Being Less Serious…

It seems lately that a lot of my blogs have been very serious – discussions of our policies, blogs about how technology is changing publishing, advice for authors, rants about some of the less-than-charitable emails we get in reply to rejections, and tips for creating a brand if you’re an author. So this week I decided a little levity was in order.

The word “Divertir” is French for “to amuse and entertain,” and I’ve long believed that not only should our books accomplish this, but so should our work environment. The fact that we have fun doing what it is we do (even when it’s being a “Tool of the Publishing Elite”) should be evident both to our authors and readers. And if some of the things we do aren’t fun, maybe it’s time to change that (this is a subtle hint to the staff to speak up). Life is too short…

In the past I’ve discussed the fact that our website is long overdue for an overhaul, and that will occur this summer. The goal in part is to make it a fun place to visit. One idea I had was to randomly display a funny “tag line” under our name to replace the current slogan, “Books that amuse, inform, and inspire.” So without further ado, here is the list I’ve come up with so far for new “slogans” for the Divertir Publishing website:

• Because the zombies will need books after the Apocalypse.
• Because minotaurs really are the next big thing.
• Because politicians should not be our only form of entertainment.
• Because cursed-immortal-servants-of-the-Underworld need to have their stories told too.
• Because Silly Putty is hard to read (you might need to be my age to get this one).
• Because we need to show the UFOs there really is intelligent life here.
• Because we’ve always wanted a legitimate excuse to Google “sexy cowboy photos” and book covers seemed as good a reason as any.
• Because we’ve always wanted a slush pile.
• Because we thought a “slush pile” involved Italian ices and tequila.
• Because using Tarot cards and Ouija boards to select manuscripts for publication is as good as what the large publishers do.
• Because being on a reality TV show or being the dog of a celebrity does not make you qualified to write a book.
• Because we know a book is just waiting to come out of you, just like the monster in Alien.
• Because there are wing nuts on both sides of the political screw.
• Because even conspiracy theories are sometimes true.
• Because laundering money isn’t what it used to be.
• Because the way I was squandering the family fortune was taking too long.
• Because a glass of wine goes better with a good book than with Unreal Tournament (I’m probably showing my age by my selection of computer game).
• Because the end of the world is coming so what the hell (I came up with this one before the Mayan end-of-the-world passed).
• Because a book commits suicide every time you watch reality TV (yes, I “borrowed” this one off an amusing poster that was on Facebook for a while).
• Because my doctor keeps changing my meds.
• Because we’ve always wanted to be called “Tools of the Publishing Elite.”

Please feel free to make suggestions.

Evolution…

As every business evolves and grows, there come times when the need for changes in policies is realized. An email I received from an author today made me realize that this is one such time.

When I started Divertir Publishing, doing things differently was important to me. Something I wanted to do differently was how we handled queries. One common complaint from authors is that they often get rejections letters with no indication why a query was rejected. Thus, we made the decision when we started that we would always try to provide some commentary on why a query was rejected.

Last year, we received well over 1,000 queries, and the first evolution of this policy was necessary. Last January we decided that queries that did not make it past the initial query letter review would receive a form rejection letter. For queries and full manuscripts forwarded to a reviewer or editor, the comments from the reviewer would be forwarded if we thought they would be helpful.

Recently we received three manuscripts that I really liked the concepts for but that, in my opinion, were just not ready for publication. Not only did I send each author the reviewer’s comments, but took the time to speak to each authors individually via phone about my interest in the manuscripts and what I thought would bring the manuscripts to where I needed them to be to consider publication. I hope my comments were useful. In one case, the author has continued to make changes to the manuscript and work with us – I’m guessing at some point this will result in a contract. But in the second and third cases, the authors made superficial changes to the manuscripts and went on to explain why they were right to leave things as they were. After three rounds of reviews by multiple people (including myself) for each of these manuscripts the authors were sent rejection letters.

Today I received an email from one of the authors stating that “There’s something you’re not getting here” and “To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of faith in your desire for this book anyway.” Had the email from the author merely thanked me for my time I would not be writing this blog. However, given the amount of time I personally spent on the manuscript, this author’s comments have just reinforced for me that as much as authors say they want to hear why their manuscripts have been rejected often they are unaccepting of the explanation.

