by Joe Biel

[Psst—Go check out our interview with him in episode 15!]

Four years ago I sat in my office with a star intern, Sidnee Grubb. She had utterly exceeded every expectation and task that I set at her feet. She asked me what she should read to continue her publishing education. I stared at the carpet, hoping for answers. All of the books were obtuse, if not impenetrable. The vast majority were severely outdated and afraid to make any definitive statement about the publishing industry. I had recently read Publishing for Profit and while I enjoyed it, the biggest takeaway was that if I had fewer than 20 years of experience under my feet, the entire thing would have over my head. I tried to level with Sidnee that nobody wants to predict where publishing is going or tell you how to do it. The majority of writers want to write thinkpieces about how things could or should be different; but these authors focus on things too big and cumbersome to be within the locus of control of the common people. I told Sidnee that I would think about it and get back to her.

Within another month, my business partner, Elly Blue, had convinced me that I was going to write publishing’s first definitive how-to book in over 20 years. Elly had coached me through writing simple articles on our website that we had dubbed “The Business of Publishing.” At a PGW sales conference, young publishing mogul Sarah Armstrong suggested that we title it A People’s Guide to Publishing. I was inspired and up for the task.

I missed my manuscript deadline three times. Our company was growing rapidly, particularly after we left PGW to self-distribute our books. Sales soared, every aspect of my job became much busier, and I had no time to write a book. I now understood one reason why thriving publishers didn’t leave trails of breadcrumbs to recreate their successes.

Slowly, I found time to read every book ever published about publishing. It was alternatingly fun and painful to see what other authors had gotten away with and released into the world. While some of those sentiments resonated with me, ultimately I wrote about what I had learned from 23 years of publishing much more than anything that I found in any book. I took the time to entertain and learn from all perspectives so that I wasn’t just writing my own way. And that galvanized my thinking: I had been wrong about many things. What’s right for us isn’t right for everyone. And I feel that too made me a better publisher.

So much of publishing is obscured, privatized, and intentionally held hostage from authors and the public. These matters are the final barrier to entry for new publishers. So I outlined all of my mistakes, mocked all of the absurdities of the industry, and did my best to show how much room there still is for new players to enter and succeed in the field.

A People’s Guide to Publishing is my eighth book but more importantly, it’s my first where I didn’t suffer imposter syndrome. I felt that if I didn’t know the material after 23 years, then everyone was an imposter. And to some degree, I think that’s true. But I was an imposter who was more than happy to write out the answers to what a standard contract looks like, why things work the way that they do, and how easy it is to uproot stagnant dinosaur systems.

Like many authors, I silently watched as dozens of reviews of my book appeared online; in wonderment and awe. My favorite reviews wanted to split hairs over a single sentence out of context and explain exactly how I was wrong. I had watched this happen to each of our most successful authors over the years and this is how I knew that I had already succeeded: I was getting under critics’ skin; they felt that they had to take me seriously. Over and over, reviewers said that it was the most helpful nuts-and-bolts book about publishing that they’d ever read—even people who had operated a press or had many years of paid education in publishing.

Still, I was shocked when my book became the textbook at half a dozen university publishing programs, including the local one at Portland State. I began receiving more and more publishers seeking mentorship relationships and sending me questions they had. Usually, these things were covered in the book but perhaps not in a way that was resonating with a publisher who lacks emotional distance from their own work.

So I suggested to Elly that we could migrate our podcast to a vlogcast and answer these questions in short episodes to further fill in gaps for new publishers or veterans who wanted to reframe their thinking about basics. Elly told me that this was a great idea but neglected my requests to join me on the first episode. But the following week, she reluctantly asked me how long it would take and agreed to sit down for ten minutes on camera. Half an hour later she was still gushing about the topic and then spent the next week exclaiming how clarifying it was for the rest of her work to spend the beginning of the day reflecting on the rudiments of a task that she performs daily. For whatever reasons, probably as a result of my autistic brain, I don’t disconnect the minutiae of a task from the big picture and the goals. Perhaps that’s why this work resonates so hard. My quest has forever been to uproot legacy systems and replace them with new ones that best serve the stated goals.

Please feel free to send questions you’d like answered or topics you’d like addressed to podcast@microcosmpublishing.com

The post Introducing a People’s Guide to Publishing Vlogcast! first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Introducing a People’s Guide to Publishing Vlogcast! appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

How to bring a literary magazine into the world (and keep it alive for a while).

