How to Publish a Book Readers,

I have a new video that I shot this weekend at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, North Carolina. This "How to Publish a Book" discussion was on the topic of publishing an online audio book, how to publish an eBook, and online book marketing. 

We had a turnout of about 25 folks, and they all asked excellent questions about how to publish a book. Several folks were interested in publishing an audio book at Podiobooks.com, which is a type of eBook. We also talked about more traditional eBook publishing and Amazon's Kindle.

At the very end of the discussion, we talked about how to use Google Adsense Video Units to generate revenue on your website... which reminds me, you probably noticed the YouTube video screen at the top of the homepage here at How to Publish a Book. If you click on the video, we actually make about a dollar per "view" here at How to Publish a Book.

So please click on the video at the top of the page.

Thanks so much, everyone.

Enjoy the site!

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week I interviewed New York Times bestselling mystery/suspense author J.A. Jance. This was one of those interviews where I felt so prepared that I was able to be completely relaxed.

Considering that Jance probably has more books in print (and more books published) than any other author that I've ever interviewed (somewhere in the 10 million+ books in print range), I was happy with how everything came together.

Towards the second half of the interview, we managed to discuss some emotionally-rich territory. It seems like with every studio interview, I learn a little bit more. Enjoy.

Stacey

 

 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

I am at the 2008 WorldCon in Denver, Colorado. For the past three days, I've been sitting in on publishing panel discussions with all manner of book publishing professionals: editors, publishers, agents, writers, etc. I'll be here until Sunday.

This is my third WorldCon, and the first where I am actively not promoting any of my own work. I decided to do this one in a sort of low-profile style.

I just wanted to listen to other people at this convention. I figure that if I spend more time listening rather than ramming my book down people's throats, I'll get a lot more out of the experience.

Take, for instance, this insight I gleaned from one of the publishing panels I've just come from. Two of the panelists were executive editors, and I asked the question, "Are editors paid on salary or do they receive a commission on the titles they acquire?" I was fairly well stunned to learn (at least at the house represented on the panel) that they receive no commission. None. Zero.

The panelist who responded clearly would have liked to have been receiving at least, say, 10% commission, and said as much.

To me, as I'm beginning to ferment the idea of starting my own publishing company, it just makes total sense to be paying editors at least partly, if not totally, on a commission basis. What incentive does "Editor A" have to find the hottest new writer on the block over "Editor B" if they're both making about the same amount of money regardless of how well the book does? Other than helping out the company and getting salary increases from time to time, there's no incentive.

This is an astonishing insight.

Do you realize how attractive it would be to the best editors in the business if a publishing company paid them on commission? And I'm not talking about the editors who are flailing around with authors who can't break even. I'm talking about the editor whose recent acquisition just became a New York Times bestseller and sold 3 million copies last year.

If these panelists represent the publishing business as a whole (and I just can't believe that they could), the editor who acquires the million copy bestseller has very little personal incentive (compared to if they were receiving 15% commission on sales of the book) to find such hot new talent.

No wonder the publishing business is completely stagnant.

At any rate, it was just one of those moments in a career, where suddenly the light bulb came on, and I realized, Holy shit, there's one major thing a publishing company could do to energize the acquisition of hot new talent. Pay the editors for discovering that new talent.

Even if it was only as part of a bonus, say, if a certain book hit a threshold of sales that then the editor would receive 15% commission. That would so incentivize editors to really get out there and find the best new talent for their publishing company.

It could only help everything in the long run.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

I have a new "How to Publish a Book" panel discussion video online. I interviewed authors Martha Witt and Val Nieman on the subject of literary agents, how to publish a book, and how to market a book. We were also joined by NC Arts Council Marketing Director Rebecca L. Moore.

This is part of a monthly series I've been doing at Quail Ridge Books on the subject of how to publish a book.

This week, I'll be flying to Denver, Colorado for the World Science Fiction Convention. I'm planning to bring my camera, so hopefully I'll have some good footage of that to put online here at How to Publish a Book later this month.

