As I promised on Wednesday, Colleen Lindsay is here to answer any questions you might have about the publishing industry. All you’ve got to do to participate is leave your question in the comments section of this post.
Although I provided a very brief introduction to Colleen in the prior post, I asked her if she would mind giving us a more detailed statement about her life and work. Here it is:
Colleen Lindsay is a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management, LLC. Colleen’s first job in publishing was in Northern California as a mass merchandise sales assistant for Ballantine Books. For five years she served as Director of Publicity for Del Rey Books where she specialized in the creative publicity and marketing of science fiction, fantasy, pop culture, YA fantasy, graphic novels, manga and third-party licensed media. Some of the authors whose publicity campaigns Colleen had the privilege to manage at Del Rey include Terry Brooks, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Moon, China Mieville, Richard K. Morgan, Minister Faust, Matthew Stover, R.A. Salvatore, and Harvey Pekar. Some of the non-genre titles whose publicity Colleen has managed include the New York Times Bestselling Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light and Will Bowen’s A Complaint Free World. She has also worked as a freelance publicist, copywriter, and online marketer for several major trade publishers and as a book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Colleen also spent twelve years working as floor manager, backlist buyer and events manager at several San Francisco Bay Area independent bookstores. She joined FinePrint as an agent in March of 2008; her first book sale was Alan DeNiro’s Total Oblivion, More or Less. You can learn more about her at her blog (http://theswivet.com) or her Twitter feed (@colleenlindsay).
Read five of my favorite posts from The Swivet, as well as a few items of note from the publishing world at large, after the jump:
The Swivet:
On Word Counts and Novel Lengths
Pimpin’ Your Book: How to Work Effectively With Your Publicist
Pimpin’ Your Book: What is Publicity and Marketing Anyway?
What Not To Do When You Get Rejected
Reader Question: When Should You List Your Publishing Credits in your Query Letter?
More literary news:
The Nervous Breakdown blog has a list of fifty things publishers shouldn’t do
The Rumpus interviews McSweeney’s publisher Oscar Villalon
Publishers Weekly reports that booksellers saw a solid “Black Friday”
The Guardian asks if serial novels be continued
Book Group Buzz wonders if the memoir is the new literary fiction
Matt Staggs is a literary publicist and the proprietor of Deep Eight LLC, a boutique publicity agency utilizing the best publicity practices from the worlds of traditional media and evolving social technologies. He has worked in the fields of public relations and journalism for almost a decade. In addition to his work as a publicist, Matt is a book reviewer and writer whose work appears in both print and web publications.
Is there an interest in sf-romance novels? Is it a growing market?
Colleen—thanks for answering questions. You are a goddess!
When you work with new writers, how often is the work you accepted their first book (first one they've written, vs. first that was publishable)?
Thanks!
Portia
I keep hearing about how important it is for authors to have publishing strategies and a platform going in. Should I include how I plan to market myself and my book, and about my web presence in my queries to agents? Thank you so much for your time!
How is the publishing industry changing to respond to the concept (true or not) that authors can do for themselves many of the things publishers used to do?
How do you think the job of curation (that is, figuring out what's good and what's not) will be handled?
Hi gang!
For the purposes of today's guest blogging, I'm sticking to strictly non-agenting questions. Feel free to shoot me as many questions about book publicity & marketing and the publishing industry in general as you can. I'll answer as many as I can before midnight tonight.
Cheers!
Colleen
How imperative is it that a writer starts a blog before they have a career in writing? I find myself able to write fiction and snarky comments all day, but if I try to sit down and write a blog post, I'm blank. Do I really need to blog to make it out there?
Is the ghost story dead? I have a hard time finding any in the stores, and when I do they're all over the place—horror, suspense, even in the literature section. What genre is it anyway?
Thanks for answering questions, Colleen. I stop by your blog on a semi-regular basis, and I always seem to get something useful from it.
If a book falls between significantly different genres, do you think it's useful to pursue significantly different publicity strategies for different potential audiences? If this is the case, do you think it's advisable (if feasible) to hire two different publicists for each audience, or to hire a publicist for one and try to implement a publicity strategy for the other yourself? I'm thinking here of books that have both genre and literary appeal, like The Time Traveler's Wife, Magic for Beginners, etc.
Thanks for your time.
