Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 63

To Everyone Who Wants Me to Read Their Writing and Tell Them What to Do

Note from Jane: This Thursday, I’m teaching a class in partnership with Writer’s Digest on how to get your book traditionally published in 2022.

Every year, countless people attempting to write their first book will reach out to me directly and ask if I’ll read their work and tell them what to do next.

The request is perfectly natural, especially for those who know me in some way. I’ve spent 20+ years in the writing and publishing community, and my name gets around as an expert. Yes, I can often read something and know exactly what a writer should do.

But here’s the real superpower: I often know what writers should do without reading a single word of their work.

Here is what I say, assuming it’s someone’s first book.

Maybe your loved ones have told you to write this book, or you’ve long wanted to give voice to a story or an experience—or share your expertise. Possibly you’ve been holding onto a story idea for years and now you finally have time to realize it on the page.

But as you get started, uncertainty creeps in. It’s hard to keep moving forward, alone, as innumerable questions arise. Questions like:

Is this any good? Am I any good?How do I know if this is worth my time?Should I continue based on what I have?Am I wasting my time? Does anyone care about this except for me?

You might be seeking a verdict on your effort or validation of the idea, or even permission to continue. Maybe you don’t know much or anything about writing and publishing and feel it’s better to secure guidance before making any further investment of time and energy. You don’t know what you don’t know, and you want help. Hopefully encouragement.

Here’s the tough part.

You’ve just taken the first step in a long journey. Right now, you’re likely at a delicate stage, where I could either crush your dreams or provide that encouragement.

To write, to create something, then open it up to the judgment of others, requires courage. I hope you continue, but at the same time, I have to be straight and honest that most people’s dreams of what will happen with their book do not come to fruition because they give up early in the process. At some point, the criticism (both constructive and not-constructive), along with rejection, arrives. And what so often determines success is what you do in response. Will you shut down and stop, or will you grapple with the challenge and grow?

If I were to tell you today that your project is a waste of time, would you abandon it? If so, perhaps it’s best that you did. To keep writing in the face of rejection is required of every professional and published writer I know. I can offer encouragement and tell you it’s a wholly worthwhile endeavor—and that will be true—but to achieve results that spell success (especially on a commercial level) requires more than my blessing or validation or permission. It requires an inner drive that pushes you forward no matter what feedback you receive. In the end, I believe it requires enjoyment of the writing process in and of itself—to see that as the reward.

The writing process is doubt-filled and circular.

Writing is rewriting (revision), and most beginners don’t appreciate that at first. It’s especially critical for people who haven’t been writing and reading for years already, and may still be figuring out their own best practices for first drafts, revisions, and polishing. (Every writer is different; there is no “right” way that works for all.)

If you don’t regularly read contemporary literature, if you haven’t been attending writing conferences, if you haven’t picked up a writing guide of any kind, then the best thing you can do is start a self-education process to bridge the gap between your current skill level as a writer and what you envision achieving. Writing is an art form; it is also a craft that can be studied and learned. Most of us don’t just start writing well enough for commercial publication on our first attempt, although some natural-born talent certainly helps.

Do you need a mentor or coach?

Some people, when they ask me for direction, seek a mentor or coach. Or they know they’d benefit from an expert who knows all the pitfalls and can help them make progress more efficiently and constructively. Fortunately, I have people to recommend in this regard; see my resource list or use my contact page to ask for a more extensive listing.

But first, you should probably read at least one or two writing guides that will school you in the psychological traps of the writing life. The War of Art is a good place to start. The four-part Ira Glass series on storytelling is also excellent and free. While his advice is geared for storytelling for TV and radio, nearly all of it applies to books as well.

Some people reach out to me because they think they need or should have a connection who will help them get published. Even if that were true, I’m not the person who can send your work to the right person (i.e., agent or publisher). Plus you’d need to have a completed or polished manuscript (or proposal) as a first step anyway and most people I encounter are very far away from that milestone when contacting me. When it is time to look for an agent or publisher, a referral is not necessary. There is a standard submissions process you can follow, and if your work fits the current market, then I guarantee you will hear back from agents and publishers.

Note from Jane: This Thursday, I’m teaching a class in partnership with Writer’s Digest on how to get your book traditionally published in 2022.

What’s Selling in Children’s Books + What’s Ahead for 2022

Photo by Ron Lach from Pexels

The following article was first published in my paid newsletter, The Hot Sheet. This Friday, I’m hosting a class with Mary Kole on writing picture books.

During the pandemic, the traditional book publishing industry has enjoyed increased sales and profits due to increased demand for books across every category—and especially in children’s categories. In fact, 2020 was a historic year for children’s nonfiction print book sales due to the need for educational materials as well as entertainment at home. Overall, juvenile nonfiction ended 2020 with unit sales up by 23% versus the prior year.

So how about 2021?

In an October presentation to the American Book Producers Association, NPD BookScan analyst Brenna Connor offered an update on the children’s market. Her data was pulled not just from the standard NPD print book sales data (which tracks US book sales through thousands of retail outlets) but also from PubTrack Digital (publisher-reported ebook sales from the top 450 publishers), BookScan license reporting (more on this later), and PubTrack Digital Audio (a new source that tracks the top audio publishers in the US).

While print sales were lower in 2021 than they were in 2020, they remained up over 2019. 

Here’s where the numbers sat as of Oct. 2, 2021, versus the previous year.

Juvenile fiction: +13.7%Juvenile nonfiction: -4.2%YA fiction: +5.5%YA nonfiction +0.2%

Juvenile nonfiction is the only category to decline, mainly because it’s being compared to the historic sales of 2020. If compared to 2019, last year’s print sales for the category were up around 20%.

2021 was all about kids’ fiction—especially series—in terms of growth. 

Graphic novels and manga in particular have been driving this growth, partly a result of some series getting adapted for the screen and becoming popular through streaming services. Other popular categories include humorous stories (e.g., Jeff Kinney’s Wimpy Kid series), social themes (driven by poet Amanda Gorman), animals (e.g., I Love You to the Moon and Back and The Little Blue Truck series), and holidays. Series are claiming a greater share of book sales over time, with a 5% annual compound growth rate since 2012. In 2021, a series accounted for two out of every three kids’ books sold.

Middle-grade books (ages nine through 12) are seeing the highest absolute gains in sales. In 2021, middle-grade books sales were up by 5 million units. Examples of popular authors in this category include Dav Pilkey (Dog Man series) and, again, Jeff Kinney (Wimpy Kid). However, books for kids ages 4 to 8 enjoyed the highest sales volume overall, with 88 million units sold in 2021 versus 64 million units of middle-grade books.

YA fiction was up by a third in 2021; growth is tied to BookTok. 

Of the 10 YA bestsellers in 2021, two were new titles, one was an older frontlist title, one was a required school read, and the rest (six) were BookTok favorites. Connor says this is the first time NPD has seen a meaningful sales effect through organic social media. While 2020 sales were driven by blockbusters (like the Twilight series or Hunger Games), 2021 saw older titles surface again through BookTok word of mouth. It wasn’t just one sales spike, but long-term sales growth that sustained over the year. Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End, released in 2018, has seen 80% of its sales volume happen in 2021.

Source: NPD BookScanNearly one-third of all kids’ books sold today feature a licensed character. 

Kids’ licenses fall into two categories: literary licenses and pure licenses. A literary license describes something that started as a book, while a pure license originates outside of the book world, e.g., Disney’s Frozen. Of the top 20 kids’ licenses in 2020 in the US, seven were pure licenses and the rest were literary licenses. The top literary license is Dr. Seuss; the top pure license is Paw Patrol.

What to watch for in 2022

Connor pointed out several growth areas that NPD expects to do well in 2022. They include (1) self-esteem and self-reliance, or books that help children develop skills that allow them to overcome challenges on their own; (2) climate change and conservation, or books that focus on the environment; and (3) friendship and inclusion, or books with a focus on kindness and the value of being a good friend to others.

