WRJ160 Lecture Notes

WRJ160

Week 5

Plan for today:

Go over assignment 1

Have a wee discussion about editing and it's different sections

Talk about author relationships

Undertake an exercise in editing a story

Examine the going rates for these kind of services

Assignment 1

Reminder that the focus is on starting a publishing venture

Editing

Larger houses will have more layers of editing

Acquisitions/commissioning

EIC

(Editor in-chief)

Smaller: 3 main areas of concern

Developmental

Line

Proofreading

Also focus on decisions to be made ahead of time

If this comes around for you, then what're you going to do to ensure your head doesn't go fuzzy from all the work?

Best to think of it in stages overall:

1. Planning stages: willingness/ability to undertake edits

Every manuscript WILL require some level editing folks

There is no such thing as a perfect first draft

Go in expecting to do edits and to commit a significant amount of time

Schedules & life demands permitting

Because this WILL a commitment on your behalf

Yes it's the author's vision, but you're now invested (financially) in their realising that vision

Plus, you're going to be running through edits more than once, some of them very lengthy

Importance of reputation

You're taking on this piece of work, how you handle it will reflect on you

An author may talk about their experience and if they're only got bad things to say...

Then other authors of their acquaintance aren't gonna be hurrying to your door.

So, there's several scenarios:

The relatively clean Manuscript

The ideal scenario

A more experienced author, able to edit their own work to a higher degree

It's very difficult to edit your work as professionally as another pair of eyes

I'd say almost impossible

Or a newer author who's invested a huge amount of time in their manuscript

Maybe put it to some freelance editors before approaching you (we'll get to that later)

Some developmental work needed

This could be anything from restructuring a chapter to adding in a few paragraphs, clarifying the story

Or scrapping a smaller character/subplot altogether

But it's gonna take a month(ish) to get it sorted

Significant developmental work needed but timeliness/importance is key

So here's a not ideal (but very common) scenario:

The work is good, you see potential, the author is personable passionate but needs a fair hammering before you'd be happy to put your name to it

So you organise the big changes you need:

Change in narrative

Addition/cutting of characters

You're always likely to be cutting more than you're adding at this stage

Significant rewrites

You're looking at about… 3 months, maybe a little more

Remember, your author's have lives too, we all gotta eat, sleep, poop etc.

Considering their circumstances

Are they a single parent?

Any ongoing illnesses or treatment

Significant caring responsibilities

Not everyone will be able to work to the schedule you propose

In which case you can either:

Be flexible with your timings

Move onto another project while giving the author additional time they need

Or explain the truth of the situation and your incompatibility to the project at this point

Grounds for rejecting a piece

What are the reasons you might decline a submission? How would those reasons differ between works of prose and poetry?

Give me some examples then I'll give you mine :D

Very poor grammar & spelling

If a writer is choosing to write in a second/third language, credit to them

BUT for publication where, again, your reputation is on the line, the author needs to show significant mastery of this

Otherwise you're setting yourself up for a nightmare of a line edit

Structure

Chapter 1 (rushed ending)

E.g. their opening chapter(s) are a Lord of the Rings affair

I love Tolkien but damn the dude wasn't a structurally sound writer

This is the hill I'll die on

Or their ending been rushed, makes no sense, seems out of character with the rest of the book

Game of Thrones Season 8 *cough cough*

The author wanted to get it to you as soon as, or external circumstances meant they weren't at their best

If there's one chapter at this level, you can make significant edits

But if it's a continual problem it will appear as a reflection of poor writerly ability

And again, your rep's on the line

Cover letter

More of a side note

But you should have put the details/request for a cover letter in your submissions page

And if the author has needed to visit that page to submit and hasn't bothered to include one?

Red flag

Strategy & Timing:

Initial acceptance

Notify of need for some developmental edits

Again these can be varied depending on the level of the manuscript you're given

Check author’s willingness to accept & engage

Note: It's worth broaching the need for edits with an author prior to offering them a contract

Get a sense of their willingness to engage in edits

Or do they seem very opposed to the idea?

Will this be a headache down the line?

Briefest possible overview

This is partly to protect yourself

You don't want to give a lot of details about edits to the author without a contract signed

Since if you do nothing stops them from taking the book elsewhere after making the most of your hard work

Contract

Which should be clear on editing rights

We'll get into this more down the line but

You want to be clear about what you have the right to and to not edit

there has to be a line

After going to contract

Detailed plan for developmental editing

Now you pull the curtain back and reveal the grand plan of changes needed

You're not doing this to be mean but no point in sugarcoating

Firm but fair

Discuss it then

Ideally you'd meet in person for this kind of discussion with a copy of the manuscript and go through it together

These days you're more likely to do this online

Set out timelines

Developmental - longest (months?)

Anywhere between 1-3 months if not more

Line - needs to be quicker (weeks if possible)

Usually between 2-3

Proofreading - typically quick, like 2 weeks max

Usually a few days e.g. Mon-Fri

2. Developmental edits

Structural issues

Characters

How're they coming across?

Irritating

OOC - Out of character

Unsympathetic

Lack of clear motivation

etc.

Potentially problematic?

Characters potentially falling into harmful cliches?

Being used as tropes?

If any of you kill a woman or child off to further the character of a man so help me….

Internal logic

Say they've set up a magic system in a fantasy world or a writing from the view of a police officer

Does the magic system make sense? Or does it seem more 'making it up as they go'

Is the structure/interaction/hierarchy of the police force in keeping with real life?

Or if not does the change work?

After all, Jessica Fletcher should never be around so many murders

And Midsummer is the MOST DANGEROUS place to live in the UK

But there's enough suspension of disbelief there to engage in narrative enjoyment

Or, more hilariously, the date is 2002 and the protagonist is using an iPhone…

it wasn't invented till 2007 :D

Description (too much, not enough)

Purple Prose

…. Ug

Floating Dialogue

Where are we again?

