Yes and no. That blog title caught your attention, didn’t it?

And while most writers bemoan the fact, it’s still true that many if not most readers will indeed judge a book by its cover … and its title.

I am miserably bad at finding titles for my own work. I was young and stubborn when my first novel came out and I insisted on my version of the title—years later, I learned that the publisher had been right, but it was a little late then. My best title ever, The Illusionist, was a suggestion given by a friend. So what this all means is that I think a lot about titles.

Terri Marie has this to say about finding the right title:

The title of your book is the billboard for the words and ideas you are giving to people. Those four to seven words or so are most critical of all the words you write.

A dear friend of mine, John Harricharan, author of best-selling, “When You can Walk on Water, Take the Boat,” explained to me that the real title comes from within you, like the book. I finally understood that I did not “try” to write the book. It wrote itself. So too, will the title come from within you. What John meant, is that you must love the title you choose. Be confident with it. With that confidence, the energy of the book can come through, almost like a light shining through the window.

In other words, it does not matter so much what the actual title is. What matters is the feeling you have when you read, see or say the title. That’s the key.

Wow. Just a little pressure there. I wish I could have that upwelling of feeling about a title, but it’s never happened yet.

Fortunately for most of us, she goes on to offer some very practical advice:

1. Write down all possible titles. Anything and everything you can think of. You never know which phrase may catch and stick.
2. Pay attention to how YOU feel when you tell others your title. Do you feel proud, tentative, scared, stupid? The feeling you want is like a proud mother or father of your new little baby. Give it the best name you can. It will be called that name the rest of its life.
3. I also researched other titles on amazon. You don’t want a title that everyone has. It will get lost. You also don’t want a title so obscure or undescriptive that nothing will come up on a search.
4. It needs to have intrigue and yet be clear. “Things Your Priest Doesn’t Want You To Know,” would be intriguing. So would “Things Your (fill in the blank) Doesn’t Want You To Know.” We humans like to know what others are doing, thinking feeling etc.
5. Does your title help the reader to become a better person? We want to strive higher, yet it has to be an achievable goal without huge effort. If your title is “How to increase your IQ by 10 points, studying an extra 5 hours a day,” I’m not interested.
6. Sum up your book in one sentence. Write as many as you can of these one liners. If you get just one chance to give a message from your book to others, what would you say? That’s often all you get. Use it wisely.
7. When it all comes down to it, go with your gut.

Obviously a couple of these suggestions apply only to nonfiction books, but novelists can extrapolate what they say into the fiction realm.

Feeling better? I’m not. I currently have a novel in search of a title. While it’s true that the future publisher may change the title (and probably will), it’s still important to present something strong and compelling to the publisher. With this in mind, I narrowed my options down to two possibilities. I sent them out to my online writing community and asked for opinions, and they came back weighing in more or less equally for each of the two titles. Damn!

Over at Writing-World, John Floyd has some things to say about choosing the “right” title: it shouldn’t be dull, it should be easy to remember, it should be appropriate. Read his entire article for sources to jog your imagination.

And for a little fun, once you’ve got a title or two in mind, head over to Lulu’s title scorer to see how it might work for you!

In the meantime, I’m stuck with my title dilemma, none of my research having given me any definitive direction. I hope your quest goes better! And if you have any secrets, methods, or ideas about finding the right title, please share it here! Then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

So here’s the scoop on who you should pay, when, and why.

“Literary agents” (quotation marks deliberate) who ask for a fee for editing, or who recommend an editing service, are likely scam artists who have no interest in placing manuscripts with publishers. Run, do not walk, away from this sort of interest in your book. Yeah, it’s exciting to hear their enthusiasm. You’ll be a lot less enthusiastic once you’ve spent time with them.

Legitimate literary agents comply with ethical standards that prohibit them from charging authors a fee (beyond minimal office expenses for postage and copying——many do not even charge for those, and most charge only against advances received).

Agents make their money only on manuscripts sold. Agents pay money to authors; they do not collect money from authors. When your book is sold to a publishing house, your agent will collect an agreed-upon percentage of whatever it is that you make from the book. You should never write a check to your agent.

Now … on to editing.

Authors who are preparing manuscripts for submission to literary agents may wish to take full responsibility for the editing of their submissions. They often belong to peer-editing writing groups, writing workshops, critique groups, etc., and I strongly advise you, if you’re writing a book, to send it through this review process.

While a pass by a professional editor may be a worthwhile investment for the submission package of a few chapters, it is not absolutely necessary.

