Category: Platform

Stage Four of Publishing a Book: Preorders, Promotion, and The Year After Publication

by Maria
preorders to launch a bestselling book
preorders to launch a bestselling book

This month I’m running a series on how the publishing process works and how to successfully navigate each stage of the journey, with zero bewilderment and maximum fun.

How to publish a book

You can catch up here if you want to learn more:

This last and final stage of the process is the longest (after building a platform, that is), and it typically starts about 6 months before publication of your book. This is when the marketing and publicity teams at publishers typically kick into gear and begin planning the promotional campaigns for the next season. This is also when you should begin acting on the promotional plan you brainstormed over the last 6 months. (You did take that time after manuscript delivery to brainstorm your promo plan, right? Right.)

There are a lot of moving pieces to any good promotional campaign, and since you’ll be working both with your own team and your publisher’s team, you’ll want to get organized. Organization = optimal results. So go ahead: calendars out, everyone!  Now assign every single appearance, interview, or to-do to a date on the calendar. This will help you not only see the big picture, but it will also help you divvy up your work over the weeks and weeks, so you don’t get completely overwhelmed. (After all, you’ll want to keep up your usual platform-building activities during this time, too.)

Next, hone in on the preorder phase, which is typically 1-3 months prior to publication. Preorders have become a huge deal in the publishing world in recent years, and it’s the best place to create snowballing momentum for your book. Here’s how it works:

An existing fan preorders your book because they know it will be awesome (because you’ve been giving them previews over the past year, of course)
—->
Your Amazon ranking spikes, then other retailers see that your book is popular and order more copies
—->
Your publisher sees that your book is popular with retailers and diverts more resources to your book, the title that’s taking off
—>
You use that help to reach an even broader segment of potential readers
—>
More people hear about your book, are enthralled (because your concept is so great, right?) then buy the book
—>
Your Amazon ranking stays strong and retailers reorder to stay stocked on your book
—>
And so on until you’ve conquered the world and can buy a new cat to replace that old one who didn’t appreciate you before you were a bestselling author.

 

The 4 Questions You Should Be Able to Answer at This Stage:

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Read, Eat, Drink: Long Lost Books by Beloved Authors and “Recipes” for Toast

by Maria

How to get published

Read:

How I Found the Harper Lee Manuscript (Op-Ed by Tonja Carter, Lee’s attorney, in The Wall Street Journal): The story behind the rediscovery of Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman just gets curiouser and curiouser. A rifling through of valuable papers with no supervision? An envelope that hasn’t been opened in 50 years? A possible third or even fourth manuscript? Sometimes I’ve believed as many as twelve impossible things before breakfast, but this ain’t one of those times.

The Great Gift of Reading Aloud (Meghan Cox Gurdon for The Wall Street Journal): “To curl up with children and a good book has long been one of the great civilizing practices of domestic life, an almost magical entry point to the larger world of literature.” And even if you don’t have your own little ones, organizations exist all over the country that allow you to curl up with some kids and read a good book to them. (Jarrett and I read to kiddos in our neighborhood through the wonderful The Reading Connection, but Reach Out and Read runs literary programs across the country.)

Dr. Seuss Book: Yes, They Found It in a Box (Alexandra Alter for The New York Times): Why is this the year of discovering long lost books by beloved authors? (Not that I’m complaining.) As Alter describes: “But alongside the orphaned sketches was a more complete project labeled “The Pet Shop,” 16 black-and-white illustrations, with text that he had typed on paper and taped to the drawings. The pages were stained and yellowed, but the story was all there, in Dr. Seuss’ unmistakable rollicking rhymes. ‘We didn’t know that we had such a treasure,’ said the assistant…”  Oh, the places we’ll find books.

New dr seuss book
Photo: The New York Times

Eat & Drink:

Garden-and-Gun-Southern-Food-Issue

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Stage Three of Publishing a Book: Hooray–You Have a Book Deal! And How to Write a Book the Sane Way

by Maria
behind the scenes at publishers
behind the scenes at publishers

This month I’m running a series on how the publishing process works and how to successfully navigate each stage of the journey, with zero bewilderment and maximum fun.

