Advanced Fiction Writing Blog

Wow, a lot of LONG comments today! I will get to all of them eventually, but not today.

Today, I’d like to talk about branding your blog. This is critical, because people need to know what your blog is “about” or they’ll find a reason to visit one of the other 60 million blogs and skip yours.

This blog has a pretty simple brand. It’s the Advanced Fiction Writing Blog, and it’s about fiction writing. But there are plenty of blogs about fiction writing. What’s different about mine? Several things:

First, it’s well integrated in with my web site, which already had a strong brand as a quirky, high-content site with a sharp focus on “how-to”. The look and feel is almost identical. Gerhi noticed this today and asked the obvious question:

One question for you Randy. Your blog and site match in design. Obviously its not a standard Wordpress theme. Who made up your template for the WordPress side of your site?

Randy sez: I took the default WordPress theme and modified it by going into the PHP code and editing it directly to look as much like my own site as possible. This is easy if you are familiar with the usual suspects: HTML, PHP, and CSS. If you aren’t, you can always pay somebody to do it. It took me about an hour to tweak things the way I wanted them, starting from a cold start with the default WordPress theme. That was because I had already created the template for my web site first. (Gerhi asked if Arteculation Designs did that for me. The answer is no. They created the graphic design and sent me an image file, with color codes for all the colors, and the names of the fonts. Then I turned that into HTML, PHP, and CSS. I like this kind of geek-work.)

Second, near the top of the blog is my “success formula,” (which is on almost every page of my site). This formula is:

Successful Fiction Writing = Organizing + Creating + Marketing

I developed this “success formula” last summer because I realized that those three elements were the main categories that I’ve been teaching in the last year, and they are the main foundation of my own efforts as a writer. Everything I do falls into one of those categories. My e-zine has three major columns per month, each focusing on one of those topics.

Third, I resolutely resist all attempts by people to talk about anything else or get off track on nonfiction or politics or religion or even my own fiction. I get emails from people all the time who want to advertise on my site. I tell them that my policy is not to accept ads. I only recommend products that I have created myself and which I can feel proud of, or products that I use myself, or products that are very similar to ones I use myself.

Fourth, I have a particular style of writing. It’s quirky (even a little crazy at times) and sometimes opinionated. It’s me. I don’t claim it’s the best style. But it’s my style and it’s consistent. If I were ever to hire a ghostwriter to write my blogs (I can’t imagine doing that), it would be obvious to everyone right away, because my goofball style is hard to copy. The important thing is that it’s consistent. You know what you’re going to get. That’s an important part of branding. And it’s authentic. I don’t have to pretend to be anyone else.

Camille asked:

But to be very honest, there are tons of writing blogs that review books and interview authors, and while I’m interested in hearing and learning about them, there is a glut of the same info out there. I don’t want to glut, so I’ll keep marinading until I come up with that special something that will make a must read for someone besides my mother.

I think it is a mistake for a novelist to write a blog about “fiction writing” or “author interviews” if your goal is to promote your novels. You will note that I almost never blog about my fiction. The reason is simple. The purpose of this blog is NOT to promote my fiction. (I will have a different blog for that when the time is right.) The purpose of this blog is to promote myself as a teacher of “how to write fiction.” This makes sense for me because I do a lot of teaching. For several years, I’ve routinely taught at 4, 5, or 6 conferences per year. And for the last three years, I’ve had various teaching products for sale. This blog helps me with that business, because it draws traffic. (The more traffic, the more sales.) And this blog gives me a great chance to interact directly with you, my loyal blog readers. I listen to you, and that tells me what I should be teaching about, what products I should be creating. Finally, this blog gives me a chance to hang out with writers that I may never meet in person, because some of you are a long way off. Writers are fun people.

Andie asked:

What content can an author blog or write about that would really sell potential readers of one’s fiction books?

This problem has consumed my thinking for ~six months.

Not to put Randy on the spot, but I wonder what the conversion rate of readers of Randy’s blog (RORBs) or non-fiction products buy his fiction?

Not that there should be any percentage as Randy’s blog/website are not setup to do this converting but how would one go about getting non-fiction writing to sell one’s fiction books?

Randy sez: I don’t know how many of the readers of this blog buy my fiction. I know that some do, because I sometimes get emails from folks who found this web site and wound up buying my novels. But that was never the purpose of this site, and it would not bother me if the conversion rate were zero.

But the question remains: How can a novelist use a blog to help sell his fiction? The answer is, I believe, that you use a blog the exact same way you use ordinary publicity to sell your fiction. The only difference is that you are in control of your blog, while you are not in control of the usual publicity channels (TV, radio, newspaper feature articles, magazine feature articles). If you’ve ever worked with a publicist, you’ll know that they try very hard to get you on radio interviews. (You can do a radio interview over the phone at home in your pajamas. I did one once where I had been asleep until 90 seconds before the interview–one of those scheduling surprises that you learn to live with.)

And how do you get on radio? You figure out a way to connect your novel to one of the following:
1) Current events
2) Topics of general interest
3) Topics of special interest to certain groups

Then you approach radio station programming directors and pitch them with an idea. A few years ago, I wrote a suspense novel (DOUBLE VISION) in which quantum encryption played a major role. My publicist got me some radio interviews in which the “hook” was identity theft. So I’d go on a radio show, answer some questions on ID theft and what you can do to protect yourself, and then the host would ask about my book.

Publicity is publicity. If your book is “about” something, then you can blog about it, probably indefinitely.

Is your book “about” something? I’ll bet it is. Romance novels are “about” relationships, and dating, and love, the meaning of life, and a zillion other things. Suspense novels are “about” legal issues or politics or big science run amok or military hardware or a zillion other things. Fantasy novels are “about” the endless battle between Good and Evil or the human need to go on a quest or the longing for medieval chivalry or a zillion other things.

Your mission as a publicity-hungry novelist is to FIND A WAY to connect your fiction to the NONFICTION topic that your novel is “about”. Then you can talk about that forever.

