If you'll check out my newly updated WIP status meters, you'll notice I'm about finished with a book project. What a fun book to write! I'm really excited as I put it aside for two months to percolate and start another one!
How is the writing going for you? I write fiction mostly, but 2007 will also be the year for my non-fiction and I'm so ready.
Join me!
The blog is back! Please forgive me for the lapse in time. A lot of changes in my hosting and then my old url got taken over by spammers! New address, but we're here. Bookmark our new address and again accept our apologies for the hiatus!
What a busy 2006! Things sure moved fast and furious at publishers and magazines back in New York. It’s called the shuffle. Lots of editors moved to different publications. And a lot of editors are headed out for their Christmas break until January. At which time, all these editors will be looking at new pitches. So let’s jump back in to our series.
The last time we discussed proposals, we covered fresh ideas, title brainstorming, and proposal reference books. Hopefully, you’re going through some of those references and have figured out the basic premise of your book idea.
Today, we’re going to talk about the basic pieces of a book proposal.
Cover letter (query)
A cover letter is the most important piece of your proposal and should probably only be roughed out at the beginning. Save the final edit for last, because it's your first impression! And the most important, thus should be last.
The Proposal
The proposal itself has many components, and I'm going to run through them quickly in this post.
Overview
The Big Idea, in capsule form. You're showing that the book idea is meaningful, special, interesting, and marketable; that it can be a cohesive book-length work. Remember, writing small like this is harder than writing the book.
Format
How is the book going to be organized
Competition
Who's out there doing the same thing, or doing something similar and how does your stand out?
Marketing
How do you intend to market this book? Any immediately strategies come to mind?
Delivery
When is the book going to be finished?
Credentials
What makes you the right person to write this book?
Endorsements
Anybody read the book idea and love it? Not your family and friends, please. Think published authors, experts, or celebrities.
Supporting materials
Are people really interested in this book idea? Has it been covered in the news or in a magazine article? If the exact idea has already been on Oprah . . . well now. The point is that not a LOT of people have already heard the information, but that it's on the upward motion to becoming something people will be talking about. See the difference? Everybody already knows about the Dunstan Baby Language, so a book on your baby language might be a hard sell, or not. Depends on how you package your idea.
So with that overview, please do check out Eric Maisel's book "The Art of the Book Proposal: From Focused Idea to Finished Proposal" and stay tuned as we start what Eric calls "chunking" in our next post.
I go off on these every so often. This blog has been spared before, but not today.
Today’s rant:
Compose/comprise
Let’s review. Comprise means to “to contain, consist of”; compose means “to make up.” The parts compose (make up) the whole; the whole comprises (contains) the parts; the whole is composed of (NOT: is comprised of) the parts.
The parent corporation comprises (consists of) three major divisions.
Three major divisions compose (make up) the parent corporation.
Whew. I feel better. Authors, this is missed by so many writers and editors. If you get it right in your writing, you go up a notch or three in my book.
Back from a too-long hiatus. In my freelance world, life’s been churning a bit too quickly for me to keep up with everything. I’ve been absolutely buried with editing projects: huge 5,000-page books full of medical jargon and way too many references to check. I think I’m worn out. What Have I Been Up To?
I’m about ready to submit my novel, find a new agent, polish a non-fiction book proposal . . . oh, that’s right, we’ve still got some steps in our Writing A Book series, don’t we? Well, stay tuned for that. I’ve been using Eric Maisel’s The Art of the Book Proposal by Eric Maisel
I am also jumping back into magazine writing, thanks to encouragement from the writers I’ve met in my stellar freelance group, Freelance Success. Although I’m just an editor in the midst of some very talented writers, I am learning.
Speaking of fabulous writers, check out my friend, Allison Winn Scotch’s blog, Ask Allison, for a very interesting series on her first novel sale. Also she’s promised a nice series on writing for magazines. I will be tuned in. See you there!
I could sit all day and read my favorites . . . and accomplish nothing.
Why are blogs so huge right now? Because finally the majority of people who just HAVE to give their opinion finally have a medium to do it?
Cool for me. Yeah, I'm in that majority.
I've been thinking about projects and self-confidence and creativity and all the ensuing problems trying to write creates for those of us who just aren't satisfied with blogs and want to write books and articles and essays and . . . yup, everything.
Sometimes it is really hard to just dive in to a project that scares the bejeebers out of you, right? I totally know that feeling. I have it all the time. Now I work just fine on client projects because when I accept those projects I have an idea of what I'm trying to do and usually the client also gives me a goal to reach for. But those projects that are all mine are so much harder.