Take care, folks.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

I've got a new "How to Publish a Book" video online today. The following was a how to publish a book discussion at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh with Podcast Novel authors P.G. Holyfield, Mur Lafferty, and Elisa Lorello. We discussed how to publish a book as a Podcast Novel (or "Podiobook") at Podiobooks.com and how to develop a readership through an online community for writers.

Enjoy...

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

I am officially a writer under contract with Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. Earlier this month, my wife and I received contracts on a textbook to be co-written with us and another colleague. I’ve had years to think about how I would first announce my becoming a professional author, and have had many published authors’ experiences to learn from. I am both humbled and excited by the opportunity to co-write a book for a publisher like Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Susan and I met with the acquisition editor at a conference in Denver, and she (the editor) treated us to a wonderful dinner. I’m reluctant to talk too much about this because the book has yet to be written. It’ll be a textbook on writing for use in college programs around the country. We sold the book largely on the table of contents and on the good word of mouth regarding Susan’s first book.

At any rate, this is an exciting project. I’ll be spearheading an audio-visual component to be produced online in conjunction with the textbook, and it’ll be fun to co-write much of the project with my wife and with our friend and colleague Roy.

I submitted my very first work to a publisher in 1989. It’s been nearly twenty years, and I have received over 2000 rejections over that time. But it looks like I will finally be working as a writer on a book for an established traditional publisher.

Stacey

 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

The last four days have been extremely "How to Publish a Book" busy, and I've got some really cool stuff to get up here on the blog.

Last Thursday night, I held the first How to Publish a Book and Write to Publish Organizational & Planning Meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina at Cameron Village Public Library. Fifteen folks came to the meeting, and the major issues to come out of the discussion were:

1. Filing for Non-Profit 501 (c) (3) status for How to Publish a Book and/or Write to Publish;
   
   
2. Organizing workgroups with independent leaders for a:
   

• critique group open to the public,
  

• an organizational and steering committee open to the public,
  

• a marketing group for writers
  

• a self-growth group.

Friday night, I was asked to help set up and film an event at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh for two-time Academy Award Winner GENE HACKMAN. Mr. Hackman is on tour for his latest book Escape from Andersonville, co-written with Daniel Lenihan and published with St. Martin's Press. 

On Saturday night, I administered an Open Mic Night Contest for the Raleigh Write to Publish Group at Quail Ridge Books. We had 38 attendees, and seven folks were chosen randomly to read. The best reading was decided by audience vote, and she received about 30 bucks for her winning reading. That author was Ashley Steineger, and here is her reading... 

Then on Sunday, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina and led a discussion at Pomegranate  Books on How to Publish a Book as a Podiobook. We had about 15 folks who came to the discussion, and there were many excellent questions. I hope to have the video of that discussion online in the next day or so.

Thanks so much for checking out the blog this week, and I hope you enjoy the videos!

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

On May 9, 2008, I began serializing my book THE COLORADO SEQUENCE as an online Audio Book at Podiobooks.com. The way this works is that a writer publishes his/her book chapter-by-chapter in a serialized format, basically publishing about 30 minutes per week online. Listeners at Podiobooks.com “subscribe” to your serialized book, and are notified when a new episode becomes available. They can listen to it on their computers, and they can download it to their iPods. They could even burn CDs of it in iTunes to listen on a CD player.

Podiobooks.com has a liberal acceptance policy and a low rejection rate, and in four years, they’ve built an audience of close to 50,000 registered members.

Since THE COLORADO SEQUENCE started to be published online on May 9, I’ve received close to 4,000 total downloads and now have 436 registered subscribers to the book. These numbers grow daily, and it’s possible that by the end of publishing the serialized Audio Book (probably sometime in December), I may have somewhere around 30,000 downloads and a couple thousand subscribers.

A Podiobook.com listener can start subscribing at any time and so as a producer, you’ll constantly be gaining new subscribers as episodes are published online (not unlike how a TV show gains new viewers as it increases in popularity).