However, a self-publishing author is a publisher and, like all publishers, is responsible for having the book professionally edited before publication. This is when you write the check, folks. Editing (which may include both developmental editing and copyediting) is a normal part of the publishing process and is best done by skilled professionals, who do not work for free.

So … clearer? Let me know if you have any other questions. Recognizing the various roles in the publishing industry and moving efficiently through them is the best way to be seen as a professional; and it will put you … beyond the elements of style!

*****

Interesting conversation about pitch, which leads me to think what all writers, particularly unpublished writers, need in their arsenal LONG, LONG before they start running around trying to corral an agent, publisher, or self-pub their masterpiece.

• GENRE Identification: Don’t snicker. If you can’t categorize the principle genre of your story, you’ve got one strike against you with an agent, and for some agents, it’s three strikes, and you’re out. GHOST had elements of sci-fi, fantasy, humor, chick flick, thriller, and mystery well integrated into the plot, but at the heart of it, it was a romance (Ditto). Don’t confuse or frustrate the agent. The agent has to sell it to a publisher. And if you self-publish, you will have to categorize your story as well. Fortunately, sometimes you’re able to pick two or three categories as a self-publisher, but understanding your own story is important for gathering an audience.
• Pitch: That 20-second, professional sound bite that clearly summarizes your novel with the 5W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) without sounding like a newscaster on speed. (Yes, occasionally a “W” is understood by inference.) At conferences, more success can be achieved from having that “elevator” pitch while riding the elevator, sharing a drink, going to the bathroom, waiting for a cab, signing in, meeting & greeting, or having pleasant dinner conversation with an agent than anything else. Remember when you write it, that this is vocalized. Practice it so that it feels natural.
• Short (TV-Guide) synopsis (log line): This is your written 25 words (much like the pitch) that sums up your story in one sentence. Don’t say you can’t do it…the TV guide has been doing it for over sixty years for every conceivable novel turned into a movie. This is something that you have posted everywhere so everyone sees that you have a book and this is what it’s about. It’s the tease to ease someone into your lair.
• 100-word synopsis: This is the 100-word synopsis of your story that can be used as the basis of your query. This is the one that is the sales pitch without the ending, making the reader ask the question, “What happens?”
• Long-pitch: This is the expanded version of your pitch. This is the 90-second expansion of the key points in your short pitch. This is the statement you make after the agent trapped in revolving doors says, “Tell me more.” They’re not asking you to ramble on endlessly, they want to know if the initial idea has some legs. Does it have complementary and competing sub-plots? Just how idiosyncratic is your protagonist, antagonist? How unique is the setting? Are there possibilities for sequels? How does the story lead to the climax? Is there a climax after the climax? Have your 10-15 second tag-on ready if they ask how does it end.
• 500-word synopsis: This is the synopsis of your story with the ending.This is about one-page, single-space typed. This is the proof that you have command over your story and is often the next thing after three chapters that an agent wants. While there can be requests for other lengths for different types of books, I’ve only been asked for a longer synopsis once, and that was about six years ago. Bottom line. If you can’t write it on one page, the agent’s going to think that you don’t understand the heart of the story.

Are there other things to have in your arsenal? Sure. You could have a 50-word synopsis, a 200-word synopsis, talking notes in case the agent wants to chat with you over dinner on his tab at a fancy restaurant (hey, we can dream).

But the most important item you need in your bag of tricks, is a completed, well-edited book. And now-a-days, you might carry it around on a flash-drive just in case, just in case. “I do believe in spirits; I do believe in spirits.”

*******

Rick Bylina is a novelist and generally interesting person living in North Carolina. Now available: “One Promise Too Many” and “A Matter of Faith.” Read his blog here, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

In general I’ve agreed with his opinions, so I have no problems recommending him. Check it out, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

So let’s start by looking at some definitions:

1) POD: this stands for print-on-demand. It is not a kind of publishing, it’s a publishing technology. Subsidy presses, self-publishers, and traditional publishers alike all use POD technology. It’s used most extensively in the subsidy press arena, causing many to confuse the terms. Resist that temptation. It’s a printing technology that developed after the advent of digital printing, enabling a company or individual to print a copy of a book when it is ordered, as opposed to accumulating expensive inventory. As Wikipedia says: “Many traditional small presses have replaced their traditional printing equipment with POD equipment or contract their printing out to POD service providers. Many academic publishers, including university presses, use POD services to maintain a large backlist; some even use POD for all of their publications. Larger publishers may use POD in special circumstances, such as reprinting older titles that had been out of print or doing test marketing.”