Astral Waters Review just published its second issue, wrapping up its first year in the digital lit mag world. As the founding editor and editor-in-chief of this fledgling publication, I’ve learned a lot about what goes into making a literary magazine and keeping it alive, even in its initial stages. These first two issues have provided plenty of lessons for future success—often the hard way.

How to Get Started with Your Own Lit Mag:

1. Have an Idea and Legitimize It

The idea for Astral Waters Review first came into existence as a grad school project, of all things. Tasked with creating a fake publishing company, a small group of us wanted to focus on speculative fiction, and we wanted it to be diverse. It made for a great project, so much so that even two years later, I was still thinking about how much I wanted it to be real.

I’ve read a lot of science fiction and fantasy in my life, and it didn’t take a lot of thought to notice a…trend…with the genres, historically. Quite frankly, both genres are overwhelmingly white, straight, and male. There are some fantastic exceptions, obviously, but the majority is still there. And I was tired of it (still am). I wanted a place I could go to specifically read speculative fiction by and about people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. I wanted to read speculative fiction that accurately addressed current social and political issues from the perspectives that are too often unheard and shut out. And I wanted to provide a platform for those perspectives.

So there was the idea. It was an idea that filled a specific hole in the literary world, or at least one that I saw. It fulfilled a specific need for at least one reader, with the hope that others would have that need as well. 

An idea for a lit mag doesn’t have to skew political or social or didactic. It doesn’t have to try to change the world or even the genre. But if it’s going to see any sort of life, the idea needs to recognize some bit of market to squeeze into.

Once an idea is solidified, legitimize it. Come up with a great business name and register it. Get that sweet Employee Identification Number. Tell the government you exist and you’re not doing anything shady (this will be important when you start paying people/people start paying you and you have to file taxes). I registered my business name as Astral Waters Press because that’s the company under which Astral Waters Review is published. A magazine doesn’t have to be housed under a publisher; I just have lofty aspirations to someday publish books, too. And yes, all that official government business costs money.

2. If You Don’t Have Money, Get Some

I don’t like it any more than the next person, but publishing anything takes money. When I made the decision to start a lit mag, I had about $200 to make it happen. I was so sure that was enough. I just had to buy some publishing software and call it good, right?

So wrong. Still left to spend money on was:

• Domain name (annual payment)
• Website hosting (monthly payment)
• Logo/title design
• InDesign
• Advertising
• Contributors

Yes, you read that right. It was my intention from Day One to pay everyone involved with Astral Waters Review—except, probably, myself. More on that in a minute.

Marketing can be difficult and expensive, especially if you’re just starting out in your career, have a limited circle of connections, and are notoriously introverted. The best marketing tool I’ve utilized is the Astral Waters website. I built it on my own with Wix (great for beginners, and super affordable) and some basic coding knowledge. I’m not a professional web developer, and it probably shows, but I built the website in about a day and it looks alright and serves its intended function: to describe what the publication is and how to take part in it. That’s all a lit mag’s website needs to do. It’s not a terribly fancy business. But the website costs money, either monthly or annually, and it adds up fast.

I went back and forth for a few weeks on how I should get the rest of the money I needed. I had already spent a couple hundred bucks on website and legal stuff, so it was too late to go back. I thought about a personal loan for a while (hint: do not go into debt for a literary magazine, especially if you’re probably not going to get paid for a while). 

The vast majority of literary magazines don’t pay their authors in real cash money; most new and emerging authors are only paid in publishing credits and a complimentary issue of the publication. And a sizable number of editors, especially at smaller operations, are volunteers. I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I’ll leave it at: I think people should get paid real cash money for their work. But, realistically, I didn’t foresee the magazine generating enough money to go around (note: this turned out to be accurate). So if I wanted to pay everyone else involved with the magazine, I’d likely have to put my own paycheck on hold for a while. Going into debt for this magazine wasn’t a smart option.

In the end, crowdfunding was my only viable option. Crowdfunding has been a fairly popular thing for literary magazines recently (especially niche ones), so I figured I’d give it a shot. In mid-November 2018, I launched a Kickstarter campaign. I made a few posts on my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts to help spread the word and put a few dollars toward a paid Facebook ad on the official Astral Waters account (more about that later). The campaign gained a little bit of attraction, and at one point was one of the top trending literary campaigns on Kickstarter for like ten minutes. I knew most of the backers personally, but a few of them were complete strangers, and that surprised me. And on December 31st, the campaign ended at 118% funded. It made enough money to fund the magazine through its first year. Or so I thought.

