Get Known Before the Book Deal

Good-Bye Cinderella: Self-Publishing isn't the Only or Always the Best Choice for Writers

Cinderella stories have been a mainstay of the publishing biz for a long, long time. The traditional media loves a good Cinderella story and, lately, so do folks who spread the gospel online of self-publishing.

The biggest problem with a good Cinderella story, though, is how much it leaves out. A Cinderella story is always heavy on spin and light on journalistic thinking and facts. So don't take them too seriously.

Cinderella stories, as the the name implies, skim the surface, usually with one particular intention: getting you to buy or buy into something—even if it's just buying in on the idea that the Cinderella story is true. And when writers draw conclusions based on Cinderella stories, the situation becomes potentially dangerous in my opinion.

We writers are already an optimistic bunch, and quite frankly we are prone to wishful thinking. So we need to watch what believe and stick to following the advice of people who are grounded in reality and devoted to our best interests, as we define them.

Help Us, Don't Feed Us Baloney

Off the top of my head, a person who doesn't fudge the success stories of others is Malcolm Gladwell. He gave us all food for thought in Outliers by talking about the real indicators of success like putting in 10,000 hours of work and having impeccable timing. Hard work and the importance of timing are two things I teach the 100+ nonfiction writers I work with each year, so I understand from experience that publishing success is (a) not easy and (b)it takes awhile before a writer gets the hang of it.

It takes awhile to get the hang of it is something we are not hearing about enough in the fairy tales of self-publishing success stories. If you are using Chris Brogan (whom I like and respect) author of the straight-to-best-selling Trust Agents, then please don't forget to mention that Chris blogged for ELEVEN years before his book came out and went straight to the bestseller lists.

I think this is a testimony to being in the game for the long haul that isn't conveyed when people are talking about Chris. (It was Guy LeCharles Gonzalez who brought this to my attention originally and then I got the number straight from Chris.)

Self-Publishing is Issue-free Now, Right?

I've seen a lot of writer's hearts broken by the lofty promises (and profits) of self-publishing. I do everything I can to keep writer's feet on the ground whether they wish to go the traditional or self-published route. I also believe that neither path is better or holier than the other.

Which way to proceed in publishing depends on weighing many complex factors. Which is not to say that the new methods of self-publishing don't offer us some wonderful tools that are better than those we've had in the past. The tools are better today, certainly.

I disagree that self-publishing is always the best way to go for every writer right out of the gate. Especially if that writer wants to become traditionally published. If we give self-publishing the credit for an author's success without taking an in-depth look at the whole picture then I think we are giving incomplete advice. I think writers could use more complete advice than we are often typically offered online.

If you are using Seth Harwood as an example, don't forget to mention that Seth Harwood was mentored by Scott Sigler, a best-selling horror author, a fact that helped him succeed in podcasting more quickly than he might have otherwise. Mentoring was a key factor in his Seth's success. Harwood also spent years in a writing apprenticeship (he has an MFA from Iowa) and is a college-level writing professor. So I suspect that the quality of his writing has something to do with his success, and deserves mention.

More Details, Less Spin, Please

The fact is a lot of writers still wish to become traditionally published. Despite the proliferation of advice that this outdated thinking and that the industry is a dinosaur and deserves to die. My money is on a more balanced future one where self-publishing and traditional publish co-exist and are in fact even more inter-twined than they already are.

Watch what publishers are doing, folks. Think traditional publishers who also offer and profit from self-publishing services. Publishers are not as dumb as everyone seems to think they are. They are diversifying their interests. And diversifying is not a bad strategy for writers, either. In fact, I believe that diversifying is the way everyone needs to be thinking right now because we ALL think we know what's going to be happening in the future but the fact of the matter is: we'll know when we get there.

Traditional Publishing Isn't Dead Yet

Writing for traditional publication is still a valid choice and is still the best first choice for many writers. The decision of which way to go is a lot more complex than many bloggers discuss. So don't let anybody try to sell you on the idea that you should trade in your dream for somebody else's version if your gut tells you that traditional publishing is still the way to go.

Cinderella stories are a technique used by the traditional media all the time in regards to profiling authors and spinning their successes stories in a very ungrounded way that is of virtually no use to writers. Cinderella stories are long on spin and light on helpfulness. They continue to exist and be the preferred spin of the traditional media, because, let's face it, they sell books.

I think in the online writing community, we need to get past the Cinderella mythology and get down to the brass tacks, which is that at the end of the day, publishing anything is still a job that involves a lot of work, good writing, an ability to sell and self-promote, a hefty dose of professionalism, and a willingness to connect with others.

So, sayonara, Cinderella. I hate to see you go but it's time for writers get beyond the debate of Should I go with traditional publishing or self-publish? and just get back to writing.

We're all most likely going to end up doing both...eventually.

The Intention Behind "Get Known Before the Book Deal"

If you are ordering or buying my book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, there's a good chance that you might wonder what other books to get with it.

To set the record straight, I never intended to cram every possible thing on platform into one book. Instead, I intended for GKBTBD to be a helpful primer. The book you'd likely read before or with Michael Larsen's How to Write a Book Proposal (learn more) or Elizabeth Lyon's Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write (learn more).

There's a time and a place when writers tend to think about platform and that's when they are on their way to a writer's conference to meet agents and editors for the first time.

In Get Known, I'm suggesting that you think about platform as far before then as possible.

I am not sure that it would have been wise for me to cram in chapters on social networking, book promotion, and self-publishing into this book. In fact, I take that back: I am SURE cramming it all in would have been a bad idea. Get Known is a primer, not an encyclopedia.

