Although my day job is currently web strategy and analytics, I’ve recently finished my first science fiction novel. I’m at my first Orycon, a Portland, Oregon science fiction convention.
I just finished the Evolution of a Writing Career workshop led by authors Ken Scholes and J.A. Pitts.

Here are my notes:

  • J.A. Pitts:
    • started writing when he was 13
    • writing short stories forever
      • “wow, that’s a great first chapter of a novel”
      • “you can’t have 9 plot lines in a short story”
    • started writing seriously in college. studied english. had to spend 10 years unlearning everything he studied.
    • got discouraged frequently: had to learn to get touch skin. if you aren’t getting rejections, you aren’t working hard enough.
    • if you want to be a professional writer, you write. that’s it. it’s a job. it’s not a hobby.
      • most people don’t think of their writing that way, and that’s a mistake.
      • if you want to make a living at it, you’ve got to treat it like a real job.
  • Ken
    • started telling stories when he was really young. 
    • started submitting stories when he was 14 years old.
    • came back to it, dabbling a little in 1996.
    • didn’t know there was writers groups, conventions, etc.
    • decided he didn’t like writers groups. they don’t work for him.
    • if you are wanting major distribution, then you generally want a publisher. even the exceptions (like eragon, which was self published)…in fact have traditional publishing working for them: both of his parents were editors, and were best friends of professional editors and publishers.
  • Beginner friendly markets
    • Use duotrope.com and ralan.com.
      • have both short story and novel markets
      • use publishersweekly.com (cost $20/month): has an email that comes out each week, and publishers and agents usually post their sales there. so if you want to see who is publishing and buying what, you can see it.
    • Never undersell yourself. Always start at the top. Always go down the list. If you start at the bottom, you will get sales faster, but you won’t get the reach.
    • There’s no such thing, because no market is really friendly.
    • “the smaller the market, the more egotistical the editor is.” – they want more edits, for almost no money.
    • Don’t stop: keep going through all the markets. You can get 30 rejections, just keep going.
  • e-publishing markets are OK if they pay you. 
    • orson scott card has an electronic distribution.
    • tor.com pays 25 cents a word.
  • Self-publishing
    • Avoid self-publishing at all costs.
    • you’ll get negative rejection from a lot of people in the business if you’re self published, and you’ll have to overcome that.
    • on the other hand, for established writers… when their old books are not reprinted by the publisher, then the rights revert to the author. they can resell to another publishers, or they can self-publish, which some writers are now doing.
    • maybe only if you’d already tried every market and no one accepted it, or if its older stuff that no one wants.
    • The other thing that happens is that if you finally sell your 3rd or 4th novel, they might say “do you have anything else i can buy?” at which point, having a bunch of previous, unsold manuscripts is a great resource.
    • If you are putting out a novel a year, then you have a good pipeline, 
  • Rights:
    • science-fiction/fantasy writers of america: professional organization. will help you if you are concerned about contract violations. 
    • Read everything carefully – don’t sell all world rights for a fixed price. “first world english”, whether you can resell it, etc. you always want to have to right to resell if possible, in case you get picked up by something else, something new.
  • What to do when the offer happens
    • dance
    • ken: by the time you are getting an offer from a new york publisher, you probably have an agent, and they will help advise you.
    • john: didn’t have an agent, got a call from an editor, and when he did, the editor asked “do you have an agent?” the answer was: “i’m close, let me get back to you.”  then scrambled to get an agent.
    • you don’t have to start with an agent, but you have to get an agent or a literary lawyer. the contracts run from 16 to 30 pages. you want someone who can really interpret that for you.
    • the agent gets 15% of your book deal forever. so they have a vested interested in getting you a good deal.
  • Finishing vs starting something new vs. continually revising
    • Your old material will never be as good as your new material. You will keep getting better and better. You can’t just relayer new stuff on top of old. Write it and finish it. Get it as good as you can. Then go out and market it. Don’t touch it again until you get a request from an editor to make a change.
    • Submit everything. Don’t worry that it’s not publishable. The longer you practice submitting stories to markets, the better you will get at it.
    • Editors don’t remember the bad stories. They remember you, and they remember that you are a consistent writers. Editors talk to each other. They root for you as writers. The more you submit, the more consistently, to more markets, the better and better chance you get.
  • Resubmitting…
    • if the editor asks you to make changes or suggests changes, then do resubmit.
    • if the editor for a market changes, then do resubmit.
    • if you did some rewrites for another market, you could do a query first.
    • It’s all about relationships and etiquette: you want them to have a good vibe about you.
  • Rewriting on request:
    • If you want to sell, do it.
    • They would love for you to be a best-seller. They are trying to make it be a better book.
  • Identity and Branding
    • Go get your domain name for your name.
    • One for your book, one for yourself, have a blog, have a twitter. 
    • Publishers have a limited amount of capital. The bigger folks gets more marketing dollars.
    • So decide… how important is it?
    • The first thing a publisher is going to do is google you.
