Memo to Publishers: 8 Things NOT to Say.

Writers’ lives are tough enough these days without their publishers treating them like idiots.  So:  working on the principle that happy authors (or at least not-furious ones) are easier to work with, here’s a really basic checklist of things that publishers should never again do /say to authors.

Because—guess what—WE ARE NOT IDIOTS!

• Have a marketing person talk to the author without first looking at the author’s website, Facebook page and Twitter presence. And say things like “We find having an active Twitter account helps” without knowing the author is already followed by 5000 people.

• Talk about the power of all forms of social networking—the authors’ blogging, Facebook, Twitter—when what you really mean is, you’dbetter be engaging in social networking, because you can’t expect any actual marketing on the publisher’s part.

• Ignore the amount of stress you are putting on the author by turning them into self-promoters. Only a few authors are genuinely fantastic at it. Yes Jennifer Weiner and Neil Gaiman have great web presence. But for every Neil there are 1000 authors for whom the most charming and clever things they have to say are to be found within the pages of their books. Being entertaining in 140 characters is tough. Try it yourself.

• Tell midlist and debut authors that ads and other marketing efforts don’t work when you are doing those things for your bigger lead titles all the time.

• Tell Author A “Oh we really don’t print up more than 25 or 50 ARCs for anyone these days” while you are busy printing up 2500 for Author B.

• Explain how an author page on your publishing website is as just good as buying coop at Amazon or BN.com.

• Brag about things like galley giveaways on Goodreads on the marketing plan—efforts that experienced authors know cost you nothing.

• Tell the author you can’t help in getting blurbs while you are actively getting blurbs for another author on your list. Word gets out.

The reason you can’t keep saying these things is trust. There is almost none anymore. The truth is better than disingenuous half -truths or obfuscations. Especially because in the end they help no one. You wind up with an unhappy author with a stillborn book and a career that went from promising to life support in the time it took to say – we aren’t giving you any coop.

Authors know you don’t have enough money to spend on all the books you’re publishing. We know we can’t all be lead titles. And we want to work with you to help our book sell. But we need to be treated like equals.

But what we can’t do is pick up all the slack from what publishers should be doing. We can’t be writers and markers and spend our money on ads and websites and book tours and publicists and and hold down a full time or part time job and still write a terrific book a year.

But if we do manage to – it would be nice to show us appreciation. Many of us pour 20% of our advances or more back into promotion/marketing. Acknowledge it.

At the recent TOC Margaret Atwood gave a wonderful keynote speech illustrated with hand drawings. “Authors must now Tweet, Blog, and Facebook… if we’re expected to do all this other work, we should the get more of the pie,” she said.

We have to figure out a way to do that and find a better way to work together. Here are some ideas I’ve suggested in the last few years.

If I’m going to put real money in marketing and promoting my own book – then that money should come off the amount I have to earn out. It’s not fair for me to spend three, four, five times the $ the publisher is spending and still have to make it back.

Or at least there should be some sliding scale for a bonus based on that money. Authors are often spending $10,000 and up on all the combined efforts they do. We are helping the publisher make money on us. Should we have to earn that $10,000 and up back?

How about publishers coming up with a program where bestselling authors can help get the word out about mid list and debut authors. Not push the bestsellers to do it – not force them – but come up with some in house mentoring programs with incentives.

In 2010 on her own, Jennifer Weiner came up with an idea to help debut author Sarah Pekkanen.  She offered her own legions of fans -a paperback of her own last novel if they bought Sarah’s.

It gave Sarah a push and a start that no advertising, no publicist, nothing else could have given her.

How about sending authors on tour together. I know tours are almost dead except when they aren’t. And they aren’t a lot of the time. They work for a lot of authors and with Border’s foreclosures Indies can become more relevant – especially if we help them.  If we reinvent tours a little and put fabulous author teams together it will benefit everyone.

E-books offer amazing promo opportunities at almost no cost to publishers. How about cross promotions with ebooks – buy bestseller Author A’s book and get midlist or debut Author B’s books free.

I can hear the naysayers already:

 

We can’t ask the our giant bestselling author to do this!

Yes you can ask. You can talk about the challenges of being an author today and ask. The worst that will happen is he or she will say no. All authors started out as debuts and - except for Lee Child - on the midlist. (Lee by the way did one of those amazing tours himself- unasked for - he took Cornelia Read on his tour with him when she first got published. And launched her career all because he loved her novel. )

 

We can’t figure out how to recompense authors for the money they invest back in their own books – how will we evaluate its relevance.

 

Yes you can. Most authors spend money in the same ways. They hire publicists whose names you know, they do Google or Facebook ads and use services like mine or others that you are aware of. If they claim they took out billboards on the moon for $25,998.56 – you can ask to see the receipt.

In the same keynote Atwood showed a dead moose drawing: “Never eliminate your primary source,” she said and explained that one dead animal feeds a broad ecosystem. Then, she showed a drawing of a dead author. “Although dead authors can be lucrative,” she said, “No authors, no books.”

And that’s a sorry scenario to contemplate.

 

Comments

[Jessica Park]

Great piece! I think most pubs act like they are doing you a favor by publishing your book. They pay a small advance and then stand back with their hands up in the air waiting to see if you sink or swim. Should all of your hard work pay off, they'll likely take the credit for having done good marketing. It's discouraging. A few years ago I got a fifty-page PDF document with detailed instructions on how to make a MySpace page, etc. It was honestly written for idiots.