A personal note to show you that I “eat my own dog food” on this issue: I am working on a novel now set in ancient Jerusalem during the first century. The series I envision is “about” Jesus in his social/political/economic/religious setting. It is “about” the history of Jewish people in a cataclysmic time. It is “about” archaeology, cultural anthropology, religion, and much more. It is “about” how we in the 21st century can read and understand a set of documents (the New Testament) that was written for people we barely understand, and how that set of documents might be relevant (or irrelevant) to our life today. It’s about a zillion other things. When I launch my blog, it will be “about” all those (nonfiction) topics. Some folks will be interested (they’ll find me via the search engines) and many more people will NOT be interested. All that matters is that my natural audience will find me. Those are the only people that I can effectively market my books to. The purpose of my blog will be to help those people find me long before my next book comes out.

To summarize: Branding is about making a promise of consistent quality. Your blog does that by defining itself sharply and then delivering consistently. You’re a writer! You have something to say! Make that the focus of your blog, and you will draw all the readers that you deserve.

Yesterday, I started a series on blogging for novelists. Judging by the comments, looks like I hit a nerve!

In the coming days, I’ll be giving you one tip per day on blogging. Today’s tip is about hosting your blog. A blog has to live somewhere on the web. You have two choices:
1) Use a free blogging site. (This is dead easy.)
2) Put the blog on your own web site. (This takes work.)

Let’s talk about the pros and cons of those two options.

You can easily set up a blog at blogspot.com or wordpress.com or one of the other free blogging sites. But here’s the problem. If you do that, then everyone who visits your blog will be reading pages on Blogspot’s web site or WordPress’s web site. Which means they won’t be visiting YOUR web site.

“What’s wrong with that?”–you may be asking. That depends on what your goals are.

If you just want a little notoriety or you just want to express yourself, then there’s nothing wrong with that. Use a free blogging service and save yourself the trouble.

But if you want to build traffic to YOUR web site, then it’s far better to host your blog on your own web site. That’s what I’ve done here. Look at the top bar of your browser. It starts out “http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com” which is MY web site. This blog gets about 500 page views per day. That means that this web site gets an extra 500 page views per day that it would not get if my blog were hosted on a free blogging site.

That is an enormous advantage to me. Why? Because higher traffic to my site translates into better rankings for my site on the various search engines. (There are a variety of technical reasons for this.) That translates into more traffic to my site from people who are searching for stuff on writing. And that translates into money. (I won’t tell you how much money, but I will say that it’s worth my time.)

I can give you some hard numbers though on traffic to this site. I launched this blog in mid-April of 2007. In the first 11 days of April, my site was averaging about 687 page views per day. Not bad at all. But not great. In the last 16 days of April, the site averaged 1416 page views per day. So my traffic doubled practically overnight after launching this blog. It has continued to grow and in the first 14 days of 2008, it has averaged 3398 page views per day. Some of that traffic is due to blog readers, but much of it is due to the search engines bringing me more people, because of the increased relevancy of this site, due to all the extra traffic and the increased content here.

Just as a simple example, search for the phrase “fiction writing blog.” This blog currently ranks #4 for that search phrase on Google, #4 on Yahoo, and #1 on MSN. That brings people to my site, where they subscribe to my e-zine and sometimes buy my products. I’ve not spent hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars to make that happen. It happened by itself. All I did was blog on fiction writing and the search engines noticed. There are a number of other search phrases for which they rank me #1, #2, or #3. Part of the reason for those high rankings is this blog.

Your next question may well be, “OK, if I want to blog, I should put it on my web site. How do I do that?”

The answer is that you’ll have to work just a little harder than if you used a free blogging site. But that effort will pay off forever, so it’s well worth it. You’ll need to upload the blogging software to your site and hook it up to a database. This is not particularly hard. Some web sites make this a 5 minute operation. The software I use, which I got on www.WordPress.org, gives you step by step instructions in how to do it. Millions of people have done this, so it’s not a terrible ordeal.

You may be the ultimate non-techie and you may find it too daunting. No problem. Any competent webmaster can set you up with a blog hosted on your site in an hour. That shouldn’t cost you much. If you don’t have a web site, then you can create a new site that is NOTHING BUT your blog. Thiat is an entirely reasonable thing to do. For example, my friend Chip MacGregor has a site that is just a blog. He blogs every few days on the publishing industry, especially as it relates to agents. Chip is a top-notch agent and is well qualified to talk about all that.

That leads us to the next subject, something which a number of you posted comments on today: What will you blog about? That is actually a branding question, so tomorrow we’ll talk about “Branding Your Blog.” I’ll address many of the issues you all raised in today’s comments. See ya then!

I’d like to talk about blogging for the next few days. Blogging is alleged by many to be a great way for a novelist to market himself or herself. It’s also alleged by a shrinking (but still vocal) minority to be a colossal waste of time. It’s just possible that it’s both. I’ll be interested in what you think on the subject.

My friend, Mary DeMuth, who often posts comments on this blog, has launched a new blog, “So You Want To Be Published,” just in the last few days. I had a look just now, and there’s some very good info there for pre-pubbed writers. Mary is giving away three copies of her e-book on how to write a nonfiction proposal to folks who leave comments on her blog. I’ve already got this e-book and it was quite useful to me in writing a fiction proposal — I found some of her formatting ideas to be a step ahead of the format I was using. In general, of course, a fiction proposal has a lot of differences from a nonfiction proposal, so I’m been encouraging Mary since November to write an e-book on fiction proposals too.

I want to wrap up one last question that carried over from last week before we move on to talk about blogging.

Parker asked:

I have a question about a project that’s been (as you put it) composting for several months. In narrative nonfiction, memoir, essay, etc. (Think Gretel Ehrlich’s “The Solace of Open Spaces) how do you deal with stories about people, dead or alive? If, for example, you have a great tale about Joe Schmo that might embarrass or infuriate him (or family members, if he’s dead). Change the name? Seek permission/approval? Write it factual and hope?