Marsha –
I do think it's helpful for every writer to have an online presence these days. It's all about building community and creating a space that is de
Okay, hit the submit button by mistake. What I was going to say is:
Marsha –
I do think it’s helpful for every writer to have an online presence these days.
It’s all about building community and creating a space where you can talk not only about your book, but things you feel passionately about. If you keep a blog where you only discuss your writing or your book, I guarantee nobody will read it for very long.
There are plenty of ways to keep a blog regularly without feeling pressured or feeling as though your writing time is being eaten up.
And of course everyone has different personal situations. My client Kelly had two small children and was a stay-at-home mom while starting her writing career. She felt strongly that she didn't have time to keep a blog and Facebook and Twitter, etc. Obviously, she had to pick and choose what online tool to use to fit in best with the small amount of time she had for it.
In her case, I thought a blog was the most important way for her to have an online presence and I talked her into starting a blog that she updated at least once a week. I'd already sold a two-book deal for her, so what she wrote about was the process of going from an unpublished writer to being published, and she interspersed it with stories about her family and how she juggled the two responsibilities. In addition, she made it a point to visit the blogs of other writers whose work she admired, and she became a regular commenter. (This is where the community-building came in.) By the time her book was readying for publication, she had a built-in online support structure, a group of other writers who helped her promote the book.
In some cases, you may have even less time. Try Twitter! Surely even the shyest person can come up with 140 characters of opinion about something. =)
Cheers!
Colleen
Thank you Colleen! I'm on Twitter (I follow you actually, thats how I found out about this), Facebook and several adoption communities (my book has an adopted MC), and I run an adoption community and have my own website (unrelated to writing). I just don't have a blog. I wasn't sure if I really need that, too, or if I'm "out there" enough already. I appreciate your reply and taking the time to give me advice!
JT –
Well, what I might suggest instead is that you and your publisher split your efforts in promotion. Hiring a good publicist who specializes is extremely expensive, and can run you upwards of $10k-$12k for a single campaign. So hiring TWO publicists is going to put you in the poorhouse.
Instead, talk to your publisher about your concerns and where they think they'll be concentrating their efforts. That will give you a good idea of where to be concentrating your own efforts. The biggest drawback to hiring an outside publicist or doing your own outreach is the failure to communicate. Most publishers are pretty damned happy to have you bring in outside help; they just want to be kept in the loop so their efforts – and yours – aren't duplicated.
Cheers!
Colleen
Hey Colleen:
Thanks for all the time you put into reaching out… it's appreciated. I wanted to get your take on serialized fiction delivered on a blog. I have an idea I'm playing with that's very episodic, as Tales of the City was when it first appeared in installments via the SF Chronical.
I know that know that Belle Du Jour ended up getting several books out of content that originally appeared on her blog…
As a marketer, I like this idea, and think it could build a fan base… but I also want the completed novel to have a life… will releasing it this way make it problematic when seeking to publish?
What do you think?
Hi Colleen,
After years of Herculean effort, my book has just been published by a smaller independent press. I'm disappointed to see it's only being carried online by major retail outlets like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Is there anything I can do to get it in stores?
Hi Colleen,
Is it worth pitching 2nd editions? I have a non-fiction pop culture/hobby book ('Roleplaying with Kids') that sold out in hobby channels (online stores & game shops), but is OOP for 2 years now. Are any publishers looking for re-releasing niche stuff to a larger market, or do they only want first releases?
Thanks!
Addendum to the above: In a marketing sense, are 2nd editions basically seen as "they already tapped what they could, no point in redoing", or is being a 2nd edition trying to reach out to a larger market seen as a plus?
Sandy –
I suspect the book went out of print for a reason, and it;s such a niche market that I think self-publishing may be your better option.
Everyone else –
I'm not wearing my agent hat here today, so I'm passing on those questions unless there is a tie-in to marketing or publicity or a larger publishing question. I answer agent questions over on my Twitter when I do #askagent sessions.
Colleen
Dear Frustrated –
Ideally, how your book will be distributed and into what channels is one of the questions you ask a publisher *before* you agree to sign a contract. It's one of the most important questions you can ask a publisher, actually.
Most legit indie presses are distributed by a larger wholesaler of some sort, such as PGW, NBN, or a jobber like Ingram or Baker & Taylor. If yours is not, there isn't a whole lot you can do to force them to get your book into bookstores. Also, without knowing the specifics (who the publisher is, what your book is about, etc) I can't really make any suppositions. It's possible that your publisher does have an independent sales group who tried to sell it into the major brick & mortar stores and failed. Chain book buyers can't – and don't – buy every book that is presented to them.