You can catch up here if you want to learn more:

How to publish a book

If you’ve been following along, you’ve already learned what The One Thing you should focus on is, and you’ve also figured out how to find a Literary Agent who can help you write a knock-your-socks-off book proposal.

Now your proposal is with editors, and the waiting game begins. But the truth is, if you have a spectacular author platform and a unique yet commercial book concept, this part of the process will be more fun than terrifying. Really—I promise! Any agent will tell you that the very best part of agenting is having a project that everyone wants. We live for these moments of having editors gush to us about how much they love an author (we’re like proud parents!). And if an editor is also able to convince the rest of his/her team that this is a must-have project, then one day you will receive The Call.

On that lucky, hard-won day,  your agent will say the words we most love to say: “You have an offer on your book.” Cue the happy dancing, fist pumping, and champagne showers. Even your cat will be slightly impressed.

Once you’ve decided to accept the offer and signed the contract (your agent should spearhead the negotiations, and this process is too complex to get into here), you’ll officially be through the doors! That’s when the next adventure begins: actually writing and producing your book.

The 4 Questions You Should Be Able to Answer at This Stage:

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Stage Two of Publishing a Book: Finding a Literary Agent and Writing a Knock-Your-Socks-Off Proposal

by Maria

How to publish a book

This month I’m running a series [update: Intro; Part 1; Part 3; Part 4] On how the publishing process works and how to successfully navigate each stage of the journey, with zero bewilderment and maximum fun.  And while the platform-building stage can often be lonely work done over many years, this next stage is where things really get fun, especially if you’re working with a Literary Agent who’s excited about your work.

If you’ve done the work of building a large and engaged platform, finding an agent and convincing them to offer you representation will be a piece of cake. As I talked about last week, every agent is focused on solely One Thing: signing the authors who will launch bestsellers. So if you can show an agent that you have the readership in place to launch a bestseller, you’ll likely have your pick of agents.

If you’re searching for an agent, try researching different agencies on websites like Writer’s Digest and Publisher’s Marketplace. Look for agents and agencies who have a track record of selling to well-respected publishing houses and who have other authors on their client list whom you admire. If you can get a referral from someone else who’s worked with an agent, even better—most of our clients come from referrals from existing authors, and I personally always pull those queries to the top of my pile.

One thing that’s too often overlooked by authors who are eager to land representation is whether an agent is a personality match for them. Remember, this is a relationship that will last at least two years if you land a book deal, and hopefully much longer if you publish other books. So you want to work with an agent you actually like! It sounds obvious, but ask yourself if you admire your agent, if they treat you and others respectfully, and if you trust them to put your goals above their own. Your agent should be in service to you, not anyone else.

Once you’ve found that agent who gets you and your work, you’ll be able to get started on your book proposal. You may already have a concept in mind, or you and your agent may brainstorm a concept together, but the proposal is really where the magic happens. A great book proposal is part-resume, part-business-plan, part-preview-of-the-book. But a knock-your-socks-off proposal is all of those things, PLUS it captures an editor’s imagination and makes their pulse quicken. This may be weird, but think of editors as cats. They’re hard to impress, but if you figure out what’s catnip to them, they’ll be all over it.

When I was an editor I had to sift through dozens of proposals a month from literary agents, and the ones that I pursued were always the ones that left me with a feeling of delight, possibility, and infectious enthusiasm. With how competitive the book market is these days, you need an editor to be all-in when he or she takes your proposal to the acquisitions team or Publisher, because this excitement and passion for a book will spread throughout an imprint, and ultimately, throughout the publishing process. So make sure your book is pure catnip to editors—make sure it’s that one title that makes people light up when they talk about it.

The 4 Questions You Should Be Able to Answer at This Stage:

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