Tag: Writing (Page 11 of 16)

A Marketing Team reason for rejection

One of the hard facts of life is that past experience influences present expectations. That means you are often judged by the failure of people who came before you, regardless of whether or not that judgment is fair.

Robert Cialdini, professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University, explains it this way: 

If you are asked to pick up a ten-pound weight in a gymnasium, it will appear lighter if you had first picked up a twenty-pound weight and heavier if you had first picked up a five-pound weight. Nothing has actually changed about the ten-pound weight—except your perception of it. This psychological process is not limited to weight; it holds for almost any type of judgment you could make. In every case the perceptual process is the same: Prior experience colors perception.

Few things color a Marketing VP’s perception more than failure. In the high-pressure world of publishing, every perceived failure in promoting a book carries with it the threat of a lucrative marketing career cut short. Someone still smarting from that kind of recent failure is unlikely to do anything that might bring the same results again. 

So, if you come to my publishing house with your great new idea about the joys of deep sea fishing, my Marketing VP is going immediately to think about all the wasted time, money, and effort his team spent on last year’s book about fly fishing. And he’s going to start shaking his head at the mere thought of possibly going through that again. 

“We tried that before,” he’ll tell me. “Didn’t work. What else you got?”

No, it’s not entirely fair. But the rejection letter you get is the same anyway.

What You Can Do About It

1. Justify your target audience. 

Following the suggestions included back at Reason #6 will help you with this, but the main idea here is to target an audience that is both clearly identifiable and of significant size to support a book’s publication. Then show how and why that audience will absolutely want your book—even if they didn’t want a similar book in the past.

If you can use demographic statistics here—for instance, the number of deep sea fishermen and women in the United States or the annual sales figures of the deep sea fishing industry as a whole—that certainly helps my Marketing VP reframe his experience in terms of your potential. Add on ways you intend to help your publisher reach that audience—say through speaking at the National Deep Sea Fishing convention, or by writing a column in Deep Sea Fishing Monthly magazine, or whatever—and you just might make my VP forget there ever was a fishing book before yours came along.

2. Differentiate. Differentiate. Differentiate. 

Remember, you’ve got to be able to show that your book is uniquely positioned for success in the marketplace anyway. If you do a good job of that up front, then it could be irrelevant that my marketing team failed on a previous book because your book is so much more prepared to make an impact in the market. 

If you still feel fuzzy on this, go back and re-read Reasons 45, 46, and 47 until you could teach a seminar on that topic alone. Trust me, it’s that important.

3. Find a company that’s more successful in the areas you want to sell.

In the big picture, a publisher that has trouble selling books similar to yours may not be the best place for you to land anyway. After all, an attitude of failure toward a certain topic or category of books can often become a self-fulfilling prophecy. “We’ve never been successful with these kinds of books in the past, so why try to be successful with this book in the future?”

A Marketing VP who turns down your book because of past failures with a similar one may actually be doing you a favor. That VP is giving your book an opportunity to succeed with a different publisher that knows how to sell in that area.

So if you find yourself getting rejected because of someone else’s bad experience in the past, take it as a gift instead of a curse. Do a little more homework and find a company that’s better equipped to contribute to your book’s success. It may all work out for the best in the end.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

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

A Marketing Team reason for rejection

Let’s see…for this one we’ll call our hero Andy. 

Andy is a novelist I’ve worked with on several occasions. He’s an outstanding writer of fiction, a hard worker, and just a great guy to boot. When I worked for awhile acquiring suspense fiction, I lured him away from a competing publisher and locked him up with a three book contract. His first book out of the gate hit our industry bestseller list. Happy days.

A few years later I joined a different publishing company, and one of the guys on the sales and marketing team had come from that competing publisher where I’d stolen Andy away. 

Well, for me, bringing Andy to my new publishing house was a no-brainer. So he worked up a proposal for me, I prepared it for presentation at publishing board, and away we went.

Except for that other guy. For some reason (I still haven’t figured out exactly what it was), when he saw Andy’s name on the agenda, he immediately started badmouthing my author to anyone who would listen—especially to my Marketing VP. 

“We could never sell Andy’s books at my old publisher,” he said. 

“And yet you published more than a dozen of them,” I said. 

“We could never get people to notice him in the marketplace,” he said. 

“And yet, every person here knows who Andy is,” I said. 

“I’d never publish Andy,” he said. 

“I did publish Andy,” I said, “and he hit the bestseller list.”

It was surreal, and awkward, how determined this guy was to sabotage Andy’s new book. And he almost won. In the end, the Marketing VP appeared convinced by this one negative guy, but the Sales VP and Publisher overruled him and voted to publish. 

Still, if Andy hadn’t had verifiable market success already, that kind of unfair prejudice against him would have derailed his chances with my company. And people in publishing board can be prejudiced against an author for all kinds of strange reasons—because of a topic, or because of a personal encounter with the author, or because of genre, or religion, or political bent, or because of a friend of a friend who didn’t like a book, or whatever. 

