Tag: Mike Nappa (Page 20 of 23)

A Sales Team reason for rejection

Try this little experiment.

Go to Amazon.com and search in the books category for “greatest song lyrics of today.” Are you surprised by the results (or lack of them)? By the fact that Amazon can’t even recommend similar searches to find a full book of today’s great song lyrics? 

I’m not. 

Here’s why: If you were to publish a book of, say, lyrics of the top 100 songs in the past 10 years, it’d cost you a fortune. You’d have to pay a print license fee (akin to a royalty) for every single song for every single copy of the book you printed—whether the book actually sold or not. That kind of project would not only be a pain to compile, it’d cost so much to make that it simply wouldn’t be worth the investment.

Similarly, let’s say you wanted to publish a 3-D pop-up book with paper glasses attached. Sure, a remarkable few publishers could afford to do that kind of special format book (Disney comes to mind), but for most publishing houses the costs of design and printing would simply be prohibitive. I remember talking with an editor at Simon & Schuster once about a kids’ book that had fold-out pages (to create a panorama) instead of bind-in pages. She loved the concept and the author’s creative story to go with it…until the printing estimates came in. The book was a great idea, but it simply cost too much to make. Rejection.

What about your book? Does it have particularly expensive content? Does it require special illustrations or tricky design and significant investment in reprint permissions? Does it have to have special format printing or some other unique, but pricey element?

If it does, that’s probably a pretty cool book—and it probably will be rejected. Yes, some of those kinds of books do get published—but they are rare. Especially for a writer early in his or her career. 

For you, then, a cool-but-pricey production or content concept will probably result in a lot of effort that generates just another rejection letter.

What You Can Do About It

1. Strip away the bells and whistles. 

I know one publishing CEO whose mantra is, “People will read content on a napkin, as long as that content is compelling.” And he’s right. If your content is superb, people will read it regardless of the vehicle attached to it. So if you’re creating a cool new project and thinking to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if this book also did…”, then stop and think twice.

As they say, the only thing required is what’s required. So stick with creating excellent content first, and after you’ve made yourself into a successful author, you can try adding the bells and whistles later.

2. Be more than a gimmick. 

Related to suggestion 1 above, this suggestion is for those of you who are more excited about a movie’s special effects than you are about its story. 

What you want your book to do is generate repeat readings, to keep bringing people back to your pages time and again. Even the most novel of innovations becomes mundane after awhile. (Remember how cool—and pricey—the DVD player was when it first came out in force? Now it’s a forgotten relic found mostly in pawn shops and thrift stores.) So don’t rely on a gimmick to sell your book idea. Gimmicks always get old, especially to a publishing pro who’s seen a lot better than what your gimmick can do.

Instead, plant your hopes firmly in the garden of your inescapable content and you should do just fine.

3. Be aware of cost-increasers associated with your book.

Full-color art always costs significantly more than two-color or single-color printing, and it practically dictates printing presses from overseas—which increases shipping and warehousing costs as well. Excessive reprint permission fees (for song lyrics or maps or graphics or excerpts from other authors’ works) can add up pretty quickly. Special formats for a book (unusual trim size or shape, out-of-the-ordinary binding) also jack up the printing costs for a book. 

Pay attention to these kinds of things when shaping your new book product. If you can, eliminate any cost-increasing features that are required to produce the final product of your book. Doing that also eliminates what may later become an obstacle when my Sales VP is judging the ROI (return in investment) for your book.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

A Sales Team reason for rejection

Looking back on it now, I should have just kept my mouth shut. After all, they always say the best negotiators are the ones who speak least, and last.

But what did I know? I was a young whippersnapper, fresh off a string of successes, ready to move and shake and all that other stuff that makes an agent feel more important than he (or she) really is. 

I had a new book by a favorite author, and it was superb. Not only was the writing well above average, it fit so well with reader tastes and current trends that I could almost guarantee its success in the marketplace. I felt 25,000 in first year sales would be easily achieved, and (God willing!) it might even exceed those lofty expectations. 

