The publisher's sales team heard me about not wanting my book classed as a mystery.
To that end they and my editor have come up with an alternative set of books for them to use as sales comparables. Again a sales comparable is something vaguely close to the book but is not a bestseller. Given I find this exercise really difficult I am deeply grateful for any input about it. They give me a list of four and say choose three. I don't remember how I made the choice, but it was not a difficult one. After some debate with my editor, we decide that having one mystery on the list is ok.
Then they come up with: "The sales team wants us to emphasize the sci-fi aspect of the book in the description. I’ve reviewed it and made adjustments that I think emphasize the sci-fi aspect and also heighten the stakes so people will be able to tell it’s a thriller rather than a mystery. "
I am excited to see that they actually care about the differences and want to push them.
One thing that I'm not that good about is to make something intriguing you have to give some information away. What the sales team has come with does give away more information, and I ask my editor's opinion if it's too much of a giveaway. She then goes and spends time talking with her boss, and after some debate, they decide that it doesn't give too much away. Ok, works for me.
Monday, March 11, 2019
The Proofread
A proofreader is not supposed to be an editor. Their job is to make the text work at a very fine level of detail. Every comma, semi-colon, dash. Every paragraph has to be indented or not indented just right. It's a job for a very detailed person.
They will make edits if it makes sense to do so to help the sense of a sentence, but it is not their main job. If a proofreader is doing too much copy-editing, they will stop and tell the publisher it needs a copy-edit first.
To send if off the publisher we first had to save it as a Microsoft Word document and then go over everything to make sure the conversion worked as expected. It did for the most part, or so we thought. One thing the Google Docs to Microsoft Word conversion did not handle well is to change the quote marks to be smart quotes instead of a regular straight up and down quote.
A regular quote mark looks like: "
A curly opening quote mark looks like: “
A curly closing quote mark looks like: ”
Our proofreader very kindly fixed many of them for us. I use Google Docs for computer code also which require straight quotes, so it is turned off in my version.
The proofreader was also kind enough to note a couple of sections that read awkwardly. These were sections that I was aware off and wasn't sure how well they'd work, so I let a dev editor of the publisher's choosing have a go at it. It wasn't the best choice, but she was able to give me enough feedback where I could rework those sections. It was something of a necessary pain. We actually did a repeat proofread and it's a better book because of the process. It did slip the published date by three months, but it was well worth it.
There were some things that I had to defend more than once. I like chapter titles. Apparently they are out of favor these days. Whatever. I like them and they help me a lot. So after about two go rounds about "Yes, I want to keep them." they stayed.
They will make edits if it makes sense to do so to help the sense of a sentence, but it is not their main job. If a proofreader is doing too much copy-editing, they will stop and tell the publisher it needs a copy-edit first.
To send if off the publisher we first had to save it as a Microsoft Word document and then go over everything to make sure the conversion worked as expected. It did for the most part, or so we thought. One thing the Google Docs to Microsoft Word conversion did not handle well is to change the quote marks to be smart quotes instead of a regular straight up and down quote.
A regular quote mark looks like: "
A curly opening quote mark looks like: “
A curly closing quote mark looks like: ”
Our proofreader very kindly fixed many of them for us. I use Google Docs for computer code also which require straight quotes, so it is turned off in my version.
The proofreader was also kind enough to note a couple of sections that read awkwardly. These were sections that I was aware off and wasn't sure how well they'd work, so I let a dev editor of the publisher's choosing have a go at it. It wasn't the best choice, but she was able to give me enough feedback where I could rework those sections. It was something of a necessary pain. We actually did a repeat proofread and it's a better book because of the process. It did slip the published date by three months, but it was well worth it.
There were some things that I had to defend more than once. I like chapter titles. Apparently they are out of favor these days. Whatever. I like them and they help me a lot. So after about two go rounds about "Yes, I want to keep them." they stayed.
Ironing out Details
My publisher is trying to workout the finer details of pitching the book and preparing it for being listed on Amazon.
We worked out the final details of the official description. This goes to the sales people, and to Amazon. I eventually chose to use it for the backcover as well but that was later.
I sent them a photo of myself. I'm a photographer, so I was able to take some that I actually liked.
They wanted to know what chapters they could use as "Sample Chapters." Usually that is the first or an early chapter. I chose the first chapter.
Somewhere along the line I remembered that I hadn't submitted my acknowledgements when I submitted the manuscript. Duh. We were so focused on getting the copy-editing done that I just completely neglected to do that. Their preference is for it to have been submitted along with the manuscript so it could be proofread, but they told me the other times I could submit it.