Uncovering/clarifying theme

Story as story first

e.g., what's happening here? What's the goal? The structure?

You've likely gone over some narrative structures already, they'll never stop working

What it’s about (theme usually = 1 word) may become clearer in edits/rewrites

Some questions to really tell if an author understands their work:

Ask them to explain it to you in a sentence or less

Give you the main theme in one word

Explain the character's main drive in a sentence or two

Essentially, if they can't boil it down to the bare bones that way, then maybe they aren't so sure?

Things that may not be fixable (depending on severity)

Amateurish writing

A person can be trained to writer at a higher level

But that's not your role nor your responsibility

Do NOT take that one

For your own health

Plus, if editors did this then folks like me would be out of a job :P

Tropes/cliches

Some of my pet hatreds:

Woman in the refrigerator

Bury your gays

Deus ex Machina

We'll always see a little of these, in small doses they work

But when the main character or driving narrative is leaning into them too much?

That's when the writing gets derivative but not in a fun way

Cardboard characters

2D and then some

All characters important to a narrative need that level of complexity, of realism

Mostly because 2D characters are boring and quickly become predictable

We'll go with you so far

e.g., the very minor character acts exactly the same in book 1 but in book 2 is revealed to be more complex

Antihero vs unsympathetic

Sometimes the 'dark' 'against the rules' 'bad boy' trying to screw over 'the man' … is just a dick

Sometimes the girl lost alone in a new world needing the help of those around her… is a whiner

If a character's overall and continual presentation is rubbing you the wrong way, then there's likely an issue

Ethical issues

Intent of author

What are they trying to do

Is a central theme of their piece to highlight racism/hate crime or give attention to a group or people who've been ostracised in the past?

How can you support that?

Remember earlier? You're helping to bring their vision to completion

If you try and remove those aspects of author intent, are you still helping to do that?

And this isn't always done in one large decision

Several small edits pulling back the same thing will soon add up

Respect for the work

Style vs bad habits

Maybe you're not keen on a type of writing they use but the narrative & characters are solid

Don't try and overwrite their voice

Remember, it's NOT your work

It's one thing to cut grammar & spelling issues and another to fiddle with their tone

Example: Imagine reading a Terry Pratchett book without his wonderful tone

Prevailing taste

Again, maybe you prefer books with male/female/non-binary leads and this piece doesn't have that

It's not your place to make this the book you want to read

If you wanna read that book, go write it yourself

Respect for regionalism

Remember there are people in the world with experiences you're lacking

What seems confusing and nonsensical to you may be par for the course in the author's experience or the society they're writing about

Dialect

Similar to above

If the region the author is writing in contains a specific dialect and it makes sense to use it, then it should be there

Even if some of the word choices confuse you

Characters: sympathetic or not?

Again, a character may appear unsympathetic to you but to another group of people, like the target readership, they're highly sympathetic

Think back to structural issues

This is where you discuss intent with the author, realise their goals and help move towards them

Arrogance

OK to be confident in your own abilities

But you are not infallible

You don't know everything best

Approach the work with some humility

Everyone's new at this at some point

3. Line edits

A note on this:

Line Editing - going line by line and picking out everything

Structure, character, dialogue, description, spelling, grammar etc.

Copy Editing - focuses more on spelling, grammar, smaller issues

Several people will use these interchangeably, it doesn't matter too much though

You now know what they are

Disclaimers

This can be VERY draining work

Risks

Mental fatigue

Physical strain

Make sure you're 100% behind this book and its potential before moving forward and engaging in this process

Cause it won't be easy… you'll be seeing the manuscript in your sleep

Grammar

Typical error patterns

Sentence structure

Comma splices

Using a comma to link two independent clauses

Run-ons

Putting two separate ideas or clauses together without the required punctuation

Dangling modifiers

Usually seen when a sentence is missing its subject

Leads to a grammatical modifier becoming ambiguous and it could be misinterpreted

Punctuation

Dialogue

Relationship to paragraphing

When to embed it in exposition

Whether or not to use quotation marks

Semicolons

Generally underused

Particularly in the UK since our English education doesn't give much time over to grammatical rules

Or overused as overcompensation

Colons

Underused, useful

Amplification/clarification

Exclamation points

People like chucking them into the end of some dialogue which is at odds with yelling

e.g., "Shut up!" they whispered

Commas

Can lead to some VERY long sentences or runs the risk of falling into splices

There’s more, and the readings list them

Track changes, marginal notes, suggestion feature

Very useful

Word will track any changes made to a document and you can see them

So if you change small things like SPG issues in a text the author can see

Sometimes to bare in mind with changes

If you think an additional paragraph is needed don't write it in your attempt at the authors voice

That's just icky and disrespectful

Instead, write is as you would, highlight it and suggest in a comment the author rewrite it in their voice and ensure they get the meaning you're after across

4. Proofreading

Think of this as the final step prior to publication

Just looking to make sure nothing's been missed

The manuscript should already be polished

Review in what the reading calls the PDF stage (immediately before going to print)

Literally the last look over before it goes

Should be relatively quick because the heavy lifting has been done at the developmental and line edit stages

This is why it can be done in a matter of days

No more than 2 weeks

Both you and the author will be ridiculously familiar with the work by now

Not the time to go back and make any changes other than typo corrections

Everything else should have been completed

Author relationships

Ideal scenario: authors want to publish with you again and vice versa

You both had a good time, produced a successful release and you're looking to work on sequels/another stand alone

Some scenarios where things could go wrong

Insistence on continued edits

Maybe you butt heads over an edit you want made that the author is reluctant to

Insecurity, confidence issues

The author (particularly if it's their first publication) may be nervous and want their hand held

You do NOT have the time or energy to do that

General rude tendencies

In communication

Slow to complete required edits

Consistently arguing or resisting any changes

Dishonesty

Saying work will be done & not delivering

Speaking with other publishers/editors behind your back, etc.