2) Subsidy presses: they used to be called vanity presses; they take your money and in return publish your book for you. Anything can and is published (few require editing; some offer it at additional expense), meaning that the books published by subsidy presses vary wildly in quality. Leading subsidy presses include iUniverse, Authorhouse, Booksurge, XLibris, and Trafford. Contracts vary: some provide all necessary services for a set fee, others are more a la carte in their offerings; some copyright your book in their name, others allow the author to retain copyright. A subsidy publisher also distributes books under its own imprint. However, it does not purchase manuscripts; instead, it asks authors to pay for the cost of publication. With the exception of certain types of publishers (such as university or scholarly presses), any publisher that requests a fee from the author is a subsidy publisher. As with commercial publishers, the books are owned by the publisher and remain in the publisher’s possession; authors receive royalties.

3) Self-publishing: Here you set up your own publishing company, and contract with printers, distributors, editors, graphics and design folks, cover artists, marketing professionals, and so on, to perform the tasks associated with publishing. Many self-publishers only publish their own books; others go on to take on other authors and eventually may become small independent presses.
Self-publishing resources:

• The Indie Author Guide: Self-Publishing Strategies Anyone Can Use by April Hamilton.
• Self-Publishing for Dummies by Jason Rich.
• Dan Poynter’s Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book.

4) Traditional publishing: And then of course there’s the traditional publishing route, the one with which most people are familiar. In this model, a writer—or a literary agent representing the writer—sells a book to a publishing house. There may or may not be an advance offered against royalties. The publisher takes the risks associated with the book — i.e., editing, layout costs, cover art, working with distribution channels, printing, and marketing (though more about the marketing part later).
Traditional publishing resources:

• The Writer’s Market Guide to Getting Published by the Editors of Writers Digest.
• The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published by Sheree Bykofsky.
• The Essential Guide to Getting Your Book Published: How to Write It, Sell It, and Market It Successfully by David Henry Sterry.

4) Ebook publishing: Everything that I said about the technology of print on demand goes the same with the newest technology on the scene: electronic or ebooks. Again, here you can have traditional publishers producing them, or self-publishers producing them.

Ebooks are exciting for a number of different reasons, the major one being the low cost involved. Since there are no production costs (printing, distribution, etc.), traditional publishers are more liable to accept first-time novelists, or mid-list authors, than they would be if they had to carry all the production prices.

The distribution giant, Amazon, is making it even easier for you to get your work out. Anyone can publish an ebook on the Kindle platform, for free. Depending on the pricing you set for your book, the author may reap as much as 70% of the book’s price. Compare that to a meager 10-15% you’ll get from a traditional publisher, and you’ll see why this is such a big deal.

Here’s a personal example. I’ve been published by a number of traditional publishers, but one of my favorite creations is a very very long novel set in the middle ages. Publisher after publisher loved the book, but it was just too expensive to produce: long books make for bigger prices, and there just aren’t enough people out there who want to read a medieval novel for a publisher to be sure to recoup its investment, never mind make a profit.

So I went with Kindle. I hired a cover artist to create a cover for me, and that was the only expense I had. Since Kindle books can be read on nearly every platform out there—iPads, laptops, etc.,—there was a fair amount of reach. I’m now selling about a copy a day, and at 70% of $3.99, I’ll soon recoup my investment in the cover and will be making money. Will it get me a world tour? No; but it does mean that I was able to get my novel “out there,” rather than just sitting on my hard drive.

So you can publish your book today and have people buying it tomorrow. Who would have thought?

Now, we’ve looked at all sorts of ways of getting published. How do you decide which one is for you?

Here again you want to select the proper tool for the proper application. If you’re a public speaker who goes around the country making personal appearances, you probably don’t want to go the ebook route: you want to have something that is physically “there” with you, so that you can make the famous back-of-the-room sales.

If on the other hand you have a website that is part of marketing yourself, you may want to offer the ebook there, either as an incentive to come hear you speak or a followup after a lecture, or indeed just to show visitors that you know what you’re talking about!

If you choose to stick with a paper book then there’s no question in my mind that you should first try to be published the traditional way. Names like Wiley and Knopf and HarperCollins are likely to impress your audience – people look for things they recognize in order to validate what they’re hearing or reading.

To get your foot in the door if you don’t have a literary agent (and even if you do), you’ll need to write a book proposal. Have someone work with you on your proposal –- as they say, you only get one chance to make a first impression!

