The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 26 August 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Don't send multiple submissions to five of the top agents in the business. If they're considering looking at your manuscript, but they know four other agents have it, the tendency is not to look at it. Say in your submission letter that you're submitting it exclusively." Robert Gottlieb

I think it's fascinating to consider the buildup of the industry. Once upon a time, people submitted manuscripts direct to publishers. The "over-the-transom" submissions went into a slush pile. But, over time, publishers got buried in slush. So they started to rely on the agent process -- agent brought the submissions to the publishers, and did the slush reading. But now the agent system seems to have gotten buried, and developed its own set of weird protocols and rituals and rites of passage.

Add in economic havoc, changing technology, and all that... and you have a publication system that doesn't seem to work very well.

How do we get from the authors through the publication system to the readers? Right now, very, very slowly. One step forward, two back, and try again. And again. And again.

Anyway, Gottlieb suggests that you not play games with your submissions to the agents.

And keep trying.

original posting: Wed, 31 Mar 1993 17:05:01 JST

catch-up time, as the net slows...

- Is this really a dream or is this possible now? I'm interested.
- How do I go about this? Karen

Karen, as far as I can tell the technology is already here. I.e., the pc (or other computer) you write on, the BBS, networks, and listservers, and readers "out there". For software programs, shareware is already a strong, going method of distribution.

The section headed THE SHAREWRITE ANSWER provides a brief outline of the process as I envision it. Tell me (I'm from the technonerd community, and sometimes can't see problems), do you understand that section? Tell you what, let me outline the steps, and you tell me which one(s) you don't understand. Ok?

1. Write your book (collection, etc.)
2. Select a part to distribute on the BBS and networks
3. Add a distribution notice to that extracted part (include permission to distribute part and directions to obtain the complete book)
4. Post copies of the extract to all BBS, networks, etc. you can (you may be able to "upload" instead of posting - check with your local system adminstrators)
5. Wait
6. When orders arrive, make a disk copy (or paper copy) and ship

The economic side of the picture is a little bit shakier, in terms of simple cost. I.e., books and magazine prices, while constantly rising, aren't that much more expensive than I think the sharewrite author's prices will need to be to break even or get a small profit.

However, I think the real key to sharewrite is the size of the audience required for a book. According to at least one article I've seen, most books need a minimum press run over 5,000 to break even (anyone have a better figure?). Smaller anticipated audiences either pay exorbitant prices (e.g. limited run books, vanity press) or are ignored (not printed). But given the simplicity of copying on a pc, the individual author CAN directly provide copies.

If you want the software comparison, Microsoft claims that they cannot afford to publish a program unless there are one million copies to be sold. Most other software publishers will accept smaller audiences (er, markets), but they do demand fairly hefty numbers before they start gearing up for production. At least part of the shareware market consists of "niche" audiences - small groups looking for carefully targetted software, if you'll excuse the tech lingo.

Brad

yeah, it'll be a long haul. but didn't someone near you point out that a thousand-mile trip starts with one step? gotta get folks started taking that first step.

-Your idea of giving out sample chapters and then selling the rest on
-disk is good. However I think it will suffer from the short
-attention span and laziness of people on the net. Most people who
-want to buy your book would do so if it was easy and fast. Writing
-out a check and sending it by snailmail and then waiting for weeks to
-receive it is not difficult, but it is not fast and many potential
-sales will be lost.

Most shareware does it this way, and some people are drawing heavy amounts of money that way. 'Sides, Brad, I'm not really trying to topple the normal printing industry (although I can hope:-), I'm just drawing out an alternative that I think writers should be aware of.

Actually, I'd expect most writers to submit their work to the normal press, then fall back to sharewrite if/when they fail there. If sharewrite becomes a common practice, of course, the process might flip, with writers first using sharewrite and only letting publishers talk to them when the audience reaction demands mass printing.

-A possible solution is to place the book on something like a
-commercial WAIS server where people can set up a credit card account
-and then telnet the text whenever they want. Another idea is to see
-if bookstores who now accept orders by internet, are willing to sell
-the disks for you on spec.

Both good ideas (what bookstores accept orders by internet?), but I was trying to stick to something that an individual author can do now. If the notion catches fire, I'd expect services such as this to spring up.

I guess my main frustration is in thinking about how many books are being lost because people don't realize the alternatives to ordinary printing which are available. This one seems simple to me and workable, but I haven't seen people doing it. Maybe I should have headed my piece the publishing route not taken?

Same comments apply to pricing - I'm not looking so much at trying to compete head-on with similar products as at providing an alternative for the small ("niche") products whose audiences can't buy a 4 buck paperback because the books are not being printed.

Frankly, even for similar products, I'd be willing to pay similar prices given the added certainty that reading a chapter would give me. I've spent too much on books that looked good by the cover and quick skim I felt like doing standing in a bookstore, but were really bad.