Without getting too technical, I wanted to write a blog post here at How to Publish a Book regarding how to publish a book at Podiobooks.com

1. You’ll need some sort of microphone to record your reading. I actually have an actor-friend doing the narration for the book, and I loaned him one of my SAMSON CO1U mics and a pop-stopper.
2. You’ll need some sort of digital recording software program. I recommend AUDACITY because it’s free, and it's user-friendly.

And that’s basically it.

Once you learn how to record yourself reading, there are specific digital formats that Podiobooks.com requires producers to use in publishing their books at Podiobooks.com. You’ll want to spend some time reading all of the details at their site. Podiobooks.com does have a community mentoring forum, where you can ask questions online and get advice from more experienced book publishers.

What are the PROS and CONS?

The advantage of publishing a book via Podiobooks.com is that you can reach a whole other audience that you wouldn’t reach otherwise. In terms of building a readership and in terms of publicizing a book, I haven’t seen a better vehicle on the Internet in the past five years.

If you published 2-3 novels at Podiobooks.com and built your subscriber list up to 5,000, that’s solid SOCIAL CAPITAL for an up-and-coming writer.

The downside is that there’s very little money (read “no money”) to be made directly from publishing a book at Podiobooks.com. There is no charge to listeners to subscribe to books published at Podiobooks.com. Any money earned is based on donations, and I haven’t received a single donation to date.

That said, if you’re stuck with a book (or books) that can’t find a home at a traditional publisher, publishing your book as an online Audio Book at Podiobooks.com might be worth considering.

Thanks so much for reading this week’s installment of How to Publish a Book.

Sincerely,

Stacey Cochran

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Every once in a while, I get a really, really awesome interview subject, and everything comes together just right. My how to publish a book interview yesterday with Garth Stein was one of those.

You folks will really get a kick out of this one because Garth's novel The Art of Racing in the Rain was just published last week with Harper-Collins. It's his first major book deal, and so he's able to relate to where we're coming from as aspiring writers. Two days ago, The Art of Racing in the Rain hit #22 on the New York Times bestseller list.

One of the most interesting questions in the interview was my last; I asked Garth how he landed his literary agent. His response was so insightful I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since.

Additionally, in this interview, he discusses the craft of writing, and he defines a category difference between the craft (which he states can be learned) and the art (which he says can't be learned).

If you're an aspiring writer, or if you wonder what it takes to get your first book published with a major publisher like Harper-Collins, you won't want to miss this interview.

Enjoy!

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to interview the new Executive Director of the North Carolina Writers Network, Ed Southern. We talked about how to publish a book, how to find literary agents, and how the North Carolina Writers Network serves the writers in its community. Ed was also able to talk about his work for the Book Publisher John F. Blair Publishers.

This interview also includes a Book Report segment by Natasha Gilliam on Brett Battles's upcoming book The Deceived to be published by Delacorte Press, a division of Random House, Inc.

 

Stacey 

I was asked yesterday on another forum about my experiences self-publishing my books.

The decision to self-publish a book is one that all of us have to face at one time or another. This was how I responded on the other forum:

Regarding your question about self-publishing, I've been extremely happy with everything I've managed to accomplish with a self-published book.

To date, I've sold around 500 books total, done more than 100 bookstore and library events, now have an author-interview TV show, am currently putting together a mini-national workshop tour in conjunction with Lulu and Borders, and have a major publisher contracting me to lead workshops at colleges this fall. I have two audiobooks, know how books sell and are distributed, know how to design an online marketing campaign, know how to speak at writers conferences, etc.

None of this would have gotten going had I not originally self-published my books.

I do recommend trying extremely hard to find a traditional publisher first, but if that fails, don't do nothing with your book. Get it out there and learn as much as you can from the experience!

A lot of this holds true. The fact remains that the business of publishing, marketing, and selling books is not an easy one to learn. There really is no way to learn how books are produced, distributed, marketed, and sold unless you jump right into it.

