Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 66

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.

Start Here: How to Write a Book Proposal + Book Proposal Template

Note from Jane: This Saturday (Dec. 4), I’m teaching a class in partnership with Albert Flynn DeSilver on the business of writing nonfiction.

Book proposals are used to sell nonfiction books to publishers.

A book proposal argues why your book (idea) is salable and marketable in today’s market. It essentially acts as a business case for why your book should exist, and—for many authors—persuades a publisher to make an investment in your work before you sit down to write it. 

That’s right: nonfiction authors, if they’re smart and strategic, will sell a publisher on their book before they’ve written very much of it.

Instead of writing the entire book, then trying to interest an editor or agent (which is how it works with novels), you can write the proposal first if you’re a nonfiction author. If a publisher is convinced by the proposal, it will contract you and pay you to write the book. This applies to all types of nonfiction, although it can be very challenging for memoirists to sell a project on the basis of a proposal if they are unpublished or without a compelling platform. (More on that in a second.)

If properly developed and researched, a proposal can take weeks, or longer, to prepare. While proposal length varies tremendously, most are somewhere around 10 to 25 pages double-spaced, not including sample chapters. It’s not out of the question for a proposal to reach 50 pages or more for complex projects once sample chapters are included.

Unpublished or beginning writers might find it easier to simply write the book first, then prepare a proposal—which isn’t a bad idea in the case of memoir, since many editors and agents want assurance that an unknown writer has sufficient writing chops to pull off their project. 

But having the manuscript complete does not get you off the hook when it comes to writing the proposal. If an agent or publisher wants a proposal, you still need to write one even if the book is complete.

What about novel proposals? You may occasionally hear someone refer to novel proposals, which typically includes a query or cover letter, a synopsis, and a partial or complete manuscript. This bears very little relation to a nonfiction book proposal.

Your business case may matter more than the writing

People don’t like to hear this, but for many nonfiction books, the artfulness of the writing doesn’t matter as much as the marketability of the premise, topic, or author. You can see this played out in the rejections received by Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

If your book’s purpose is to improve readers’ lives or to teach, then you’re usually selling it based on your expertise, your platform, and your concept. The book proposal persuades agents/editors that readers will pay for the benefit that your book provides, rather than learning from YouTube, Google, or even a competing book. While everyone expects the writing to be solid, they’re probably not expecting a literary masterpiece. To learn how to lose weight, readers don’t need a poet; they need a clear communicator who can deliver her ideas and methods in a way that will help and inspire readers to achieve their goals. Plus those ideas and methods ought to feel fresh and exciting, and not like last year’s 100 weight-loss books on the market. (Even better: the book shows how the most recent books really missed something critical that readers must know to succeed.)

Especially in how-to categories such as health, self-help or self-improvement, business, or parenting, your credibility and platform as a professional in the field play a critical role; your background must convey authority and instill confidence in the reader. Would you, as a reader, trust a health book by an author with no medical experience or degrees? Would you be OK reading a serious guide on how to invest in the stock market by someone who is living in a van down by the river?

For narrative nonfiction, especially memoir, the writing does matter

Some types of nonfiction require authors with proven journalistic or storytelling skills. (What is narrative nonfiction? It’s a story of someone or some thing other than yourself. Think Seabiscuit.) If your book must succeed based on its ability to artfully weave a story, then your strength as a writer becomes more and more important to the proposal’s success. It’s still necessary to prove there’s a market for that story, but you won’t be successful if your sample chapters are poor or you can’t point to a successful publication record in outlets that matter to your topic or book’s future success.

If your book doesn’t require a narrative structure or long-form storytelling, with masterful use of craft and technique, then your skills as a writer mainly have to be up to the task of producing and revising a book manuscript with an editor’s or agent’s guidance.

The biggest mistake writers make in their book proposals

It’s natural to assume the book proposal should discuss what your book is about. But this is a mistake. Rather than focusing on the content, focus on why this book matters right now to the intended readership. Why is it going to resonate? How is it addressing an urgent need? How does it offer something new and surprising that doesn’t feel like everything that’s come before?

While some types of evergreen topics may not have a sense of urgency tied to them, they still have to demonstrate market relevance. For example, if you’re pitching a knitting book, you probably need to demonstrate that your techniques or projects will be of interest to knitters today, rather than knitters 30 years ago.

Whatever you do, don’t get lost in the weeds of your book’s ideas or content. Always discuss the content in relation to the reader’s need or community need and why it matters now.