    • Don’t let it interfere with writing time, but do treat it like a business. Schedule time to do a blog post a week.
  • read christopher moore: extremely funny writer, writes about vampires and horror, but marketed as mainstream.
  • World building (in fantasy novels)
    • You want it to be as smooth as possible.
    • If it’s rice, call it rice. If it looks like a horse, call it a horse.
  • 55K novel length
    • That’s fine for YA, which comes in around 60K, but it’s not enough for big world thrillers. But, there are some markets that might take it. Submit it, get feedback from editors and agents.
  • favorite books on writing
    • natalie goldberg… writing by the bones
    • ben bova, orson scott card… both have books
    • but best thing you can do it just read, read, read.
    • any book that sings to you is a good book to learn from.
    • zen and the art of writing by ray bradbury.
  • cover letters… they don’t need a love letter. only what your story is, and what relevance you experience have.
    • use a personal touch, especially if you run into an editor at a conference.
    • nice people are remembered better than people who aren’t.

Given that this panel was pitched as a followup to the missed opportunity from last year’s “New Think for Old Publishers”, I was expecting more out of it. It still felt a little light, and somehow missed the energy of last year’s panel. — Will
A Brave New Future For Book Publishing
#futurebook
Kevin Smokler @weegee
Kassia Krozer @booksquare
Pablo Defendini @pablod, Tor.com/Macmillan (Cory Doctorow’s publisher)
Matthew Cavnar @vooktv Sr. Director of Content, Vook
Debbie Stier @debbiestier (Sr. VP. Associate Publisher HarperStudio, Director of Digital Marketing, Harper Collins)
  • 80% of books published do not make the money back that was spent on them
  • 40% of books shipped are returned unsold
  • Borders may go under, and if they do X% of retail establishments in the U.S. will be gone.
  • Is the iPad game-changing?
    • iPad will be entry point for casual ereader use, people who don’t own ereaders. they will get comfortable with it.
    • Vook: it’s going to allow us to combine video plus a book, and that is going to be very, very compelling
    • Any device that gets book to the reader in the most frictionless way possible is going to be good. 
    • Talk about typical customer: mom, very busy, wants one device, wants it to be easy.
  • Kindle set prices at $9.99. If you buy from an independent store, it’s the same price as a hardcover – $28.99. How can an ebook cost the same as a hardcover?
    • Regardless of what the price is, it should be set by the market, not set artificially. If you put the price control with the publisher, they can experiment to see what makes the book sell.
    • What the market will bear is what the price should be, and it should vary by book. but we think to think about alternate ways about how to bring revenue and profit to the author and publisher. Don’t be locked in by the old model which is out of sync with the world today.
    • The author, the publisher, and the reader all have different valuations of a book. Sometimes even after you read it the value changes…
      • (Will: make it easy to donate to author after reading?)
  • What about the book as just the mothership for a community around the book/author?
    • If you separate the content from the vessel (e.g. memoir vs. published book), then you can figure out the best vessel for the content. Is a book always the right thing? Why is a book publisher any different than a movie studio or a music producer, why isn’t it all just a media business?
    • Movie studios have figured this out. They don’t just make a movie. They make a brand, that has spinoffs, and related products, and toys, and characters.
    • Example book: Breakaway Japanese Cooking: i’m getting some narrative, i’m getting some recipes, and i’m getting some video all from the author. The role of the publisher must change to use all the assets.
  • A New Kind of Author…
    • The Happiness Project: had a huge following, big community even before they wrote the book. 
      • The publisher always wants to know “What’s your platform?” — it used to be where did you speak, what have you published, and now it is “how many twitter followers do you have, friends on facebook, what’s your blog readership.”
    • The Pioneer Woman
    • Certain kinds of authors have the infrastructure in place to do so much on their own. So they can go to a publisher and say “what can you do for me?”, and the publisher has to show their worth.
  • Books as Art Object
    • (photo shown) beautiful editions of previously published books
    • doing ebooks would allow publishers to do more with low print run / high value editions.
    • these special books have value beyond just a vessel for reading.
  • Can anyone compete with traditional publishers…
    • Yes, because anyone could build an empire on their own like Gary V.
    • Yes, and no. Because we could be collaborators. 
    • It would take a lot of blood and sweat.
    • But someone could easily do that on their own.
    • Defendini, who runs a science fiction site, is asked if io9 is his competition. No, they are my colleagues.
    • In the same way that blogging is very accessible to soccer moms today, in five years from now, Adobe will make it just as easy to publish a book
  • Is a book becoming more like software?
    • Yes, it is becoming more of an iterative process. Like a wiki or blog, you can iterate and add to it over time. Editors and publishers need to integrate this… Yes, we took this gold master to press, but we need to keep taking new related content.
  • Questions…
      • Will print on demand really become part of the industry?
        • Yes, absolutely. 
        • Espresso Book Machine: Put in a PDF, and out comes a trade book 5 minutes later. As the price goes down, why not put that into every bookstore?
        • The bookstore of the future will be a coffee, a staff recommendations shelves, and an Espresso Book Machine. You’ll get any book you want.
