Saying Goodbye to Outdated Author Beliefs

January 4, 2025Leave a comment

As we turn the page to 2025, it’s a great time to reflect on our approaches to publishing. For first-time authors, especially, the following three common misconceptions can hinder success.

The Myth of the Follower-Fueled Bestseller: Having a substantial online following is undoubtedly valuable. It provides a built-in audience and a platform for promotion. However, it’s crucial to understand that followers don’t automatically translate into book sales. A like on a post is a far cry from a pre-order or purchase. Some followers are showing up for the free content—a comedy skit to past the time during lunch break or a lifestyle hack to make planning easier. The smart author directs those followers to their newsletter, private community, and paid services to get a true sense of their audience.

The Illusion of the Self-Selling Book: Many authors mistakenly believe that once their book is published, it will magically find its audience. News flash: it will not! This is a competitive business, and book buyers are selective about where they spend their dollars. The smart author actively promotes their book and bakes it into their work.

The Trap of Passion Alone: While passion is undoubtedly a driving force behind writing a book, it’s not enough to guarantee sales. (And neither is a celebrity endorsement or feature in top media, but that is a separate post.) Enthusiasm for your topic doesn’t automatically translate into reader interest or effective marketing. The smart author has a strategy to reach their readers; this author understands the audience’s pain points and communicates how their book alleviates them.

This year, let’s embrace a more realistic and strategic approach to nonfiction publishing. Happy writing, and happy new year!

Setting Yourself Up for Success Post-Contract

September 15, 2024Leave a comment

Once you’ve signed that coveted book contract, the journey is far from over. In fact, it’s just beginning. The following are three actions to take to ensure a smooth and successful publication process.

Establish a writing schedule: A well-structured writing schedule is essential for staying on track and delivering your manuscript on time. Remember to include ample time for reviewing and revising your work. Some authors set apart their weekends or summer while others prefer to hit a certain word count each month. Whatever you choose, commit to it. A solid writing schedule should also include time to review and revise your work. Use productivity tools like Grammarly and time-management software like Microsoft’s Focus Time feature to help you stay on track.
Fire up your audience with a listserv: A listserv is a valuable tool for connecting with your readers and keeping them informed about your book’s progress. By inviting your audience to subscribe, you can build a loyal following and generate excitement for your upcoming publication. You can offer them exclusive sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes glimpses into your progress. Updates should be sent regularly, including milestones like your cover reveal and when your book is available to preorder.
Secure necessary permissions: If your book includes any third-party materials, such as graphs, illustrations, lyrics, or excerpts from other works, you must obtain the necessary permissions to reprint them. Do not assume fair use is applicable. Failure to do so could lead to legal issues and potential copyright infringement. Some publishers will not send your book to the printer if there are outstanding permissions, which could cause a delayed release.

You can have an efficient, successful publishing experience by following these steps.

Tapping Your Network

October 24, 2023Leave a comment

You’ve signed with your dream publisher and submitted your manuscript to production. As release day draws closer, you wonder what you can do as author to help sales and publicity. The following are a few tips that involve leveraging your network to drive sales as soon as your book is available for preorder.

> Ask to appear on their podcast—Discuss your expertise and plug your book. You don’t have to sound like a salesperson, but you must understand that you are your book’s biggest cheerleader. It’s even better if the podcast centers on your area of focus because you know that you are in front of the right audience.

> Send an advance copy of the book to your media and industry contacts—Invite them to leave a review, talk about it to their followers, and purchase a copy for their teams.

> Continue establishing yourself as a leader in the space—Book consulting and professional learning on the subject. Create future keynote presentations or online offerings on the book’s topic. Remember that while writing for well-known publications like The Atlantic, NPR, or Edutopia will often put you in front of a larger audience, do not dismiss the benefits of posting to popular sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, or TikTok. You should have a modern, easy-to-navigate professional website and social media account.

Communicating Your Vision for Your Book’s Cover Design

April 11, 2023Leave a comment

Cover design is one of the most exciting parts of the book production process. Undoubtedly, both author and publisher understand that a well-designed cover draws in readers, and all parties want to be proud of the end result. However, the author and publisher often have differing ideas of what that design looks like.

For the publisher’s part, it wants something that is engaging, complimentary to its brand, visually appealing in person and online, and compliant with any considerations pertaining to licensing of art and fonts. I suspect most authors want the same but often focus their attention on the look and “vibe “of their cover. So, how can these parties each leave the cover design process satisfied?