Apparently my opinion was shared, at least in part, by others because three different companies expressed initial interest in publishing. The first publisher contacted me to begin negotiations.

“What kind of advance is your author expecting for this book?” was his question.

Looking back on it now, I should have kept my mouth shut. Or, at best, I should have simply said, “What kind of advance fits with your budget?” and then negotiated from there. Instead I fired off an email: “$15,000 advance.”

The publisher quickly thanked me for my time and ended the negotiation. I was able to surmise later that his budget was more in the $5000 range. And honestly, my author would have taken that. I was the one who got greedy. 

The good news is that this book did eventually sell to one of the other publishers interested in it (for a $7500 advance). The bad news is that I damaged my relationship with that first publisher by demanding too much too fast. Even though I knew his company would likely do a good job creating and selling that book, I also knew his company could never afford to pay a $15,000 advance for it. Yet I demanded that paycheck anyway.

No surprise that publisher routinely rejects everything I send him now. He probably sees my name on the proposal and thinks, “Can’t afford this guy. No sense wasting his time and mine.”

What You Can Do About It

1. Understand how a royalty advance is calculated. 

OK, pay attention, because this can be confusing. 

Some people think a royalty advance is a reflection of an author’s reputation, or a sign of respect shown to a writer, or a badge of honor to brag about to others in the industry. It’s not. It’s just an added risk for the publisher that’s carefully calculated based on projected income from the first-year sales of a book. There are variations and nuances to this that I can’t really cover here, but the basics go something like this: 

First, the sales department sets an expected retail price for your book, the standard trade (wholesale) discount, and projected unit sales for the first year (the number of books they think they’ll sell). Trade discounts can get a little complicated because publishers also figure the ratio between how many books are expected sell through bookstores and how many will sell directly to the customer. Still, most wholesale discounts run between 40% to 65% off the retail price (depending on the size of bulk orders), so when creating a book’s initial budget, using a discount somewhere in the middle—say 50%—is pretty standard. 

Next, to figure your advance, your publisher will predict first-year income by multiplying the retail price by the wholesale discount, and then multiplying that result by the projected first year unit sales. For instance, the equation for a $16.99 book with a 10,000 first-year unit sales projection would look like this: (16.99*.5)*10,000=$84,950 first-year income. 

Then, your publisher will multiply that predicted first-year income by your royalty percentage rate. If, for instance, yours is a 12% net royalty on that $16.99 book, then their projected maximum first-year royalty payment to you would be $10,194.

That means, under no circumstances will you be offered more than $10,194 as an advance. In reality, you’ll probably be offered about half of that—$5,000—simply because all of the publisher’s numbers are guesses at this point and it’s always wise to hedge one’s bets a little bit. (Hey, what if your book only sells 6,000 copies instead of the predicted 10,000?) They might go up to a $7,500 advance if they like your book a lot, but that’s where you’ll likely top out.

Now, if you’ve done the math and you know that $7,500 is the top of your publisher’s risk threshold, asking for $10,000 or (like I stupidly did) $15,000 as an advance against royalties is simply going to get you yet another rejection. 

Dang…and you were so close…

2. Don’t expect your writing career to support you.

Sure, someday maybe you’ll be able to quit your job and write full time. At least that’s the dream, right? But in reality, the only people who do that are a) married to someone who loves them enough to work full time on their behalf, or b) already wealthy enough that they don’t need the money they make from writing.

I know one author who has written quite a few books, even briefly placing two of them on a New York Times bestseller list. Talented guy, well-respected in his genre…and he averages $18,000 a year as a full time writer. Believe it or not, he’s one of the “successful” ones among us! 

So don’t stare starry-eyed into the great blue beyond of a writing career and hope that publishing a book or two is the answer to all your financial woes and worries. View it for what it really is for most people: an enjoyable part-time job, something to do alongside a full-time career or in conjunction with a supportive spouse who has a full-time career.

