Tag: Writing (Page 9 of 16)

A Marketing Team reason for rejection

In 2008, barely one quarter of Americans aged 12 to adult were participating in social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. A scant two years later that number had doubled to 48%. What’s more, among people ages 12 to 34, more than two-thirds maintained a personal profile page on one or more of the social networking sites, and more than half (51%) of people ages 35-44 also did the same.

What that means from a marketing perspective is sudden, direct access to millions and millions of Americans through social media. What that means from the perspective of an aspiring author is that you have a stay-at-home method for broadening your author platform.

Of course this is a fine line to walk, as we all hate supposed Facebook “Friends” whose only real purpose is to relentlessly promote whatever it is they’re selling (cheap, handmade jewelry anyone?). At the same time, if you can generate a decent following on social media, that’s going to make an impact when I’m discussing your marketing potential with my team. 

In fact, one of the publishers I work with recently sent out a letter to all of their authors asking them to invest time and effort in cultivating their social media activity. Why? Because a strong social network presence can actually influence the exposure—and subsequently, the sales—of a book. 

Which brings us to another interesting point on this topic:

Because social media has become such a marketing force in the book publishing industry, we’re all there. In fact, in many places, a social network presence is actually part of the job description for an editor or marketing manager. Do you want to connect with editors? Find out what marketing team members value? Discover what publicists are promoting at present? You’ve got access. Just find us on Facebook or LinkedIn or someplace like that.

This world has never been more open than it is today, so go ahead and take advantage of that. 

What You Can Do About It

1. Choose one of the “Big 3” and concentrate on building a following there. 

At present there are three “big” players in the social network arena, and then a bunch of smaller ones. The three immediately recognizable social networks are Facebook.com, Twitter.com, and LinkedIn.com. (TikTok and YouTube are also forces, but since they require video I’ve excluded them.) All three of these social networks have their strengths and weaknesses, and unique audiences, so you’ll want to check them all out before choosing where to focus your efforts.

Once you’ve picked your favorite of the “Big 3,” then get busy populating your profile on that site, and work diligently to build up your following there. Because you could easily spend 8 hours a day doing that, set yourself a manageable goal for social media investment. Some authors will commit 30 minutes each workday to that; others may want to dedicate only an hour a week. Find out what works best for you, and then stick to it. After a year or so, you should see significant results in your platform-building efforts.

2. Read up on social networking strategies. 

Fortunately, although social networks are a recent innovation, they are no longer “new.” That means you can hit your local library or your local bookstore and find several practical reference books to help you master the effective strategies for using these networks to your advantage. Here are a few that I’d recommend: 

• Social Networking Spaces: From Facebook to Twitter and Everything In Between by Todd Kelsey 

• Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day by Dave Evans

• The Facebook Era by Clara Shih

• Twitter Power 2.0 by Joel Comm

3. Enjoy yourself.

Some people (like me) look at social network marketing as a chore. Other people (like my family members) see social networking as fun, and a great way to keep connected with modern America. I will tell you from experience that you’ll like this task much more if you allow yourself to view it from the perspective of leisure fun instead of a constant “to do” list.

So go ahead and enjoy yourself while you’re building your social network platform. Take time to wander into interesting diversions, to smell the apps, so to speak. If you’re going to do it anyway, you might as well find a way to like what you do, right?

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

If you bought this book off the shelf in your local bookstore, chances are good you followed this process when making your purchase decision:

1. You saw the words 77 Reasons Why Your Last Book Was Rejected (and how to be sure it won’t happen again!), and that made you curious enough to read the back cover of the book.
2. You read the back cover, and that made you curious enough to check out the table of contents.
3. You skimmed the table of contents, and that made you curious enough to read part of the introduction.
4. You read part of the introduction, and that made you want to read the rest of the book.
5. Since you can’t realistically read an entire book inside a bookstore, you decided to pay a few bucks and take the book home to read at your leisure.

Sounds pretty simple, right?