General people skills

Give & take, being reasonable

This is a stressful process for you both at times

It's important to remember you're both only human and speak to each other as such

Professional authors with high but justified expectations vs prima donnas

Just like you can't take the time to hold an author's hand

You shouldn't put up with unreasonable demands because they're high profile

If an author's get into that headspace… quite frankly they need a reality check

Contracts should have clear language on releasing authors

So they know, and you know, if they're tied in for a full series or just a one-off

Avoids any messiness down the line from either of you

Or just be clever when prepping these things :P

Of note: Absolute Write & Predators and Editors are both offline at the moment

These are websites that were dedicated to giving info about editors and agencies

Predators and editors generally told you who to steer clear of in those circles

Absolute Write was a community website for writers where they could share experiences and offer advice to people getting started

Even if they're not currently active worth knowing about them and the seeing how word is spread about good, or bad, editors

Break! :D

Task for you all:

On the Learning Space there's a link to three short stories

I want you to choose one of the three and have a go at approaching it in a editor's style

So, choose which you'd like (there's a horror piece, a romance piece and a literary piece)

And then try and set yourself a hierarchy

Think about the lecture content and Developmental Edits

Start big and go small

Look at the overall structure, the characters, the themes, dialogue, the description

Then narrow in a bit, maybe start going line by line, really dig into your story and see what needs improving

Then we'll come back and have a chat about it! :D

Week 8

Production (Part 1)

First assignment

Due Friday 18th March at 4pm

Try not to wait until 3:50 to submit it please.

If you're having trouble submitting:

Email me and send over a copy of your case study with the email

And always keep the TurnItIn receipt

So if anything goes wrong on our end you've got proof the computer registered you submitting a file

Necessary Knowledge

This week we're looking at the creation of a book.

Even if you're not going into publishing, this is stuff that's beneficial for you to know:

You may have to offer feedback on book and cover design as a writer/editor

You may have to proofread blurbs

It's an advantage to know about book layout

If you're more informed you're better able to help the book move forward as a publisher, author or editor

And that makes you better to work with & more likely to receive continued work.

So whether you're working as a writer, publisher, editor, book designer, ebook seller, book shop owner, etc.,

This is stuff you'll benefit from knowing or will be expected to know.

Remember we talked about publisher's not holding their author's hands? Wellllll the same's true here.

Do we all have a book?

If not, the library is down the hall, nab one and come back :D

Book Production

This is the point where it's time to print the book

We have:

The manuscript

It's been edited, proofread, and formatted

The author, editor & publisher are all happy with it

We need:

A cover

An ISBN (we'll get into this one later)

Maybe a BISAC (and we'll get into this one later too)

A question:

In the overall process of book production - we can include ebooks in this as well -

Which bits to publishing companies do in-house, and which ones are most likely to be farmed out to other firms or freelancers?

Some points I could think of

Book cover design

I'm no artist, I get someone to make that for me

BUT you wanna make sure you hire an artist experienced in designing book covers

Why do you think that is?

Something I didn't know until recently:

They need to look good in a thumbnail

And now I show you Marshall's book cover…

Material sourcing

I'm not gonna chop down a tree and turn it into paper

The Printing

I don't know how to print & bind a book

File creation

This is more ebook specific and isn't as large an issue these days

But if I need a word doc turned into an epub, I'd rather trust someone to run that process for me so I know all my formatting will stay pretty

And a thought:

Consider what you're going to publish and think, what tends to be published in that manner?

Print - comes with some prestige

Ebook - much less overhead

You're not paying for a physical object

Audiobooks

Becoming much more popular, good for travelling & commutes

Still needs cover art, sourcing a recording studio & a decent narrator

Book Layout

We're gonna pull a fair bit from by Meena Azzollini here

A book layout is pretty much like a floor plan of a house (Azzollini)

If you use good design principles, i.e. you build the bedroom furthest from the busy road and ensure there's good lighting into the living room, etc., then you get a good house

So, if you use good design principles for a book's layout, then you end up, more often than not, with a good book

There are some aspects of book design that'll be the same across the board, but there are others that'll change depending on who the book it targeted towards:

Who is your target audience?

Kid's Book:

e.g., You're publishing a kid's book. It's colourful, bright with many illustrations and pretty sparse text

This means the layout of your pages may not be the same across all your pages as each page will be different from the other.

Adult Suspense Book

Wholly text based, more uniform. Less of a hassle from a design perspective

BUT you best think carefully about the text you use and the white space you have

Is it an eBook, hardback or a paperback?

Does it have images and illustrations or is it text-based only?

As an unofficial rule, there are 6 key aspects of book layout you need to keep in mind:

1. Margins

The blank space around the text on every page of the book

If you know how to use your margins properly then you will create a visually appealing page.

Something to notice about margins:

The inner margin (otherwise known as 'the gutter') is wider than the outer margin… why?

Because pages are bound together or stitched up.

This way when you open the book, the text looks like it is in the centre of the page.

So to do this, a portion of the inner margin is covered by the spine.

A quick dissertation horror story!

Top and bottom margins can change too

These are some reasons why:

Running Head

This is a 'header' that'll go on the top margin of a page

Reasons for this can be

Book title

Chapter titles

Author Name

This one's very useful if you've publishing an anthology

You'll want a decent amount of white space between a running head and the body text

Anyone thing why?

Pretty simple - so that the eye doesn't catch it as part of the body text and end up messing with a reader's flow.

Ideally, the bottom margin is quite large, and it provides a balance of white space after a block of text on a page.

Margins allow an ample amount of white space which is pleasing to the eye and allows the reader’s eye to move through the text without any strain.

