Is your book cursed?
Wheatmark client Michelee Cabot forwarded me this fascinating entry from Wikipedia about the dreaded “book curse.”
The best way I can describe it in contemporary terms is that it was like medieval copyright protection!
According to the article, “a book curse was the most widely employed and effective method of discouraging the thievery of manuscripts during the medieval period.”
Punishments usually included excommunication, damnation, or anathema. Harsh!
These days, the punishment for swiping someone else’s work is more pedestrian: typically, the ripped-off author is entitled to financial damages.
Copyright is one of least understood areas of publishing, while simultaneously being one of the areas of highest concern for authors… and first-time authors in particular.
Here’s the scoop: even in its draft-manuscript stage (for example, in a Microsoft Word document stored on your computer’s hard drive) your manuscript is copyrighted under US law.
If someone steals your draft and publishes it as their own work, it’ll be easy for you to prove it’s yours because of the time stamp on your Word document.
So you don’t need to worry about formally copyrighting your book until it’s published.
Once your book is published in its final form, then you’ll want to officially register the copyright with the US government. This will entitle you to greater damages in a court of law should someone ever try to steal your work and claim it as their own.
Many authors are extremely concerned about this, and with good reason. After all, you’ve spent months or even years writing your book—you don’t want all of that hard work to be stolen.
However, in my experience, the outright theft of your material is extremely unlikely. Why?
Perhaps because most authors are only interested in writing and publishing their own work—not yours.
This is one of the main reasons publishing companies say they don’t accept “unsolicited manuscripts.”
They don’t want to be accused of theft by amateur authors (“Hey, my book is about a boy wizard too—J.K. Rowling stole my idea!”)
But theft is usually not the biggest problem first-time (and other relatively new) authors face.
The real problem? Obscurity, ie, readers not knowing who you are and why they should read your book!
That’s why it’s so important to start marketing your next book—whether it’s your first or your 20th—before you publish it.
How do you market a book you haven’t even published yet?
Register to watch my presentation “The One Way to Market Your Book” to find out!
Happy Wednesday,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: Steal not this book my honest friend
For fear the gallows should be your end,
And when you die the Lord will say
And where’s the book you stole away?
We’re #4!
My colleague Tracy Quinn McLennan forwarded me this article from this week’s AZ Daily Star (thanks, Tracy!)
Turns out that Tucson made the list of Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities in America. In fact, not only did we make the Top 10, we made the Top 5, coming it at #4!
According to Amazon’s press release, “The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle format from April 2014 to April 2015, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 500,000 residents.”
Also according to the release, the top most well-read cities are:
1. Seattle, Washington
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Las Vegas, Nevada
4. Tucson, Arizona
5. Washington, D.C.
6. Austin, Texas
7. San Francisco, California
8. Albuquerque, New Mexico
9. Denver, Colorado
10. Louisville, Kentucky
Here’s some additional tidbits from the Amazon news release:
* Washington, D.C. residents prefer print books, and finished ahead of Seattle as the city with the most purchases of print books.
* California loves to read: it has three cities in the top 20 this year
* Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was the top-selling title in seven of the top 20 cities, including Tucson.
You can check out the full Amazon press release here.
Happy Friday,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: Where did your city finish? Tell me in the comments section below!
Is the self-publishing stigma fading?
My colleague Roger forwarded me this article the other day.
It asks the question: “Is the self-publishing stigma fading?”
The author who wrote it notes that he jumped on the indie bandwagon back in 2010—“when the concept of being an indie author was still relatively new.”
That made my colleague Atilla laugh, since he helped launch Wheatmark back in the year 2000—ten years before that!
Anyway, the author’s point is essentially “yes.” The self-publishing stigma is fading… but it may never go away entirely.
I enjoy articles like this, but I’d take the author’s point even one step further: I think indie authors, or self-publishers (or whatever you want to call them), actually have an advantage in today’s market.
Case in point: check out the article at this link, which tracks e-book sales.
(My thanks to Simple Marketing System client Ginny Lieto for bringing this article to my attention!)
This article talks about the disadvantage that “traditional” authors are facing with regards to their publishers, who’ve demanded higher e-book prices under an “agency” model.
According to the article, these publishers want higher e-book prices in order to protect their existing relationships with other, “more important” (to them) players: physical bookstores like Barnes and Noble.
As you can see in the article’s companion graphics, insisting on the agency model of higher list prices for their e-books has cost these publishers (and thus, their authors) sales.
By contrast, independent and self-published authors have seen their sales rise—perhaps to fill in the gap left by the more traditional publishing outfits.