Other common pitfalls:

Assuming that a “comprehensive” treatment or an in-depth discussion of your topic is a selling point. Rarely is this enough. Instead, think about how and why the argument that your book makes is new and compelling. How does it shed new light on a topic people care about? How does your book illuminate the unexpected or challenge readers in ways they don’t expect? Another way to think about it: Eric Nelson comments on how authors should position their ideas in terms of a switch instead of a dial if they want to generate agent or editor enthusiasm.Assuming that a short, “accessible” treatment is a selling point. It is challenging to prove that an audience is out there waiting to a buy a book only if it were shorter or less difficult than the alternatives. Assuming that your personal experience of the issue is a selling point. Unless you are a famous author or have an established platform that has attracted agents and editors to your door, just because you have personally experienced something doesn’t make your book instantly more salable.The memoirist’s dilemma

Submission guidelines vary tremendously when it comes to memoir. Some agents don’t require a book proposal, while others want only the book proposal and the first few chapters. Some agents may even ask for both the proposal and the complete manuscript if you’re an unpublished author.

Professional, published writers can typically sell a memoir based on the proposal alone. New, emerging writers who have no publishing track record may be asked to submit a complete manuscript to prove they can write, sometimes in addition to the book proposal itself.

Your memoir is not salable unless you’re confident of several things.

Your writing must be outstanding. If your memoir is your very first book or very first writing attempt, then it may not be good enough to pass muster with an editor or agent.You must have a compelling and unusual story to tell. If you’re writing about situations that affect thousands (or millions) of people, that’s not necessarily in your favor. Addiction and cancer memoirs, for example, are common, and will put you on the road to rejection unless you’re able to prove how yours is unique or outstanding in the field.You have the start of a platform. If you have a way to reach readers, without a publisher’s help, then you’re more likely to secure a book deal.

Here’s the dilemma for many memoirists: If an agent wants a book proposal for a memoir, they are likely judging you based on the strength of your platform or as much on the platform as the writing. They want to see if your story premise might have mainstream media potential or the ability to land major interviews that will lead to sales. If you have little or no platform, and your story is lyrical, quiet, or literary, then you should try to target agents and publishers who don’t require a proposal. A proposal will only highlight what your project lacks.

Finding a literary agent (and do you need one?)

If you are writing a book that has significant commercial value, or you want to publish with a New York house, then you’ll need to submit your work to literary agents. Projects that don’t necessarily require agents include scholarly works for university presses, books likely to be published by regional or independent presses, and other niche titles with little commercial value.

The most common book proposal sections

While there’s no single “best” way to write and assemble a book proposal—it will depend on the  category, the author, and the publishers’ submission guidelines—the following sections appear in almost every book proposal.

Comparable titles or competitive title analysis

I mention this section first because this is where I suggest writers start their proposal research. It will help clarify your idea and avoid lots of wasted time. This section discusses competing titles and how yours fits into the overall scene. The analysis typically includes 5 to 10 titles, but you might be okay discussing just a few if your book is on a specialized topic or for a very narrow audience.

For each competing title, begin by noting the title, subtitle, author, publisher, year of publication, page count, price, first published format (usually hardcover or paperback), and the ISBN. You don’t need to list things such as Amazon ranking, star rating, or reviews. Also don’t worry about including the sales numbers of the competing titles. There’s no way for an average author to find out that information, and the agent or editor can look it up themselves.

Then comes the most important part: for each competitor, you briefly summarize the book’s approach in relation to your own (about 100–200 words per title). You should be able to differentiate your title from the competition, and show why there’s a need for your book. 

Resist trashing the competition; it may come back to bite you. (Publishing is a small industry.) And don’t skimp on your title research—editors can tell when you haven’t done your homework, plus fully understanding the competition should help you write a better proposal. I discuss the research process here.

Whatever you do, don’t claim there are no competitors to your book. If there are truly no competitors, then your book might be so weird and specialized that it won’t sell.

For some nonfiction topics and categories, the availability of online information can immediately kill the potential for a print book. Travel is a good example—its print sales have declined by 50 to 75 percent since 2007. Also, many book ideas I see pitched should really start out as a site or community—even if only to test-market the idea, to learn more about the target audience, and to ultimately produce a print product that has a ready and eager market once it’s published.

Target audience

Who will primarily buy your book? “Primarily” is key here. You want to describe the people who will be easiest to convince, or the most likely readership. Who will be lining up to pre-order and spread the word from there?

Avoid generically describing the book buying audience in the United States, or broadly discussing how many memoirs sold last year. Publishers don’t need to be given broad industry statistics; they need you to draw a clear portrait of the type of person (beyond “book buyers”) who will be interested in what you have to say.

It can be very tempting to make a broad statement about who your audience is, to make it sound like anyone and everyone is a potential reader. Avoid generic statements like these:

A Google search result on [topic] turns up more than 10 million hits.A U.S. Census shows more than 20 million people in this demographic.An Amazon search turns up more than 10,000 books with “dog” in the title.