The problem with traditional publishing is that it may take years (even decades) to get your first book published (if ever). I guess the way I looked at it was that I didn't want to waste my life (professionally speaking) waiting for a traditional publisher to see the value in my writing. I took the approach that I would enter into self-publishing to learn everything that I could about the publishing process.

And I guess, now that I'm on the other side of four years after having decided to do it the first time, I have learned so much about how books are published, distributed, marketed, and sold that I'm amazed.

What I think happens to some writers, though, is that they are forced to self-publish. When they do so, they run into the harsh reality that may come with only selling a few dozen books. Then, discouraged that their book didn't become a bestseller, they give up.

A better approach to take, I feel, is that of realizing that with every book, you learn a little bit more and a little bit more. By staying in the game, keeping a positive attitude, and sincerely trying to learn as much as you possibly can about this business, you really can carve out a career for yourself as a writer.

It just takes a tremendous amount of self discipline to hang in there when the times are tough.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week I interviewed New York Times bestselling author Bart Ehrman about his books God's Problem and Misquoting Jesus. Bart has published nineteen books, and he makes an interesting distinction between his scholarly books published and his more mainstream books published with Harper One.

Dr. Ehrman has been on The Colbert Report and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and has been featured on The History Channel, CNN, NPR, and other top media outlets. In addition to publishing his books, Dr. Ehmran is the James A. Gray distinguished professor of Religious Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. His scholarly research focuses on early Christianity and the life of Jesus Christ. More specifically, he has focused on Proto-Orthodox Christianity, turning textual criticism around to show how the early scribes altered the Bible.

On a personal level, this was one of the most interesting interviews I've ever done. I found it completely fascinating, and I highly recommend God's Problem.

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Yesterday, I drove down to Wilmington, North Carolina where I organize a monthly How to Publish a Book Writers Group at Pomegranate Bookstore. Usually, we feature a speaker on the subject of books and how to publish a book, but yesterday, we held an Open Mic Contest with the winner determined by audience vote.

It was like a literary American Idol, but with an audience of about 25 people (instead of 25 million).

This is how it worked: 1) attendees brought a ten-minute sample of their writing; 2) each participant could purchase a "raffle ticket" for one dollar  to enter into the reader drawing; 3) six readers were drawn from all the tickets entered into the pot; 4) each reader read a ten-minute sample of his/her writing; 5) after all six readers read, the audience participated in a write-in vote, selecting their favorite of the six readers; 6) the votes were tallied and the winner received a portion of all monies collected for entries.

One twist to this included that each participant could purchase as many one-dollar raffle tickets to enter into the drawing as he/she desired. So, to increase your odds of being one of the six selected readers, you could purchase five tickets (or more). This generated quite a good deal of money with about 25 folks entering (and many of them purchasing five or more raffle tickets) .

It's really quite a clever idea, and it's a ton of fun. It's kind of a twist on the standard Open Mic Night, with the audience voting at the end and the winner receiving cash money.

We've done it twice now in Wilmington, and the readings have gotten tremendously better. 

And, of course, I filmed the whole thing.... so you can see the winning reader here at How to Publish a Book.

When I got home late last night, my wife and I watched the winning entry on our TV, and we brainstormed ideas for televising this kind of audience-vote-selected Open Mic Contest on a national scale.... with the idea in mind that the winning reader would receive a publishing contract.

I think it's a hell of an interesting idea, but it would take a little bit of money and quite a lot of logistics to work everything out.

The most innovative thing about this is that the audience is selecting their favorite reading. I'd love to figure out a way to do this on a national scale (or international scale), televise it, have the audience vote on the best writer/reader, and give the winner a publishing contract.

At any rate, the winning entry won unanimously yesterday. Though there were six readers to choose from, the audience voted overwhelming for one reader. Here is that entry.

Enjoy!