But back to the original article: that author points out that “The self-publishing boom has produced a lot of low-quality literature, and you only have to trawl the shelves of Amazon and other stores to see that it’s still coming.”
It’s that kind of negative outcome (publishing a bad book) that—above all else—you want to avoid! That’s why for most authors, it’s best not to do every publishing step entirely on your own.
You want to work with the best editors, cover designers, interior-layout people, and distribution and marketing people you can afford. That’s the only way to shift the odds more in your favor in an increasingly-crowded marketplace.
But how do you find a competent, high-quality, professional publishing service to help you—one that won’t rip you off in the process?
Simply register for and watch my presentation “The Author’s Guide to Choosing a Publishing Service” at this link.
I’ll see you there!
Happy Friday,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: Virtual seating is limited to 75 attendees, so register soon!
There are only two words to describe this
Several readers—including Wheatmark client Yasmin John-Thorpe—sent me the link to this article last week.
As I said in the subject line of this email, there are only two words to describe the piece, which is all about Author Solution’s (ASI’s) business practices:
“Horror show.”
It’s a lengthy article, and I recommend reading it in its entirety.
I also recommend forwarding it to any and all of your friends and colleagues—in particular, any one you know who’s contemplating self-publishing.
The only reason ASI is able to so easily prey on authors is a lack of knowledge on the part of the writing public—especially first-time authors.
Unfortunately, some of the US’ top trade publishers are complicit in this “deal with the devil,” including, of course, Penguin/Random House, who bought ASI three years ago.
You can read about the quotas the salespeople at ASI have to hit each month to keep their jobs, and you’ll also discover how many people work on providing royalty payments to ASI’s 180,000 authors:
One.
Yes, that’s right: one person is responsible for managing the royalties for the 225,000 titles published by those 180,000 authors.
(This in a company that has 732 sales reps.)
It’s no wonder that ASI clients complain about missing or incomplete royalty statements!
As a businessperson, I was interested to learn that ASI’s growth has plateaued in the US—right around the time they were purchased by Penguin/Random House.
Having run out of authors to dupe domestically, they’ve set their sites on growing their business abroad, in Spanish-language markets.
Me siento mal por ellos (I feel bad for them!)
Don’t become another Author Solutions victim.
Register for and watch my presentation “The Author’s Guide to Choosing a Publishing Service” here.
And make sure to forward this to your author friends—they’ll thank you for it!
Happy Tuesday,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: Virtual seating is limited to 75 attendees, so register soon!
What should you be doing to market your book?
I received an email recently from long-time Wheatmark client Eddie Browning that invited him to display his books at Book Expo America (BEA) next month.
Eddie’s kind enough to keep me in the loop about all the different kinds of promotions authors receive on a daily basis that claim to help them market their work.
Eddie doesn’t have any intention of taking the bait, but I saw this as an opportunity to share a valuable marketing lesson with all of our readers.
The lesson is that good marketing is a process, not an event.
This is a tricky concept for many authors to grasp.
They equate “marketing” with “selling.”
They’ll often say things like “I tried marketing my book, and it didn’t work.”
Usually, what they actually mean is “I tried selling my book, and it didn’t work.”
What’s the difference?
“Selling” is pretty straight-forward. It means asking for the sale:
“Would you like to buy my book?”
“Would you like to sign the contract?”
“Will you marry me?”
“Would you like fries with that?”
These are all examples of selling questions. Notice that they expect either a “yes” or a “no” response.
What is “marketing?” One answer is simple: it’s everything you do before you ask one of the above questions!
For example: before you ask your wife to marry you, you go on a series of dates. You build a relationship with her.
Is displaying your book at BEA a good marketing activity?
Sure, so long as you don’t expect to actually sell any books! Remember, by the criteria above, your only goal is to get in front of potential buyers—not to sell books.
But I’ve been to BEA, and it’s a sea of titles—more than a single person could read in an entire lifetime.
It’s possible someone could stumble upon your book, but it’s also extremely unlikely.
Instead of these “shot-in-the-dark” approaches, there’s something else you should be doing that is much more effective—an activity that has stood the test of time and that has generated success for countless authors.
If all this is new to you, I recommend that you register for and watch my presentation “The One Way to Market Your Book” at this link.
I’ll see you soon!
Happy Friday,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: Virtual seating is limited to 75 attendees, so register soon!
