One way to get out of your head as a writer is to acknowledge that, if you want your book to mean something to other people, you need feedback.

If you’ve been following Hybrid Pub Scout for any length of time, you won’t be surprised when I say writing and publishing a successful book is one of the most collaborative things you can do. You know that good publishing practice means bringing in competent editors, designers, and other guides.

But believe it or not, the dialogue between you, your book, and the rest of the world actually begins much sooner than the editing process. In fact, it begins before you even start writing.

In this blog (part one of four), I’m going to show you how to do research to write the book your audience needs and wants.

Find comp titles before you write your book

One of the most powerful lessons I took away from my conversation with Kelley Gardiner a couple weeks ago was the value of testing. She recommends starting your quest for feedback with a little bit (or a lotta-bit) of research on Amazon or other review sites.

Comp titles, aka., comparison titles, are books similar to the book that you want to publish. They’re beacons in a mystifying industry that help guide you to what catches readers’ attention. There’s a lot to say about the value of comp titles at every stage of your book’s development, but for now, start by doing the following on Amazon.

(Yes. Do it even if you hate Amazon and plan to sell elsewhere. Use their data to your advantage—it’s the least they can give you.)

Identify a High-Level Category

Let’s take this step by step. Start with the big picture—a high level category under which your book falls. Go to the drop-down menu at the top of the Amazon home page and type in your category.

The search will reveal the top books in that category. Copy-paste a few links for books that come up during that search into a doc so you can check them out later. If you want to get more specific, and I suggest you do, you’re not done.

Start with a top-selling book to scope out

Pick a book as a starting place. The top seller is fine, but anything in the top five or so should also be taken into account. I’m going to start by picking the third book from the left in this picture to examine, The Challenger Sale. It’s got the second highest number of reviews, and there isn’t a photo of the author on the cover—so it’s a better comp for someone who isn’t well-known on sight.

It is okay if you’ve never read any these books before. You’re just getting an idea of what’s out there. If you really want to read them later, cool. They’re now on your radar.

Scroll down to “Product Details” to find category options

Go all the way down the page—past the product description, book recommendations, and any editorial reviews. Product details will be useful in other areas of your book publishing journey, but for now, look under Best Sellers Rank to see where this book is ranking the best. It might surprise you to see where, but then, Amazon is always full of surprises, for better or worse.

Investigate the bestsellers in those categories

When you click one of the blue links under the “Best Sellers Rank” heading, it will take you to the bestseller page for that category. You’ll see a grid with the top 100 bestselling books for it. Please note that in this picture, I’m looking at what sells best in the Kindle store. If you use a print book selection in your product search, there might be some variation in what categories and books come up. Look at both if you want, especially if you care about getting print sales.

Find comp titles and analyze their reviews

Whatever books or book descriptions appeal most to you or look the most like what you want to do, add it to the list. Once you’ve got a few, it’s time to start digging through reviews.

This time, scroll all the way down past the Product Details, past the About the Author section, and past the Sponsored Products carousels. Now start going through reviews. Five star reviews, one star reviews, all are worth checking out. Three or four stars can often be the most helpful of all. Those are the ones where people are likely to share what they felt was most helpful about the book and what they thought might be missing.

“Look at what the reviews are saying, not necessarily about the book, but what people wanted from the book… The questions that were answered, the questions that were left unanswered, what they wanted from it; what they got, what they didn’t get.”

Kelley Gardiner

Gauge audience interest—after you find out where they are

If you have a blog, podcast , mailing list, or social media following, first ask yourself whether they are also the target audience for your book. Is your current audience curious about the topic you’re thinking of writing about? Try writing a blog on the topic or a post on your regular social media platforms and see what kind of response you get.

It’s like a minimum viable product, or an MVP, except the “P” here stands for…mmmm…point? Pontification? I think you get what I’m saying. Figure out whether the people already in your circles care about the topic enough to engage with it.

Use your comp titles to find your audience

Maybe you don’t have a huge following yet, or the audience you have isn’t quite the same as the one who is likely to want your book. In that case, take out that comp title list again. Get on the social media platform you use the most and start using the title and author names to find out what people are saying about those books. If you don’t see a ton of talk about it on your platform, maybe try another one. Check out who is reading those books. Think about whether they’re an audience you can connect with based on your book. Start thinking now about what you can do now to connect with these readers. Otherwise, when you publish, you’ll have a lovely, hard-won piece of work and nobody to sell it to.

Accept the gift of questions

Particularly if you’re a business owner, blogger, or another person who serves the public, you might already have a great entry point to your customer’s psyche.

