Questions, Questions...

I'M CONFUSED. It's not a bad thing necessarily. It just is and I'm used to it now. I'm often confused. But for your health and well-being, I'll narrow my confusions down to just two for now. 

First, I'm seeing the term, "Indie" flung around a lot these days. It seems that it means different things to different people. (Or maybe it's me.) So, is an "Indie Author" someone who has published a book with an independent publishing company or someone who has "self-published"? Or both? I'm not sure. If you know, please enlighten me. 

The second quandary is much bigger and has global impact, evidenced by the daily emails I'm getting from Shelf Awareness and others. It deals with the Amazon online book selling method versus the brick and mortar traditional bookstore selling method. My questions: 

• Which, method is better for our economy? 
• Is there room in this country or world for both? 
• It seems every day I hear about another bookstore closing. People are blaming Amazon for cornering the market. Are people losing jobs or are the jobs just shifting? 
• Which method of book purchasing do you prefer?    

The ramifications aren't just felt by the consumer. Many authors are choosing to self-publish because they've found traditional publishers aren't biting. And there are authors who are quite vocal about their preference for self-publishing and the full control they have over marketing and royalties this method allows. 

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But many bookstores won't carry books by self-published authors. This leaves these authors relying on Amazon  and other online bookstores for sales, which grows Amazon and ends up hurting the bookstores.  

So whose fault is it? The bookstores? Amazon? The publishers? Sikes. I'm dizzy! 

And then there is the whole e-publishing model. Kindle sales went through the roof over the holidays. As more people shift to e-readers, the bookstores suffer. 

Gazing in your crystal ball, what do you see? It seems that a giant hand has flung the whole industry into the air and it hasn't quite come back to earth. When it does, will there be a harmonious collaboration or will there continue to be an us vs. them mentality?

After writing this post, I was alerted to this post by Poets & Writers, further illustrating the ongoing quandary or as some say, "war." 

In closing, I thought I'd lighten the mood a bit by offering this link. The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores In the World. As a passionate gardener, my favorites were, Cafebreria in Mexico City and Bart's Books in Ojai, California. Which is your favorite?  

As Always, 

The Bumpy, Baffling Road to Publishing 4

AS I READ THE title I just typed, I can't help but think it was kind of stupid. I'm still not a published author so why am I eluding to... and I'm...wait. I am a published author. Duh. I've been honored to have one of my essays selected for an anthology called The Moment I Knew. (See sidebar.) Sometimes I forget how lucky I already am. I have made some serious headway and I'm grateful that I found an editor who believes in me. Thank you Terri. 

So I should reiterate that the baffling part is not referring to understanding the concepts of publishing, rather it's making reference to standing out and getting noticed by the powers that be. Writing a catchy query and submitting it to the correct recipients, for instance.  

But I've already written about all that and I don't want to bore you. 

For the past few months, I've been reading about self-publishing, the third option to getting your book in print. Many writers are finding self-pubbing a rewarding and profitable solution to their publishing dilemmas.  Catherine Caffeinated , The Passive Voice, A Newbie's Guide To Publishing are among the many blogs dedicated to educating authors on the whole process. I'm grateful to have such a wealth of information at my fingertips. 

For the past several days, I've been working on another essay for an anthology. The deadline is at the end of the month and, barring any computer snafus, (knock on wood) I'll have it finished on time. It's by far the most difficult writing I've done. It's about compressing seven years of a very difficult time into 3000 words of intelligible prose. But I'm up for the challenge and enjoy the process immensely. 

Okay, enough with the Baffling Road. I see a turn-off ahead and although the view beyond is a bit shrouded I think it leads somewhere cool. 

Thank you for visiting, 

Images from Pinterest

The Bumpy, Baffling Road to Publishing 3

Hi and welcome back. Last time, if you recall, I spent several hundred words discussing the agent query potholes littering the road to publishing. Contrary to how it must seem, my goal really isn't to rant about how I've been "wronged." It's really not a "poor me" tale. In fact I find it rather comical. Frustrating but comical. And I know it's just business. Everyone is trying to pay the bills, put food on the table. Even agents. And rejection is just part of the meal. It's the Lima beans. (When you were little didn't you just hate seeing those nasties on your plate? Especially when your protestations did nothing but piss off your parents? Anyway... 

