Chapter 1: No Platform? Then start thinking like a publisher

Authors tend to think that publishers are simply looking for great writing on an interesting subject. But if we’re to sell our ideas to publishers, we must learn to think like a publisher.

Here’s how the acquisitions editor, who currently has your query letter and proposal sitting in a huge pile next to his desk, may be thinking:

"I love great writing, but my children are hungry. Convince me that your book will sell and make us a profit."

Sure, they love great books. But more than that, they love great books that sell. To publishers, strong platforms mean strong potential sales.

So you’re an acquisitions editor with 10 manuscripts on your desk, all of them about personal finance. Why risk publishing the unknown financial writer when they could take the guy who teaches successful financial seminars from coast to coast? So when you’re sending a proposal, do more than point out your unique angle and convince them that you can write; convince them that you can sell the book.

And by the way…start working on solutions now! Don’t wait until you’re trying to pitch it to publishers. If you’re on the first chapter of your first book, set up a file on your computer or in hard copy and label it “Marketing and Platform.” As you get ideas, put them there and calendar when to implement them. Much of what I say is much easier to do when you’re still researching your book.

So the first, and I think most important point, is to begin thinking like a publisher. Following are some things I’ve done as a result.

Getting Published Without a Platform

Introduction: The Need

(Since I'll be sharing this information at the Georgia Writers Association on Saturday, I decided to blog it in order to get feedback and give the attendees a place to get whatever information they missed. I'll present it point by point in separate blogs, calling them chapters. So here goes the introduction!)

The first three agents I pitched my current book to turned me down flat, saying, “Publishers of financial books usually want only people with strong platforms, like a radio show.”

Recently, on a professional publisher's discussion group, someone asked,

"Which part of a formal book proposal do you feel is the absolute "clincher" to make the sale to a major book publisher?"

A literary agent responded, "For non-fiction, it's the marketing section. This is assuming that the author is a legitimate expert, the subject is newsworthy and unique, and the writing is well-crafted. The compelling description of a national platform from which an author can promote the book is hands down the (dare I say?) obsession of the major trade publishers."

You’ll also see it on publisher’s sites. Example: Rick Frishman, the book-marketing guru who wrote Book Marketing 101 and publishes a popular newsletter, was just hired by Morgan James to be their publisher. In his blog announcing the event, he states: “We focus primarily on publishing non-fiction books and are looking for authors with a ‘platform’ (isn’t everyone!).”

Now I don’t know about you, but the “duh” part of that statement, “isn’t everyone!”, complete with exclamation point, is pretty discouraging. Here’s a New York City book-marketing expert who seems to understand publishing and publicity as well as anyone, saying that he’s looking for authors with platforms. What if we don’t have one? It appears that he’s not looking for us.

Yet, that statement at least explains my experience with one literary agent. After explaining that I was a published author, owned some busy Web sites and had other great ideas for marketing, she shot back, “Oh, that’s nothing like people who speak to thousands of people every week.” I think she sized me up pretty quickly as a small time loser, summarily brushed me off and wouldn’t even chat on the walk to the conference dinner.

If we fail to address the platform issue, it’s easy to get the picture that publishers and agents have put out neon signs in their windows that state: “Unless you regularly speak to thousands of people on the radio or in seminars, have a column in a major newspaper, run a wildly successful business or are a celebrity, please choose another vocation.”

So what ever happened to people who aren’t big public figures but simply aspire to write great books? What if you’ve got a book in you that’s just dying to get out, but you have no platform? Is it possible to beat the system and get published?

Well, I can tell you that I got my first book published by a respected traditional publisher (Tyndale House Publishers, who have published many best-sellers) with a nice advance. Yet, at the time of publication, my wonderful platform involved serving as, get this, “Minister of Youth at Flat Creek Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Georgia.” Is anyone reading this on a lower platform than that? Every part of that title reeks of bad platform. Actually, worse than no platform; I was standing in a hole. “Baptist.” “Flat Creek.” “Minister of youth.” Now that might be a decent platform if I was writing a book for a Baptist denomination about youth ministry. But I wasn’t. I wrote a book on music that delved into the history of music criticism, cross-cultural studies, psychological studies, etc. Why would anyone care what I thought about the subject?

Yet, the book went through several printings in English, is still in print after fifteen years, and was subsequently published in Dutch, German, Romanian, Russian and Spanish. Not bad for the youth minister at Flat Creek Baptist.