3. Get Some Help

One of the biggest things I learned early on (like, a week before the Kickstarter campaign) is that one person running a magazine simply isn’t feasible. I had a massive to-do list. All of the website building, marketing, designing, emailing, slush pile reading, and copy editing required to create and run a lit mag fell solely on me. 

So I got help. My professional circle may be small, but it’s mighty. The first person I needed was a designer. I can’t draw for squat, and I wanted an illustrated look to the magazine’s title and logo. A former grad school classmate of mine happens to create some of the most adorable illustrations I’ve ever seen, and thankfully she was available to design something for me.

Then, as much as I love editorial work, I decided I needed more editors on board. I work as a content editor at my 9–5, and I’m also a freelance book editor on the side. My editorial plate is full. So I approached two very dear friends (also former classmates) whose editorial skills I trust and who I knew were spec fic fans to help read through submissions and copy edit/proofread the accepted pieces.

And now, the completion of the second issue has shown me that my marketing skills are mediocre at best, and I need more help. With any luck, I’ll be able to find someone to help out with marketing efforts in time for Issue III in May. 

4. Advertise

I’ll be honest. The “marketing” I did for the first issue was abysmal. I paid Facebook $60 to run an ad for ten days. That campaign gained maybe a dozen likes for the Astral Waters Facebook page. I tried sharing some posts on Twitter and Instagram, but my limited circle meant those posts gained no traction. Then, embarrassingly, I thought it would be a good idea to post physical flyers only around my immediate neighborhood. I spent more money than I should have to print full-color 8.5” x 11” posters and put them up in cafes and indie shops up and down the closest major cross street. It’s safe to assume how few submissions and issue purchases I got from that. (It was zero).

I was being frugal with the crowdfund money. After a couple of months post-Issue I, I had to finally admit to myself that the crowdfund money wasn’t going to last through Issue II. After paying the authors, artists, and assistant editors from Issue I, I spent the last $400 on advertising with Lambda Literary. The response from that ad was so overwhelming, I nearly ran out of time to read all the submissions for Issue II. The growth in submissions and readership was astounding. It’s what I had hoped to get for the first issue, but never achieved. Lesson learned.

5. Keep Growing

I’m sure I’ll learn more lessons with every issue. And with every issue, the magazine will keep growing. For the near future, I plan to grow marketing efforts even more. I also hope to partner with community organizations that mirror my mission to support diversity and underrepresented writers. I know it’ll take a lot more money, but that’s an area to explore, too. While the Kickstarter was a success, the magazine shouldn’t rely on crowdfunding for every issue. It’s not sustainable. Many literary magazines are sustained by arts funding and grants from their local government or money from industry awards (like the Firecracker Award from the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses), and applying for that sort of funding will be a key focus of mine in the time between Issues II and III. 

Starting a literary magazine (and keeping it going) isn’t easy, but the challenges have only provided opportunities for growth for Astral Waters Review. I’m so excited to keep learning valuable lessons and bringing diverse voices to the speculative fiction stage, and I hope to see you on the mailing list (check the bottom of the Astral Waters Review homepage to sign up!).

The post Birthing Your Own Literary Magazine first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Birthing Your Own Literary Magazine appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

What can you expect from a bookstore event?

I’ve worked at four bookstores: Barnes & Noble in Bend, OR; Barnes & Noble in Reno, NV; Amazon Books in Portland, OR; and Roundabout Books in Bend, OR. In over five years as a bookseller, department manager, special orders manager, and now events manager, I’ve seen bookstores small and large fail and leave. I’ve seen bookstores sell more electronics, games, gifts, and tchotchkes than books.

There’s one constant in the bookstores where I’ve worked—author events.

Customers want to meet authors and hear about the process of writing the book, what they are writing next, and just generally feel a connection to an author they enjoy. And many bookstores want author events. It helps us connect to our customers and the community at large. So for those of you who are still paying attention to this blog—and the calendar of your local bookstore—here is how a bookstore event really happens…and what you can do to help them continue.