“Questions are gold…for any kind of writer,” Kelley told me. “If your audience is asking you a question, then they’re giving you a huge gift. They’re telling you exactly what they want to know.”

If someone comes out to ask you about a topic within your area of expertise, write it down before you forget! If one person is curious about something, there’s a good chance other people are curious about it too. If you’re considering writing a book and you already have an audience that interacts with you, use their questions as launchpads to set a good trajectory for your project.

It’s okay if you’re not the first

Maybe something inside you wants to ignore all that advice. 

Maybe you’re afraid that if you do your research, you’ll see something you don’t like. Specifically, you might see that someone else has written a book similar to yours, and maybe that someone has sold a lot of books. And, oh no, the author is so smart and successful! What are you even doing thinking you can do what they do?!

Even if you know that’s a silly train of thought, tell that to your sympathetic nervous system. That’s right. You can’t.

However, you can soothe that grumbling in the pit of your stomach by reminding yourself it’s usually a good thing to see book ideas similar to your own. That means there are people who want to pick up the sort of thing you’re about to throw down. Nobody out there will have the exact perspective you bring. Some people might be wired to understand the way you communicate better than the way other authors do. If you put research, love, and attention to detail into your book (and marketing—never forget marketing), there will be readers who will benefit.

So don’t give up before you even get started. As long as you’re not literally plagiarizing, your story is going to be unique.

Yes, it’s noisy out there. There are more books being published right now than at any other point in history, and that level of competition can make you want to retreat to the woods forever. Don’t let all the other voices out there keep you from sharing your story.

But before you start talking, keep your ears open. Be discerning of which voices you listen to, and then let them guide you into writing the best, most helpful book you possibly can.

The post Don’t Write in a Vacuum Part 1: Test Your Topic and Target Audience first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Don’t Write in a Vacuum Part 1: Test Your Topic and Target Audience appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

For the first book I worked on, Set Up to Win by Karl Becker (which you can buy here), I didn’t do a postmortem. I was still flying pretty high on the fact that I’d supervised completing a book project from the brainstorming and writing through its publication. It wasn’t until the next book that I finally felt ready to log and analyze the entire process.

Without getting too personal, I’ll be sharing some of the elements I examined and a few lessons I learned along the way.

Timeline — Start to Finish and Everything In Between

Looking at the timeline is a process of zooming all the way out and then all the way back to the ground level. First, I broke down how much time was spent on the entirety of the book project, taking into account when it began, when it was projected to end, and when it actually ended. Then I evaluated each phase of writing and production individually.

For the time spent brainstorming, writing, and revising. I took into account meetings with the clients, evaluating the existing content, writing the drafts, and revising those drafts. Thanks to my time tracker (I use Toggl), I was able to take an honest look at the number of hours I spent on all these different tasks.

Next, I measured the timeline for each step in the project management process. These timelines overlap, but the breadcrumb trails of emails and invoices makes it possible to pull the strands apart and record them. Those steps include:

• Cover design
• Editing and proofreading
• Interior design
• Ebook production

My writing process is heavily collaborative with the author, but the production process brings in contractors too. That makes it all the more important that I evaluate how long it took them to complete their work, and how the speed of the client’s and my feedback made a difference to the production schedule.

Phase-by-Phase Notes

Sometimes timelines overlap with one another. I do account for this and make sure there is a healthy amount of space in the notes column for me to log any issues that affected the timeline itself, whether that be delays from the authors, contractors, or even myself. It’s not a judgment or an indictment—life comes for us all, especially in our unpredictable (to say the least) age.

Having a separate section to take notes and for each phase of the project (in addition to the timeline) is hopefully a great way for me to avoid making the same mistakes I made in the future. While this includes the time management aspect, this goes beyond the timeline and catalogs editorial and design issues that took me a longer time to notice. It also is a great place to catalog any bumps that occurred during the process of posting the book online.

In the case of the latest book I worked on, I saw opportunities to tighten up the timeline, and I hope to apply those time-saving lessons next time.

Time to Come Clean

Because they say you should be vulnerable and authentic in business (ugh), I’ll admit I made a very silly mistake that took a couple of days to figure out both during the design review and while I was posting the book.

It all had to do with one pesky piece of punctuation mark: the ampersand!

The ampersand (&) was used in the title of my most recent project. In reviewing the cover and several interior pages, I noticed an inconsistency: in several places the ampersand was replaced by the word “and.” This resulted in extra work for me as I combed through the proofs to make sure it wasn’t an issue anywhere else. I also later realized that a similar mix-up was part of the reason Amazon wasn’t accepting the ISBN I’d registered on Bowker. 