Beyond the margins you have what's called a 'Bleed Area'

The bleed area is that part of the page which goes beyond the trim line – so that when the page is printed, this area will be trimmed off.

If your book has an image, photograph or other elements that go all the way to the edge of the page, then a bleed area needs to be added.

So why do we do this?

Because it ensures that when a page is printed and trimmed there are no unprinted edges or white space.

And therefore it looks nice :D

Here's a look at this in practice:

And now I show you Marshall's book proofs…

2. Whitespace

It's important to keep printing costs under control, especially if you're a small/new publisher

Since printing costs are mostly based on the number of pages, some authors try to reduce the number of pages to be printed by reducing margins and line spacing.

Can anyone think of a reason why this could cause a problem?

It creates a tight layout and makes your book look congested, leading to a very unpleasant reading experience.

This this:

Vs. this:

Which one's more pleasant to read?

A perfectly balanced page layout will include a fair amount of white space which balances the text and images present in the book.

Adequate margins are your first starting point for creating that much-needed white space.

This is why they're important

Line spacing is also important, creates a more pleasant experience and lessens the chance a reader will get lost in the text.

Sinks and Drop Caps

These are elements of page layout that make use of white:

As you can see, the sink is when you start your text almost in the middle of the page with a lot of white space above it.

It's a clever way to add a lil'illustration and a way to signal to the reader that there's a chance in the narrative, e.g., a new chapter, time skip, etc.

We tend to see this more in fiction or what we call 'narrative non-fiction'

Things like self-help books, travel writing, where an authorial voice is important

Drop Caps are when you use a large capital letter at the beginning of a text block or paragraph and it has the depth of two or more lines of normal text.

They're also good for adding a bit of style and grabbing a reader's attention, drawing them into a new paragraph.

Usually they appear together with a sink, but not always

Do you think of any specific kinds of books when you see a drop cap?

For me it's children's books and fantasy mostly.

But if you're publishing a piece within spheres that make use of drop caps often? Then that's something you should consider in your layout

3. Line Width

What's the ideal number of characters per line?

To help answer this, have a look at your books and count the characters

Remember a 'character' is any one space on a line, so you'll count the letters of every word, but also the spaces.

Take a minute to do that and we'll report back.

According to what Marshall told me, the sweet spot is 65

Again useful for you to know when it comes to designing you book

if you need more line space you need more margin space, then more bleed space and an overall larger book

If you make the font bigger, that'll bump your size up the same way

So, while 65 is an average magic number, lots of other factors can impact it

4. Typography

We had a class on this so I won't go into it too much :D

Remember how we talked about the importance of fonts, 'fitting in' with what the other published pieces similar to yours were doing?

Serif Vs. Sans-Serif

And, interestingly enough, non-fiction books are where we tend to see more in typography

5. Images

Welcome to a pain in your butt…

Firstly, does anyone know what the ideal DPI (dots per inch) is for an image that'll go into a book?

300DPI

However, most images aren't gonna be that magic number

So the layout person (who in my fictional publishing house is a freelancer/outsourced company) have to tweak it and you'll likely end up losing resolution

So, what looks good on your computer screen, may not look good on the page

If you're making an ebook

Then you send the file with the image in it out to them and they'll fit it in the correct DPI for you.

Permission

Be sure you have permission to use any image in your published book, because if you don't you'll end up getting sued pretty quick

Now, if they're images the author's taken/drawn themselves that's fine, no need to worry

Otherwise you'll need confirmation.

Now you don't wanna get tangled in trying to find copyright/license owners and then possibly pay them for the image use. That's on the author

The author has to provide you with written confirmation or prove there's a loophole that allows their use

E.g., to educate

But do not take on that job yourself, you don't have the time or mental energy for it

6. Widow and Orphans

Firstly...

Ahem - don't judge me it's all I can think of when I hear 'widows and orphans'

Now, these are single lines that, during formatting, get separated from the rest of their paragraph.

If a single line of text moves on to the next page or next column of text at the top, it is called a widow.

A single line of text or a few words is an orphan when it's isolated at the bottom of the page or a paragraph.

Here's an example

So, why don't we like these? Any ideas?

One, it makes your page layout look shabby.

Two, it impedes the reader’s reading experience as it causes them to pause mid-paragraph.

A paragraph is a block of information

We see it as a block because it has a line separating it from other text, or it has an indent in the first line

The space between gives your brain time to digest the information properly

If a paragraph gets forced onto the next page that disrupts that digestion process and makes the piece harder to read

And if you make your work hard for us as markers to read, for instance, then we'll call you out on it. You want life to be as easy as possible for a reader

How do we avoid them?

You may have to rework your text layout which can be tricky.

This can be done by reworking your text or adjusting tracking and kerning options in your layout software.

For me, this'll again be handled by a wonderful freelancer experienced in page layout

But for the sake of info:

Tracking adjusts the space between a group of letters, words or whole paragraphs.

Kerning will adjust space between two characters.

Both tracking and kerning are font-dependent. So the adjustments you make for one kind of font is not the same for another.

Aaaaaand break!

Task 1 for the session:

Part 4 on the Learning Space

Task 2 for the session:

Part 5 on the Learning Space

https://www.nielsenisbnstore.com/ - UK Store for ISBN's

Stands for - International Standard Book Number

Annoying fact

In the UK, Australia & USA you have to purchase an ISBN

Most other parts of the world? The government issues them without charge.

How many ISBNs?

Have any of you noticed multiple ISBN's in your books?

Ones for hardback, paperback, etc.,

Back in the day with ebooks bigger publishers tried to force all forms of ebook to have a different ISBN

So if you have Mobi, epub, PDF, etc, you'd need a separate ISBN for each one

These days that isn't the case

In fact, you can buy an ISBN for one version of an ebook and the rest will be attributed back to that original ISBN

So, why not give it to the word doc manuscript? :D

(If time) BISAC Codes

These make me laugh:

BISAC - Book Industry Standards and Communications

Essentially a 'tagging' system to give your book a category to come under, you might even see these on some of the books you're looking at

https://bisg.org/page/BISACEdition

Week 9

Production (2)

Why are book sales so complicated?