For one, I am emotionally attached to my book projects. I get all tangled up in them and can't find my way out. Two, if I want to invest that much time in my own projects, I have to really adore the topic and so I really love my darling book projects. I ignore Raymond Chandler's advice to "Kill your darlings" quite often.
But as a writer, if I want to be successful and actually publish these darlings, I have to take a step back and really think. Am I writing this for an audience or for me? Because really, writing a book for yourself is writing for an audience of one person. I'm sorry, folks, but that just does not sell many books. Imagine a book signing with me, myself, and I.
Oh boy.
Who's your audience? Old, young, lots of money to spend, or frugal? If you want young people to read your book, write young. Don't bore them to tears by reminiscing about days gone by. If you want people to get excited about history, talk about history, don't just say something's historic or meaningful. Show them why it is.
I run into more authors who have rutted themselves into failing book projects because they can't see past their own reflection in the mirror. It's sad.
Don't limit your vision. Think big, reach out, and just start writing. You may be so surprised where it takes you.
How's everybody doing? I hope well. Read on. A few more how to write book proposal resources for you.
How to Write a Great Non-fiction Book Proposal" section of the Robert E. Shepard Agency
Overvew of Writing Proposals
If you have questions, post 'em and I'll answer. Also, sign up to receive email blasts when this blog updates. Right here on this page is the sign-up box. Just leave your first name and email.
Completely freaked at the idea of writing a book proposal? Got your sample titles? Read on.
First Things First
Yes, you have to write a proposal. Let me duck while everyone throws things at this blog.
Okay, I'm back.
Seriously, folks. You cannot get published without writing up a really good proposal. What exactly is a proposal? It's an outline all fancied up according to how the "industry" wants it to look. Before you panick, no, you don't have to know what a proposal looks like on your own. There are books out there; many books will tell you exactly how to write a book proposal. Here's a list of what's on my shelf:
How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larson
Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why, 2nd Edition by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman
The Art of the Book Proposal by Eric Maisel
Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction--and Get It Published by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato
You might pick one up if you're serious about this book writing thing. Of course, stay tuned to this blog (subscribe to this blog!) and I'll walk you through it myself.
Onto Titles
Titles make or break your proposal. An agent or editor should be able to look at your title and immediately be interested. Agents and editors also hope that the book's title is exactly what the book is about, but sometimes authors (myself included) tend to go off on tangents. So next up should be your big idea.
Now, how you envision your book project at the beginning may not be even close to the final book proposal you send in to agents. That's okay. This is just your big idea, your nugget, the bullet, telling yourself about your idea. I like to brainstorm and make up a fake table of contents. I let myself realize that this is not the final table of contents and I still have the power to move anything around and to delete anything that I don't like.
Are you realizing the vision an author must have for their book before they even write it? This is such good news for you. If you can sell an agent and editor on your book proposal, you won't have wasted months or even years of your life writing a book that you can't even sell. Many authors I work with have a very hard time with the proposal portion. They get all caught up in trying to re-invent the wheel. Nope. And nope again.
Writing a book is actually about writing what people are asking for and believe me, the consumer audience knows EXACTLY what they are looking for. I have asked questions of my intended customer and have been very surprised to find out I did not have that much work to do in developing a new book idea. I just had to make sure I answered their questions.
And so, to your assignment: Try asking a question to people that you think are your book's target audience. Woman (and men) looking for love? People learning how to knit? People interested in building model trains? Go to a few people and ask them: What one burning question do you have about __________ (insert your topic where the space is)? And then, listen carefully. If you get the right person talking, they may just give you your big idea.
Next up, more on the proposal.
Sorry for the long break between lessons. We went to Kauai, I had deadlines, and I’m working rather feverishly on a book project. Did ya know I write fiction? It’s actually the focus of 2006 (see my WIP Status). Although, as an editor, I can’t resist the siren call of new writers, “how do I write a book?”
So, let’s get back to it, shall we? We left off with fresh as our token word of the day. Moving on.
TITLES
You've got an idea, and it's more focused than just a book on finding love, I hope. I'd like to focus on titles in this lesson. The rule of odds says the more titles you come up with, the better your title will be. I know writers who come up with 100 or more titles for their book project. This is one of those key elements of a book proposal that must be impeccable. And when I say title, I don't just mean a title "Birds That Sing" or something inane like that. I mean a title, and a subtitle. My current favorite is written by a very knowledgable self-publishing consultant, Marilyn Ross, which is "Shameless Marketing for Brazen Hussies: 307 Awesome Money-Making Stategies for Savvy Entrepreneurs."
