There Are No Rules - Digitization & New Technology

Marketing in a Digital Age

Jane — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:24:22 GMT

More than a year ago, I left a comment on the Booksquare blog by Kassia Krozser, on a post titled "Why Publishers Should Blog." Kassia argued that publishers needed to be more vocal about supporting the titles they publish. I responded:

Definitely agree, but I have to wonder if the lack of enthusiastic comments direct from publishers is primarily due to lack of time (and energy, sadly). If an editor (or whomever) is juggling dozens of projects in a given year, accomplishing just the basics can be enormously demanding. (Lean staffs!) The “friendly” online marketing or buzz building has often been left to the authors, rightly or wrongly.

Kassia didn't agree with me then, and now I don't agree with me either.

However: I'm not convinced it's the publishers who need to market and promote as much as the individual people who work at the publisher. That's because Publishers speaking as Publishers may not be very interesting to listen to, and it's hard to develop a relationship or carry on a conversation with the corporate entity "Publisher" unless we're talking about an imprint known for a specific type of work (like Tor), or a publisher focused on a genre (like Harlequin). What is the "voice" or approach of a publisher if they have dozens and dozens of potential target audiences?

Maybe Publishers (as corporations) don't need to "blog," but an imprint and its community of editors must be involved in efforts to spread word to a community of readers, through whatever channels or tools make sense for a particular topic, since editors are unique in their position of knowing the content so intimately (and hopefully the audience too!)—not to mention very influential in how the book performs.

All this to say two things:

First, I'm participating in a free webinar hosted by Digital Book World, Marketing in the Digital Age: Batteries Not Included.

This webinar may not be specifically geared to aspiring writers, but the story I told above is an important one when you're considering who to publish with and what to expect.

Authority and influence no longer lie with traditional media outlets and traditional marketing techniques. The old buttons we all used to press don't work any more. And frankly, many of the new buttons don't work either, depending on how well you use them.

So this webinar promises to be a fascinating discussion about what it means to market books (or content or media) in a digital age. I'll be joined by Guy Gonzalez (Digital Book World), Diana Villibert (Marie Claire), Patrick Boegel (Media Logic), and Dan Blank (Reed Business).

It's an incredible honor to be included, and it's amazing to think how far my company F+W has come in its approach to publishing.

Which leads me to my second point: I recall in 2007 longingly reviewing the first Tools of Change Conference schedule, and wanting to be savvier and more forward-looking in my publishing approach. I recall hearing Mike Shatzkin speak that same year at BEA, and feeling the urgency of his message.

I don't think I would've believed it if God himself had told me: that my company would be hosting Digital Book World in January 2010 (with Shatzkin as program chair), and covering consumer publishing issues in a way that helps me keep Writer's Digest growing and profitable when so many things in the print-based business are changing (often diminishing).

Two sessions I am most looking forward to:

Back-Loaded Book Deals: No (and Low) Advance Contracts, Profit-Sharing and Other Innovative Business Models (with Robert Miller of HarperStudio, Rogert Cooper of Perseus Vanguard, and agent Susan Ginsburg of Writer's House)

New Business Models: Changing the Commercial Rules of Publishing (with Richard Nash, Eoin Purcell, Chris Morrow, and Diane Naughton)

In short, I don't have to be sad about not being able to attend TOC any more.

The Age-Old Battle Between Author & Publisher

Jane — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:23:18 GMT

To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.

—Charles Caleb Colton

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

—A. A. Milne

Publishing is no longer simply a matter of picking worthy manuscripts and putting them on offer. It is now as important to market books properly, to work with the bookstore chains to get terms, co-op advertising, and the like. The difficulty is that publishers who can market are most often not the publishers with worthy lists.

—Olivia Goldsmith

One of the signs of Napoleon's greatness is the fact that he once had a publisher shot.

—Siegfried Unseld

Publishers are all cohorts of the devil; there must be a special hell for them somewhere.

—Goethe

As difficult as it is for a writer to find a publisher - admittedly a daunting task - it is twice as difficult for a publisher to sort through the chaff, select the wheat, and profitably publish a worthy list.

—Olivia Goldsmith

One should fight like the devil the temptation to think well of editors. They are all, without exception - at least some of the time, incompetent or crazy.

—John Gardner

If you've been following industry chatter, you may have seen some conversations lately about whether authors need publishers (or vice versa). Plus there's now a Twitter tag for the discussion, #publishersmatter

To catch up, you can read these 3 pieces:

Do Authors Still Need Publishers?
by Mark Coker of Smashwords (e-publishing service)

What Do Authors Need?
by Kate Eltham at Queensland Writers Centre (Australia)

Do Publishers Still Need Authors?
by Guy Gonzalez, my colleague and audience development director for Digital Book World (My views align closely with Guy's.)

Aspiring writers and authors can be extremely mistrustful and suspicious of publishers— creating a group only too eager to join the revolution where writers/authors have power and publishers become obsolete.

Those who can never get inside the pearly publishing gates feel marginalized and like they never got the attention they deserve, while those who do break in feel exactly the same way. As Daniel Menaker has said:

Many of the most important decisions made in publishing are made outside the author's and agent's specific knowledge. … [Publishing] silently colludes in trying to ignore the obvious … that the first printing of your book will be three thousand copies, that it will not have full-color galleys, that no advertising or tour is planned, and that it has been assigned to a publicist who up until yesterday worked in the Xerox department. Why the collusion? Because this is a business fueled largely by writers' need for attention, and no one wants to crush any writer's dreams before a book is even published. Especially since every now and then they actually come true.

Today, many authors are left out to sea as soon as the book hits store shelves, a critical moment in the life of many books. By the time the author realizes what's happening, the window of opportunity has vanished—that moment when you can ensure stores/retailers see the book as a quality and profitable item, leading to a good model (number of copies per store).

Other authors get turned out by their publishers when their books don't sell, even if they could've been a quality midlist author with more time and investment. (Most publishers don't have the luxury of waiting.)

Obviously neither of these phenomenon help the author OR the publisher.

I wonder if successful publishers of the future will attract quality authors mostly by …

the deep reach of their distribution (especially if to a particular audience)
their editorial/curation prowess and stable of quality authors
the support and service they provide authors

Publishers have done a poor job, at best, in the support and service role.

How many publishers actively support their authors when it comes to teaching them online marketing and promotion practices? How many will analyze their authors' efforts at platform and branding? How many will give them the education, tools, or resources they need to be true partners with the publisher? How many will—at the very least—provide clarity on what the publisher will and will not do for the author, or explicitly convey their own strengths and weaknesses, so the author goes in eyes wide open?

While publishers of the future need to distinguish themselves by the quality of their partnerships, the quality of their audience reach (community), and the quality of their curation, I bet there will be publishers who become known for support and service, and attract quality authors like bees to honey—and be more successful because of it.

What do you say?

Your Simple Checklist for Getting Known & Getting Readers

Jane — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:38:24 GMT

There's such a wonderful comment on yesterday's post that I wanted to bring attention to it (slightly modified to apply to all genres). Thank you, Banana the Poet (aka Michele Breton)! Follow her on Twitter or visit her site.

Simple Checklist for Getting Known, Getting Readers, Building Platform

Blog your work and gather readers (Michele blogged for three years)

Join Twitter (and/or Facebook) and make friends with like minded people

Contribute & comment regularly on blogs and sites (like Writer's Digest Poetic Asides prompt challenges)

Start publishing company (optional, but great route for poets)

Release poetry book (possible to accomplish for free and with little or no technical expertise, through services like Smashwords, Lulu, Scribd)

Format for Kindle and release

Get onto the Barnes & Noble Nook system

Ask hubby to turn my book into an iPhone application

What other steps would you add, or have you found to be critical?

Turn Your Book Into an iPhone App

Jane — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:39:38 GMT

This is a story about an energetic author who deserves an award for truly living by the adage, "There Are No Rules." In fact, I shall start an honorable group, "There Are No Rules Crown Club," for people who live up to this moniker, starting with Al Katkowsky.

Al e-mailed me over the summer and suggested that he might be a valuable speaker at our annual conference in NYC. I agreed, and he spoke about his success in transforming his book, Question of the Day (self-published), into an iPhone App that now ranks as one of the Top 25 book apps and has been downloaded more than 80,000 times.

I asked him to answer some questions that would give you an idea of how you can accomplish something like this too. You might also want to read this other article he penned for Teleread.

So at first you were initially skeptical if turning your book into an iPhone app was a good use of your time and energy. But ultimately you decided to go for it. What did that process look like, e.g., how long did it take, what resources did you need, and how much did it cost?

The process of building the first version of the App occurred over a six-week period. This was with Daniel, who was simultaneously working a 60-plus hour work week, and had previously committed to other outside work. It needn't take that long. The work came in between $500 and $1,000 total, but there is more work to be done [for another version].

For authors, I would say keep in mind that the improvements I am about to take on fall further and further away from the presentation of a book, and don't necessarily reflect the amount of work that any author needs to take on. However, your App must "do tricks." This is iPhone, not Kindle—you're competing with Tetris for attention. That's why I wisely got into the Books category [for iPhone apps], and left Entertainment!

What are some practical steps that an author can take to launch their book as a successful iPhone App?

We've been studying this for a long time, listening to experts in the field and watching what authors and publishers are bold enough to do, and what they are afraid to do. I recommend putting out two thirds of your content for free, perhaps more.

The publishing world is currently focused on how to move into the digital domain while minimizing the threat of piracy. They do need to be addressing this. So the idea of increasing the release of free content is, well, freaking them out. Yet, it is exactly what they need to be dealing with.

Free content is part of the glue of "tribes", as Seth Godin might say. Understanding the true ratio between free content and paid ensures a healthy, continuous relationship with customers.

Thinking about preparing for the future when it's already here is like preparing for a flood when you're already drowning. They're doing too little, and it may already be too late. They've begun to release one free book of an author, or of a series, to promote interest in the rest. What if you're a first-time author, with only one book?

Lite versions of apps fall into a great literary tradition: generating enough interest to facilitate purchasing the next installment. The classic example is "A Tale Of Two Cities", which was originally published as part of a literary journal, in installments. Pick it up and pay attention to the end of each chapter, the way things are summed up.

I want to recommend three operable models here for the first time, for fiction writers:

1. Release a lite (free) version chapter by chapter. Every four to six weeks, update your App with a new chapter. There will be a push notification through the App Store that your book has added a new chapter; iPhone users love updates of their favorite Apps. Whether your App was pay or not, updates are always free.

Some people don't update right away. But you can track the amount of updates on a daily basis to see how many people are actively keep up with your new additions.

After updating the app to Chapter Seven of your ten-chapter book, that's it. Game over. Now, at the same time, release your full pay app version for purchase. They can pay now.

2. Release a lite (free) version with somewhere between 60% to 80% of the content. Less than that may engage them, but that amount will really seal the deal. If they like what they've seen, they will pay for the rest. If you give away too much, they may pick up your book somewhere and check the last five pages for the ending.

3. Have you begun podcasting? I've spoken to best-selling authors whose hands are tied; they are not permitted by their publishers to put out iPhone versions of their books. One of these is a very well known podcaster.

You can create first-time integrated experiences for your readers. This author should have been the first to do this, but instead, it could be you. At the top of the page, a choice in media:

"Chapter 4: Would you like to read, or would you like to be read to?"

We've all had to discontinue reading before we've felt like it. In this format, you could offer your reader the option of plugging their iPhone into the car stereo and reading to them at the point where they had to stop reading on their own.

What's been most surprising about the experience?
That major publishing houses are nowhere near me [in the iPhone app rankings]. One James Patterson book came close for a while. I'm at number 23 today, he's at 53. We're both free. I'm also surprised by the fact that the other apps that are near me are compendiums, reading apps, etc ... no actual print books.

It surprises me that people are impressed that I got the Apple Store event dates. Again, is anyone even trying?

The acceleration of Books within the App Store is surprising and even a little shocking. When I got in in April, there were 3,000 book apps. Check this out: on September 7, the books category hit the 10,000 mark. On October 7, it hit 12,000, a full 20% growth in only one month. That's staggering, and you can't tell me that people aren't paying attention to the potential of books within the iPhone format.

When you spoke at our conference, you said that you weren't quite ready to be looking for an agent on the print edition, even though QotD has been downloaded more than 80,000 times, and currently in the Top 25 out of over 12,000 titles in the Book App category. What benchmark are you waiting for? OR, are you waiting to be approached?

I walked into the conference thinking that I had something going for myself, but that there were a lot of people in the business who either think nothing of it, aren't aware of it, or don't understand the value of it. These feelings were confirmed and magnified at the conference. Several respected industry people told me that I have a huge platform now. I did, in fact, meet up with an agent who was enthused about what I'm doing. She sees "huge" potential, and doesn't think that others in the biz see it that way. We'll stay in touch, and that's a good thing.

Industries won't change until they see money flowing into someone else's pockets. If industries can't create money flow, they will certainly follow it. They are forcing me to grow. And that is a good thing.

The next time I update, it will be like tapping over 80,000 people on the shoulder. They love their apps. They are going to listen. And here's the kicker: I asked about a hundred people to download my app. The rest found me. It's a marketer’s dream. How can you not see the value in that?

You've had some tremendous success without any mainstream or “traditional” assistance (or that's my impression?). What advice do you have for others who may be pursuing an indie path?

The main thing I had to do was to get right with myself, and my answers are based on that.

First of all, if you need to write and be read, and selling thousands of books is not a major concern, don't let anyone tell you you aren't serious.

For the rest of us:

People often do things like self-publishing without fully realizing why they did it. It serves to make them feel good about themselves, temporarily. It is exactly like when someone you work with or go to school with loses weight. They needed to do it, it was a lot of work, they feel a feeling of satisfaction and they get a lot of compliments. After a while, they don't get compliments and they still have to give up the Twinkies. Are you kidding? What kind of rip-off is that? A total rip-off! A few weeks later, the Nordic Track gets parked in the garage. They quit as soon as it stops feeling good.

I always say, "Know what's driving you." Why are you doing this, and is that driver enough to get you through rejections, confusion, boredom and that lost in the woods "what do I do next" feeling? You need to know, but there will be tough moments when even the drivers leave the room, and you'll really want the Twinkies. Starting at that moment, every little thing you do for your self is a huge victory. The down feeling will go away, something will turn in your favor, and then "perseverance" is not just a word anymore.

So, know your drivers, know that you will change course many times, and be ready to divorce your naysayer friends in a split second. Some people keep them around as motivation, but to me, they are poison. You can't afford the time it will take to figure out why they give with one hand, and slap with the other. You don't know why, and they don't know why. And they're not going to stop. They don't need to change, but your environment needs to change. You're doing something much riskier and more difficult than most of the people people you know. Distance, immediately!

Every day that you recognize that something is off course, and you don't initiate work on a solution, you're blowing it. You may as well quit and start to like working for somebody else, because you are not being true to yourself, and your babies are dying. You are killing them with inattention.

I'm fairly easy going, but I have a pretty big ego. As a creative person, I know that my ideas are my life blood. I did create Question Of The Day, but making it into a book was not my idea, and neither was the iPhone App. My indebtedness to others teaches me a lot.

There will always be a right time to jump from "indie", whether it means hiring staff and becoming a startup, or going with a publishing house. Your ideas will always be your own, but you can never achieve as much by yourself as you can with other people.

What are your next steps, let's say in the next year? Do you have any longer range plans or goals?

Question Of The Day will remain a free app. Not a "lite" version, but a full version that is free. We are now putting together a companion pay app, built from suggestions of QotD downloaders. This version will have twice as many videos, and I am also weighing the possibility of adding half of the questions from the next book, which is already written.

We are planning a social networking version, where people who are playing with the app can locate and communicate with others playing with the app, and play together. At their option, they will be able to see each other's location in the world on a map.

Ultimately, I'd like this to do well enough so that I can put it behind me and focus entirely on music. In one way or another, I'll always have something to do with Question Of The Day, but I have to get back to what I was doing before I got here. Not that I'm not working on it, but it really needs my full attention. I need to be doing it all the time, like I was.

--

My indebtedness to Al for sharing these thoughtful, thorough answers (and also thanks for his enduring patience). And to all iPhone users: Go download that app! (I did, and it's wonderful.)