For my present book on personal finances, I acquired an agent last summer. Morgan James Publishing (where the publisher is looking for authors with platforms – “like everyone else!”), offered me a contract last month. I’m currently trying to decide whether or not to accept it.

So what’s my platform for writing on personal finance? I’m not a financial counselor. I’ve never formally studied economics or finances. I’m definitely not a celebrity, unless you’ve confused me with The Steve Miller Band. I primarily write materials for my two Web sites and care for my elderly parents and 102-year-old grandmother, seldom venturing past my mailbox. How was I able to acquire both an agent and an offer from a publisher? Perhaps my experiences in publishing can give you some encouragement and practical ideas for getting your own work published.

The good news is that many books are getting published by people with little or no platform. Just sift through the covers of books at your local bookstore.

I’ll give you some ideas in upcoming blogs. I’m dying to hear your ideas as well. If you have other ideas or questions, please respond to the appropriate post.

Georgia Writers Association and Crowdvine

In preparation for the Georgia Writers Association's Spring conference, Spring Fest, we've set up a social networking site with Crowdvine. This extraordinary, free tool, facilitates connections, introductions and networking before the conference ever starts, allowing conversations to continue long afterwards. It doesn't take a techie to set it up or use it. What a boon to writers! I'm already connecting with the editors, publicists and fellow-writers whom I need to know. Another good company offering the same service is Ning. Consider using these powerful tools to connect with fellow-writers.

SoCon08 - Social Networking Conference

As writers, we've just got to take advantage of all the free buzz we can generate through such avenues as blogs, linkedin, facebook, etc. SoCon 08 gathered social networking gurus to share ideas and make connections. What a huge success! I left with several ideas I can implement immediately and many I can implement over the next year. You can see from the photo that people were constantly sponging information and networking. Nobody sat and passively listened.

One organization (black arts festival in Atlanta) has about 3000 people connected to their myspace page, allowing volunteers to get the word out quickly and effectively to friends and friends of friends. A commercial rocket developer from California told how people from every level of his organization (welders, etc.) can help him leverage their contacts and relationships to find skilled help, etc. A quilting enthusiast shared how she took her site from losing to making money.

I (finally!) "get" the way blogs are being used to get out ideas, drive traffic, establish credibility, etc. Here's a helpful web page showing how far and wide your blog travels, minutes after it's published.

Sherry Heyl, one of the conference organizers and CEO of a social networking agency, wrote a recent blog on how she advised her brother to use Web-based social networking tools to help him in his construction business. For me, this article gave a much needed summary of "What are the basic tools and how can I use them?" Here's her blog. The title of this entry is James A Lee Builders - A Case Study.

As a follow-up, I'm reading The New Rules of Marketing & PR, by David Meerman Scott (2007). Highly recommended for beginning and intermediate learners in this field. Lots of great examples of how businesses, not-for-profits, and other organizations are using social media to great advantage.

Suggestion: I heard this at the conference and had it reinforced by the book - get started by participating in the blogs and forums of others. By answering people's questions in your area of expertise, you learn how it works, what's appropriate and inappropriate, etc.

New Character Forum for Legacy

Last year, I attended Socon07, a conference on social networking (forums, blogs, linked-in, etc.). Some call it Web 2.0 - the transformation of the Web from a place to read people's stuff to a place where people meet, chat and share ideas. My Space, Facebook and endless other sites have revolutionized how we use the Web. Utilizing these tools could revolutionize the way provide resources to youth workers and character education leaders. I plan to attend Socon08 in a few weeks.

Speaking of Web 2.0, we're starting a character education forum this month at http://www.characterforum.info . Our purpose is to start making our character initiative more two-way, giving everyone the opportunity to chime in about what's working and what's not. If we get enough response, we can gain a lot of wisdom through posting questions, getting responses from across the globe, and sharing resources. Since we have from 450 to 600 people visiting our character site
( www.character-education.info ) daily, there's a vast amount of wisdom we'd like to draw from. One conversation has already begun. Hopefully, we'll start hearing from others soon.

Capturing Ideas

Capturing Ideas

I don't just research for my present project; I read for a lifetime of writing. So whether I'm reading a biography of Da Vinci, a weighty tome on investing, or a technical journal on ethnomusicology, I index it for ideas, quotes and stories.

