The What’s What of Writers’ Groups

From time to time one of my readers will ask me to write about a particular topic, which I love (so go ahead and request away!) This writer's request was about how to start a writers’ group. Unless you know some writers you respect enough to want to get together with on a regular basis, or you get invited to join a group, knowing where to start can actually be a pretty daunting task.

Starting your own group
There are a few different possibilities here.
1. Email friends and friends of friends to gauge interest. Maybe people in your immediate circle have been writing for years and you don’t even know it. Too many writers can keep their passions and talents on the down-low, so don’t assume you don’t know any writers just because people aren’t sharing their work with you on a regular basis.

2. Go to your local bookstore (preferably an indie, since they’re way more involved with the community than your average Barnes & Noble). Ask the person who works there if they know of any local writing groups, or if they’d be willing to post something for you on their bulletin boards—physical or online.

3. Find out if you have a local writers club. I live in California, and the California Writers Club has eighteen branch websites! This is a great way to meet other writers. Attend their meetings and see who you connect with. You may find an immediate connection and grow from there.

4. If you want to work within a particular genre, consider looking into memoir groups, or fiction groups. The National Association of Memoir Writers, run by Linda Joy Myers, offers regular teleseminars (I’m going to be leading one in March 2010, so stay tuned) and workshops. This is a great place to connect with other writers who are doing memoir, and possibly to develop a group based on the connections you make there. A fun fiction outlet is National Novel Writing Month (popularly known as NaNoWriMo). This would be a good place to connect with other fiction writers online. Anyone who attempts to write a novel in a month demonstrates at least a willingness to throw themselves into something headfirst. And those might be your kind of people, just waiting for something more long-term to come along.

5. Go to book readings and strike up a conversation with the people there. You’re very likely to find writers at readings. It’s just the way it goes. Writers and book people attend lots and lots of readings!

A word of caution
I’d advise you against posting on Craigslist or Meet-up groups. I'm sure there are a number of success stories out there, but you’re most likely going to have better luck going with one of the abovementioned strategies. The group you’re creating has to be a safe space where you can feel free to share your most intimate stories and self. It can feel very vulnerable to share your writing with others, so going about finding a group you really mesh with is important---and it might take some time.

What are the parameters of your group?
Before you even start looking for people to join your group, know the answer to the following questions and get clear on what you want. Write down your answers so that you remember what you want, and so you bring to you the group you want to be a part of.
• How many people do I want in my group?
• Do I want men and women in my group?
• How often would I like my group to meet?
• Do I want writers who write in any genre, or only in my genre?
• Do I care if the people in my group are at different experience levels?
• Do I require a certain level of discipline from the other writers in my group?
• Do I expect my group to be a critique group or a support group?

Some things to consider for your first meeting (or even before your first meeting):
Make sure you take your first meeting to discuss the expectations of the group.
• What kind of feedback does each person want?
• Do you all agree to send writing ahead of the meeting and read beforehand, or will you read at the beginning of the meeting?
• Will you go around and discuss each person’s writing each meeting, or will you focus on one person per meeting?

You may also decide to create a confidentiality agreement. This can be in writing or verbal, but I recommend it as a way to honor the space you will be inhabiting with your fellow writers. The confidentiality agreement simply states that you all agree that what you are sharing is for the eyes of the group only and that no one in the group will discuss the writing or what’s shared outside of your group. It should be clear why a confidentiality agreement is important, but don’t just assume it. Speaking your intentions will get your group off on the right track.


Good luck and may you find a group that supports you or challenges you or simply helps to keep you writing!


I’d like to thank Linda Joy Myers of The National Association of Memoir Writers for her input on this post.


Until next month.

Brooke

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Brooke on Being Woman---a radio show with Sara Connell

This is an hour-long radio show I did with Sara Connell, who hosts Being Woman: A Journey and an Experience. This was a conversation about women and the creative process. I invite you to listen here or download it here. Go to the bottom of the page. It's Episode 3.

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Getting Comfortable with Self-Promotion

Because there was so much to cover in the self-publishing breakdown for my September newsletter, I wanted to take this month to follow up with Part 2: self-promotion, publicity, and marketing your book.