Tips for Successful Blogging
As the marketing specialist for Wheatmark, I have the privilege to work alongside many authors as they take their first steps into the unfamiliar world of blogging and social media. For those individuals with little to no experience in this area, this step toward marketing themselves can feel rather daunting and unattainable. This feeling, however, is not unordinary. Maintaining a blog and staying committed to promoting your brand takes a great deal of effort, but having a persistent attitude and an openness to learning will allow you to be more successful in the long run.
I recently stumbled across an article with a list of valuable tips to help you become a successful blogger. Out of the 19 tips provided, here are five that I believe are the most useful:
1. Make sure you have an About page that represents who you are and what you do.
Who you are is entirely unique, but is that reflected through your website? Readers want to get to know you and understand why you or your project are so different from everything else, so allow the About page to reflect your distinctiveness. Play to your strengths and think outside the box.
2. Create an editorial calendar to keep track of ideas and post dates.
It is so easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer thought of having a write consistently for your website, but the key is to plan. Making a writing schedule can help to alleviate the pressure of last minute creativity that can so easily burn any writer out. Break up the week by setting aside certain days for posts of varying lengths and subjects or even inviting guest writers. Use this opportunity to be creative and have fun!
3. Make sure readers are commenting on your blog.
Comments mean that people are reading and connecting with your work, and this is always a good thing. Allow individuals the opportunity to participate in the conversation by asking questions and inviting them to engage.
4. Commenting on other people’s blogs is a great way to engage with someone you respect, and for others to notice you.
In order to draw readers to your website, you must be willing to expand beyond your sphere of influence. Find other bloggers or websites that have similar themes or subject matter to yours and get connected. Engaging with other writers will provide exposure for you and your website.
5. Take a class!
A healthy person is one who continues to grow and learn. The beautiful thing about the technological age we live in is that there are unlimited resources available at our fingertips. Take advantage of the plentiful amount of opportunities available to you online such as websites like this.
Blogging is tough work, but is also extremely rewarding. If you are passionate about writing and sharing your story with other individuals, then I want to encourage you to keep working! Create something you enjoy, have fun, and people will follow.
For more tips and helpful blogging insights, check out the article here.
New Year’s Resolutions…and a pretty neat trick
It’s that time of year again… time to resolve to finally get those things done that somehow, we’ve failed to achieve every year prior to date.
For some, it might be losing weight.
For others, it might be getting their books finished and ready for publication.
Still others might finally be ready to make some progress on their marketing.
The problem is: everyone knows that most resolutions are broken by February, if they even last that long.
How do you ensure that you follow through on your resolutions?
Today I’m going to share a neat trick that I learned from one of my mentors, marketing legend John Carlton.
John’s trick is simple, but profound: sit down and write a letter to yourself, but date it January 1, 2016.
That’s right: one year from now.
In the letter, write down all that you have accomplished this year—that is, in the year to come.
Of course, you’ll write it in the past tense, because you’ve already accomplished everything in the letter.
It may sound strange, but the thing is: it works! I can’t tell you why, but I suspect it has something to do with how the mind works.
If you tell yourself that you “resolve to accomplish something,” all you’re really saying is that you’ll try.
But if you say that you’ve already accomplished something, you begin to behave as that (newly accomplished) person would behave.
Let’s take smoking as an example:
“I resolve to quit smoking.”
vs.
“I quit smoking.”
or even better:
“I don’t smoke.”
Thereafter, every time you’re faced with the desire to smoke, all you have to do is remind yourself:
“I don’t smoke.”
Try it, and let me know how it works for you!
And of course, if one of your resolutions is to get your book published, be sure to register for an upcoming presentation of “The Author’s Guide to Choosing a Publishing Service.”
And if more marketing’s in the cards for you this year, check out “The One Way to Market Your Book.”
Happy New Year,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: This post has everything to do with the power of language. As a writer, you’re a keeper of the flame, so we toast to you in 2015!
5 Things Your Author Website Should Do
I could have titled this article “Five Things Your Author Website Should Have” instead of “Five Things Your Author Website Should Do.”
And it would have been a very different article.
When we market our message or services, it is a very common error for us to think in terms of features instead of benefits. It does not matter how many bells and whistles your website has if they aren’t doing anything in terms of accomplishing your website’s goals.
Does your website have goals? A reason to exist? If you’re asking the question, What should my website do? you’ll be closer to thinking in terms of goals than if you’re asking, What should my website have?”
Only you can come up with a goal for your website, but I’m listing five below that you should consider.
1. Establish or solidify your credibility as an author or expert in your niche.
What would communicate this goal to a first-time visitor? A professional look-and-feel for a start, but also an active blog where just a cursory glance at the headlines would communicate to anyone that you have a passion for that topic and are knowledgeable about that niche. Your “About” page should also stay on target and communicate everything about you that helps your website reach this goal. Testimonials from clients or readers prominently placed also establish your credibility to visitors.