Demand for all types of books is expected to continue in 2022. While sales may look less favorable compared to 2020, the forecast for kids’ nonfiction remains strong even as people return to work and to school, given concerns that kids have lost ground educationally.

Interested in writing picture books for kids? Join me for a class this Friday with expert Mary Kole.

What Makes a Story Feel Like a Story?

Photo by Khoa Võ from Pexels

Today’s post is by regular contributor Susan DeFreitas (@manzanitafire), an award-winning author, editor, and book coach. She offers an online course, Story Medicine, designed to help writers use their power as storytellers to support a more just and verdant world.

What’s the difference between a story and a narrative relating a series of events? Once upon a time, dear reader, I might have answered, “Causality.”

Because it’s a basic truth I’ve discovered as a book coach and editor: if you have plot that’s basically episodic—this happens, then that, and then this thing over here—the single most effective thing you can do to make it feel like a real story is to introduce the element of causality in revision: this happened, and as a consequence, that happened, which then led to this.

But there’s an element of storytelling that operates at a deeper level than the plot, and in recent years, I’ve come to believe that this is the thing that signals to readers that they’re in the presence of a real story.

That’s the protagonist’s internal issue, or problem.

Sure, external trouble will get your reader’s attention: The protagonist wakes up to find that a tree has fallen on her car. Now she has no way to get to work, and if she’s late, she’ll get fired, because her boss is a jerk. And because her boss is a jerk, she hasn’t had a raise in the last five years, and she can barely afford to pay her rent.

There’s plenty of external trouble in that scenario—enough, given the right execution, to keep the reader turning the pages to see what happens next. But if there’s no hint of some internal trouble the protagonist is facing, within the first twenty-five pages or so, chances are, our attention as readers will flag.

Internal trouble might be something more like this: The protagonist wakes up to find that a tree has fallen on her car. Now she has no way to get to work, and if she’s late one more time, she’ll get fired. She hates her job, though it’s the professional one her working-class mother was so proud of her for getting, so she feels like she can’t leave it.

In this scenario, the external trouble isn’t just A Series of Unfortunate Events, to paraphrase Lemony Snicket—it’s a clear invitation from the universe for this protagonist to confront her internal issue, the one that’s kept her in this job she hates for so long, and change.

Which is another way of saying that it signals the beginning of a character arc.

According to the story coach Lisa Cron, early on in human history, the adaptive purpose stories served was to prepare us for threats and challenges we hadn’t faced yet. (Hence the perennial appeal of that campfire classic, “How I Managed to Escape That Saber-Toothed Tiger Who Lives in the Big Cave Over Yonder”).

But in the modern age, the adaptive purpose stories serve is to provide us with inside intel—insight into the minds of others, and insight into our minds, the better with which to achieve health, happiness, and better relationships with others.

It’s the presence of an internal problem, at the outset of the story, that whispers a promise to the reader’s subconscious mind: This story is going to reveal the solution to that problem. In other words, This is a real story.

You’ll find plenty of craft books that discuss the protagonist’s internal issue, sometimes known as the protagonist’s wound, or shadow—especially in the literature associated with screenwriting.

But even so, I’ve found, many fiction writers either don’t quite understand what their protagonist’s internal issue is, or how to reveal it in their novel.

What follows are some of the most effective strategies I’ve found for doing so.

1. Establish early

Whatever your protagonist’s internal issue is, you can’t reveal it later on in the story, because it’s a key part of what sucks the reader in, on both a conscious and unconscious level.

On a conscious level, the reader has a sense that this story has emotional and psychological depth—that it’s actually about something.

On an unconscious level, that internal issue causes us to identify with the protagonist. Because we’re all flawed people, who’ve gotten in our own way at times—people who’ve had to overcome our own internal issues.

Some writers think the protagonist’s “flaw” will cause the reader to turn away from the character and dismiss them, but in reality, the opposite is true: It’s what causes the reader to relate, and lean in.

2. Show it creating external trouble

One of the most important elements of the protagonist’s internal issue is that it’s something they are unaware of when the story opens. So how do you reveal what that issue is, when you’re in this character’s POV?

You reveal that issue by showing us the way, at the beginning of the novel, it’s creating trouble in the protagonist’s life.

In the scenario I’ve shared above, there’s a key phrase: “if she’s late one more time.” This shows us that, while this character is facing external trouble, at least part of it is trouble of her own making.

Same thing with the part about her hating her job. It’s not as if she’s in charge of what her duties are at this job, but the fact that she feels like she can’t quit is a big part of the problem here, and you can trust your readers to pick up on that.

3. Show how it’s getting in their way

One metaphor I use for the protagonist’s internal issue is a black hole: You can’t see it directly, but you can see the way it distorts the light and matter around it.

Translated into story, that means something like this: The protagonist isn’t aware of their internal issue; what they’re aware of is wanting to achieve a certain goal or outcome, and something keeps getting in their way and keeping them from achieving it.

That something is their internal issue.

In the scenario I’ve shared above, maybe the protagonist’s internal issue is this: She’s afraid of going for her real dream, which is to start her own bakery, because her mother impressed on her at an early age that the only way to succeed was to go to college and become a professional.

So let’s say she’s late, again, and really does get fired, and then goes on to apply for a series of other jobs in the same industry, none of which pan out. Why? Because she doesn’t really want any of them. She wants to start her own bakery.

But then, maybe, she meets a kid selling her baked goods at a little roadside stand, and she’s reminded of that early dream of hers. Our protagonist is out of work, so she decides, what the heck, she’ll take a part-time job in a local bakery, just to tide her over until her next professional job. Then the bakery owner offers to sell her the business, and she turns him down: She can’t possibly do that.

In this scenario, it’s clear that there’s something standing in between the protagonist and what she really wants, and that’s her internal issue. And you can bet that your reader will be leaning forward in her chair at this point, rooting for the protagonist to figure out how she’s been standing in her own way, confront her internal issue, and change—in time to keep that bakery business from being sold to someone else.

If you’re writing a novel, I’d love to hear from you on this. What is your protagonist’s internal issue? And how does this issue stand between them and their goal in the story?

7 Steps for Tackling a Revise & Resubmit (R&R)

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Today’s post is by editor and book coach Kimberly Fernando (@StorytellersSK).

Receiving a R&R from an agent or editor can be both confusing and exciting at the same time. It might feel a bit disappointing because you were hoping for an offer, but let there be no mistake, an R&R is good news. The agent sees something in your work, and they are inviting you to submit again. They have taken time out to read your pages and provide notes to help you improve your manuscript. R&Rs don’t happen to everyone, and an agent doesn’t send them unless they’re genuinely interested.

An R&R is a fabulous opportunity to show agents or editors your revising skills and how you interpret their feedback. First and foremost, it provides agents and editors with insight as to how you handle revisions.

They want to see how you take the feedback and apply it to your manuscript.They want thoughtful revisions that strengthen your manuscript.They don’t want to see surface-level revisions (unless that really is the feedback you’ve received—but if that’s the case, I would expect they would have gone straight to an offer).They want you to take your time. They don’t want a writer to turn around the manuscript in a few days or even a week or two.

By taking your time and applying thoughtful revisions, you give yourself the best possible chance at success. Besides, agents and editors need distance from a project too, that way they can look at it with fresh eyes the same way writers need distance between rounds of revising.

Not every writer will decide to take on a R&R, and that’s okay. You may not agree with the feedback or share the same vision. But if you’re open to it, what have you got to lose by spending a little more time revising your manuscript?

If you’re up to the challenge, here’s how to tackle a Revise & Resubmit.

1. Digest the feedback.

Review the feedback carefully, then let it sit for a day or two while you mull it over and decide whether you will proceed with none, some, or all of the revision requests.

2. Reply to the agent/editor.

After reading the notes from the agent or editor, reply and thank them for their feedback.

Let them know whether the feedback resonated and if you’ll be amenable to revising and resending the manuscript.Use this opportunity to ask questions if there is anything you’re not clear about regarding their feedback. Don’t go overboard with the questions though. Only ask about items you’re truly not clear about.Optional: Provide an estimated timeline to complete the revisions. For example: “I expect these revisions will take me approximately 3 months to complete.”3. Analyze the feedback.