The simple truth is that, when you send a manuscript for possible publication, you are in essence asking us to endorse your work. I will not endorse a work I do not like or think has issues, regardless of how much an author believes in that work. Perhaps in those cases I am just not the right publisher for the work. But the recent number of emails we’ve received questioning our rejections has made me decide it is time for another evolution in our policy regarding queries. We are a publisher with a specific idea of what makes a manuscript publishable – not a critique group or writing program – and as such it would be pretentious for us to continue to provide feedback to authors. Thus, we will no longer include the reviewer’s comments when a manuscript is rejected.

Technology…

I thought I would start this blog by sharing some information about the technology that was available when Pebbles, Bam-Bam and I went to school:

• My first computer in high school was a Commodore Pet 2000 with the spaceman screen and Mickey Mouse keyboard (at least that’s what we called them). It had 8 Kbytes of memory, expandable to 16 Kbytes (yes, those are “Kbytes” – it’s not a typo). It used a cassette tape to load programs and came with a word processor – which was pretty useless because it had no printer.
• My first “word processor” was a Sears electric typewriter that could do bold and italics and stored up to 5 pages of text in memory. Given that most of the papers I had to write in college were 5 pages and under, I was in heaven – so long as I didn’t need to work on two papers at the same time. I still have that typewriter, but if my life ever depended on getting a ribbon for it I would probably be toast.
• The computations for my PhD thesis were run on a Cray supercomputer, and the software and results are currently stored on reel-to-reel tapes. It would take less time to rewrite all of the software from scratch and rerun all of the computations than it would to find a reel-to-reel tape reader, and my current laptop computer probably has more computing power than the supercomputer did.
• My first mobile phone was the size of a small purse and could do nothing but make phone calls.

Of all the information I will share today, probably the most interesting fact is that I am under the age of 50. That’s right – in just over 30 years, or about one generation, we went from talking about personal computers with Kbytes of memory that could perform simple tasks to machines with gigabytes of memory that can run very complex computations. We went from mobile devices that could make phone calls to smart phones and tablets with touch screens that can surf the internet, providing instant access to information.

So what does this have to do with publishing?

A recent study suggested that over 70 percent of people under the age of 25 receive a majority of their information on mobile devices. As technology improves this trend is not likely to be reversed. Barnes and Noble recently announced they would be closing two hundred stores over the next ten years, and I suspect this reduction in stores will be accompanied by a significant increase in their web presence and the development of new mobile applications. Publishers who accept the trend by making their books available in electronic formats readable on mobile devices and by providing information about their books in an easy to find manner on the web will likely reap the rewards of these technological advances. Publishers who cling to old paradigms about how publishing works may find themselves looking for ribbons for their typewriters…

Checking Your Brand…

In my last blog, I discussed the importance of establishing a brand, both for authors and small publishers. It’s also important that you regularly check your brand to see what people are saying about it. The easiest way to do this is by doing a Google search. I regularly perform searches for Divertir Publishing to see what people are saying about us. When I find something good, I’ll sometimes link to it. If I find comments suggesting we need to improve in some area, I try to make improvements. It was a well-written comment a while back suggesting that some of our covers needed to be more modern that caused me to rethink some of our current cover designs.

In a recent Google search, I found a blog by an author that stated we had sent him a form rejection letter twice. He commented that form letters were not really “doing things differently” and then went on to swear while making “suggestions” for improvement (these “suggestions” were not PG – thus the reason for not providing a link for the blog). First, I would like to apologize to the author – a mistake was made and I promise we will be more diligent about not sending these types of emails twice in the future. Second, I actually agree with him that form letters are not really “doing things differently.” Authors who have followed Divertir Publishing since our start know that we used to send a personalized email to every author. Three things happened to change this:

• The growing slush pile. Last year we processed well over 1,000 queries. As much as I like the idea of replying to each query individually, the truth is this is no longer practical if we are going to continue to accept queries from authors.
• Reality. Our current rejection letter says our reason for not pursuing a manuscript is that we are “not the right publisher.” This is an accurate statement, and to say anything else would be pretentious. I no more know what the next blockbuster will be than the people publishing books by reality TV stars and the dogs of celebrities. What I do know is what I like, and that’s what we publish. In instances where a manuscript seems like a good idea but is just not my cup of tea, I’m not sure how appropriate it is for me to say much more than that.
• “Fan” emails. People who have read my blog for a while know that is my polite way of describing the nasty emails we get from authors calling us everything from “hacks running a vanity press” to “tools of the publishing elite, who lack the vision to see real genius” when we reject a manuscript (those are in quotes because we really did get those two emails). This is a case where a few bad apples have spoiled the bunch – because of emails like this, I no longer provide advice to authors (whether it is on changes they could make so their query letter stands out or things they should think about for their manuscript) unless they request it.

So what does this have to do with an author’s brand? I think I’ll break my rule here and give a general piece of advice that I hope is useful. When an agent or publisher is considering sending you a contract, often they will take the time to find out as much as they can about you, including looking at your Facebook page and reading your blog. An unprofessional rant (that includes swearing) about a simple mistake is just as likely to demonstrate to those agents and publishers that your brand is not something they want to consider as it is to demonstrate that your brand is worth the investment…

Writing and Blogging and Brands, Oh My…

I need to start with a confession: When I get busy I’m not always very good at doing something that I advise authors to do. In an age where over one million books are published every year by large publishers, small presses, and self-published authors, it’s very easy even for authors with large publishers to get lost in the crowd. Thus, more than ever, establishing a brand is important for writers both to attract and to keep readers.

What do I mean by establishing a brand? The best example is for people to look at how they currently purchase books. I’m guessing you don’t walk into a bookstore and say “I’d like the latest book by Divertir Publishing” (if you do I’d love to hear about it). More likely, whether you’re shopping at a local bookstore or online, you start by searching for new books by your favorite authors or one that has been recommended by someone. The recommendation can come from your social network or from a blog that you read, but it’s a well established marketing trend that people tend to stick with what they know or what people they trust recommend. This is the reason major brands use celebrities to endorse products – the hope is, because these people are celebrities, that you will trust what they have to say.

So how do you create a brand for your writing? There are a few steps you can use to start:

• Write great books. This almost sounds like a silly suggestion, but you would be amazed the number of queries we get each week that, while good ideas, are just not quite done baking. Whether you are self-publishing or going with a small/traditional press, the quality of the words you write will follow you for a long time, and people will be less likely to buy your next book if they didn’t enjoy your last one.
• Create a web page. There are a lot of free hosting services that allow people to create web sites, and a lot of free templates available to make your page stand out. Your books should always be on the main page, along with where to purchase them. Other items to have on your website include an author bio, excerpts of your writing, some free content (short stories or samples of your books – we always provide the first 20% of a book in pdf format as a free sample for our authors to distribute), and links to your publishers’ sites and the sites of other authors you like. Make sure that if you link to an author’s site you ask them to do the same. You’ll be surprised how many will say yes. Also make sure your website links to good reviews about your book. One of our authors, Sid Hamer, does a very good job with her website if you need inspiration.
• Blogging. Your blog does not have to always be about your book. It can be tips for writers (how to write a query letter, for example) and comments about the world of writing at large (the fact that Barnes and Noble will be closing 20 stores a year for the next 10 years is certainly something to talk about). You can also do “blog swaps,” where you and another author post guest blogs or interviews on each others blogs. This is a great way to expose both your writing and the other author’s writing to new potential fans. My one piece of advice here is never do anything quid pro quo (I’ll write a good review of your book if you write one of mine) – nothing will kill your reputation faster than recommending a poorly written book.
• Become involved in Social Networking sites. The more places the name of your book appears online, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or Goodreads, the more chance there is someone will discover it.

As the owner/publisher of Divertir Publishing, I’m am always concerned about our brand. Because quality matter to us, to date we have only published twelve books, with eight more under contract. Truth be told, we would be making a lot more money if we became less selective and turned out books faster, but I feel we would be doing our authors a disservice if we became known for a lower quality product. That said, I think we can do more with our website (such as allowing submissions directly from the site), our blog (such as including author interviews and commentary by others), and our social networking presence (to date we are only really active on Facebook). I think a strong brand for Divertir Publishing will help our authors, and it our goal for this year.