We worked out the final details of the official description. This goes to the sales people, and to Amazon. I eventually chose to use it for the backcover as well but that was later.
I sent them a photo of myself. I'm a photographer, so I was able to take some that I actually liked.
They wanted to know what chapters they could use as "Sample Chapters." Usually that is the first or an early chapter. I chose the first chapter.
Somewhere along the line I remembered that I hadn't submitted my acknowledgements when I submitted the manuscript. Duh. We were so focused on getting the copy-editing done that I just completely neglected to do that. Their preference is for it to have been submitted along with the manuscript so it could be proofread, but they told me the other times I could submit it.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
The Tip Sheet
My publisher had me create a "Tip sheet."
A tip sheet is what the publisher's sales people use to market your book.
This is before you have submitted your full manuscript to the publisher, so what they've seen so far are just bits and pieces of the work.
This can lead to all sorts of mis-interpretations and back and forth.
The trouble I have is that my characters are police-related search and rescue people. They may investigate things, but they are not "sleuths." I have already lost count of the number of times I've said: "It's not a mystery." Those that design the documents that are intended to assist sales staff are big into categories. For example: Oh, it's a female sleuth. I say: No, not really, no one is dead. So it's a cute dog story? Well, not directly. It's not intended to be cute.
It will made me a little crazy.
First thing you have to come up with is a description and from there you create a sales "hook."
The description is 200 words max that is what goes on Amazon and will resemble what eventually appears on the back cover.
It answers questions like
The hook is the description condensed down to two action packed sentences.
The one for Pursuits Unknown is or was (I don't have access to it any further):
Now you get to think about who your audience it.
Mine is varied, but is basically:
You have to write a short 4-5 sentence bio for yourself.
Any social media presence you're willing to share. I'm still struggling with what to do on this.
Your author website if you have one. What is hilarious is that I know how to do web design, but I'm going to pay to have a basic one done, because I'm starting a new job and won't have time.
Then the harder part. You have to come up with a list of sales comparative titles, but they can't be best sellers. This drove me crazy. With the help of a friend we finally came up with three. The big problem is later on, your publicist will want comparative titles but they can be best sellers.
Then a list of keywords that will help someone searching for your book.
dog, telepathy, dog behavior, dog learning, police procedural, etc, etc.
Plus "Blurbs" which are short statement of people who have read your book. Most of the time you won't have any at this point.
And lastly, you should choose a list of three BISACs.
Which means: Book Industry Standards and Communications
Which is a number associated with the subject category of your book.
I choose these but they got changed later:
FIC028010 FICTION / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
FIC031010 FICTION / Thrillers / Crime
FIC009100 FICTION / Fantasy / Action & Adventure
FIC067000 FICTION / Animals
A tip sheet is what the publisher's sales people use to market your book.
This is before you have submitted your full manuscript to the publisher, so what they've seen so far are just bits and pieces of the work.
This can lead to all sorts of mis-interpretations and back and forth.
The trouble I have is that my characters are police-related search and rescue people. They may investigate things, but they are not "sleuths." I have already lost count of the number of times I've said: "It's not a mystery." Those that design the documents that are intended to assist sales staff are big into categories. For example: Oh, it's a female sleuth. I say: No, not really, no one is dead. So it's a cute dog story? Well, not directly. It's not intended to be cute.
It will made me a little crazy.
First thing you have to come up with is a description and from there you create a sales "hook."
The description is 200 words max that is what goes on Amazon and will resemble what eventually appears on the back cover.
It answers questions like
- Who is your character?
- What makes them unique?
- What happens to them? What is their mission/quest in this book?
- What is at stake? What could go wrong if the quest is not successful (being vague and scary is ok here).
The hook is the description condensed down to two action packed sentences.
The one for Pursuits Unknown is or was (I don't have access to it any further):
Amy, a search-and-rescue agent, and her telepathic kelpie-shepherd mix dog Lars locate a missing scientist who is reported to have an Alzheimer’s-like disease, only to discover that someone wants to steal his research for potentially ominous purposes.Then you get to come up with selling points for your book. Mine are:
• Forty-four percent of Americans own a dog
• 43 million households own a dog
• Dog Ownership Up 29% in Past Decade
• More Millennials own pets than Baby Boomers, yet as Baby Boomers age the likelihood of their getting a pet increases, and they are spending more on their pets.
• BarkBox’s Facebook “Dog Mom Rap” has had over 58 million views
https://www.facebook.com/barkbox/videos/1373890232647024/
• There is a lack of dog-related fiction, especially science fiction
Mine is varied, but is basically:
• Dog-owning adultsI had to intervene about putting mystery readers in the list. There is some cross-over, but I don't know if you can rely on them.