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Yesterday, I discovered a feature on Ask.com whereby you can check out the relative success of various websites on the Internet by seeing the number of "unique" visitors to a site. The How to Publish a Book website was launched back in August and didn't really start ranking high enough in search engines to be discovered until December. Since then, the How to Publish a Book website has steadily grown in the number of "unique" visitors this calendar year.

 

Because I've never before viewed other sites' statistics like this, I quickly searched several similar but better established book and publish related websites. For example, Sarah Weinman's crime fiction book and publish information website Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind. While it peaked around 6,500 unique visitors in June of 2007, her March 2008 visitors is only slightly more than what we achieved at How to Publish a Book. I was honestly surprised because the How to Publish a Book site is so new and hers has had years to build a following.

Interestingly, the website AgentQuery.com which I highly recommend receives about 15,000 unique visitors each month according to these analytics.

The thing that was most interesting to me about the How to Publish a Book website is that we're actually on the ballfield, so to speak, with these much better established websites. For a few months this past winter, I wasn't sure how much the How to Publish a Book website was catching on and whether it was worth the time and effort. If the numbers continue to improve like this for the How to Publish a Book website over the 2008 calendar year, I'd say it's definitely worth it.

So help spread the word, folks! Send the http://www.howtopublishabook.org link to all of your writer friends and post it on your blog! Let's keep the discussion on How to Publish a Book alive and growing.

Thanks so much, How to Publish a Book readers! 

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

Well, this is an exciting post. A few weeks ago, I interviewed three New York Times bestselling authors Jeffery Deaver, Margaret Maron, and John Hart on the subject of how to publish a book. This was my highest profile panel to date, and I owe a special thanks to Marnie Cooper-Priest and Will Neary who were in charge of the filming.

I hope you enjoy this how to publish a book discussion with these three New York Times bestselling authors!

Stacey 

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week I interviewed author Oronde Ash regarding his memoir 17 to Life. We discussed matters close to the heart of the book like identity, race, transformation, and immigration. Like so many aspiring writers, Oronde has an outstanding book, but no publisher has been made aware of it. 100 agents have passed on it.

This interview focuses primarily on the craft of writing a memoir, how to choose the moments in your life for a book, and how writing a book can help us come to a better understanding of who we are and why we are here.

I think Oronde's story is one of the most inspiring I've heard and one that seems to capture the very essence of what the American experience is like.

If anyone knows of a publisher or editor for this type of book, please do let me know. Thanks so much.

Stacey

How to Publish a Book Readers,

This week, I interviewed a small press book publisher and an author whose books are published with the press. The book publisher is Jack Fryar, who operates Dram Tree Books and Whittler's Bench Press. The author is Suzanne Adair, whose two book titles published with Whittler's Bench Press include Paper Woman and The Blacksmith's Daughter. It's a fascinating discussion because it illustrates some of the dynamics between author and publisher, as well as offering some key insights into how to start a small press and how to make it successful.

Dram Tree Books and Whittler's Bench Press will have over 30 titles in print by this Christmas. They have been publishing books since 2002.

A couple of things that came out of this how to publish a book discussion that I found particularly insightful:

1. If starting a small press, choose a niche market that is not being met by already established larger publishers. Too many people who start a small press don't analyze what books they'd like to publish, or how those books would fit into an already crowded publishing market.
2. If starting a small press, it would be extremely helpful to have someone in charge of sales; that is, a person who can stay on the phone with booksellers, can keep track of inventory, can analyze what books are selling and where. Again, most people who start a small press overlook this step, or plan to do it all themselves. It would serve a small press book publisher well to establish a director of sales and marketing right from the start.

The process of how to publish a book is fascinating to me, but book publishers who thrive in an increasingly competitive market do so because of clear vision, excellent books, and because they're meeting a demand that larger publishers have not already met.

A couple of example small press book publishers who have thrived in recent years:

• Lyons Press
• Breakneck Books

I think it all starts with passion. Knowing how to publish a book is key, but passion, focus, discipline, and the energy of a dedicated group of people is what drives a small press book publisher.