I know! It’s silly! This is why I hire a much more eagle-eyed copy editor than myself for the book manuscript. However, with the bits add after her review, as well the administrative tasks I control, I will be forever more careful!

Ok, how’s that for being vulnerable?

Budget and Hours

Of course I track expenses that I incur separately from the individual book, as I don’t want to get slammed (too hard) when tax season arrives. However, having a realistic view of the costs of project management book-by-book is a must. This applies to what’s paid to contractors, the costs of ISBNs and barcodes and other admin fees, how much I spend on tools, and the number of hours I spend doing work.

Sometimes comparing the hours I work during both the writing and the coordinating with my hourly copywriting rate puts a lot of things into perspective. It helps to see how much time I’m truly devoting to these books and reminds me that my input is valuable and that I’ve got quite a bit of skin in the game to make publication successful!

It’s not always easy to look at all the data. Collecting it and organizing it can be daunting and even a bit of a pain. Beyond the challenges of keeping the details in order, reviewing the mistakes I made can also be a little embarrassing. I mean, the answers seem so obvious now! However, acknowledging those facts means I’ll do even better next time.

If you’d like to learn more about what goes into my process of publishing a book from beginning to end, you can read about it here. If you’re interested in creating a book of your own, find out how.

Photo by Marco Rickhoff on Unsplash

The post Project Postmortem: Evaluating a Published Book first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Project Postmortem: Evaluating a Published Book appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Ardi Alspach is a writer, children’s book editor, amateur pool player, and fine artist living with her very own miniature house panther named Merlin down on the Jersey shore. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @ardyceelaine. She also has a new blog, Genre Diary, where she reviews mystery, thriller, horror, true crime, sci-fi, and fantasy. That includes podcasts (yay!).

Minute by Minute

5:20—

Ardi started out working in publicity for a science-fiction and fantasy publisher, and later went on to work for Sterling Publishing. Although her work sometimes took her away from specific genres, Ardi never lost her passion for sci-fi and fantasy. She worked some networking magic, and began contributing to SF Signal. Now, she writes for the Barnes and Noble sci-fi/fantasy blog, and runs her own blog.

9:00—

Ardi went to the University of Denver Publishing Institute straight out of undergrad. This was pre-Facebook, and was entirely focused on print publishing.

11:46—

Ardi faced her fears of the big city and went on to study at New York University’s Publishing Institute. She says New Yorkers aren’t rude, just in a hurry.

16:54—

Indie bookstores are growing! Print books are not dead! (This is what we’re sayiiiing!!)

18:17—

Ardi was a fellow library kid! Corinne gets very excited about this.

23:22—

Everyone gushes about how awesome it is to be a writing tutor. Also, Ardi’s passion for helping people learn to write shaped what she does today. She says: “I feel that I am where I’m supposed to be.” (That’s pretty awesome).

30:33—

We talk about the consolidation of marketing and publicity. Balance and communication are key!

33:30—

Sci-fi/fantasy genre is becoming more mainstream, especially for a younger audience. Graphic novels used to be banned during reading time in elementary
schools. Inconclusive as to whether or not this is still the case. Hopefully not. Graphic novels are books too!

37:20—

A look into the world of (ametuer) competitive pool playing. Ardi has been playing competitively for two years, and her team needs jackets. Fashion designers and screenprinters, where you at?

40:04—

Meet Merlin, the giant house panther

49:04—

Our new intern Amanda talks about how she founded a literary magazine IN HIGH SCHOOL!

60:00—

Amanda talks about getting “lost” at theMicrocosm Publishing storefront.

The post Episode 24: Editor Ardi Alspach of Sterling Publishing first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 24: Editor Ardi Alspach of Sterling Publishing appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

Some books Adam has worked on as lead editor:

• 8-Bit Apocalypse, the book that Adam is most excited about bringing to life.
• The Human Superorganism by Rodney Dietert, PhD
• Secret Service Dogs by Maria Goodavage

Books Adam has worked on under other editors:

• Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, who is everything you’ve hoped she is.
• We Do Things Differently: The Outsiders Rebooting Our World
• Nick Offerman’s (best-selling!) woodworking book: Good Clean Fun

Also, go ahead and take a gander at the books that Sterling Publishing produces.

At 34:17 we sound off on distributors

Tara Lehmann (interviewed in episode 8) also dropped by for some discussion of the fallout from Baker & Taylor’s exit from the indie book market. We review some of their terms, and Tara breaks down for us how they benefit the booksellers vs. the publishers (cue major side-eye). Also, we’ve said that monopolies suck, but Emily wants to point out that the game Monopoly ALSO sucks.