This is where you dive in and really analyze what the agent or editor has provided in their notes. Sometimes, feedback is not cut and dry, and you’ll need to read between the lines. In this case, I recommend asking a trusted friend, critique partner, or editor to look over the feedback and provide their thoughts. At this stage, you’ll want to break up the feedback elements into manageable chunks based on what the agent or editor has provided in their notes. You can start a revision document and add their notes under the headings that apply. For example:

CharacterizationWorld-buildingRomance threadClimaxPacing in first halfRomantic tensionAnd so on (based on the agent’s specific feedback)4. Brainstorm ideas and solutions.

Now it’s time to think about the feedback you agree with and want to incorporate into your manuscript. Use the revision document you created in Step 3 to brainstorm ideas for how you will tackle each element. For example, you might use characterization and world-building worksheets to help strengthen those aspects of your story.

5. Revise one element at a time.

It’s sometimes easier to revise one element at a time, especially since elements are typically threaded throughout the entire story. For example, if the agent has given you notes on characterization, work on that element alone until you are satisfied with the revisions. Then tackle the next element, and so on.

6. Obtain critique feedback.

Don’t forget this step! Ask your critique or beta partners if they are willing to read your revised manuscript. Most will be happy to oblige since they are excited about your R&R! A freelance editor or book coach can also help at this stage, or even at the beginning stage to help interpret the agent or editor’s feedback and ensure you’re on track with your revisions. Be sure to let your readers know if you want them to keep an eye out for specific elements or sections in your story.

7. Submit the revision.

Now that you’ve spent time digesting, analyzing, brainstorming, revising, and getting feedback, and the revisions are complete, it’s time to resubmit your manuscript.

Reply to the agent using the same email thread; thank them again for their notes.You may want to offer a high-level overview of the revisions you made, though this isn’t a requirement (unless the agent specifically asks for it).Be patient. Remember that agents and editors have other clients and deadlines—they may not get back to you right away, except for a quick check-in to let you know they’ve received your revised manuscript.Start working on your next project! If the R&R is successful, the agent will want to know what you’re working on next. This way, you’ll have something to share with them.

An R&R is hard work, and it doesn’t guarantee an offer in the end. Regardless of the outcome with the R&R agent or editor, you’ll have a much stronger, tighter, fleshed out, and well-paced story that might be successful with a different agent or publisher if you begin querying again.

Choose the Perfect Title for Your Novel or Memoir: 7 Authors Offer Tips

Today’s post is by author Isidra Mencos (@isidramencos).

Your book title, along with the cover, is a key marketing tool: it must prompt potential readers to pick up the book in a bookstore or click on it online because they want to know more.

General nonfiction often makes its purpose explicit in the title or subtitle, but memoirs and novels are more ethereal; they explore themes, characters and situations, and their titles can go in a thousand directions. This richness of choice can sometimes stump a writer.

Here’s how other authors chose their memoir or novel title, with valuable insight on finding the perfect title for your book.

Don’t get overly invested in your working title

Heather Young, author of literary murder mysteries, loved her initial titles, but her publisher asked her to change them—a very common experience.

 “I pitched my first novel with the title White Earth, but the marketing department said it sounded like an alien invasion novel,” explained Young. “My agent recommended that I go through the book and find a phrase that leaped out at me. I found ‘once we were light’ and I pitched it, but they said it sounded like a weight loss book. Finally, the publisher suggested The Lost Girl. My contribution was, ‘Let’s make it plural,’ so the title The Lost Girls came by committee, between me, my publisher and the marketers.”

Changing her original title was torture. “I had spent eight years with the manuscript, and it was hard for me to dissociate from the title I had given it. With my second book, The Distant Dead, it was easier. I didn’t allow myself to become too wedded to my working title.” When the marketing folks rejected it, Young reread her manuscript and found the phrase “the distant dead” referenced twice. “I thought it was a great title, because the book is about generations of dead people, and how we lose connection with our dead over time. When I pitched it to my editor, she loved it.”

Aside from looking for an evocative sentence in key scenes of your book, you can also brainstorm titles based on key images, metaphors, places, or the time your story is set.

Respect your contract with the reader

You may have a great title, but if it doesn’t fit the tone of your book, it’s not going to work. Jeannine Ouellette, author of The Part That Burns, faced this dilemma. Her book is a memoir in fragments. When it came time to choose the title, she hesitated between the title of two of the fragments, Four Dogs, Maybe Five and The Part That Burns.

“Both captured something essential to the book,” explained Ouellette. “Four Dogs, Maybe Five pointed to the way trauma destabilizes memory. It was also playful, but what concerned me is that it established a false contract with the reader. I wouldn’t want a dog lover to think this is a happy story about dogs because it’s not, so I wasn’t completely comfortable with this title, even though it had more light.”

The Part That Burns also contained some of the essential meaning of the book. “In this fragment the narrator is integrating the memories of her stepfather’s abuse, her sexuality, motherhood, and the power of giving birth; she understands that she can only live a full life by accepting the fullness of who she is and that includes the trauma of what happened to her. That’s what the title represented for me, and it didn’t have the disadvantage of being misleading. It’s a little intense, but I felt that was okay for this book.”

Avoid confusion and consider crowdsourcing

Joyce Maynard struggled to find a title for her latest novel, Count the Ways, which narrates a woman’s journey into motherhood and divorce. For a long time, she thought the title should be The Cork People because the protagonist, Eleanor, and her kids make little people with corks every spring and set them to sail in the river—an emblem of their happy times together. Her publisher, however, didn’t like it.

 “I loved The Cork People; the problem was that until you read the book, you didn’t know what it meant,” said Maynard. “A lot of people thought it was about people from Cork, Ireland, or people who drank a lot.”

Feeling lost, Maynard decided to crowdsource her title. “I really trust my Facebook audience—they are the ones who buy my books—so I asked them. Around eight hundred people voted on my poll. What I saw was that although there were a lot who liked The Cork People, there were also many others who thought it was terrible. I didn’t want a title that would completely eliminate a reader.”

Lilly Dancyger, author of the memoir Negative Space—which examines her grief after her heroin-addicted, artist father, died when she was 11—went through a similar process. “I didn’t settle on the final title until about nine years into an eleven-year process. My working title was Hunter/Hunted, after a series of sculptures and prints my father did that were both central to the story I was telling and resonant with the main themes. But I eventually realized that Hunter/Hunted only made sense after someone had read the book, so I went back to the drawing board to find something that would be evocative right away, without needing context or explanation. When I started to suspect that I had to give up my original working title, but was trying to rationalize keeping it, I crowdsourced it. The reactions and guesses regarding what the book was about, convinced me that I needed a more precise title.”

Crowdsourcing is not for everyone. Yet, if you suspect that the title you have in mind might be confusing, it could be a good option.

Visualize your cover

For Ashleigh Renard, author of the memoir SWING, the title came early on, together with the book’s cover. “I may be the oddball among writers. I love naming things; my brain works first with the big picture,” said Renard. As a skating coach and choreographer for synchronized skating for two decades, she was used to thinking about aesthetics and purpose in a holistic way. “I would picture the opening position in formation, and the costuming, and how my athletes would move for the first few seconds to set the tone for the judges. Likewise, this big picture of what people were going to think the second they saw the cover of my book was very important to me; I needed to get that right first.” She visualized every single detail: “The title and my book cover image came before I even started writing. I also knew the title would be in all caps, because if only the first letter were upper case it wouldn’t have a symmetrical look; I knew where it would go on my body, and what would be my facial expression.”

If you are a visual learner, creating a Pinterest board with all kinds of images related to your book may help you land on the right title.

Turn to music and poetry

A common source of inspiration for many writers are poems and song lyrics. That’s how Maynard found her final title, Count the Ways. “I went into my iTunes and looked at all the songs in my laptop to see if there was a wonderful, evocative line. I liked a lot one from a Joni Mitchell song, ‘I wish I had a river,’ but it was too long, and it doesn’t trip lightly off the tongue,” said Maynard.