3. Be willing to wait for the back end.

Whenever one of my authors is given the choice between a higher advance with a lower royalty percentage or a lower advance with a higher royalty percentage, I always recommend taking the second option over the first. Sure, a higher advance means more spending money right away, but it almost never pays off on the back end—that is, after the book is out and selling in the market.

If your book is worthwhile and legitimately salable, you want to get a higher percentage of the profits that are generated by it when it sells. Not only is that smart business, it also may be something that helps my Sales VP feel like he’s minimizing the up-front risk on your book. And that could mean a contract for you instead of a rejection letter.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

A Sales Team reason for rejection

Look, it’s not that salespeople in the publishing industry don’t work hard. It’s just that they don’t like to work hard. That means they’re always looking for something with built-in sales appeal—something that actually sells itself to bookstore buyers and the public at large.

Enter Romance novels.

The Romance genre of fiction is often trite, formulaic, poorly plotted, and occasionally eye-rollingly awful. It’s also, by a significant margin, the top-selling genre of fiction. And it’s had a lock on that #1 spot for decades. Consider these numbers: 

• Romance fiction generates about $1.37 billion a year. (Yes, that word was “billion.”)

• Romance novels outsell Mystery and Science Fiction/Fantasy novels by more than a two-to-one margin. In fact, in a typical year, Romance alone sells more than Mystery and Sci-Fi combined ($1.37 billion to $1.22 billion)

• As recently as 2008, romance fiction was the “top performing category on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller lists.”

• 74 million people admit to reading at least one romance novel in a year.

So what does all that mean for you? Well, according to publishing industry expert, Robert Bly, “Romance gives [a writer] the greatest chance for success.” And, alternately, if you’re a novelist trying to publish in any genre besides Romance, you’ve already stacked the deck against yourself.

Personally, my version of hell is being locked in an endless maze of Romance novels (with country music playing over hidden speakers!), so I avoid Romance books whenever possible. And obviously, because I’m biased against the genre itself, I can’t make a legitimate judgment as to whether a Romance novel is actually good or bad (they all seem bad to me). 

But I also know that an overwhelming majority of readers disagree with me on this point—and because of that, my sales VP will also disagree. “We can’t sell this book,” he’ll be thinking, “there’s no love story.” 

And when it’s time to vote, he’ll vote against your proposal (and against me) because he knows your book doesn’t appeal to the most fervent fiction buyers out there: Romance readers.

What You Can Do About It

1. Switch to Romance and pay your dues.

At some point you have to ask yourself, “Am I a novelist? Or am I a [fill in your chosen genre] writer?” If you’re dedicated to a specific genre of fiction, then there’s not much you can do about this reason for rejection except to write great books that people want to read regardless of genre. 

But if you see yourself as a writer first, and your genre as secondary, then you might want to try building your career with a few romance novels to start. That will give you some publishing credits, good experience working in the industry, and—hopefully—some positive sales numbers to hype when it comes time to pitch a non-romance novel to publishers. 

This approach worked well for people like Janet Evanovich and Terri Blackstock—good writers tend to excel no matter what genre they pursue. So give it some thought; if you don’t mind reading Romance, then go ahead and try writing it. Study the leaders in the field, dissect the formulas used by publishers like Harlequin or Avon. Then dive in! Who knows? You may actually like it.

2. Try to marry your genre with Romance. 

It’s been said that every good story is a love story, and honestly, that’s most often true. So if you can’t write straight-up, bonnets-n-buggies Romance, then think about how you can marry your chosen genre to elements of Romance. 

Can you highlight the love triangle between your action hero, his best friend, and that pretty redhead forced to go along on their adventures? Does your Fantasy character meet a mysterious, green-skinned, magical woman with alluring tendencies? Great—play that up as well.

Generally speaking, if you can add the “R-word” to your genre—for instance, “Romantic Suspense,” “Sci-Fi Romance,” “Romantic Western,” etc.—you can increase your audience appeal. That, in turn, increases the chances that my Sales VP will look favorably on your book proposal. So, if it doesn’t destroy the integrity of your story, go ahead and romance it up a bit. After all, every great story is a love story, right?