Randy sez: First, I am not a lawyer, so nothing I write below should be construed as legal advice. I think I have just covered my hindquarters so now I can tell you my opinion without being sued if I am wrong.

As I understand things, you cannot libel a dead person. And in general, if you tell the truth about a living person, then it’s not libel. In the US, the libel laws are pretty toothless, and writers have great leeway in writing about people. This is NOT true in many other parts of the world, notably Great Britain, where the libel laws are much tougher on writers. If you have any question about whether you are libeling a living person, you should consult a lawyer with experience in libel law.

Libel is not the only issue, of course. Invasion of privacy is also a serious problem. As I understand it, you are not allowed to expose your next door neighbors to public embarrassment, even if what you say is true, and even if they are dead. Private citizens have the right to privacy, and they have a right to NOT have their sins exposed in public. If they have broken the law, call the cops. If it’s a matter of “moral turpitude” (whatever that is) or even something merely embarrassing, you’d better keep your lips zipped. Unless they are public figures.

Politicians, rock stars, athletes, and other Important Folks lose most of their expectation of privacy when they become famous. (This is the hazard of being famous.) And be aware that the more famous you become as a writer, the less expectation you have of privacy. It’s a good idea to not only “be legal” in what you write, but treat other people the way you’d want to be treated.

Back to Parker’s question: If you can get permission, then you are likely to be OK. If you can’t get permission, then change the names and change any other identifying characteristics that might enable readers to guess who it is. If you can’t do that, change the story enough so that the person is unrecognizable. If you can’t do that, drop the story.

Again, I’m not a lawyer, so don’t take my opinions as legal advice. Ask a lawyer with experience on the question. I am sure at least one lawyer reads this blog, so here’s hoping we’ll hear from him/her on the question.

There were some great questions left as comments today, so I’d love to answer those now:

Christophe wrote:

I took a look at Margie Lawson’s site and though the design of the site didn’t immediately appeal to me, I browsed around a bit anyway. (Yeah, I do give in to first impressions occasionally, but not always)
I found the Empowering Characters’ Emotions Lecture, but I didn’t see any option to have a peek at it before buying it, or at least reading a sample lesson/chapter/something.

Did I miss it somehow?

Randy sez: No, there are no samples on her site. And yes, Margie’s site could be much spiffier. She’s got some large pictures that really need to be compressed a lot, and the layout could be cleaner. But I care about content, and her content is fabulous. It’s something I’ve been needing for years, and I didn’t know it.

Thanks to Margie, my writing is currently taking a quantum leap forward, much like when I discovered Dwight Swain years ago. I simply didn’t understand plot until I read Dwight Swain’s book. I’ve always instinctively understood characters, but Margie’s lecture notes (a couple of hundred pages worth) have give me some new analytical tools for thinking about characters. I’ve given her permission to use my glowing praise for her course on her web site because I think she has something terrific there.

Cate asked:

A question came to mind when you mentioned about series synopses. I have a massive scifi work that has distilled itself down to a rambling collection of short novels, novellas and short stories. It’s huge, it’s a mess, it does have a particular order and few of them can stand alone. I know in the science fiction realm there is precedence for this; Heinlein published a “future history” of interconnected short stories, which is my guess as to what my collection would be called. How would I go about proposing something like that?

Also, can a novella be published as a standalone, and how would that be proposed?

Randy sez: I have no idea how you would propose this collection. In principle, a novella can be published as a standalone, although there aren’t that many publishers doing novellas. In both cases, a good agent could help you figure out exactly what to do with this project.

Carrie wrote:

Hey Randy, speaking of conferences and possible ideas, I was able to take a workshop from Donald Maass (Writing the Breakout Novel), and he talked about layers in novels. As I’m struggling with that, do you want to talk about character layers?

Randy sez: Donald Maass is another teacher who is absolutely terrific. I had a chance to take his workshop last summer, but chose to go on an Alaskan cruise instead. Character layers is an important topic, but not one I can address in a single blog entry. We’ll have to defer that to the future. I’m putting it on my list.

Susan asked:

To whom to you submit your proposals? I was under the impression that “The Bigs” in New York would simply trash your submission if you don’t have an agent and it doesn’t seem like your agent would need a formal proposal. Are you submitting these proposals to editors with whom you already have a relationship?

Randy sez: These days a lot of publishers refuse unagented submissions. It’s not just the Big Boys in New York who do this; many mid-size publishers quit accepting submissions from anyone they didn’t know after the anthrax scare. If you meet an editor at a conference, they might request a proposal, and then you can submit it without an agent. But if the editor likes your project, he or she will probably prefer that you line up a good agent, because negotiating a contract with an agent is generally safer than negotiating with a first-time author who has no clue what clauses in a contract are negotiable and which aren’t. A good agent will not screw up a contract. (A bad agent might.)

As for agents, they generally do send proposals to editors. The proposal may be formal or informal, depending on how well-known the author is to the editor. (If you’ve written three books for an editor, you can get away with a slimmed-down proposal. If you’ve written 20 books for that editor, you probably only need to write a paragraph synopsis on a postcard; but if you’ve never written for the editor, they’ll want a professional proposal.)

To answer your question, when I finish polishing my proposal, I’ll give it to my agent, who will then check it over carefully. He might come back to me for more revisions, or he might decide it’s ready to send out. Most of the editors he’ll send it to will know my name. Some of them will be good friends of mine. Some will be people who have never met me. But all of them will be editors my agent knows quite well.

In principle, I could probably sell my proposal myself to one of the editors I know. But my agent will do it quicker and better than I will, with a higher probability of making a sale. I’d rather that he do it. Then he gets to receive all the rejections, some of which will no doubt come from editors who are good friends of mine. That’s the nature of this business. It’s easier for everyone if rejections get buffered through an agent.