Then she found a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that included this line: “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” It was a perfect fit for her novel, which examines the deep love a mother feels for her children and how love can peak and unravel in a marriage. “It’s not one of my favorite poems, but I wanted a phrase that meant many different things and this one did.”

After she settled on her title, Joyce added it in two wedding scenes in the novel, where the poem is recited. “You can retrofit your book once you find a title,” said Maynard, “but there should be an organic sense to your addition.”

Plagiarize yourself

Barbara Linn Probst went through a long ordeal when choosing the title of her first novel, Queen of the Owls. The protagonist, Elizabeth, is writing her doctoral dissertation on the works that Georgia O’Keeffe painted during her stay in Hawaii. “She is an intellectual who lives in her mind, so the first title I thought of was Georgia on My Mind, after the Ray Charles’ song. I liked it because it was fun, but I knew it wouldn’t work because I would have had to get permission from Ray Charles’ estate. I let it go reluctantly.”

Then she tried to find something that captured the fact that Elizabeth posed to reenact O’Keeffe’s nude photographs. “I remembered Henry James’ Portrait of a Lady, and I thought, Portrait of a Woman! I was very enamored of this title, but everybody hated it.” She then chose Searching for Hawaii, but research in Amazon unearthed a series of books whose titles all began with “Searching for…”, written by a Jennifer Probst, a name too similar to her own.

After many more iterations, Probst found herself at a dead end. Then, out of the blue, a scholarly article about mental illness she had written years ago popped into her head. “One of the women I interviewed had Asperger’s and she said, ‘I’m not like other birds; I’m like an owl; I fly at night, I can turn my head backwards, but I like being that way. I am the queen of the owls.’ I published the article under that title, but now I saw it in a new way because Elizabeth is a bookworm, an owl, who needs to embrace herself fully.”

When you look for inspiration, don’t forget to review other things you’ve written. Authors tend to obsess about a handful of themes, so you may find a phrase in an essay, a journal, a letter, or even a social media update that can be repurposed, with or without changes, for your upcoming book.

Trust a stranger

Finding the right title for my memoir was hard. I’d had one I loved for years, but my publisher thought it didn’t represent my journey accurately. I spent a month brainstorming with her and with friends without success. Then during a weeklong writers’ workshop, I shared my dilemma with my roommate, a writer I had just met. After explaining in a few minutes the basics of my memoir, including place and images, she suggested a title that I loved. Fortunately, my publisher loved it too.

My new title, Promenade of Desire (subtitle: A Barcelona Memoir), references essential themes and places in my story: how Spanish youth, after the end of a forty-year dictatorship, wanted to try it all, to do it all, to risk it all; it alludes to Las Ramblas, the long promenade that is the heart of Barcelona; it includes a subtitle with the name of my city, which my publisher really wanted on the cover; and it makes me feel confident. If I saw a book with this title on a bookstore display, I’d reach out for it.

This experience taught me that when you look for help, it may be useful to tap someone who doesn’t know much about your book but has a knack for naming things. The stranger comes at the task with less detail, so they may be able to distill the story into its essential elements.

Look for layers of meaning

A title that evokes a multiplicity of meanings is often a key element for an author, like for Ouellette, Maynard, and also myself. It was also essential for Renard and Dancyger. “I liked the word ‘swing’” said Renard, “because it has many meanings. It can mean the swing lifestyle, and my book is about misadventures in non-monogamy. It can also mean to change your mind in a dramatic fashion. It has a playful feeling, like swing dancing, and since I tried to add a fun flair throughout, it was a good association.”

Dancyger also emphasized the layering of meaning in her title. “It was important to find a title that gave an immediate sense of what the book would be about—not in a literal explanatory way, but at least touching on some of the themes, a sense of the feeling of the book. Negative Space is a well-known art term, so it clearly indicates that art is a major part of the book, and it refers to an absence, which is also very central to a book about grief.”

Think about your target audience

Probst researched titles for contemporary women’s fiction. She realized many had only four words and included the word “she,” so for a while she used the working title More Than She Knew. Eventually, she decided against it. “My books are not an easy beach read, they cater to a more literary reader, so I wanted a title that attracted people who were curious rather than people who knew exactly what they were getting. You must decide if you want a title that fits squarely into a genre and sounds like other titles, or if you want something more enigmatic. But don’t go too far and choose a title that is too obscure, or your potential readers won’t know what you’re talking about.”

Similarly, Ouellette thought about her ideal reader. “The Part That Burns is a literary book, so I wanted to have the most artful title possible while still capturing the center of the story.”

Choosing an evocative title that is not formulaic and is appropriate for your reader is a delicate dance. Researching other titles in your genre or by authors you love will point you toward the necessary balance.

Go on a treasure hunt—and stay open

Searching for a title is like going on a treasure hunt. There isn’t a set formula. Although the process can be excruciating, you should undertake it with a certain playfulness. “Finding a title can be like a game,” said Ouellette. “The more a writer can be expansive, and creative, and playful, and curious about the work, asking what it wants to be called, the better. It’s good to stay limber and be open to the idea that you may have become attached to a working title that would be serviceable, but there may be a really beautiful title lurking just around the corner, so you don’t miss it when it presents itself to you.”

As Maynard advised, “Begin by thinking: What is the core of this story? What is the tone that you want to set?” From there, use every tool in your arsenal until you find the title that reflects something core to your story, while keeping a sense of mystery that will make a reader reach out for your book.

Launching a Book: Baby, Art or Product?

Today’s post is by author Barbara Linn Probst. On Jan. 20, she’s teaching a class on Book Publicity 101.

Authors have different relationships to their books, and thus will make different choices about how to bring those books into the world.

With so many promotional strategies to choose from nowadays—from trailers and Amazon ads to podcasts, panels, bookstagram tours, and book fairs—it’s tempting, especially if this is your first book, to grab items off an a la carte menu in a flurry of suggestibility and FOMO (Fear of Missing Out—that is, of failing to do something you should have done).

Experienced peers may remind you that no one can do everything, and you agree—well, sort of. But without tools for sorting and ranking your options, and without an overarching intention, you may worry that you’ve chosen poorly.

That’s why it’s useful to take a step back and identify your view of your book before deciding which strategies to use. In general, there seem to be three attitudes, particularly toward a debut.

1. Your book as your baby

Especially after years of infertility (that is, of trying to get published), launching a book can feel like a momentous, life-altering accomplishment, and you can hardly believe that it’s finally happened.

Your book is the passport into a new identity as an author, just as a baby allows you to claim the identity of parent. You’ve joined a club that you’ve yearned to belong to. To experience that new membership, you want to hang out where other authors (or parents) hang out. Thus, you may be drawn to Facebook reader groups, panels with other writers, book festivals, and other ways to connect with your new tribe.

2. Your book as your art

For others, writing is an act of creative expression—an outpouring from an inner wellspring, in which the process of creation is as meaningful as the final product.

When you offer your art to the world, you hope that others will find it of value—that they will understand and be moved by it—because it’s a profound expression of who you are. You may be less interested in being part of group events, and prefer solo interviews or articles where you can talk about your personal journey and what you hope to accomplish with your work.

3. Your book as your product

For still others, a book is part of a career, professional identity, or larger mission—as a financial expert, advocate for healing after grief, or another goal that extends beyond the act of publishing. Within that context, the book expresses your special knowledge, enhances your credibility, and contributes to your place in society.

In contrast to my novels, which do feel like my art, my trade book for parents When the Labels Don’t Fit, published in 2008, was a “product.” The book was a consolidation of everything I’d learned and put into practiced as a counselor for families with out-of-the-box kids, elevating my legitimacy within the world of educators and therapists.

