Trying to Publish a Book? Here Are a Couple Tips

Illustration by the author.

Things were different in the early 1980's when I started my writing career. There was no internet, so all correspondence with editors (except those you already had a relationship with) was via the U.S. Postal Service. If writing articles, you would send a query letter (your pitch) along with a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE). If you were submitting a short story, you might send with instructions to discard if they rejected it.  You would still include the SASE so the editor could easily respond. If you desired the story back you'd include an envelope with sufficient postage to return it.

Those were the rules of the game. 

The book publishing world was also different. Back then there were only 50,000 books a year being published. Something like 2000 were fiction and the rest non-fiction. According to Berrett-Koehler there were nearly 1.7 million books self-published in 2019.  

In the old days, to get a book contract you worked with an agent who would shop it around, or you submitted a book proposal yourself. In 1993 I sold my first book with a pitch letter. The VP of marketing called me on the phone to let me know the ideas was good, but someone famous was already covering that topic. She then pitched an idea to me. I said yes, wrote the manuscript and was paid. Unfortunately, the book was part of a series that was never completed. I still got paid, but would rather have had my name on the cover of a book.

There were seemingly countless books that helped writers learn the ropes in all these things. Magazines like The Writer and Writer's Digest also addressed the practical matters of getting published. Writers conferences served a similar function. I attended two and they were immensely helpful, in part because in meeting with editors face-to-face I discovered that they were simply people like you and me. 

One of the books that helped me was called The Awful Truth About Publishing: Why They Always Reject Your Book and What You Can Do About It. The book was published in 1986. A couple years later I borrowed it from the library.

According to John Boswell, the author -- not to be confused with James Boswell, the 18th century Scottish biographer -- there are four minimum requirements for a book proposal. And actually, these requirements are also the main points in a query letter to pitch a story to an editor. For your book they would be these:

1. It must define the book's audience.

2. It must describe the book.

3. It must show how your book fills a need of its audience.

4. It must show why you are qualified to write the book. Or to put it another way, you must persuade the decision makers why you are the one who should execute this concept or idea, and not someone else.

These are the main features of a query letter as well. When pitching a story to an editor, you must hook the reader (editor), describe what you are selling, explain why it is important (and a good fit for this publication) and what your qualifications are. 

Business propositions aren't that different from this template either, except you will also need to include the financial aspects of the proposal as well. How much will it cost? How long will it take? 

In short, the way to get buy-in from a publisher, editor, or movie producer is to do your homework. Answer those four fundamental questions and be prepared to substantiate those answers with additional data if necessary. 

Nowadays there's one more item that seems to have become important for book publishers. Do you have a following on social media? According to one speaker at a writer's conference my brother attended this past month, "If you don't have 100,000 followers on social media, you might as well not try." 

Is this true? I dunno. 

One thing I do know is this. People are busy. So when pitching, don't waste their time getting to the point.  

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How Effective Is Social Media For Promoting One's Books: Excerpts from a Reddit Discussion Thread

Was captured by a discussion on Reddit last night that dealt with ePublishing, books and writers. It was a fascinating read because it was an open forum with both cynics and idealists taking part, and a lot of folks with experience.

The discussion began with this essentially simple statement of opinion: "I'm convinced that epublishing is another tech bubble, and that it will burst within the next 18 months."

By the time I stumbled upon it, there were 66 comments, including one which suggested putting your books on Pinterest, which I proceeded to do before going to bed last night.

Maybe it was this first comment that got me into reading more:

The argument he presents is this:
1. Self-publishing success is tied to social media marketing
2. Social media does not, actually, help sell books.
3. Therefore, self-publishing will burst.
The above isn't really true, though. Most authors know that advertising through twitter/facebook doesn't generate many sales. A social media presence is good for maintaining fans, but it rarely drives new sales directly. What does generate sales are services like BookBub and ENT, advertising books directly to interested customers. Those are proven to work.
So overall I would say his premise is false. Now, self-publishing may be a bubble ready to "burst" simply because it's over-saturated, but that's a self-fixing problem. People self-publish their first novel, don't receive the success they'd expected, then quit.

Throughout the discussion you can hear a lot of experienced writers talking candidly about issues concerning today's new age of self-publishing. With a million books being produced a year now, "there's a lot of crap" out there, and many authors who come and go deserve to be quickly gone. Here's Indie author Alexis Radcliffe weighing in:

A good book never actually goes away, so as long as you write good fiction, you're in no danger from a bubble, imagined or otherwise. You just keep your head down and keep putting out high-quality material. You have the same chance to win over fans and gain traction five years from now that you do today (and probably a few more books to do it with if you're committed). Amazon's latest actions suggest that they're testing substantially better sorting options for books in a way that's likely to revolutionize the way people sift through their book selections. I think it's going to shake things up a lot and help people reach high-quality books of exactly the kind they want to read.

Here's another topic that gets vetted fairly extensively as well by another commentator:

Every self-publishing author I know is offering editing services as well - a huge part of the market is devoted to taking money off the hopeful, with a large dose of the blind leading the blind. I'm not sure where it'll end.