• Science fiction fans
• Tech geeks
You have to write a short 4-5 sentence bio for yourself.
Any social media presence you're willing to share. I'm still struggling with what to do on this.
Your author website if you have one. What is hilarious is that I know how to do web design, but I'm going to pay to have a basic one done, because I'm starting a new job and won't have time.
Then the harder part. You have to come up with a list of sales comparative titles, but they can't be best sellers. This drove me crazy. With the help of a friend we finally came up with three. The big problem is later on, your publicist will want comparative titles but they can be best sellers.
Then a list of keywords that will help someone searching for your book.
dog, telepathy, dog behavior, dog learning, police procedural, etc, etc.
Plus "Blurbs" which are short statement of people who have read your book. Most of the time you won't have any at this point.
And lastly, you should choose a list of three BISACs.
Which means: Book Industry Standards and Communications
Which is a number associated with the subject category of your book.
I choose these but they got changed later:
FIC028010 FICTION / Science Fiction / Action & Adventure
FIC031010 FICTION / Thrillers / Crime
FIC009100 FICTION / Fantasy / Action & Adventure
FIC067000 FICTION / Animals
Friday, January 11, 2019
Copy Editing
I am very fortunate that I have a copy-editor as a friend. I insist that she charge me fairly, but it's very handy that I can have her just look at sections when I need it. Usually when you hire a copy-editor you "hand" then the text and they go through the whole thing. I don't even know how to do that.
I work in Google Docs which is great for collaborative work. Once I finished the first draft I had her start working on it. I a terrible about commas, so she spent a lot of time adding them in and flagging certain sections that we should talk about.
This went on for days and days which is normal and we had many conversations about certain sections. Some of the problem sections I chose to leave because I liked them and honestly didn't know how to deal with them. (I later did deal with them.)
Weeks of back and for and back again. It was a perfect way to work and I can't fathom making it work in one go. If I had to do it that way they a lot of the text would not be as good.
After a lot of tweaking, conversations, and lunches, it was finally ready to go to the proofreader.
I work in Google Docs which is great for collaborative work. Once I finished the first draft I had her start working on it. I a terrible about commas, so she spent a lot of time adding them in and flagging certain sections that we should talk about.
This went on for days and days which is normal and we had many conversations about certain sections. Some of the problem sections I chose to leave because I liked them and honestly didn't know how to deal with them. (I later did deal with them.)
Weeks of back and for and back again. It was a perfect way to work and I can't fathom making it work in one go. If I had to do it that way they a lot of the text would not be as good.
After a lot of tweaking, conversations, and lunches, it was finally ready to go to the proofreader.
The Cover Design
Well it's looking like they were not able to get ellenclary.com unfortunately though I need to double check. It's likely I will use ellenclary.org. ellenclary.com is just sitting there parked on the internet.
A few things I need to blog about on the publishing process. One big back and forth was the cover design. I filled out some information on what I wanted it to look like. One huge requirement of mine is that the cover had to be drawn and not based on stock photography. This is science fiction where you almost never see photographs. It's always drawings. After some internal debate at the publisher they asked me if it would be ok to split the cost of hiring an illustrator as doing so would put us over budget. I readily agreed once I saw the website of the illustrator. He's really good and his name is Ben Perini.
Then I gave them a description of what I had in mind and I even took photos of myself in scenes I have envisioned. I forgot to tell them that the character is a little slimmer than me and taller, so we had to go through that revision but the scene he came up with was good.
A few things I didn't realize. The scene has to be a night time scene. I said: "But they usually work during the day." The coordinator assured me that if it were during the day it would just look like a woman taking her dog on a walk. Oh. Ok, so forget verisimilitude. That works.
Then there were assumptions that wouldn't work for the world I created. She was carrying a flashlight. What? No, if anything it would be a headlamp. Then she was carrying a leash. No that's not right. Telepathic dogs. They usually didn't use leashes except for show. Then the shoes didn't look right, oh and stop tucking in the pants. This isn't the military. I'm still not thrilled with the text, but I decided after some tweaks that I needed to stop and just let them work.
After lots of back and forth suddenly there was a cover that I liked. It was actually very cool to see. It looked like an actual book.
A few things I need to blog about on the publishing process. One big back and forth was the cover design. I filled out some information on what I wanted it to look like. One huge requirement of mine is that the cover had to be drawn and not based on stock photography. This is science fiction where you almost never see photographs. It's always drawings. After some internal debate at the publisher they asked me if it would be ok to split the cost of hiring an illustrator as doing so would put us over budget. I readily agreed once I saw the website of the illustrator. He's really good and his name is Ben Perini.