So, for readers, does this raise more questions for you? What do you think the big surprise is? Let's hear it in the comments!

The First 5 (Simple) Steps for Growing Readership on Your Blog

Jane — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:01:50 GMT

One of my posts last month, The Benefits of Blogging, received a number of valuable comments. For anyone wondering about the value of blogging, this is a must-read for the variety of perspectives.

The next question that naturally arises—after you decide to blog—is how to gain readership. Before I mention specific tactics, 3 things to remember:

It takes time; this is a journey. Be patient. Results don't come overnight.
The more focused your blog is (the more it is driven by a specific purpose), the easier you will draw a readership. Sometimes it can take you 6-12 months to figure out what your blog is about. Read the Brazen Careerist for more on this important point.
You have to be consistent in when you post, even if you don't think you have enough readers for it to matter.

That said, here are a few easy ways you can begin growing your reach. These are meant to be simple, straightforward, and meaningfully accomplished by anyone in the first months of blogging.

1. Comment on other blogs—blogs that you actively read and/or truly enjoy. But don't just comment, "Great post! Go read my blog." Instead, make a comment of substance that adds a resource, tip, or encouragement. Or offer an opposing point of view. Make it a discussion, not a promotion of yourself.

2. Be the No. 1 commenter on your own blog. Show your readers that you care and will take the time to respond and interact with them.

3. In your own blog posts, reference and link to other blogs/sites. Comment on what other people are writing about, or summarize many viewpoints on an issue. These other bloggers will discover you and might comment or link to you.

4. If you're on Twitter, then Tweet your blog posts. (You can use TwitterFeed to do this automatically if you like.) If you're not on Twitter, consider that some sites/blogs see 30-50% (or more) of their traffic coming from Twitter.

5. If you're on Facebook, then use the NetworkedBlogs application from within Facebook so that your Wall automatically updates and links to your latest blog post. Your readers/fans can also use the NetworkedBlogs app to follow your blog.

For more resources on growing your blog readership, try these helpful posts by experts Chris Brogan & Guy Kawasaki:

23 Elements of Sharable Blog Posts (Chris Brogan)

The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog (Guy Kawasaki)

Bloggers: What have you found to be most important or influential in growing your readership? Did you experience a tipping point?

Photo credit: Humanoide

It's Not Business As Usual--Stop Acting Like It

Jane — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:31:45 GMT

In my role at Writer's Digest I balance two key objectives that's an odd, meta-publishing endeavor:

Help aspiring writers succeed in the publishing arena
Keep the Writer's Digest business—as a publishing and/or content business—viable

Because of my position within the publishing industry, I see up-close the effects of hard economic times, transformational technology, and increased pressure to produce more with less. Friends lose jobs, businesses fold, we try to follow the cliche "work smarter, not harder," and remind ourselves of the heartfelt reasons we're in the business in the first place.

Here are some recent thoughts from others, from a variety of perspectives:

Daniel Menaker (former Executive Editor-in-Chief of Random House)

I believe that this impending Gutenberg-level shift in reading culture, along with the economic disasters of the last two years, render the challenges of present-day hard-copy publishing all the more agonizing, immediate, and dramatic. At least in the abstract, and especially in this economic climate, most other professions pose some of the same problems for those who pursue them, no doubt. But the tectonically opposing demands on publishing -- that it simultaneously make money and serve the tradition of literature -- and its highly unpredictable outcomes and its prominence in the attention of the media have made it a kind of poster adult for capitalism and the arts in crisis. [click here for full article]

Guy Gonzalez (F+W community leader behind Digital Book World)

For all the talk of publishing’s supposedly imminent demise, there are far too many passionate people working in and around the industry, at every level, to let that happen. And whether they realize it or not, it doesn’t matter if they’re working for one of the major publishers or an independent press, in senior management or as an editor, author or bookseller — there’s a wide and fertile common ground we all share and it’s best represented by the community we all serve: the readers.

Ultimately, it’s readers’ changing habits that are driving the fundamental changes in the publishing industry – everything from the types of books they’re reading to the formats they prefer reading them in – and as a result, it’s the current business model of most publishers that’s under stress, not the community service of publishing itself.
[click here for full post]

From Mark Barrett at DitchWalk.com

Everyone in the new content pipeline must demonstrate added value in order to be embraced by both authors and readers. As an author, if you are not helping me monetize my content in some way, I have no valid business reason for partnering with you or hiring you. As a reader, if you are not providing me a service I need at a competitive price I will simply go elsewhere.

… As a writer, questions of cost and profit and revenue are of interest to me because I now have a direct pipeline to readers. I know I can reduce my costs to something approaching zero, so the question of most concern to me is how to generate revenue. I know I need help to monetize my content. I need sites that will host it and promote it, readers that will recommend it, and publishers who will do the same if I want to reach the widest possible audience.

I want to make deals with business partners in order to accomplish these goals. I want to have the money to hire professionals like editors and designers to help me produce the best work I can. And I want publishers to help me reach the widest market if that makes sense to both of us. [click here for full post]

***

I frequently encounter these two groups:

The writers/authors who read all of this, who do comprehend what's going on, but seem unwilling or unable to adjust their expectations of a publisher or their own responsibility for success
The agents, editors, and other publishing insiders who also comprehend what's going on, yet expect or demand business as usual when it comes to book deals, contracts, and other partnerships

There are also the people who say, quite rightly, that writing and publishing a "real" book is still the big dream, and people will keep chasing that dream no matter how much we all argue that the book is dead, that times have changed, that no one reads any more, etc.

Yes, the dream will always remain. As far as I can tell, it has been a dream for more than a century (The Writer, a competitor to Writer's Digest, has been in business for more than 120 years).

But achieving that dream is going to take many more shapes, and look a lot different, than it did even 5 or 10 years ago.

Most of all, I want YOU to see, really see, what's possible (now & in the future—see The Art of Possibility), identify what you can achieve, and understand tactics to get things done.

I'm trying to do these things, too—along with care for the morale of the people I work with at Writer's Digest and F+W.

I am reminded of Kenny Moore's words:

Morale continues to remain dismal in most companies and employee surveys reveal three disturbing trends: nobody trusts, workers don’t believe senior management and employees are too stressed out to care. Problems with trust, belief and caring. When I lived behind the cloistered walls, we referred to these dynamics as a crisis of Faith, Hope and Charity. As the Recession continues to take its toll, the business world is facing a spiritual problem as much as a fiscal one. Napoleon once said that leaders are dealers in hope. That sounds like a sacred quality to me.

Photo credit: benefit of hindsight

15 Worthy Blogs I Just Discovered

Jane — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:10:37 GMT

I recently received the "One Lovely Blog Award" from Jillian Livingston (go check out isdisnormal—and you must if you are a mom). My thanks to her for introducing me to this concept.

As a result of being honored, I've been asked to note 15 blogs I recently discovered that I find worthy of the award.

(Photo above: A sign at a Buddhist temple advises that those with good eyes are inclined to fall into deep wells—which is how I feel when I discover a great new blog!)

So: here are blogs I've added lately to my Google Reader. (You can see my shared items from Google Reader here, and I accept sharing requests too if you use Google Reader.)

(1) Digital Book World
This is the newest blog launch from F+W, but it's backed by the inimitable Guy Gonzalez. A good read for savvy writers who want a larger understanding of publishing industry challenges. (Note: Digital Book World is offering a free webinar on "The Truth About eBooks" on October 21.)

(2) When Fridays Were Fridays
Written by someone who started working for a large company right out of college and stayed 30 years. I feel a cosmic connection to this person, because in 17 years, I wonder if my "About Me" will look exactly the same. I particularly like her post Have You Ever Faked It?

(3) What Consumes Me by Bud Caddell
You'll love it at first sight.

(4) Kenny Moore
Kenny is the co-author of The CEO and the Monk. I love how compassionate and human his advice is, while still being practical and appropriate for a corporate setting.

(5) Start Up Blog
I feel like I'm getting a better business training here than I would at a university.

(6) Self-Publishing Review
A site that benefits from a multitude of contributors. Professional and quality information, with a bit of magazine style to it (lead stories, resources, features).

(7) Fiction Matters
And it's not here just because they complimented me lately (or because of a bourbon affinity discovered on Twitter … well, maybe a little). Check out their guidebook, then peruse tips.

(8) My Name Is Not Bob
By the charming Robert Brewer, editor of WritersMarket.com. He is also blogger at Poetic Asides, but this is his personal blog, just launched on August 14. He's been a little quiet lately, but I know he'll be active again.

(9) The Sound and Furry
And this one is by the customer service rep behind WritersMarket.com, who is herself an aspiring children's writer. Great tips here for writers, plus cats (a great accent for every blog).

(10) Information Is Beautiful
Always amazing and share-worthy posts.

(11) Clay Shirky
Very infrequent posts, but outstanding quality when it comes to contemplating the future of media.

(12) The Book Oven
Something for everyone—especially writers—to keep an eye on.

(13) Publishing Trends
Their best content will cost you, but they still post really wonderful insider information for free.

(14) Bad Pitch Blog
While not directly tied to writing/publishing, read this long enough and you'll become a better salesperson and promoter of your ideas. A totally new find and I love it.

OK, I purposely stopped at 14. You tell me what No. 15 should be—based on the best last blog that's been added to your RSS reader or bookmark list. (Wondering about RSS readers? Read my tip on how to save time with an RSS reader.)

The Secrets to Publishing Success (Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide)

Jane — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:35:25 GMT

Above: Jane looks at you expectantly with the tough-love stare. Don't disappoint her.

--

This past year, I've posted a ton of information on how you can

(1) ensure your work is the best it can possibly be
(2) build an audience and create demand for your work
(3) take advantage of technology to push your career forward

At the Editor Intensive last weekend, I found myself referencing numerous blog posts I'd made, and thought it was time to compile what I'd consider the "guide" for 2009 on how to succeed in the new publishing landscape (because the industry ain't what it used to be).

This is a perfect reference guide for anyone who's attended the Intensive and wants a refresher—or an excellent accelerated course for anyone who hasn't.

I would love your feedback on what topics you'd like covered in more detail in the coming months!

P.S. Reviewing these, I clearly like the number 5.

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THE SECRETS TO PUBLISHING SUCCESS: Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide

Editing and Revising

The First Five Minutes: How Editors Evaluate Your Manuscript

Avoiding Red-Flag Mistakes on Your First Page

Secrets of Great Storytelling (Particularly for Memoirists)

5 Common Flaws in Memoir Projects

Not All Books Need to Be Well-Written to Sell

Your Protagonist Must Have a Goal (by guest Jim Adam)

Hiring a Professional Editor vs. Getting Amateur Critiques

The Golden Rule About Nonfiction Books

Querying / Submitting

Persistence Doesn't Matter If You Make This Common Mistake

5 Questions to Ask Yourself After Hearing: We Can't Sell Enough to Justify Publishing It

5 Elements of Query Letters

The Art of Live Pitching: 3 Rules

Audience Development / Platform Building

The Hardest Part About Developing Platform

The Four Stages of Marketing & Promotion

5 Questions for Those Who Don't Have Time to Market/Promote

Hard-Core Tactics for Authors Developing Audience

Fiction Writers Need Platforms, Too

Online Audience Building

Hey, Writers: What's Your Online Strategy? What Are You Waiting For?

Make Waves Online to Create a Path to Print Publication

Should Your Book Really Be a Book? How About a Website First?

What Does It Take for a Blog to Become a Book?

Should You Blog? And If So, What Are Best Practices?

How Writers Can Start Blogging in a Meaningful Way

The Benefits of Blogging (Especially for Unpublished Writers)

The Essential Components of an (Unpublished) Author's Website

How Twitter Is Helpful for Aspiring Writers

Figuring Out Your Facebook Strategy: 3 Essential Tips

Indie Publishing

Everything You Need to Know About Self-Publishing (Sort of)

My Big Rant on Self-Publishing

Big Picture

5 Ways Writers & Book Publishers Need to Embrace Change NOW

Are You Ready to Be a Bestselling Author? Then Listen to Alec Baldwin

That Unquantifiable Factor That Helps You Get Published and Succeed

Read My Writing and Tell Me What to Do

How Twitter Is Helpful for Aspiring Writers

Jane — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:05:17 GMT

At this weekend's Editors' Intensive, Alice Pope & I were trying to explain how Twitter works and how it can be helpful for writers.

There were many skeptics in the audience. So I posed the question to my friends/followers on Twitter: How has Twitter helped you as a writer?

I love the responses I received, so I'm sharing with all. Thank you for your generous tips—and if you have more to say beyond 140 characters, you have the comments to elaborate!

Twitter's let me meet writers, editors, & agents I might not have, & helped me understand all aspects of the business better.
@littlefluffycat

Contacts, sources and community - it's a digital moveable feast
@FictionMatters

I've met editors, agents, big authors, up & coming authors, spread the word about my blog, made wonderful friends!
@RachelJameson

The connection/interaction to other writers, editors, even agents has been hugely enlightening.
@jdistraction

Twitter helped me meet ppl I wouldn't have had access to otherwise. Casual format makes asking questions less intimidating.
@RocchiJulia

Twitter has helped me connect with other writers like me. We encourage each other--writing is no longer a lonely occupation.
@TboneJenkins

Twitter has helped me learn more about specific agents and enabled me to make a better decision on if they're right for me.
@HeatherMcCorkle

Twitter also keeps me updated on the writing industry & has helped me meet great writers I wouldn't have otherwise met.
@HeatherMcCorkle

Met many writers and authors I never would have met on Twitter.
@lafreya1

How has Twitter helped? Connected to writers, pubs, opportunities, promotion - gotten more readers on blog, my novel, etc
@tericoyne

Twitter helped me find an excellent guide in southern Austria on a research trip for my next historical novel.
@KarenEssex

Twitter helps me observe the minds of literary agents! I've discovered those not living in New York are almost normal, almost!
@kenkanten

Inspiration: microfiction and poetry at my fingertips, showing how much can be conveyed in 25 words.
@amgamble

Networking in a telecommuting industry. Editing for concise: make cuts and preserve meaning. Best clipping service ever.
@amgamble

Writing community with support and very imp. info re: today's publishing world.
@jessrosenbooks

Twitter gives affirmation of what I know and information about what I don't. Networking allows pub. & unpub. to come together.
@jessrosenbooks

I agree with everything @jessrosenbooks says about writers & twitter. Support, info & encouragement is incredible, even for a rookie :)
@CafeNirvana

I am learning a lot from twitter friends and people who share info through twitter. And I'm getting to know fantastic people.
@mariblaser

Twitter has taught me about platforms, promotion, community, and audience.
@alittlesandy

I've had hot scoops from tweeters in other countries, I've met ace journos i never would have otherwise ... I've been filming a Lisbon city guide using nothing more than my phone, mostly twitter, no printed research, guides etc.
@UKtraveleditor

Twitter helps me connect with fellow writers in a fun and collegiate way
@Debs1

Networking, research, discovering new things, calling attn to my blog has been ESSENTIAL to my work flow.
@jenzug

Learned of an online auction, bid for crit from my dream editor, won, got crit & a request for full!
@AuntBirdseed

Still learning Twitter, but like the opportunity to follow info on specific subjects from lots of sources in one place.
@meredithrmorgan

From @DavidRozansky:

I have acquired more than a dozen potential new authors for our house via Twitter pitches.

Linking to articles via Twitter has increased blog traffic by 900%.

Twitter keeps tabs on rival publishing houses & client bookstores.

By following industry experts, knowledge of books industry grows exponentially.

Links to books on Twitter results in increased book sales.

I've built platform of 2,600 Twitter followers in only 5 months, no gimmicks.

I run #scifichat, a weekly scifi books group discussion, Fri. 2-4 pm.

Twitter gives me ideas for books and marketing before competition.

Through Twitter, I am first to learn of trends and news in the books industry.

The best thing-I make friends with fab people in the industry, like yourself!

Leave your tips and thoughts in the comments!

Don't forget:

Follow Writer's Digest and our editors on Twitter: @writersdigest @JaneFriedman @brianklems @robertleebrewer @alicepope @kmnickell @mfaconfidential
Become a fan at our Facebook page

The Distribution Barrier for Self-Publishers: Less of an Issue?

