by Barry, Sam
THE DIFERENCE BETWEEN SCRIBBLING AND BABBLING
Connected though they are, spoken and written languages are very different. If you have ever written a speech, you may have learned this. A speechwriter must be conscious of the cadences of oratory, of course—you want to keep the audience engaged, or at least awake. But a speechwriter must also be aware that in the spoken word, the listener doesn’t have the luxury of re-reading a difficult idea. This is why speechwriters often employ very straightforward language. People’s minds may wander, and any audience will have represented in its ranks various levels of sophistication. To address these factors speechwriters use tricks such as repetition, or three simple points, or one example that is returned to again and again like a touchstone, which enables the listeners to make connections and follow the message.
Writers use similar tricks, and some tricks of the spoken word may help us to be better writers. However, because the reader has more time to review, consider, and mull over the message or story, the writer has far greater leeway to convey a more complex, nuanced message. But tone of voice and body language, essential tools of the spoken word, are missing on the page, which means the writer must work harder to convey the emotional content and intent of the message.
YOU HAVE TO READ TO WRITE—RIGHT? WRITE!
Most of us write because we read. Reading teaches us the power of words, of stories and history and argument. So, first and foremost, to be a writer you must be a reader. If you’re like us you grew up reading everything—novels, history, popular science books, newspapers, comic books, cereal boxes, road signs—anything that was put in front of you. Just as we learn how to walk and talk, we learn how to write from others, from the people who go before us telling stories and recording history and trying to explain the meaning of it all. We read to get our vocabulary—not just the nouns and verbs and prepositions, but the means to express our mind, heart, and soul.
A crucial stage in any writer’s development occurs long before the dream of writing a published book, at the moment when we go from reading to doing a bit of our own writing. This may happen when we are very young. It may be because we are not allowed to play with a toy until we’ve written a thank-you note, or we are given a notebook of some kind at school. Many of us will scrawl something almost illegible, but that illegible scrawl is the beginning of a moment of amazing discovery—the power of creating our own written words.
WHY WE WRITE
We write to tell a story, to describe an event, to imagine or explain what has been or will happen, to warn or touch or inspire. We write to express our most profound emotions—love and hatred, joy and sorrow, humor and sadness.
Writing is also how we pass on knowledge. This is why reading other writers is so important: by exploring the written works of the past we can perform a sort of archaeological dig, discovering how an idea has changed or persisted over thousands of years. Our ancestors speak to us through writing more directly than through any other medium, with the possible exception of YouTube.
Writing makes it possible for us to compose and record our thoughts and stories in a form that will last as long as the language is understood. The written word is fixed. Depending on what it is written with and on, the word can remain preserved for a very long time, and although a piece of writing can be interpreted in different ways, the text itself does not change—unless, of course, it is revised.
Writing is one of the most important, useful, and most rewarding of human endeavors. But you need to be disciplined and keep at it. Over time, you will be surprised by how much you accomplish.
BOTTOM LINE
You must sit down and write. Not talk about writing, but actual pen-to-paper or fingers-to-keyboard writing. Books are crafted one good sentence at a time. No matter what happens, if you persist, you won’t be sorry. Human beings have been telling stories and discovering more about life and the world and passing it along via the written word for centuries. You are part of that tradition. Be humble, but also be proud.
CHAPTER TWO
YOU HAVE A
GREAT IDEA.
SO WHAT?
Okay, so maybe you are the world’s authority on the art of making butter sculptures of dead presidents’ heads, but if you want to sell a book on the subject you’ll have to do more than know your stuff. You’ll need to make the idea sound sexy, or cool, or hot, or timely, or cute, or something that instantly makes it clear to people why the world needs your book.
When it comes down to it, you, the author, are trying to talk total strangers into investing their time, effort, and money in you and your idea. You need to sell yourself to the agents of the world so they in turn can sell you to the acquiring editors, who will sell to the publishers, whose marketing team will sell to the sales force, who will sell to the book buyers of stores and other retailers, who will sell to their staff, who will sell to the public. There are other models but th INSTRUCTIONS: SUBMISSION e point is that (in case we aren’t making ourselves clear) you’ll need to sell yourself and your idea again and again throughout the process.
MINING FOR GOLD
Along the way everything will get refined, and in the process your book may even morph into something else. Your title may change (actually, this is likely to happen), a subtitle may get added, and the manuscript will need revision—perhaps even a major overhaul. The one-liner “elevator pitch” that you came up with to describe the book may become an altogether different one-liner. The changes will keep coming.
This may be disconcerting, but we suggest that you approach all the roughhouse this way: instead of thinking, “I am the author, and this is my book—what do these people know?” try to think, “This is exciting—people are interested enough in me and my book to invest their time and energy into making it more salable.” This doesn’t mean you can’t fight for what you believe in, especially if it comes down to the integrity of your book or your own core beliefs. But stay loose and open—some of the ideas that are suggested to you may be improvements.