Well, much like Bruno, it's not a subject a lot of author's or publishers really talk about.

There's an element of 'secrecy' & 'mythology' to the process which is a way to dress up saying...

Gatekeeping

Just in case you're unsure, gatekeeping is when people within a certain sphere, do their best to keep out others who have an interesting the same topic but for whatever (usually baseless) reason are seen as not being good enough to join

This, to this day, is still how some larger publishing houses look at smaller publishing houses or ebook & POD houses.

Plus the media don't really help...

e.g., in 2016 newspapers lorded the 'return of print' (as if it ever really left) since print book sales had gone up the last two years in a row…

Can anyone guess what two kinds of books may have been responsible for this wee push from 2014-2016?

Adult Colouring Books

YouTube Celebrity Memoirs

So, what does this tell us about media reports on the sales of books as a whole?

Any ideas?

That they're pretty damn unhelpful to fiction writers or anyone looking to publish fiction novels.

This leads to a lot of confusion in writers who, often, have no idea how well their book is selling, if it's selling at all.

So, even if you're not planning to venture into the world of publishing, it's a damn advantage to have some understanding about this sales process.

So, what's a book sale?

Well turns out it's not just you forking over £30 for that super fancy leather bound edition of the complete words of H.P. Lovecraft…

In fact, here are four different kinds right off the bat:

The number of copies that are printed

The amount the publishing house has commissioned from the offsite printers

Or the amount requests in a POD sale

The number of copies that've been shipped to stores or other markets (like libraries)

The number of copies that've been sold to readers

Folks like you & me buying a book from Amazon, WHSmiths or Waterstones

The Neilson BookScan number

This is a company who collect data about book sales

Some author's even use if like a rating system

It 'supposedly' details how many books have been sold but even then… it's murky

So… why is it often used as a resource?

Because the author & the publisher (who have access to much more accurate numbers) often won't share them

So this is one way rival author's/publishers can get an idea of how their competitors are doing

But why the inaccuracy!?

Whelp, BookScan works through ISBN - International Standard Book Number, remember them?

A clerk scans the barcode & a sale is recorded, yay!

But...

BookScan doesn't record ebook sales

Soooooooo why can this be a problem?

Because ebook sales can be A LOT and folks Amazon & other major ebook vendors don't share their sales

So only the publisher (not even the author until they get their royalties) has any idea how well it's selling

Usually, ebooks can account for less than 1/3 of overall sales

Can anyone think of some kinds of genres where ebook sales may be higher?

Sci-Fi & Romance are the biggest, sometimes ebooks sales account for 50% or more!

It gets data from most big book stores but not all of them and it's easy for it to miss smaller 'Mom & Pop' bookstores too.

Doesn't track libraries too and that can be significant…

Any idea how many libraries there are in the UK?

3,667 - that could be 1,000 of your 3,000 book sales right there which BookScan never clocks

And then there's avenue's smaller book presses tend to make use of:

Selling at conferences & Expos

Private readings at local cafe's etc.

Book festivals

Purchases direct from the publisher itself

So, what is a major problem we see here? Anyone spot a big'ol red flag (other than the ones we've already seen) in BookScan?

It's still leaning almost exclusively on that traditional route of publication

A first-time author who signs on with a small publisher may do pretty well with ebook sales, print on demand sales, they maybe hit up some conferences, book festivals & other events and sell some to their local bookstores.

BookScan won't count any of that.

So to 'rivals' or snooping authors, it looks like the author's work hasn't sold well & that reflects on the publishing house seeming less reputable

So if you ask me times need to change… but isn't that the case with almost everything in this world at the mo?

Except David Attenborough - he is NOT allowed to change.

And all these can have widely different results (only adding to that aforementioned confusion)

Here's an example:

1). The publishing house commissions 5,000 books to be printed offsite.

2). They only sell 3,000 to bookstores/other markets

3). Of those 3,000 only 2,000 are sold to customers

4). Meanwhile, BookScan is telling you only 600 copies of your book have been sold

5). And we haven't even got into ebooks or audiobooks yet…

So, what IS the actual amount?

Usually, a combo of 2). & 3). plus your ebook & audiobook sales if you have them.

Remember there's still a lot of mental gatekeeping in author's minds

To many a physical book holds prestige, whereas an electronic one does not.

Despite the money all being the same when it's in your bank account…

2). They only sell 3,000 to bookstores/other markets

3). Of those 3,000 only 2,000 are sold to customers

So lets break these ones down:

A retailer usually (but not always) has the right to return any unsold books to the publisher

So even if a copy may be seen as 'sold' for a period of time, it will then be returned if it doesn't sell to a customer

On author royalty statements, a certain amount of money is always withheld as "Reserve Against Returns"

So as an author you'll not be expected to pay your royalties back if you book doesn't sell but the royalties you receive will be less because of it.

Right, what's this info not getting at? A lot of this was from your first reading, so what's it hinting at but not saying?

Well, publishing needs a kick into the recent decade.

There's so many older systems that won't talk to each other

Publisher's won't talk about sales & process

Author's won't talk about royalties or advances

The larger publishers really look down on smaller, indie or ebook publishers

Plus these larger ones go out of their way to keep costs down and hoard the money like Smaug

They can do this by paying advances to all who sign with them and larger hits cover less successful ones

Smaller presses can't do that, and again cause there's no transparency or communication, that makes less experienced authors think they're sketchy.

And publishing HATES embracing new technology

BookScan for instance outright ignoring ebook or audiobook sales

Now, let's move onto a different kind of 'Yikes'

First of all, who's done the second reading on the Learning Space?