Jane — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:04:41 GMT

When I started at Writer's Digest in 2001, my first assigned beat was the self-publishing scene. I was given Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marilyn & Tom Ross, as primers on the topic.

I edited the magazine's column on self-publishing (discontinued), the newsstand-only special issues on self-publishing (also discontinued), and helped coordinate the judging for the Self-Published Book Awards (still going strong).

Back then, one of the biggest hurdles for any self-published author was securing bookstore distribution for a printed book—a near impossibility unless you could strike a deal with a wholesaler or distributor (also nearly impossible).

Much of the advice we gave in the magazine, and elsewhere, focused on how you could distribute and sell your book directly to readers, or through specialty sales channels. (Fortunately, 50% of books sold in this country are through specialty and mass-merchant accounts. A few examples of a specialty account: Michael's craft store, salons, gift shops.)

The indie scene is much different now for a few reasons:

(1) It is easier to take a risk on self-publishing your work electronically since there is usually very little upfront investment.

(2) You can e-publish your work for a variety of channels
(including the free-to-use Amazon DTP program), without securing an ISBN, and without granting exclusivity to any one channel or retailer.

(3) Avid readers are beginning to buy and even prefer books in electronic format, whether through Kindle, Sony Reader, or mobile devices.

That said, don't take this as a sign that it's easy to realize overnight success through self-publishing options, whether electronically based or not. I really love Christina Katz's "back to reality" advice, Good-bye, Cinderella: Self-Publishing Isn't the Only or Always the Best Choice for Writers.

There are many viewpoints, and there are just as many changes taking place daily in the industry. Just take the latest announcement today from Smashwords, Sony Reader, and AuthorSolutions. People who use Smashwords or AuthorSolutions to publish their work can have their e-book made available on the Sony Reader.

I spoke to Smashwords founder Mark Coker yesterday about the news, and it's impressive to see what his service can now offer an indie author (for free!):

Your e-book available for sale (or you can make it free to readers) in nine different formats, including HTML, JavaScript, Kindle (.mobi), Epub, PDF, RTF, LRF (for Sony), Palm Doc, and plain text (download or online view). This conversion process is totally automated, very fast (minutes), and based on a Word document that you submit to Smashwords.
Automatic distribution to people who use iPhones or Android-based phones.
Distribution to BarnesandNoble.com, including Fictionwise and their eReader app (distribution to B&N is contingent upon your files meeting format requirements, e.g., having a proper cover image and copyright page)
And, as of today, distribution to people using Sony Reader.

Mark says that he's in talks with other major online retailers for even more distribution opportunities. (I bet you can think of at least one major book retailer not listed above.)

I see physical distribution becoming less of a meaningful barrier as authors can distribute e-books in all the same places that traditional books are sold.

It doesn't equate to instant or even easy success, but authors who are able to create demand for their work, and aren't afraid of sweat-equity, have the potential for success if happy readers (fans!) help spread the good word.

Do you have an e-publishing experience to share? Or what questions does this raise for people who are wondering if this path is worth the time and energy?

For more:

My previous blog post: Do Writers' Futures Lie in Indie E-Publishing Platforms? (includes interview with Mark Coker)
Feature package on self-publishing from March/April issue of Writer's Digest magazine
My previous rant on self-publishing
How to publish on Smashwords (at their site)

Excellent (and Free) Presentation on Self-Publishing

Jane — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:14:38 GMT

At our conference last week, April Hamilton gave an in-depth presentation on the basics of getting started in self-publishing—or as an indie author.

Click here to download her presentation as a PDF file.

I blogged some tips from her session on the Writer's Digest Conference blog, which I'm reposting below.

April's definition of an indie author
An indie author is not someone who is using self-publishing as a desperation move, but as a carefully considered and conscious decision to self-publish. An indie author is a businessperson and an entrepreneur.

Some easy ways to create e-books

Easy-easy (one-click publishing): Scribd
Easy-easy (one-click publishing): Smashwords
A little more complicated: Amazon DTP (Kindle)
Add-on option with POD services like Lulu

Choosing a POD or self-pub service
April gets down to brass tacks when it comes to choosing a publishing/POD service based on the upfront costs and back-loaded fees—plus how you want (or they want!) to price your book. Lots of useful charts and graphs in her presentation showing how to do the math.

You can get a taste of this by looking at her blog post that compares Lulu and CreateSpace.

If you're considering self-publishing, be sure to check out April's community site devoted to your indie-author options: Publetariat.

(I also recommend Self-Publishing Review.)

How to Succeed in Today's Publishing Industry (Takeaways from Conference)

Jane — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:33:06 GMT

By noon on Saturday, attendees were commenting that they'd already gotten their money's worth. I consider that a big win!

If you missed the event, you can still get some valuable takeaways:

Meryl Evans has compiled Tweets from the event, which I've made available for printing and download on Scribd.
You can also read this fabulous recap from an attendee: 8 Gatejumper Tips Heard at the Writer's Digest Conference.

And most remarkably, Meryl Evans sent me a note to help attendees make sense of what to do next! See below. My big thanks to her generosity.

—

So You Went to the Writer's Digest Conference. What Are You Going to Do Now?
by Meryl Evans

In the Writer's Digest Conference blog, Robert Lee Brewer reported on something he overheard:

So, earlier today, in the hallway, I overheard one writer speaking to another. She said, "I don't have the time to handle all this."

I was not surprised to hear this kind of statement at a conference on publishing and marketing and communicating and podcasting and basically everything we've been going over since Friday. But, of course, I started thinking about how successful writers should be, at least, trying.

Well, after a long pause, she continued speaking to the other (very good listener) writer, "But I have to make the time if I'm serious about making this work."

The writer caught on. Not all of us think about how we're going to make the most of a conference. Or we feel overwhelmed that it paralyzes us preventing us from taking action. We bring home all the notes we took filing them away only to never see them again. Then the least we can hope for is that our brains remembered a few key points while we wrote or typed them and apply them.

Review Your Notes
Take five or ten minutes to look over your notes. You can handle that, right? As you review your notes, pick one to three things you want to use. Post them in your to do list or whatever you use on a regular basis so you can remember and practice. Give yourself a deadline—you're a writer, you can handle it. Check off each item as you do them.

Got 'em all done? Great. Now, go back to your notes to cross them off. Pick one to three more things to try. Repeat.

That wasn't so bad, was it? Turning loads of notes into a couple of doable tasks makes a difference.

Write One Article
You probably walked away from the conference with a few article ideas. Rather than trying to do it all, I pick one topic and write the article within a couple of days after returning home. You can make it a blog entry, an article for your publication, whatever. In writing the article, those ideas will stick with you. Plus, you gain a bonus of sharing that with others.

When you finish the article, revisit the other article ideas and what you can do with them. Rather than feeling spread thin with all your article ideas, you focus on one article at a time while putting the rest away for later. You've captured the ideas on paper or on your laptop. They won't disappear. Well, unless you delete them, lose them or trash them.

Key Points from WD Conference
You can find great tweets from the conference by searching Twitter for WDC09. Here are some highlights worth remembering, captured from tweets and the blog so you don't have to read it all:

Christina Katz: Platform is everything you do with your expertise. So many tools are available; must prioritize, maximize your time. Do you see yourself as the producer of your writing career and take 100% responsibility for your success?
Jane Friedman: Platform comes first! Book second. Without a strong platform and topic—creating demand—your book will have a difficult time finding its place in the market. Any changes publishers want to make to the book is what they believe will help increase book sales. They basically want what's economically best for your book—and that's ultimately a good thing.
Scott Sigler and Seth Harwood: Once you show you can move (sell) books, publishers will take notice. That's why giving away your first book online for free and building up an audience is essential to getting publishers—who have ignored you for years—to wake up and realize your talent and value. "You are the best person to sell your book," says Hardwood.
Alice Rosengard: Sees organization as a common problem with nonfiction proposals.
David Mathison (Be the Media) keys: Have a direct relationship with your audience. Control your rights. Repurpose your content.
Chris Brogan: The best way to get a book published is to not try to get a book published. The whole trick about promoting is to not talk about yourself. Learn to talk about other people. Twitter is not about talking; it's about listening.
Agent Miriam Kriss: A lot of "overnight successes" are 10 years in the making.
Agent Panel (Jessica Sinsheimer, Regina Brooks and Michelle Humphrey): Difference between freelanced editing and traditional editor is the latter cares, has a vested interest in the book. Professionally edited, professionally typeset, professionally designed are critical for success via POD.

Instant Publishing Tools: Getting Noticed & Visible

Jane — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:20:35 GMT

Today I taught an online class about instant publishing tools that can help you get exposure for your work in digital formats. Thanks to all the participants who joined me today. Here's a summary of some of the sites & tools we reviewed (a handy reference for the attendees, as well as a good peek for others on what we discussed).

You can join me for my next webinar on Thursday, covering 3 secrets to getting your nonfiction book published ($99).

Instant & Digital Publishing Sites (Free to Use)

Smashwords (get your books onto iPhone, BarnesandNoble.com)
Scribd
Amazon Digital Text platform (get your books on Kindle)
Blurb (great for full-color, print projects)

Community Writing & Publishing Sites (also free)

Authonomy
WeBook

Blogging and Site Building (free)

Wordpress
Storytlr
JaneFriedman.com (example of my lifestreaming homepage using Storytlr)

Social Networking

Writer's Digest fan page on Facebook
My page on Facebook
Twitter (Writer's Digest)
Twitter (Jane Friedman)

Previous & Helpful Blog Posts

Just One More Blogging Benefit for Aspiring Writers

Jane — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:15:47 GMT

As I catch up from being away at the Writer's Digest Conference (read more than 100 posts with info here!), guest blogger Jane Koenen Bretl is filling in with some more advice on the benefits of blogging!

When I started my blog jane, candid in January 2009, it was my starting point to create visibility and web presence for my work, and explore a whole new avenue of writing. Inspired by the December 2008 Writer’s Digest Editor’s Intensive, through blogging I found a voice that can be the start of my author platform; it took me in a new, unexpected direction that I may not have pursued, at least at this point in my writing career.

The benefits of blogging to an aspiring writer are numerous, but a most unexpected, helpful and frankly delightful outcome has been the relationships I have developed with other writers.

I actively seek out writing blogs, and by participating in author blog tours, networking through thoughtful commenting, and trolling through the blogrolls of other writers, I have met many other writers who have provided useful advice and much encouragement.

As a result, I’ve hosted an oft-published author at my home while he was on a 20-state book signing tour. I’ve hosted guest-blogging authors who brought both a new audience and increased credibility to my site. I’ve been a guest blogger on other wonderful blogs (like this one!) that provide a new, exciting forum for my work. And I’ve developed friendships with many writers who share selflessly of their experience.

It is a curious concept to me, this idea of meeting others online. At first I had preconceived (mostly negative) notions about online relationships, a prejudice lodged somewhere between online dating, ranting chat rooms, and all-night Dungeons and Dragon-esque gaming sessions. (Not that there is anything inherently wrong with those activities, they are just not my scene.)

I thought real people made real friendships face-to-face, not sitting alone in a computer chair with fingers tapping at the keys. Preconceived notions can and do close doors.

Blogging has instead opened doors for me to meet other writers from around the world, kindred spirits surely not on my life’s path otherwise. It has opened windows through which I can watch the progress of other writers, and see both the pitfalls they have faced and the successes they have earned through hard work and great talent. There is a collective sense of celebration when a blogger-friend reaches a writing milestone. It inspires me.

This summer, I had the opportunity to take a fond blogger relationship to a new place— face-to-face. Judy Clement Wall wrote one of the first comments I ever received on my blog, offering kind words right when I was nervously venturing into unfamiliar territory.

I in turn visited her site and her words struck a cord with me immediately. I have been an avid reader of her blog zebra sounds ever since. Like many bloggers, she kept the personal details of her home address and her family private; it just feels safer that way. However, as I prepared for a long-planned summer vacation to the West Coast (yes, I was reading Judy’s blog instead of packing), I realized through one of her off-handed references that this blog-buddy might live in the very area we were to visit! After some off-line emails, we learned it was indeed the same town. Serendipity strikes again. We made plans to meet at a coffee shop during my trip, since we already knew we shared an addiction to coffee as well as a love of writing.

Ironically, me, the online relationship snob, was as nervous to actually meet her as I might have been on a first date: Would I recognize her from her photo? Would she be as friendly as she seemed? It felt surreal, this crossing of worlds (maybe I had already drank too much coffee that day???).

Of course, the meeting was delightful. We shared blogging advice (how did you add that cool widget?), warm mutual admiration, and encouragement for next steps in our writing careers, all right along with our hot caffeinated beverages. It felt like a reunion, not a first meeting.

Ironically, the act of blogging can be much more personal than the typical conversations between new acquaintances, what some describe as the nakedness of putting it out there for all to see, sharing these words that come from some deep place inside. This has been my biggest revelation about blogging.

So as I strive to build my author platform, increase my online visibility, create a potential audience for my work, and generally make waves out there in the social media world of the publishing industry, I can also reap the benefits of my blogging community and all that they share.

Considering it? Give it a try.

--

[Editor's note: Be sure to read Judy Clement Wall's companion blog post to this, "(Sometimes it's not) All About Me"]

The Benefits of Blogging (Your Feedback!)

Jane — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:23:59 GMT

There have been so many wonderful comments from you on the subject of blogging (on this blog, on my Facebook page, and on the Writer's Digest Facebook page), that I wanted to share a few pieces of the helpful advice.

My appreciation to everyone who has shared their experiences!

From published (or soon-to-be-published) authors

Terri Coyne: I started my blog around the same time I sold my debut novel. I committed to posting once a week or more but not less. … not only did it help connect me to an audience but by syndicating to Facebook, Amazon and other places, it allows me to share my writing out from a central location.

Having a blog before I built my website was also a good way for me to post information for a nominal cost. As my website was being designed, I had my URL (www.tericoyne.com) point to the blog. There are so many widgets and options available for blogs, you can create a nice site as a starting point.

In my monthly newsletter to readers I link back to my blog and use it as a source for important updates. It works well.

LK Hunsaker: I've been blogging for years and it did take time to build an audience, but it's a great way to interact and get feedback. My books revolve around the arts along with societal issues, so on my blog I do book and music reviews, author interviews, artistic musings that reveal my writing voice and style, and some minor societal issue entries. It shows who I am and what I'm about. I think free promo is something every up-and-coming author should consider seriously. Blogs are free promo. Start early and build your audience before your books come out if they haven't yet.

From aspiring writers

Marie Devers: I am an unpublished-writer blogger, and here is what I love about blogging:

1. It gives me a homebase on the Web. I'm not ready for a Web site yet. When I send out queries, however, important people can Google me and quickly see that I write daily and coherently. They can also find my email and twitter addresses.

2. It's how I found my beta readers. There are four of us. We each have a blog where we pimp each other out. We also have great email sessions, where we perform group emergency surgery on queries that aren't working and where we celebrate when one of our own gets an offer of representation (She's signing tomorrow!).

3. As solitary as writing can be, it's nice to have someone to report to, and I feel like my blog readers are my boss. It's much, much harder to give up when you've publicly announced that you are trying to publish a novel and people all over the world support your efforts.

Jeff Posey: I started a blog this spring and began using Twitter a short time later. I post short scenes and character interviews outside my core in-progress novel but that illuminate it.

My lesson? This has been a great way to explore my main storyline and has inspired me to increase my average weekly writing output toward my novel, even while spending perhaps two-to-four hours per week on the blog and Twitter activity.

Besides, it's a load of fun.

Reesha: I'm being patient. Not a lot of peope are reading my blog right now, but every now and then I hear about someone who's been reading all along and I didn't know about it.

When I get discouraged about writing or building my platform, or even lonely, I imagine lots of lurkers who secretly read my blog, are interested in what I have to say, and love my work.

I was once told to approach things like this with the attitude that the person who you're interacting with loves you and is generally interested in what you have to say. The worst case scenario is that they hate you and aren't interested in what you have to say, and then you or they move on. There are lots of people out there. Lots of possibilities someone who likes what you have to say will find you.