These are meaningless statistics. The following statements show better market insight:

Recent reviewers of [competing titles] complain that they are not keeping up with new information and trends. The hottest new trend in [category] is not discussed or covered in recent titles.The New York Times recently wrote about the increased interest in military memoirs; [X and Y] media outlets regularly profile soldiers who’ve written books about their experience.My readers include the people who have become devoted supporters of [X podcast or Y paid newsletter], which have X subscribers/downloads.

For more guidance, see my post on How to Define and Describe Your Readership.

Marketing plan

What can you specifically do to market and promote the book? Never discuss what you hope to do, only what you can and will do (without publisher assistance), given your current resources. Many people write their marketing plan in extremely tentative fashion, talking about things they are “willing” to do if asked. This is deadly language. Avoid it. Instead, you need to be confident, firm, and direct about everything that’s going to happen with or without the publisher’s help. Make it concrete, realistic, and attach numbers to everything.

Weak
I plan to register a domain and start a blog for my book.

Strong
Within 6 months of launch, my blog on [book topic] already attracts 5,000 unique visits per month.

Weak
I plan to contact bloggers for guest blogging opportunities.

Strong
I have guest blogged every month for the past year to reach 250,000 readers, at sites such as [include 2–3 examples of most well-known blogs]. I have invitations to return on each site, plus I’ve made contact with 10 other bloggers for future guest posts.

Weak
I plan to contact conferences and speak on [book topic].

Strong
I am in contact with organizers at XYZ conferences, and have spoken at 3 events within the past year reaching 5,000 people in my target audience.

The secret of a marketing plan isn’t the number of ideas you have for marketing, or how many things you are willing to do, but how many solid connections you have—the ones that are already working for you—and how many readers you NOW reach through today’s efforts. You need to show that your ideas are not just pie in the sky, but real action steps that will lead to concrete results and a connection to an existing readership.

Author bio

It can be helpful to begin with a bio you already use at your website or at LinkedIn. But don’t just copy and paste your bio into the proposal and consider the job done. You have to convince agents and editors you’re the perfect author for the book. Show how your expertise and experience give you the perfect platform from which to address your target audience. If this is a weak area for you, look for other strengths that might give you credibility with readers or help sell books—such as connections to experts or authorities in the field, a solid online following, and previous success in marketing yourself and your work. Agent Anna Sproul-Latimer has great advice on author bios for book proposals.

Overview

This comes at the very beginning of your proposal. I suggest you write it last. Think of it as the executive summary of the entire document, around two to three pages. It needs to sing and present a water-tight business case. If done well, it can become the basis of your query letter. My proposal template (see below) includes more guidance.

Chapter outline and/or table of contents

A chapter outline works well for narrative or meaty works, especially those that are text-heavy and anticipated to come in at 80,000 words or more. For each chapter, you write a brief summary of the idea, information, or story presented. I suggest your chapter outline not extend past 3,000 words.

If writing a chapter outline seems redundant or unnecessary for your book’s content, then use a table of contents. And if you want to use both, that’s completely acceptable. The most important thing is to show how your book concept will play out from beginning to end, and strongly convey the scope and range of material covered.

Sample chapters

If you’re writing a memoir that has a distinct beginning, middle, and end, then include sample material that starts at the beginning of the book. If your work isn’t a narrative, then write or include a sample chapter that you think is the meatiest or most impressive chapter. Don’t try to get off easy by using the introduction; this is your opportunity to show that you can deliver on your book’s promise.

Common problems with book proposalsThe writer hasn’t articulated a clearly defined market or need—or the writer has described a market that’s too niche for a commercial publisher to pursue.The concept is too general or broad, or has no unique angle.The writer wants to do a book based on his or her own amateur experience of overcoming a problem or investigating a complex issue. (No expertise or credentials.)The writer concentrates only on the content of the book or his own experience—instead of the book’s hook and benefit and appeal to the marketplace.The proposed idea is like a million others; nothing compelling sets the book apart.

If you’re told the market isn’t big enough, maybe you approached too big of a publisher. Is there a smaller publisher that would be interested because they have a lower threshold of sales to meet? Big houses may want to sell as many as 20,000 copies in the first year to justify publication; smaller presses may be fine with a few thousand copies.

The most common problem leading to rejection: no author platform

A sizable platform and expertise is typically required to successfully sell a nonfiction book to a major publisher, especially for competitive categories such as business, cooking, health, self-help, or parenting. (Here’s a definition of platform.) An agent or editor is going to evaluate your visibility in the market, and will want to know the following:

The stats and analytics behind your online following, including all websites, blogs, social media accounts, e-mail newsletters, regular online writing gigs, podcasts, videos, etc.Your offline following—speaking engagements, events, classes/teaching, city/regional presence, professional organization leadership roles and memberships, etc.Your presence in traditional media (regular gigs, features, any coverage you’ve received, etc)Your network strength—reach to influencers or thought leaders, a prominent position at a major organization or businessSales of past books or self-published works

You typically need to be visible to tens of thousands of people, with verifiable influence, to interest a major publisher. Traditional houses are pickier than ever; producing anything in print is a significant investment and risk. They need to know there’s an audience waiting to buy. Plus, given the significant change in the publishing industry, authors shouldn’t consider a print book their first goal or the end goal, but merely one way, and usually not the best way, for making money.