It would be simplistic to make three columns representing these three metaphors, and then place specific marketing strategies into one or another column where they “belong.” Worse than simplistic, it would be misleading, because there are too many factors that affect one’s choice of promotional strategies, including budget, personality, geography, and the other demands of life. There are also factors outside the author’s control: the economy, events in the news, and other books releasing at the same time, and so on.

However, there are aspects that are in your control. The most important of these is the clarity and feasibility of your goals, and whether your choices support those goals. As I wrote in a recent blog, those goals can change from book to book.

Again, the purpose of this essay isn’t to create three prix fixe menus, depending on the metaphor—baby, art, or product—that suits you best. Rather, it’s to invite you to step back and think about why you’ve written this particular book, what it means to you, and its place in the larger context of your life.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

Do you see this book as a stepping-stone for future books? Or is there a specific purpose that you need to achieve right now?Can you describe your ideal reader? How clear is that person for you?How comfortable are you with talking about yourself and your personal relationship to the contents of the book, whether fiction or nonfiction? Are you willing to expose yourself to strangers, or would you rather keep the conversation focused on the book itself?Which promotional activities would make you the most uncomfortable?In an ideal world, would you rather let someone else do everything to promote your book for you, or would you enjoy talking about it yourself?What would need to happen for you to feel that this book was a “success” and accomplished its purpose?

Once you’ve answered these questions, look again at the three conceptions of your book proposed at the beginning of this essay.

Does one of them resonate with you?Can you picture yourself shifting, just a bit, to include another attitude? If so, how would that affect the kinds of promotional activities you’d be willing to undertake?If none of them resonate with you, what image would you use instead?And if you still don’t know, try asking yourself: If I never published this book, what would that be like for me? What would I miss, lose, wonder, or continue to seek?

This can be a useful exercise before interviewing publicists and social media assistants, purchasing internet promotions and virtual book tours, hiring someone to do a book trailer, or pitching your book to podcasters. All of those activities need to be in the service of your vision for this particular book. It’s worth stating again: no author can do everything. To an extent, your choices are shaped by factors like genre and budget. But they’re also shaped, or should be, by your vision.

If you have a vision, the strategies you select will reinforce each other, like roots that nurture the same tree. But if you don’t have a vision, then it’s like the old cliché—throwing spaghetti at a wall, hoping that something will stick, and having no idea why some strands stick and others don’t.

Once you know why, paid professionals can be helpful. They can supply the how. Only you can provide the why.

Note from Jane: If you enjoyed this post, join me and Barbara on Jan. 20 for the online class Book Publicity 101.

Yes, Social Media Can Sell Books. But Not If Publishers Sit on Their Hands

Ever since social media appeared in the mid-2000s, publishers and authors (and marketers) have argued about whether social media actually sells books.

I thought this was an open-and-shut case, but every so often it has to be re-litigated.

YES, social media sells books. See what’s happening on TikTok for the most recent example of how and why.

But does an author’s personal social media following sell books?

Often. Usually. But not magically without any effort whatsoever.

Which brings me to the New York Times article published yesterday about celebrity-authored books that aren’t selling all that well. It’s titled: Millions of Followers? For Book Sales, ‘It’s Unreliable.’

Is it really unreliable? Or is it publishers falling asleep at the wheel? Or is it the case of not-so-great books being published and no one wanting them?

There’s a lot of context missing from the article—things we don’t know about what’s happening behind the scenes marketing-wise. But if publishers’ marketing teams truly believe an author’s large social media following will, of its own accord, lead to enormous book sales, that’s pretty simplistic and naive. Maybe these publishers assumed the celebrity authors would do more than they did, on social media, to talk about the book and move copies.

But most authors, even celebrities, need to be assisted or receive direction on how to do this well and in a way that has meaning and leads to sales. The NYT article makes it sound like publishers are just sort of sitting on their hands, waiting for the millions of followers to just show up and buy the book. No decent marketer today with a pulse thinks that just happens, and publishers tend to employ smart people. At least that’s what I’ve always thought. Then I read this quote in the article:

In an effort to mitigate these issues, some book contracts now specify the number of posts required before and after a book is published.

That is not going to fix the problem. And it’s very depressing that anyone in publishing today thinks it will fix the problem. It sounds like an executive’s bad solution.

Here’s what good, thoughtful marketing looks like from a traditional publisher

Over the summer, at The Bookseller’s Marketing & Publicity Conference, publishers large and small discussed how they work with authors to plan book launches and long-term marketing and promotion, especially in relation to online communities or social media—ever more important, given the rise of online sales. While not all authors receive the same level of in-house support from their publisher, it helps to know what a strong effort does look like, to be educated and aware of what’s possible.

To start, authors have to buy in to the core message of the publisher’s marketing campaign as early as possible. At the start of every campaign, the publisher is (or should be) thinking about how to use the author’s platform effectively. But this must be approached in a collaborative manner to work. Senior marketing executive Sian Gardiner and senior publicity manager Jess Duffy, both of Bluebird and One Boat (imprints of Pan Macmillan in the UK), discussed how to avoid “battling with authors to get them to post something that we know is going to help the book but they don’t feel truly represents them.” Early conversations with authors help bring marketing in line with the authors’ persona and community. “[Our] tailored strategies are informed by the authors’ unique knowledge of their online communities and supplemented by our expertise,” they said.

The community surrounding the author (and/or publisher) should be engaged early in the process and be part of the journey, said Gardiner and Duffy. The marketing campaign will fall flat if there are scattered calls to pre-order and vague mentions of the book without sufficient “content wrapping.” The right strategy is to drip-feed information about the upcoming book (or existing books) through the year. If planned early enough, there can even be requests for input from the community (almost like a focus group), with lots of free content sharing and behind-the-scenes footage.

“That means when it comes time to truly hammering home that pre-order messaging, the audience is already completely invested in the print purchase,” they said. However, Gardiner and Duffy warned that, with nonfiction authors in particular, the majority of an author’s community may not be book buyers and are not necessarily choosing to follow them for book content. “This means it’s crucial that the author integrates the book messaging that feels true to the spirit of what they usually post.”

As a case study, Gardiner and Duffy referenced Laura Thomas’s nonfiction book Just Eat It. They knew the author’s audience had huge potential for growth. Through influencer engagement, exclusive snippets from the author’s podcast, and a series of giveaways, the publisher built the author’s following from 20,000 to 100,000 in six months. For Nikesh Shukla’s memoir, Brown Baby, the publisher helped the author launch a parenting podcast that was shared by the high-profile guests he interviewed—and the publisher also secured a lot of podcast interviews for Nikesh himself.

In a similar vein, Penguin Random House (UK) has been focused the last couple years on bolstering its editorial content for readers, according to Indira Birnie, a senior manager at the company. She described, ultimately, a content marketing strategy for reaching any and all readerships—content that can be created ahead of time and used for months if not years, including podcasts, online articles, video, etc. For instance, with Obama’s memoir (yes, it does need to be marketed, and without much access to the author!), Birnie’s team compiled a list of all the books he’s publicly recommended over the years and published it at the PRH site, which was then shared across social media. That piece of content has been popular and has continued to perform well even more than a year after the book’s release. Birnie said, “It makes a lot more sense to me to create one really good piece of content”—something that is tailored to the readership and to a particular platform—rather than churn out substandard pieces that get blasted everywhere but fail to engage.

Social media plays a significant role in just about every marketing campaign. Gardiner and Duffy said one of the biggest sticking points when it comes to social strategy can be the regularity of posts required. Some authors worry about spamming their followers or appearing overly sales-y. But the lifecycle of social posts is incredibly short: 18 minutes for Twitter, 2.5 hours on Facebook, and 48 hours on Instagram. It’s possible and likely for followers to miss most posts. That’s why an author’s book must be incorporated into an author’s regular posting strategy, so the majority of their following will be aware of the book even if they miss most posts.