The fact is that publicity and marketing isn’t going to look so different whether you’re a self-published author or an author with a book deal. Nowadays EVERYONE needs to do their own publicity. (The reason for this is yet another blog post.)

Most new writers wonder where to start, but the first question, really, is when to start. Answer: Start today. There are some easy and effective things you can do to start to at least get your feet wet.

#1. If you don’t have a blog, start one.
Free blog sites include:
Blogspot (what this site is on)
Tumblr
Typepad
Wordpress

#2. Start a profile on Facebook and start building up your friend base.

#3. Get up and running on Twitter. Good news! You can link your Facebook status updates to Twitter, which means that you only have to update Facebook and you’ll be tweeting automatically.

Most writers understand the value of being online, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time trying to convince you of its merits. It is important. And it can be less daunting than it seems. One word of advice: Start slow. If you don't even know what "tweeting" means, just sign up for Twitter and start following one or two people. Follow me! Most of my writers who stumble around self-promotion tend to do so out of overwhelm. But that’s where the 1-2-3 punch comes in: 1) blog; 2) Facebook; 3) Twitter. When you post to one, post to all three. This is what we call “repurposing your content.” You don't have to come up with new and exciting things to write about all the time. Post once a week. Think of it as writing a note to a good friend about what you're up to.

In September I interviewed a couple of self-published authors and shared their stories with you. One of those authors, Rosie Sorenson, generously shared her marketing and publicity strategies for her self-published book, They Had Me At Meow.

They Had Me At Meow is a memoir about the feral cats at Buster Hollow and Rosie's care and rescue of those cats. Though her book fills a very particular niche, Rosie’s marketing strategies can serve as a template for any writer who wants to get the word out there about their book. Here’s a sampling of some of the things she’s done, and things she’s still doing:

1. Set up a website and joined social networking sites.
Rosie’s site is www.theyhadmeatmeow.com. She’s also on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as LinkedIn and Filedby. She also set up a page on the Poets and Writers website.

2. Created unique video content and posted it to YouTube.
Rosie created a book trailer that includes some of the cats featured in her books. In addition to being on YouTube, they’re also posted to her website.

3. Sent the book out for early endorsement.
Sent the book to prominent people in the area of interest of the book. Among them were the cat program manager of the Humane Society of the United States, who ended up writing the foreword, and the founder and former director of Fix Our Ferals in Berkeley, who wrote an introduction.

4. Set up her own book readings.
Rosie organized a reading at her local independent bookstore as a benefit for Fix Our Ferals, The Humane Society of the United States, the Marin Humane Society, and Marin Cat Connection. She invited representatives from each of these organizations to appear with her on a panel. In addition to reading from her book, she also presented a slide show. Eighty people attended and she sold 35 books. She also organized readings at a Barnes & Noble in Oakland, CA.

5. Secured corporate sponsors.
This isn’t possible for every book, but if you have a book with a cause, setting up sponsorship can be a wonderful way to get more promotional copies out into the world. Rosie used the books purchased with corporate dollars for community outreach, humane education, and fundraising.

6. Pitched herself to TV and radio.
Rosie appeared on a local show, “Bay Area People,” on KTVU-2. The broadcast is available at Comcast On Demand and YouTube, which Rosie highlights on her website. Rosie did a radio interview with Bonnie Colleen’s program, “Seeing Beyond,” which is broadcast throughout Northern California. Radio opportunities are vast, and pitching yourself to a radio show that’s in line with your audience can be a stepping stone to other publicity opportunities. Rosie has recently pitched two other radio shows and three other TV programs and she’s waiting to hear back.

7. Sent out post-publication copies for more endorsements and reviews.
Rosie was able to garner more reviews and blurbs for her book once it was out. She sent her finished book to Self-Publishing Review and the editor there wrote a positive review. If you Google Rosie’s name, this is in fact the first link that comes up. She was also featured in two (one and two) stories on Examiner.com.

8. Followed up on leads that resulted from these stories.
The Communications Director of Alley Cat Rescue in Maryland contacted her as a result of these stories, which led to her being featured in their newsletter (650,000 members strong!).