Build a Relationship with Your Bookstore

First, all the details are sorted out via email. Whether it’s from an author to me, or from me to them and/or their publicist, it generally starts with an email.

We often need to look at factors like our current calendar of bookings, how many events we have open for the next one to two months, and who we’ve sent proposals to for specific dates and times. And that can’t be done when we are face to face. So, once you’ve established the relationship and introduced yourself to the bookstore, then send an email. Feel free to give date suggestions, but be open to the dates the store has available. Understand the size of their store, the capacity for attendees at an event, and the location in relation to hubs of that town.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t visit your local bookstores. In fact, I (and many others—read this article) will tell you to go to your local bookstores, meet the booksellers, shop there, drink coffee there, and give them book recommendations.

And, I cannot stress this enough, GO TO BOOK EVENTS!

Engage with the authors presenting and ask insightful questions that you would want to be asked. Remember the terror and agony of getting up to talk about your book the first, fifth, or tenth time. Or when it comes to the Q & A section and no one asks a questions. That is the worst. Go to the events, ask thoughtful questions, and then introduce yourself to the author (and preferably buy a book for them to sign). Let them know you are an author, too, and, if it feels genuine and appropriate, exchange business cards. This also shows the bookstore that you are committed to their events and are a loyal customer. Hopefully, that author will attend your event—and bring a few friends.

Consider Who Your Audience Will Be

Are you pitching to a bookstore in a super conservative town on a book about grassroots journalism and the need to verify sources before sharing on social media? While the bookstore, its staff, and a majority of its customers might be more liberally-inclined, it can make securing a good crowd harder. I would never advocate not pitching to that store! On the contrary, please pitch to them! But know that it might not be the turnout you were expecting. And yet, those faithful few who turn out? Those are your people. Those are the people who will read your book and recommend it to another person. Because they liked it…and you. They made a personal connection to you at the event and want to tell everyone about your book.

Here’s the backstory behind this recommendation: I was contacted by Lisa Loving, author of Street Journalist: Understand & Report the News in Your Community (Microcosm, May 2019), about a possible event at our store. Due to my knowledge of the fact that Microcosm puts out good books and my personal interest in the book, I was happy to add it to our event calendar.

Now, Bend has become more liberal—especially in the last decade or so—but at its heart, it is a conservative town, and I did worry that we would fight against that background with this title. But I believed we could get a handful of attendees, and I knew Lisa would give a great presentation. Unfortunately, we had no attendees at her event. Now, this could have been a result of many factors: day of the week (Friday), season (September, so tourists have left), and competing events. Lisa was gracious and chatted with me and my coworker, signed books for us and for the shelf, and asked us where she and her daughter should get dinner. And since her event, and getting to know her better, I’ve recommended the book to several people, including a freelance client of mine who is interested in how this book is necessary leading up to the next election.

Promote the Event Through Your Own Network

You are your own best marketing tool. Seriously. Do you have a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, website, or newsletter? Then get that event included, email everyone, and ask them to share it around. We live in a digital age, where sharing events is easier than ever. And yet, we have events with only a few attendees. We are all so busy and are invited to a dozen things every weekend. What are you doing to rise above the noise?

Do you have connections to other media sources? Use them! Are you part of a networking group, a book club, a parenting organization? Invite them! You cannot be afraid of marketing your events for fear of someone will say no. That’s ok. But you will never get the “yes” unless you ask. Bookstores are asking their customers to attend events with every newsletter, Facebook event, Twitter post, and window poster, but we cannot do it alone. This is a team effort and the more attendees, the more books sold. More sales means more events for you in the future. Bookstores are part of your long game.

Remember—Booksellers Are on Your Side

Lastly, know that the bookstore wants you to have a good event. And they are crushed when you don’t. Ok, yes, I can really only speak for myself, but I am heartbroken when a book I’ve read and liked doesn’t generate a good number of attendees at an event. Every book is special, and every author has a story to tell, and it just kills me when they can’t tell it to a bigger audience. But remember what I said before about those faithful few? Well, I’m one of them. And believe me, I tell people about your books days, weeks, and months after your event. I follow you on social media. I await your next project and the next time we can host an event for you.

The post What it Takes to Have a Successful Bookstore Event first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post What it Takes to Have a Successful Bookstore Event appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

What does it take to become an indie author?