3. Fall in love.

Every genre benefits from some kind of love story. And every book inherently reflects the personality and experiences of its author at the time it was written. So, why not take time to fall in love (or fall in love all over again) when it’s time to write a new novel? Woo your husband all over again, just to enjoy the thrill of it. Seduce your wife again, just to remember what it was like to anticipate and articulate your love. Or, if you’re single, get out there and find Mr. or Ms. Right. Then, when you’re in the throes of hormone-addled ecstasy, write your novel. 

You won’t even have to try and include a romantic element in a book like that. Because it’s a part of your daily life already, it’ll turn up naturally in your manuscript. 

And besides, it’s nice to be in love. That way, even if your novel never sells, there’ll be at least one person who still thinks you’re wonderful—and who might even read your book.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

A Sales Team reason for rejection

Imagine that you and I spend an entire day at the beach. Good times, huh? 

Now imagine that while you are out surfing it up and having a blast, I get sunburned and stung by a jellyfish and a bully kicks sand in my face.

Tomorrow, when you pop over and invite me to join you for a trip the beach again, I will probably squint miserably into the sunshine peering through your smile and say, “No thanks!” There’s no way I want to risk getting burned again.

Sometimes that’s what it’s like with my sales team, especially if we’re facing a time of economic downturn, or corporate layoffs, or just bad annual reviews from our collective bosses. Remember, emotional discouragement affects intellectual outlook. If my Sales VP is discouraged by the performance of the books her team is currently struggling with, she’s going to be hesitant to expose her team to further failure with anything that’s not a slam-dunk, absolute-guaranteed hit. 

Now, if you’ve done your homework (and I really hope you have!), then you’re sending me a book that targets the same audience as previous and/or current books we’re publishing. That’s a correct strategy almost all of the time…but I’m going to be honest and tell you that if the bottom has unexpectedly fallen out of our core market, your new book could fall out with it. 

How are you to know that my Sales VP has become disillusioned with the types of books we’ve been publishing because our typical reader hasn’t been buying those books lately? Well, you can’t know that. But it still may earn you a rejection anyway. 

Sorry about that.

What You Can Do About It

1. Deliver a plan for beating a bad publishing economy. 

At this point, you should know why people buy books (see Reason #65). You know specific sales channels where you book has good potential (see Reason #67). You’ve worked on building your platform (see Reason #54) and identified any “brandwagon” opportunities that’ll help sell your book (Reason #55). You’ve trimmed the costs of producing your book (Reason #68) and even delivered clear, obvious appeal to women with your book (see Reason #59). Add to that all the marketing and editorial expertise you’ve gained, and you should be able to present a proposal that beats any bad economy, right?

So be sure to use that knowledge to tell my sales team exactly why they’ll be successful when selling your book—even though some other loser’s book on a similar topic hasn’t been good enough. Do that, and you can make my Sales VP forget the past and look forward to a bright, shiny future with you in it.

2. Stay away from hard luck cases. 

Sorry to say it, but sometimes it’s best not to send a book to a publisher—especially if you keep reading about corporate restructures, “rightsizing,” quarterly losses in operating income, or even looming bankruptcy possibilities. Your book won’t save that kind of company—and they probably won’t appreciate your offer to publish anyway. 

So don’t try to force your book into a hard luck company. Give it a year or so to see if they’re able to rebound first. Then when all their cost-cutting measures of the previous year start to pay off, they’ll be more receptive to the new opportunity that your book provides.

3. Subscribe to Publisher’s Lunch.

If you’re not already on their list, go to PublishersMarketplace.com and sign up for the free, daily e-newsletter, Publisher’s Lunch. (Heck, if you can afford about $20 a month, go ahead and register on their site for the Lunch Deluxe newsletter.) 

Publisher’s Lunch is one of the most reliable, and timely, sources for business information about everybody active in the publishing industry. If a publisher is struggling, you’ll find out about it here. If a publisher is expanding, you’ll find that here too—along with specific editor names and projects currently in production. 