9. Speaking opportunities.
Rosie volunteered to speak at a local animal welfare conference in March 2010. This opportunity may well lead to other paid engagements and keeps the campaign alive and thriving even months after publication.

10. Opportunities for joint ventures.
Rosie found out about a documentary film producer who’s working on a film about feral cats. She is now going to be filmed with the cats featured in her book.

11. Keeps copies of her book on her at all times.
Rosie has given away about 150 copies of her book for marketing purposes. She recently ran into Halle Berry at a restaurant in Berkeley and struck up a conversation with her about her book. Halle told Rosie she had four cats and Rosie, on the ball, offered Halle an autographed copy of her book. You never know who you’ll meet, or where. So be prepared!

Rosie has been an incredibly active self-promoter who's found a way to get her very niche book out to hundreds of people. She's done a tremendous job of identifying her audience and focusing her attention on those people who care about cats as much as she does. This is part of the key to success. Don't dilute your efforts. Know your audience and go after them.

A few other areas of online interest for those of you who want more more more.

• Check out She Writes. (Men are welcome, too!) There's an excellent webinar by Lauren Cerand called “Innovative Publicity Now!” It's worth the $30!

• Shelfari! For people who love books.

• BookTour: A site for author appearances, book events, and literary happenings near you.

Two final points:
(1) Don't get so sucked in that your writing starts to suffer.
(2) And have fun.


Until next month.

Brooke

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Memoir Glut and How to Stand Out

People often ask me about the types of submissions I see in my role as Senior Editor at Seal Press. Of the agented manuscripts, a good 70% are memoir; of the unagented submissions, it’s closer to 90%. We’re known for memoir, and we’re a women’s press, but still. Memoir is where it’s at---and where it’s been at for a while. Despite the fact that it’s difficult to get memoir published, the industry still loves a good memoir.

I tried to get some up-to-date stats on memoir, but because I’m late in getting to the newsletter this month (real excuse---I got married earlier this month!), I’m citing some older statistics. This 2008 USA Today article says that 295 memoirs were signed by publishers in 2007 compared with 214 memoirs in 2006. So right off the bat let’s say that today that number is 350. Then there’s the question of how many deals went unreported to Publishers Marketplace. There are many many editors who do not report, or only report some deals. So let’s tack on another 250 (yes, that many) unreported. Add to that number the self-published memoirs, and we’re conservatively looking at about at least 1,000 memoirs a year, though even that number seems small to me given what I see on a day-to-day basis.

So where does that leave you, the aspiring memoirist?

The point of this post is not to discourage you from writing your memoir. It’s to encourage you to consider what an editor is looking for when they read your memoir. Here are several major things I look for in a memoir---after good writing. But you don’t have to be a brilliant or natural writer if you understand and execute the following takeaways:

1. Relatability. Consider some of the top-selling memoirs out there: Dave Eggers’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius; Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle; Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. All of these writers came to the table with pretty unique stories. It’s not that most of us can relate, per se, to Eggers’s experience of having had our parents die within five months of one another of unrelated cancers, or Walls’s portrayal of growing up with pretty much insane and neglectful parents; or Gilbert’s capacity to leave everything behind to tour the world in search of herself. And yet these authors wrote in a way that moved their readers. Sometimes a random or strange life story is what moves people to write memoir in the first place, but if you don’t know how to invite the reader into your inner world, to a place where they not only see you but relate to you because of what you’re willing to show them once they get there, then you’re not going to make it past the editor’s desk. Editors are looking for stories that have universal appeal even if the story itself is really out there. They’re looking for writers who know how to make an unusual or heartbreaking or tough situation be something everyone can relate to and understand.

2. Insights. Most writers are insightful or they wouldn’t write in the first place. But do you know when and how to deliver your insights? For that matter, do you consciously do this when you sit down to write? The number one reason I reject memoir is because of the “and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened” mistake of telling rather than showing. This is a classic mark of a novice writer. If you’re writing memoir, you must slow down. You must share your insightfulness and own the fact that you have something to say. (I know it’s scary! Wait till we get to transparency.) But if you sacrifice your insights for the sake of getting all the details of something that happened just right, you’re probably being more self-indulgent than you need to be. The insights are more important because those are the times when you’re reaching out to your reader rather than asking your reader to be with you. It’s a give and take. Don’t forget that we want to be moved.