The answer to that question depends many different things, to be completely honest. You need to go into independent publishing with the right mindset. There are three options for how to approach it:

1. Writing for the art of it without caring how much money you make.
2. Writing for the art of it (but also making royalties would be nice).
3. Writing because you love it, but because you also want to make a career out of it.

Writing for the Love of It

If you want to write your novel, your poetry collection, or short stories, and release them into the world without a care for royalty statements, then what it takes is rather simple.

Once the hard part of writing is done, you can choose to spend money for multiple rounds of editing, a cover you love, and for someone else to format it. Depending on your design skills, and if you choose only to use beta readers for editing, you really don’t have to invest a single penny. You can, of course—it’s your own money, but bear in mind that you will almost certainly never recoup your investment. Since you’re writing for the art of it only, then this shouldn’t be a problem.

Self-Publishing for Profit

If you do want to make some money on the book you put your heart into? Then the investments start to become a bit more important.

First, you’ll want to look for freelance editors who work with independent authors, as their rates tend to be much more affordable to an indie author than the editors who freelance with traditional publishers.

Next, you’ll need to invest in a good cover after doing market research—look for other books similar to yours, in the same genre, same heat level if you’re doing any type of romance, and show them to the designer you choose. The saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is the herald of a poorly designed book cover. If your book cover doesn’t match market trends, very few of the readers will pick it up.

Then there is the dreaded blurb, aka., sales copy for your own book. To help with this, check out the other books in your genre—how do their blurbs look? If it helps, think of it as writing a query letter, except instead of to a literary agent, you’re querying a prospective reader.

The book, the cover, and the blurb are the keystones of a successful independently published book.

Spending Money to Make Money as an Author

However, if you are reading this with the end goal of making a career as an independent author—it’s going to take money if you want to see decent sales right away.

Everything that a traditional publishing house would do for you, you must do yourself or hire someone else to do for you. The fortunate thing is that the independent publishing world is on the fast track to readers, rather than the longer scenic route of the Big Five.

But if someone says you need $5,000 to publish your first book, laugh and walk away. My first book that I published with the intent of making money with a book I enjoyed writing—I invested a total of $225.00.

I made $1,513.98 in the first 30 days. It was the first book on my first pen name, ever. The third book I released on that pen name was about 3 months later and had the same monetary investment.

It made $3,284.69 in the first 30 days.

How did I do this? I put in the work. What that means is I didn’t only treat the book as a story I wanted to write and loved writing, but I treated it as a business. I looked at the top books in my genre to see what the readers were wanting. I made sure the story I wanted to tell would satisfy those readers. I made sure my cover fit the current market trends. And I made sure my blurb was a tight pitch that would entice readers to buy it.

Could I have invested more money in editing? Yes, most certainly. But I didn’t need to, because all the pulp readers care about is a solid story that hits their expectations. They don’t want to read the next award-winning novel; they have a Goodreads yearly challenge to meet.

The Indie Author Mindset

When you go into self-publishing with a career mindset, you need to understand your target audience before you ever publish your first book. The readers will thank you for it by buying your book. If you do the market research for the books you want to self-publish and do your best to meet those market expectations, you will create a viable author career for yourself.

What if you have absolutely no money to invest in your books, but you still want to make a career out of it? Make trades and barters. Are you a good beta reader? Offer your time to another author who is stronger than you with cover design. Or maybe you’re a good cover designer, but need someone to format your book—offer trades.

You could also self-educate and teach yourself how to do everything. There are numerous programs out there that will let you do all of the work you need for your book. Such as Canva, Open Office, and Grammarly. There are event decent free stock photo sites—just make sure to do your research on what the creative licenses for different photos allow you to do.

Make Sure You’re Ready to Roll with the Punches

The self-publishing industry is still young in the history of books. There are still a lot of things being worked out and tested. The greatest thing is that anyone can publish a book now, but the worst thing is that anyone can publish a book now. If you want to make a career of this, you need to do the same thing that every other career demands.

You need to do the work. You need to invest the time to write a good book, to research the market you’re going into, to get a good cover, and later consider advertising.

And if all you want to do is publish your book so that you can have a paperback to hold and say “Look, I made this!”, then do it! You wrote a book! You should be proud, you’ve done something millions of people say they want to do—and for many different reasons, never accomplish.

It takes work to be an independent author. Make sure you have the right mindset to manage your expectations.

The post So You Want to Be an Indie Author first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post So You Want to Be an Indie Author appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.