To illustrate my point, a grateful reader recently e-mailed me and said:

"I particularly like the short chapter style [in Get Known]. I think that format makes the book "user and reader friendly" particularly for creating a writer's platform, something most writers find confusing.

You weave a seamless guide that ends with the reader saying, "I can do this!"

That was my intention. To help writers get platform and get that they can build theirs over time.

Also, let's get real. Social media books will likely fare much better as e-publications and Get Known was written for traditional print publication. What I had in mind was that like Larsen's and Lyon's books, the book would become a reliable book in its field. A great starting point with many books in many forms to come before and after.

Get Known covers the basics of platform development. If you read it and start to brainstorm ideas, as many readers say they do, then your platform will be off to a great start. Then, when you approach an agent with a book idea and that agent says, "So tell me about your platform," you won't be standing there with your mouth hanging open wondering what she means.

As I wrote in my last post on the definition of platform, the primary objective of Get Known is to help writers understand platform, so they can get theirs in gear.

So will there be more to do after the steps in Get Known?

Yes, there is always more to do. There's writing the book. There's marketing the book. There are all the breakthroughs in technology that are going to happen during the lifetime of your book (you hope). In these times that includes social media and reviewing other people's books in a variety of formats.

But the stage covered in my book is clearly described on page two. It's the preparation stage before writing a book proposal and pitching a book. Or, perhaps, you can develop your platform and your book concept simultaneously. I've seen people do it.

But whatever you do, don't try to throw the whole deal up overnight because it just doesn't work. And if you project an unholy urgency, that's just going to turn people, agents and editors included, off.

If I know one thing about writers after working closely with them for the past eight years, it's this: we get easily overwhelmed. We don't always need or want an encyclopedic approach. Sometimes a primer is all we need to get the idea and get going in our own way. And I hope you will actually be in the process of your platform and not just trying to use my book to wrangle a buck.

Because if you are a writer just starting to think about platform development for the very first time, you really don't have to think about social networking, book promotion, and self-publishing all at the same time...unless you are ready for all that.

I suspect, if I had tried to throw everything that's hot now into the mix of Get Known a lot of writers would have walked away completely overwhelmed.

What do you think? Should I have taken an encyclopedic approach and tried to cover everybody's everything and kept the whole thing up to date for traditional publication? (Would that even have been possible or would the book have already been outdated by now? I think so.)

Or do you find what's in Get Known to be enough? I'd like to hear what you think.

Happy platform building, writers!

Playing Catch-up: Link Roundup

Sorry to be MIA. I was working with my designer on the banner for this blog and the upcoming website. What do you think? A pretty big contrast from the look over at The Writer Mama Riffs, but that's okay! Speaking of my other blog, have you heard about the Writer Mama Back to School Giveaway? It's a daily writing book/stuff giveaway that starts tomorrow, September 1st. Here's the complete round-up of giveaway items and the "Da Rules."

Here's a few posts on platform that are worth your time:

Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 blog has an interesting post about author's e-book rights.

Amazon is reportedly acquiring Shelfari. Interesting.

Chuck Sambuchino recently interviewed Jeffery McGraw of The August Agency, LLC and he has a few valuable things to say about author platform. Why not read the whole interview since it's a way down?

If you are a fitness pro, you'll be interested in this post on platform development from Amanda Vogel over at Active Voice Fitness Writing and Marketing. (Clever blog name, too.)

Joe Wikert also mentioned, "Penguin Group USA offers a free 64-page document called Internet Advice for Authors: Getting Started, Getting Online, and Getting Noticed. [Ed. Note: This link will download the PDF to your computer.]  This is an excellent resource for any author who doesn't know the first thing about websites, blogs as well as building a solid author platform and online presence.  It's great to see a major publisher sharing this sort of information with the world, not just their own authors."

Thanks, Joe and thanks Penguin!

And finally, my advice for aspiring authors who are considering cracking open their checkbooks and laying down a big chunk of dough for platform growing advice this fall. Save your money! Wait until October when my book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, Use Your Personal Strengths to Grow an Author Platform, will be rolling off the presses.

Can't wait to hear what you think about it. In the meantime, the praise has started rolling in. I'll post a taste next time...

Keeping Platform Development Real: The Blog-to-Book Deal

I see articles, like this one from Typepad all over the Web and traditional media. It's another article that will undoubtedly raise the hopes of bloggers everywhere that they too can land a six-figure book deal simply by choosing a topic and blogging about it.

I don't want to be a party-pooper. I really don't. But I feel the need to point out that while these three bloggers were landing book deals using the blog-to-book method, hundreds, if not thousands, of other writers were getting deals in the traditional manner by pitching themselves to agents and editors.

I was so happy to see popular blogger Penelope Trunk keeping the blog-to-book fantasy grounded for her fellow bloggers. You can see from her suggestions in this article, that while the goal of blog-to-book may sound oh-so much easier than going the traditional route, Trunk has no delusions about it. Platform building and marketing, which is how agents and editors typically view blogging, is actually not a substitute for all of the usual skill sets (like writing well and book proposal writing, which is the selling your writing part) that writers have to learn to clinch a book deal.

One of trickiest parts of what I do as a writing-for-publication instructor is help my students assess the value of their platform accomplishments through the eyes of agents and editors. Because yes, platform development through the Internet is very important for writers of every stripe, who wish achieve traditional publication. But their is a straighter, shorter path and that is to be the one who delivers your pitch to the agents and editors themselves, instead of waiting to be discovered.