Potpourri
Publisher Secrets…
Saw this on a publishing house blog I visited, thought it was interesting.
EDITED…Publishers frequently make up a fake "acquisitions editor" so they can tell which submissions are solicited or come from informed sources and which are coming from people who’ve found them in Writer’s Market.
Queries using the fake name almost always hit the reject pile.
…do your homework—put down Writer’s Market, hit the internet/phone/book, and make sure you send your manuscript to a real person.
Disclaimer: Sometimes, the acquisitions editor listed in WM is real. But not always!
How sneaky is that? Then, there’s this little factoid, same source…
EDITED…Publishers subscribe to a thing called BookScan (www.bookscan.com) which tracks the sales of books that are sold in bookstores. For every cover letter where the author has previously published books, the sales figures are checked.
Admittedly, BookScan doesn’t track books not sold in stores—e.g. the books you sell out of the trunk of your car—but it does show a ballpark figure. The publisher can find out how many copies of your book sold, and over what period of time—
The point of quoting sales figures or previously published books in your query letter is to impress. If you published a book that bombed, don’t try to make it sound like a best-seller—maybe you shouldn’t even mention it
Web Site FAQS
Does your web site (or blog if they’re one in the same) have a Frequently Asked Questions page? If not, you may want to consider adding one.
A FAQ page can communicate information to a visitor unfamiliar with, but curious about, your book—as well as those who have read your book. In the first case, it might entice a fence-sitter to try your novel. In the second instance, it provides a nice way to say thank you to readers by extending their reading experience.
For example, there maybe an aspect of your book that is particularly interesting—say it’s a setting, like an old hotel. Further, let’s assume you used an actual old hotel for the model. When you have reader interaction, the hotel always surfaces as a question. You could write a FAQ, or series of FAQs, about the hotel, and it’s role in the book. Prior readers would love it, fence-sitters might jump off on the purchase side once tantalized.
You can also highlight subtleies in your book you’re not sure the reader caught.
You can expand on plot points.
You can answer questions about yourself, and your upcoming work.
You can solicit questions, and promote reader interaction.
Lastly, you can answer the question: Do you make book club appearances and how do we reach you?
House Sale
The house sale is nearly complete. I paid the last of the on-going operational costs: Gas, water, electricity this week. The renters/buyers have been living there since August first. Not a peep from them. My agent and the escrow company both assure me the title question I mentioned is a small blip and will not affect closing. All is in place. September 4th is the magic day. Cross every appendage you have and wish me good luck.
One More Time…
For certain folks in love with, and crowing about, the blog Hits statistic. HITS—for the ten thousandth blessed time—are NOT people, never were people, never will be people. Page Views are not people. A webbot generates hits and page views. Visitors- and only visitors -are people. Just sayin’. End of rant.
Themocracy
Those sneaky publishers! Well, I guess we can’t really blame them. I can’t even imagine how many emails/letters they get a day.
A FAQs page is a great idea, Galen. And a reminder that I need to update my website. Sigh.
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Got all my appendages crossed for you! So, the only thing I should pay attention to is visitors on my sitemeter thingie?
Sigh!
Galen, I’d like to get your book. Should I buy it from you (I make more money when people buy it from me) or just go to Amazon?
Karen
Quite the menagerie today, Galen.
I like the FAQ’s idea, too.
It’s me again. I meant the book that’s already out!
Karen
I concur, FAQs is a good idea! Hmmm, WM fake-names… interesting and as Elizabeth said, sneaky!
Oh, that’s sneaksy of them!!! I guess I also don’t blame them… better to be able to distinguish those with actual referrals from the shots in the dark (though I think I’d still have an intern or something look through the other stuff for the gems in there).
And excellent advice on website. I don’t have one yet, but have been debating paying for a domain and diving in to learn…
FAQs are a smart idea and one I shall follow up on. Thank you! Publishers being sneaky? One really can’t blame them in the cold light of day as they try to survive under a constant onslaught of unsolicited manuscripts. However, truth is usually best both from their point and from the prospective author’s point. Deception is always going to bite you in the end.
My, my, publishers don’t want to give struggling writers a break at all do they!?! Like we don’t spend enough time all ready researching – even if it does come from a book. I need to work on my web page and you have given me some really good ideas. Thanks. Good luck with the house sale. Statistics give me a headache so I tend to ignore them.
It’s the Galen assortment package of tidbits!
I have FAQs on my website, but I probably should update them (I mean, who really cares what I think of President Eisenhower’s performance?).
I have all my appendages crossed for you, Galen. And a few of my wife’s, too!
Thank you especially for your last paragraph!! And I hope the house closing goes as planned–it sounds like a go.
I never thought of a FAQ page–maybe I should consider it on my website at some point.
I have a FAQ page, but it’s kinda lame. I need to expand it.
Good tips about the publishing houses, too. Not at all surprised about their sneakiness, but it’s good to have my suspicions confirmed.
A FAQ page for my website? Now you’ve gone and done it, Galen. You’ve reminded me I haven’t updated my website since before I started the blogbooktour class. Okay, just wrote that down on my To Do List. Grumble.
HI Galen,
If you get a chance, check in to my blog on Monday. There’s a surprise for you.
So happy to hear about your house, Galen! That seems pretty sneaky and underhanded about the fake names…don’t you think? I mean, why even put a name in there? Market guides are supposed to be helpful – not a drawback. Hmmm….
Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you Galen. Never knew it could grow into such a big thing.
And mighty sneaky of the publishers, though you really cannot blame them. Though, I sometimes wonder – is it so difficult to have someone read through queries? In my real life, I will never reject a grant application without going through it in detail, isn’t it wasteful of publishers to do so?
Hope everything goes smoothly for the closing on the house – I’ll keep good thoughts for you. Hey – I really like the FAQ idea for the web page. May just have to incorporate it on the destineers site – thanks.
Nancy, from Realms of Thought…