And in any case, it may not be possible. There are fewer and fewer editors buying fewer and fewer books at traditional publishing houses, and rejections do not necessarily reflect on the quality of your work.

I do want to caution you about the subsidy presses. Look at how they make their money: from you. They don’t care whether or not your book sells; they make their money by selling you things. And, as we’ve seen before, they will publish anything, which leaves readers in general with very little respect for them.

What I would suggest that you do is true self-publishing. It’s not as daunting as it sounds, and you will be the one making the money from your book. There are a number of self-publishing information and discussion lists on the internet, and all you really have to do is join them and listen at first. If you want someone to guide you through the process of self-publishing, there are experienced guides available: the one I recommend the most often and the most heartily is Dick Margulis.

No matter how you choose to publish, you’re going to be doing the marketing yourself. Gone are the days when traditional publishers sent midlist authors out on expensive tours’ that’s reserved for the bestsellers these days. In fact, part of selling your book to a traditional publisher is the proposal I mentioned earlier, and one of the required components of that proposal is a section in which you’ll tell the publisher how you intend to market the book. Yes, you. The reality is that no matter which route you’ve chosen, you’re going to be doing your own marketing.

However, it’s not all daunting. Let’s see … you probably think that bookstore signings are difficult to set up but give you the most exposure, right? Wrong. Bookstores are the WORST place to sell your book! How many times, when you dreamed of readers finding your book, did your dreams center around them finding it in a “brick-and-mortar” bookstore? Chances are, most of the time… This is the fantasy the leads too many authors to the endless pain of the author-agent-publisher rejection cycle. And it rarely sells any significant amount of books. 


The realities of bookstore sales are frightening – far more books fail, courtesy of bookstores, than succeed. Consider these facts:
 


1. Returns rates exceed 70% in many categories. That means bookstores send back seven out of every 10 books they buy.
2. You, the author, bear the biggest pain of returns. The publisher has other books it can rely on.


 


3. Bookstores buy very few copies on a store-by-store basis, and they typically only merchandise the books that have big marketing dollars behind them.
4. Unless you can afford a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, it is highly unlikely that your book will be stacked anywhere a potential buyer can find it (let alone in the front of the store).
5. Author signing events typically sell only about seven books – all your scheduling, time, calling stores to set up events – results in selling seven books…
 

6. Bookstores take up to 90 days to pay for your books – and to mitigate what they owe you they will quite often return your remaining stock within the 90 days.

7. The typical retail buyer is not a destination purchaser, but a browser (most readers who know what they want go to the online retail sites). A reader in search of a book can be a GREAT customer. But when you are shelved next to all the other books in your particular category, your competition stands as good a chance at getting bought as you do… and if you are stocked near a well-known author, most buyers will bypass your book to pick up the well-known name. 


Here’s the good news. Over half the books sold in the publishing industry are sold through non-bookstore vehicles.
That means that more books are sold in other places than bookstores, and your book is likely to be most successful through these outlets. And online sales—driven by a targeted, effective, and comprehensive marketing plan—will be the cornerstone of your book’s success. Authors spend a lot of time and money chasing the improbable, when the “golden egg” of self-promotion is right in front of them. I’d sell my books everywhere except the brick and mortar bookstore!


And this isn’t just for midlist authors. Bestselling author Jodi Picoult told me that even her books are selling far more copies in places like CostCo and Walmart rather than Border and Barnes & Noble.
So if you’re not on the internet, it’s high time you were! Search marketing, social networking, blogs, newsletters, email campaigns, websites, and your personal appearances (yes, the human touch still has meaning in book sales) are the new tools for building great book sales.

Well – let’s see what we’ve talked about today. I hope I’ve given you at least a high-level view of getting published. I want to add a couple of pet peeves/suggestions before we go:

• Have your work professionally edited. Trust me, even if you yourself edit other people’s writing, NO ONE can edit their own. Be humble and open and get it done.
• If you feel you need to improve your writing, join a critique group. Again, you need to be humble and open and ready to hear criticism, but it’s the best way to improve. If you don’t have a local group to join, then there are some internet resources you’ll find on my blog, which is, again, at beyond.customline.com

We’ve looked at the process of writing a proposal and submitting it to a traditional publisher. We’ve talking about the difference between self-publishing and subsidy publishing, and I hope that I have convinced you to never ever use the latter. We’ve explained print on demand as a technology rather than a publisher, and we’ve looked at ebooks as perhaps the most interesting thing to take place in publishing since the advent of the printing press. Finally, we talked about alternative routes for marketing your book.

Do all this, and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!