Hey, if it can happen to Andy, it can happen to you.

What You Can Do About It

1. Let your talent do the talking. 

I once had a fantastic proposal from a successful romance author for our company who wanted to branch out into romantic suspense. The president of my company wouldn’t let me publish it. 

“She’s a romance author,” he said. “She can’t write suspense.” 

But did I mention it was a fantastic proposal?

This author didn’t waste time complaining to me about how unfair we were being toward her and her chosen genre. Instead, she took that book to a different company. They recognized the potential that I did—and then some. Today she’s one of the most reliable romantic suspense authors out there. In fact, you’ve probably seen her hogging up shelf space at Wal Mart and quite likely have read one of her books (if you like romantic suspense). 

In the end, she let her talent do the talking, and that was more than enough.

2. If you can help it, don’t piss anybody off. 

Yes, I know, sometimes you can’t help it. Especially in this industry where so many people are egotistical jerks. So I’m not saying you should never make anybody mad at you (hey, I’m fairly certain there are people out there who grimace when my name is mentioned). But I am saying that, if you can avoid it, don’t provoke an industry colleague into a fight. Don’t call people names. Don’t demand satisfaction or chew someone out because they dunya wrong.

That kind of stuff always comes back, and sometimes it’ll return to you in ways you can’t even see (like in a closed-door publishing board meeting) but which have significant impact on your publishing career.

So the age-old advice of the golden rule still applies: Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.

3. Increase your odds.

This goes back to market research and knowing who is publishing the kinds of books you want to publish. If you’ve only got three legitimate companies as your target publishers for a book, and you’ve already managed to piss off somebody important at one of them, that knocks out one-third of your opportunities just because of a personality conflict. 

On the other hand, if you’ve got 10 potential publishing partners, and one of them is unfairly prejudiced against you, that still leaves 90% of your options open. So go ahead and play the odds a bit, and make sure you target a good number of editors with your next proposal.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

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

A Marketing Team reason for rejection

Elizabeth Gilbert has made gobs of money—and generated a huge amount of media coverage—with her memoirs Eat, Pray, Love and Committed. That means your memoir of transformative living should have equal appeal to a publisher, right?

Wrong. 

Because, despite the documented, exceptional success of people like Gilbert or James Frey (root canal anyone?) or Julie Powell, memoirs remain a category of low reader interest overall. In fact, according to a Zogby study commissioned by Random House, 99% of readers out there couldn’t give a flying fig about those books. That’s right, only 1% rated memoirs as a “favorite.”

How about a biography of Nat King Cole, then? Legendary singer, extraordinary life. People will eat that up, right? Well…it could happen. But it’s not likely. According to that same Zogby poll, only 5% of readers favor biographical topics.

Here’s what my Marketing VP knows about publishing: subject matter matters. In significant numbers, readers report that a book’s topic is the thing that “first draws” them to a book, and also the “most important factor” in their most recent book purchases.

That means, if my marketing team wants to get public attention for a book—in magazines or newspapers, on the internet or TV or anyplace buzz can build—they’ve got to be sure that book’s topic is compelling. Hey, my Marketing VP isn’t stupid. It took a lot of schooling and real-world experience for her to get where she is today. So before she’ll give a thumbs up on your newest book proposal, she’s going to ask herself, “Do I care about what this book’s about? Does anyone?”

Chances are good that my Marketing VP is going with her gut on this one. If it doesn’t make her care, she’ll assume no one in the real world will care either. And that means your book never gets a chance.

What You Can Do About It

1. Do the obvious: Write about something that lots of people care about. 

What do you care about? Make a list of your top 10. 

If you’re like most people, these are probably on your list: Family. Health. Love. God/Religion. Work/Career. Why do I know this? Because those are basic needs and interests of just about anyone. If you write a book on one of those topics, chances are good that people will care about it—especially if you can make sure your approach to the topic is unique and different and relevant to your target reader.

Does that mean you can’t write about anything else? Of course not. But it does mean that, no matter what topic you choose, it’s up to you to make sure it somehow relates to something that lots of people care about. Is there a way to write about the social habits of fire ants and somehow make that appeal to your reader’s need for family connections? Probably, if you’re any good as a writer that is. How about a novel centered on commerce in the ancient Egyptian world? If you can bring out themes of love and work in your story, sure people will care about that. 

The real question is whether you’re paying attention to the themes in your book. If you are, then you should be able to write something that my Marketing VP will care about.

2. Highlight themes in your work that are similar to themes my marketing team has succeeded with previously.

Again, this isn’t a suggestion for you to copycat someone else’s work. But it is a little advice to help you point yourself in the right direction when it comes to choosing topics for your books. 