What we’re reading:

• Tara is reading Red, White, and Royal Blue
• Corinne is reading I Can Barely Take Care of Myself
• Emily is reading The Kiss Quotient

The post Episode 23: Editor Adam O’Brien of Sterling Publishing first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Episode 23: Editor Adam O’Brien of Sterling Publishing appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.

We’ve talked to ghostwriters, publishers, self-published authors, editors, project managers, print managers, and this time we’re talking with someone who’s done all the above for quite a while. Joe Biel founded Microcosm Publishing when he was just a teenager, hauling zines in milk crates and getting bombarded by echoey punk music in a concrete bunker. From there, he spent 23 years building a robust indie publishing company, now based in Portland, OR, that knows its audience inside out.

Fortunately for us, he’s written a book called A People’s Guide to Publishing, which goes into the nitty gritty of what it takes to build a publishing company. And we’re talking EVERYTHING. That might sound daunting, but he’s got some pretty fun stories from his own and other publishers’ experience to keep us hyped.

Joe was nice enough to invite us to Microcosm’s office for an interview about his experiences running a publishing company that stays true to its audience. We kept a pretty good balance of fun and informative, addressing questions of book and list development, and publicity in its wackiest forms (i.e., a very cranky Henry Rollins…but then, when isn’t he cranky?). Plus, if you want to know what it looks like when a publishing company decides to divest itself of the Amazon behemoth, read on.

4:33 —

Joe provides his origin story, from growing up in the bleak setting of 1970s Cleveland. Surrounded by massive unemployment, a sky alternating between orange and grey, and parents and adults that preferred him to go off and do his own thing, he felt as if he could get out there and do what was meaningful to him.

8:20 —

The year is 1991 and the cool kids are putting together concerts in a concrete bunker on the beach. Years later, people he knew back then claimed he had been drunkenly babbling about what would later become Microcosm as early as these teenage years.

10:58 —

Joe elucidates what a zine is for people who might not remember the 90s.

12:59 —

Sometimes writers are advised to “write the book you needed when you were younger.” Publishers can do the same thing.

14:00 —

Shape editorial strategy and find books in a unique niche by putting fans and readers first. Joe explains different methods of acquiring, and explains why it’s a bad idea for authors to do “blanket pitches” to a bunch of different companies.

18:28 —

Did you know that “no one has done this before” isn’t actually that good of a pitch? That’s because comp titles are a must. Here’s how to do your research.

23:38 —

As per Corinne’s request, we talk about Henry and Glenn Forever, a parody by Tom Neely about an imagined romantic partnership between Glenn Danzig and Henry Rollins. The idea of “all publicity is good publicity” applies. And Hall & Oates might actually be Satanists?

37:03 —

Joe talks about alternative ways of funding a book. He goes into detail about Kickstarter being a way to get a book off the ground and a way to learn about demand in a particular demographic of reader who doesn’t frequent bookstores. (Speaking of reader demographics…black women over 50 buy the most books of any demographic. Take note, big 5.)

47:30 —

A bestseller doesn’t always depend on how big an author’s platform. In fact, that attitude can be a trap.

58:18 —

How a small press—not just an author—can create loyal fans, and then in turn be loyal to them.

1:03:28 —

A cautionary case study of a book endorsed by a big name author flopping due to a wrong fit. A book can still fail even if its foreword is written by a world famous naturalist and is about a young boy who brings a large bird to live in his house.

1:10:24 —

Biel talks about Microcosm’s big move to disconnect from Amazon completely. And guess what? It’s going great. More people should try it.

1:21:31 —

Biel gives his main piece of advice for people who want to start a publishing company: find your perfect niche. And keep that ground game strong—selling books is about much more than just SEO. (Also we talk about the bizarro fiction press, Eraserhead, who gets it just right. What is bizarro fiction you ask? Well…just go check them out.)

If you’re ever in the magical vagina that is Portland, OR, be sure to visit Microcosm at:

2752 N Williams Ave
Portland, OR 97227

They’re also online at:

microcosm.pub and on
twitter and facebook

You can enter here to win a copy of A People’s Guide to Publishing until February 28th or go buy it from them yourself here.

The post Interview with Joe Biel, Founder and Manager of Microcosm Publishing first appeared on Hybrid Pub Scout.

The post Interview with Joe Biel, Founder and Manager of Microcosm Publishing appeared first on Hybrid Pub Scout.