It’s actually a finely-tuned manipulation of your decision-making process, honed by decades of publishing trial and error. When we create the marketing materials for a book, we know the typical reader—whether buying in-store, online, or somewhere else—will almost always follow this sequence. 

Guess what? If we fail to arouse a reader’s interest in step 1 above—in the title package (title and subtitle)—we wipe out all our fantastic efforts in steps 2-5. Wasted. 

Worse yet? We lose the sale. 

Now, put on your Marketing VP hat and re-read that list above. Do you see the high importance of a superb title and subtitle combo for your book?

Yes, of course, 90% of the time the title you give your book in the proposal stage is going to change before it actually hits bookstore shelves. (With so much that depends on it, do you really think my marketing team is going to let a silly old author title a book without input from them?) But that’s irrelevant in the initial publish/don’t publish decision.

What’s relevant is whether or not the title package you provided the editor is strong enough to make the Marketing VP think, “Hey, this is something that’ll get people curious enough to find out more…”

What You Can Do About It

1. Secretly title your book, “Look Inside!” 

When you boil it all down, every book title has only one purpose: To get the potential buyer to look inside. 

If you can make that happen, and if what’s inside (your content) is valuable to that reader, you’ll make a lot of money writing books. Think about it: more than half of the American book buying public (52%) admits that they “judge a book by its cover,”—the centerpiece of which is that simple little title/subtitle combo. No wonder this matters so much to a Marketing VP!

So, when making the working title and subtitle for your book, don’t choose a boring sentence or phrase that merely explains what your book is about. Instead, focus on how your target reader benefits from your book, and ask “What will make this person ‘Look Inside’?”

2. Make a promise. Evoke emotion.

These are the basic elements of a compelling title for any book. Ignore them at your own risk (or at the risk that my Marketing VP will ignore your book in return).

First, you’ve got to make a promise, either spoken or unspoken, to the reader. This is the great “benefit” that your book will give to anyone who reads your book. (If you don’t understand what that means, go back and re-read Reason #34 earlier in this book.) For example, the promise of this book you hold in your hands is clearly given up front: You’ll discover why editors reject books and how to make them stop rejecting yours. You see it, right?

Second, evoke a significant emotion in the reader. This is where you make the potential book buyer want your book. A suspense novelist, for instance, will want a title that evokes the thrill of being frightened (hence the term “thrillers”). A business writer will want a title that makes just the right amount of greed tingle inside a reader. And this book’s title package (ideally) evoked an emotion of hope or enthusiasm in you. 

If you can create titles that make a significant promise and evoke a desired emotion in readers, you are well on your way to winning over my Marketing VP. So, you know, good on you!

3. Avoid confusion in a title, unless it’s deliberate. 

If you grab a bite to eat at the Saturn Café in Santa Cruz, California, and at some point need to visit the restroom, you’ll be greeted by two doors. One door is labeled “Us.” The other is labeled “Them.” It’ll be up to you to decide which of those doors leads to the men’s room and which leads to the women’s. That kind of ambiguous titling capitalizes on turning a reader’s expectations into something unexpected. It’s clever, deliberate, and attention-grabbing. A good thing.

Ah, but if you want to visit whorepresents.com on the Internet, it’ll be up to you to decide whether that’s a porn site called “Whore Presents” or a business database site called “Who Represents.” That kind of ambiguous titling is accidental, confusing, and for many, reason enough to give up on the product. A bad thing.

So when it comes time to title your book, pay attention to potential misinterpretations and mistaken impressions. Take care to avoid anything that might confuse the reader or cause someone to misunderstand what your book is about. After all, no reader wants to be led into the “Us” restroom when everything she really needs is in “Them.”

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

I’m going to tell you two secrets now.

The first is an industry secret that you should know so you can take advantage of it. The second is a personal secret that I think will help illustrate the industry secret for you.

First, as a professional marketing copywriter, whenever I’m tasked with writing back cover or catalog copy for a book, I always ask for two things: The introduction and table of contents. Give me that, and I can make any back cover sing. In fact, we copywriters will often pull exact phrases from your introduction and use them in everything from back cover copy to catalog copy to press release copy and more. 