A book proposal template to help you get started

Download a nonfiction book proposal template (Word file) that is already formatted according to industry guidelines. It also includes brief guidance, tips and common mistakes for each section.

Download Jane’s nonfiction book proposal template

I also offer research worksheets, to help you prepare to write the book proposal.

 More resources on book proposalsAgent Ted Weinstein outlines the necessary parts of a book proposal, and also offers an audio recording of his 90-minute workshop on proposals.My favorite comprehensive guide on book proposals is How to Write a Book Proposal by agent Michael Larsen.For professors and academics, I recommend Laura Portwood-Stacer’s resources.Looking for more help?This Saturday (Dec. 4), I’m teaching a class in partnership with Albert Flynn DeSilver on the business of writing nonfiction.Copy Write Consultants offers assistance with researching agents and publishers.

Art and Commerce Need Not Be at Odds

Today’s guest post is by Albert Flynn DeSilver (@poetAlbert), author of Writing as a Path to Awakening.

On Dec. 4, Jane will be teaching a class in collaboration with Albert, Insights on the Business of Writing Nonfiction.

The apparent conflict between art and commerce is probably as old as commerce itself. Many writers tense up, glaze over, or even freak out when they think about “the business of writing.” Creative writing is, after all, creative. But here we are in a capitalist soup, love it or hate it, and you have to find your place herein. I choose to be an empowered creative, envisioning innovative ways to work within and transform the system.

So what does creativity have to do with business? A lot, it turns out. It’s just a different kind of creativity than you engage with when you write. Imagining dynamic characters, creating distant or exotic landscapes, and devising whimsical or harrowing scenarios uses another part of the brain than conjuring up a business idea or planning for your new product or service. But you are still imagining, still wondering, still dreaming.

I’ve had to remind myself of this as someone who started out as a poet. Poetry is the writing form probably most seen as antithetical to business. But as I’ve gotten older, the distinctions between creativity and business have started to soften and melt away. I am not only a poet but also, as a person who runs a private online writing school, very much a business person engaging in commerce.

Ditch the baggage

Commerce—now there’s a word that carries some baggage. The first dictionary definition I came across was “social intercourse: interchange of ideas, opinions, or sentiments.” Going back to the word’s Latin origin, commerce simply means “to trade together.” Is that so bad? Not at all, especially if we are trading together in positive ideas, in uplifting, inclusive, and inspiring curricula, and in content that makes the world a better place. Looking at commerce this way has helped shift my perception of the activities required to run a business.

As writers, we trade together with our audience—another word that may carry baggage for creative types because of its association with marketing. But for us as writers, audience simply means readers and listeners, and, since I am not in the writing game for myself, I want an audience. Unless you write only for yourself, your words and stories need other human beings to hear and receive them.

Connect to your purpose

Thinking about audience gets me thinking about purpose. I ask myself, “Why am I writing this, really?” Connecting to your purpose as a writer offers another bridge between creativity and commerce. I want my writing to have impact—preferably to inspire. I want to stimulate my readers to think differently about themselves and the world. I want my words to remind them of their inherent creative genius, their innate imaginative power to manifest real change. Why are you writing? To inform, instruct, engage, encourage, motivate? Whatever your intention, if you can touch repeatedly into the heart of your desire around writing and hunker down in that love of process (yes, even when it sucks) I think you’ve struck gold, and audience blooms forth as a natural extension.

These two aspects of your writerly self need not be at odds. See what happens when you put commerce and creativity side by side and encourage them to get along. Reimagine the business of writing as communication, engagement, connection, and participation and see how your creative impulse can live in harmony with the business of writing. 

NFTs for Authors: Is This a Rush for Fool’s Gold?

Today’s post is by author and marketer P. S. Hoffman (@PS_Hoffman).

Lately, influencers are parading Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, as the shiny new key that will unlock the future of the internet. In publishing, respected entrepreneurs, like Joanna Penn, are wondering if NFTs could become a serious source of income for authors.

And I think by now we’ve all heard of the dazzling displays of wealth behind the earliest NFT artwork and book deals.

But in my opinion, the promise of NFT books is riddled with warning signs. The outlandish hype, the allure of quick riches, and the shining exterior of “new, disruptive technology” paints a picture I’ve seen before.