An ideal to strive for? A year-round marketing campaign. Gardiner and Duffy advocated for this approach, even though it may seem like an impossible task. In fact, it’s less labor intensive than people think. Start with the basics, they recommended. “We make sure to always let our authors know when there is new activity happening around the book and often will draft copy for them to post on their social channels.” For example, this could be a new Kindle deal, a new piece of media coverage, the launch of an international edition, or a shout-out from a high-profile social account. “We also ask our authors to forward any and all event requests they receive,” they said. Often an event that doesn’t seem to directly correlate with the book can still be a meaningful sales opportunity. “After the authors wow [the audience] with their brilliance, the book becomes a perfect physical takeaway from a potentially life-changing or inspiring moment.”

Smart publishers have been moving toward data-informed marketing campaigns

In such campaigns, success can be measured and audience data carries over from one book to the next. In a presentation earlier this year at Digital Book World, Andrea DeWerd, a senior marketing director at HarperCollins, described the shift that’s occurring in broad terms and also offered a case study focused on Jew-ish, an illustrated cookbook by Jake Cohen that hit the New York Times bestseller list. 

Going into the campaign, DeWerd’s team wasn’t sure if the book’s audience knew Cohen’s name or if they were more familiar with Feedfeed, where he’s a test-kitchen director. By using social listening and analytics tools Meltwater and Klear, they were able to quickly pull together insights on Cohen’s existing audience based on his social media presence: they were more female than expected, with a strong LGBTQ and New York City component. While the marketers knew some of this already, it confirmed their assumptions.

DeWerd said that they don’t have an in-house analytics team, so they need to use audience insight tools that the in-house marketers can understand even without a data background. That’s why they use Meltwater and Klear for this purpose; they are very user friendly. They can also export the data and share it with authors and agents to facilitate discussion and collaboration on the campaign. While individual authors typically can’t buy or afford enterprise tools like Meltwater, there are alternatives that can offer similar information at a more reasonable cost, such as SproutSocial, Mention, and SparkToro.

Study into Cohen’s online audience led to an important and early insight: amplifying his TikTok use would likely produce the best reach to his audience. So DeWerd’s team asked him to double-down on that activity. Then, the publisher placed TikTok ads for the book—but critically, these ads were identical to Cohen’s usual TikTok content except for the inclusion of a brief flash of the book cover. (Here’s an example: black-and-white cookie recipe.) The campaign was so successful that it now serves as a case study for a digital advertising agency, and DeWerd’s team shifted their ad budget away from simple banner ads over to TikTok.

But what about fiction—or debut authors, or those with little to no platform? I asked DeWerd about this via email after her presentation, and she generously responded with an in-depth look at how she handles such campaigns:

The first step is market research. What are the comp titles? Comps may include similar reads but also similar time periods, topics, or feelings. Do any of the comp authors have large social followings? (DeWerd defines large as more than 10,000 followers on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter, which have the best public data.) Are there particular people or influencers talking about those comps? What hashtags are used in posts about the comps? On Goodreads, what keywords are used in reviews for those comps? What Goodreads shelves are used (the surprising ones, not general ones like mystery)? Do the Goodreads reviews mention other titles that did not come up in the initial round of comps?The second step is to run reports with tools like Klear and Meltwater using the comp authors and influencers who talked about the comp titles. Who is talking about these comp authors and titles and where? Who is talking about specific topics and keywords related to the book? This requires specificity, e.g., “fiction about the Black experience in America.” DeWerd also runs more general reports on overall genres one or two times per year: What does a general contemporary romance reader in the US on TikTok look like these days? What does a mystery lover look like?Finally, DeWerd and her team synthesize their learnings from all the reports. What audiences are similar and where is there overlap? Where is more information needed? If her team needs more data, they will get more reads by conducting another a Goodreads giveaway, NetGalley promo, or Instagram giveaway. That ultimately seeds more online activity around the book and surfaces more marketing data. Sometimes new comps will come up as a result of reader reviews.

DeWerd adds, “That last step is important—fiction takes a lot of ‘send books out, get reviews, wait, and measure,’ to be successful. It takes time to do that.” And, “On top of building buzz, it gives us time to get to know our audience, what they’re responding to, and the best way to engage them!”

Finally, for an agent’s perspective on this issue, see Kate McKean’s All Your Followers Will Not Buy Your Books.

I hope this shows how traditional publishers can be smart and intelligent in using authors’ social media followings to build a marketing campaign and sell books. They can’t and shouldn’t just sit back and wait for authors to know what to do or how to do it.

If you found this article insightful, it builds on content that I first published in my paid newsletter, The Hot Sheet. Try it free for 2 issues.

When—and Whether—to Hire a Developmental Editor

Today’s post is by editor Tiffany Yates Martin (@FoxPrintEd). On Dec. 15, join us for an online class, Get It Edited, on when and how to hire a professional editor.

Working with a professional editor can be an excellent investment in your manuscript, your writing career, and your craft knowledge as a writer.

But doing so before you’re ready can keep you from getting the most out of what can often be an expensive proposition. A good, thorough developmental edit on a full-length manuscript often costs thousands of dollars.

How can you determine when and if you need the help of an experienced editor?

When not to hire an editor

This time of year, fresh off of NaNo when many authors have just exuberantly typed “The End” after completing their manuscript, editors like me often get a wave of emails from writers eager to hire a pro to help them hone and polish their story.

But fresh off a first draft isn’t the most effective time to work with an editor.

If the story is still in rough-draft shape, then much of their time and effort will focus on the big, obvious issues—issues that you may have been able to effectively address on your own through revision, and perhaps with the help of critique partners or beta readers.

It’s like seeking out a symphony conductor while you’re still learning a new piece of music. You’ll get much more out of an expert’s knowledge and guidance if you lay the proper groundwork and push yourself to the limits of your capabilities on your own before paying for someone to help you elevate it to the next level.

Once you’ve taken it as far as you can, ideally a good developmental editor will hold a mirror up to what’s actually on the page and how well it reflects your vision, and they can help you mine even more gold from it—deepening, developing, tightening, and helping you buff it to its brightest shine.

A professional editor doesn’t replace an author’s own editing and revision. Until you have a completed draft that’s as good as you’re able to make it (which may in fact wind up being your second or third or tenth draft), paying for a developmental edit may not be the best use of your money, time, or energy.

How to know when (or whether) you should hire an editor

I’m going to debunk a myth that grows more widespread as more and more people hang out their shingles as editors: Not every author needs to hire a professional editor for every manuscript.

Editing and revising (meaning assessing what you have on the page and knowing how to address any areas that could be stronger) are not functions to be automatically outsourced, separate from the craft of writing. They are an intrinsic part of it—in fact a major part. Writing truly is rewriting; the books you love and admire have almost certainly been extensively developed and polished by their authors. These are skills foundational to being a writer.

But as authors we’re constantly filling in the blanks of the rich vision in our heads, rather than seeing what’s actually on the page. It’s often hard get the objective 30,000-foot view that tells you how effectively you’ve conveyed your intentions to a reader.

This is one of the great values editors offer, as well as fresh perspective on ways you might strengthen your story based on their craft knowledge and experience.

To determine whether you would benefit from such a major investment, and the best time to consider it, ask yourself a few key questions:

Have you revised your story to the best of your abilities, but know it’s still not quite “there” yet? Authors often know when their manuscript isn’t working as well as they’d hoped, or perhaps you’ve had feedback from critique partners or beta readers about certain areas of the story that aren’t as effective as they could be. (I offer an extensive self-editing checklist that can help you evaluate your manuscript’s effectiveness.) If you’ve done all you can and still feel like your manuscript isn’t yet “ready,” then bringing in an objective expert can help you make it strong, cohesive, and impactful enough to attract an agent/editor and satisfy readers.Have you pinpointed what may not be working as well as it could, but aren’t sure how to address it in revisions? Editors not only identify areas of your story that could be strengthened or clarified, but often can help illuminate ways to do so—not by telling you how to write your story or taking over your vision, but by working with you to understand your intentions, and then offering specific tools, tactics, and suggestions for achieving them on the page.Have you submitted to agents or publishers but not received any offers? If you’ve submitted a good number of queries and still receive only form rejections, your story may need more development. If you’re getting requests for partials and fulls but no offers, then your story may need further work in certain areas: for instance, higher stakes, stronger momentum, more developed character arcs, etc. In either case, a professional may be able to help you figure out what’s keeping you from the finish line and how to get it there.Are you working with a small press or self-publishing? Some smaller houses offer a good amount of editorial input; some don’t. No matter how your book is published, it will be competing with titles from publishers that have likely had intensive editorial feedback and revision—and will be highly polished. Hiring a professional editor can help make sure your book is on a par with its competition and reader expectations.