3. Through-threads. Don’t lose site of what you’re talking about. If you’re writing a continuous narrative, figure out the question you’re trying to answer before you even start writing. What’s the payoff for the reader? If you’re writing a memoir in essays then you do this for each chapter—in these instances the chapter itself functions much like the arc of the whole book and requires you to hold the reader’s hand. It’s not easy to juggle these threads, but the mark of a good memoirist (and novelist for that matter) is someone who remembers to tie it all together. I often liken this to wrapping a present. You have to make all the right folds and tape the sides and then tie the ribbon across the package. You wouldn’t bring a half-wrapped package with an untied ribbon to a party, right? So don’t send sample writing off to an editor that doesn’t have all your through-threads cleaned up. True, sometimes these threads can be difficult to see, but if you’re answering the questions you set out for yourself at the beginning of the journey then you shouldn’t lose your way.

4. Transparency. This includes honesty, truth-telling, and being vulnerable. For some people this comes so naturally that it’s a nonissue. For others it’s like pulling teeth. Many writers don’t realize how much you have to put yourself out there until they’ve delved into some memoir writing. Most memoirists, other than those who don’t even know the meaning of the word shame, will freak out at various junctures. This probably means you’re writing a good memoir. We live in a tell-all culture and if you don’t want to tell all then you should consider writing a novel. It’s important to distinguish the difference, however, between telling everything about yourself and telling everything about other people. I’m not suggesting that you sacrifice family relations for the sake of your memoir (though many people do), or that you bash all your exes for a good laugh (though many people do). (As a side note, I know lots of writers who have waited till certain family members were dead to be able to tell the truth of their life story, and there are some horrible people out in the world who don’t deserve to be spared. It of course depends on what kind of story you’re writing.) You don’t have to alienate everyone you know to tell the truth, but you do have to take risks. If you’re being transparent and telling your story as it happened and providing insights and nuance, then even those people who lived through the experience with you will likely, some day, understand why you wanted or needed to write your story.

Until next month.

Brooke

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Breaking Down Self-Publishing

Since my June newsletter I’ve gotten a handful of requests from writers looking for a quick rundown on self-publishing costs. Whether self-publishing is worth it for you depends on a lot of factors. If you have a niche book and known audience, it can be a worthwhile endeavor. You can sell books directly from your website, or you can partner with companies like Lulu, Amazon, and other printers/distributors to sell your book.

This is going to be a long post, but if you’re considering self-publishing, there’s lots of valuable information in here. I’m comparing four possible routes you can take with self-publishing:
1. Lulu
2. CreateSpace
3. Lightning Source (LSI)
4. Traditional printing company (two examples below)

Our hypothetical book, for the purposes of this study, is a standard paperback. A trade paperback is generally 5.5 x 8.25 or 6 x 9, and approximately 250-300 pages (generally 80,000 words). Our list price is $16.00. Any variations on the traditional trade paperback model can cause your costs to fluctuate quite a bit.

LULU

The Basics
•It’s free to use.
•$99 if you buy their distribution package (there is a free alternative—which requires that you provide your own ISBN)

Charges and Fees
20% of the profit from a purchased item. The purchase price of all products includes a base cost for raw materials and printing service, which they calculate out for you and presumably they hold against royalties. Royalties on Lulu vary depending on your list price. The higher you price your book, the higher the royalty, but be careful not to price yourself out of the market! Royalties for our standard book are going to be approximately $2-$3 per book.

Pros
•Most value for the money, even with less royalties
•They offer assistance and have an active and helpful forum
•Good options on trim size and packages

Cons
•Their distribution relationship with Amazon is not very clear and seems to need to be better articulated on their site. If customers are buying from Lulu it’s a great set-up. If your consumers are Amazon worshippers, you might be better off with CreateSpace.