Here’s why all this chatter about NFTs in publishing will probably amount to nothing more than a rush for fool’s gold.

What is an NFT book?

The short answer: an NFT is a receipt that proves you bought a digital product. Jane has much info on NFTs here, but at its core, that’s all an NFT is—a crypto-generated digital receipt.

Therefore, an NFT book is a receipt for a digital book. Most often, this will come packaged with the actual book’s file, and exclusive content to “sweeten the deal.”

The most basic idea is to allow people to collect, trade, and sell digital products, as if they were handmade and truly unique. But a unique string of numbers on your receipt does not make your product more valuable.

What’s more, I’m going to show you why the promise of NFTs will most likely not upturn the whole publishing industry, and will not decentralize the power of the richest publishing giants. More on that in a second.

First, let’s talk about marketing.

Scarcity does NOT make something valuable

Have you ever heard of “thulium?”

It’s the scarcest rare metal on Earth. It’s smooth, silvery, and easy to work with. Thulium is also one of the least valuable metals. Scarcity alone does not make something valuable.

If I tried to sell a book that no one has ever heard of on the premise that “it’s the only one ever printed,” no one would care. Now, if I tried to sell the author’s original handwritten copy of, say, The Hunger Games, I could probably sell it for a pretty penny.

Without demand, scarcity doesn’t matter.

And NFTs ignore the simple truth of the internet: everything hosted here is infinitely reproducible. There is no scarcity.

Therefore, to make a meaningful income off of NFTs, we’re going to have to talk about artificial scarcity.

Artificial scarcity is a tool to make potential buyers of a product temporarily increase the value they assign to that product. As a professional marketer by day, I use artificial scarcity almost everywhere. Giant ticking timers on sales pages, phrases like “as long as supplies last,” and limited edition runs are well-used tools in every marketer’s kit.

Artificial scarcity has two major drawbacks:

First, it’s not scalable. Limited-time offers, by definition, are limited.

Second, artificial scarcity is fake. Too much use can cheapen your brand, and anger your audience. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being duped.

These problems are magnified when it comes to NFT Books. People who praise Non-Fungible Tokens have yet to address the fact that ebooks are inherently fungible.

Before this century, books had to be printed. Which meant we had to kill trees, process them into paper, and expend gobs of ink to create a single book. Books were inherently limited by their resources and manufacturing costs, not to mention distribution.

The internet changed that. A ebook file is so small, it can be sent in an email. Anything digital can be replicated infinitely, for no cost except the power that feeds your device. Which means, if you want to sell an NFT of your book, you are going to use artificial scarcity.

Will readers buy NFT books?

Only if they’re easier or less expensive to buy than any other ebook. And thus far, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

The internet is obsessed with hype, and letting it spiral out of control. Often, to dangerous effects (I’m sure you can think of a few recent instances).

The hype always begins with a promise—great wealth, or great health, or some dramatic change—while providing very slim evidence (if any) to back it up.

Hype spirals are magnetic. As hopefuls flock to become “early adopters,” they add momentum to the spiral, which pulls in more. When you’re in the epicenter of a hype spiral, it can be hard to see anything but the benefits of hopping aboard.

I have seen it happen to dear friends. I’ve watched them lose thousands on silly schemes that were obvious in hindsight, but because the hype was so strong…

This is a warning about all this NFT buzz: it’s easy to make promises, and hard to deliver. Independent authors, specifically, may be at risk for the predatory sales tactics around NFTs. Even the copyright law isn’t there yet.

Some readers will certainly buy NFTs, for as long as the NFT novelty lasts. But nothing builds momentum forever, and when the hype spiral begins to slow, it begins to die.

The publishing industry will be fine, but any author who stakes their writing future on NFTs may be left holding the bag, so to speak. As with any area, be careful how much you focus on NFTs.

Of course, many still believe NFTs have the power to change the publishing world. The power comes not from basic book sales, but from other areas.

Don’t people want to collect unique NFT editions of books?

Oh, certainly.

But NFTs are digital. So where are you displaying these digital receipts for the books you’ve purchased?

Digital collectibles make sense in limited environments, like cosmetic micro-transactions that are popular in the gaming world. Gamers “live” in their worlds, and the cosmetics are immediately obvious.

But publishing is different. Are readers supposed to sit down with their morning coffee and scroll through their digital library while sighing with pleasure?

I have my doubts.

NFTs might have a place in other industries, but when it comes to turning NFT books into a sustainable and meaningful source of income for writers, the basic premise of the digital collectible business model doesn’t hold much water.

NFT books will be more expensive than regular ebooks (and probably more than physical books, too). They will be less useful, they will have no physical attributes (like the feeling of a leather-bound or the smell of an old bookcase), and—except for that tiny piece of code—they will be nearly identical to a regular ebook.

