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Next?
So you submitted a book. We loved it. We published it. Now nothing's happening. Why? ‘Cause you suck and we don't ever want anything from you ever again, right?
NO!!! (Bangs head on desk.)
That first book went really fast -- because it was already written. You submitted it. We published it. Now we want the next book. But, hard as this concept is to imagine, we're not psychic. We're generally not going to remember to hunt you down and say "So what are you writing next? Huh? Huh?" (Depending on the time of day and my caffeine intake.)
That's not because we don't want you. It's because of our format. Short means each editor has a dozen authors or more. We want your books. We'd love to give them dates -- if we only knew you needed them.
So. Here's how you fix that. First, decide, realistically, how often you'd like to have releases, based on how fast you write. Don't lie to yourself -- if you have a day job that consumes 40 plus hours a week and 3 small children, don't try to do monthly. You'll hit burnout double-time. Pick a schedule you can keep and still ENJOY writing. Make sure you allow time for promotions and edits.
So you've set your sights on monthly releases. Or bi-monthly. Or quarterly. NOW you need to decide what you're going to write. Did book 1 sell well? If so try something similar. Maybe another book in the same world.
But wait. I know the next question -- how do you KNOW if it sold well? It's your first book. It must not have sold very well ‘cause we're not banging on the door asking you for another book, right?
(Bangs head on keyboard again.) NO!! Again, we have about 100 authors. Our follow up's not always as good as it should be. There is no hard and fast rule about good and bad sales. We'd love to see your first book sell hundreds of copies the month it releases -- and some do. That doesn't mean if yours only sold a hundred copies the first month it flopped. Remember, e-books keep selling. We're not going to take you off the shelf and send you back at the end of the month like a mass market paperback. We have books that have been out for 3 or 4 years and are still selling. We'll keep the book in production as long as it's still selling and as long as you keep the contract renewed.
Every house has a break even on e-books. Some break even on release. Some take three or four months. Sometimes you hit just the right buttons and the book takes off all on its own. More often, building a readership and "Branding" yourself -- letting readers know what to expect with each new title -- takes
time. And it's a lot of work. One of the best ways to grow your readership is a combination of promotions and exposure -- IE new releases. So yes, we want book 2, even if book one's barely broken even -- we know you'll sell more of your first book when your second book comes out. We're looking for good books, not guaranteed best sellers out the door. Best sellers are nice, but good books are a must.
So you've looked at sales, decided to write a new series, or another book in the first world. Now you write a proposal -- a couple of paragraphs about the book -- NOT a 30 page synopsis -- just enough to let your editor know what you've got in mind.
"Hey, Maryam. I've got an idea for a new book -- Spaceport: Jaguara. It's a cat shifter in the Spaceport universe, with a Jaguara who decides to hide from bounty hunters by shifting to cat form and pretending to be a Kitali. Which of course leads to more drunken Kitali singing Karaoke in Haze. Our heroine's the dispatcher from Spaceport: Security. It's going to take her a while to figure out that her desperate criminal and the Kitali who's adopted her are one and the same. It'll be a Sci-Fi Futuristic Cat Shifter M/F with some heavy kink thrown in -- you know I'm fascinated with cat tongues."
Damn. Maybe I ought to submit that one...
Where were we? Proposals. Send your proposals to your editor, along with a general plan for when you'd like the books to release. If it's a series, send several books -- she'll want to know you have a plan past book one. As long as the proposal looks like it'll fly -- IE you didn't pick a genre/theme combination we know won't sell -- she'll either offer suggestions or send the proposals on to the EiC for title approval. Once the title's approved, you'll submit the contracts. Once we get you in the schedule with a general plan, we'll assign you dates based on what you've requested -- every 4, 8, or 12 weeks -- and you'll keep that general schedule as long as we get the books on time.
The world will not come to an end if you have an emergency and need something moved out, as long as we have plenty of notice. And if all that sounds too terribly confusing, and you'd rather fly "Space Available" -- well, we still want your stories. We'll find a place for you.