(Incidentally - 4? When was the last time you were in the States? More like 5 or 6, even for skinny mass pulps, I think)

I think there is a difference between software and writing "products" in that while spreadsheet A and B are likely to be relatively interchangeable, most books (and authors) even from true hacks in a genre are more distinct. That means you don't need to be massively inexpensive compared to the normal press - you just need a way to advertise your style to your readers, and that is what I think we have the technology to do relatively easily.

Freewrite ... Brad, you didn't sneak a peak at my earlier drafts, did you? I had a rabble-rousing section about exactly that, then cut it because that is such a big jump for most authors. If we ever get into that, then CD-ROM collections start to make sense (for a 1,000 disk run, reproduction costs are rumored to run about 2 bucks a disk. Imagine 600 novels for, say, 12 bucks - letting the collater collect roughly 10,000 dollars profit. Problem comes in paying back the authors, but for freewrite, that's not necessary).

Incidentally, there's Project Gutenburg busily collecting public domain writings, people seem much happier now about downloading 100K or 200K files (thanks to faster modems), and there are other hints that electronic alternatives to the standard print methods of text distribution are about to take off. I think the market is big enough, what we mostly need are creative people putting together the methods and showing everyone what is possible.

As you say, I should cut off before this runs on even longer. My main point is that current technology provides alternative publishing methods that aren't being used. The best one I've come up with that still offers the author some return and is easily implemented is sharewrite. No fancy software necessary (just leave the text in ASCII as a "standard" book), no additional startup costs, just borrow the shareware model and go!

dreaming brightly hopes
mike

Original posting: Fri, 29 Jan 1993 16:41:41 JST

Peter, jbutcher, and Karen Lowe (at least),

First for Peter and jbutcher...

- To be honest, I was hoping for that as well as information about
- potential occupational opportunites, the writing market, etc. Is this
- kind of thing normally discussed on here?
-
- I'm interested in the writing market and how to go about getting something
- published, or what the best approach to take is with publishers/magazines/
- newspapers...I don't think I've seen anything on this list yet that addresses

Jane said...
- All you need to do is ask, and I guarantee SOMEONE will
- respond (whether it's what you want to hear or not).

I guess I qualify as SOMEONE, so let me bend your eyes for awhile:-)

I'm fairly sure the serious folks have gotten back to you. I hope so, because I certainly am interested in these questions, and am (possibly) more out of touch with the markets than you are.

You may know all this, but I can suggest you visit your library or bookstore (cripes, you have easy access to both of those with LOTS of English language books *envy*) and look carefully at Writer's Digest books - there's a big hardcover each year (Writer's Market), plus recently a stack of paperbacks for specialties. Despite drawbacks that someone will likely point out, that's probably the best general reference. They also put out a monthly magazine "Writer's Digest", and there's "The Writer" and at least one more whose name I cannot recall which you can usually find in Walden's or B. Dalton's magazine racks.

If the serious folks have something they send by email in answer to questions like this and are on bitnet, could you send me a copy, too?

This next part isn't really answers, more a series of questions I've wrestled with in regard to my writing. I hope they might help you think about "the market".

Now, I'm going to start with a funny question - are you just interested in being published, or do you want money too? I think it makes a significant difference in the markets you're looking at as to how you answer that.

Let me add one more odd question - do you insist on your article (story, poem, etc.) being published exactly the way you wrote it or can the editor change the title, rewrite the lead-in paragraph, and otherwise fit your work to their needs? How you answer that question also affects your markets.

Let me give you an example - (blatant self-plug follows) - if you look at the January 1993 issue of IEEE Software in the book reviews, you'll find a piece with my name on it. I get "paid" with two copies and the book I review (actually, with computer book prices what they are, that's not bad pay:-). But - the editor wrote the lead-in using something I had in mine, and she's never used any of my titles. She also hacked it again, even after I'd seen the approval copy. Not that I'm objecting - we've done this before, and she knows I'm not a stickler about it. In fact, her headlines are much better than my proposals, and she's trying to juggle text, ads, and noisier writers into a product against a deadline, so I don't argue when she makes last-minute changes. In fact, she's told me that's one reason she likes to use my pieces - because I do understand the kind of work she's doing, and let her do it.

The editor also enjoyed that piece because I used an extended metaphor - I said the author reviewed the field of email, and then I talked about him showing us the flowers, cow patties, and other things. Not your ordinary boring technical review, and in the cover I carefully made sure she understood that if she didn't like it, I would redo the piece.

You might say - that's non-fiction, just a book review, that's different. You should read "Grumbles From the Grave" by Robert Heinlein. This is the collected history of an "established writer" trying to get fiction published - a fascinating insight.

And yet another question to help point your self-searching - do you insist on writing fiction or non-fiction? Do you have a specific genre or specialization that you just have to be published in, or is your drive more generous with you? Again, the answer affects how you look at and attack the market.

Oh, one other very off-beat question - do you insist on having your name on your writing? Suppose the editor puts your name on some things, but leaves it off some? Or suppose the editor puts someone else's name on pieces you've written? These are critical questions, especially if you get into some of the newspaper markets.