We have a few odds and ends to pick up before we move to our next topic (which I’m still mulling in my mind). I’m looking at the comments that my loyal readers left today, and some of them need answering:

Parker wrote:

Thanks again for your tireless work with your blog and your newsletter!

And a special hug (yeah, guys can hug guys and still be straight) for recommending Margie Lawson’s lecture packets. I ordered “Empowering Characters’ Emotions” immediately and although I’ve only read the Welcome so far, I’m hooked, psyched, excited. I’ve known that showing/conveying emotions has been difficult for me and I expect Margie’s insights to be tremendously helpful. As soon as I’ve worked my way through this I’ll order her “EDITS” packet.

As an added bonus, Margie, like yourself, seems to really reach out in her efforts to help. And, in her email says that although she didn’t really meet you, you are her new best friend.

Randy sez: I worked through Margie’s “Empowering Character Emotions” carefully the first time. Now I’m working through it again to pick all the meat off the bones. As I mentioned in my e-zine the other day, I’ve not learned so much from one teacher since I read Dwight Swain’s book, TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER, many years ago. Like Parker, I’ll be working through Margie’s EDITS packet next. For those of you who didn’t see my mention of Margie in my e-zine, her web site is at www.MargieLawson.com and she is a psychologist with incredible insights into fictional characters. She teaches how to edit your fiction to make your characters stronger.

Gerhi wrote:

Ok, now I had a chance to read the newsletter and I’m back with a gripe. Ok, maybe not a gripe, let’s say an appeal.

I have to face the fact that until I make megabucks or have saved for a number of years attending one of the type of conferences you mention is just a pipe dream. I love conferences and I would love to go. An if I could drive there I’d sleep in the foyer to make it happen.

But I would need a Visa, a passport, a return plain ticket, a guaranteed amount in my account or my wallet (which is a lotta money taking the exchange rate into account) and that is before I even arrive at the conference and start paying fees there.
So, if a conference is the best thing you can do to market your writing career, while also hobnobbing with other literati and taking workshops on craft, what is the SECOND best thing you can suggest for us poor smucks that can’t get to a conference?

Randy sez: You are absolutely right. The deck is stacked against you, so you’re going to need to find ways to level the playing field. (What a terrible mixed metaphor that was!)

First, remember that nothing sells like excellent writing. If you have excellent writing, then you will probably break in to publishing somehow, some way, eventually. It’ll be harder for you in South Africa and it will take longer, but you CAN do it. So your #1 priority should always be to improve your craft. By the way, I know there are a number of novelists in South Africa. I’ve met a number online over the years, and several hang out on this very blog. As Carrie said, there are publishers in every country. They might not pay the size of advances that a US publisher would pay, but let’s face it, US publishers don’t pay that big of advances either, unless your name is Clancy or King or Brown.

Second, the internet is a great leveler. Look at this blog and some of those who comment frequently. We have ML Eqatin in California; Daan in South Africa; Nessie in New Zealand; Christophe in Belgium; Mary in Texas; and a great many others scattered all over. The web makes it possible for me to reach these people far more easily than most of the neighbors who live within half a mile of my house! You can do an amazing amount to make yourself known by using the internet, and you can do it long before your book is published. We can all think of bloggers who’ve become famous, especially in politics, but also in other realms.

The internet is a powerful way to create a platform for yourself, if you have something unique to say and have the skill to say it well. My favorite resources for learning about internet promotion are (in the order that I first came across their sites): Tom Antion, Alexandria Brown, James Brausch, Perry Marshall, and Mark Joyner, but there are many others. One of my goals in life is to teach novelists how to use the methods that these marketers have created for selling NONFICTION so that we can all do better at selling our FICTION. Novelists have a great advantage in marketing, because a big part of marketing is creating a compelling story. I want to see a better distribution of income for novelists in coming years.

Robert wrote:

You mentioned in your e-zine that you’ve been working on a proposal. One question I have is if your proposal is for a series of books or just a single book? And if it is for a series, how does that kind of proposal differ from one for a single book?

What kind of things would a publisher want to know about the “future” books in order to commit to a series?

Randy sez: The proposal I’m writing is for a series. 99% of the proposal talks about Book 1 in the series. There are a couple of paragraphs describing more books in the series. (By its nature, this series could go on for many books. Note that a series will continue only as long as it is selling well; if it is, publishers will want it to go forever.) Most publishers want to know that an author is more than a one-trick pony. If you can show that you can write a series of books, that’s good. It tells the publisher that they can invest more resources in you because you’ll be around for awhile and your name recognition will have a chance to grow. In general, you really don’t need to give a huge amount of details about succeeding books in the series. The exception would be a tightly bound series like Harry Potter, where it’s really one big story. An example of a loosely bound series would a typical mystery series, where every story stand totally alone, and the detective’s story arc may change very little over a long series of books.

That’s all for today! Tune in again tomorrow when I hope to have decided on the direction we’ll take for the next week or so.

Hi All:

That pesky life is catching up with me and I’ve been overwhelmed with “stuff” the last couple of days. I’ll try to do a blog of substance tomorrow, but for today, I thought I’d answer one question that was asked last week:

Donna asked:

I have a question about publishing rights for the author. Is it a given that the publishers keep the publishing rights indefinitely on the books they publish or is there the ability for the author to keep rights to republish it say ten or twenty years down the line?

Randy sez:

Most all publishing contracts allow the publisher to declare a book “out of print.” This means that:
1) The publisher is not printing more copies because sales are too slow to justify doing so right now.
2) The publisher does not guarantee that it will print more copies, even if its warehouse is totally empty.

It does not mean that the publisher has given up rights to print more copies later, if demand should pick up. So the book might be in limbo, with no copies available and with the publisher unwilling to print more. Most contracts specify that the book won’t remain in limbo indefinitely. The author has a right to request “reversion of rights” when a book has been out of print for a certain length of time.

