their work; rather than getting angry about them “selling out,” maybe closely examine why you feel this anger? And consider supporting their efforts to make a living.
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