You can try approaching your local booksellers – chains and indies – and asking them to stock the book. Depending upon the kind of publisher you are with, they can either order it directly from the publisher, or they may ask you do sell it on consignment with them. (This is something that happens pretty regularly with local authors, by the way. Nothing at all wrong with it!)
You can also ask your friends to go into brick & mortar stores to order the book, but I will warn you – as a former bookseller myself, there was nothing I hated more than people special ordering hard-to-get books and then not picking them up. Suggest that your friends prepay for their orders, and the store is going to be much more likely to order it in.
Good luck!
Colleen
Hi Gabriel!
Well, I've always been a huge proponent of the idea that to sell more of something, you must first give it away.
But I am also torn about this, because as an agent, I would have to advise you that some publishers will see that as a problem, and ask you to take it down once you've signed a contract with them. Some publishers are going to be more savvy about this than others, and you may get one to agree to let you give away a limited-time Creative Commons edition online, a la Cory Doctorow. But that is something you'll need to discuss with your publisher before signing a contract
So I would say that a good compromise would be to post your excerpts, but remove the others as you post new ones, so that the entire document isn't available all at one time.
How's that? =)
Colleen
When you make the book sale, how long is the average contract negotiation? And how do you transition your author from communicating with you to communicating directly with an editor? Are you always involved in the process of any revisions that may take place, or, do you leave that for the editor and author to sort out directly?
Thanks for taking our questions, Colleen.
How much thought are the major publishers giving to marketing nowadays when they sign a new author? Is it something that normally gets discussed and planned before signing the contract? If so, do publishers tend to drive the details of it or do authors? I understand that marketing dollars for a new author may often be non-existent, but that doesn't preclude making a plan for it.
Any handy tips for debut authors on generating word of mouth prior to publication? As I'm going to be in this position, and knowing how significant this aspect can be, I always on the look out for expert advice.
Hello and thank you for your time! My question is as follows.
As the internet and multi/social media advances in the international landscape, the unique opportunity for novels to be read or written in real time in front of fans is a real possibility. Is this and other emergent technolgoies being seriously considered by the publishing industry?
Colleen: Firstly, though I'm late to the party on this your Swivet entries about publicity and marketing were very helpful reading. Thank you. My question is, I've seen authors advised to do the rounds of their local bookstores and "make friends" with the staff/management as this makes it easier to arrange author events, signings, etc. Is this actually true, and do local events/signings actually make any difference (or, like book tours, are they not really effective anyway if you're an unknown debut author)? Does it make any difference if, as in my case, the book is set locally and the area's culture/geography is a prominent feature?
Edward –
The discussion about whether a publishing house can or can't market a book is probably the most important discussion that happens when an editor presents a new book that s/he is considering for acquisition. This is why having a strong online presence is helpful. Once an editor decides s/he wants to buy your book, s/he needs to jump through enormous hoops to make that happen. This means additional reads in-house, and convincing the marketing and publicity departments that your book is a risk worth taking. Any tools you or your agent can provide the editor to make her job easier can only help.
And yes, I have had editors who loved a book turn it down after taking it to ed board because the marketing department was unsure how to market/promote the book. It happens all the time.
Colleen
Hi Colleen!
Can you give us the "basics" of a publicity campaign for a 1st time writer? Is there a formula that publishing houses tend to follow, and what kinds of holes might a new author be expected to fill, if any?
Thanks!
-ekim
Hi Colleen!
I've been trying to get a job in the book publishing industry (specifically in marketing/publicity), but no luck. I know that times are tough right now and competition is fierce, so I'm trying to beef up my resume. I've already interned at several major publishing houses and I know interning again would be useful, but it's just not financially feasible for me to take on an unpaid internship right now.
So my question is…is there anything I can do right now, as a hopeful publicist/marketing manager? How can I put to use my current publicity/marketing skills to use in a way that will improve my chances of snagging a job? Should I freelance? Blog?
Thanks! :)
As far as a website goes, do you have any recommendations on who to hire to create one for a reasonable price? What sort of content should be included? Are there any tag-words you think are likely to draw readers to the site?