Prime Real Estate…

The Boston Book Festival was yesterday, and I must admit I’ve become hooked on Writer’s Idol. This year the panel was much less brutal than last year (I was not the only person to comment on this), but there were two interesting themes in their comments I thought I would share:

• This year, description seemed to be the item that the panel focused on. Not that authors used too much or too little, but rather that most of the descriptions were bland. One of the panelists, Esmond Harmsworth of Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, noted that you don’t want to describe a place the way you see it, but rather as a “68-year-old Croatian refugee” sees it. In short, you want to your descriptions to reflect your character’s personality, which is far more likely to make descriptions interesting.
• One of the entries said the genre was “Paranormal Historical Comedy,” and all the panelists rolled their eyes at that one. I can understand why. As a publisher, I have to assign a set of BISAC codes to every book we publish; these codes tell bookstores where to place the book in stores. If you check the BISAC code list, you’ll notice “paranormal historical comedy” does not have a code (and probably never will). The lesson is that you should not be overly creative in describing the genre of your work in your query – an agent or publisher will be less likely to make it through your query if the question sitting in the back of their head is “Does this cross-genre work really have a market” or “Just where would a bookstore shelve this work?”

I must admit my “I get it” moment about Writer’s Idol came during another session on the future of publishing. A woman asked a question about downloading samples on her Kindle. It occurred to me that this is what most people probably do now; once they’ve “discovered” a book (either through recommendations or by other means), the first thing they are likely to do is download a sample of the book. It used to be that to sample a book required going to the library or bookstore, but now it can be done right from your computer or smart phone. This probably means that more people are sampling books before they buy them than in the past. Thus, in a digital age, the first few pages of your manuscript really are prime real estate – they are the words that will make a person buy your book or move on to the next recommendation. While I consider Writer’s Idol to be entertaining, I also think it serves to remind authors just how important their choice of the first 250 words in their manuscript is.

Hitting the Amazon Lottery…

Yesterday I received an email from Amazon. It started:

Divertir Publishing,
Are you looking for something in our Mystery, Thriller & Suspense books department? If so, you might be interested in these items.

The initially amusing thing is that the first book in the list was The 8th Doll by Chris Rakunas, a book we published last month. I say initially amusing because they were basically asking me to purchase a book I published, but in the end it has turned out to be a lot more interesting. I forwarded the email to Chris, who replied that he had received the same email and had chalked it up to how often he has checked the Amazon ranking of his book.

This morning I noticed something pretty interesting. The Amazon ranking for the paperback version of The 8th Doll had dropped by over 700,000 (from a little over 1,000,000 to a little over 300,000), while the Kindle ranking had dropped by about 250,000 (meaning a lot more copies sold over the past 24 hours than on average). I also noticed that most of the other books in the email were in the “Customers who viewed this book also viewed” list on The 8th Doll’s Amazon page, and that both of Chris’s book were on some of their pages. So clearly the email had resulted in customers viewing most of the books in the list and, in our case, an increase in sales.

I called Amazon customer support, eager to find out why our book had made this esteemed list that had obviously resulted in sales. Was some Gnome who feasted on dragon’s  hearts secretly reading these books in the bowels of some building in Seattle? As a small publisher, this seemed like important information to know – mostly so I could help our other authors achieve this same visibility. The woman in support initially had no idea what I was talking about or that emails even went out, but none-the-less was very courteous and eventually found the answer. After a lot of research by Amazon customer support, the answer is far less exciting than anything to do with Gnomes:

• Amazon tracks every time you look at a book page, whether you purchase the book or not. Thus, because Chris and I had looked at his page several times, we ended up on the Thriller/Suspense email list.
• The books selected for the list are selected completely at random by a computer. In fact, the best customer support could find out was that the list is not even tailored based on an individual’s viewing habits, and the same list is sent to everyone.

So the short answer is that Chris apparently hit the “Amazon Lottery,” where out of over 10 million-plus balls his came randomly shooting out of the machine. But this has also shown me something about the importance of the “Customers who viewed” lists on Amazon, in that Chris’s book now also appears on all of their pages, just like their books appear on his page. It will be interesting to see if this helps sales in the long run.