The second secret is this: When I wrote the introduction to this book, I made sure to keep my future Marketing VP in mind. In fact, after I had everything ready to show a publisher, I actually took significant portions of my introduction and adapted them into a mock-up of back cover text. I was hoping my editor would use that material to show his team how easy it would be to create marketing copy for this book—so easy, in fact, a good bit of their work had already been done for them. [Editor’s note: It worked.]

I knew that any Marketing VP would view my writing through the lens of the requirements of his or her job. Since I wanted to enlist that person’s approval, it fell to me to show that I could give an introduction that would be minable for any and every copywriter who might be assigned my book. 

Ah, but what if my introduction had been boring? Or blathering? Or simply not benefit-oriented? What if my intro didn’t clearly show the reader how he or she would gain from digging into the rest of this book?

The answer would be easy: rejection. 

This actually applies to both fiction and nonfiction alike. In fact, sometimes in fiction a strong opening to your book is even more important. “I spend a lot of time trying to hook the reader in the first paragraph,” says mega-bestselling author John Grisham, “even in the first sentence.”

One last example. Today I find myself forced to write a rejection letter to a new author that I actually wanted to accept. I love her book concept. I like her credentials, and the information she has to present. I even get a kick out of her title package. 

But then I read her introduction. 

Despite all she has going for her, this author simply doesn’t know how to craft an intro that draws the reader into the book to come. She views the introduction as a place to distribute facts instead of as an opportunity to create interest. Thus, there’s nothing in here that a marketing copywriter can eventually use to promote her book. And that means a Marketing VP is going to frown when (if) she reads it.

I know I could teach this author how to write a winning book introduction…but I just don’t have the time. So today, against my own wishes, I’m going to reject her book.

Let’s make that a lesson for us all.

What You Can Do About It

1. Give your introduction proper attention. 

Some authors view an introduction as almost a “throwaway” element in their books. “Nobody reads those things, anyway,” they tell me. “And besides, I want people to get into the meat of my book, not waste time in up-front materials.”

That kind of viewpoint is both shortsighted and inadequate. The truth is, most potential buyers will judge whether or not to pay out for your book by what they find in the introduction. As such, this section deserves your deliberate attention. Never simply “throw together” an intro after you’ve written the later chapters in your book. And never rush through the intro on your way to writing the rest of the book.

A good rule of thumb is to write your introduction at least twice: Once before you write the rest of the book, and then again after you’ve finished the manuscript for the rest of the book. Doing that not only helps your eventual reader, it also helps your book to make the right impression on my Marketing VP.

2. Understand that an introduction is different from any other chapter in your book.

Another mistake that newer authors make is assuming that an introduction is just another chapter in the larger book. Nothing could be further from the truth. For starters, in the typical book, the introduction shouldn’t be longer than ½ the length of a normal chapter of the book. (There are exceptions to this rule—this book included!) Additionally, the introduction should function not so much as a funnel for information, but as a map for relevant information as it relates to the book.

Most importantly, though, the primary purpose of your introduction should be this: To create legitimate interest in the rest of the book. Anything else can be deferred to later, if necessary. So when writing your introduction, make absolutely sure it captures the curiosity of your reader right up front. 

3. Think like a copywriter.

You must remember that people like me are going to be mining your introduction for compelling phrases and descriptive markers to use in our advertising efforts for your book—including your book’s back cover. If you give me tools I can use to market your book, you’re going to get the attention of my Marketing VP pretty quickly. After all, he’s already looking for those little gems in your manuscript. If he finds them there, he’ll quickly recognize that he’s got a potential treasure in his hands.

So learn to think like a copywriter when working on your book’s introduction. It’s a different way of writing that requires a different way of thinking, but if you can master that talent you’ll greatly enhance your chances of success in the publishing business. See Robert Bly’s excellent work, The Copywriter’s Handbook, for more on this task.

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

This reason for rejection is so mean. 