A TRUE-LIFE EXAMPLE TO ILLUSTRATE OUR POINT
For example (just to pull an example out of the air), let’s say you’ve come up with an idea for a combination inspiration/humor book that teaches the reader how to become more playful in life via learning to play the harmonica. It’s a unique idea, but when you describe it to publishing professionals the first comparison title that seems to come to mind is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and despite the fact that neither you nor anyone else you’ve talked to about your idea has ever actually read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, it is a well-known, strong-selling book with a recognizable title that pairs an odd combination of concepts. In other words, your book is a little weird, but so is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and it sold a ton of copies, so maybe yours will too!
Your book, How to Play, is sold to a small publisher of elegant design books and earthy humor books, and you are introduced to your editor via e-mail. The editor likes the humor aspects of your book, and asks you to beef them up, so you do. Then she asks for major cuts in word count, so that your manuscript will conform to a required design template. Many of these cuts make good sense— and will make for a stronger book. You get rid of some redundancies and the weaker jokes, but there are a few suggested cuts you simply don’t want to make. This is an instance where choosing your battles will stand you in good stead. If you’ve been a good sport about making changes that weren’t crucial to you, you’ll have more credibility when you stand up for the passages you feel are essential, like the passage where you quote John Belushi saying “I owe it all to little chocolate donuts.” Who wouldn’t fight for keeping that in their book?
YOU CAN’T MAKE A SILK PURSE FROM A SOW’S EAR
Getting back to all that selling—the publisher needs to start with good materials. The first and most important matter is a shipshape manuscript, or a good proposal if you are writing nonfiction (including at least part of a well-written manuscript). Next, research the market for yo
ur book. Don’t take this task lightly—it will benefit everyone to know what else is out there. This research will tell you what’s selling now or recently that is similar, and how your book is unique—if it is.
Don’t be afraid to face the fact that someone else may have already successfully done what you are attempting to do. This may mean you need to rethink your idea, or even throw it out. It also may mean that there is a huge market for your kind of book, in which case you are planning to jump on the bandwagon and aren’t that concerned with originality. Perhaps you can tweak your idea just enough to say, “See, this is new and different!” even though it really isn’t all that unique. Putting a new spin on a comfortably familiar idea is something that is done all the time. Originality is a complex concept and we are not going to attempt to wrestle it to the ground here. Suffice it to say, each book is a different case. At times it seems as if there is nothing new under the sun, so don’t worry about it, just invent a better mousetrap (and, if you correctly guess the number of clichés in this paragraph, our hats are off to you). From another perspective: each book and author is unique, and you don’t need to try too hard to be the first, the only, and so on—you already are an original. Just keep your mind open to what the world needs and watch for your niche.
Tough Love from the Author Enablers
Do you want to be a published author, or did you really just write this book for yourself or your own private audience? Now’s the time to decide, because once you engage an agent and sell to a publisher your book isn’t solely yours anymore. ‹«
Your editor works with you on your manuscript changes, and then springs another surprise: the sales reps don’t think the title How to Play will be easy to sell to their accounts, and they want to change the title to something you aren’t sure works. At this point, it might be prudent to get your agent involved, so she can act as the “bad cop” and insist that more thinking go into the title question, or title/subtitle question if your book is nonfiction—remembering, of course, that your contract likely stipulates that the publisher does indeed have the right to change the title and design the cover as well, not to mention change your name if they don’t like it. No, just kidding about the name thing. We have never heard of a publisher ever insisting on such an outrageous demand. Suggesting, maybe, even strongly. Perhaps misspelling your name on the book jacket by mistake. But never actually telling you to change your name. Really. Who would do such a thing? Hollywood, maybe, but not a book publisher.
A compromise is finally reached, and How to Play has become How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons. There’s a lot less har- monica and inspiration, a lot more humor. The cover is catchy, and while you worry that it might not capture your original vision . . . well, they may be right and you may be wrong. Who knows? How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons just might jump off the shelves into the arms of eager impulse buyers. You do need the force to be with you—the sales force, that is—and this is the title they ultimately agreed they could do the best job of selling.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK (BEFORE YOU GO OUT TO PLAY)
Researching the competition and market can take some time. It is easy to go to the websites of online retailers and get a snapshot of what’s selling now. Amazon and Barnes & Noble both offer search mechanisms and sales rankings, and take our word for it, professionals in publishing use these sites all the time for their own research and to keep an eye on market trends. Publishing professionals are aware that Amazon ranking can be misleading. The ranking is affected by how often the title is searched (and not necessarily sold), and does not reflect sales in other retail outlets. You should also visit a variety of bookstores to see how books are displayed, and which titles are front and center. Talk to the bookstore employees, especially those who seem more experienced, and ask them which titles, similar to yours, they might recommend—and how well those books are selling. Go to your library and do a similar exercise. Make a list of the competitive titles, including author, publisher, publication date, and whether the book hit any bestseller lists or won awards, and write a brief description, focusing on those from recent years and including a few classics of the genre. Read some reviews for these books (these can be found online). Remember, all this research will make you a more knowledgeable, savvy author, and will equip you for making your pitch—and for writing a better book.