Note that the publisher will typically want to liquidate its inventory before it reverts rights to the author. If there are only a few dozen copies left, then the author can buy the books back. Even if there are a few hundred left, the author might find it useful to buy them all, because usually you can get them very cheap. It sometimes happens that that there are many thousands of copies left unsold. Few authors can afford to buy all those copies, so it may take a while to liquidate them.

Eventually, the author should get the rights back.

One trend in contracts is to switch the book to Print On Demand when the publisher deems it not cost effective to print a big load of copies. In that case, the book will never technically go out of print (because POD books can be printed and shipped overnight). So this trend means that in the future, books will always be available.

Is that good or bad? I’m not sure. It sounds good to always have your book in print and available. However, you can bet the publishers will write the contract to be as favorable to them as possible. (Whoever writes the contract always does this, so don’t be too harsh on publishers.) It is up to you and your agent to tilt the table back your way by making sure the contract is fair.

In any event, this is a trend to watch.

OK, one last question for Jeff Gerke, whom I’ve been interviewing for several days now. Next October, Jeff will be launching a new small independent publishing house, Marcher Lord Press. We’ve been discussing his plans to market his books and Jeff has spilled most of his secrets.

After today, we’ll be on our way to a new topic next week.

Q: Jeff, I know you have plans to reissue Christian speculative fiction that’s gone out of print. Tell us about that.

A: From the beginning I’ve wanted Marcher Lord Press to become the premier go-to publisher for Christian speculative fiction. Part of that vision has always included reissuing selected Christian speculative novels that have gone out of print.

Fans of this kind of fiction, as I’ve mentioned, are fabulously devoted. They don’t care how long ago something came out, so long as it maxes out their cool meters (coolometers?). A number of fantastic Christian SF and fantasy novels came out before their time and never got a fair chance. They surfaced when no one knew to look for them, and before anyone started looking, they slipped back below the surface. I’d like to give some of these novels a second chance.

I will repackage these resurrected novels with new covers and added content–like “deleted scenes,” new short stories, author’s preferred editions, etc. And because I’ll be using POD technology, it’s no problem to keep these books in print indefinitely.

I’ve talked to numerous Christian speculative novelists, many of whom I’m honored to count among my friends, who tell me of the frustration they face when fans ask for copies of their old books but none are to be found. By bringing back these worthy stories I can provide a service not only for these fans but also for these authors.

Look for my first rez titles to appear in the second or third year of Marcher Lord Press’s operation.

Randy sez: Thanks, Jeff, for all your answers. I know that not all my blog readers are interested in your niche, but they’re ALL interested in some niche. And the marketing methods that work for one niche will work just as well for another.

Tune in on Monday for a new topic, one which scored high in interest in my recent poll of my readers.

I have a few more questions to ask Jeff Gerke. For context on this, read the last few days of posts on this blog. In brief, Jeff is launching a new publishing house, Marcher Lord Press, aimed at marketing the unmarketable — Christian speculative fiction of all types.

Here are two questions I asked Jeff recently, along with his answers:

Q: How do you plan to market the books that MLP publishes?  Of course, there will be a big launch when you release the books.  But what about after that?

A: Marcher Lord Press is an experiment in tiger marketing (a term with which your loyal readers should be familiar, Randy). In traditional marketing, you figure out where your target market is and then you go to that place and wave your arms, shouting, “Hey, come try this new thing we think you’ll like.”

Tiger marketing, in contrast, consists of creating a go-to spot that will attract your target market in large numbers. In other words, if you build it, they will come. You create something of interest and long-term value to your ideal customer. And then, when you have attracted a sufficient number of them, you roll out your product at that go-to location. Instead of waving your arms and chasing people down, they’re already there. They’ve gathered right in front of you. And you’re offering something you know they’ll like because it’s closely related to the thing that drew them to the location in the first place.

My go-to place is my popular Web page, www.WhereTheMapEnds.com. It’s a site dedicated to Christian speculative fiction. It has a massive (400+ title) booklist of Christian science fiction and fantasy, monthly interviews with the greats in the genre (Dekker, Peretti, etc.), and scads of other fun–like a random speculative story creator and tons of information on world-building tools like mapmaking software and world builders. I’ve made the site extremely writer-friendly, too, offering my experience as a former acquisitions editor and a writer’s conference speaker. The Fiction Writing Tip of the Week column is especially popular among writers. If you love Christian speculative fiction as a reader or a writer or both, WhereTheMapEnds is the place for you.

The site has attracted a large group of that very kind of person: people who love Christian SF and fantasy and other weird fiction. They, as it happens, are the ideal readers for Marcher Lord Press novels. And now they’re hearing a lot about Marcher Lord Press, and they’re buzzing with anticipation, I can tell you.

So to answer the question, a large part of the marketing for these books was done before I even announced I was launching a publishing company. It’s a long-term strategy that I’m hoping will work out very well for Marcher Lord Press.

But the specific question was how am I going to market specific MLP novels once they’re released. The answer is…not terribly much beyond occasional promotional messages to my registered subscribers. Here’s a quote from the page on the Marcher Lord Press site in which I explain my publishing model:

“Marcher Lord Press will do very little in terms of marketing the novels we publish. There will be no multi-city book tours or TV appearances or advertisements in Publisher’s Weekly. (Authors may line up some of these independently, however, and MLP will certainly support those efforts.)”

To a large extent I’m relying on word-of-mouth from folks like you. I’ll also be relying on the good relations and alliances I’ve built over the years with the many wonderful Web sites, forums, and blogs dedicated to Christian speculative fiction. It’s a vocal, enthusiastic, and brilliantly loyal audience. If you’re familiar with the fan base surrounding the TV show “Firefly,” then you know the type I’m talking about. I’d rather have these folks on my side than just about any other group I can think of.

Christians who love Firefly. Christians who watch Battlestar Galactica. Christians who would go to ComicCON if given half a chance. Those guys.

For the first season or two of Marcher Lord Press releases, I’ll be operating on a pretty thin budget. I won’t be buying advertising space in magazines or even on Web pages. Now, if this thing takes off like I’m hoping it will, I might have money for that kind of thing in the future. But remember, we’re kind of reinventing publishing here. I’m not going to do things the traditional way.