      • Is the hardcover/software model broken? Don’t the $5 firesale hardcovers eat into the soft cover sale?
        • Some problems.
        • Hard cover sales are very important. When a publisher recoups cost, it usually comes from hardcover sales.
        • Hardcovers do get more credibility for reviewers, even though that is outdated.
      • Transmedia Storytelling… hard to find people in book publishing who is doing it. Hollywood is doing it. Why aren’t publishers doing it more? Random House is doing it a little. There is a transmedia hollywood.
        • It’s a little complicated from a rights perspective. Book rights are very distributed. 

Scoring a Tech Book Deal
#techbookdeal
Robert Hoekman Jr
  • Five things you need
    • A sellable idea
      • A sellable idea has to be a good idea, but it has to be more
      • it has to fill a need
      • it has to fill a gap that other books don’t fill
    • Evidence that you are the one to author this book
      • Sell yourself to the acquisition editor
      • You have to prove that not only you can write this book, but that you are THE one to write
      • It’s not just qualifications. “I never had the title Interaction Designer”, but it was a huge part of my work.
      • Q: What are qualifications?
        • Do you have a blog
        • Do you have 5,000 twitter followers
        • Other ways you can illustrate that you are listened to
        • Do you participate in forums where you are a recognized leader
        • Your proposal should include your explanation
        • “The first thing I do is Google you”
        • A writing sample. Could be a sample chapter, or something else in the style of the proposed book. Show that you can communicate and that you can educate people on the subject
    • A willingness to change your idea (#4)
      • Your original idea may not be as sellable as what you think
      • Your acquisitions editor will help you shape the idea to something you can use
    • Thick Skin (#5)
      • Your development editor will shred you during the writing. It’s their job. You don’t write as well as you think you do.
      • Your readers will shred you. It’s the internet.
    • A really good relationship (bonus)
      • If you are on the verge of divorce, it will be the end of your marriage.
      • You really need a supportive partner.
      • When you are working on the book, you don’t get your other jobs done… 
        • taking care of kids, taking out the garbage
  • Q: What about agents?
    • Entirely optional
    • Might help you get more money
  • Q: What goes in a proposal?
    • Publisher will document it. You’ll find it on their website.
  • Q: Rapor with development editor?
    • Needs to be good. If isn’t compatible, you could talk to the acquisitions editor, about another editor.
    • On the flip side, the editor is always right. If it’s not working, it’s possible the book will just get killed.
  • Q: What about sending a draft of an entire book?
    • Absolutely not. They will reject it outright. They want the development editor to shape the book. If you’ve written the whole book, they can’t shape it. It’s like writing an entire web application before getting any feedback/guidance.
    • Table of content plus sample chapter is the most you should send.
  • Q: What about title of the book and cover design?
    • Don’t send it. It marks you as someone who will be difficult to work with because you are coming in with hard and fast notions. The publisher might ask you later for ideas.
  • Q: What about things that are not strictly tech. Maybe partly tech.
    • The publisher will talk to sales rep, marketing department, book buyers to see what they would buy.
    • If the book you have wouldn’t get shelved with the tech books, then the book buyer wouldn’t buy it. That’s a different book buyer. They won’t do one-off books. 
      • A little less important on Amazon.com, and critically important in brick and mortar stores.
  • The best reason to go to a publisher is that they have a reach that you don’t have unless your 37 signals.
  • You shouldn’t be in this to make money. It’s just not going to happen. And the publishing business margins are so thin these days, there is no chance of negotiation.
  • Q: What about screenshots and images?
    • Your development editor will say “we need more images here and here”
    • The compositor will work to fit images and screenshots to the space available and made it look the best possible given space available and printing technology
  • Every publisher will have a proposal template for what they are looking for
  • You should be able to explain your book in one sentence, you’re in good shape.
  • Q: What should be the sample chapter?
    • I tell people I need a writing sample. I need to know what your voice is like, your tone. I want the writing sample to match the type of book you are proposing. But it is not essential to be an actual sample chapter.
    • Writing a sample chapter is helpful, we don’t want people to write it just to write it, but it can be helpful
  • “5,000 followers on twitter” — mentioned many times. A magic number for publishers to know you are compelling???
  • Don’t make sloppy mistakes: 
    • If you are writing a proposal to O’Reilly, don’t say “I really want to publish with New Line”
    • Don’t have spelling errors.
  • Agents:
    • Publisher will always low-ball the agent, because they know they are going to have to negotiate. If you are a first-time author, I’ll just offer what I think we would have ended up with.
    • If you come from an agent I trust, then yes, I will look at it more closely. But if it is an agent I don’t know, then it’s no different than coming yourself.
  • You get paid an advance, that’s an advance payment on royalties. 
    • Advance can be around $10K, is not trending any higher over time. 
    • Royalties can be 10% to 12%, for as long as book sells
  • We’re not looking for writers who want to write 20 books. We’re looking for (as an example) an interaction designer who is incredible passionate about interaction design and wants to share that.