Margaret Riley
www.Changelingpress.com
NO!!! (Bangs head on desk.)
That first book went really fast -- because it was already written. You submitted it. We published it. Now we want the next book. But, hard as this concept is to imagine, we're not psychic. We're generally not going to remember to hunt you down and say "So what are you writing next? Huh? Huh?" (Depending on the time of day and my caffeine intake.)
That's not because we don't want you. It's because of our format. Short means each editor has a dozen authors or more. We want your books. We'd love to give them dates -- if we only knew you needed them.
So. Here's how you fix that. First, decide, realistically, how often you'd like to have releases, based on how fast you write. Don't lie to yourself -- if you have a day job that consumes 40 plus hours a week and 3 small children, don't try to do monthly. You'll hit burnout double-time. Pick a schedule you can keep and still ENJOY writing. Make sure you allow time for promotions and edits.
So you've set your sights on monthly releases. Or bi-monthly. Or quarterly. NOW you need to decide what you're going to write. Did book 1 sell well? If so try something similar. Maybe another book in the same world.
But wait. I know the next question -- how do you KNOW if it sold well? It's your first book. It must not have sold very well ‘cause we're not banging on the door asking you for another book, right?
(Bangs head on keyboard again.) NO!! Again, we have about 100 authors. Our follow up's not always as good as it should be. There is no hard and fast rule about good and bad sales. We'd love to see your first book sell hundreds of copies the month it releases -- and some do. That doesn't mean if yours only sold a hundred copies the first month it flopped. Remember, e-books keep selling. We're not going to take you off the shelf and send you back at the end of the month like a mass market paperback. We have books that have been out for 3 or 4 years and are still selling. We'll keep the book in production as long as it's still selling and as long as you keep the contract renewed.
Every house has a break even on e-books. Some break even on release. Some take three or four months. Sometimes you hit just the right buttons and the book takes off all on its own. More often, building a readership and "Branding" yourself -- letting readers know what to expect with each new title -- takes
time. And it's a lot of work. One of the best ways to grow your readership is a combination of promotions and exposure -- IE new releases. So yes, we want book 2, even if book one's barely broken even -- we know you'll sell more of your first book when your second book comes out. We're looking for good books, not guaranteed best sellers out the door. Best sellers are nice, but good books are a must.
So you've looked at sales, decided to write a new series, or another book in the first world. Now you write a proposal -- a couple of paragraphs about the book -- NOT a 30 page synopsis -- just enough to let your editor know what you've got in mind.
"Hey, Maryam. I've got an idea for a new book -- Spaceport: Jaguara. It's a cat shifter in the Spaceport universe, with a Jaguara who decides to hide from bounty hunters by shifting to cat form and pretending to be a Kitali. Which of course leads to more drunken Kitali singing Karaoke in Haze. Our heroine's the dispatcher from Spaceport: Security. It's going to take her a while to figure out that her desperate criminal and the Kitali who's adopted her are one and the same. It'll be a Sci-Fi Futuristic Cat Shifter M/F with some heavy kink thrown in -- you know I'm fascinated with cat tongues."
Damn. Maybe I ought to submit that one...
Where were we? Proposals. Send your proposals to your editor, along with a general plan for when you'd like the books to release. If it's a series, send several books -- she'll want to know you have a plan past book one. As long as the proposal looks like it'll fly -- IE you didn't pick a genre/theme combination we know won't sell -- she'll either offer suggestions or send the proposals on to the EiC for title approval. Once the title's approved, you'll submit the contracts. Once we get you in the schedule with a general plan, we'll assign you dates based on what you've requested -- every 4, 8, or 12 weeks -- and you'll keep that general schedule as long as we get the books on time.
The world will not come to an end if you have an emergency and need something moved out, as long as we have plenty of notice. And if all that sounds too terribly confusing, and you'd rather fly "Space Available" -- well, we still want your stories. We'll find a place for you.
Margaret Riley
www.Changelingpress.com
