Have You Been Thinking About It?

Have you been thinking about hiring me as your publishing coach? For those of you who may not know, one of my areas of expertise is helping authors solidify their publishing plans. Do you understand your options? Do you need some direction in choosing a good path? I can help with all of that. In addition, I do developmental editing as an extra pair of eyes for your non-fiction manuscript, helping to make sure your work is clear, flows well and really speaks to the audience you're trying to reach. Note: I only edit Non-fiction, but coaching is open to most any genre (exceptions are anything considered "adult" or excessively violent).

I truly enjoy doing both of these things and please know that I consider it such an honor to be a part of someone's publishing journey.

Have you been thinking about it? There's no time like the present! It's time to get on the right path and whip that manuscript in tip top shape.

One more thing, my business model is going to be changing over the next few months. It's highly likely that I will not offer the exact same services as I grow and look to serve you in new and exciting ways. If you want one of the basically ala carte' style services I offer now, don't hesitate too long.

Ready to go? Contact me via the Publishing Answers.com contact page and let's get things rolling!


Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

A Million Titles Published

According to RR Bowker, the company that compiles and tracks publishing stats, more than one million authors saw their books published in 2009. Though some might be updates of established titles or reprints of titles in public domain, most of the titles are new. Besides that, at least half of those titles were produced by small or micro-publishers (like me) who utilize POD technology.

Think about that for just a minute. If someone wants to buy a new, current book, there are a million titles to pick from. Then there's the hundreds of thousands from 2008, 2007 etc. etc. Then there are the classics that have been on the shelf for decades. Even for the most avid reader and book lover, choosing could become a daunting task.

What does that mean for you the author or author to-be? Whether you are published traditionally, via a "self-publishing/POD" company or independently, if you want to sell books you need to understand you are one voice among thousands.

If you're writing just to write or for friends/family, not a problem. But, if you wish to sell books, to get anyone's attention at all, you and your work must stand out in a big way. "Publish it and they will come" could not be further from the truth for the vast majority of writers and books. There's a lot more to it these days.

Not trying to scare you or discourage you from trying to get a book out. On the contrary, this is the reality of today's publishing world and not being informed is, in my opinion, one of the quickest ways to failure. Learn as much as you can about your craft, put the "wow factor" into your book from the beginning, be a student of marketing and you'll have a much greater chance at success.

Lastly, if you like numbers and want to see how the million breaks down by category etc. you can find the full article at www.bowker.com

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Are We Having Fun...Still?

When is the last time you really enjoyed writing-your writing? Do you finish a section, an article or a few lines and get joy out of it occasionally, sometimes, often? Rarely? If the answer is toward the rarely scale, that's not good and it's probably time to step back and figure out why.

Even if you must write to make a living, hopefully, more often than not, you like what you're doing. Few of us are lucky enough to love every bit of work we do, and there is a reason it's called work, but with at least some frequency, when we use our gift, it should bring us happiness, joy, maybe a laugh, or at least a job well done, accomplished feeling.

Author Dee Stewart posted about this whole idea the other day on The Master's Artist blog and it made me stop and think about which of my writing I like best (my newest book) and why I stopped writing a newsletter (I really didn't enjoy it, could do something else instead). Take a peak at what she has to say then I hope you'll come back and share what makes writing fun for you.


Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

What Does a Traditional Publisher Do for New Authors?

The world of publishing is changing almost on a minute by minute basis. Marketing strategies that used to work even a few years ago, probably don't now so publishers are shifting their risks and strategies as well.

Newbie author Kevin Daum is currently sharing his experience with a major publisher. I think it's worth following along to get a view of what's happening in the real world. True, it's only one person's experience, but it is still more helpful than looking at the careers of author's who've been at it a long time.

You can find the link here. Anything surprise you? Is it what you expected? More, less? Interested in your thoughts as always.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

I'd Like to Know

Around the time I launched this blog just about two years ago (my how time flies), I had a survey up asking about what kind of writing people were working on/what their goals were. Tonight I realized, though I know what a few of are up to, I'd love an update from as many of you as possible. Sharing even a few answers will benefit everyone because being a part of a larger community is one of the fun parts of being a writer (at least for many of us) and secondly, because it will help me select topics for future posts.