After all, what difference should your appearance make when we’re deciding whether or not to publish a book? It’s the inside that counts, not the cover, right?

Well, in a moral, human-centered way, of course that’s right. But in a retail marketplace that really does judge a book by its cover, the way you look impacts your ability to be a public spokesperson for your book. And that matters to a Marketing VP.

On the bright side, at least you’re not gunning for a career in pop music. It’s practically impossible to be unpretty and be a successful music artist—especially if you’re a woman. It’s not quite as extreme in the authorial world. You don’t necessarily have to own a model-worthy appearance (well, unless you’re writing diet/fitness books). But you do have to look clean, capable, and professional. 

Remember, a Marketing VP is always thinking about what will happen when your book is released. Will you come off well if her team gets you a TV interview? If you make a public appearance at Costco to do a book signing? If a magazine or newspaper interviews you and wants your picture to sit alongside their text? 

In a book proposal, the most obvious way to present yourself as media-ready is with a professional, attractive press photo. Listen to the way PR expert, Jacqueline Deval, explains it: 

For unknown authors, an interesting or unconventional author photo can help create a media profile, as newspapers and magazines are more likely to reproduce the image adjacent to a review or interview. Susan Minot’s debut novel was promoted alongside her striking author photo. Sebastian Junger’s first book, The Perfect Storm, was released along with images of the handsome author hoisting logs, presumably shot during his stint as a climber for a tree company. Dennis Lehane’s publisher had him photographed to capture a moody noir image just like the atmosphere of his novels. Publisher’s view the image of the author as a vital part of the marketing campaign, particularly for novels and memoirs.

The sad truth of 21^st century America is that image equals promotability in media. You can rail against it, or you can try to use it to your advantage.

What You Can Do About It

1. Cultivate a professional appearance. 

If you send in a proposal without a press photo, or with a picture of you that obviously looks homemade, or that makes you look sloppy or unattractive or (worst of all) unprofessional, that’s going to affect the perception of you by the marketing team. Again, that’s not really fair, but that’s the way things work. 

So take care to cultivate a professional appearance in anything you send me. Notice I said “professional,” not necessarily “beautiful.” Of course, it doesn’t hurt if you happen to be smokin’ hot, but beauty isn’t really the requirement here. What’s required is that you look professional, like you belong on a TV panel of experts and authors; like you are comfortable with millions of people looking at you, judging your appearance.

If this is an area that doesn’t come naturally for you, by all means get help. Enlist a local photographer or media-savvy friend to take a set of PR photos of you. Then pick the absolute best one and plaster it all over your book proposal, your website, and any other public place that requires your personal image. 

2. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. 

On the surface, it’s tempting to view the practice of using image as a factor in publishing with contempt, and to disdain all Marketing VPs who hold that as a value in the publishing decision. You must remember, however, that Marketing VPs are most often responding to a discriminating public’s societal demands.

You know why image matters to marketing folks? Because it influences whether or not everyday readers like you and me demonstrate interest in the books they publish. If enough of us out here in the real world decided that only authors who didn’t shower were most attractive and newsworthy, then that’s what a Marketing VP would demand.

But that’s not the way it is, so you might as well make the best of a bad situation. When you hit the big time, you can use your star power to change this unrealistic expectation of authors.

3. Don’t go the “glamour” route.

One big caution here: In recent years it’s been popular for women to get “glamour” photos made. These are typically photo sessions where women get all dolled up with fancy makeup and flouncy clothes and assume model-like poses for a set of pretty pictures.

These little indulgences are fine for personal use—to share with a spouse, or friends and family. But they are NOT professional in the slightest, and they simply don’t belong anywhere in your proposal package. In fact, if you use a “glamour” photo as your press picture in your book proposal, chances are very good that I and my colleagues will laugh out loud while we reject your book unread. We’re looking for people with a professional appearance…and this is not it.

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 start by calling this author Patrick. 