I recommend the publisher ask and authors communicate their vision. A meeting, email, or cover questionnaire can easily accomplish this. Along those lines, the author should consider:

What competing book covers look like—The author should look online, in industry catalogs, or in brick-and-mortar stores. Note the books that are billed as best-sellers or get prime placement (that is, forward-facing in stores).
What “feel” they want—The feel can be fun and accessible, authoritative, or something else.
What colors the author envisions—The author should note if he or she wants a cover with vibrate shades like red and orange, soft pastels like sage green or cream, or something else.
Fonts—Authors should communicate whether they want the title or author name be bigger than the subtitle, whether the main title be larger than all other text, whether they desire cursive or other special looks.
Art—Some authors do not want pictures on their book covers while others are indifferent. Others still, may have strong feelings about certain symbols. I once worked with an author who was vehement that her book on motherhood should not use a cover image that focused on a pregnancy bed. To her, images like that removed the woman’s personhood and centered her only as a reproductive agent. Any author who has strong feelings should communicate that.

If authors don’t know what they want or are open to a variety of designs, they have likely made their designer’s day. Who doesn’t like carte blanche to create a stunning visual!

After authors communicate their cover desires, they should trust their partner—that is, their publisher. Any reputable publisher has years—or centuries—of publishing success under its belt. It won’t want to jeopardize that on a slapdash cover that looks inferior beside competitors.

Identifying Your Primary Audience

February 28, 2023Leave a comment

Whether reading a proposal or discussing a prospective author’s book idea, there’s a point when my focus turns to primary audience—that is, the customer who will buy the most copies of the author’s book. It is quite common for authors who want their books to reach as many people as possible and undoubtedly to sell as many copies of their book as possible to say everyone is their audience. That is never true and actually paints the author as ignorant to the promotion and sells component of what makes a book successful.

Audience should strike the balance of (1) being large enough to make a book worth a publisher’s time but (2) narrow enough that the publisher knows how to sell it and (3) authors distinguishes themselves in the field. Since most of my career is spent in academic and trade PD publishing, I would urge authors who want to work with me to consider the following when determining their audience.

Who is the current captive audience? That is, what organizations, firms, schools, or other client are paying the author for keynotes and training—and renewing contracts for additional workshops? Who comprises the author’s social and professional network (i.e., academics, system and school leaders, or someone else)?
What audience will the author be presenting to in the coming 1–2 years?
What conferences is the author attending or panels is the author sitting on?

The answer to these questions = the primary audience. Anyone else is ancillary.

If the first book finds success, the author is welcome to focus the next book on this secondary audience.

Optimizing Online Presence to Attract Trade Publishers

January 2, 2023Leave a comment

I’ll begin with a quote by bestselling author Jeb Blount (2010): “People buy you.” In this case, people encompass acquisitions editors—the party a publisher tasks with signing new authors to books that support publisher goals. Before an acquisitions editor invites a prospective author for a meeting or to send a book proposal, they will likely do an online search to see what they can learn about you and your work.

A few of the things I look for:

Publicity about the prospect—I consider, “Is the author mentioned in professional or local news stories? What is the context?” Prospect authors should do online searches for themselves to see what information presents itself. I do not care if you’re divorced, but I do care if you’ve been given an industry award. I want to sign content experts.
Personal or professional website—I look for a bio, upcoming speaking or training events, prices of those events, and list of speaking or research topics to name a few. I look to see whether the author is affiliated with any professional organizations, schools, or individuals whose support can help book sales. A prospective, or even published, author would be wise to include these elements. They should keep the information up-to-date to accurately reflect themselves.
Social media—I look at the author’s following, frequency of posts, follower engagement with posts, and more. Again, I want to know if there is an audience that would support the book. Along those lines, I also want to see if there are any red flags that suggest the author is not a good fit. Those flags entail posts that suggest the author’s passion no longer lies in the direction that I am interested in pursuing, posts that harass others online, or similar.

Online presence is an easy vehicle for self-promotion.

Citation: Blount, J. (2010). People buy you: The real secret to what matters most in business. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Coauthoring a Book: 4 Recommendations for a Smooth Publishing Experience

August 10, 2022August 10, 20222 Comments

I noticed that quite a number of books that I acquired have multiple authors. Whether they’re longtime business partners penning their first book or previously published authors sharing a byline for the first time, coauthors can do the following to make the process easier on them and the publisher.