Livia: I mulled over the expertise question quite a bit when starting my blog. Since I'm not published yet, why would people want to listen to my writing advice? For that reason, I decided to focus on analyzing examples of good writing from published fiction and reviewing craft books rather than preach my own writing tips.

Terry Petersen: The discipline is great. My theme is "After sixty, a time to begin." Since I don't specify what I'm beginning, I can write about anything I'm learning, on any level.

Ashley Olson Rosen: For me, starting a humor blog has been helpful in two ways: it makes me look at everyday occurances and frustrations in a more positive light -- which can never be a bad thing -- and it provides so much encouragement when people, especially strangers, send in comments. It's also good practice to force you to write on a regular basis. I was writing fiction before and now am considering trying a humor manuscript. I say to try blogging!

Florence Gardner: I'm also in my first couple of months of my blog.
I'm an unpublished writer of mid-grade and YA fiction with a manuscript under exclusive review by an agent right now. A couple of years ago I thought it would be insane for someone like me to have a blog.

I got a professional to help me design and get it up and running and am SO glad I did. It wasn't very expensive and I think makes a huge difference. (she's fantastic by the way, if anyone is looking for that kind of help).

I'm having a ton of fun with it. I don't think of it as "advice giving" at all. But a chance to make friends and to step into a wider conversation about writing and reading.

Photo credit: Hello Jenuine

Should You Blog? And If So, What Are Best Practices?

Jane — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:54:15 GMT

Photo credit: Laughing Squid

More writers are blogging than ever. And if you're not blogging already, you've probably considered it. Recently, a writer asked me via Facebook about blogging.

She said:

[It is] my impression that blogs related to writing are primarily written by people with expertise in their field and who have valuable advice and connections within the industry. Now, however, I am checking around and I see that many writers, even writers who are unpublished -- and some who appear very far from being published -- have blogs, also where they discuss writing and their completed works and/or works in progress. These people generally have direct links to their blogs that become available when they sign their name (or their blog name) when commenting on another blog. So, I suppose they are doing some marketing for themselves.

So, my question is: Should I have a blog?

This writer had some serious reservations about starting a blog, and here's how I answered her questions.

1. I don't feel like I have much in the way of valuable advice. What kind of advice do I have to dispense?

For aspiring writers (especially novelists), it often comes down to a matter of voice—an engaging voice, humorous insights, or a unique perspective to bring to the table.

Sometimes you may have specific advice, sometimes not. For many aspiring writers who blog, it's about a community—writers who are learning from one another. It helps if you can identify what about your experience sets you apart, but this insight may not occur for 6 months or more of blogging.

Don't assume your blog should be specifically about writing. It could be about whatever sets you apart, makes you unique. The writing life can simply be an accent.

2. One person mentioned on his blog that a literary agent looked at his blog, saw his complaints about the issues remaining with his book, and decided not to look at his book. I suppose it seems obvious that you shouldn't write negative things about your work on your blog, but to me this seems like one example of potentially many examples of why a BAD blog could be worse than no blog at all.

There's always that risk that an editor/agent will be turned off by your site or blog. Frankly, though, if you're sending out material knowing there are still issues to resolve, you should be getting rejected. (Never send material out that isn't as final as you can make it!)

If an agent/editor is turned off by your site/blog, they may not like your style or voice, regardless of content or professionalism. If your blog is a good representation of who you are as a writer (and most blogs are), then it would be like worrying about a potential mate who decides not to start a relationship with you because he/she doesn't like your personality. Saves you both some trouble, right?

3. I know nothing about blogging, so I feel my chances of writing a bad blog are sufficiently high that I should be concerned.

Maybe you worry too much. This could a unique angle to your blog.

4. Since blogs need to be updated on a regular basis and you have to respond to your commentors, I feel like a blog could be a significant time sink. I just wonder if my time isn't better spent working on my next book.

This is a legitimate concern, but only because you would fall in love with blogging and community building and not do the real writing.

The administrative part of the blog (design/setup/posting/blahblahblah) takes no time at all (minutes). Many people fall into the trap of widget-y improvements, or the fun tinkering, the stuff that you do to avoid writing.

You should decide upfront how much time you want to spend (or can afford), e.g., I will post once a week, the post will be about 500 words. It can actually be a good warm-up exercise.

Try not to plan this out too much or wait to act because you feel lots of preparation is needed. Overplanning or overthinking is somewhat antithetical to today's blogging practice (except for professional bloggers who make a living at it).

5. One final concern: if I post excerpts from my novel on my blog, is that a problem down the road? I see that many authors do post excerpts from their unpublished books. Do you know if posting excerpts is a problem?

You do not lose ownership of your content by posting it online; it does not go into the public domain or give anyone else the right to use it. (Of course, it can heighten risk of someone stealing it, but this is incredibly rare, and it's not like there's raging demand out there for unpublished writing—where people are just waiting to steal and profit from your work!)

Unless you want to see your excerpts published in a literary journal or magazine in about the same form as on your site/blog, there's no need to worry. Your blog audience and platform is not the same thing as having a book published and distributed through major retail channels. Some authors have podcasted or otherwise distributed their entire novels before publication, and it helped them get a book deal. (See www.scottsigler.com)

So, what do you think? Do you think that *trying* to start a blog is a valuable investment for me at this stage?

For fiction writers and poets, a blog should exercise your creative muscles and let you write in an unpressured way. Sometimes it can help you stumble on insights, as well as new friendships. However, for an aspiring writer, you have to be careful it doesn't detract or replace the "real" work of writing the book or the manuscript.

For nonfiction writers, blogs can be an essential part of your marketing and promotion—the author platform that helps you get published in the first place.

Only you can make the final decision. While you shouldn't jump in just because everyone else is doing it, sometimes it's good to try things that stretch you beyond your comfort zone. Blogging isn't for everyone, and there's no shame in leaving it behind if you don't like it.

I'd love to hear in the comments from aspiring writers who are bloggers. What's your experience? Has anyone started, then decided to stop—and why?

Back from Alaska Round-Up (3 Tips)

Jane — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:39:06 GMT

I just returned from my 1-week adventure in Alaska. It is certainly the most foreign place I've ever been within the United States. You can check out photos here.

Here are 3 tips for your Alaska adventure:

One glacier experience is probably enough to satiate your curiosity about glaciers.
You haven't experienced Alaska unless you take advantage of the ubiquitous bush air services. Air is the most efficient form of transportation to and within the state; most towns do not have road or highway access, and that includes the state capital of Juneau.
Weather is extremely changeable. Think Gore-Tex.

And here are 3 tips on exciting stuff at Writer's Digest that I wasn't able to mention last week since I was completely off the grid (e.g., inside a glacier moulin, as pictured above).

Instant Publishing how-to class (Sep 17)
In one of my last conference workshops, I made the comment that with tools today, you can instantly publish yourself. One writer piped up, "Instant Publishing! I want a book on that topic!" In lieu of a book, I'm teaching a class on Thursday, Sept. 17 that gives you a tour of sites that provide instant publishing capabilities (free, very little or no tech experience required). I'll discuss how and when to make your content free, when to charge, and how to evaluate your success. The class fee is $79, with an opportunity for live Q&A. Click here for more info and a link to register.

8 Tips for Writers on Digital Change in Publishing (WD Conference)
Our big NYC event on Sept 18-20 is only a couple weeks away. If you've been on the fence about it, be sure to check out our very affordable 1-day registration options. You can get an excellent preview of Mike Shatzkin's keynote, "What do you tell a writer about digital change in publishing?" over at his blog. Even if you are not going to the event, don't miss his 8 tips.

New MFA Confidential blog
Just launched this week! Check out our newest addition to the Writer's Digest blog family by Kate Monahan, a 2nd year MFA student at The New School University in downtown New York City. One of her first posts is about 6 lessons learned during her first year.

More wonderful stuff still to come this week, including a guest post tomorrow by Darrelyn Saloom.

Below: A view of the Hubbard Glacier.

Figuring Out Your Facebook Strategy: 3 Essential Tips

Jane — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:54:18 GMT

In May 2006, after reading this article in the New Yorker, I joined Facebook, which at that time was primarily used by students. Not being a student, I found very few people to friend, so the account lay dormant for 18 months until Facebook really took off as a direct competitor to MySpace.

At first, I only friended people I knew very well and had met in person—and I didn't receive that many requests from strangers anyway. Then I gradually and tentatively started friending people I had virtual relationships with, but had not met, feeling oddly like I was using the site "wrong." (Facebook used to ask for confirmation on how you knew someone, and if you couldn't verify from a pre-selected list of options, it reprimanded you. Seriously!)

Then maybe 6 months ago, I witnessed what Robert Brewer, editor of WritersMarket.com, was doing. He had a few thousand friends (and now has maxed out at 5,000!), and he had an amazing network of really cool people who were engaged, supportive, and excited about his work (particularly Poetic Asides). Plus he shared endearing and personable information that really developed him as a "real" person, without being indiscrete or falling into the TMI trap.

I suddenly questioned my Facebook strategy. What was I really protecting anyway? I was already Facebook friends with current and former colleagues, former classmates I hadn't seen in 20 years, and others who I don't know any better (on a personal level) than someone who follows my writing through this blog or Writer's Digest.

Plus I adopted the philosophy many years ago that I would avoid posting anything online (even in a "private" network) that I wouldn't be comfortable sharing with the world.

So I decided to open up the strategy and accept friend requests from people who were already friends with other friends, who I had met at conferences, who were readers of my blog, who had taken an online class with me, and/or anyone who included a brief note with their request. (Click here to friend me.)

Here are three tips on having an open Facebook strategy, particularly for people who might have a book, product, service, or message to spread.

1. To manage a growing number of friends, make sure that you tag everyone as part a group. You can do this immediately when people request to be your friend, or you can always apply and change/add tags later. Here's a screenshot of what this looks like:

The benefit of having such lists is that it helps you manage privacy controls (e.g., if you only want your vacation photos viewable by close friends/family), and you can also target messages/invitations to specific lists.

However: As wonderful as privacy controls are, they can really backfire if people find out you've blocked them from certain areas of your profile. Make sure you know what you're doing. Plus I never assume such controls are infallible.

2. Decide what kind of focus you want your Facebook presence to have. For instance, my Facebook wall is focused on information relevant to writing and publishing. It includes an automated feed from my Writer's Digest blog (meaning my blog posts are automatically posted to my wall), and I share articles of interest to writers.

I had a friend joke recently that I was the only person he knew whose Facebook page was used for professional purposes, and that last time he checked out my profile, a window popped up to accept his credit card.

Ouch!

But that's a warning to everyone: you can't treat Facebook as a sales tool. Rather, it's a way to give people another way to interact, learn, trust. I see it as sharing & service, and if I'm lucky, so do others (rather than as a sales tactic).

I bet some people would pay though to see some of the high school photos available in my Facebook albums.

3. To avoid a complete time sink, decide what kinds of activity/requests you will engage in and which you will ignore. For instance, I don't participate in any types of games, causes, or other past times on Facebook (for awhile I indulged in Scrabble, but stopped). I also make the "chat" tool inactive for everyone except a few personal connections. I take the occasional frivolous quiz and post the results, which always leads to fun and valuable interaction.

I often get this question: Should I create a fan page for myself or my book/product, and keep this separate from my personal page? There's nothing wrong with this approach, and given the 5,000-friend limit in place for personal profiles, it can make sense for someone who expects to have a very large following (I'm looking at you, Robert—who did in fact just create a fan page!). But for most writers/authors starting out, without a separate and distinct business or book/product, it doesn't make sense to segment your Facebook presence and manage two profiles and two sets of interactions.

And that's key: Facebook allows interaction on a level that I can't get anywhere else, helps keep connections going, and offers many opportunities I wouldn't have otherwise had to offer help or be helped. The interactions you have will be as meaningful and authentic as what you put into it. I hope to see you there. Plus: Become a fan of the Writer's Digest page.

(And, to beat the drum: Are you looking for more expertise on social media for writers? Check out our September conference, featuring Chris Brogan as keynote!)

Want a Crystal Ball to See the Future of Publishing? You Have One.

Jane — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 21:01:30 GMT

I'm often asked by writers what the future of publishing looks like. Will print survive? (Yes.) Will newspapers survive? (A few.) Will book publishing become a do-it-yourself free for all? (For some.) Will anyone pay for content, or will a free model reign? (Both.)

Confused yet?

Everyone is.

Amidst the chaos, there is one voice I keep going back to again and again. I first discovered Mike Shatzkin at the 2007 BookExpo America. Mike gave a speech, "End of General Trade Publishing Houses: Death or Rebirth in a Niche-by-Niche World." (Click here for the text of that speech.)

What he said was dead-on true to what I was experiencing in my job—and felt in my gut—even though the speech was looking 10, 20, even 30 years out.

From that point on, I wanted to know everything this guy was ever going to say, and thank god for the rest of us, he started a blog earlier this year.

So it was a dream come true for me (personally and professionally) when F+W (the parent company of Writer's Digest) partnered with Mike on a new event called Digital Book World.

You can read Mike's announcement of the event here. A little of what he says:

In the trade space, one of the big ebook topics (which we plan to explore in depth at DBW) is “pricing.” What should ebooks cost the consumer? The convention among trade publishers has been to peg ebook retail prices to the least-expensive edition available in print. So if there is a cloth edition and a paperback edition, the publisher would be guided on ebook pricing by the paperback (usually setting at or slightly below the print book price.)

But in academic publishing, hardcover and paperback editions are often published simultaneously. The publisher figures that the paperbacks are for the students; the hardcovers are for the libraries. Since ebooks in the academic space are considered primarily library items, and because they have often become part of larger searchable databases, the academic publishers would set their ebook prices based on the hardcover, the more expensive print book available. He also said that sometimes they are even more expensive than the hardcover, because of the additional functionality they have, like links and embedded video.

This was important information for our client, who works across publishing segments. But if presented without a clear contextual frame, it could well be confusing information to a consumer trade publisher (or an academic publisher) trying to figure out a pricing strategy. Because we are tightly focused on consumer trade publishing, our panel(s) at DBW might not mention a tie-to-hardcover pricing, but if we did, we’d pose the model and talk about why it made sense in some other context, but not in ours. We’ll be talking about lots of other things that affect price: discounts, retailer strategies and control, the impact of the publisher selling direct to the consumer, and the extent to which there is enrichment or enhancement, for example. All of those things, as well, are somewhat different in the consumer space than in the others, where aggregation and value-added capabilities are critical components of ebook development.

It would be very easy in an economic climate like today, where we see newspapers and magazines closing, to bemoan the state of the industry.

But I continue to be optimistic, because I feel like I have a small grasp on what the future is like, and how I can successfully adapt to it (along with my company). And that's what Digital Book World is all about—adapting in a way that can positively impact our business today.

Photo credit: Silver ArTiSt

Are You Needlessly Worrying About Your Work Getting TOO MUCH Exposure?

Jane — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:03:15 GMT

As writers become more and more comfortable with online media, I receive more and more questions like this:

If I post my work on my own site, will anyone be willing to consider it for print publication?
How much of my novel can I post online before a publisher won't take it any more?
Do I lose rights to my work if it's posted on XYZ site?

Here are key points to remember.

1. First things first: You own the copyright and all rights to your work when you post it online, unless you specifically agree otherwise. It may be easier to steal when it's online, but you still own it.

2. Always check the terms of service when regularly posting content to any site. If you're posting your work on major sites like Authonomy, WeBook, etc., you really have nothing to worry about. In such cases, you're not relinquishing any exclusive or vital rights to your work by posting it. (If someone knows of exceptions, please note in the comments.)

However, there may be an implicit agreement—by very fact of you using a website—that the site owner has nonexclusive right to use the content in a limited (or expansive) way. Such use is usually justified or reasonable, and sometimes it might profit the site owner. You need to decide what you're comfortable with and if the trade-offs are worth it. I have yet to see an agreement that is unethical or not upfront.