A developmental editor is a tool like any other writer tool in your toolbox. Knowing whether and when you need to use it will help make sure you get the most use out of it and the most bang for your buck.

Note from Jane: If you’re thinking of hiring a professional editor, join me and Tiffany on Wednesday, December 15, at 1 p.m. ET for the 90-minute class Get It Edited. You’ll learn where to look for good, reputable editors; how to vet them; how to determine the best fit for you; what it should cost; what it should look like; and more, including real-life examples of sample edits and contracts.

How to Overcome Perfectionism to Achieve Your Writing Goals

“Do not fear failure” by Tomasz Stasiuk is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Today’s post is by book coach Heather Campbell (@thewriterremedy).

I’d always dreamed of writing a novel, and yet, I could never finish any of my projects. I was frustrated and worried that maybe I just wasn’t cut out to write, that I wasn’t smart, creative, or disciplined enough. However, I wasn’t making progress because I was struggling with perfectionism.

Perfectionism isn’t about being perfect; it’s about the fear of appearing imperfect. This trips up so many writers because we think, “I’m not perfect enough to be a perfectionist,” while at the same time we feel paralyzed by procrastination, self-doubt, and overwhelm.

Those are the real ways perfectionism shows up. As Dr. Brené Brown explains in The Gifts of Imperfection, “Perfectionism is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgement, and shame.”

To protect ourselves, we shy away from projects that don’t have a guaranteed outcome, and we create habits that keep us from taking risks or allow us to protect our potential if we do make mistakes. For example, we wait until the day before the deadline so if the result is anything less than perfect, we can tell ourselves we would have done much better with more time and preparation—it’s not because we lack intelligence or skill.

That’s also why perfectionism holds writers back from finishing a book; the writing process is at odds with perfectionism. It’s inherently messy and full of mistakes. It requires diligent practice and a willingness to explore ideas or techniques without promise of a good outcome. And writing feels deeply personal, possibly connected to our self-worth.

Ultimately, perfectionists are afraid to risk our potential and self-worth.  

Perfectionism is a fixed mindset

Mistakes and failure are so scary to perfectionists because they feel like a reflection of our inherent abilities. We think this way because of a fixed mindset.

According to Dr. Carol Dweck, a fixed mindset is a belief that our talents and intelligence are fixed—that we can’t change or develop them significantly. This leads us to subconsciously believe that we either have the inherent ability to write a book or we don’t. And if we struggle, it’s a confirmation we don’t.

So we engage perfectionist habits to also avoid discovering that we don’t have that supposedly innate ability. We subconsciously believe that there’s a right way to write a book, and if we could just figure it out, the process would be easy. That’s why at the first sign of difficulty, we bail to save face, or we look for other reasons to blame.

Sneaky ways perfectionism stalls writing projects

Often, perfectionism isn’t obvious, and it wears a lot of disguises. The thing that all perfectionist habits have in common is their underlying motivation: to keep you safe from the risk of failure.

The most common perfectionist habit is procrastination or avoidance. You don’t have to find out that your writing skills or ideas don’t measure up if you just don’t work on your book. In fact, you can protect your belief in your own ability to write well if you never put it to the test.

Like procrastination, waiting can be another habit. This is telling yourself that you’ll finish (or start) your novel when you have the right idea or it’s the right time. Your secret hope is that with the perfect conditions, you can write a flawless novel effortlessly.

Indecision also has a sneaky way of keeping you stuck that is predicated on the same idea: There’s a right way to write a book or a right way to tell your story. If you can just figure out the right answer, you’ll finish you book easily. But until you can be sure that your choice(s) will pan out, you stay stuck—and seemingly safe—in indecision.

One of the most surprising perfectionist habits is over- or under-planning. In the case of the former, you might believe that plotting out your novel meticulously before you start will ensure success. If you can just account for every potential problem, you can avoid them all. But then you never get started or you believe the first hiccup is a sign you’ve done something wrong.

On the other end of the spectrum is pantsing, which can work well for plenty of writers, but not for perfectionists. Perfectionists wing it because pantsing doesn’t incur much risk. If we go awry along the way, we can blame it on a lack of planning or the wrong idea. We maintain our potential: “I could write a great novel if I’d just outlined.” But we don’t stick with the messy draft long enough to shape it into a viable book.

These and other habits keep us from confronting difficult work, putting in effort, and making mistakes, all of which we see as signs of inadequacy. But there is no way to write a perfect book, and frankly, it’s nearly impossible to write a good book on the first time out.

The good news is that being a perfectionist is not a fixed personality trait. It’s something you can overcome by establishing new habits and a different mindset.

Developing a growth mindset and new habits to overcome perfectionism

The opposite of a fixed mindset is a growth mindset, which is a belief that we can develop talents, skills, and intelligence through time, practice, and feedback. Mistakes become a learning opportunity and challenges show us where to focus our energy to improve.

Note that perfectionism and growth and fixed mindsets are all on a continuum. You’re not wholly on one side or the other; you can also be more perfectionistic in some aspects of your life and more growth-minded in others. The goal is to shift closer to the growth end of the spectrum than the fixed, not to be perfectly, fully growth minded.

That’s the fundamental shift you must make to overcome perfectionism.

Changing your mindset in and of itself takes time and effort, and it’s a process of working on your mindset and habits together. Your habits reinforce your self-belief, and your self-belief directs your habits.

For example, if you believe that you are a procrastinator, then when you’re given the choice to start a project right away or wait, you’re likely to act according to your self-belief. Thus, you procrastinate. And the more you procrastinate, the more evidence you create to support the self-belief of being a procrastinator.

You have to work on both aspects to break the cycle. Here’s how:

1. Start with awareness

Before you can change your mindset or habits, you must become aware of the perfectionist habits you currently have and what thoughts are creating those habits. Journaling is a powerful tool for this because it helps us see our unconscious thought patterns. Ask yourself: What do I do that keeps me from writing or making progress on my book? When do I procrastinate on or avoid writing? When do I give up on projects? How do I react when I feel my writing is imperfect? Also, try identifying the thoughts that come up with those habits—what’s motivating you to work against your own interest in writing?

As you become better at noticing your perfectionist thoughts and actions after the fact, it will be easier to see them when they’re happening and redirect yourself. Eventually, you’ll get to the point where you can anticipate perfectionist habits before they happen, which allows you to make the conscious decision to take different action.

2. Create a new self-belief

Even though you may now recognize that you’ve had a fixed mindset and you want a growth mindset, you won’t make the switch automatically. You must develop the belief in your own ability to build you writing skills, and you must reinforce that with evidence.

Start by picking one growth-minded self-belief you’d like to have, such as, “I’m the type of person who follows through on writing projects I start.” Create a list of times when you have followed through on past projects. Whenever you find yourself doubting your ability to follow through, your brain will try to prove it by remembering all the times you’ve given up in the past. Override that process with your list of evidence that you can follow through. This, plus your awareness of your perfectionistic tendencies, will make it easier for you to choose the path the supports your new self-belief.

3. Implement structure to develop new habits

A plan, a writing schedule, and a routine can help you show up for your writing more consistently. If you don’t already have these things in place, it’s likely because you’re afraid of effort. You either rely on the muse to come along and make it easy, or you’re scared that if you put plans in place and they don’t work out, it’s because you’re not good enough. Neither of those things are true, but you have to prove that to yourself.