Randy sez: I followed this question with a second one:

Q: What can you tell us, if anything, about the books you’re already lined up to  publish in October?

A: Top secret, baby. I will say that I had two books and authors in mind before I ever decided to actually launch Marcher Lord Press. I’ve known these authors and their writing for years, and I’m thrilled to be bringing their incredible fiction to an eager audience.

And I have just this week decided on the third novel I’m going to launch with. This one came through the acquisitions form on my site, so take heart all ye aspiring authors out there–I really am reading what you submit through the site. This third novel is every bit as exciting as the first two. You guys are not going to believe the Major Talent I’ve discovered. His novel is going to blow you away–when it isn’t bowling you over laughing.

I’ll be announcing these novels in the weeks and months ahead, but you can take pride in knowing that you are the first people to get even a glimpse into what I’ll be publishing in October 2008. It’s a RandyCON special.

I launched my own publishing company to publish the books *I* wanted to read. I just didn’t know I’d be having so much fun along the way.

Randy sez: Good luck, Jeff! We’ll wrap up tomorrow with some final questions.

Thanks to those of you who left comments on my blog today. I’m going to respond to some of them and defer the rest to Jeff Gerke, who’s been sharing the spotlight here for the last several days as I interviewed him about the new publishing house that he’s launching, Marcher Lord Press, which will release its first three books in October, 2008.

Camille wrote:

Could you talk a little more about the online marketing and distribution process?

Randy sez: I’ll defer that question to Jeff.

Christina wrote:

Randy, as a prepubbed author who is taking on as much marketing as my skill level allows, I want to thank you for stressing the importance of starting this before the product (book) comes out. I guest blogged at the Christian Author Network about how to grow a newsletter, our major focus, and gave you credit for the inspiration.

Randy sez: It’s great to see how you and your mom are doing! I think you two are close to selling a book, and once you do, you’ll be glad for all the groundwork you’ve laid in your marketing efforts. I know your goal is to have 500 readers of your newsletter by year’s end. Imagine if you have 1000 or so on your list when you sell your first book. Then you have another year or two to grow your list before your book hits the shelves. Contrast that with most authors, who start their list AFTER their first book comes out.

Now I’m going to give Christina and her mother Sherrie some free advice. The rest of you reading this blog, pay attention here. First, check out the signup page for Christina and Sherrie on their web site. There are a couple of things that I see missing on this page:

1) What is the newsletter about? It doesn’t really say here. If you know Christina and Sherrie, you might be willing to take it on faith that they’ll have something interesting to say. But if you don’t, then likely you won’t. So Christina and Sherrie–put a description of what people will get when they subscribe. And how often it comes out.

2) What do people get RIGHT NOW for subscribing to your newsletter? You’ve got a contest going where you’ll give away some free books when you reach 500 subscribers. But what about everyone else? Do you have something you can give away RIGHT NOW to everyone who signs up? When people sign up for my e-zine, they get a free e-book on Tiger Marketing right away. They also get a 5-day e-mail course in how to publish a novel. Those are valuable reasons to sign up RIGHT NOW.

Donna wrote a question for Jeff:

I’m also curious about the online marketing and distribution process. I like the thought of POD from a legitimate publisher. It’s frustrating when a friend recommends a book or series to you and when you try to find it, either it or the first in the series is out of print or at least not available (I buy a lot of books from Amazon for that reason).

I’m also curious about promoting the book. Does this type of process leave all/most of the promoting to the authors? Even with friends/website things you’re not going to be searched until your name is known, which makes it hard for first-time/unknown authors.

Randy sez: I’ll leave it to Jeff to answer this. I will simply add that it’s frustrating as an author to have a book go out of print and be unable to get more copies. When my first novel went out of print, there were NO copies left for me to buy. I had recently bought a couple of cases. When I ran out of those, I had nothing left for people who wanted them. GRRRRRRR!

Jeff, go ahead and send me your comments on how you intend to help your authors promote their books and I’ll post it here.

Terry wrote:

If you’re not distributing the book to stores, not paying an advance, and not even publishing the book unless it’s ordered, why shouldn’t the author just do it himself through Lulu.com?

Randy sez: I know Jeff will want to respond to this one, but I’ll jump in and point out that Jeff is developing an online marketing platform precisely because he wants to help his authors promote their work. As an aside, in the industry these days, all publishers expect their authors to promote their work. I don’t know of any publishers who want to do all the promotion themselves. So no matter who you choose as a publisher, you need to be thinking about self-promotion.

Andie wrote:

Lulu.com charges about $10.00 wholesale for printing 1 paperback and not much of a price break for printing 1000’s.

Do you have a better deal on POD?

What would the customer be charged plus the shipping? IOTW, what would the net be on that 50/50 split?

Randy sez: I leave it to Jeff to email me the answer to that question. I know that the numbers are lower than $10 per book, but Jeff will have the exact figures.

Alice wrote:

I read on a Christian writing markets blog that it is best to wait to send queries until after Christmas, when things settle down mid-January.

Is this true for Marcher Lord Press? I have a science fiction query I would like to send.

Randy sez: Virtually all publishers in America are pretty busy with doing holiday stuff in December and are very likely NOT looking at books that come in right now. But it really doesn’t matter when you send it in. Send it when it’s ready and it’ll be looked at when the editor has time. I once mailed in a proposal on December 17. It sat in a stack over the holidays and got opened in early January. But I had prepared the ground well for that book. The editor was expecting it and before January was over, I had an offer. So things can happen quickly at this time of year, if you’ve done everything else right.

Frank wrote:

I am an aspiring fiction writer who has submitted the proposal to Jeff at MLP. Before I did, I asked if he were going to be able to list the books on Amazon, and he replied that was possible. Since so many books (and the audience we aim for) use Amazon, that was a selling point.