Go ahead and look at a publisher’s website, or on bestseller lists, or in the pages of your favorite glossy magazine. See which books are getting lots of attention from media outlets—those are the ones that are giving marketing people success. These books could be any genre or any category—nonfiction, historical, fantasy, western, even memoir. Identify the core themes that these books are about, and then pair them up with the responsible publishing house.

When you next pitch to a publishing house, see what themes you paired up with them. Then highlight how those topics show up in your book as well.

3. Memorize this principle: “Subject matter matters.”

Then, when you’re choosing what to write about next, make that decision with more than just you in mind. Ask yourself, “What do I like that millions of other people also like? And what can I say to them on that subject?”

If you’re careful to make your subject matter matter, the odds are pretty good my Marketing VP will care whether or not your book becomes part of my future publishing list.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

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

A Marketing Team reason for rejection

In the hit movie musical, Chicago, Queen Latifah plays Matron Mama Morton, a media-savvy, happily dishonest Warden at a women’s prison. As a way of welcoming new inmate, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger), Mama sings a little melody that gives the basic rules for success within the walls of her prison. What it all boils down to is this: 

“When you’re good to Mama, Mama’s good to you.”

Why is that important for you to know? Because, in the world of publishing, the role of Matron Mama Morton is played by my Marketing VP. (Well, except for that “happily dishonest” part). That person holds the keys that can set your book free from its unpublished prison and send it on to its rightful renown. The problem is that we authors most typically aren’t good to Mama. In fact, we view Mama with contempt, or irritation, or worse. 

For instance, when a book fails after publication, authors will almost always point a finger at the marketing department. “My book just wasn’t marketed the way it should have been,” we’ll shrug and say. “It never had a chance.” By the same token, when a book succeeds, we authors generously ignore the marketing team and soak up the credit for ourselves, assuming it was our writing skill and passion that was rewarded by an adoring marketplace. 

The truth is, professional success as an author depends equally on your ability to write and your ability to market your work. Ask just about any self-published writer. It takes much more than mere talent with words to make an impact with the book-buying public. It takes a proactive, productive partnership between editorial and marketing to be the driving force behind any significant sales success.

And marketers know that. What’s more, my marketing team is sick of being blamed (by you, by the sales department, by your editor) for failures—past, present, and future. They want to contribute to, and be credited for, making a book a successful publication.

And so the bottom line is this: If you can make yourself a valuable contributor to my Marketing VP’s success, you will be successful yourself. You’ll have transformed that generally negative person into one of your biggest allies in the decision-making process. 

Remember that the next time you want to publish a book. Be good to Mama, and she’ll be good to you.

What You Can Do About It

1. Make yourself indispensable to my Marketing VP. 

Marketing guru, and mega-bestselling author, Seth Godin says, “If you’re not indispensable (yet) it’s because you haven’t made that choice.”

Mr. Godin is right. If you’re not yet indispensable to the Marketing VP at my publishing house, it’s because you’ve chosen not to be. Over the last few dozen reasons for rejection in this book, I’ve given you a quick glimpse at what my VP needs to get her marketing team excited about making your book successful. I’ve shown you, pretty clearly, how to make that VP think you’re indispensable to her own personal success. 

Trouble is, most authors want to skip over the marketing requirements for publishing success. “That’s someone else’s job,” we tend to think—and sometimes even say out loud. Still, writers who are in the early stages of their careers simply don’t have the luxury of that kind of attitude. 

So make the choice to make yourself indispensable to my marketing team. No, it’s not easy. But if you do that, you’ll find you have a productive future in publishing after all.

2. See yourself as an ally of the marketing team. 

This is simply an attitude change on your part.

Look, my Marketing VP is already biased against you. She’s going to shine a spotlight on all your weaknesses and argue against taking any real risks with an unproven author.

So what? You can either fight that criticism and take whatever lumps make come in the process. Or you can picture yourself on the marketer’s team and make yourself an ally of my VP by creating something that she actually wants. Guess what? When you do that, she’ll shine her spotlight on all your strengths and become a vocal advocate of you and your book to all the other members of my publishing board.

And believe me, having a Marketing VP as an ally goes a long way toward publishing success, both before and after your book is contracted.

3. Be good to Mama.

Before you send anything to an editor, ask yourself, “What’s this editor’s Marketing VP going to ask about this proposal?” Seriously, go ahead and make a list of anticipated questions that will concern the marketing team about your book.

Next, figure out how to answer all those questions in ways that are “good to Mama”—that is, in ways that show the Marketing VP you’re doing the best you can to make the marketing team’s job both easier and more successful. 

This may take some thought on your part, and some questions may strike you as impossible to answer. But if you can think of the questions, you can bet your editor’s Marketing VP is going to ask them. So tackle them head on, and be that rare author who actually makes Mama happy with a new book proposal.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

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