Before I launch into my next dissertation, I know you've all been awaiting the Big Reveal, right? Unless, of course, you already went to Google and checked for yourself. If you did, you saw this: 

The "Big 6" with their most familiar imprints in parentheses:

public domain

MacMillan (St. Martin, Holt) 

Simon & Schuster (Scribner, Free Press, Pocket) 

Hatchett (Little & Brown, Grand Central) 

Penguin (Riverhead, Dutton, GP Putnam, Viking, Portfolio) 

Harper-Collins (Collins, William Morrow, Amistad, Avon)

Random House (Doubleday, Knopf, Bantam Dell, Crown)  

Here is a site that has the most detailed information. 

So these are the publishers that produce the bulk of what is on the table at Costco. And these guys don't like to get "unsolicited manuscript submissions" from the likes of me. They insist that newbies to go through the proper channel--the agent. Once you get an agent to agree to represent you, (a gargantuan task in itself) she then pitches the manuscript to publishing representatives with the hopes that one of them will buy it. Sometimes, if your manuscript is really, really attractive, there might an auction. This means that several reps bid on it. This is when you're in fat city. Usually this happens with celebrities--those aforementioned Sure Bets. 

I'm not a sure bet. At least to the publishing world. And this brings me to the second road to publication. Two words: Independent Publishers. These are the small presses that publish only a handful of books per year. Google "Independent Publishers" and it's like Christmas with columns of possibilities on the screen. One of the cool things about indie publishers is that you can send a query letter directly to their acquisitions editor, bypassing the Literary Agent altogether. The down side is that Indie publishers are just as inundated with queries as agents are. This is where patience becomes a virtue.   

I don't have a lot of experience with querying indie publishers yet. But I'm encouraged. And if it turns out this road leads to a dead end, I'll turn around and head back. I've got one more road worth exploring. 

PS Wednesday, December 14,  I am guest blogger for Women's Memoirs Blog. If you're contemplating writing your story, Matilda and Kendra's blog is THE place to begin. It's chock full of inspiring writing ideas and regular features about the craft of writing memoir. I hope you'll check it out. 


One more news item: I just found out from my editor that book one in the Reflections From Women series is available for the Kindle for 99 cents! Just go to Amazon. 

As always, 

The Bumpy, Baffling Road to Publishing 2

In Part 1, I wrote how the lowly wannabe author (me) tries to attract a Literary Agent by crafting a catchy and cool query letter so that said agent will help me get my book published, remember? Now, I’m going to (piss off PETA) and whack the dead horse a few more times, just for emphasis, if you don't mind. 

In my quest to become a published author, I did my homework. And believe me, I’m no fan of homework. Actually, that’s not true. I like homework now. In fact, I’m addicted to homework, spending many, many hours on the couch, munching on junk food, expanding my waistline while expanding my knowledge of the publishing world and how I might be able to grab a tiny piece of it for myself. Just an eensy tweensy piece, please?

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Fortunately publishing information abounds on the Internet. In addition to a gazillion websites with lots of up to date information, many literary agents have their own blog. One strategy is to make yourself one of the several thousand or so regular commenters in hopes that maybe the agent will get familiar with your name, thereby upping your chances of getting a hit on that (impeccably written) query letter you sent her. I tried this and when I was rejected anyway, I said, “[bleep] them” and unsubscribed myself. But you might have better luck.

Sometimes, I’m a glutton for punishment, visiting sites like, “How I Got My Literary Agent” for instance. On this site, writers who’ve been successful at scoring an agent that landed them a contract with one of the Big 6 (more on that in a minute) share the query letter that made the grade. The premise being that we can learn from the successes of others. Good premise, right?

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Want to know what I learned?

I learned that agents like to go with Sure Bets. They’re more likely to notice writers who already have an expansive list of literary accomplishments under their belt. If the wannabe writes on her query letter, “I took first place in the Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor & Tangle of Cords Writing Competition six years straight” she’ll probably get noticed. Further, if the writer is already a published author with six best sellers to his credit with pending movie rights on five of them, the agent will probably want to see the author’s manuscript. Agents like to go with sure bets. If you think I’m being overly dramatic, well I am, but that’s beside the point. Consider that on December 5, it was announced that Amanda Knox had already scored agent representation for a book deal. And with the same literary agent that represented President Obama. See? Agents like sure bets. Famous people who write books are sure bets. Most wannabes aren’t sure bets. 

Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of my system, I’ll be ready to discuss Option 2, the second fork in the road to publication next time. Hopefully you’ll be back if I haven’t bored you to tears.

Just for fun, see if you can name The Big 6 New York Publishing Houses. No cheating, ‘kay? If you get them all, you’ll win………………high praise from me.