The main way to make NFT books profitable is to bundle them with other products. We can already do this. I’m skeptical that NFT technology brings anything new to the table here, other than over-specialized proof of purchase.

It’s like hiring a full-time construction crew and a jackhammer to nail a picture to your wall.

Do NFTs have the power to usurp the rich publishing monopolies?

Probably not.

In truth, Amazon is already looking at NFTs, and numerous online distributors are already selling NFT books. Several other are already laser-focused on exploiting people’s hype for NFTs. These major players, who have all the resources in the world, are ready to capitalize on this new fad.

At best, new independent NFT marketplaces will crop up and limp along for a few years, before the giants gobble them up.

You can already see this happening in cryptocurrency markets, like Bitcoin, where a full 30% of the currency is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of investors.

Decentralized often means unregulated, and today’s digital monopolies easily have the resources and flexibility to take advantage of any new media.

The audience for NFT books is (probably) smaller than the hype

Unless you’re already a big-name author, and the cash doesn’t really matter, you’re probably not going to make a meaningful income from selling NFT books.

I doubt NFTs are dangerous for authors, but recently I’ve seen a lot of slick talkers trying to shove this dollar-sign-shaped technology into the publishing industry. Since the hype around NFT books is nearing its peak, I just wanted to stake my warning down for writers everywhere: if you go rushing for fool’s gold, you might just find it.

Writing Compassionately about Parents

Today’s post is by writer and editor Katie Bannon (@katiedbannon).

You may be familiar with the iconic opening line of Anna Karenina: “All happy families are alike. Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Many of us end up writing about our family dynamics in memoir and personal essays, whether we planned to or not. Family members, for better or for worse, are endlessly fascinating. But how do we write about our uniquely dysfunctional families—and our parents, in particular—without being petty? How can we craft rich portraits that show their full, flawed humanity?

The more complex, the better.

Readers respond most to complicated characters. Try to be as balanced as possible in your portrayal of your parents. Showing their redeeming qualities alongside their shortcomings will make them read as human on the page. As a species, we are full of contradictions, and your parent characters should be too.

Remember that it’s difficult for readers to connect with characters who appear one-dimensional. If your mother or father is coming across as either wholly good or wholly bad, the reader is likely to distrust you as a narrator. Readers might wonder if you’ve done the processing necessary to come to terms with who your parents are/were, and if personal grievances are causing you to portray them unfairly.

Readers are also highly attuned to moments when the narrator wants them to see a character a particular way, rather than allowing them to form their own judgments. A one-sided portrayal of a parent won’t cause a reader to hate or love them—it will probably only make them detach from the narrative entirely. Capturing our parents’ complexity isn’t about giving them a “free pass” or sugar-coating their flaws. It’s about ensuring our readers can feel invested in them as characters, and as a result, stay engaged in the narrative as a whole.

If you’re writing about a difficult parent, consider how you might add nuance and compassion to their portrayal by asking the following questions:

What might have motivated the parent to act the way they did? Was it protectiveness? Fear? Low self-esteem?As an adult, what do you understand about the parent that you didn’t know when you were a child?Think about the parent’s own trauma and family history. Can you draw connections between the parent’s actions/behaviors and their own past? The ways their own parents treated them?

On the flipside, maybe you idealize a parent. Sometimes this happens once parents have passed away; grief can make it difficult for us to recognize a parent’s shortcomings. But readers distrust perfect characters—they often read as inauthentic or cartoon-like. To help dig deeper into your parent’s complexity, ask yourself the following questions:

What scares/scared this person? What is/was their greatest fear?What do you imagine is/was their biggest regret in life?What makes/made your parent feel embarrassed or ashamed?Don’t tell us who your parents are. Show us instead.

Scenes allow us to watch your parents in action. We can see how they interact with you and others, observe their body language and mannerisms (biting fingernails, scowling, etc.), and hear the way they speak. Detail is at the heart of excellent character portrayals, and scenes are the perfect place to create the color and texture that brings parent characters to life.

Many of us harbor strong feelings toward our parents. This may result in a tendency to sum them up neatly in the narration: “My father was an angry man.” “My mother dealt with a lifetime of guilt.” While telling certainly has its place in memoir and personal essay, it’s often more effective to show us your parents’ personalities through scenes.

Instead of telling us your father was an angry man, show us a scene of him throwing a plate across the kitchen. Paint a picture of his anger through the details: the furrowing of his brow, the thunderous sound of the plate smashing, the way his screams echoed off the walls. A scene like this will allow readers to feel your father’s rage in a visceral, immersive way.

Showing parents in scene also helps you avoid labeling them. Labels reduce your parents to a “type,” diluting the nuance of your character portrayals. Mary Karr doesn’t call her parents “alcoholics” in her memoirs; instead, we see her pouring her parents’ vodka down the drain. Scenes and hyper-specific details are what make your parents idiosyncratic and believable to a reader.