First, I underline or put a mark beside the paragraph. Then, in the back of the book, I jot down a reference:

• "quote, p. 76, contentment"
• "joke, 103, saving money"

(Note for those who can't stomach writing in their books: A recent visitor to John Adams' personal library [over 3500 volumes] noted how Adams wrote throughout his volumes, asking questions and adding his own thoughts. See http://www.johnadamslibrary.org . I also seem to recall that Adler's classic, How to Read a Book, advocates writing in your books.)

It may be months or even years before I put these in my illustration databases, both at www.character-education.info and www.youth-ministry.info , where I keep over 3600 illustrations. As I harvest the illustrations from a book, I put a check mark beside each reference so that I know it's in a database.

Additionally, I copy and paste ideas from e-mails and online reading to files in my computer.

I love collecting illustrations as much as anything I do. I've become a useful resource to educators, pastors, missionaries and fellow-writers. While some may begrudge the time spent typing in illustrations or summing up people stories, I see it as a way to get much more out of my reading. We remember so little of what we read. By taking time to harvest the good stuff, I remember multiples more than if I'd merely read it and set it aside. And what I don't remember, I can always find in my databases.

So I begin writing an article or book. As I write, I draw from my databases, computer files, and the back of unharvested books for my illustrative material.

On Finding and Crafting People Stories

Readers will remember my stories long after they've forgotten my witty sentences or ten point outlines. I spoke on the importance and use of people stories at a character conference in St. Louis and wrote an article based on that seminar here.

On Publishers and Publishing: Tyndale House, Operation Mobilization and BookSurge

I love my publishers!

Tyndale House believed in me and my first book, The Contemporary Christian Music Debate, back in 1993. They were professional, responsive, respectful, and landed me lots of radio interviews for publicity. But after a couple of printings, they questioned whether it would keep selling strongly for the long-haul. Every time a traditional publisher prints 5,000 copies, they risk having to store those babies and sell them cheap if they don't sell. I completely understand their concerns.

But I felt it could keep selling. So Operation Mobilization did a reprint and distributed it more globally. Other publishers picked it up in Spanish, German, Romanian, Dutch and Russian.
After OM ran out of copies, Cherie (my wife) urged me to explore self-publishing options. I resisted, assuming that I'd have to charge an exorbitant price per copy, since they weren't printing in large quantities. But four things made me look deeper:

1) Even Amazon ran out of used copies. Somebody was trying to sell a used one for over $500!

2) I realized that churches still struggled to determine their optimum style of music in worship, and that my book offered a sound, researched approach that could help.

3) I read a book that gave me a vision. In Damn! Why Didn't I Write That?, Marc McCutcheon showed me how he makes a living off writing books that stay on the publisher's backlist. They're not flashy bestsellers, just profitable workhorses that keep making their impact and leaving a check in his mailbox at the end of each year. And he profits enough to make a darn good living as a writer. "Intriguing...", I thought.

4) My wife got tired of waiting on me and called BookSurge, a subsidiary of Amazon, telling them to call me and explain their services.

I went with BookSurge and so far couldn't be more pleased. Here's what I got:

• Extremely fast results. From that first phone call to the time it was available for purchase on Amazon was seven weeks. Basically, I sent them the book, they scanned it, printed it, sent me a proof, got my approval and it was done.
• Professional-looking print.
  
• Good pricing. Sells for $15.99 on Amazon. I receive 25% for every copy sold.
  
• Reasonable up-front cost. I paid a total of $378 for them to set everything up.
  
• It's available online. People can order from www.booksurge.com, www.amazon.com, www.abebooks.com and www.alibris.com. It also appears in www.booksinprint.com and www.globalbooksinprint.com.
  
• They help me to learn marketing skills. I'm attending my next webinar tonight. Extremely helpful.
  

So if BookSurge is so great, why do I keep sending new manuscripts to traditional publishers?

• Respect. Many institutions and individuals know that a book with a reputable publisher has endured a huge selection process, making it more likely to be quality.
  
• Distribution to bookstores. Traditional publishers market well to bookstores. You're much more likely to get into bookstores with a traditional publisher.
• Publicity. Tyndale House set me up with nice brochures and got me around 30 radio interviews.
  
• Up-front money. Traditional publishers pay authors an advance to publish the book. They take the risk that your book might not sell and they might lose money.
  

I'll keep you posted on my publishing experiences over time.