For example, here is Amazon's language governing book review content, which you agree to when using their site:

If you do post content or submit material, and unless we indicate otherwise, you grant Amazon a nonexclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and fully sublicensable right to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, and display such content throughout the world in any media. You grant Amazon and sublicensees the right to use the name that you submit in connection with such content, if they choose. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content that you post; that the content is accurate; that use of the content you supply does not violate this policy and will not cause injury to any person or entity; and that you will indemnify Amazon for all claims resulting from content you supply. Amazon has the right but not the obligation to monitor and edit or remove any activity or content. Amazon takes no responsibility and assumes no liability for any content posted by you or any third party.

This basically means that while you retain rights to your work, Amazon has the right do whatever it pleases as well. The key is the word "nonexclusive." If Amazon decided to publish a collection of the most kinky book reviews ever written, and used your material, they would not owe you any money or need to ask your permission, though of course it would be considered good practice and common courtesy to notify you.

3. If your work doesn't have a lot of commercial value, who cares? Here is where I have to be completely insensitive and say bluntly: Writers are overly worried about work that is not commercially valuable. Many things that people post online, whether on their own sites or elsewhere, are online precisely because there isn't a commercial value attached. So, when you post your work without compensation, there is an essential value statement made that, right now, you're valuing exposure (or service or community) more than payment. Or that you're marketing and promoting yourself, your brand, or a work that does have commercial value.

4. That said, the value of your work CAN change or be discovered later—which only opens up the commercial value and potential of your work. Remember that online exposure and online media are not the same as print exposure and print media. They are usually written and edited differently, presented differently, marketed differently, and read differently. The online audience is not 100% the same as the print audience (and sometimes not even 10% the same!).

Think of it this way: If you participated in a poetry slam and became wildly successful as a poet-entertainer, with thousands of followers, would that detract from your ability to publish books of your poetry? No, in fact, it would help make the case for print publication. Would a presentation of your poems online, in a way that gathered 10,000 unique visitors every day, detract from the sales of a beautiful physical chapbook? Of course not. It would help.

For the most part, online and print are complimentary—they are not competitive. Any book publisher who refuses to consider a work that has been successfully published digitally or online or in a multimedia format has not caught up with the times. Magazine and newspapers are a little different, but if they become a fan of your online work, most likely they will ask you to produce an original work for print publication.

5. You're always producing more work, right? Don't hold on so tightly to each piece of work that you're not focusing on new production.

Yes, even I hang onto my creative writing from senior year in high school, and have a catalog of all the places my work has appeared over the years (online and in print, often without pay), but even if a third party is profiting off my work online, that work has no commercial value to me anymore. I'm producing better stuff now. Plus the old work serves to offer additional exposure, little guideposts leading people to the more recent work.

Key takeaway: Just because your work is "published" when it appears online doesn't mean you've destroyed its market value. That's a very old-school way of viewing the value of content—a viewpoint that's based on decades of print publication tradition, when whoever had the "first" rights to print publication had the "best" rights, and paid the most.

If you haven't noticed, things have changed.

P.S. ... and a final word on theft: Stop worrying. When writing becomes a lucrative profession and when demand for writing far outstrips supply, then maybe we can discuss. In the meantime, feel flattered that someone thought your work was good enough they wanted to bother taking the time and effort to market, promote, pitch, and/or publish it themselves.

UPDATE: I recently read this post from Stefanie Peters, which makes 2 more important points about posting your work online, especially in forums like Authonomy.

Photo credit: Wetsun

What Does It Take for a Blog to Become a Book?

Jane — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 23:01:19 GMT

I find myself advising writers more and more frequently to develop an online presence first—sometimes by blogging—before attempting to get a book published. Some types of content simply work better online, or when you're engaging in real time with a community.

Online platforms allow you to test ideas, develop your readership, and craft a stronger premise for a print product. Plus, if you really catch on fire with a particular readership, you can start attracting editors and agents to YOU, rather than you chasing them. Doesn't it sound better to be fielding offers rather than begging for them?

Of course, this process takes patience. You can't launch your online efforts today and expect interest overnight (or even in a year). You have to be invested and dedicated to what you're doing, and involved in an authentic way, for you to produce something of value.

And you also have to let go of this idea of being online only to reach the holy grail of a print book. You need to NOT want it in order to get it. That is, you have to be Zen about it. Have goals, but no expectations. Know that your project will likely change, or your goals will change, as you put yourself out there more and more.

Key to remember:

Even the most popular blogs don't necessarily translate into great (profitable) books or a book deal

No matter how much positive feedback you get on your blog, that doesn't mean it's going to interest a publisher. It's the same thing as telling an agent, "My mother loved it." You always need to back up "positive feedback" with hard-core numbers about subscribers, unique pageviews, newsletter subscribers.

So, what does it take for a blog to become a book? It often takes someone in the mainstream media (or a trusted voice or opinion maker) to scream to the world, "Have you seen this person's blog? It's a must-read!"

When notable people talk you up to agents/editors, and/or when you are featured by the so-called mainstream figures of online/offline media, then you can bet that agents/editors will start to take notice and ask if you've thought of doing a book.

Now, keep in mind that most blog material is not suitable for straight-to-book publication. Bloggers turned authors usually have to start book manuscripts entirely or partially from scratch, or undergo a very thorough revision process. But if industry professionals see that you have a strong voice, a strong message, and a strong following, they'll work with you to figure out what your best book is, and help you adapt your ideas for the best book product.

Here are a few extremely successful and visible examples of bloggers turned book authors.

Chris Brogan, Trust Agents
Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vaynerchuck's 101 Wines and Crush It!
Chris Guillebeau, untitled so far, book deal with Perigee, to release in September 2010

If you want to transition from blogger to book author, consider how a book will offer an experience or a benefit that is unique or distinctive apart from the blog. Why would people want the book in addition to or instead of reading the blog? Is it simply because you think you can reach a broader audience? Sometimes that's not reason enough. Consider why and how the book can be a vehicle for what's not easily or feasibly accomplished online, and how readers would benefit from the book format.

Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

5 Ways Writers & Book Publishers Need to Embrace Change NOW

Jane — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:41:59 GMT

In today's writing and publishing industry, knowing how to change and quickly adapt to change can be your biggest competitive asset.

This has been a key takeaway for me from the weekly Twitter editorchats that I started participating in last week.

The discussions often focus on industry change and trends, especially in relation to new media and technology. Part of the discussion last night was about the generation gap in publishing, sparked by Time's article on how by 2019, leaders will have to manage and motivate people in new ways due to generational changes.

I read the Time article and thought: Yes, but this kind of change can't wait 10 years! Just like magazine and book publishing can't wait 10 years to find a new model for survival.

The editorchat was insightful, but I don't see a generation gap. Rather I see a gap between those who can adapt to change and shape a new vision of the future (on a daily basis these days!), and those who get stuck and/or have pessimistic outlooks on the change.

There's a stereotype that "old" people can't adapt to change as well as "young" people—but my experience has shown it's more of a mindset or attitude.

Some people have the ability to act as soon as they know a change is needed, while others think so long and hard about making a change (in order to make the "right" decision and feel comfortable) that it's too late.

Here are 5 specific ways that writers/publishers need to embrace change now.

Writers: The book is not the beginning or the end. Let me restate that: Do not make it your life's work to get that first book published. It's not the Holy Grail any longer (if it ever was to begin with). The book is only one piece of a much larger effort that you need to focus on. Stop thinking you need a book to accomplish your goals (E.g., "I can start speaking/promoting once I have a book.")
Publishers: The act of reading is not tied to books. Stop thinking that if physical books disappear, that reading will also disappear, or that reading will be diminished, or that your jobs will evaporate. Books are not tied to the act or survival of reading. It's a romantic and lovely object, I agree, but it's merely one (sometimes limited) vehicle for something much, much bigger (storytelling, innovative ideas, inspiration, instruction).
Writers: Power lies in your reach to readers, not in the prestige of your publisher. Kevin Kelley has become famous for saying that it only takes 1,000 loyal followers to really make a go of something. If you develop those followers, you can have a much more stable and rich career that is not dependent on publishers to distribute and sell your work—because you already know where and how to market to your audience.
Publishers/agents: Be a true partner and add value to authors' careers. Or become irrelevant. Because of #3, publishers stand to suffer more in the long run, because today's (and tomorrow's) savviest authors already have the tools they need to be successful without a publisher's distribution strength. (Just not all of them have learned this yet!) Publishers who truly partner with authors, and start offering support in new and meaningful ways (see this great idea of a Digital Concierge over at PersonaNonData), will attract the best authors, the best content, the best value, the best readers, the best community.
Publishers and authors alike should focus on vertical communities/niches. The more connected to a specific community you are, the more you understand what it values, what it is willing to pay for, and what sparks action. Paradoxically, the wider you cast your net in terms of audience, the harder it is to get anyone to notice or care.

When you take these 5 things together, I think authors will partner with publishers who offer a community of other like-minded authors (networking/growth potential), who offer diverse opportunities and methods of support, across all types of media, and who share the same values.

New media and technology has made the world transparent. Everyone is going to partner and invest based on mutual benefit/support and values. Those who don't stand for anything special, who lack a great story (or myth) to share, will struggle. (See this cover story from Inc. magazine for an example of a company and CEO who intimately understands this.)

The world is changing, and I'm grateful for it.

Writers and the Recession: How Can You Succeed?

Jane — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:39:03 GMT

I was interviewed by Tad Richards of the New York Careers Examiner. We discuss writing, publishing, recession, and how everything is changing ... and how writers need to shift strategy to succeed. A snippet:

TR: With print periodicals in danger of becoming dinosaurs, what's the future there for writers?

JF: Where is journalism headed or what will happen? I have no idea. We're in the middle of a huge transformation in the culture, and it's nearly impossible to say how it will shake out. Clay Shirky wrote a fabulous essay on this that I highly recommend to every writer. I do think the culture is headed into a media environment that does not value advertising, but has a lot of respect for content. Writers who can build a trust factor and also specialize in reaching a particular audience should find plenty of opportunities no matter what happens. Being online and being engaged (the social media thing) will be essential. Everything will be more community-driven ... but how all of this will be monetized and provide writers/journalists with a living ... We'll see!

Click here for the full interview.

Tools to Manage Twitter Volume (But They Don't Really #&%@* Work!!)

Jane — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:42:59 GMT

I am being driven insane by the lack of effective Twitter utilities/software. Here's what I've found so far, and my experience. (A part of me hopes that I'm not using these tools correctly and someone can point out my lack of brains.)

Tweetdeck
At first I loved TweetDeck (Adobe Air software); it has great customization, column layout, and the ability to create groups. BUT:

If I modify any of my customized groups, I suddenly lose 99% of unseen Tweets in that group. And sometimes Tweetdeck just doesn't display all the Tweets that I haven't seen. It just randomly picks up at some point in the past.
The information stream keeps stopping because "rate limit exceeded." Then I have to wait 20-30 minutes for new Tweets. (This is a limitation of Twitter, though. I think. I don't have this problem on Seesmic, mentioned below.)
I can only login under one account, which is problematic for anyone who manages a personal account plus a professional account.
After a few hours, the application gets slower ... and slower ... and slower.

Twhirl
I tried Twhirl (another Adobe Air application) for 2 minutes, then stopped when I realized I couldn't create groups or create multiple columns to view simultaneously. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.)

HootSuite
HootSuite is browser-based, and allows you to manage/view multiple accounts at once, but doesn't appear to have any kind of meaningful filter or grouping capabilities.

Seesmic
Yet another Adobe Air application, Seesmic is new and buggy, but is still almost better than Tweetdeck. The big problem is that it's sluggish and painful to use after a couple hours. It is column-based like TweetDeck, AND (hallelujah) allows you to manage multiple accounts at once—each Tweet is labeled with the account it's coming through. The group-making function isn't quite there yet: You can only add people to your group by finding a Tweet and clicking on the user to add—rather than going through a checklist of all the people you follow, like you can on Tweetdeck. (Someone tell me if I'm wrong on this.)

Given that Oprah is featuring Twitter on her show today, Twitter will only become more overloaded in the weeks ahead. So, if and when I deliver you the "best tweets for writers," I have to add the caveat that they were the best tweets I could find, given the limitations with the current utilities. It frustrates me that there's valuable information and conversations on Twitter, but I can't possibly find it and manage it without having reliable applications to filter, save, and archive the information that hasn't been "seen." So far, nothing is up to the task, though maybe Seesmic, once it's developed further, will be my tool of choice.

What tools do you use to keep it all under control?
What tools help you make the most efficient use of your Tweeting time?

Make Waves Online to Create a Path to Print Publication

Jane — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:43:42 GMT

On this blog, someone recently commented/asked:

One big concern a lot of online writers have is the issue of first rights. Does publishing even part of a novel online prevent you from getting a deal with a publishing house? So far, I have posted about 20% of mine on my blog and only just discovered this may prevent me from getting a publishing deal. I'd have thought it would be good publicity, but I guess the publishers feel they need to defend heir turf.

It's a sure thing that whenever I advise writers to use online publishing or collaboration/community tools (like Authonomy, WeBook, Smashwords, or their own site/blog), they ask if the market for their work will go away.

Three things to understand

Print and online are two different channels. You should be more worried if you write and post something online that you want to sell to an online publication or e-publisher. Even then, it's more about: Have you given the ENTIRE work away for free, or just a portion? Publishers are most worried when you give away the entire book or all of your content for free (or that it becomes somehow accessible for free through other channels) when they're trying to charge for a print edition.
Audience/readership aren't always identical between online and print. Some people will find out about you online, and read you online; others will find you online and look for print; some will find out about you only through print channels.
Great online exposure is more likely to lead to demand for a print product. In Japan, one writer created an online sensation with his work, but stopped right at the ending cliff-hanger, and readers who wanted the ending had to purchase the print book. (And lots of people who heard about the online fuss late in the game decided to buy the print book.)

So, posting a fiction excerpt online will almost never eliminate the publication potential for the full work. You can look to Scott Sigler as an example of someone who started online (via podcasting), gained a following, then went to print. Just because he serialized the entire book in audio form didn't mean a publisher wasn't interested in publishing his book—quite the contrary! See it as a way to make waves (if approached in a smart way). I have yet to meet an agent or a publisher who would find this to be a bad thing.

Photo credit: Nate Steiner

Hard-Core Tactics for Authors Developing Audience

Jane — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:18:03 GMT

My previous post was a pre-answer to the following question (which appeared in the comments of this other post):

Thank you for the webinar, which gave me some ideas where to begin to increase my visibility and improve my website. I have published two history/biography books. I get comments from publishers saying "a valuable book that should be published, but we cannot sell enough to justify taking it." I think I now have some tools and directions to take to increase interest in my books. Do you have any more specific suggestions for this type of book?

Questions like these are tough to answer. It's really about:

Where is your target audience/readership active?
Are you active in those same places and do you have the credibility/authority with that audience today—or how do you get there?
How can you provide value/benefit to this audience beyond just your book?

Authors can sometimes get fixated on how to market and promote a book (once they have one), which of course is necessary if you're trying to make a living off your writing, but it's tough (and counterproductive) to be constantly selling. It's better to be constantly serving, which leads to genuine interest in you as an expert/authority, and interest in your work.

Fortunately, for nonfiction authors, there can be literally thousands of approaches or ways to twist your idea, depending on time of year, current events, evergreen questions/dilemmas, or serendipitous exchanges.

Check out some of the links below to help you get started.

Always start with the best, Seth Godin: First, ten
How to Succeed at Content Marketing (even if your content skills suck) over at Copyblogger
How to Get Involved in Online Book Promotion (Book Publicity Blog)
Author Lofts and Pyramids of Values (Future Perfect Publishing)
Target, Serve, and Adapt (Tools of Change for Publishing), check out the links on this post, too
50 Ways to Take Your Blog to the Next Level (Chris Brogan)
5 Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don't Use Social Media (ReadWriteWeb)
20 Free eBooks About Social Media (Chris Brogan)

Time to get busy reading!

Photo credit: Jot.Punkt

5 Questions to Ask Yourself After Hearing: We Can't Sell Enough to Justify Publishing It

Jane — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:37:10 GMT

I'm often asked what to do if editors/agents love your work, but respond with a rejection saying that the market is too small. Here are 5 questions to ask yourself.

1. Is there a smaller publisher that would be interested because they have a lower threshold of sales to meet? Big houses may want to sell as many as 10-20K copies in the first year to justify publication; smaller presses may be fine with 3-5K copies.