Randy sez: Yup, this is easy to do, especially with POD companies such as the one Jeff will be using to print his books. Of course, Amazon will not do much to market your book; they just sell it. These days, the fact that they stock it is critical; the fact that a POD publisher can always have copies available is critical. I really do think that we are seeing a sea-change in the way publishing is going to work. I hear that some publishers are inserting clauses in contracts so that the books they publish will never technically go out of print, because they’ll be set up with a POD printer to handle orders on books that are no longer in the warehouse.

Some of you may be wondering if I’ll be publishing anything with Jeff. The answer is probably not. I have no plans to be writing the kind of fiction Jeff publishes. Some of what I’ve written in the past would likely qualify, and I would consider re-issuing some of my out-of-print books, but I don’t need Jeff to do that for me. I already have a strong marketing platform (and it gets stronger every day). But the direction I’ve chosen for my future writing is different than Jeff’s direction.

So I don’t really need Jeff, but I know of hundreds of authors who write exactly the sort of thing Jeff wants to publish. Most of these are Xtremely frustrated with the current market.

Jeff, please send me answers to the questions I’ve flagged above. Tuesday is my day to write my e-zine, so I will probably not blog Tuesday night. See you all on Thursday with Jeff’s answers!

Last week, we began an interview series with Jeff Gerke, who is launching a small publishing house that will attempt the impossible: Marketing Christian science fiction, fantasy, and other “weird stuff” that the Big Boys can’t seem to sell. Today, we’ll continue that, but I want to quickly deal with a couple of other questions that were posted here as comments after my last blog entry:

David wrote:

You state that an author should begin marketing their book long before they write it… Sounds good if you are an already published author because you have a base to stand on, but what if you are working on your first? Seems to me it’s not marketing in that case, but just bombast about something does not yet exist, and statistically speaking, will never exist. It seems to me a slightly different technique is needed to market a first time novelist -how does one get traffic to the website? How does one get an audience with an editor or publisher…etc. In my case I intend to use the resources I have at my disposal which is my brother, who just happens to be a compositor… but those without these resources need to be more create. I have an ulterior motive for asking this, of course, I am a copywriter looking for new accounts!

Randy sez: If one believes that “marketing your book” means “marketing a paper-based product with ink on it” then yes, marketing such a thing before it comes out would be bombast. HOWEVER, “marketing your book” actually means “marketing you”. And you can begin marketing yourself now. This takes us far off topic, but I’ve discussed this often in my e-zine and in recent lectures at writing conferences. I hope to produce some lectures that y’all can buy, but that won’t happen for a few months yet.

Andie wrote:

Let’s talk about creating that website.

You’re way ahead of the game as a programmer.

For those of us all thumbs on the keyboard, do you recommend taking a web design courses at the local JC? Getting books and teaching self? Paying someone to do most of the work? Hiring an off shore company?

How does a writer keep all this stuff from swallowing one whole?

Randy sez: Again, I must be brief, because this is taking us in a direction I don’t want to go right now. We’ll talk about this in coming months, I expect. The best tool a novelist can have for self-promotion, in my opinion, is a blog. You can create one in less than five minutes at blogspot.com. I would recommend taking slightly longer and hosting it on your own domain (sorry, I can’t go into details on this now). I chose the latter approach, which is why this blog is hosted on www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com, not Blogspot. That pays big dividends with the search engines, since my site gets all the credit for the many hundreds of readers who tune into this blog every day. But more of that anon. (I’ve always wanted to use “anon” in a sentence. I can now die happy.)

OK, on to Jeff Gerke. The next question I posed to him was this, and it gets down to the hard issues:

Q: Tell us more about the economics of your publishing model at Marcher Lord Press. How will you edit, produce, and distribute books? What advances and royalties will you pay your authors?

A: You can read all about the publishing model here at the Marcher Lord Press web site.

Marcher Lord press books will be acquired, edited, and produced in a way that, to the author, will be indistinguishable from how it would be done at a typical Christian publishing company.

When I worked at NavPress, for instance, I read tons of proposals, contacted authors or agents when I was interested in one, requested and read the full ms., and then sometimes proceeded to champion the book in-house, hopefully leading to a contract.

At Marcher Lord Press I’m reading tons of proposals, contacting authors when I’m interested, requesting and reading the full ms., and then sometimes proceeding to a contract.

The editing phase will be the same, too. At NavPress I would read the rough draft and send the author back for revisions. Then I’d do my main editorial pass and send it back to the author for last-minute tweaks. Then I’d do a final polish pass and turn it over to the copyeditors. At Marcher Lord Press I’ll do it exactly the same way. I’ll be doing all the editing myself, incidentally. That’s my forte in this process.

(By the way, you can read about the editorial process and the complete path to publication in my article here on my site.

The copyediting process will be the same at MLP as it is elsewhere. A professional copyeditor who loves fiction will help us with punctuation and also look for stylistic inconsistencies, etc.

The typesetting process will be the same, too. The copyedited ms. will be flowed into a typesetting template designed by a professional typesetter, and then sent to the printer.

The cover process will be the same. A professional freelance graphic designer (the same ones used by regular CBA publishers) will design the cover and furnish the finished files. Only with MLP I’m going to be setting these guys loose to come up with incredible covers, free of the silly restrictions put on them by typical publishers. So expect Marcher Lord covers to be better than what you’ll see elsewhere.

The printing process will be different between Marcher Lord Press and traditional CBA publishers. They all use the brick-and-mortar offset presses that ML Eqatin spoke about in her comments on Thursday. Publishers get per-unit discounts for printing lots of books, so these publishers produce a minimum of 5,000 copies per title. They ship all these books to a warehouse, where they are then shipped to distributors or directly to bookstores in fulfillment of orders.

Marcher Lord Press, in contrast, will use a printing outfit that specializes in very short runs, even as few as 1 unit per printing. Because so many people have gotten a wrong idea about this, I hesitate to tell you what this process is called, but here goes. It’s called print-on-demand. POD. People have gotten the notion that POD means self-publishing. Or else they think it means scam. I don’t know why. Perhaps because POD technology is sometimes used by vanity presses or scam artists. But that’s not what POD is.