If you'd take a quick moment to leave a short note in the comments with your answers, I really would appreciate it.

Here's what I'd like to know:

1. Do you mainly write fiction, non-fiction or a little of both?

2. Are you working on a book?

3. If yes to #2, do you plan to publish traditionally, independently, or POD/pay-to-publish?

4. If you're planning to publish a book in one way or another, do you want to make a serious income from it, is it more for friends/family, a ministry tool or something else?

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend & Happy Valentine's Day!

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

What's in A Name?

If you're considering writing a book, whether it's your first or next, in today's world one of the first things you need to do really has little to do with the actual writing. If you plan to sell what you write, one thing at the top of your to do list has to be finding and buying an appropriate domain name. Even if you don't plan to have a separate site for the book, it's imperative that you own the domain that includes your title or as close as you can get.

Why? If you hear about a book, or just about anything else for that matter, and you want to find out more, what do you do? You Google it most likely. You don't check the newspaper, or encyclopedia or hardly the phone book probably. If something else comes up when someone searches for your intended title, try again. Change the title if you have too, it really is that important.

Have you had to change a title in order to get a domain name? Did you get luck and find what you wanted was available the first time you searched? Love to hear your stories (an easy way to plug your title BTW :-)

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

i Will Be Paying Attention

Those that know me well know the last thing I am is a tech wizard. Yes, I've accomplished social networking via Facebook & Twitter (feel free to friend or follow, I use FB most) but when it comes to the actual equipment needed, I'm not handy. I may be able to figure out something simple if it has been made "click here stupid" enough, but that's about where it ends.

That being said though, I still need to and do pay attention to technology to a point. Why? Because that's where our world, publishing is going and actually has been for a while to varying degrees. It just may happen faster in the next year or two than it has in the past several decades. What will change? If I knew that I could retire on the consulting fees. What is certain is that it will change-it has too. Tomorrow may be one such example and I'll be paying attention.

If by chance you don't know, Apple is releasing its newest gadget tomorrow, some sort of tablet computer which some believe will be a huge version of an i-touch or i-phone, somewhere in the 7-10 inch size range. Many also believe it could change how written media is both presented and read dramatically.

Maybe ebooks will be easier to read than on a Kindle or similar item. Maybe it will be so multi-functional that books will be able to include animation or video, audio or all of the above because that one device will now handle all of it. Even if by some chance people don't fall in love with it immediately, it will certainly make an impact; yet another step on the path where media is headed.

So, as authors/writers you and I have two choices, pay no attention and keep doing what we're doing hoping there's still a way to sell whatever it is we're working on, or pay attention and see where we fit in. Will it mean we have to turn on a dime? Maybe, maybe not. The thing is though, if we're not paying attention we may just get run over and wonder how it happened.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

One of These Things is Not Like the Other

Okay, so I'm giving away my age probably to some extent, but I'm guessing at least some of you, like me, know what follows the line in the header today. You also know it comes from a song on Sesame Street. For those of you who aren't familiar, the gist of it is that one of four items is not like any of the others. It might be an orange vs three apples or three blue items vs a yellow one for example and the exercise reinforces shapes, colors etc.

Somewhere along the line, that lesson often also turns toward the idea that it's not good to be that one that's different. It's better to be in the group of the same. And there are times when that concept can serve you well. There are times when we don't want to stand out in the crowd, or when we need to go with the flow. However, there are also situations when that strategy is detrimental instead of helpful. I'm pretty confident you've experienced one or the other at some point and likely each multiple times in your life. In publishing, you'll find most of the time you'll need to do a little of both.