Enjoy this how to publish a book interview!

Sincerely,

Stacey Cochran
www.staceycochran.com

 

Hey How to Publish a Book Readers,

A few minutes ago, the phone rang here at the house and the caller ID read "Harper Collins," which of course is the name of a major book publisher. So I answered it. I don't get a lot of calls from major book publishers.

At any rate, it turns out the call was from a publicist at Harper-One, the "spiritual/self-help" book publishing imprint for Harper Collins based out of San Fransisco. We here at How to Publish a Book like getting calls from major publicists at the world's largest book publishing companies.

At any rate, to make a long story short, the publicist got my name and number from someone and wanted to know if I could schedule author Bart D. Ehrman for an interview on the TV show. Of course, I said yes, and so she's sending me the author's book and press kit.

I believe I saw this author on a major CNN special a few months ago called "The First Christians." 

A few weeks ago, I had a similar correspondance with a publicist at Harper Collins that led to the Mary Kay Andrews interview from a couple weeks back.

Next Saturday, I'll be interviewing three New York Times bestselling authors at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. If you're in the area, we'd love to have you come. Here's more info on the event. 

A number of other deals are in the works, including a current contract with book self-publishing giant Lulu and Borders Books national. And just recently, my wife and I have begun negotiating with several publishers regarding a book we would like to co-author. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

My wife Susan is currently finishing up on her first major book deal, a book to be published later this summer.

All of this is to say that things are really hopping here at How to Publish a Book lately, and if I haven't responded to your emails or messages, it's not because I haven't read them. I've just been overwhelmed lately. I really appreciate all of your feedback and questions. Everyone of them matters to me, and I can't say enough how much I value your time and thoughts.

I've got an audio book that is being narrated by an outstanding actor Owen Daly to publish at Podiobooks.com, and yet another job with book publisher Bedford/St. Martin's.

And suddenly, literary agents have been coming out of the woodwork. I've had requests from three this week alone to see manuscripts of mine.

Finally, here is an interview I've been meaning to put online for several weeks but have simply not had time to do. This How to Publish a Book interview is with author Zelda Lockhart. Zelda's books include the Simon & Schuster published book Fifth Born.

In this interview for How to Publish a Book, we discuss the road that led Zelda to her first major book publishing contract, as well as more generally how to publish a book, how to market a book, how to write a book, and how to survive after your first book has been published.

Enjoy!

Stacey 

 

Hey folks,

How to Publish a Book has a great new interview drawn from an interview I did with author Mary Kay Andrews a couple weeks ago. Mary Kay is the New York Times bestselling author of Deep Dish, published with Harper-Collins Publishers. She is on her book tour for her latest book.

In this interview, we talk about her book and about various How to Publish a Book strategies. One of the more interesting questions (to me personally anyway) that we touched on toward the end of the interview regarded the subject of whether new authors should consider publishing their books as stand-alones or whether they should publish series books.

There are different publishing strategies either way, and I thought Mary Kay's answer was great.

Publishing with a major publisher changes a lot of the dynamic regarding how to market and sell a book. For aspiring writers, this How to Publish a Book interview should be pretty cool.

Enjoy!

Stacey
StaceyCochran.com 

Hey folks,

How to Publish a Book has an outstanding Book Publishing video for today. This past Sunday, I drove to Pomegranate Books in Wilmington, North Carolina to interview authors Shira Tarrant and Shawna Kenney, who have both published several books and countless articles.

Shawna Kenney is represented by literary agent Jennie Dunham and Shira Tarrant has published two books with Routledge Publishing. In addition to publishing several books, Shira also teaches at the college level in southern California. Shawna has published several books with independent publishers, and her agent sold foreign rights to publish her books in the U.K. and Italy. One of her books was optioned by a film company as well.

All of this "How to Publish a Book" type stuff was the focus of our discussion. Enjoy!

Stacey
StaceyCochran.com