[Sandra_Gulland]

Excellent post, MJ. I especially like the group tour concept.

Sandra Gulland

*****
Website: http://www.sandragulland.com/
Blog: http://sandragulland.blogspot.com/

[Susie Bright]

You had me laughing at the top of the list, sobbing by the middle... Then Atwood cracks me up at end.

Every year I ask the author of a new book I've fallen in love with, if I can buy a case at their discount, and then I give them away all year. Plus mouth off about it, of course! It's like being my own Nobel Prize committee, very satisfying.

Now if only Lee Childs would call me...

[Vincent O'Neil]

Great article. Marketing 101 says that established barnds don't need the advertising--the new product is what needs it.

[M.J. Rose]

Thanks Vincent but actually - all brands need it. Out of sight out of mind is a whole other problem. That's why you still see major advertising for Coke and McDonald's and BMW.

[M.J. Rose]

I just got this from an author who asked me to post it for her as anon -

M.J., you can probably understand why I don't feel I can comment on your blog, but let me tell you privately that I almost cried when I read it!

What you said about publishers expecting us to be marketers without acknowledging that this may not be our strong suit, struck such a chord with me! I see again and again examples of just-okay books doing amazingly well because the author is a great marketer, and likewise, wonderful books sinking because the author just can't get the hang of it (and why should she have to?).

I am at the beginning of my career, and sometimes look on with trepidation about where it's all headed. Thank you for saying what so many of us are thinking but cannot say...

[NaseemRakha]

Brilliant M.J. And right on target. Your ideas for "getting more of the pie" if we are investing in marketing, promotion, talks, etc...... the publishing world has come to expect that writers will work their tail ends off to sell their books, because we will. We know no one cares about our baby more than we do. But in the end, it is to their benefit to come up with ways to make that promotion more easy and equitable.

[Catherine Stevenson]

Interesting points. It's clear talent is not enough these days. And while some authors might not have marketing skills, I'd be just as concerned they have UNmarketing skills and end up losing sales with their Tweets and posts.

[CWGortner]

Amen. We need publishers to not only recognize how much we do to get word about our books, but also for them to be upfront about what they will not / cannot do for X reasons. Just saying, "Oh, that ad doesn't work" and then seeing them run said ad for another author a week later really hurts. I understand that they cannot do everything for everyone; I'd much rather know that yes, that ad DID work but we're not doing it for you, than be shot down with platitudes. Oh, and I'm sharing this post everywhere I can. With the recent collapse of Borders and the generally dire state of the industry, publishers need to partner with us in new and innovative ways. Or eventually we're all going to be out of a job.

[Nc Weil]

This is exactly why I've decided to self-publish. Smashwords charges nothing to place a properly formatted MS in their catalog, distributed to sellers in all e-reader formats. There is no upfront cost to the author - publisher and author make money as the book sells - the author could make 70-80%. The author sets the price and retains all rights. Decide to drop Smashwords? You can unpublish - you still hold copyright. They help you obtain an ISBN. Their formatting guide is free to download, to prepare a MS.
What's not to like?

[Susan Roebuck]

M.J. This is the first time I've ever seen such an insightful post - congratulations. I've posted a link on my writers forum. My publisher talks to me like an equal and is perfectly honest (I think and hope), however, they only give me tips on marketing. It is so difficult. Twitter and FB have proved, in my case, not to work (but maybe I'm doing something wrong).
What a lovely, unselfish offer from Jennifer Weiner to help a debut author. I can't see why that can't work - why not a buy one, get one free and then the next week turn it round buy the free one and get the other one free. I wonder...
Thank you so much for speaking up for us struggling newly published authors.

[Allison Brennan]

Excellent, and relevant to all authors, not just the new.

[SelenaBlake]

Well said, M.J. Hopefully the publishers are listening. This is a topic I think about regularly. My comment would be as long as your original post so I'm just going to take it over to my blog.

[Madammayo.blogspot.com]

Here, here, M.J.

But one thing I think many writers don't get is that the reason publishers' publicists say such things (wrongheaded as it is) is to protect themselves. Writers have such huge, and oftentimes extremely unrealistic ideas about what can done for their book, do zip, and then when disappointed, take out their wrath on the poor publicist. I think writers can go further with their publicists if they understand that the publicist hears "no" all day long, and while their work hours are limited, their "to do" lists are endless. (I used to edit a literary journal and we talked about marketing as "guilt management.")

Here's where I'm coming from:
I have several different books with several good but small publishers: Milkweed Editions, Whereabouts Press, U of Georgia Press, Unbridled Books, and in Mexico-- a different case-- the juggernaught that is Girjalbo- Random House-Mondadori. Launching and marketing each book has been a very different experience, but I can say, in general, that though I'm nowhere near being a household name, I am grateful for the work my publicists have done, yet I understand too, with all the extra work heaped on writers now (blog tours, facebook, tweeting, etc etc), it's time for a better deal.

Towards this end, I have started my own press to bring out some of my ebooks, including a travel memoir on Baja California and best-selling historical novel in Spanish:

Dancing Chiva Literary Arts, S.C. http://www.dancingchiva.com

So now, M.J., maybe with my ebooks I can make enough to hire you for another Author Buzz campaign!

Blog on!

[Nancy Naigle]

High 5, M.J.! Right on point, as usual.

[BeccaChopra]

Your comments make me feel validated in deciding to self-publish "The Chakra Diaries," since you have to self-promote anyway.