First, particularly if you're hoping for a publishing deal, your book needs to be alike in that it falls into a recognizable category or spot on a shelf. If it's supposed to fit a certain genre' it needs to fall within expected norms of what a reader would expect from that style of book. Go to far to one side or the other and you may only have a fringe audience that won't make it widely marketable, which for a publisher means, it won't sell enough.

That said, the crazy thing is at the same time the book needs to be that one yellow one among the blue ones. It's good for it to stand out because it gives a reader who has hundreds of choices an incentive to pick yours over the others. If they like it, they'll also recommend it to others instead of saying something along the lines of "it's like most of the other ones you've probably read".

It's a very tricky balancing act to be sure. Does your brain hurt just trying to understand and apply all that? Here's a little help :-)

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Questions to Get You Going in the New Year

I don't know about you, but I'm not ready for it to be Christmas yet, let alone 2010. This year flew by for me for the most part. Even though most of us are pretty busy the next couple of weeks, it really is a good time to start planning at least for the first part of the year. Take a few moments sometime around New Year's Eve or Jan 1 to think about what you want for your writing, yourself in 2010.

Here are a few questions to help you jump start the planning process:
Do you have a book in mind to start, to work on, to finish?
Do you want or need to take your writing in another direction?
What did you like about what you did with regard to writing/publishing in 2009?
What didn't you like?
Where would you like to be as a writer/author a year from now?
What will it take to make that happen?

In addition to these, Seth Godin posted a good list earlier this week that relate to almost any career/work including writing and publishing a book. Check them out here on his blog.

Whatever those goals, dreams and plans are, it will be my honor to walk with you on your journey. I thank you for reading, commenting and otherwise supporting Publishing Answers in 2009 and I look forward to learning and sharing alongside you in the New Year.

I also pray that you and your loved ones have a most blessed and joy-filled Christmas.
For Unto You is Born this Day in the City of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord!

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

More Interesting Stats from a Top Selling Author- If You Can Stomach Them

There aren't many places (at least in my experience) to find out real sales numbers in publishing. There are plenty of people who'll tell you to be traditionally published to make the most of your book and many others who'll say to go independent to do the same. Most do not back up what they say with any kind of hard data.

Author Lynn Viehl is one who has chosen to put it all out there even though it opens her up to both praise and criticism. Her current book is on a New York Times fiction best seller list and I find several of her numbers and stats quite interesting.

For example, the whole allowing of returns still boggles my mind. It continues to amaze me that this business model still exists (though at least some are starting to figure out it's probably not such a great idea). Here are the numbers for that for just her current statement:

Total sales for the novel now stand at 89,142 copies, minus returns of 27,479, for net sales of 61,663 copies.

That's twenty seven thousand books that have been paid to be shipped, shelved, un-shelved, boxed up again and shipped again. The saddest part is they've also all likely been destroyed, which means all the trees and chemicals used to make them were a complete waste of time, effort and resources. Anybody else's stomach turn just a little at that? In my opinion, there simply has to be a better way.

In addition to the above, Viehl also gives information about her income, which many readers/writers will also find surprising and enlightening. Again, I really appreciate her honesty and wish more publishers would do this kind of thing so the rest of us can be better educated in our decision making along the way.

Here's the link to her Genreality blog. Know of anyone else who is this open about their stats?

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Price Wars- Where Will You Buy?

I'm sure you've heard by now, but at least for a short time Walmart, Target and a couple other major stores are selling top books for 9, 8 even as low as $7. And these aren't the little cheap paperbacks you'd expect to be in that price range. Many of the offerings are hardcover books with cover prices closer to the $20 range. T

You may know about the sale, but you may not know they're losing money on every sale. Also, you'll notice I didn't say they're losing money on every customer who buys at these bargain basement prices. They will lose on the few who walk out with just books, but for the rest, the books are what is known as a "loss leader", an item that the store knows it will lose money on (or maybe break even) in hopes that while a customer is there they find plenty of other stuff to buy. Maybe it'll be impulse purchases, maybe it will be "since I'm already here I might as well do the rest of my shopping" kinds of purchases but they're banking on making up the difference somewhere.