I have heard that as an illustrator, I have a better chance at being published if I both author and illustrate a work, than if I try to pitch my illustrations or go with another (unknown) author. I am specifically thinking of the children's market, but there is a distinct potential for a tween audience as well. What is a better strategy to ensure that I will at least be considered by a publisher?
Woefully –
Well, I think one clue may be in your post – you used the word publicist/marketing manager.
What you need to be looking for are *assistant* positions.
Publishing works on a long and slow road to promotion. As someone with an internship background you are well qualified for an assistant positions, but nothing really above that. In publicity, for example, you would (with few exceptions, which I will explain below): assistant, associate publicist, publicist, senior publicist, publicity manager. It could take as long as 5-7 years to get to publicity manager. Same goes for the marketing and editorial positions.
Now the exceptions are small/indie presses, where you can may generally skip several of those steps, because you're doing much more work and a greater variety of work, so you build more experience in a smaller amount of time.
Good luck!
Carol –
The easiest thing to do – and the least expensive – is to use a free or low-cost blogging platform and just create your own site. Blogger.com and WordPress.com are free. LiveJournal is very low-cost. If you're feeling more adventurous, Squarespace and Typepad offer better templates and more layout creativity, and are really easy to learn to use.
Have at it! (If I can do it, you can do it!)
Colleen
Nobilis –
I'm not sure what you're asking.
Are you asking if there will still be a need for agents and editors? The answer to that is a resounding yes.
Are you asking if there is even a need for publishers anymore? The answer to that is still a resounding yes.
Authors absolutely can do a lot of the things that publishers can do. They can print books, do their own marketing and publicity, do online outreach and even get them up on Amazon.com for sale. But what most authors can't do is actually distribute their books in any meaningful way: jobbers, wholesalers, chain bookstores, indie bookstores, mass merch channels (airports, Costco, Sams, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc..) Even the smallest publisher has a better chance of doing wide distribution of an author's book than that author does himself. As I mentioned to the other commenter, most small publishers work with distributors of some sort. This is something that most authors simply don't have the ability or the resources to do.
Best.
Colleen
Kimberly –
I would advise you to read the two posts that Matt linked to at the top of the page:
–> Pimpin’ Your Book: How to Work Effectively With Your Publicist
–> Pimpin’ Your Book: What is Publicity and Marketing Anyway?
The answers are pretty much all in there.
Cheers!
Colleen
as a querying but as of yet unpublished author, at what point do i need to start thinking about hiring a publicist or setting up a more professional blog/twitter account?
What do you think the chances of an Anne of Green Gables sort of book doing well in this day and age?
Colleen – I hear that some authors are picked by publishers to be bestsellers and then they promote them, kinda like the Oscars. How do they pick those books and what marketing goes into pushing a book to be a bestseller? is it really based on the numer of books they sell.
shelli
Hi Colleen,
Oops, I might not have worded my question very clearly — I am *definitely* looking at assistant positions. I meant that I *aspire* to eventually be a publicist/marketing manager, of course. Sorry for the confusion!
I guess I should reword my question — how should I use what I've learned in my internships to make me (hopefully) a more viable job candidate? Would it be out of line to try to find freelance publicity/marketing positions that will allow me to develop my skills so I can eventually get a FT job? Should I start a blog? What should I blog about? Hope this makes sense.
Thanks!
I've been interested in working for a gaming company for a long time. If a person is published, does that preclude them from working with one in the creative/writing side?
Hi Joan!
Sorry, I missed your question earlier.
Yes, your local bookstores can be your best ally in starting a word-of-mouth campaign in your local community. I don't mean just indie booksellers, either. Indie bookstores are great, but a bookstore is only as good as the booksellers it employs and I know just as many committed and knowledgeable chain booksellers as independent booksellers. Make sure you make time for both!
One of the great joys I had when I worked at Random House in the event management department was getting to meet and know so many wonderful booksellers across the country, booksellers who try hard to make a difference in their community and who fight for the books they love.
Duane Wilkins at University Books in Seattle is one of the best curators and advocates of genre fiction that you will ever meet, as is Rob Crowther at Borders Bookstore in San Diego. Elaine and Bill Petrocelli at Book Passage in Corte Madera, Brian DeLambre at Joseph-Beth/Davis-Kidd, Toby Cox here in New York's Three Lives Books… I could go on all day about the great booksellers I know and how much credit they deserve for shaping the reading tastes in their own communities.