Print-on-demand is simply technology that allows you to print as many or as few books as you want. Think of it as a smaller printing press (the printing mechanism itself, not the company). Think of it as the difference between a massive Xerox machine down the hall and the inkjet printer on your desk. One is designed for large jobs and jillions of copies, while the other takes care of smaller tasks. So it is with traditional offset printing vs. POD.

Marcher Lord Press is not a vanity press, subsidy press, or self-publishing outlet. Say it with me: Marcher Lord Press is not a vanity press, subsidy press, or self-publishing outlet. I put up all the money for MLP books. The author receives money. Whew, glad we got that straight.

The returns process for Marcher Lord Press will not be the same as it is with traditional Christian publishers. That’s because I’m not trying to get into bookstores, which, as ML Eqatin also pointed out, are dying, and anyway don’t reach the right market for MLP titles.

When a bookstore orders 3 copies of Novel X, it waits about 6 weeks for those 3 to sell. If they don’t, they pluck some or all of those books off the shelf and return them to the publisher, demanding a refund. Returns are brutal in Christian publishing (secular publishing, too, I’m sure). Your sales staff might’ve successfully placed 10,000 units of a new novel into bookstores across America. They’re feeling all proud of themselves. But after two months, the returns start coming back in. You can get slammed with returns. In some cases, bookstores tear the covers off the books they return so they can’t be sold again. I think that’s mainly in secular publishing, though.

In the MLP model, I’m not trying to get into bookstores (so I need no sales staff, no warehousing, etc.), which means I won’t have massive returns. Now, if an individual receives a MLP novel and it’s been damaged or was whacked in the printing process, of course I’ll replace it. But I’m having none of this “If it doesn’t sell in 6 weeks I’m returning it to you with my angry face” nonsense from bookstores.

As I say clearly on the Marcher Lord Press site, I pay my authors no advance. Well, what is an advance? (For a full explanation, see my article on my web site here. An advance is just that: an advance. It’s a loan against expected profits. When you get a cash advance from your boss it’s not free money; it’s money he’ll withhold from your future paychecks until it’s paid off. Same with advances in publishing: it’s a loan against the expectation of future earnings. You don’t receive royalty payments until your share of those royalties has paid off that advance.

I pay no advance. However, neither does the author pay anything. I’m putting up all the money to publish this book. I’m paying for the cover and the copyediting and the production and everything else. And then there’s the generous royalty rate I pay.

All the CBA publishing companies you’ve heard of pay a royalty rate starting at either 16% or 18%. (That’s about double compared to secular publishers’ rates, btw.) If you’re lucky, a CBA publisher will offer you a sliding scale of royalty rates that tops out at around 22%, based on number of units sold.

Marcher Lord Press authors receive a royalty rate of 50%.

You get no advance, but you receive fully half the profits from the sale of the books (after I recoup the expenses I incurred to produce the book, of course). And remember, MLP books break even after only around 350 units sold. So after that, it’s 50/50 all the way. You won’t get a deal like that at Thomas Nelson, I promise.

So you see this is a new model. I’m bypassing CBA publishers and bookstores entirely. I’m selling only online, dispensing with a sales force, and trying to stay small and loyal to the fantastically creative fans who love Christian speculative fiction. But it’s not altogether new. I’m acquiring, developing, and producing these novels using the best practices of traditional publishing. It’s the best of both.

Randy sez: Let me make one comment about those royalty rates. Christian publishers pay a royalty as a percentage of the wholesale cost (to the retailer, who typically pays half the cover cost). In the general market, publishers pay a royalty as a percentage of the retail price. This is why Christian publishers pay a higher percentage–because it’s a higher percentage of a smaller number. It works out about the same with either model. But Jeff is offering what I would consider an excellent deal–50% of the wholesale cost. He can do that because he has minimized risk by not offering an advance.

Let’s talk about those advances. We hear all the time about $500,000 advances from big publishers, so it’s easy to think that being a novelist is life on Easy Street. OK, there are a few big advances, but let’s be honest. A typical advance for a first-time novelist with one of the big-shot publishers is going to be in the range of $5k to $10k. That’s because the publishers know good and well that most of the first novels they publish are going to sell around 5000 copies. If their author makes a buck per book in royalties, then those 5000 copies translate into $5000. Of course, many novels do worse. In recent years, I’ve heard of finalists for the Book of the Year that had sold only 500 copies. Yes, really!

The publisher is in fact going to LOSE MONEY if the book only sells 5000 copies. The economics is a little fuzzy and varies from one house to the next, but my information from a guy who knows the hard data is that the big-shot publishers in New York expect that if they publish 15 first novels, most of those are going to lose money, a couple will break even, and 1 will make a lot of money. That 1 big winner will pay for all the rest, and then some, but it’s a high-risk game.

What Jeff is doing is saying, “No, I won’t play that game. I’ll minimize the risk by minimizing all upfront costs, including the advance. I only have to sell 350 copies to break even, and I think I can sell a lot more than that, so I’ll take that risk. Then I’ll share the reward with the author on the back-end.”

In my view, this is fair. There are all sorts of vanity presses that will pay you no advance and charge you big bucks to print copies of your book with lousy covers and no editing. Then they’ll charge you for copies of your book, but will give you no help marketing them, so you end up with a garage full of books.

Jeff’s model is completely different. He makes sure the books he publishes will have excellent covers and editing. He charges the author NOTHING. And he works hard on the back-end to market the books, because Jeff doesn’t get paid unless his authors do. Then he shares the profits out equally. This is essentially the same model I’ve used in creating the products I sell on this site. I do the work myself, outsource the production, and then I share out the money equally with my partners (in cases where I have a partner).

OK, go ahead folks! Post a comment and ask some questions to Jeff. We’ll keep asking him until we run out of steam.