What you pay for:
•$99 for the distribution package (optional)
•proof copy + mailing = $30
•approximately $6/per standard trade book
•shipping

AMAZON CREATESPACE

The Basics
•It’s free—no set up, no charge for one of their ISBNs
•They offer a Pro Plan for $39 per book, which seems to offer a pretty good savings if you’re buying more than a handful of books.

Charges and Fees
•Without pro plan
Fixed Charge: $1.50 per book
Charge per Page: $0.02
$6.50 per book

•With Pro Plan
Fixed Charge: $0.85 per book
Charge per page: $0.012
$3.85 per book

Other costs:
•Proof copy of your book + shipping = $30
•Shipping costs for however many books you order

What they take:
If sold in the CreateSpace eStore: 20%
If sold on Amazon.com: 40%

If sold in the CreateSpace eStore:
Their share: $7.70
Your share: $8.30

If sold on Amazon.com:
Their share: $10.90
Your share: $5.10

Pros
•Their relationship with Amazon means that they take less royalties than Lulu to sell through Amazon. This can be reason enough to go with them, though the consensus is that Lulu is the most user-friendly service available to date.

Cons
•Less variation than Lulu where trim size is concerned
•No assistance—you have to know what you’re doing

LSI

Charges and fees
•$75-$150 title set-up fee (average out at $100)
•$1.30/unit + $.018 per page, so for our 250-page book = $4.50
•Total cost per book = $5.30
•Distribution fee: $12/year per title
•ISBNs from Bowker at $245.00 for a block of ten
•One-time fees: $112
•Another good option for ISBN/barcodes is Bar Code Graphics, which allows you to buy single ISBNs.

Pros
•They’re great if you’re ready to be a business rather than an author. They provide distribution relationships with third-party distributors like Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc., and so it’s easier to get into bookstores with LSI than with Lulu or CreateSpace.
•Good variety/options for trim sizes.
•Best consideration if you're printing color interior.
•Respected in the industry since they’ve been around for a while and have long-standing relationships with traditional publishers. They’re owned by Ingram, which also owns a major distribution company.

Cons
•It’s more complicated, no question. They don’t offer assistance and you have to figure out the distribution situation, which aren’t such big considerations on Lulu or CreateSpace, in part because the major distribution on those sites is online venues.

TRADITIONAL PRINTER
I talked to two different authors whose experiences I’m going to share in this section. If you go this route, the biggest thing you’ll need are the printer’s specifications for printing, and with this option you will gain by ordering larger quantities of books. Printers won’t set you up with distribution relationships like the other options will, so this is a better choice for people who are planning on selling their books through their website, or who are interested primarily in corporate deals.

Author 1 is Annette Fix, author of The Break-Up Diet
Annette chose to establish her own imprint, which entailed getting a resale license and business license and working out a distribution arrangement to get her books into bookstores.

Annette’s costs:
•Block of ISBNs: $245
•Editing and design: $6,000 (with some admitted missteps)
•Printing costs: 2,100 copies printed by McNaughton & Gunn for approximately $2.14 per unit on a 285-page trade paperback that retails for $16.95.
•Shipping costs for stock sent to her (600 units) and to the distributor (1500 units).

Annette’s word of caution: “If I had known then what I know now about paying monthly storage fees to my distributor, and shipping costs and the invoicing/accounting/paperwork nightmares of maintaining my wholesale account with Baker & Taylor, I would’ve set up my book POD through Lightning Source.”

Author 2 is Rosie Sorenson, author of They Had Me at Meow Rosie wrote that she decided to go with a traditional printer because: “I wanted a special size (7.5 X 5.5) and I also wanted it in all color (cover, photos, and some colored text on each page.) I also wanted the photos placed near the text where each particular cat is mentioned – it takes a seasoned designer to do that. I looked at POD options and I couldn’t find anyone who could produce a book to my specifications.” She printed with Vaughan Printing in Nashville and had a great experience with them.

Rosie’s costs
•Because of the fact that her book is four-color throughout with lots of spot photographs and design elements, she paid a lot more than Annette per book. She paid approximately $8 per book and ordered an initially quantity of 1,000 books.
•Editorial: approximately $200-$300
•Design: $865.00
•1 ISBN/barcode with Bar Code Graphics
Rosie’s word of advice: “One thing which should probably be highlighted is that self-publishing is a whole lot more work than anyone could ever imagine—getting all the details right, developing a marketing plan, implementing the plan, etc. It's definitely not for shy, introverted writers! The writer has to want success more than anything and be willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.”