2. Is it possible to make your subject/topic/book more marketable by employing a sexier hook? Many times, writers aren't looking at their work with a marketer's eye, which is understandable, since most of us aren't marketers. But think about how you might interest a perfect stranger in your topic. Have you really tapped into current trends and interests when it comes to your book project, and are you framing it in an exciting way for a publisher (or agent)? Just because you're fascinated by your subject doesn't mean other people will get it. You have to know how to sell it.

I heard some excellent advice from Lisa Earle McLeod at the Foothills Writers Guild workshop last weekend, which she heard at the beginning of her career: Many talented writers will never be successful due to mediocre marketing skills. Many mediocre writers will be successful due to marketing talent.

Need to brush up on your marketing skills and talent—in a way that's authentic and makes sense for the new media world? Look to Seth Godin and Chris Brogan.

3. Do you have the platform to market and promote your book to the target audience? If a publisher can be convinced that you have the power to sell your book based on your reach to the primary readership of the book, they'll be more likely to take you on. What does a platform consist of? Primarily:

Your online following (via your websites, blogs, social networks, newsletters, regular online writing gigs, podcasts, videocasts)
Your offline following (via professional or personal organizations, speaking engagements, events, classes/teaching, city/region presence)
Your presence in traditional media (writing that you do for newspapers/magazines, any coverage you've received, gigs with radio/TV)

You can find out more about platform building in Get Known Before the Book Deal by Christina Katz.

4. If the market is truly too small for a publisher to be interested, then does it make sense to publish and market the work yourself? Especially if you have a following or a way to reach your intended readership, sometimes you can profit more by going this route. You can make work available digitally through services such as Lulu and Smashwords, with little or no starting cost.

5. Does your work really deserve book or print treatment? Some nonfiction topics actually work better when presented on blogs, websites, or communities/forums—where an interactivity and ability to freshen up the content at a moment's notice has more appeal to your audience.

Traditional houses will only become less and less likely to take on very niche/specialized work, because producing anything in print is a significant investment and a significant risk, without knowing there's an audience waiting to buy. Even university presses, known for niche works, are moving their efforts to digital-only platforms.

Authors will have to change their thinking about what it means to have a book in print. It is not the first goal or the end goal, but merely one channel, and not usually the best channel.

Photo credit: Zevotron

Free Online PDF Guides: Online Marketing

Jane — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:48:58 GMT

Today Alice Pope & I gave a webinar on how authors/writers can effectively market and promote online. (Thanks to everyone who joined us today!)

For webinar attendees as well as those who didn't join us, I'd like to share the following resources that are useful for both beginners and advanced writers.

Penguin Authors Guide to Online Marketing: A free 60+ page PDF guide that helps you get online and get noticed, with info about purchasing domain names, setting up a new site, and using third-party sites.

Get Content. Get Customers: This is a site based on a book by the same name. You can get the table of contents and first chapter free as a PDF document. I didn't get a chance to expand on this topic during the webinar today, but this is a good starting point for learning how to deliver relevant and valuable information that, according to the book's subtitle, "turns prospects into buyers."

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg

WD Editors' Intensive Cheat Sheet

Jane — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 02:39:01 GMT

A huge thanks to all the wonderful writers who are visiting our offices this weekend for Saturday's educational workshops, plus Sunday's critique day. I hope you took away some useful action steps on your path to publication.

As promised, I'm posting some resources and links that we discussed during our time together. If I've missed anything you were hoping for, don't hesitate to comment on the post, and I'll add more info as needed. (And for those attendees who have useful links to share, please post in comments as well.)

Agent/Query Research

Chuck's blog (Guide to Literary Agents)
AgentQuery.com
PublishersMarketplace (fee-based)
Miss Snark
QueryShark

Community Writing & Publishing Sites

Authonomy
WeBook
BookRix

DIY/Self-Publishing Sites (Free/Next to Free)

Smashwords (partnership with Stanza, the iPhone e-reader)
Lulu
Blurb
CreateSpace (Amazon-related)

Blogging and Site Building

Wordpress
GoDaddy (domain registration)
Storytlr
JaneFriedman.com (example of my lifestreaming homepage using Storytlr)

General Social Networking

Facebook (I accept all friend requests; also look for Writer's Digest page)
Twitter (@JaneFriedman and @WritersDigest)
LinkedIn (you can network with me here too)
Ping.fm (to coordinate your status updates among all social networking sites)

Previous & Helpful Blog Posts

Other Events You Might Want to Try

BEA/WD Writers Conference in New York City (May 27), with our pitch slam featuring 60 agents
Our September event on the business of publishing, also in NYC, on the weekend of September 19-20. Details coming, keep checking our events page.

List of Attendees
If you did not receive an e-mail giving you online access to this list, drop me a note.

Interested in the next Writer's Digest Editors' Intensive—on June 20-21? We'll soon be opening for registration here.

Hey, Writers: What's Your Online Strategy? What Are You Waiting For?

Jane — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:09:59 GMT

I recently received this letter from Jane Bretl, an attendee at our Writer's Digest December Editor Intensive event:

I attended the Writer's Digest Editor's Intensive in December. I was the very quiet woman in the back who was soaking up information like a sponge, all the while trying to put together a cohesive, intelligent-sounding question in my head. I never did come up with a satisfactory question to ask; only one nervous joke about twitter, and an overwhelming feeling that every else in the room had a much better handle on what was being discussed. I did not know how much I did not know about the world of publishing until I attended your event. I'm new.

It took me about a month to digest (no pun intended) all the information from that day, but by mid-January I was ready to give it a try. I joined facebook, started a blog and was on my way. Soon, I took your advice and secured the URL of my name and was posting daily. The more I wrote, the more I felt the decades-old writing barriers push away -- the ones that had always held me back from a daily writing habit. I don't want to sound too dramatic, this is just a blog for goodness sake, but I can say that my writing life is dramatically different since the day you inspired me to try something new. I don't know where it will lead me next, but it feels good.

As you have the next Editor's Intensive coming up soon, I wanted say something that may already be obvious, or not -- that everyone who attends, even the quiet lady in the back with the confused look on her face, will walk away with information she can use.

Click here to visit Jane's new site!

I can't tell you what a relief and a delight it was to receive this note, because when I do discuss online tools with writers, sometimes I wonder if I'm suggesting the impossible: to dramatically change your thinking about how you write and interact with readers, agents, editors.

Some writers think they can't make the leap — and therein lies the only problem.

You can make the leap (just as Jane did), and it can have a dramatic improvement in your writing life, whether you're new to the business, or an old pro who simply hasn't yet taken advantage of all the new tools available.

It simply requires an openness.

Looking for some help on the how to part? You can attend one of our intensive events (there are four scheduled this year), or rather than travel to our offices in Cincinnati, you can take our interactive online course on March 31 that teaches you, step-by-step, how to get started with your online writing life (see here for more info). And/or you can keep reading this blog; I'm like a broken record when it comes to authors learning to be savvy online.

Photo credit: pshutterbug

Save Time Tip #2: Write, Share, Collaborate Online (Not Via E-mail)

Jane — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:24:11 GMT

Only recently have I embraced online tools as a way of creating and collaborating on new documents. Some of these tools have the ability to save you extreme amounts of time, depending on how much of your time is spent in document editing and creation.

Google Documents
Imagine what your word processor does. That's the first functionality you can get in Google Docs. You can upload existing Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documents, or you can create original documents. All of the information is stored online, within reach no matter where you go. (FYI, this means it's a great tool for backing up your work.) See below for my Google Documents page. (I blurred out people I'm sharing with for a semblance of privacy.)

Once you have documents in the system, you can:

Invite others to view or collaborate on your document (very automated process)
Export it into a Word or PDF file for use on your machine, among other formats
E-mail the documents to others (in variety of ways)
Publish the document to the Web (in HTML)

Why can this save you time?

If you have a document that you need multiple other people to review, edit, or comment on, you don't have to waste time e-mailing changes/versions back and forth.
If you have a document that is consistently updated or in-progress, everyone can access the most recent version without you distributing it, or others asking for it.
You can have your documents always available to you, away from home, if you have an online connection (this includes mobile devices).

Below is a document-level view (where you edit/write documents). As you can see, if you use any major word-processing software, there's no learning curve here.

Google Notebook
I love Google Notebook. Unfortunately, Google has decided to stop developing it, and is not allowing new people to start using it. But what Notebook does (or did): Helps you clip/save information from anywhere, and organize it in a lovely way. Below is a screenshot of my Notebook.

A few other services that have similar functionality:

Adobe Buzzword
This is a new competitor to Google Documents. It has more functionality related to pagination/printing, if that is important to you.

And Another Reading Tool: ReadItLater
I love this tool. It's a plug-in for your browser that allows you to put a virtual checkmark next to web sites or blog posts that you want to visit again. ReadItLater keeps a running list of checkmarked items, which can be accessed from any computer (once you give your unique identifier). You can also create an RSS feed from your ReadItLater list or download the materials to read offline later, or access it from your mobile.

I'm the kind of person who can open up a couple dozen tabs in a browser—all stuff I want to read/review, and ReadItLater has this cool function where you can send every single tab into its list. No more pressure to plow through all that reading—nor do you have to abandon it. Just save it for later!

What online reading, writing, and collaboration tools do you use? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Perhaps Piracy Is Exactly What Publishing Needs

Jane — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:13:41 GMT

The issue of piracy flared up on this blog a few weeks back, with some readers disagreeing with me about piracy as a potential good thing.

I found the following viewpoint fascinating—inspired by a piece in the Guardian, and shared and commented on at Teleread (a major blog devoted to e-books).

The Guardian said:

To put it less glibly, the publishing industry isn’t being forced to confront a radical shift in consumer behaviour caused by technology, because that scenario just is not happening. Customers aren’t forcing the issue by choosing to abandon books and read pirated text instead. And this means the problem isn’t there to be confronted.

Teleread commented:

Publishers know what’s costing them book sales—it’s the general public’s overall apathy toward reading. There are a few loud complainers about pirates—generally authors, rather than publishers …

Without a pirate threat to fail to “beat,” publishers are under no obligation to “join” them. Which could explain why most of them continue to encumber their books with useless DRM, and to charge more than consumers are usually willing to pay. E-books only account for half of one percent of total book sales, and there is no significant pirate threat to make them get serious.

You can read the full blog post from Teleread here, along with a link to the original Guardian piece.

How the Internet Has Got Publishing By Its Tail

Jane — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:26:22 GMT

I recently did an hour-long interview with the delightful Patricia Volonakis Davis, Editor-in-Chief of Harlots' Sauce Radio. Patricia describes the interview with me as such:

Those of us who read books, and those of us who write them, will be equally enthralled with [this] interview on Harlots’ Sauce Radio this month. You’ll find her savvy in her assessments of the industry’s ‘buzziest’ new toys, such as Authonomy, Smashwords, and Kindle 2, and frank in her judgments of trade dinosaurs like Publishers Weekly.

Click here to go straight to the interview.

Save Time Tip #1: Become More Efficient at Online Reading

Jane — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:12:11 GMT

Writers talk a lot about not having enough time. Not enough time to write. Not enough time to pursue all their ideas. Not enough time to get the job done.

I thought I'd start a series of tips on how you can spend more time doing what you love, and less time fooling around. There are lots of ways people unknowingly waste their time.

Tip #1. (For the love of God): Start using an RSS reader.

Simply put, an RSS reader allows you to read all of your favorite online content in one place, without you visiting 100 different sites, or receiving 100 different alerts, or otherwise sucking away your time.

This is SO important that I'm embedding the following video, "RSS in Plain English."

I use Google Reader to keep up with all my favorite blogs and sites. Here's what it looks like when I login.

On the left, you'll notice that I organize my reading by category, e.g. Google Alerts, Cincinnati, Enrichment, Food, Fun, Publishing. Below that list you see tags that I've used to tag posts, in case I want to see every post related to that topic.

Aside from searching all items, you can also tag your favorite items with stars, mark items as unread, or e-mail items directly from your reader. There's also a cool function with Google Reader where, if you're visiting a site outside your reader, and you'd like to save a particular item (but not subscribe to the site or blog), you can click on a button called "Note in Reader," and it will copy the item for safekeeping into your reader utility.

Now, to save even MORE time, there's a cool plug-in I recommend. First, look below at the Publishing item view from inside my Google Reader.

You'll notice numerical rankings next to each item. This is a Firefox extension related to the site Post Rank, which rates the popularity of postings across the Web. If you subscribe to hundreds (or even thousands) of sites/blogs, this is an excellent way to only read the best stuff.

OK! So now you know what to do:

Make a list of all the blogs/sites you like to read.
Get an RSS reader like Google Reader.
Input the addresses of all the sites into your reader.
You're ready to save loads of time (and have more fun with the information too)!

My Big Rant on Self-Publishing

Jane — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:12:13 GMT

I can't tell you how tired I am of hearing people bash self-publishing. The things I hear usually fall into two categories:

Most self-published books aren't quality
Some self-publishing services are unethical

If you agree with one of the above statements, let me lay it out real clear for you: The landscape is changing, and if you haven't noticed, you're behind the times. This particular blog post addresses the quality issue, because the ethics issue is becoming less of a problem. The moment any self-pub service tries to pull a fast one or do something questionable, it's trumpeted far and wide online. And often it's the people who aren't doing their research and due diligence that get taken advantage of. I'm not saying it's right for this to happen, nor do I condone it, but all industries have bad eggs.

But moving on, consider:

Distribution models are changing. With advancements in technology, and the power now within an average writer's hands, it's not necessary to have physical bookstore distribution to achieve success. (See my interview with Smashwords and Stanza for more on this.)

Traditional publishers now rely on authors to do all the marketing and promotion. It used to be that writers could concentrate on writing and forget about that icky sales and marketing stuff. Well, welcome to the new world. Marketing is now expected from authors. And authors who survive will be the ones who find ways to authentically grow their platform and meaningfully reach their readership.

Communities will decide what books are worthwhile, and communities won't have ego-filled judgments. Publishers will always be giving their authors one thing that is hard to come by: a measure of instant credibility. (That is: Someone thought this was good enough to take a financial risk on.) In good scenarios, there is also collaboration: to make a good book a great book. But soon, communities will have as much power as publishers to decide what books deserve attention. Plus you and I will be more likely to trust judgments coming from people we know and have something in common with, not necessarily The New York Times. It goes back to the whole end of cultural authority.

You're probably thinking, "Oh my god, she's totally in the pocket of the self-publishers and enslaved to them because of their advertising dollars that support the magazine." You can take the cynic's view if you wish and choose to believe that what I write is not authentically my view. But my background is 10 years of traditional book publishing—acting as the gatekeeper. I have a lot of investment in that traditional model. But I know if we [insiders] don't change what we do, we'll become irrelevant, and that's a worse fate.

When I started working for Writer's Digest magazine, one of my first assignments was producing the special newsstand-only issue on self-publishing (called Publishing Success). And I noticed that self-publishing is a hell of a lot of work. You don't get any hand-holding from agents or editors, and you're on your own if you want to be successful. Most people execute it poorly because they are not business people, and they don't have a good grasp on their audience. They're simply writing for themselves (catharsis). But I'm not going to fault the entire self-publishing approach because many people use it as a tool for personal validation (e.g., by publishing a life story, 200,000-word novel, or manifesto).

While at Writer's Digest, I've seen thousands of self-published books come through our Self-Published Book Awards. Ninety-nine percent don't meet my standard of quality for publication. But I can also tell clearly they were a work of passion, and it meant something dearly to people to get it in print. I can be heartless and say, "Well if these people have a book inside them, that's exactly where it should stay," or I can say: "Go ahead, take a chance, get hurt even." Most people, even published authors, have a lot to learn when it comes to what deserves print publication.

You want to have a traditional publisher and a literary agent that you can tout—so you can strut around and call yourself a published author? Go right ahead. But here's the judgment I bring to the table: Does your book sell? Do you have visibility? Or are you living in obscurity? Because I can't tell you often enough: I don't care who published you or how much you were paid for an advance: If you ain't got readers, you ain't got love, you ain't got money, you ain't got a future in publishing.