Doesn't that just grab your attention right away? I don't know if I'm a brazen hussy, but I am an entrepreneur and want some great ideas. This way, I can buy a book and get the same ideas . . . without having to take on the brazen hussy persona.
What compelling picture can you come up with for your book? Can you turn it into a title?
PRACTICE WRITING
Before you spend hours and hours putting a book proposal together (What? A proposal? Yes, stay tuned for talk about the proposal in Lesson 3) you might want to test your book idea in a shorter form. How about writing up an article? This way you can synthesize your idea into print in a less-stressed manner. There are tons of places to publish your article (ezinearticles.com for example, where I post articles; the owner, Chris Knight, is a great guy). Why not write up a 500-word piece about your topic and let people use it in their newsletters? This way you at least practice getting your message out and you know, after you've written the article, if you're still interested enough in the subject to write a longer version.
Your assignment: Write 100 titles (with subtitles) for your book idea. Imagine a title on the cover of a book and where it would go in your local bookstore. Also, write up your topic in an article and post it on your blog or post it to an article database. Or send it to a paying market and earn some money. Who knows?
Good luck. Talk to you in a few days.
Beware of the basketball-crazed Gonzaga fan.And the basketball-crazed Duke hater, who is jubilant. I know, I know, Christian Laettner played for them eons ago. Let it go. I will, when I feel like it.
Things have been swamped at real/brilliant, inc. for the last month. A two-week vacation to Kauai also set us back a bit. But we're back now and revving up the writing engine. I'm sure many of you have had notebooks full of ideas simmering and that you are so irritated at me for keeping you waiting that you all went on to write the books anyway. Am I right?
Next post, Making Your Book Idea Relevant and Applicable for Today.
Last time, we left off on idea harvesting. Did you find an idea? Has it been baking in your brain for a few weeks now? Good. You've only reached the end of the beginning, to quote Winston Churchill.
At least you have a starting point for your book. You know it will be about gardening, not the history of tomatoes. You know it will help people find love, not real estate. Your book idea must be individual, alone, strong, tall. It must be a subject that you can put on your mental cutting board and slice into smaller sections, then dice into smaller pieces, then fry to get aroma (or the grease out), then cut into smaller bites, before chewing to get the flavor. In other words, you must now dig deep.
So for example, our subject is how to find love, or how to help others find love. Who do you want to help? Who's your audience? Singles? Teens? Retirees? Anyone who needs love? You must decide this now and if you want to write to more than one audience, you'll have to make sure you're writing directly to all groups. This can be done, we'll cover that later.
Examples:
How to Find Love After Rejection
How to Find Love After Divorce or a Break Up
How to Find Love After 65
How to Find Love Every Day, No Matter Where You Are
Try to dilute your idea down and direct it to a specific group of people or a specific person that you have envisioned. This may take some serious brainstorming. It will also take some market research.
Market research sounds harder than it is. It's simply going to a bookstore (or to Amazon.com or BN.com) and doing a search (through the bookshelves or through the bookstore search engine) to find out what other people have written about. Say you want to do a keyword search for books on finding love after divorce or break up. What do you find? Has it been done before? What did the computer (or bookstore clerk) come up with?
If you come up with other books on this subject, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It just proves there is a market for your book idea and that is a head start. More about tweaking your book idea to make it saleable later. If you don't come up with other books on that particular subject, can you find books that are similar? Almost there? Too all-encompassing? Too sparse? This too is a head start. You can easily tweak a book idea to cover what these other books did not, or touched on too lightly.
If you come up empty-handed, this is when market research becomes difficult. You may have to get on Google and do a search for your topic on the web. Or you may have to go to your local library and find out if your librarian can recommend any books that are in your topic area. Unless you're doing a book on some far-out topic, chances are that you will find books in your topic. And when you do, that's when your real work begins.
Your book must be different from any book done before. This does not mean you cannot cover the same information in your book, but it means you must come up with something . . . wait for it . . . FRESH.
Fresh is the most overused word in publishing, especially amongst book editors and magazine editors. Everyone wants fresh, everyone needs fresh. The publishing world lives and dies by FRESH.
So how do you plug in and figure out if something is fresh or not?
A few tricks and then I'll send you off to do the research.