You're not in trouble if you haven't

But this task really needs you to know a little about it

Sooooo if some of you need to, take 10mins and have a skim

And while you do, make some notes about anything you see in this article that sets off red flags or otherwise grabs your attention.

Now, let's have a chat about this article

A quick bit o'backstory

Marshall & I found this by just doing some research on google about publishing, looking for new developments, etc.

And this article came pretty high up on the search results

This means google recognises it as an 'authority' on the subject… EEP.

Some bits that I found:

Being pitched as 'make a PDF ebook'

Does anyone know how to save a word.doc as a PDF?

It's real easy to do

Title Vs. Target audience:

Title - 'Make an ebook: How to easily create a PDF ebook that rocks'

We'd assume this is for author's lacking confidence with the thought of creating an ebook

Target Audience - Marketers & Bloggers

All about getting more traffic to you blog which what could almost be seen as a 'clickbait' strategy

Being Pitched to marketers & online bloggers

Look at the lexicon (the words) they're pulling from:

'loyal subscribers'

'top bloggers'

Little financial backing

Not a model you want to rely on

i.e. 'giving away a book for free'

In some cases, a different version of this can work

Some authors make the first chapter of their book available for free on their website & then readers can pay for the rest

A 'try before you buy' mentality

But if you're a first time author and the advice you see about handling your first finished manuscript is to put it online for free…

That's not good.

Assumes a writer may know about Google Analytics & SEO optimisation

Does anyone here know how to employ/use Google Analytics?

Cause I sure as heck don't

But, in summary it's a plug-in that lets you see how many people visit your website & for how long

So say you've running a wordpress blog you can use google analytics to see...

The demographics of your audience

How many people visit specific webpages (or articles)

How long each visit lasts

So, from a 'content production' standpoint it can be very useful to see what pieces have been well received and what pieces haven't

In a similar vein, I have a question for you...

When you're suddenly hit with inspo, and you have a heck of a good writing day, how would you feel about being told you were producing content?

Since that's how this article is framing your writing.

Anyone know what SEO stands for?

Search Engine Optimisation

Essentially you figure out the keywords people are searching for and that search engines, like google are clocking when displaying results

You then feed into that by ensuring your 'content' has the right words so you get pushed higher up the google search results list

Which, from a 'being found' point, can be valuable… After all, how often do you hit up the second page of google?

Overall, this is a great example of some of the… crap, out there that'll send you in the wrong direction.

Offset Printing Vs. POD

We've talked about this a little bit already but worth revisting:

Offset Printing

When the publisher outsources the printing to a factory

Some Pros & Cons:

There can be BIG discounts if you order a large supply

But then there's the worry about unsold books ending up in a warehouse

This is seen as the 'correct' (bleh) route and carried with it prestige and tradition

If you're going to be printing a lot of books, then this is deffo the route you want to take

POD - Print on Demand

When the publisher only gets a copy printed if the order is made

Coming back to Gatekeeping

POD has a slight whiff of being 'unreputable' but all major publishers use it

Sometimes a person wants a new copy of an out-of-print book

They contact the publisher who'll, usually, print one for them and send it out

Tends to be a pricier process, but you know your book has sold

Less waste

Better for the environment

No returns costs

But is a lengthier process (i.e. if a customer orders a POD book, they're not going to have it the next day)

Activities:

Activity 4 on the Learning Space

Quick note: Make sure you're focusing on UK book printers :D

Interact with the choices you'll need to make

See what happens if you request different amounts

Knowing the names of different parts of the book may help:

Book-Anatomy-Hardcover-Book-Bookbinding-Diagram

Activity 5 on the Learning Space

Web-based/Software Options

i.e. a place you upload your word.doc/PDF to and it's converted into an epub

Or software you download onto your PC/Laptop that you run to convert the file

Freelancers/Publishing houses

Lulu

Someone I wanna talk about quickly

One of the first 'author service' publishing companies to offer POD publishing

And ended up contributing to it having a bad name

Works published by them have been of poor quality - as a publisher that's what you want to avoid

Plus they've very cagey about having prices on their website - always a red flag

And now we migrate next door!

Week 10

Marketing :D

So, what's changed from before?

Or more specifically:

A great deal of assumption and expectation surrounds the publishing industry.

There are strong norms, and they’re based largely on tradition and prestige.

But where publicity is concerned (specifically, the amount that book publishers do on authors’ behalf), do you think much has changed? Really?

On the whole (not in every example) author's are expected to be doing more

In the past, publishers would try to 'cultivate' their authors

E.g., they saw an author as a quality writer

So they'd help organise publicity for their works

Books Tours

Local Events

Interviews

Magazines

Radio (local if they're smaller)

Some houses (usually bigger ones but not exclusively the Big 5) would have publicists

The experts with connections & know-how

Remember in Wk.3 when we talked about the different formats & aesthetics?

Like all these glorious romance covers… They tend to be a wee bit similar

A publicist knows all about those different aesthetics and they know you need to take a different approach to try and market them successfully

A question:

Say you had to market two books you have in your publishing house (imagine you're a pretty wealthy one too, looks of money flying about)

Book 1 is this:

Book 2 is this:

Would you have to market them differently?

In what ways? Gimme some examples :D

The crux of the point here is this:

There's not straight up 'do this + do that = success' formula, and we'll be getting back to that over the course of the class.

Now though… things are a little bit different:

More Profit

Publishing houses have become more focused on the profit in the short term

The business side of things is rearing it's ugly head…

They want to know they'll make their money back and there are a few things that help convince them of that

Blogs

Social Media

Self-Marketing

Now… what's an issue that comes to mind with all of these?

It's all work that's going to be falling on the author

In the past the house/publicist would take over these roles (some still do)

But as a whole, the author is now expected to do a whole lot more.