If you don't mind doing non-fiction (you shouldn't, it's a good field and helps pay the way for many other pursuits), here are some entryways I know that used to be fairly generous - book reviews in many professional magazines (it helps if you work in that field - and then they give you books to read!), small newspapers (weeklies, etc.), your local political office/church/other social group... During grad school, I also wrote a stack of press releases which the PR people happily distributed for me. No name, no pay, and the newspapers tended to rewrite or cut like crazy, but sometimes I could tell where my words had gone. Note that these are largely zero or negative in terms of pay, but they give you practice and help build your clip book. They are also almost entirely non-fiction.

OK, Karen. I've been following the other pieces, but I wanted to comment on this...

- I'm interested in the "Rinky-Dink" Society. Personally, I usually get a
- decent response from my poetry, but am unable to compete with current
- popular forms of poetry. You may have noticed my "Victorian Poetry". I've
- decided to go the Emily Dickinson route, write tons of stuff, publish a few
- and tell the "official" critics to take a flying leap, their grandchildren
- will love my stuff. ;-) Karen Lowe.

whoa! wait a minute. "unable to compete with current forms of poetry"? Karen, I'm the bloody fool around here, you certainly beat my doggerel hands down. You even know what Randy's caesurus are, apparently.

I suppose you mean you don't think you'll make Redbook, or whatever the main mass market pub's are now? I doubt very much if my stuff (poetry, story, or non-fiction) will ever hit that kind of market, but is it important?

I'm afraid I take a little different approach to writing. I don't think there are "winners" per se, in the sense that there is one champ, with everyone else ranked below them. As in certain martial arts and other fields, the question is whether you executed your art as well as you could or not, no matter how other people look at it. Do you really think that the vast majority of marathon racers compete to win? Or do they run against themselves, whether alone or in the midst of others?

Here, do me a favor, would you? Write yourself a poem on the theme of the runner (swimmer, writer, whatever you like) whose only purpose is their own pleasure, and the feelings they have when one day someone stops them and says "You came in first". The unconscious, surprised winner, shall we say? Then, if you like, I'd enjoy reading it.

Karen, I think poets perhaps more than any other branch of writing need to forget about the normal measures for societal accomplishment. You know the plot, at least for artists - starve in a garret, beg, borrow, and steal to let themselves produce their own art in their own way. The rare comedy goes that they are discovered in the nick of time and become rich and famous. The far more common tragedy is that discovery comes too late. And the even more common reality is that (a) they manage to support themselves relatively well, usually doing something else and (b) they make the time and do what they like and (c) they make their own "discovery".

Heck - take several of your poems, and make some copies of them. Go down to your supermarket and find the manager. Point out to him (or her) that bulk natural food cereals don't have a box for the customers to read in the morning, so you'd like to help him offer them a treat - poetry to eat by. Talk him (or her) into putting up a little box, and the explanation of what this is, right beside the bulk cereal. This first set of poems is free for the store. And you have now "been published." But be patient, it gets better.

Watch - those poems will be picked up. And when the stack is nearly gone, you can talk to the store owner about paying you for the next ones (let them suggest a payment, if possible. keep the charge low, but make sure you get paid.) Figure out whether you want to do the copying yourself (to control paper quality) or let them do it. If you want to, talk them into reproducing it themselves but pay you a larger fee (since they can now make as many copies as they want, they may consider it a bargain).

You think I'm kidding, don't you? I just recently (here in Japan) saw something about a guy who's printing his short stories on T-shirts. Apparently they are selling, too.

Maybe that's not the kind of publication and market you're looking for, but please don't tell me you can't compete. You can. Get out there and go for it!

Jane also said

- Please don't be. The majority of us (let me know if I'm wrong) are,
- as yet, unpublished, so have no proof that we are better or worse
- than you (and even then, it's not really proof!) - regardless of what
- certain egotists might think. Do be prepared for some criticism
- and/or some praise, however.
-
- ENJOY!!!!!

I'm not sure if Jane will let me talk (I've got a 20 year old clipbook of newspaper articles and there are other odd bits and pieces around that have my name on them - but they're almost all non-fiction, Jane, and I sure never got paid much:-) To tell you the truth, though, I'm usually looking at my next piece - and so far, that's unpublished.

I can also state categorically from the pieces I've seen printed (and done) that publication has relatively little to do with value - a lot to do with timing, blank empty pages around paid-for ads that the editor has to fill, and other oddities. Let you in on a secret, though. If you don't write it, and don't send it out, the odds of being published are very, very low. If you follow the reverse strategy (write, submit, and keep submitting), the odds increase dramatically! Which reminds me, now I've got to get back to writing.

Heinlein's "recipe" (abridged from memory, 'cause I can't find the book)

1. write
2. finish what you write
3. don't rewrite unless an editor tells you to
4. put it on the market
5. keep it on the market until it sells

(sorry, this isn't very well organized. I got excited, and wanted to get it out this week. I managed to find hideyholes for all my files here, too.)

hope this helps,
mike