Google Zeitgeist
This Google site is fresh. Here's what people are searching for around the world on a monthly basis. Don't try to pick your topic based on this information. Figure out how to "tweak" your topic by utilizing this information to tell you what people are interested in right now. (Remember, that your book will not be published right away, unless you are self-publishing or doing an e-book. Traditional publishing commonly works at least 2 to 3 years in advance.) Don't take the zeitgeist information as gospel. Play with it, brainstorm with it, use your imagination, and have fun.
Read magazines. Magazines have to stay fresh or they are dead in the water. What is fresh for a magazine can be fodder for a book project down the road. Watch television. Is Dr. Phil or Oprah targeting certain topics regularly? This is fresh. This is what people are interested in. Can you tweak your book idea using the information you see them dispensing?
A common trick of magazine writers is to try and keep up with new scientific or medical studies from the big journals, e.g., JAMA, NEMJ, Nature. Is there a recently published study or new data that could help your book idea to be fresh?
If you really tackle some of this front-end research, your book will be stronger and you won't have spent time writing something that a publisher or agent will reject. It won't be dated, it won't be overdone, it won't be too broad, or too specific, it will be fresh!
Good luck. If you have questions, just ask and I will try to answer to the best of my ability.
Bear with me here, folks. This writer/editor is a wee bit overwhelmed this week. So there isn't Lesson 1 in writing a book quite yet, but I'm sure there will be one shortly. In the meantime, check out some of my updated links. I've been searching for the best blogs and info out there to pass on to you and I think I've found some pretty good gems. Also, check out my new writing web site (also in links).
Talk soon!
I get requests constantly from people who are writing, want to write, or have written books and need advice on exactly how that is done. I've decided to write a series of posts (articles) here on my blog to guide people who are curious, or who have already asked me for advice, or who may just be searching the web for some information about writing books and how to go about that in an organized and realistic manner.
I've got over ten years of publishing experience. I've written, and had published nine books. I'm currently writing several more (yes, this is a working writer's true confession) and I work as a full-time book editor helping writers write and polish and prepare their books for publication. I may not know everything about writing and publishing a book, but I know a whole lot more than most people. So here we go.
Writing a Book
Writing a book is not for the faint of heart. It is also not for those who think that once you write a book all your problems will be over. Pardon me while I go laugh out loud.
There are many, many people who just want to be published and famous and rich. Sure, I'm one. I'll raise my hand too, minus the famous part (blech, it has not done Paris Hilton any favors). But to get to that, one must first be just a writer. And a writer is someone who wants to know more about everything. And I mean everything .
A Few Questions for You
1. Do you go into a book store and come out discouraged because you couldn't buy all the books? Also, does it discourage you that you won't be able to know everything in your brief lifetime? (This kills me.)
2. Do you read voraciously, inhaling information? Do you frequently keep your family and friends held hostage on the phone or in a car while you spout forth hours and hours of rehashed material that you learned from these books?
3. Do you do masses of research about a topic, way overboard what you personally need to find a solution, and then wonder what to do with all that information?
Join the club. You're with friends here.
Curiosity is a great asset for a writer. Taking that curiosity and applying it to writing a book is our simple premise here.
For our first post, I'll ask you to simply brainstorm. Think about what kinds of topics you want to write about? Do you have a really great recipe collection? Do you have strong skills in sewing, knitting, or woodworking? Do you have a model train collection? How about model airplanes? Do you want to help people feel good about themselves? Do you want them to find love? Do you have a twelve-step program to getting a good deal on a home purchase? Do you want to write a novel?
You need to have down on paper and in your mind what exactly you want to accomplish in book form. If you don't know, figure it out. But don't fret if you're still stuck.
Step 1 in our Write-a-Book Help series will be finding a great idea.
Stay tuned!
QUOTE: A screenwriter wanted to change the details of Frey's memoir of addiction for a film script being written for Warner Bros.
Frey said they didn't have the right to alter the facts in the book, the observer recalled this week. "How could they do this? This was his life! How could they change the facts of his life?" Eventually, Frey fired his agency.
LA Times story on Frey
QUOTE: "In light of what we now know, the reasons that James left our agency are certainly ironic, and it's nice being on the right side of irony," said Jeremy Zimmer, a top agent at United Talent Agency and one of Frey's agents before the confrontation.
And that's all, folks.
As the Frey story winds down, there is one more key element that we have not covered yet. Frey's editor.