As far as other retailers, especially independent bookstores, something else you may not know is that some of them started to plan to stock their stores that way once they heard about the prices. Why would they want to do that when they normally buy at wholesale anyway? Because these prices, though they're retail in all reality, are even better than normal wholesale. For example a normal bookstore owner can purchase at 40% off the cover price so they get a $20 book for $12. Walmart may be selling that same book right now for $7 or 8. Buying them for their own stores sounded like a no-brainer except that Walmart (and the others) figured that out and put a quantity limit on those book purchases. So now what's happening is Walmart is buying at the same price as the other stores, but taking a planned loss of several dollars. There's no way independent or other smaller retailers can possibly keep up with that. In the short term, the little guys lose again.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet about this whole scenario is the situation we face as author/consumers. If you've got books on your holiday shopping list where will you buy?Will you understandably try to save on your own budget and buy at the big box stores, or will you pay a few bucks more at the smaller store you normally patronize? True, we've always been able to find bargains, but this is a whole new realm beyond in many ways.

In one sense, the big stores have made these books almost valueless. We expect to pay only a few dollars at used book sales, but brand new, especially hardcover, has always had a certain expectation of cost. Some people have even been known to save up specifically to buy a hardcover version or present one as a special gift. I'm not sure the same feel is there at the cost of a couple of cups of coffee. Will you support your own industry with the higher price point purchase this time around? Can we afford to? Can we afford not to?

Where does the path lead from here for publishers, distributors, for authors? No one knows just yet because it really is uncharted territory for the most part. One thing that is for sure though is it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Major Christian Publishing House Announces POD (and my thoughts about that)

One of the things I like about the whole social networking phenomenon is that there are opportunities to talk to people you would never likely meet any other way. Case in point, I follow Michael Hyatt CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing on Twitter, Facebook and I also subscribe to his blog. And while you may get the impression that this sounds obsessive, don't worry, he's amazingly open to interacting with those who wish to (as long as it's done professionally I'm sure).

Today, when he announced his company is teaming up with a major fee-based/POD company to provide those services under a new imprint, I saw it quickly and was able to pop over to see what was going on.
The vast majority of the comments so far are a combination of the angels singing allelujah and "way to go". Those of you who have been following me for any length of time are probably not surprised that I immediately checked out the site to compare it against those companies that are already out there that I've researched in the past. As with most things, good and bad with this new venture.

As far as good, the premise behind starting the POD is good hearted. Hyatt admits there just aren't enough slots at traditional publishers to accomodate everyone who wants to be published and that won't change anytime soon. This is their way of trying to do something about that, to be proactive and that's definitely good. It might not be quite the right answer, but it's movement in a positive direction.

Also in the positive column, unlike most PODs, they are offering a version of full service distribution (see more about distribution in my series on it a few weeks ago) along with the typical online distribution. And that's were the not so good starts. Westbow (the new company) has some of, if not the most expensive packages in that market. Part of that is said to be because of the association with Thomas Nelson and an implied trust factor you don't have if you pick another company just from Google. I'd say that's true unless the POD experience falls apart as it has with so many other firms.

A couple other current issues are that there's no royalty info, nor book price/cost to author info in any of the packages which makes no sense to me. Be upfront, there's no reason to hide it. Don't make people jump through hoops to get such a important info.

Going back to my earlier statement, cool thing about Michael is he really likes interacting, so I made the above comments on his blog where the announcement was made-and he answered within a hour or two. He also asked a rep from Author Solutions to do the same. If you scroll through the comments to about the last third or so (as of now), you'll see the conversation. Pretty much standard stuff from the POD rep which was disappointing. He trotted out the same tired example that's been used for quite a while now as far as a success story. If I didn't respect Michael so much, I probably wouldn't pay much more attention to this, but we'll see how it goes, if they can really be different in a good way.

Check out the whole deal here Would love to know what you think, if you make a comment over there.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

What Business Are You In?