Determining accurate sales numbers for the competition titles is harder. Publishers don’t generally reveal these numbers, except when they want to brag (“More than one million copies sold!”). There are services that provide this information for the industry, but it isn’t the author’s job to provide sales numbers in detail—you have enough other work to do. If you do the research above you should have a good sense of which titles succeeded and to what degree, and your agent or the editor can fill in the details.
A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN NEEDS A SOLID PLATFORM
Aside from the competitive research and your daily writing, you can be laying the groundwork for your platform. “Platform” is a term used to define the group of people who know who you are and care about what you have to say, starting with your mother. Platforms are as varied as the authors who are standing on them. Some people develop a platform first, by being experts in fields that make them of interest as public speakers or writers. Perhaps they write articles in newspapers, in magazines, online, or all of the above. Perhaps they go before audiences and speak. Maybe they get on radio or television. Maybe they blog or tweet to thousands, or send out a monthly newsletter. Maybe they do some combination of all or some of these.
If you think about it, this kind of a platform can apply to any number of situations. A popular minister or rabbi can have a platform. So can a teacher or professor, or a health professional or healer, or a martial artist, or a motivational speaker, politician, artist (performing or otherwise), athlete, soldier, astronaut, mother of twenty-two, business person, clown, or horse whisperer. But the list is not limited to people in reputable fields—actors, con artists, people in prison, people who should be in prison, and other shady characters may develop platforms because their stories are unique or they are great salespeople, writers, or speakers. (Concerning the latter two, Sam’s brother Dave comes to mind.) Additionally, a person may have experienced a personal tragedy or overcome adversity and become a spokesperson for a particular cause or issue. The point is, this is someone with something to say that the world wants to hear.
FICTION WRITERS AND PLATFORM
Fiction writers, don’t despair—we know this all sounds like it applies only to the world of nonfiction. And to some degree it does. Your primary job as a fiction writer is to create a good book by the standards of your genre—lots of beautiful sentences with a convoluted, hard-to-follow plot if you are shooting for literary fiction, two dead people and a tough hero character established by page three if you are writing a thriller, a likeable, spunky female character looking for (and finding) a great guy if you are writing a romance (you’ve got to throw in an evil but sexy vampire if you are writing a vampire romance), and so on. You know your genre, or you should. Of course we kid about the stereotypes. No one writes according to such simplistic formulas! Well, yes, they do, but the ones who succeed know how to tell a great story and are exceptional at what they do—and some even invented the formula.
But getting back to fiction writers and platform—the best thing you can do is get some of your writing out there into the world. Write short fiction and get it published anywhere you can. Go to writers’ workshops if you can afford the time and tuition. Teach writing if that makes sense for you. See if you can get a short piece of yours published online or read on the radio. Write topical pieces about unique experiences in your life. It’s okay to cross over and do a little nonfiction writing—good writing is good writing, and getting published or noticed in any way can’t hurt your career.
For you nonfiction writers, the path to building a platform is clearer but also more demanding, because the expectations are highe
r. Publishers want to know that you already have something going. So here are some ways to get started.
BUILDING YOUR PLATFORM, ONE PERSON AT A TIME
Believe it or not, you can develop fans one person at a time. (Sam has, personally, developed fourteen fans in his life, though not for himself.) Let’s say you do a lot of public speaking about the benefits of green kamut for maintaining digestive health, but the crowds are small. Make some appealing business cards or small flyers and make sure you have a few on hand (in your purse, car, briefcase, pocket, underwear) at all times. Don’t be obnoxious about forcing them on people, but the next time you’re sitting on an airplane and overhear your seatmate burp repeatedly and say “Gosh, I wish I knew more about how to maintain my digestive health,” it’s the perfect opportunity for you to whip out your card and promote your product and yourself . . . and you might end up with a new stalker! You’ll recognize your fan when you pick up the phone and the heavy breathing is interrupted by burps. Here are some more ways to build your platform:
Maintain a good e-mail/mailing list, but don’t spam people. There are some wonderful web-based programs (for instance, Constant Contact) set up for maintaining and communicating with large groups of people. Many feature protocols that allow fans to sign themselves up via your website, and also let you import lists of contacts from other programs. Make sure you add only people who want to be on your list, and don’t drive your contacts crazy with too many e-mail blasts. Let people know how often they can expect to hear from you (once a week? once a month? every five minutes?) and expect “opt-outs” when you send more than the expected number of e-mails. Remember that everyone is busy. We all get too much e-mail, and it is an honor to be selected by the folks who sign up for your list, no matter how important you think you are. Don’t abuse the privilege, like Sam did with those fourteen people.