Have a clear, joint vision for their book: Successful books have a clear audience, message, and cohesive voice. Before submitting their proposals, coauthors should discuss and agree on these elements.
Know how they will split royalties: It is not a given that all parties will split royalties equally. If one is contributing more in terms of authorship, research, marketing, or celebrity, it is okay for that person to get a larger percentage of the royalties if coauthors agree. Or coauthors may want all royalties to be paid to a single entity like a charity or institution. Either way, they must notify their acquisitions editor, so she can add the proper designations to the contract.
Choose one party to be the primary contact: Especially if there are three or more authors involved, it will make for a more cohesive publishing process for editorial, design, and production if the managing editor or acquisition staff can contact one person to respond to questions or assign tasks. This does not mean all parties can’t be copied on all email correspondence. It is just more time efficient to have one person compiling and then communicating cover design considerations, for example, instead of the publisher receiving multiple emails that may state very different desires. That leads to the next point.
Designate collaboration time and assign tasks: Coauthors should create a schedule that gives them time to discuss their writing strategy, promotion and sales information from their publisher, deadlines, and so on. Along those lines, considerations when designating work include asking who will:
- Solicit or compile endorsements
- Review the copyedit and respond to editor queries
- Review page proofs
- Proofread the draft before sending it to their publisher

This is by no means an exhaustive list but does help coauthors plan for a smooth publishing process.

Naming Your Book

June 7, 2022Leave a comment

A book’s title is arguably as important as its content. A vague title or one too common runs the risk of being overlooked by retail customers. A title that’s too niche is also unlikely to gain traction.

One must also make sure the book’s title complements the cover art. Simple, short titles look great on covers with little or with tremendous artwork. On the other hand, a long title (think more than seven words) on a 6 x 9 trim book or on a cover that already has a lot of images may look too busy and off-putting, especially as a thumbnail–the size the cover will as on online retailers.

The following are a few questions to consider to get a title that resonates on the market.

• Does the proposed title identify the book’s audience and the book’s goal?

• What key terms will buyers use to search retailer sites or inquire at bookstores about books on the topic?

• What terms are popular among leading competitors?

Authors shouldn’t consider titling their book a solo task. They should consult their publisher, which has access to marketing and sales professionals. The latter know which key words, title, or subtitle will best position the book for success on the market.

Good luck!

Bragging on Yourself, Selling Yourself

March 28, 2022March 28, 2022Leave a comment

Some see humility as a virtue, and I concede there is a time for it. However, that time is never when writing your proposal or pitching yourself to a publisher. When writing your proposal or pitching yourself, you as prospective author should detail:

Your expertise—What are your credentials? Have you received any national or international awards or appointments because of your work?
Your platform—How many unique views does your website, YouTube channel, or podcast receive each month? How many subscribers do your various social media? How many “shares” do typical posts or Tweets receive?

Brag about yourself! Learn to distinguish yourself early on because you’ll have to do more self-promotion when your book releases.

Preparing to Meet an Acquisition’s Editor

January 9, 2022March 28, 2022Leave a comment

Whether you contact the editor or she prospects you to discuss your book idea, you should bring your A game to the meeting. That is:

Be professional—Arrive on time, minimize distractions as much as possible, and be ready to discuss your work and your book idea. Editors often schedule meetings back-to-back so it’s a good use of both parties’ time to quickly communicate your goal, your vision for your book now and for years to come, and why you want to work with that publisher.
Ask questions—The meeting is your chance to assess whether the publisher is a good fit for you. One way to do that is to question those parts of the process you’re unclear about and see if the editor responds seriously, sincerely, and to your satisfaction.
Be coachable—While you may be a content expert, you likely aren’t an expert on matters such as best marketing practices, consumer buying trends, translation rights, and so on. If an editor tells you that it’s better to include reproducibles or reflection space in your book and bump its trim size to 7” x 10” instead of releasing a book and companion workbook, for example, heed the advice—but don’t shy from asking why. To have a successful working relationship, editors like myself will note how you respond to feedback. Are you engaged and coachable, or do you insist that you know best?
Sell yourself and your expertise—Be true to yourself. If you’re an introvert, lean into that. However, you must convince the editor that you are the perfect person to take a chance on—especially if discussing a scholarly or work-for-hire project. A publisher invests a lot of resources into a book, so it wants to know that you’re worth the risk.