Need help showing your parents on the page? Try this writing exercise:

Write a scene about a time you fought with or were scolded by a parent. The key here is using details to humanize the parent and show the reader the dynamic between the two of you. Play with the tension between what the character of “you” wants in the scene, versus what the character of your parent wants. Try to include the following elements:

Your parent’s physical characteristicsYour parent’s body language (twirling hair, stiffening of the shoulders, etc.)Your parent’s speech (word choice, tone, cadence)Your parent’s actions and reactionsSpeculation about what your parent might have wanted and/or felt in the scene (which may be in conflict with what you felt/wanted)Use “telling details” that capture your parents’ essence.

Sometimes just one detail about a parent can speak volumes about who they are. These “telling details” could be as simple as a nervous tic, a favorite catchphrase, or the way they take their coffee. In my memoir, I describe how my father told waiters we had a show to catch (even when we didn’t) just to speed up the service. My mother insisted on standing on the outside of the group in family photos, doing her best to slip out of the photo entirely. Carefully chosen details evoke a huge amount about a parent’s life and identity.

Don’t neglect “telling” physical descriptors. Sometimes we’re so familiar with family members we don’t include the level of detail necessary for readers to see, hear, and feel them on the page. Details like how your parents dressed, the way they walked, what cherished objects they kept in their purse or wallet, can go a long way.

Which “telling details” about your parents will capture their essence on the page? Brainstorm ideas by filling in the blanks.

On a hot day, my mother/father always wore _______ and drank _______.The object my mother/father most treasured was ______ because _______.When we had company over, my mother/father would ________.When my mother/father was annoyed, her/his voice would ________ and her/his face looked like ________.Around the holidays, my mother/father would _________, but she/he would never ________.Final thoughts

Parents have the potential to be your most vivid characters. Their nuances and contradictions provide incredibly fertile ground for writers. Still, writing compassionately about parents is no easy task. Applying character-focused craft techniques—leaning into complexity, developing scenes, and using evocative details—is crucial to making parent characters believable and engaging for the reader. Only then can we hope to bring our parents, and their humanity, to life on the page.

The Short-Run Printing Option: Pros and Cons

There are three main ways to create printed copies of your book. Which one you choose depends on your budget and goals.

Debuting at the Age of 66

Photo by Stanislav Kondratiev from Pexels

Today’s post is by author Liz Alexander (@ES_Alexander7), author of Lies That Blind.

Anna Sewell sold her only novel, the classic Black Beauty, when she was 57 years old. She had worked on it for six years while confined to her bed due to ill-health. It wasn’t until after Laura Ingalls Wilder had celebrated her 65th birthday that the Little House series came to prominence. And teacher-turned-memoirist, Frank McCourt, won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, Angela’s Ashes, at the age of 66.

When my debut novel, Lies That Blind, came out on October 19, I was two weeks short of my 67th birthday. Becoming a novelist has nothing to do with your age. Nor should you think that having invested your talent so far in one literary arena—as I did with nonfiction—that it’s impossible to shift gears. I’m proof positive you can do both.

In 2018 I left the United States, intending to retire in Malaysia, after a long career as a freelance journalist and the author or co-author of more than twenty mainstream published nonfiction books. Sensing that I wanted a simpler, less financially stressful life, I sold my house, my car, and all but a few personal belongings, and arrived on the island of Penang without ever having stepped foot in Southeast Asia before. My life as a writer, I’d convinced myself, would now take a back seat to reading all those books I never seemed to have time to devour, to learn the Malay language, and sample the delights of Penang’s world-famous cuisine.

But, as the Yiddish saying goes, “Man plans, God laughs.” Or, for the irreligious among you, perhaps I was just about to stumble my way through a series of fortuitous events.

Writers don’t know the word “retirement”

I’d already bought the domain name “My Year of Doing Sod All” (British vernacular for doing nothing), having suspected that it wouldn’t take long before I was desperate to get back to tapping on my keyboard. My intention had been to write a blog about the joys of loafing! But I never got round to making that site public; I soon realized that I’d never worked as a writer, I was a writer—all the way through to my marrow—and that writers never “retire.” Plus, I had long nurtured a writing dream that perhaps now I’d be able to fulfill.

As a lover of crime novels and thrillers, my first thought was to try my hand at plotting a Penang-based murder mystery. (Think: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder by Shamini Flint, but featuring the peculiarities of Penang, rather than Kuala Lumpur.) I tried to come up with a compelling idea, but nothing gelled. Then one day, over coffee with a fellow writer and publisher, I admitted that I’d always wanted to write a novel before I died but couldn’t come up with anything that excited me.