Taking advantage of aspiring writers is nothing new, however. It happens with young artists, inventors and all kinds of other ventures where peoples' enthusiasm for an idea runs ahead of their common sense or experience.

Ultimately, if you are a writer and have time for an interesting discussion of everything from blogging to Twitter to Pinterest and the future of ePublishing, you can check it out here.

What are your thoughts on all this?

Ten Minutes with Scott Marshall, Author of the Insightful Dylan Volume Restless Pilgrim

Yesterday I wrote about Scott Marshall's book Restless Pilgrim to help lay the groundwork for this interview with the author himself.

EN: How long have you been writing?
Scott Marshall Well, while growing up in school I tended to gravitate toward writing instead of, say, the biology lab. When college was on the horizon, my late granddad (on my dad’s side) wanted to pay for an aptitude test for me. The powers that be at the testing foundation concluded writing and teaching would come natural. Years later, I thought I had backed into both a teaching career of sorts and getting a book published, but the aptitude test whispered “I told you so.” As for writing, I can’t say I’ve been consistent (although teaching for the last 12 years serves as a convenient excuse for not having written more, I know better.)

EN: And how did you get your start?
SM: Pretty much through Mick & Laurie McCuistion of the now-defunct Dylan magazine On the Tracks. They published interviews I conducted for my book, as well as an article or two (Have no idea where they’re at now; I’d love to write them a thank you letter for all their support). And then there were all those hard-core Dylan guys in England at The Bridge, Isis, and Judas!—Mike Wyvill, John Wraith, Derek Barker, and Andrew Muir, respectively. They also granted me the opportunity to have some interviews and articles make the rounds.

EN:  Who have been your influences as a writer?
SM: Haven’t consciously followed anyone’s style, and I view myself more as an aspiring writer. My strengths lie in digging up Lord-knows-what and landing some great interviews. As for enjoying certain writers, I’ll say the late Neil Postman and Christopher Hitchens are hard to beat. And Stanley Crouch captivated me after watching a 3-hour interview he did for BookTV (on C-SPAN 2). I have most of Crouch’s books, but find myself reaching for the dictionary rather regularly and haven’t been faithful to the finish line. Lastly, for all the vitriol reserved for Fox News Channel (either full-out vitriol or blind praise, it seems), there’s this guy Eric Burns who used to host their show Fox News Watch; he’s written a number of solid and fascinating books. A great journalist and writer.

1986, Dylan with Grateful Dead (photo: Ebert Roberts)

EN: How did you come to take an interest in the music and career of Bob Dylan?
SM: In my hometown of Gainesville, Florida, an old buddy Alec Lauriault was playing one of his mom’s records (incidentally, Gainesville’s home to Tom Petty; he was at Gainesville High about 16 years before we went there). I was 19 at the time—this would’ve been 1986—and it happened to be Dylan’s first greatest hits compilation that I heard. I was truly taken aback, struck by the words I was hearing, how they were coming across, the bite, the wit, the mystery. I remember one writer, it might’ve been Michael Gray, who said he envied anyone who was just getting their feet wet with Dylan’s musical canon. It’s hard to argue with that sentiment. So, anyway, soon all of Dylan’s official albums were residing in my barn loft apartment in north Florida. (Some bootlegs, too, but not too many.) By the mid to late-1990s, I was on the prowl for Dylan books and Dylan fanzines. If magazines or newspapers had Dylan content, I was interested. A print obsession emerged.

EN: Your book seems to fill a gap in the catalog of Dylan biographies. Are there other authors who have written about Dylan from this angle?
SM: Don’t know if I filled a gap, but it sure felt like it at the time. Stephen Pickering (Chofetz Chaim Ben-Avraham) was there first, with a number of books on Dylan in the early to mid-1970s (“there first” in the sense of writing about Dylan’s religious or spiritual leanings). This guy is as persistent as the day is long, and is in the deep end of some kind of pool that not too many people are swimming in. Although Pickering has little to no regard for Dylan authors like Bert Cartwright, Don Williams, Ronnie Keohane, and Jenny Ledeen, these were the folks who, in their own ways, mainly self-published on Dylan’s seemingly fated obsession with the Almighty. And since my book was published in 2002, there have been quite a few folks who’ve thrown their hats in the ring, including Christopher Ricks; Michael Gilmour; Stephen Webb; Steven Heine; Seth Rogovoy; and A.T. Bradford. Last I heard, Ron Rosenbaum was working on a Dylan book (looking forward to that one). By the late 1990s, if there was a shortage of Dylan books that contended with the man’s metaphysical meanderings, there is no shortage now.