It is exciting to be able to publish a book virtually within 5 minutes with the new services available (through Amazon & Kindle, through Smashwords-Stanza-iPhone, through Lulu, and others). Yes, it will lead to an unbelievable amount of media detritus. But we have the tools today to find what we want and ignore the rest.

Photo credit: jerine

Are You Annoyed When Told to Visit a Website (While Reading Print)?

Jane — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:19:01 GMT

I received my first piece of reader mail in response to my article "Straight Expectations" in WD's March/April 2009 issue, which gives the official Writer's Digest stance on whether or not writers should self-publish. (The conclusion, of course, is that it depends on your goals and expectations from publishing.)

As part of our self-publishing feature package, we told readers they could find information on 60 self-publishing services at our site.

Leonard R. Cook from Goleta, California, sent me a snail-mail letter, saying:

ABC, and I suspect CBS and NBC, have a rather annoying ploy of, instead of telling it like it is, referring one to their website. Actually, the BBC also has one and I believe they began theirs because of the network news ploy. They thought they were missing out on something. So they don't tell the news story. They advertise the story and then presumably detail it on their website. I've never looked to find out.

In your article, you refer to 60 self-publishers on your website, where more information is just a click away. Why? Since you publish a magazine, why is "more information just a click away." Why isn't information "right here"? Does the information get contaminated if it's printed in your magazine? Do you get some kind of royalty if a reader puts down his magazine, goes over to his table, turns on his computer, searches for your website, and then scans the information? Or do two pages cost that much to print?

I don't know about you, but when I watch the TV newscasts, I don't surf the web at the same time. It could appear to be a case of laziness on my part, or on the other hand, what does it appear to be on your part? I've broached this question to several media persons with the same response, nothing!

This letter raises many issues I could address, but first I'll start with a direct answer to Leonard's question of why we didn't print this information in the magazine. There are two key reasons:

We do have limited space in our print publication, and it is in fact expensive to add pages. Print is precious, and we felt we had better things to offer in print.
We decided that information of this type is better delivered online, so you can click right through to any of these service's Web sites, or save the information on your computer for later access. This information is also likely to go out-of-date quickly, so having it online means we can revise it.

But there are also more wide-ranging reasons for magazines to direct people to their sites, and Leonard mentions one (the so-called royalty):

Magazine readers who go online indicates a very engaged and involved readership, which is attractive to both print and online advertisers.
Generating traffic on our website has many benefits (whether the traffic comes from print readers or online searchers); it helps us generate advertising revenue, and also brings us more readers in the long term (people who find our content online and decide they want the print product too)
For regular readers of this blog, it goes without saying that print is endangered. Relying on print is a doomed business model, but it's not enough to simply mimic what you have in print in an online setting. They are two different mediums or vehicles. Each should be a distinct experience and not try to replicate the other.

That said, I am sympathetic to Leonard's complaint that lots of good content is being pushed online rather than presented in print. As a subscriber to about a dozen magazines, I do have a little inner cringe every time I start reading a print magazine and see plentiful references to great online exclusive interviews, videos, etc. I'm annoyed, but not so much because it exists—more because I don't have that much time. There's no way I'm going to cover everything. I have noticed, though, if I'm really interested in exploring a topic or piece further, I love it if a publication provides a way for me to go online and get more.

On a final note, there are definitely some generational differences at work here. For example, I don't own a TV today, but when I did, I would regularly be working on the laptop while watching news, entertainment, anything. I wonder what percentage of people today can still watch television while NOT Twittering, or surfing Facebook, or browsing sites.

I hope one day Leonard reads this response to his letter. He didn't include an e-mail address, only his phone number. I'm definitely not going to call, and blogging about his letter is a better use of time (a community opportunity that benefits many)—rather than responding to him alone. I have a feeling many of his questions would be answered if he experienced the manner of my response.

Photo credit: DWZ

Book Reading (and Writing): Is It a Fundamental Human Need?

Jane — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:27:09 GMT

I don't like the term e-book very much. I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean in the long run. We even have trouble defining what it means in book publishing contracts.

Usually when I think of books, I think of a distinct experience where I slow down and focus my attention on something without filtering multiple streams of information or trying to accomplish an "items read" goal; it's a communion between me and the author. When I think "book," that's what I envision, and it matters little to me if I'm reading that book on paper, on a screen, over someone's shoulder.

(Compare this to the experience of online-based reading: The Atlantic published a 2008 article asking if Google was making us stupid because it changes the way we read and process information.)

People much smarter than I are predicting that the way we experience books will transform into more of a social, interactive experience, or an enriched multimedia experience, with opportunities to read and comment on the "book" (or the content) and watch others comment and respond at the same time as we do. The catchy idea in publishing circles is that books are community-driven, and if you take this idea to its furthest reaches, then the book simply becomes a way for people to connect, quite remote from the traditional reading experience of digesting and reflecting in relative solitude (although my closest friends know how I love to read things out loud from New Yorker articles when I'm charmed or amazed).

I do wonder, though, if there will be two different paths for "books" (and it pains me that I'm putting "book" in quotation marks): books that tell stories and books that offer information.

It makes sense that nonfiction books meant primarily to inform can immensely benefit from being built on communities and having continual interaction/experiences, since information is always changing, being updated, being improved upon. There's always more to say, more to discover.

But books that tell stories (and I'm thinking primarily of novels), this is more about artistry and entertainment: While we may want to discuss stories after we've finished reading them, it's hard for me to envision the enjoyment of a story transforming into something we would not readily recognize today. Great stories require that you get lost in the experience (no matter the vehicle of that experience, even if it's listening to the story rather than reading it, or digesting it in chunks on a mobile phone).

It's the difference between being entertained (and to some extent escaping daily life), versus having to think, analyze, and study information (the process of learning, of education).

Recently I received a book written by 9-year-old Mia (The Conductor's daughter). As you can see from the photo above, the title is Cats Will Do Things You Won't Do. (For the curious, one of the things cats will do that you won't is triumph.)

Mia has written half a dozen books, loves to read books, and loves being read to. (The latest book that we're reading together is Alice in Wonderland, off my iPhone of course.) The other night she exclaimed (during the Oscars), "I love books! I hope there will always be books. I want to write books!"

Mia doesn't have an agenda. She doesn't know or care about the debates going on in publishing circles about the survival of publishing and what will happen to books. It doesn't matter to her if the books are on paper or on some gadget. All she cares about: (1) is the book fun to read, and (2) can she stay up late finishing her book without getting in trouble with her dad?

Yes, Mia, I hope there are books in the future. I am reasonably confident there will be—or if not books specifically, then stories that we experience. We will always want to enjoy stories (see some perspectives from Paul Auster and Scientific American here and here).

Handling Digital/Electronic Rights to Your Shorter Works

Jane — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 20:03:28 GMT

A reader of this blog (and MWW member!), Cathy Shouse, wrote to ask:

The Saturday Evening Post is buying first rights to my financial articles and are also including the right to put them on their website. They are archiving them and I'm concerned no one will want them in reprints or as chapters in a book since they're online. The topic of finances makes it a greater challenge to simply rewrite the stories.

This is an area with no easy answers, mainly because there are so many variables (the writer, the piece, the publication, the audience). The key considerations are:

Do you stand to earn a lot of money through reprints? Is it something you could re-use profitably and/or re-sell profitably for a long time to come?
Will the material go out of date quickly?
What were you paid for first rights? Is it appropriate for the additional archiving rights they are taking?
Does exposure with this publication (or through its site) help send more work your way in the long run? A highly trafficked or highly respected site might help bring your expertise to the attention of others.
Does it feel thrilling to think you'll always link to this piece (or this site) from your own blog or site?

In general, here's what I recommend.

If a publication asks for digital/electronic rights that include archiving or indefinite availability on their site, at the very least ask for a nonexclusive agreement so you can continue to use, post, or sell the material.
Ask for a contractual way out of these arrangements if you're particularly concerned about the use. E.g., within 30 days of your request, the publication has to remove the material from their site.
You may not have a problem reselling material that's posted online, especially if you're reselling to a very different site, media/platform, or audience with little crosssover. (For example, let's say this same piece would be absolutely perfect for the print edition of Plumber's Digest, whose audience doesn't even read or know about the Saturday Evening Post site.)
Most book publishers will not be concerned if portions of your work appear online for free. People consume information in different ways, and find information in different ways. Just because your material is freely available online doesn't mean (a) everyone knows it's there or (b) won't buy a book for the better reading experience or the convenience.

I would love to hear comments from readers who have had either good or bad experiences with selling electronic rights to their work. Do you think it can be helpful or harmful?

Photo credit: James Paul Long (from the London Book Fair rights center)

More Books on Phones (and Other News for Writers)

Jane — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:00:35 GMT

It's Friday, time for a little reading break, so I'm sharing with you the latest interesting news I've digested this week.

Just today, the New York Times reported that Amazon is looking at offering Kindle books on the iPhone. Huge! Google also now has titles from Google Book Search available on mobile devices.
Smashwords will be the first to release Dan Poynter's new book about self-publishing. You can catch an interview with Poynter over at the Smashwords blog. My favorite quote from Dan: "Social networking is the ideal way for authors to promote their books. You can get the word out while discussing your favorite subject with colleagues all over the world. BTW, social networking has been around since the campfire. It is simply discussing your favorite subject with your friends. Today we have social media. We can reach our colleagues via the Internet and mobile phone systems. People anywhere in the world can join the campfire."
Which comes first, the product or the marketing? This brief post by Seth Godin is at the heart of what aspiring authors need to remember, especially those considering the indie route. (Freedom to publish yourself comes with great responsibility—if you want to be read, that is.)
Thinking about ways to build platform? As always, Chris Brogan offers tools and questions to think about as you survey the web for inspiration and direction, "57 Internet Possibilities to Investigate."
This blog has been very heavy on e-book commentary lately (due to my life's iPhone Renaissance). Here's an article for those of you wondering how anyone ever finds and reads e-books, and what factors you need to consider before publishing one.
Finally: a couple mainstream media articles on publishing e-books (Christian Science Monitor) and podcasting your book (Time magazine).

Photo credit: KB35

Blogging Services for Writers to Try

Jane — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:03:44 GMT

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about meaningful blogging, one of the writing community staff (thanks, Winter!) recommended that I link to a few services where you can start a blog. Here are my favorites.

Wordpress. You can either start a blog for free, hosted by Wordpress, or you can install their blogging software for free on the back-end of your own website (if you're savvy enough to be running your own site).
Blogger. Editor Alice Pope swears by Blogger. It's also a free service, and if you already have a Gmail/Google account, you can get started even faster.
You can also check out Typepad and LiveJournal.

How Writers Can Start Blogging in a Meaningful Way

Jane — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:35:31 GMT

Last week, one of my webinar participants from 3 Secrets to Getting Your Nonfiction Book Published asked a question about blogging (in the comments section of this post):

You indicated today that blogging and/or creating a website to discuss my ... uh, area of interest is likely the best route. So, how do I "start" a blog? Does it need to be focussed, or can I start with say, "ponderings"? My book idea was, unfortunately, one of those memoir/self-help hybrids ... Hence the need, as you suggested, for a blog, to "create waves" and get a feel for the audience(s), and even really, to figure out what it is that I want to write about. In short, I want to learn the how to and where of blogging. I have absolutely no shortage of ideas, likely aimed at 40ish-woman-mother-student-goddess-doormat types. I also have a growing file of 1000-wd essays on everything from pretty-wine-label philosophy to chocolate penis envy to (s)mothering teenagers ... Please, Jane, help me blog.

First, there were several very helpful comments from readers (see end of this post)—and my thanks to them for sharing their experience.

Second, there isn't really a wrong way to start a blog, though it can become a distraction or something that's not really adding to your writing career or writing life (I'm particularly thinking of unpublished writers as I write this). As with so many things, it all comes down to your goals. Here are the most common goals associated with blogs started by writers seeking publication.

Creative outlet/inspiration. Blogging can be the one place where you can let yourself go without all the pressure, responsibility, and fear that's often associated with pursuing publication. Sometimes it can help you find your voice, or help you find what really matters to you. Plus, over time, it hones your writing skills, especially when you pay attention to which of your posts garner the most traffic and try to replicate a meaningful experience for your readers. It trains you to pay attention to what your readers like. Sometimes people start with no greater desire than this, but later find themselves in platform-building territory (#3) if they find a more specific focus or direction to the material.
Market testing and content development. When it comes to nonfiction, blogs in your area of expertise can be a way to interact with your audience and test ideas with them. Some books have appeared in rough discussion form on blogs, almost like a first pass of ideas, and become what they are through interaction with readers. (Chris Anderson is one of the biggest examples.)
Platform building and getting known. In some ways, this is similar to #2, but I would distinguish this as writing and delivering content that may or may not be book-specific. Its goal is to cultivate and grow your audience for any/all of your work, not a particular project. You can also essentially self-publish small chunks of your work (if you're able to handily craft them into blog posts), and if your work has an outstanding quality to it, and you have a strong readership, you might make the kind of waves that attract agents/editors to your door.
Community creation. This applies more to nonfiction, but a blog can help bring together a network of people in a new way. For instance, I read a blog called Cincinnati Imports that's for Cincinnati folk who aren't native to the area. (There's a long-standing cliche that it's hard to meet people in this town, since so many Cincinnatians have lived here their whole lives and tend to be an insular bunch. I will not enter the fray.)

While it's NOT mandatory that every writer blog, every writer does need to have a website of some kind, to make them visible online, and that website can take the form of a blog, or it can be a more static website. (And if you have any kind of decent blog platform, e.g., Wordpress, you'll have something that's called a blog-plus site, which has the blog as the primary site function and focus, but also allows for static pages/content, like a bio or list of publications. So don't feel the need to create ANOTHER site if you have a blog.)

OK, aside from that, these two bits of advice should save you from going down a painful road.

I recommend every writer give blogging a try, but if you don't like it, don't force it. Spend your time on something you do care about. There are many ways to build a platform aside from blogging.
"Just start," says Garland (in the comments). Amen. You don't have to get it right from the start. It doesn't have to be perfect. It WILL evolve. That's a good thing. You get to decide how this works. Do what feels authentic and productive and good. Don't do what feels like punishment or work.

Deborah also left a comment that's very insightful:

I actually have numerous blogs. It's a way that I test myself to see what I have the passion to write. If you look at my list of blogs and see which one has 300+ posts, it's pretty obvious. That blog gets about 100 visitors a day, and each post gets several comments. The other blogs don't have very many posts or readers. If they get 2 or 3 readers a day, that's great.

As a final note, you'll find incredibly rich content on blogging over at Chris Brogan's site. Good luck!

Photo credit: Annie Mole

Should Writers Worry About the Pirating of E-Books?

Jane — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:54:37 GMT

Many unpublished writers worry that their ideas will get stolen, or that their work will get stolen before it reaches publication. I always counsel writers to stop this unproductive thinking. First, writing isn't exactly a lucrative thing to steal. It is not a highly profitable venture to steal unpublished novel manuscripts. Second, given the extremely low success rate when pitching editors/agents, who wants to undertake the burden of selling an unpublished novel? (Not to mention anyone who steals work is likely to be exposed sooner or later.)

However, with the advent of e-books, there is a new concern that writers will lose out on sales if the files aren't adequately protected (the whole DRM issue, which has been eloquently and passionately discussed over at Booksquare).

Sandy James mentions this worry in a comment in my post Do Writers' Futures Lie in Indie E-Publishing Platforms?

My first five books are all ebooks, although they will eventually hit print. … I have signed with a great agent, and I hope to expand my fanbase by publishing with larger houses. But these ebooks were a fantastic way to get my foot in the proverbial door. I learned about the publishing process, how to handle edits, how to work with cover designers, etc... All of my books are given a great edit, they are available from many outlets, and all will be in print only a few months after the ebook release.

As far as worries -- pirating is at the top of my list. I suppose ebooks are as vulnerable as music files, and we all know about how easily data is passed around. Think the Napster debacle or the Google settlement. On the other hand, how is that any different than one person buying a book and loaning it to her friends? Either way, it's a loss of income for an author and publisher.