Keith began to tell me the story of how Penang came to be possessed in the late 18th century by an agent of the East India Company (EIC) named Captain Francis Light. I was familiar with the basics: Penang was, at that time, part of the kingdom of Queda whose sultan was keen for the EIC to protect him militarily against his many regional enemies. The carrot that the sultan dangled was to allow the EIC to establish a settlement on Penang; the “Honourable Company” had been looking for a port further east than Madras where they might repair their ships traveling between India and Macau.

But the plan had gone horribly wrong. Yes, Francis Light had taken possession of Penang (rather cheekily christening it Prince of Wales Island in honour of King George III’s son, within days of setting foot there), and the island had become a thriving trading settlement not least because it imposed none of the tolls and taxes common to Queda’s ports. But by April 1791, frustrated that his demands for military protection had gone unheeded, the Malay sultan had amassed an armada of mercenaries and regional pirates to attack the tiny British stronghold, and take his island back. And by “tiny” I mean a garrison of 400 sepoys and EIC officers against an invasion force reputed to number over 20,000 men.

Even though I had made a career for myself as a nonfiction author, I knew enough about storytelling generally to recognize that here were the makings of an intriguing tale. I was reminded of Hilary Mantel’s quote in this Guardian article: “I began writing fiction when I discovered I wanted to be a historian.” I’d never adhered to the adage that you should write about what you know; as a nonfiction author and journalist I had always written about what I’d wanted to discover.

I believe that you will never compel a reader to turn the pages of your book—nonfiction or novel—unless you, as the author, love the process of writing more than almost anything else. Given a new lease of life, as far away from “retiring” as you can imagine, I spent the next two years doing as much research as I could about Francis Light, the early days of Penang, and what life was like in Malaya at that time.

But then my passion for this endeavour hit a wall. I’d tried to write a few early chapters making Light my protagonist, but nothing seemed to work. I guess I just didn’t like him all that much or couldn’t get into his head. I was starting to get dispirited, thinking I’d wasted my time, when I chanced upon an essay written by Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1758, “Of the Duty of a Journalist.” Having just read Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim, I came up with the idea that my hero would be a similarly naïve, idealistic young man—a fledgling journalist—named Jim Lord, who maneuvers his way to becoming Francis Light’s assistant and chronicler. The further away I got from the themes of Lord Jim, as I played around with one draft after another, the more I felt inclined to change my protagonist’s name. He ends up in my novel as Jim Lloyd.

The value of lifelong learning

I’m tired of people perpetuating the myth that people over 50 are unwilling or unable to learn anything new. What rubbish! My early drafts were okay, but it soon became apparent that my thirty plus years’ experience as a nonfiction author had not prepared me adequately to write a novel. Already knowing that writing any book is like bringing up a child—it takes a village—I enrolled in online courses with titles ranging from Emotional Beats and Deep POV to Your First 15 Pages. I devoured Save the Cat; answered questions in What Would Your Character Do?; and listened to an audio seminar The Hero’s 2 Journeys, featuring those wonderful story consultants, Michael Hauge and Christopher Vogler. I also engaged three successive writing consultants, one of whom—having seen the outline of my “final” draft, nudged me to tear the whole thing apart. Which I did. For me, writing is never about the destination but how much I can learn from, and enjoy, the journey. 

With a manuscript as close to perfect as I could get it, I set my sights on being published by Penguin Random House SEA, the recently formed Singapore-based office of one of the world’s biggest publishing houses. Six months later (these folks are never that quick to respond to queries), I was offered a contract and the rest, as they say, is history.

Bookshop / Amazon

But there is one important message I want to close with, and look forward to hearing your thoughts on, if you’d be kind enough to leave a comment: How can we shake off the ageism that our cultures seem hell bent on perpetuating, even if this is unconscious a lot of the time?

For example, one of the ways retirement evaded me when I came to Malaysia was when I was invited to get involved with the FameLab contest to find Malaysia’s Best Science Communicator. Recently the organizers asked me to moderate a webinar conversation with two individuals skilled at boiling down complex topics into easy-to-understand concepts. The virtual attendees had sent in questions in advance and one in particular grabbed my attention: How do you communicate science to the older generation? I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that I chose not to pursue that topic. What has age, per se, got to do with it?

Then, in preparation for this post, I went online to find out who, among well-known authors, had written their first or most successful books later in life. Imagine my surprise when most of the “oldies” appearing in these lists were barely over the age of 40!

Which is where you come in. Each of us has a responsibility, in my opinion, to use our talents for as long as we are physically and mentally capable of doing so. So please don’t think you’re too old to start writing, or to change from one genre to another as you celebrate your fortieth, fiftieth, or even sixtieth birthdays and beyond. Let’s show the world that creative individuals never retire, never lose their innate talents, and we certainly never give up.