2. Help you build your contact list of fans, readers, or prospects.
To reach this goal you want to think about an offer that you put in front of your visitors in return for their email or other contact information. Giving your ebook away for free is one of the easiest and best ways to do that. Your website should take that email address and add it to a list that you can market to later.
3. Engage your audience on a regular basis.
Post useful content on your blog regularly. This not only helps you solidify your credibility as an expert (goal #1 above), but it also keep your audience engaged, especially if your followers are notified via email or social media.
4. Make it easy for your audience to follow you, contact you, and share your posts with their friends and followers.
A “Contact” page is a must where people can reach you. Beyond that, let people comment on your blog posts and make it easy for them to share them using common social media “share” buttons.
5. Promote your book or other products and services.
Even if you don’t have an e-commerce site that takes orders for your book, you do want to provide ample information about it with a link to Amazon or some other call to action. If you have other services that you want to sell directly online, you should set up a Paypal account so you could accept credit card payments directly on your website.
These are the five things that every author website we build for our clients does. If you want to know more about what makes an effective author website, I recommend watching this webinar by my colleague, Grael Norton, on “The One Way to Market Your Book.”
Near Field Reading
It’s the holidays, and no doubt many of you will be out shopping for gifts for your loved ones and friends. By next year’s season you may be paying for your holiday gifts at your favorite retailers using a tap-to-pay app on your phone.
Tap-to-pay apps utilize Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that allows you to pay by holding your phone up to a retailer’s register and tapping a button. With the launch of Apply Pay in October and the card companies mandating all merchants accept NFC payments in 2015, we may have reached the tipping point for tap-to-pay. Near Field Communications seems to be popping up everywhere in my life lately. When I boarded my first ride on Tucson’s new light rail, all I had to do was tap my rail pass to an NFC device to pay for my ride. When I visited my phone carrier to upgrade my phone and plan, the salesperson twisted my arm, successfully, to get me to sign up for an American Express Softcard for the Google Wallet (tap-to-pay) app I didn’t even know I had.
I love new technology like this, but what I really need is a tap-to-read app. I’m hoping that Apple or Google will invent a Near Field Book Reader soon so that I can hold a book up to my forehead (or the Google Glass that some kind soul gives me for Christmas) and instantly have the experience of having read the whole book. That way I would find the time to read all of the amazing sounding twentieth-century novels that you recommended in response to my “Iris Murdoch Made the List” article; Asking for Love by Roxana Robinson, recommended by Constance Richardson, for example. I could quickly get to all of the amazing books published by Wheatmark recently as well, like America’s Schools at a Turning Point by Corky O’Callaghan.
But, alas, a tap-to-read app is not likely to be a reality anytime soon, so I guess I’ll have to keep grabbing those interstitial times waiting in the lobby of the dentist’s office, riding on light rail, or flying in a plane to sneak in some reading. Life is so short for a world awash in great books. Here’s hoping that lots of people buy your books as gifts this holiday season, and that you find some time to read a book or two as well!
Happy Holidays!
My Book Got Optioned. Here’s What Happened.
I came across this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education and thought I’d forward it on to you.
As many of you know, I was a screen-writer in my former life, so I can really relate to this piece.
I was working in the indie world, and, since we’d arranged our own financing, my first professional writing gig was made into a finished film.
We sold it to a number of foreign TV markets, and landed several domestic DVD deals.
Yes, this was a “straight-to-video” project—domestically, at least.
But at least we got it made, and then got it out there.
To get a film or TV project made, you need to have three ingredients:
1. Material to develop
2. Access to distribution
3. Financing (money)
In my case, we had all three. But if you’ve written a book, you’ve got number one above covered, too.
That means all you need is numbers two and three, and you’re good to go.
Not an easy task, but one that our colleagues at Voyage Media have got pretty well covered.
This week, we’re featuring their presentation “Bringing Your Book to Screen: An Author’s Toolkit for Thriving in Hollywood.”
You can register for an upcoming presentation here.
FYI, this presentation isn’t just for fiction writers: it’s also for folks who have nonfiction projects, too.
In fact, several of the options that have come out of this program so far have been for our clients with nonfiction titles.
Check it out at a time that works for you!
My best,
Grael
Grael Norton
Wheatmark, Inc.
PS: As the article shows, an option is only the beginning of the process. Still, you’re one very big step closer to actually getting a project made!