Then I gave them a description of what I had in mind and I even took photos of myself in scenes I have envisioned. I forgot to tell them that the character is a little slimmer than me and taller, so we had to go through that revision but the scene he came up with was good.
A few things I didn't realize. The scene has to be a night time scene. I said: "But they usually work during the day." The coordinator assured me that if it were during the day it would just look like a woman taking her dog on a walk. Oh. Ok, so forget verisimilitude. That works.
Then there were assumptions that wouldn't work for the world I created. She was carrying a flashlight. What? No, if anything it would be a headlamp. Then she was carrying a leash. No that's not right. Telepathic dogs. They usually didn't use leashes except for show. Then the shoes didn't look right, oh and stop tucking in the pants. This isn't the military. I'm still not thrilled with the text, but I decided after some tweaks that I needed to stop and just let them work.
After lots of back and forth suddenly there was a cover that I liked. It was actually very cool to see. It looked like an actual book.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
The Domain Name
For years I've had my own domain name: frap.org. Frap has languished in the 1990s style-wise and I'm going to redo it in WordPress eventually, but frap is a dog-related website and was never intended as an author site, so it's time to buy the vanity website which I always avoided. ellenclary.com has been available for a long time, so I wasn't terribly worried about it. Until.... Eek! Someone now owns it. I should have bought it years ago (kick self).
So I grabbed ellenclary.org just to "park" it while I decided what to do.
I did some checking and someone in Korea owns ellenclary.com. Did some Irish person move to Korea? I have no idea.
Later one I also parked ellenclarywrites.com since that's the business name.
If I give the domain registrar $69, they will reach out to the owner to try to negotiate a price. I decide to think about it. (There are a lot of domain name registrars so mine isn't any more useful that anyone else's.)
Two to three weeks pass, and I'm talking with my sales person at the domain name registrar asking about the soon to be available .author extension. He told me that generally the new domain extensions are more money though it would be clear that it's an author website. That said, everyone automatically assumes .com.
I think some more. One thing I am new at is thinking in terms of what is a business expense. Because of my family, I do have some funding (not a ton, but some) for my writing business and things having to do with my author website are clearly business expenses. Suddenly, the $69 doesn't seem as large as it once was. I tell the sales guy to go ahead and start the domain broker process to negotiate for ellenclary.com.
All the $69 does is pay the broker to go start a conversation with the owner. The owner could very easily say no, though the domain is not "doing" anything right now. It's not a website. Actually buying the domain name could be expensive, but it's not like ellenclary.com is a hot business catch phrase, so it can't be that much money. It's up to my registrar to negotiate for as low a price as possible though it is fair to think this could easily be a few hundred dollars. I highly doubt it will be in the thousands.
After a few days, the broker asked me to set a start and max bids for ellenclary.com. Of course, I wanted a min bid of $1, but I didn't want to insult them, so I chose a starting bid of $10. The maximum bid I set at $200.
I will update this as things proceed.
So I grabbed ellenclary.org just to "park" it while I decided what to do.
I did some checking and someone in Korea owns ellenclary.com. Did some Irish person move to Korea? I have no idea.
Later one I also parked ellenclarywrites.com since that's the business name.
If I give the domain registrar $69, they will reach out to the owner to try to negotiate a price. I decide to think about it. (There are a lot of domain name registrars so mine isn't any more useful that anyone else's.)
Two to three weeks pass, and I'm talking with my sales person at the domain name registrar asking about the soon to be available .author extension. He told me that generally the new domain extensions are more money though it would be clear that it's an author website. That said, everyone automatically assumes .com.
I think some more. One thing I am new at is thinking in terms of what is a business expense. Because of my family, I do have some funding (not a ton, but some) for my writing business and things having to do with my author website are clearly business expenses. Suddenly, the $69 doesn't seem as large as it once was. I tell the sales guy to go ahead and start the domain broker process to negotiate for ellenclary.com.
All the $69 does is pay the broker to go start a conversation with the owner. The owner could very easily say no, though the domain is not "doing" anything right now. It's not a website. Actually buying the domain name could be expensive, but it's not like ellenclary.com is a hot business catch phrase, so it can't be that much money. It's up to my registrar to negotiate for as low a price as possible though it is fair to think this could easily be a few hundred dollars. I highly doubt it will be in the thousands.
After a few days, the broker asked me to set a start and max bids for ellenclary.com. Of course, I wanted a min bid of $1, but I didn't want to insult them, so I chose a starting bid of $10. The maximum bid I set at $200.
I will update this as things proceed.
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