Surviving James Frey
Now, I still do not understand how an editor would not start to have doubts about a book's authenticity. Heck, I'm a book editor and above my desk is my mantra, "Editors don't know everything; editors doubt everything." So, if that's not Sean's mantra, why is he an editor?
This is pathetic. Yes, there is a place in editor-land to trust the writer, to be strictly behind the scenes supporting the writer, to uphold the integrity of what the writer has accomplished. Duh. I do that every day. I strive for this and I think I have a good handle on it. See the January 15, 2006 post about a client's recent huge success. This was because I did not heavy-hand her manuscript and I believed in her story, and I knew, in my gut, that it worked. Of course, it was fiction, just like A Million Little Pieces.
Editor-land is not a place to just let a writer do whatever because it will make you, the editor, very famous, and probably very rich from bonuses.
Sean McDonald embarrassed our industry, right along with his client. Go away, Sean. Just go away.
So the discussion today is about Frey's Oprah-related royalties (about 3 million dollars) and his promise to donate 15% to his favorite charity.
Now, since his big check should be to him around March 31, we think he should be preparing to donate his 400,000 bucks anytime, right?
That ain't the word on the street.
Word is, no one is saying a thing about it, and if Oprah truly cared about "truth," don't you think she would be squawking about this? Several industry insiders think so.
But that's not all. They went and chatted with Frey's literary agent, Kassie Evashevski of Brillstein-Grey, who says that Frey's book "was never submitted as a novel" and that "she no longer represents Frey." So, these industry insiders ask, what happens to the agency's cut of 500,000 dollars? Is Brillstein-Grey going to give their cut to charity?
Can you hear me laughing?
I guess Jon Stewart was really funny. Damn, I missed it. Someone send me a tape, pretty please? So much still on Frey, I cannot believe this.
Isn't it time for us to move on from this? you may be asking.
Sure, as soon as I've made sure I find all the best juicy bits for us to chew on, okay?
Chill out, people.
First though, we've got another interesting case in book publishing. Some author copied a children's book word for word.
What? Yes.
Author claims she never read the original
I think the disease is spreading. Someone check our water supply!
Good grief. This is the sort of thing that we don't want to see more of. I mean, we've spent years of our collective lives on James Frey, can we just set a bunch of snakes on this lady and be done with it?
Which led me to think, what should be James Frey's punishment? Give up his royalties? Check himself back into Hazelden? What say you?
And Advertising Age chimes in on the changing face of magazine advertising
Ad Age Media Guy column
Instead of Lucky magazine including a page of post-it ready tabs for readers to use to earmark future purchases, why not download the Lucky issue onto an iPod with internet access and let the readers purchase the items directly, sparing the using of those post-it tabs.
Genius, says I, who hates trying to remember what she tabbed to purchase in what issue.
Yes, I'm a fashion junkie. What are you laughing at?
I was hoping the Frey controversy was long gone, especially when we have news stories about more important things. Thinking of Bob Woodruff and his videographer today.
But now, Frey's planned movie adaptations are on the chopping block.
LA Times story
Anyone surprised? If they do get made, I bet the movies won't attract A-list actors. It will be one of those straight to dvd projects. I can just see it.
But in a positive spin, I read the definitive wrap-up on this entire Frey issue in Patricia Holt's Holt Uncensored, an email newsletter covering the publishing industry.
Forget what I have talked about. Forget what everyone else has ever said about James Frey and read Holt Uncensored. Subscribe even. Anything Patricia Holt has to say should be engraved in stone. This lady knows her stuff.
Holt Uncensored and read the current issue. But while you are there, check out her other archived issues and Terry Ryan's columns, author of The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids in 25 Words or Less, which was turned into a movie in 2005 starring Julianne Moore.
I don't usually watch your show and I didn't watch yesterday's with the public shaming of Frey, because I can't stand the man, but thank you.
Even if you did it to save your franchise, to polish your tarnished image after your disastrous Larry King call-in, or simply to help Frey sell even more books, I still thank you.
Truth is not subjective. You cannot change it because it's not interesting. Truth has to stay rock-solid or this society will fail. Truth has to be what we all reach for, or we're striving in vain.
As a writer, communicator, and consumer, I am appalled at Frey's behavior, and I was appalled at your behavior, but you set yourself right. Now to see if Frey will.
I recommend AA.
"My name is James and I'm a liar."
Wanna know book blogs that I read?
Book Nerd has compiled a great list.
I'm hoping to join the book blogging circle of greats. So . . . got a friend who loves books, send them to my blog and I promise to link them to every other excellent blog on books out there!