The information you gain from regularly reading Publisher’s Lunch will be invaluable as you try to navigate unpredictable economic times to find the sales team most likely to be excited about your book.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon

A Sales Team reason for rejection

Megan Tingley, senior vice-president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, blames J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer. 

“Harry Potter and Twilight,” she says, “created a market for hardcover series with more complex, substantive storylines where readers could live in the world a bit longer. I think people came to want something different out of their reading experience, and it became more about depth than speed.”

Of course, series have been popular for a long time (Lord of the Rings or Narnia anyone?) But recent statistics bear out Tingley’s observation of a renewed interest in this publishing strategy. For instance, at the time of this writing, an overwhelming 73% of the bestselling juvenile books are part of a larger series of books. And, of related interest, 91% of romance novel readers say they are “likely to seek out an author’s previously published titles after reading a novel from an author they like,” while 89% of general readers also say they “make a special effort to look for other books by the same author.”

This potential for series books can play a factor in non-fiction acquisitions (for instance, when pitching this book to publishers, I also included a few ideas for sequels). However, not many non-fiction books are first acquired as series books. Typically, with non-fiction, a publisher wants to know that a series could happen—but isn’t terribly interested in making a series until after that first book takes off in the marketplace. 

Fiction, however, is a different story—particularly mystery, romance, and sci-fi/fantasy novels. When I acquired suspense novels, I routinely looked for series potential as a part of my evaluation process. Other editors do the same. 

“When we bring an author’s proposal or manuscript to acquisition,” says Stephanie Lurie, editorial director of Disney-Hyperion Books for Children, “often sales will ask if there are more, and we’ll sign them up as a series from the beginning.”

This is not to say that a single, stand-alone novel can’t sell—of course, they’re published every day. But it does say that, especially for fiction writers, the potential for a series of successful novels can be an attractive element when my Sales VP takes a look at your proposal.

Something to think about.

What You Can Do About It

1. Think in threes. 

I’m speaking mainly to novelists right now. After you’ve come up with a great idea and written that “next great American novel,” don’t assume your work is all done. Before you send out your proposal to an agent or an editor, think ahead a bit and create a short (one-page or so) summary for two more novels that could start a series based on your original book. Think in terms of a trilogy with continuing characters and/or unique, continued settings that somehow all tie together.

Include those additional book summaries with your proposal, and point out that you are both willing and able to create this as a series for your publisher, or to at least give that publisher the “option of first refusal” on any additional books based on the original. If your original is strong, the prospect of future series potential will be an attractive selling point for any Sales VP.

2. And for nonfiction writers… 

It never hurts to also think about future possibilities to capitalize on the unmitigated success of the book you’re currently pitching. You don’t have to go into as much detail about future books in your series as a fiction writer would, but you should at least come up with two or three possible titles and subtitles for books that could be follow-ups to the original one.

Go ahead and list those in your proposal under a heading like, “Series Potential” or “Possible Future Books in a Series.” It may not actually help your chances of selling the original book (most nonfiction sells as single-book contracts), but it can’t hurt. And it may come in handy as a reference when you’re book hits a bestseller list after publication.

3. Keep an “ideas” list somewhere on your computer.

Some authors think they have to write fully every idea they dream up. That’s not true. I personally have over a hundred unused ideas just sitting around on my computer, waiting to be plucked out and created. This well of unused ideas has become a source of many successes for me (including this book). Imagine if I’d never taken the time to jot these things down?

So, whenever you have an idea for a new book, don’t judge it right away. Simply jot yourself a few notes about it and then forget about it. Keep adding to your idea well whenever a new idea pops into your creative little brain. Then, when it’s time to think about series-izing your next proposal, go back and re-read some of your forgotten ideas on file. Who knows? There may be something there that adapts well to be book #2 or #3 in a potential new trilogy.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

• Mikey Can’t Sleep blog
• Mikey Timeline
• Fan-Favorite Books
• Mikey on Amazon