The point is that making friends with – and becoming a regular customer of – your local bookstore is a smart career move. And when you go into a bookstore, buy something if you can. It makes a difference if the bookseller doesn't just think you're paying him lip service. If/when that bookseller goes out of his/her way to set up a reading for you, you need to do your part to make sure that you get as many of your own friends and community to attend as possible. And this includes asking them to buy the book at the bookstore hosting the event! So many authors forget to do this; it's a small courtesy but makes a huge impact on whether an event is successful or not.
Cheers!
Colleen
Julie –
Not at all! Your day job and your writing career have nothing to do with one another. There are lots of writers for actually do write for RPG companies, either full-time or in a freelance capacity.
Cheers!
Colleen
Hi again, Woefully –
Okay, that makes more sense.
The only problem I see with doing publicity freelance is that you don't really have the expertise to be able to charge people for. You need contacts of your own, for one thing.
You may want to consider looking at PR positions outside of publishing to start, like boutique PR agencies that are looking for assistants or places like PTA or Newman Communications, which are companies that set up radio and satellite tours for publishers. You may also want to consider looking at textbook companies or academic publishers, or look outside NYC at smaller presses.
Your biggest problem right now is that publishing is contracting, not expanding, and the jobs just aren't there right now. Keep trying, though. The one thing you can always be sure a publisher will hire for is someone at an assistant level.
I don't think that blogging is going to help you find a job. It may distract you from the frustration of trying to find one, however. Good luck!
Colleen
Why don't most books have ads for more books of interest in them?
Hi Blue –
What you're talking about are back ads, and many mass market paperbacks actually do have back ads in them. MM books are less costly to produce, and the paper is cheaper so adding an extra few pages isn't as difficult.
Hardcovers rarely have back ads. They cost too much to produce and altering the page count can affect the price point of the book to the consumer. Also, books are generally printed in what's called a "signature". A book is made up of multiple signatures bound together. Each signature is made up of a single sheet of paper folded anywhere from 3 to 6 times (depending upon the size of the sheet), sewn or glued together and then cut part at the edges. To put a back ad in the book, they may have to add an entire signature, and that gets expensive because they're paying for blank pages they won't be using. (I'm not an expert on bookbinding by any means so please don't take this as gospel, but I'm pretty sure this is right.)
Hope that makes some sense!
Colleen
I am currently in the middle of revisions with a literary agent–or should I say that I WAS. She stopped emailing me back/responding to phone calls about 3-4 months ago. (we are under contract, these are not just query revisions) I understand that agents are busy and that my agent has recently received a promotion so she is more busy than usual, but I would be happy with just a "busy now" email. Am I being unreasonable to think that not responding within a few days of an email is unprofessional behavior? I'm think she's just not interested anymore, but hasn't had a chance to tell me.
also, if i end up querying other agents should i mention that i have been represented before and that it didn't work out? she has submitted a prev. manuscript for me before, but didn't have much luck. (I will not be querying that manuscript)
Thanks for any help!
I have two, really.
1.) How much editing and revising does a manuscript need before querying agents? I've heard that a lot of editing is done after the agent lands a deal, so I'm really curious how polished most agents want a manuscript. I realize how silly that sounds because you obviously want the most polished it can be, but what is realistic to submit.
2.) Is self-publishing shorts and potentially novels in eBook format on Kindle and BN nook a way to go to get any kind of attention? Or does that seem as close to shooting oneself in the foot as using a vanity publisher like Lulu?
Thanks!
Hi again Colleen!
Thanks for pointing me at the links :)
(And I had high hopes of illustrating my own cover too :D *sigh*)
How common is it for an autor's debut publication to go to Hardcover versus Softcover? Or does that depend on genre, publisher, etc…
Hi there!
I'm curious about literary agent representation across national borders, and if it poses any additional complications or troubles that make it undesirable.
i.e., Being located in New Zealand, would it pose any difficulty to query US agents?
I'm hoping not, but would like to know! The question, it buuurns!
I guess people keep missing the part about me not wanting to answer agenting questions here…=) Oh, well.
HI again Colleen :)
Any tips on choosing a publicist? I know one, but she doesn't cover my preferred genres. I don't want to offend her by asking for refs to *other* publicists…
Er, whoops. My bad. I sort of counted the agenting side of things as part of the wider 'publishing industry'.
My apologies!