Now, I freely admit that I tend to worry a lot less than other people. I tend to think that the more unreservedly you give, the more you will receive. People notice, respect, and reward generosity. And I think this has proven out even in the music industry.

We've seen it happen in the book industry, too. When Suze Orman's book was available free from Oprah's website (to coincide with a show appearance), the book returned to the No. 1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list.

Giving things away for free, or at the very least, giving away a large portion of your work for free (to hook people and prove the value), leads to more sales. When your work is passed around for free, other people are doing your marketing for you. Presumably a new audience is being exposed to your work.

What is your experience? Does free sell?

Photo credit: St_A_Sh

Do Writers' Futures Lie in Indie E-Publishing Platforms?

Jane — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:36:51 GMT

The March/April issue of Writer’s Digest magazine hits newsstands in the week ahead; its feature package focuses on self-publishing. While the issue touches on all forms of self-publishing—print as well as digital/electronic—we could do an entire issue devoted to the evolving models for online or digital self-publishing.

We also closed the issue before the partnership announcement between Stanza and Smashwords. You’re probably thinking, Why do I care about the partnership of two companies I’ve never heard of?

True, it wasn’t until I had an iPhone that I became really aware of these two companies and understood what was happening.

Here are the basics:

The iPhone is a mobile device that’s used by nearly 20 million people.
Stanza is a popular e-book reader you can use on your iPhone (you download it for free directly from your phone).
Smashwords is a self-publishing company that publishes e-books only. You can use their service without any upfront cost, plus you can make your book available for as little or as much as you want (even for free).
Smashwords + Stanza means your self-published work can be available to millions of people, or at least the 1 million people who have downloaded the Stanza application onto their iPhones, as of January 2009.

Big-picture, what does this mean for writers? We’re starting to see the eradication of distribution barriers to self-published works. If authors can effectively spread the word about their work, then it can be quickly, easily, and inexpensively downloaded on a very popular device.

I find it intoxicating. All of this is quite new, but also instantly transformative. Smashwords debuted in early 2008; Stanza became available on the iPhone in July 2008. (You can see the impact Stanza has had on the reading and publishing community by reviewing the headlines on their news page.)

So I took some time to talk on the phone with Smashwords founder, Mark Coker, as well as Lexcycle’s COO, Neelan Choksi. Here’s some of what they had to say.

Interview with Mark Coker at Smashwords

I’m just now realizing the power of the iPhone and Stanza. I admit, I didn’t really comprehend the e-book universe until recently.

Stanza has become a really powerful reading platform. If you talk to core e-book reading enthusiasts, they'll tell you that the iPhone is nothing new, but I think what we're starting to see is we're expanding beyond those early adopters to the mainstream. Especially with Oprah talking about the Kindle, that opens people's eyes.

Reading on paper is a prejudice we're up against. But when people try it, they have a wow moment, kind of this religious experience. My first experience with the Kindle was on Waikiki beach … and I brought it on my vacation, and I booted it up, and I went to the bookstore, and I downloaded samples of different books. It was easy and within 10 minutes I had purchased my first book. You can bring the bookstore anywhere, you can bring your library anywhere, and you can have your book your way.

E-books still only account for about 1% of all book sales, probably less. There's a lot of upside—it's going to happen, it's going to continue to grow in a big way, regardless of what happens with the traditional print industry.

What we're seeing with e-books is what we saw with blogging several years ago—the same prejudices in the media, but we saw what happened in the blogosphere. There are a lot of talented people in the world, and until some of these technologies came along, they just did not have a voice or a chance to show their talent.

A lot of writers or authors ask me: Will they be able to earn the same kind of living if e-books start to replace traditional print book sales?

Writing is going to become more profitable for more authors. Even if e-books continue to become widely successful, print books aren't going to go away. The authors that are currently successful in print will continue to be successful in print. If you look at the current book industry supply chain, from author to reader, it’s author-agent-editor-publisher-packager-distributor-warehouser-bookstore. There are a lot of costs associated with that supply chain. It's a big cost to ship dead trees. There are a lot of costs that can be cut when you go digital. The costs of producing a digital book, or the costs of producing one more copy, are zero. If the book is going to be professionally edited and vetted by an editor, there are still those costs. But when you eliminate all these other costs, like returns, you can dramatically lower the cost of the book to the customer and at the same time dramatically increase the profitability to the publisher or the author.

Another thing that gets me excited about Smashwords is the lower cost of books. Most of the books are $3, many are free. Print books averaging $14.95 are unaffordable to the vast majority of people on this earth. It's really cool to think that if we can lower the cost of books, then we can lower the barrier to unleash a new era of literacy and culture and information sharing.

We'll always have commercial books and we need them, and we need a way for authors to profit from their works.

Longer term, like a year or two, my hope is that Smashwords will start attracting some established authors who choose to go the independent route for their next book or choose to keep the digital rights and publish it on their own.

For authors who choose to self-publish, are e-books a better option?

Print is a very important format. Authors should provide to the consumer whatever the consumer wants to have. Authors should continue to publish in print and also publish in a digital format.

The biggest threat facing all authors is obscurity. This is another exciting thing about digital books, making them accessible in an entirely different way. I think is print wonderful—but they're different things.

Books have always been sold via word of mouth. The Internet is an ideal word of mouth tool. We've added simple things to make it easy for people to share their books on social networks. If the book is truly great, it can find an audience.

In the next five years, I think it's fair to say we're going to see fewer bookstores out there. As bookstores disappear, it reduces exposure opportunities for authors who are lucky enough to be part of that system. And it also hurts publishers. It's happening already today—we're going to see fewer bookstores, few publishers, and publishers publishing few books, at least under the traditional system. So I think we're going to see publishers making more interesting use of digital, more use of POD, and more authors aspiring to be independent from the beginning.

Our focus as a digital publishing platform is to provide all authors the tools they need to publish, promote, and sell their books and we hope that it’s an enabling force to unleash a torrent of new talented content out there. I can't stress it enough, though: Authors need to be realistic. This is not a get-rich quick thing. It's always been difficult to sell a book, and as an indie author, it's even more difficult. Authors who invest their time and energy into this will be rewarded for it.

Interview with Neelan Choksi, COO of Lexcycle (creator of Stanza)

I see a lot about reader response and awareness of e-books, but I wonder if writers or authors also understand what’s happening, and are using the iPhone and Stanza?

The writers are pretty cognizant of what's going on, or at least they're learning about it. There's enough mainstreaming of what's happened. As soon as you get Oprah talking about the Kindle and by extension e-books, you've just mainstreamed the whole thing. I do believe that writers are very aware of it, and it may be going from genre to genre at different paces. For example, sci-fi and romance, as is often the case, are leading the charge. We first read about Stanza and romance on someone's blog; they had gotten an early edition from an author using Stanza on their iPhone. That’s one example; there's a lot of examples, where individuals are starting to figure it out.

We get pretty regular e-mails or calls or conversations with authors. With Random House, there's a promotion happening and a bunch of others are doing the same promotion. They went to about a half dozen of their authors and said: We can make your backlist titles available on Stanza for free, plus an excerpt of your upcoming book for free, and it will be a way of getting new readers learning about you as an author. Cory Doctorow made that model unbelievably famous.

And example of another conversation I had with an author—with everything that's happening in the big houses from a publishing perspective—there's all of this upheaval. Part of what's happening is that the blockbuster authors will always get the attention of the publishers, but there's a level that now just aren't. More than 300,000 copies of this author’s book will sell, and his comment was that he didn't believe his next book was going to get the attention from his publisher. He was thinking about creating his own publishing house. I mentioned Smashwords to him, here's a really interesting model. How many books would you have had to sell with your original publisher to make the same money as you would with Smashwords?

Some big author is going to go this indie route, either as a threat, or as something they truly believe in. Someone's going to do it simply because the numbers make sense.

None of this would have happened if digital publishing hadn't reached this inflection point. The numbers still aren't that big ($44 million sold in the United States), and aren't particularly compelling when compared to the traditional industry. But I think a million isn't a number that anyone expected us to have at this point.

Can you give any insight into what genres or categories are selling the best through Stanza onto the iPhone?

I fully expect the breakdown to look just like the rest of America’s book sales. Right now, there's a lot of interest in politics and government and Obama.

Remember this company is about a year old. The desktop version of Stanza for Mac was basically supposed to take content and covert and upload it to a Kindle, primarily for people's personal documents. The iPhone Stanza app released in July 2008 with just free books—a strategic decision because we felt there would be push back. … We thought the best thing was to put no barriers in the way of adoption.

What’s been the biggest surprise for you?

We had no anticipation we would hit 1 million downloads in 5.5 months. The adoption has probably been one of the biggest surprises of all.

The industry itself right now is in a situation that all ships rise with the tide. Maybe really the surprise was how much marketing Amazon was going to do, how much marketing Sony was going to do, and all of the new devices that are coming out. … It just feels like there's so much momentum behind it.

Also, one of our most commented on features is the simple fact that when you reopen Stanza on iPhone, it takes you right back to the last page you were on and the last book you were in. You don't have a problem with reading five pages worth of material while standing the grocery store line. You get immediately back to where you were, and you know as soon as you shut it down or take a call, you know when you open up Stanza, you'll go back to that same spot. It's a bookmark essentially.

We've done a survey on our site and the primary places that people read using stanza are (1) bed (2) commuting (3) waiting areas.

That was a big surprise for a lot of people, iPhone use in bed.

—————

I'd love your comments about your experience either reading e-books or writing/selling/promoting e-books. What's most exciting about it, and if you're a writer, what causes you the most worry?

BUT I Can't Curl Up With an E-Book in Bed (and Other Fake Arguments Against the Future)

Jane — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:30:21 GMT

Can you dramatically and meaningfully improve your life overnight with one purchase?

I did.

I am now on Day 11 of my New Improved Life With iPhone.

I used to poo-poo all-in-one mobile devices. My thinking was that if I wanted to take a picture, I wanted my camera. If I wanted to read e-mail or surf the web, I wanted my laptop. If I wanted to listen to music, ... etc.

I don't know where this inane thinking came from. Perhaps I can be forgiven, because at that time no device like the iPhone existed.

I have also been skeptical of e-book devices and reading on mobiles, despite the trends that I see in the rest of the world (primarily Japan). I used to trot out the same cliches as everyone else: you can't curl up with an e-book, you can't flip through it easily or take notes, or my favorite, "there's just something about the feel of paper."

Well, let me tell you, there's just something about the feel of an iPhone, and I keep it within arm's reach when I sleep. (In fact, The Conductor asked me last night, as I climbed into bed, if I had properly tucked in my iPhone. Indeed I had!)

Here's an example of all the ways I used my iPhone this past Saturday, when I day-tripped to see a friend in Jeffersonville, Ind.:

Woke up to the alarm I had set
Text-messaged with my friend to confirm arrival time
Input my destination address into iPhone, to get live GPS directions
Played music and podcasts through hook-up in car
Played music through friend's stereo system, and also just from the device
Had my picture taken in Jeffersonville and e-mailed it (see below)
Checked e-mail

During this trip, I could have also:

Taken phone calls obviously, but I don't like talking on the phone
Checked and made additions to my work/personal calendar
Used instant messaging systems like AIM
Updated my Facebook or Twitter status
Posted to my blog
Read an e-book
Caught up on my Google Reader feeds
Played more cowbell (see here)
Found the best place to have dinner and a drink in Jeffersonville

Do I read in bed with my iPhone? Absolutely.
Will people read digital books in bed? Of course.

Will print books continue? Yes, but I tend to agree with Seth Godin on his proclamation that books will become souvenirs.

So I want to know: Who else cuddles with their iPhone?

8 Articles/Posts All Writers Should Have Read in 2008

Jane — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:37:48 GMT

The eBook Problem and The eBook Solution (Booksquare)
Read it for a basic understanding of the issues related to e-book publishing and distribution. When Kassia Krozser leads by saying that e-books will not be the next big thing, though, that's not really the point of the article. Just keep reading.

Story vs. Book: The Future of Publishing (Booksquare)
Another from Krozser that offers a perspective on why the traditional publishing industry must change its model to survive, and how the author's role changes too.

Essential Points in the Free Debate (Tools of Change for Publishing)
I tell writers that giving stuff away for free is not to be feared. It always results in more sales for the physical book or for other products. This article has a nice summary of the overall free debate; this issue is just going to become more important.

A Book Publisher's Manifesto for the 21st Century (The Digitalist)
When you click the link, you'll find a blog post that will prompt you to download a PDF that contains the manifesto. It's probably the most comprehensive article of the year on how publishing will change.

The 21st Century Writer (The Futurist)
An article about the future of publishing that focuses squarely on the author's point of view.

The Kindle and The iPhone Dance (Publishing Frontier)
An easy to understand dissection of these two devices from a book perspective.

50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice (Chris Brogan)
Social media expert Chris Brogan offers a checklist that's invaluable to any author building an online platform.

How Content Marketing Will Shake the Tree (Chris Brogan)
Another great post from Chris Brogan that can help authors understand how to use their content to both sell books and build a platform. It's geared toward businesses, but easily adapted by individuals.

What articles did you read in 2008 that you still remember or have kept handy?
Share in the comments section.

Cool Map of Digital Landscape!

Jane — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:52:46 GMT

While reading Mark Coker's blog (for Smashwords), I stumbled upon this wonderful map of the digital publishing landscape. Even though it's in Spanish, it offers an amazing visual of the new publishing universe. It also makes me want to run out and buy an iPhone, though that's also encouraged by my recent research into ebook readers on mobile devices!

(The Spanish blog originating this map is here. Go there for the large version.)

Using Twitter: Do You Have Tips?

Jane — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:50:14 GMT

After perusing this directory of publishing industry people on Twitter, I finally created a Twitter account for the Writer's Digest community (@WritersDigest if you would like to follow, and @JaneFriedman if you would like to specifically follow me).

I have been quite lax in using Twitter; right now I prefer Facebook and blogging. If I consistently and thoroughly followed everyone I'm interested in (probably more than several hundred people), I sense it would be like drinking from a fire hose—and would I be able to accomplish anything if distracted every 5-10 minutes by updates?

I wonder how both unpublished and published writers are using Twitter. Do you have a Twitter account? Are you actively using it? And if so, has it changed anything about your writing and publishing life? What tips do you have for other writers?

Will You Be at the Presidential Inauguration? Write & Publish About It

Jane — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:14:09 GMT

The March/April 2009 issue of Writer's Digest magazine (which will soon be available to subscribers and on-sale at newsstands) focuses on self-publishing, and includes mention of some innovative publishing models that are starting to heat up. One of them is WeBook, which is a little difficult to explain (they call it "the home of community-sourced books), but here's a perfect example of the power of this model:

WeBook, in honor of the presidential inauguration, is publishing a collection of Obama inauguration stories, "told by real people in their own words." You can submit your story anytime between January 20, 2009 – Midnight EST January 21, 2009, at WeBook.com, and WeBook wil publish the book within two weeks using digital printing by CreateSpace (an Amazon company), and sell it for $9.99. All profits from the project are donated to 826 National, and WeBook is asking contributors to the collection to donate their royalties as well.

Clikc here for the full detail.

You have to sign-up with WeBook to submit your story for consideration, and if your story is selected, you'll have to sign a publishing agreement stipulating how you will be paid and what rights are being purchased. (I was not able to find a copy of such an agreement, but be sure to read any publishing contract carefully before signing.)

Thanks to Everyone Who Participated in WD's First Webinar

Jane — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:39:44 GMT

Welcome to all the webinar participants from today's free session: 5 Tips to Getting Published in Tough Times! Here are links to the sites I recommended in my presentation:

Also: Our first paid webinar will be on January 15, all about landing an agent, by Chuck Sambuchino ($99).

And I will be hosting a 90-minute session of January 29 on secrets to getting your nonfiction book published.

5 Tips for Your Writing Career in a Difficult Time

Jane — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:58:57 GMT

Over at Writers on the Rise, I'm interviewed about the changes happening in the media industry. Here's a brief snippet, but click the link for the 5 tips:

Writers must be involved with online life and expect to provide online content, and have an online presence. I’d say your career will come to an abrupt halt in a few years if you’re not willing to participate, market, promote, or engage in online activities and audiences.