What is a book tour?

As a publisher, would you consider sending an author on one?

Pros:

Wonderful way to get your book out there to new people who may not have heard of it (or you) before

e.g., fans/interested people bringing friends to small readings/Q+A's

Sweet engagement with fans

Personal story:

I met Phillip Pullman when I was 11 and he was very sweet, signed my copy of the subtle knife and told me to try writing my own adventures if I wanted to

I much later found out he's a raging dick but 11yr old Eoin was inspired…

And now I have novel draft I gotta do something with

Great way to drum up interest even before it's happened

Interviews - 'Oh you're going on tour?' 'Yes we're hitting up…'

Cons:

It's exhausting

You know when you gotta be happy & enthusiastic & (ugh) nice all the time around people?

Anyone ever worked in retail?

I did for 11yrs, and that's the kinda energy you gotta have - super happy, nice, helpful, enthusiastic

Even if you're just in a room with like… 10 people.

And it's exhausting

Then you gotta pack up, travel for hours, dump your stuff in a hotel room and go do it all again

They're also not as glamorous as people make them out to be.

Marshall went on a book tour for one of his earlier pieces...

In Chicago this happened…

No one turned up to the event

He went back to his hotel and realised he'd left his bag there

And someone stole his bag

So yea, not gonna be 5* treatment

You're away

You're not in your home - sounds obvious but who doesn't love their own bed?

I hate being away, I never sleep so good. And then you're busy too...

It's not fun

Security

Imagine your author is pretty high profile/written a book that's caused contention...

Tour meetings are an open space people will target:

E.g., Irshad Manji

Manji was in Indonesia to promote the release of her most recent book, 'Allah, Liberty and Love', which outlines a plan for Muslim reformation modelled on the U.S. civil rights movement.

Here's a quote from an article about her tour:

…After five tumultuous days of security threats and cancelled events, a book discussion with Ms. Manji was violently attacked by religious extremists believed to be with the Indonesian Mujahidin Council. “As the gangsters shouted, ‘Where is Manji?’ citizens shielded my body with theirs,” said Ms. Manji in a statement she posted to Twitter on Thursday.

A colleague of Ms. Manji, Emily Rees, was rushed to hospital after her arm was struck by a metal bar. Two other attendees suffered head injuries.

So it's not a common thing but it's something to consider

Harry Potter

During a book tour for Deathly Hallows armed men with guns broke into the tour bus in an attempt to steal some copies of the book before its official release date

No one was hurt but the publisher was immediately called since it 'affect the tour'

… Imagine getting that phone call…

How would you budget for that?

Lots of bills to pay:

Hotels/Air BnB's

Transport costs

Food costs

Space rental

Books for the tour

Security (if deemed necessary)

Visa costs (if needed)

Additional merchandise

Guest speakers

And likely more…

What steps would it entail?

How do you go about this?

Plan EVERYTHING

Locations

Think where you want the author to go - places where they'll be well received

Their hometown - book cafe's/community centres there

Is their book about a Scottish detective? Maybe they should tour in some Scottish cities then?

Does their book have an LBGTQAI lead/heavy narrative? Maybe have them visit some charities helping those people or a shop that stocks merch for them

Don't just chose spots randomly, you may only have the money/time to visit a select few, make the most of them

Budget (we've chatted about)

Bookings

Contact venues and see if there's availabilty

Check cost

Maybe a book shop may turn you away cause they're not going to be open/understaffed, could be a million reasons so always check early

Drumming up interest before

Social media/blogs/interviews - let people know this is happening

Drum up interest during

And after too, 'fresh back from a very successful tour' - it does make things sound more impressive

Often, publishers and literary agents will make acquisition decisions based (partly) on an author’s following on social media.

What issues can you think they'll cause?

Number of followers isn’t an indicator of book selling

^Just like how the Nielson BookScan number isn't an accurate representation of how many books you've sold.

Just because you follow someone on Twitter doesn't mean you'll pay money for their content

I follow Michael McIntyre on twitter… I've never bought one of his DVD's or books so…

You can buy followers - bots, etc.

It's not a good metric

But, it's important you understand the desire to have some metric for potential sales cause publishing's a conservative business.

Quality still needs to win out

If you, as a publisher, are presented with a truly fantastic piece of work you really believe in from an unknown, unpublished author, are you just going to let it go in favour of a 23yr old celeb's biography who's got hundreds of thousands of social media followers?

Firstly - take both if you feel you can

Secondly - don't you dare leave the first one in the lurch

What does the term “author platform” mean?

Well, the term comes into circulation during the 90’s

And at first it was more focused on non-fiction – about celebs, politicians, subject matter experts, people who had an audience ready to go

Their 'platform' was having insight into knowledge/experience that other people did not

e.g., What's it like being the vice president of a country?

What's actually living at the bottom of the Mariana Trench

Hint - Eels… lots and lots of EELS

How did you handle coming to fame at an early age and then going onto a successful acting career?

Over time though, it began to become synonymous with 'Author = style' - let's try this

Author - Style

Jaquline Wilson

Children's Books

Steven King

Horror Books

Sir Terry Pratchett

Fantasy/Discworld

Jane Austen

Romance

So, this author - style mentality evolves to your social media following

What to you already have in place?

Think about what you've written in the past

Is that writing an accurate reflection of you as a writer?

Have you exclusively worked in only one form/genre?

I doubt it… we lecturers tend to try and force you outta that, at least for your assignments

What genre are you identified with as a writer?

Do you have to work in a specific genre?

God no

Is it fair to expect a writer to only work in one genre?