EN: In your introduction you write, “Whether Dylan likes it or not—and he clearly does not—he is a prophet for our time.” In what way or ways has Dylan been a “prophet for our time?”
SM: My co-author Marcia Ford actually wrote that (She wrote the introduction.). Since it was my book, I should take responsibility for it…but, over 12 years on, I’m just going to say I wouldn’t write that. That line might seem true to some, but I’d be interested in how one defines “prophet.” I have no doubts that Dylan has a deep respect for the biblical prophets, from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament. His written words, his singing voice, and even his interview voice have echoed the ideas, words, and tone of those prophets. It’s been quoted a lot, but one of Bob Dylan’s most revealing moments took place in the Midwest, in the winter of 1980, smack dab in the middle of the Gospel Tours. A 38-year-old Dylan said this to a crowd in Omaha, Nebraska: “Years ago they used to say I was a prophet. I’d say, ‘No, I’m not a prophet.’ They’d say, ‘Yes, you are a prophet.’ ‘No, it’s not me.’ They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say, ‘Jesus is the answer.’ [And now] they say, ‘Bob Dylan? He’s no prophet.’ They just can’t handle that.” I think that quote right there, besides being fertile ground for some kind of Ph.D, sums up the whole Dylan prophet thing.

EN: What were the biggest surprises you found in your research for this book?
SM: How willing folks were to talk. Even some people who you would think would be off limits because of their relationship with Dylan (or the fact that I was a nobody with no publisher at the time). Also, Dylan’s movements and attitudes during the so-called Gospel period. He was hanging out with his fellow Jews, the vast majority of who did not subscribe to the notion of Jesus as God, Messiah—the Alpha and the Omega. There was, though, the late singer Keith Green, a fellow Jew who Dylan hung out with for a bit; he too was sold out for Jesus (Dylan played harmonica on a 1980 Green album.) Additionally, Dylan might have banned his publicist Paul Wasserman from coming backstage for being an “infidel,” but he didn’t fire him (“He’s the best in the business,” Dylan said.). Larry “Ratso” Sloman was invited by Dylan to climb on the Gospel tour bus for some shows in the Midwest (Sloman may well have been at that Omaha, Nebraska gig when Dylan delivered his rap

about the “prophet” label.) Of course, Jerry Wexler, who didn’t shy away from proclaiming himself a “Jewish atheist,” produced both Slow Train Coming and Saved.

And in 1981, while Dylan was still singing songs from these albums he invited his boyhood friend Larry Kegan on a tour (Dylan played sax and Kegan covered Chuck Berry!) So, during the research I discovered it’s not really true that Dylan was this foaming-at-the-mouth, intolerant character who was abandoning his Jewish roots. He was connecting those roots to Jesus at the end of the line, which is simply unacceptable to the vast majority of Jewish circles. I’d be willing to bet the price he paid was substantial. God only knows the fallout from very close family members and friends, but, in the words of Ron Wood, he “wasn’t to be tampered with” in this season. If you were a Dylan fan between 1979 and 1981, Jew or Gentile, he definitely was singing and speaking in very personal terms.

EN: What kind of feedback have you received since publishing Restless Pilgrim?
SM: Had a handful of complete strangers contact me to share how much they appreciated the book. That was nice. I can think of a few reviewers that were not thrilled, including a Christian magazine, a Dylan fanzine, and an amazon.com review. My favorite negative review, though, occurred in person at a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in Greenville, South Carolina. I was approached (accosted?) by a student at Bob Jones University (a fundamentalist Bible college right there in Greenville) who took umbrage with the book. As I recall, he had not read it, but who can be bothered by such details? I would pay now for a transcript of our exchange. Even though I don’t recall the details, I know he was clearly disturbed by me and/or the idea of the book. I can’t avoid the temptation of thinking it had something to do with rock & roll and the Evil One. However, my favorite moment, by far, took place at a book signing at a Books-A-Million in Anderson, South Carolina. A white kid and a black kid, probably in their early teens, arrived via skateboards. They gazed at the poster next to me that announced the book signing. They then looked at me, and simply asked if I’d sign their skateboards. I’m confident they did not know who Bob Dylan was (and they certainly had never heard of me). It was hilarious and humbling. Why? Because there was one book signing in Athens, Georgia, where the only folks who bothered to show up were my wife (she came with me) and my cousin who lived in Athens at the time.

EN: What role did your co-author play? Editor, researcher, collaborator?
SM: Besides writing the introduction to the book, she basically served as an editor. My manuscript was mammoth and detail-oriented to a fault, much more ready for a Dylan fanzine crowd than it was for a mass audience. She helped in the pruning process to make it more mass-friendly. It was a painful process as she reminded me that I needed to choose the best line or paragraph from any one interviewee (in terms of employing quotations) since we had the space limitations of a relatively slim paperback. It was brutal because of the 75 or so people I interviewed, only about half made it into the book. No one was quoted at length. With that said, in the very beginning she let the publisher know that what she had encountered with my manuscript was something unique. That helped green light the project because she had experience in the book business; magazines, and newspapers. To sum up, I did all the research, all the interviews, and the original manuscript between early 1999 and spring 2002; she came in at the end, in the last few months, and performed some heavy-duty editing.

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To purchase, there are a limited number of copies available here at Amazon.com