What business are you in? Well, considering this blog is aimed at writers and authors, your answer is probably going to include something in that realm. Your business is selling your writing, selling books. To an extent that's true, but because the world of publishing, authoring, and even how and what we read has changed quite a bit, it's probably not the full answer.

I've touched on this topic before, but today I came across a video by Seth Godin that puts it in a way I haven't seen before (or if I did see it, it didn't sink in). In case you don't know who Godin is, he's a well respected, world renowned expert on marketing, particularly in figuring out why people do what they do when it comes to buying along with other social trend type stuff.

The premise of the video is this: you're not necessarily in the book business, you're in the souvenir business. To put it another way, some people will buy your physical book because they want to own a part of the experience that is you or your style or your story. Just like you go to a concert, play or Disneyland, love the experience and then want something to buy to take a bit of it home with you. Your job as an author either on your own, or hopefully in tandem with your publisher, is to create that desire.

The video runs 35min but in my opinion it's worth at least one view, maybe even two. Here's the link.

When you're done, let me know what you thought okay?

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Distribution Part 3

In parts 1 & 2 I talked about the basic definition of distribution and about full-service distribution which generally involves sales reps and other strategies to get store buyers to place orders. This time let's touch on the other kind of distribution known as digital or online distribution.

First, the big difference is evident in the name itself-digital distribution. It means your books are not typically stocked physically in stores, but they are available virtually-in a database along with tens of thousands of others.

Generally, digital distribution programs make your book available for special order in brick-n-mortar stores, appear on most, if not all, major online sites (like Amazon, B & N) and in the main database libraries use for acquiring books.The goal of distribution is to get books to customers, and online programs do satisfy that need, it just isn't in the traditional sense of how it has worked in the past.

Still to come: what kinds of companies provide distribution, pros & cons.

Questions, comments?

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett.

Distribution- Part 1

A few months ago, I did a short series on Lulu and the pros and cons of using it. Today, I'm going to start a new series about the topic of distribution. If you have any questions anywhere along the way, please feel free to either email me or put a note in the comment section.

Let's start with the most logical point-what is distribution?

First, let's talk about what is referred to as full-service or traditional distribution.
Consider this: there are thousands of publishers trying to sell thousands of books to the stores that sell them. Imagine the insanity if every store was contacted by every publisher about every book, old and new alike. The paperwork it would entail to fill the shelves would be absolutely insane. That's where the full service distribution comes into the picture.

Distributors catalog the inventory of multiple publishers, their representatives present the information to the bookstore buyers and the buyers place one order through the distributor. The distributor then facilitates getting the books to the stores either via their own warehouse or a wholesale warehouse. Stores may deal with more than one distributor for different lines of products because no one represents everything, but they are still dealing with far fewer entities than the first scenario.

If you walk into a B & N or other major store, the books you see got there via that process for the most part. This process is also generally what's in play when books sell in the thousands or tens of thousands+ copy level. It's definitely possible to sell decent quantities without distribution, but it is certainly a lot more challenging.

Do you want or need full service distribution for your book? Maybe, maybe not. Stay tuned.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Trying to Figure Out How to Get Attention for Your Book? You're Not Alone

Sometimes, we writers like to dream ourselves into the land of bestsellers. We think about what it might be like to be on the big lists, how we'd be set for our next book and the next one after that. All we'd have to do is write, our publisher would release the book and all is well until the next one is ready-lather, rinse, repeat.

In some ways, it kinda makes sense. If your writing continues along the same path as the first big book, those who bought the first, would likely flock to future books too. Launch it and they will come kind of thing, right? Well, not exactly.

There's a competitive dynamic that occurs even at the bestseller level, that I hadn't thought about until I read this about Dan Brown's upcoming book and what it means to other big name books.

In a nutshell, even the big players worry about whether their book will get attention. That's how much publishing has changed over the years. Readers have so much to choose from, even well-known names are not exempt from a little hand-wringing and stressing out at the point of a book's release. There are no guarantees at any stage of the game.