Structure gives you a clear path to achieve your writing goals, it eliminates overwhelm and decision fatigue, and it keeps you accountable. If you give yourself an outline for your book project and schedule your weekly writing sessions, then commit to working on your project consistently, every time you show up and do the work, you’re reinforcing new habits. You’re also increasing will-power and building confidence. Granted, putting this structure in place is going to feel confronting at first, which is the point. You must learn to overcome your fixed mindset objections. But the more often you follow through on your plans, the easier it becomes to resist perfectionist habits and become the writer you want to be.

4. Embrace progress over outcome

One of the ways we get stuck in perfectionism is by equating our self-worth with our accomplishments. This means that unless we have perfect outcomes, we feel like a failure. This is at odds with the writing process, which requires practice and experimentation. We must risk mistakes and learn that they are not a reflection on our abilities.

So, if you feel like a writing session is only productive when you’ve created a “good” product or you’ve hit your word count goal, you’re still outcome focused. In reality, when you’ve created a scene that doesn’t work, you’ve learned something, and you’re much closer to figuring out what does work. Challenge yourself to focus on the incremental progress you make, not on achieving flawless writing.

Finally, remember that overcoming perfectionism is not something that you can do perfectly! No matter how committed you are, there will be times that you slip back into old habits or thoughts. However, the true mark of growth is that you can recognize when this is happening and make a conscious effort to reorient. That will get you closer to your writing goals than perfectionism ever could.

The Kindle Vella Experience: Is It for You?

Today’s post is by author Audrey Kalman (@audreykalman).

As a writer of contemporary literary fiction, I had never considered serializing my work. Character-driven, introspective stories don’t often lend themselves to chapter-ending cliff-hangers. Then, a few years ago, I wrote The Last Storyteller, a speculative novel that contains some literary elements but also plenty of action.

Last spring, as I was deciding how best to bring the book into the world, I began hearing about the imminent launch of Amazon’s new Kindle Vella platform, which would offer, as Amazon puts it, “stories told one short episode at a time.” Readers would purchase tokens to gain access to installments of between 600 and 5,000 words. The first three episodes would be available for free.

I was simultaneously intrigued and wary. Like many indie authors, I have a somewhat fraught relationship with the behemoth of bookselling. At the time, I could find little information about how the service would work or even exactly when it would launch. I decided to approach with curiosity and a healthy dose of research and ended up becoming one of the early adopters. I prepared and staged The Last Storyteller in advance of Vella’s official launch, which turned out to be in mid-July.

For authors who may be considering distribution via Kindle Vella, here are a few of the considerations that went into my decision, what tipped me over the edge, and some thoughts about my experience so far.

How I decided to take the plunge

I’m not getting any younger—and neither are my books. You may laugh, but impending mortality has been a motivator for me as I’ve embraced the indie/hybrid life in the last ten years. I have chosen to self-publish some of my books and work with small presses for others. While The Last Storyteller may have had a better chance than some of my more literary works to attract an agent and eventually a traditional publisher, I wanted to get it out sooner rather than later. It’s near-future speculative fiction that takes place between 2020 and 2052. In waiting too long to publish, I would risk it becoming irrelevant.

My research reminded me that serialization has a long—if not always venerable—history. I knew Charles Dickens began as a writer of what were known in the Victorian era as “penny dreadfuls.” I learned that other esteemed writers of the past like Alexandre Dumas and Fyodor Dostoevsky also wrote novels that began as serials. The trend didn’t stop in the 19th century. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was originally serialized and two bestselling contemporary novelists, Stephen King and Margaret Atwood, also have written in this form. (Hey—If it’s good enough for Margaret Atwood, it’s good enough for me.)

What tipped me over the edge

It’s Amazon. However you may feel about this publishing giant, Amazon has been in the tech business for a long time. I self-published my first novel on Amazon in 2011 using CreateSpace, at a time when putting together the digital assets necessary to self-publish was a royal pain. Still, the process was easier than many other online experiences. Since then, I’ve continued offering my books through Amazon even as I’ve expanded to other platforms. So I trusted that Vella would be easy to work with from a tech perspective. I did look briefly at some other serial platforms, including Dreame, Medium, Radish, SerialTeller, and Wattpad, but ultimately decided to stick with the known quantity.

I’m a bit of a tech geek. And, because I don’t expect to earn my living from fiction (that’s another whole article), I can afford to experiment. I figured that a few readers on the Kindle Vella platform would be better than no readers at all, which is what I would have if I kept the manuscript in a folder on my computer.

A new platform would mean a less competitive market. Exact numbers aren’t available for how many books Amazon offers, but there are ways of guessing that the numbers are enormous. For example, the first book I ever published in the early 1990s (not a novel but a tech how-to book) is currently ranked #22,634,221 in print books on Amazon, which gives some indication of the number of titles you’re competing with in print. I figured that getting in early with Vella might have some advantage simply in terms of numbers, in the same way that offering an audio book puts you into a market with fewer competitors than print titles.

The experience so far

Navigating the technology went smoothly. Setting up an account, adding a cover image, and creating episodes took minutes. I had a few decisions to make; for example, how frequently to release episodes. I began at the pace of one a week, then modified it to two a week since the book is relatively long. Between mid-July and mid-November, I have released 42 episodes and expect to finish releasing all episodes by the end of 2021.

I have made a little money. Amazon’s terms are straightforward—authors earn 50 percent of what readers spend on tokens to purchase episodes—and they also offer monthly bonuses based on “customer activity and engagement.” For me, so far, those bonuses have outstripped royalties. This was a pleasant surprise. Of course, since there’s little transparency into Amazon’s future business plans, I have no idea how long the bonuses will last or exactly how they’re calculated. But I’ll take them while I can.

My book is a near-fit. As I anticipated, The Last Storyteller is a bit out of place among the majority of Vella offerings, which, like much serialized fiction, lean toward sci-fi, fantasy, and romance. This may be a detriment to me in terms of the type of readers who are attracted to the platform (thus limiting discoverability). However, as with any publishing platform, your book will not sell itself, so you’ll be doing marketing no matter what. For now, Amazon does not seem to offer an equivalent to its Ad Central (available to authors selling Kindle books) for Vella authors, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they introduce ads at some point.

So, should you or shouldn’t you?

Here are some things to consider about publishing a novel in episodes on Vella, from both a writing and publishing perspective.

Does your writing compel people to keep reading? This may sound like a silly question, but if your story unfolds at a leisurely pace, with lots of setup and background, then Vella may not be for you. Vella throws the harsh reality of today’s reading culture into stark relief: hooks matter. Without them, readers may decide they don’t care enough about your story to pay to continue.Take a look at the Vella categories listed at the top of the reader portal . If you write in one of these genres, you’ll fit right in. If your book doesn’t align with these groupings, you won’t want to shoe-horn it into a category that doesn’t match its content. At best, you’ll be ignored. At worst, you’ll alienate readers who are expecting one kind of reading experience and end up with another.Don’t write as you go. It’s certainly possible to offer up chapters from unfinished work, and some authors seem to be doing this. However, if you are a professional author, you should take your serialized work just as seriously as the work you publish in full-book form—which I hope you’re not putting out until it has gone through multiple drafts and a rigorous self- and professional editing process—and proofreading! You’ll do your long-term author career a disservice if you put up unfinished work.Partial exclusivity is required. While your book is available for Vella, you can’t offer it for sale as a complete work, although you can remove it from Vella if you decide to publish elsewhere. And you can offer it on other serial platforms as long as it isn’t available for free.The platform is likely to evolve. One certainty of the publishing world is that it’s going to change. I’m afraid you won’t find certainty and stability in many places, and certainly not with an organization as data-driven and fast-moving as Amazon. For example, the Vella account portal currently is separate from your KDP account, although the KDP Reports Beta dashboard gives access to all Amazon sales figures, including Vella, giving an indication of where reporting may be headed. Check back in six months and the landscape is likely to be different.

The bottom line is this: if you write in a genre that lends itself to serialization and are interested in exploring a new—and potentially lucrative, though perhaps not life-changing—way of getting your work into the world, then Vella is definitely worth a look.