I learned about Patrick during one of my acquisition editor stints. One of my fellow editors had enlisted Pat to team up with a more prominent author on a rush project—a book that was trying to capitalize on a currently popular trend and had to be completed quickly. According to my editor friend, Patrick’s writing skill well exceeded that of his co-author, so he ended up writing the bulk of the book. Lo and behold, their book became a national bestseller. Good news for all, right?

Except that during the media push for that bestselling book, Patrick appeared on TV as a spokesperson for the book, along with his co-author. The co-author was polished, funny, and insightful in person. Patrick—who actually was the better expert on the topic, as well as the more articulate writer of the two—came off as stumbling and insecure. His skill with words on paper simply didn’t translate into skill as a spokesperson. 

Here’s the really bad news for Patrick: Both my Marketing VP and my Publisher saw his uninspiring performance on TV. Based on that one interview, they came to the conclusion that Patrick simply wasn’t a good communicator.

About a year after his well-deserved, bestselling success, Patrick returned to our publishing house with a new proposal. I thought it was excellent, and his editor also was a strong advocate for the book. But it was rejected in publishing board. Why? Both my Marketing VP and my Publisher simply couldn’t get the image of Patrick’s broadcast TV failure as a spokesperson out of their heads. 

Did Pat deserve that rejection? Clearly not—after all, in spite of a poor TV performance, his book still had sold several hundred thousand copies. But that wasn’t enough to change the perception of him in the eyes of my executives. In the end, they said the only way they’d publish something new from Patrick was if he were teamed up with the more publicly-polished author from the last book.

That, friends, was a loss for author and publisher alike. But it happens sometimes, so you’d better be prepared for it.

What You Can Do About It

1. Never go unprepared into any kind of verbal exchange. 

If an editor is seriously considering your work and preparing it for presentation at a publishing board meeting, he or she may call to talk to you personally about your book. Never take that call until you feel completely ready for it. Don’t simply answer the phone when you see “ABC Publishing House” on your caller ID. Let it go to voicemail and listen to the message afterward. 

If the editor is indeed asking to chat with you in person about your proposal, follow up with an email telling the editor you are enthusiastic about chatting, and asking if he or she can give you some idea of the specifics to talk about. Tell the editor you want to be sure and have all the information needed at the time of the call. Then set up a formal appointment for a phone or video interview, and knock ‘em dead with your absolute preparation for anything that may be asked.

Listen, these kinds of calls are like a job interview. The editor is looking to get a sense of your personality and expertise. I’ve even had these kinds of calls where a marketing director joined in on the conversation. The thinking here is, if you can’t talk professionally and passionately to an editor about your book, you’ll self-destruct when (if) the marketing team puts you on display as a centerpiece in the future promotion of your book.

So follow the example of the Boy Scouts: Be prepared.

2. Plan to be the spokesperson for your own book.

If we can’t trust you to be an effective spokesperson for your book, we can’t trust that you’ll be well received by the media and/or the public at large. That’s why you must be more than a writer if you want to succeed in a publishing career. You must be someone who both understands and confidently participates in the requirement to be the physical representative of your book. 

This means you should be prepared to handle public speaking, one-on-one interviews, panel talks, debates about your topic, and anything that may influence public perception of your book. Imagine it this way: Your book is president, and you are its press secretary. Can you comfortably handle the pressure that comes with that role? If not, my Marketing VP is going to think twice before greenlighting anything with your name on it.

3. Get out of the house.

Many authors are introverts—this comes with the territory. After all, we spend hours a day all alone, tapping a keyboard or reading or lost in our own thoughts. That works fine from an editorial perspective. But since your book’s success also depends on an extrovert’s marketing perspective, you may need to build up your social skills.

So, you know, get out of the house every once in awhile. Make time to hang out with friends. Talk to strangers at the airport. Attend your high school reunions. Go out for coffee with people from church. Grab a beer with folks from work. Join a pub trivia team. Get out of your comfort zone and into a social one at least once a week or so. If you practice being comfortable speaking in social situations, that’ll improve your comfort level in professional ones as well.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

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