Noooooooooope

And this method of identification (more pigeon-holing really) can be problematic

For example - TJ Klune

This is personal, but he's one of my fave authors - book got me through an unhappy time

This book - 'Tell Me It's Real' is a comedy, part of a series

Klune then goes on to write another book - 'Into This River I Drown'

Now it's highly rated in the gay community

But when it first came out, several reviews bombed it because… it wasn't funny

It's about a man coming to terms with the death of his father

^Not designed to be funny

Almost makes a good case for pseudonyms - But then you're back at the beginning - no social media or other backing for this new identity just so you can change the genre you write in

So it's tricky.

So, this serves the publishers interests

Being busy on social media means good sells

But - less social media active authors get side-lined

And maintaining a 24/7 social media presence is exhausting

I had to live tweet at a conference once, I was knackered…

Marketing Vs. Writing

Creativity as a complex problem-solving process (go with me on this)

Creativity – When you’re inspired its in the service of a problem

Home renovation shows - they want to redo the room in a way that’s more functional

So they have to be creative with the space

Make the most of the height, put a desk by the window… put in a hammock etc.,

Creative Problems in the Arts

You have an idea or several ideas & think it’s a cool novel –

a complex decision-making process of…

Who’re the characters?

Plot

Setting

Language

Style

Grammar

All different tiny decisions you’re consistently making

For me, I realised 'I'd like to read a book that does this' - and there was no book that did it, so I wrote it

Problem - Solution

Any creative work is a problem-solving process so you’re making connections between existing bits of knowledge and putting them together

Writers block is when you can’t do that - you're missing the little nugget needed to make the connection & get over the block

The problem with marketing:

Because author platform discussion = writers are already engaged in this complex creative process with lots of steps

How much of your creative time you should spend on writing vs. marketing?

Younger writers – when you’re 20/25/30 you’re still stumbling into this, finding your voice and seeing how it works

When you’re in your 30’s you kinda hit your stride

Doesn't mean you're a bad writer before then, not at all

Just lacking some life experience - we can only get that with age

I'm hoping I'll reach 30 and magically know everything…

So, thinking a lot about marketing more than the writing will really heavily impact your creative process

How do I make sure this will sell? What works best for the money & marketing

E.g., in my case I've got a book with a gay lead - I know that'll impact my publishing options

You may start to think 'Well I need to do this/that/and this' because it's what the other books are doing and those sell...

Where does that leave the fun for you? The creativity you wanna employ?

The boundaries of author platforms really distort how creative you can be.

Publisherisher ultimately have to make decisions about a long-term sustainable process – writers make their work over many years, making a ‘quick buck’ off it quickly isn’t how it should be done.

Younger writers need to know about this since they’ll have to enforce those boundaries to make work sustainable

Regardless of whether or not you jump into publishing - make sure you're aware of this

Set boundaries for your work, protect that creativity you have

The Author's Guild & Notable Authors

https://www.authorsguild.org/member-services/writers-resource-library/marketing-publicity-writers/

^Make sure you keep coming back to this website, it's a fantastic resource that'll be so useful to you all your life if you're any kind of writer :D

So, now we're gonna do a little research… and by 'we' I mean 'you'

Here's a list of several authors who went about publishing a little differently than most. I want you to do a bit of research on these authors, find out how they published their work & then we'll have a chat about it

E. Lynn Harris

^He was grinding before it was 'expected'

Self-published& sold books out the back of his car

Took them to barber shops/churches in his local area

He was in Atlanta – capital of the south and has a huge gay & black community, a community of very affluent professional black & gay men – the people he was writing about - so he was in the right place at the right time

Even for black readers who weren’t gay – this world he wrote about was upscaled, sophisticated populated with these characters who weren’t being written about at the time

He was speaking to a demographic of people who’d been severely neglected – affluent black Americans in the south, publishing hadn’t taken notice of them - he filled the gap and did very well

Amanda Hocking

She started writing fantasy fiction

One of the first to capitalise on ebooks in series & blogs

She recognised book bloggers had bigger audiences and lent out to them to gain connections that time

Price her ebooks cheaply (cause she had series) the book blogger really rallied behind her and made a lot money

She was one of the original self-published indie writers who succeeded

Christopher Paolini

Wrote Eargon when he was 15

Parents worked in publishing & supported him

Went on a book tour when he was 16 – got introduced to Harper Collins

Partially he was lucky – supportive parents, they underwrote him

But regardless it takes balls to do that

Willing to go at it at such a young age

Joanna Penn

Interesting case because she started in the traditional route – writing religious thrillers (American so God had to be in there somewhere…)

She didn’t get an agent, couldn’t get a traditional publisher – she self-published & learning from experiences she started writing about marketing books – how to self-publish & publish

Very consistent with branding, built herself a brand – she’s become a self-publishing expert & her fiction rides along with that

She said there was nothing that a traditional publishing house could offer her that she doesn’t already have – save the name of the publisher

John Scalzi

Self-Published on his website (lo-fi self publishing) – developed a following through SUPER active on social media

Tried a ‘pay what you can’ process again all through his own website

Worked up enough of a following & audience to be offered a 3.4 million book deal

So, what do they all have in common?

The through-line is self-publishing

Self-publishing worked for them, but they also all worked their asses off for this, they were in the right place at the right time and had no small amount of luck

Publishing houses saw this and have all gone ‘oh this works, all authors should do this’

They're so desperate for a formula to successful book marketing but this is unformulaic-able like I mentioned before

Sooooooo - what's still viable?

https://yourwriterplatform.com/promote-and-market-your-book/

Which of these from this 2013 website would still be viable, which ones would you consider doing, and which ones do you think might be problematic today?

Have a look through and make a mini-list for yourself

Things you think are still viable

Things that deffo aren't

Ones you're not sure on

In the end… here's the best marketing technique:

Word of mouth recommendation.

How often have you bought/watched/played/eaten/drank/whatever'd something before a friend/family member suggested it?

A recommendation from a friend will always be the most powerful marketing tool we've got.

All the other things are good but word of mouth is king