*Note here that next month’s newsletter will cover the marketing side of self-publishing and will include Annette’s efforts to promote herself by sending out ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) and getting her book modeled at B&N, and Rosie’s tremendous success at getting her book reviewed and partnering with corporations who support her cause—cat rescue.

IMPORTANT OTHER COSTS TO CONSIDER
When you self-publish, you are not just sending your Word files to the printer. Besides having your work copyedited and proofread, you also want to have your book professionally designed. If you have any images in the interior that you do not own, make sure you secure permission to reprint those images. If you’re excerpting anything over 50-100 words from another source, make sure you get permission to excerpt. Other costs are nontraditional bindings, buying your own ISBN, getting barcodes made, and fulfillment if you choose to do your own fulfillment rather than partner with a distributor.

BREAKING DOWN EDITORIAL COSTS
Editors and proofreaders can range in cost from as low as $20/hour to as high as $80/hour—and I’m sure there are those who charge more than that. you can estimate how many hours a copyediting and proofreading job should take with the following formulas:

Copyediting
Word count divided by 310 divided by 5 for heavy copyedit
Word count divided by 310 divided by 6 for medium copyedit
Word count divided by 310 divided by 7 for light copyedit

So a heavy copyedit for a 80,000 word manuscript would run:
80,000 ÷ 310 = 258.06 ÷ 5 = 51 hours

Proofreading
Word count divided by 310 divided by 8 for heavy proofread
Word count divided by 310 divided by 9 for medium proofread
Word count divided by 310 divided by 10 for light proofread

So a light proofread for a 80,000-word manuscript (running approximately 250 pages or longer) would run:
80,000 ÷ 310 = 258.06 ÷ 10 = 26 hours

BREAKING DOWN DESIGN COSTS
There are lots of freelance designers out in the world, and you can find them through MediaBistro or by looking at the back cover of books you love. Designers’ names and even their websites are often on the books they’ve designed.

The Book Designers are a one-stop shop for everything from creative consultation to design samples to cover and interior design to helping you find a printer if one of the abovementioned options isn’t right for you. They do standard text-driven books and four-color design-heavy books, too. I got on the phone with them to ask about their pricing, and the basic range for our straightforward 250-page book is going to run in the $3,000 range. Sounds like it could be more or less depending on how many passes are needed on cover and/or interior—and design-heavy and color books are going to naturally be more expensive. They’re very responsive and samples of books they’ve worked on can be found on their site. Check them out.

You might be wondering why Rosie, author of They Had Me at Meow, only paid $865 for her design. It’s possible to find designers who charge less, and her book is very short. Although it has spot illustrations, she has a fairly simple design and she knew exactly what she wanted. The more you’re clear on your design expectations and the better you can convey this to your designer, the less money you’ll spend. Most design costs get ratcheted up when you need to see multiple variations of the interior and/or cover design. Knowing what you want in advance and prepping your designer with a cover memo and an interior design memo is a very good idea!

So what are your total costs going to be and can you really make a profit?

Lots of people say don’t go into self-publishing if you want to make a profit, while others would never touch a traditional publishing deal because they’ve had great success in marketing their work to their audience.

So, yes, it’s subjective and dependent on who you are and what you’re writing.

If you like to market yourself and feel comfortable in that role, self-publishing can be a good thing. If you don’t, you might want to reconsider.

If you know you have a built-in audience and you know where to find them, self-publishing could be a great option. If you have no idea who your readership is, or think your readership is “everyone,” don’t self-publish.

If you know upfront that you are going to be super invested in having your book look exactly the way you want it (ie, have specifics about the trim size, must have color photos), then self-publishing might be a great option. Publishers will often opt for the cheaper option and certain things you desire that are cost-prohibitive, meaning that you need to be prepared to compromise if you go with a traditional publisher.


Until next month.

Brooke

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