What does all this mean to you? Be prepared.
Even if you have an agent, or are picked up by a large publisher, be prepared for plans to change and that you may not totally understand why or believe the changes to be fair. Also, understand you may not get all the attention you think your work deserves. Be willing to grow.

If you aren't going the traditional route, be prepared to compete. You may or may not directly be competing with Dan Brown or others in that realm, but you may be indirectly. Be aware of the possibility and prepare as much as you can so that you aren't blindsided if it happens.

And if any of the above does happen, be prepared to be knocked back a bit, or maybe even knocked down. Most importantly, be prepared to get back up and to take more steps forward no matter how big or small.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Publishing Terms Glossary

Short and sweet today. There's a lot of unique terminology to know in any industry and publishing is no different. It is also more important than ever to at least understand the basics because these days, an uniformed author can easily be a scammed, frustrated or disappointed author in no time.

To help you out, Agent Nathan Bransford has posted a great list of some of the stuff you need to know. Find it here Still have questions? Post them here and I'll do my best to clarify or find someone who can.
Enjoy your weekend!

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Be Careful What You Wish For

Imagine this:
You decide to independently publish your book. You've done the most professional job you can and you're marketing your little heart out. Sales start to pick up momentum, your Amazon rank is respectable. Life is good. Things continue to roll along and a few days after you appear at an event, you get an email. It's from someone you don't recognize, but the subject says "Would like to talk about your book". You open it and it's from a publisher, a legitimate traditional publisher.

What do you do? What would you say? Are you sure?

Admittedly, this doesn't happen a lot, but if you really do sell successfully it can happen. It did to an author I know personally. In fact, her books sell so well (home school topics) she's been approached more than once. And she turned them down each time. That's not a typo, she turned them down. After she read what they had to offer, she knew it wasn't the best thing for her business.

A lot of authors dream of getting such a phone call, but if it happened to you, are you truly prepared to answer it?

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

Dislike Change? Don't Get into Publishing

There are authors and publishers (readers and agents too) who love to hang on to what has always been in the publishing industry. Things like: all real books are dead tree books, POD is the scourge of the industry and nothing good is ever produced that way, that your book must be proclaimed worthy to be published, and if it isn't, it'll never amount to anything.

You can't blame them too much really. Most of us aren't fond of change-just ask my husband how much yours truly likes it (though I think I'm getting better). Unfortunately, few things in life stay the same forever whether we like it or not. The same goes for publishing. It's taken quite a while, but some are finally not only realizing it, they're not afraid to tell others in the inner circle that they see what's coming and they're fine with it.

What are some of the changes that are coming for the publishing industry? Agent Chip MacGregor talks about a handful of them here. They aren't the only ones by any means, but if they don't appeal to you, as the title of this post indicates, I suggest you choose something else besides writing books and trying to get them published to fill your time. If on the other hand, you're willing to see where the road will take you, secure your safety belt as they say, it could be one heck of a ride!

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett

It Says What?

A couple of posts ago, I talked about the importance of making sure your intended book title is unique online and if people search for just part of it, no nasty surprises come up.

Another consideration along this same line is how does your prospective title read when it's all smashed together as a url? Here's an example: Northwest Ink Slingers: Murder, Mystery and Ugly Tattoos. (Note- I just made this up, didn't check, I have no idea if it exists in any way shape or form).

If you set up a domain to point to a book page or wanted to build a site around the book, a logical shortened form for the url might be nwestinkslingers.com Notice any other words that you didn't intend to be there?

In my opinion, either the book title needs to be reworked or, at minimum, there should be another try at a domain name. In addition, I believe this kind of analysis is particularly important if you write for kids or even young adults. If a four letter or unacceptable word can be found within a url, they're probably going to find it and I doubt that's what you'll want them to focus on.

It has been said that any publicity is good publicity, but I don't think you'd want that publicity to come from people passing around your link just to make fun of it. Take the time to do this extra step and you'll have one less thing to worry about.

Good Writing & God Bless,
Cheryl Pickett