Strive for Excellence

This weekend, I was in Tucson, Arizona for the Tucson Festival of Books. There were over 400 authors at this event which had crowds estimated at 80,000 to 100,000 people. In the middle of this event, it is easy to get lost as an author. I enjoyed meeting other authors and learning about their books. In general, I was looking for ways to help others and learn from them instead of focused on hard selling. The event was mostly about exposure and networking.

When you attend such a large gathering, one of the keys is to manage your expectations about what will happen or not happen at such an event. Some authors expect to sell stacks of books at such an event. I did not. Instead, I focused on building some relationships with authors and readers—which is a much more reasonable expectation to actually accomplish.

As I sat in the author room at the Festival, I struck up a conversation with the woman beside me. She had a new beautiful book and pulled it out of her bag to show it to me. I read the title and admired the photo (which she took). Then I noticed the words “Forward by ____” on her cover. I pointed out the misspelling. Foreword is one of the most misspelled words in publishing and because of my experience, it jumped out at me.

I pointed it out to her and she responded, “My editor was supposed to catch such things.” I was unsure what to say because the misspelling was on a printed book or a little late to change without reprinting.

Then I opened the book and the inside pages were set in Courier New typeface. I didn't mention the typeface to her since she was already a bit stressed about the misspelling. How many books do you have on your shelf with Courier New typeface?

I would take a guess and the answer is zero. There are millions of books being produced in many different formats and methods. If you decide to use one of the alternative methods, that's terrific—but make sure your book fits the standards of traditional books. Different is not always good.

When someone reads your book, you want them to focus on the message in your book—not to spin off on a tangent wondering why your book was produced in such a “different” fashion. Ultimately it is the author's responsibility to maintain this high standard.

This week I checked the inside pages of one of Intermedia's books that is about ready to go to the printer. My day job is working as a publisher at Intermedia Publishing Group. If you want to know the details of our publishing program click this link and get a free teleseminar with the details.

I have a number of books in various stages of production. I looked at the Foreword and the word was spelled right but it was only one sentence. One sentence is inadequate for a Foreword. The majority of Forewords in books are about 1,000 to 1,500 words or like a short magazine article. The Foreword needs to have substance and length to fit the standard for books. When I saw this one sentence Foreword, I wrote my author and we made some changes. No one is going to see this one sentence Foreword in the final book.

As authors, it is important to strive for excellence. Will mistakes slip through our fingers and land in the printed books? Yes, you can easily find typos and mistakes in every published book. The good news is these errors can be fixed when the book is reprinted. I encourage my authors to take a book and mark it “corrections” so they can process and keep track of reader feedback. If the feedback makes sense, then let's correct it on a subsequent printing.

Each of us need to push ourselves and our books toward excellence. Our readers deserve our best effort.

Write On Target

After reading thousands of magazine articles and book proposals from writers who would like to get them published, I find the reason for rejection often boils down to one key mistake: the writer assumes that their writing is for everyone. They have no target audience so they do not hit anything.

To tackle this area of no target audience, first I want to address the writer trying to get published in the magazine market. All beginning writers should perfect their craft with short magazine articles. Every magazine has a target reader. The writer needs to determine who this publication is reaching. What is the age of their reader? What is the gender? What types of products and services do they purchase? Check the advertising rate cards for the publication because often this information is in this section of their website or printed literature. When you send in your article or query, make sure you are addressing the target reader.

Children’s writers often forget their target. The children’s market is extremely segmented and targeted with particular age groups. The gatekeepers, such as the editor or agent, wants to know you have that target firmly in your sights when you send in your work. If you aim for too large of an age range, don’t be surprised if your submission is instantly rejected.

For a nonfiction book, who will be your ideal reader? Is that target large enough and do they buy books? Make sure you approach publishers who can reach your target audience. Is there a secondary target reader? All too often writers tell me their book is for everyone. Editors and agents know that books have targeted audiences and you will increase your possibilities of acceptance if you have a target firmly in mind.

It is the same with fiction. What genre and target audience are you writing for and planning on them reading your book? If you aim at nothing, you will be sure to hit it. Be on target and have a target audience with your writing. If you have it in your mind from the beginning it will show in the words you produce.

Here are two quick examples of books I’ve recently read with great target audiences Lela N. Buchanan wrote Finding Redemption in Every Day Life (Intermedia). With engaging and warm writing, Lela writes her personal experiences about the moments of failure in her own life and the lives of her immediate family members. When you fail, what turns around that failure into a moment of redemption or something God can use in your life for good? I was captivated with her stories and they kept me turning the pages. Lela wrote with a type of reader firmly in mind for this well-crafted book.

For fiction, Joel Rosenberg has long been a favorite author of mine for telling a contemporary story that appears to be ripped from the pages of the newspaper with vivid characters who are in fascinating difficulties. In The Twelfth Iman (Tyndale), Joel firmly targeted a reader who loves contemporary Middle East political action thrillers.

Keep your target reader in mind and it will make a huge difference in your writing.

A Return to The Writing Life

Have you ever been missing in action? You have built expectations to where readers expect to be receiving your material and it has suddenly stopped.

Since late 2004, I have been writing these entries about The Writing Life and various aspects of publishing. A simple goal of capturing a few words a day has built until it is over 900 entries on many different aspects of the publishing industry. If you haven't used the free search tool in the right hand column of these entries, you could be missing some valuable writing insight. In late January, I stopped writing and took a break from these entries.

The day after Easter and a celebration of the resurrection seems like a perfect day to begin again. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I have not left publishing or stopped pointing to different articles and bits of publishing information. My followers on Twitter has grown to over 13,000. In relation to Twitter, I have recently started using a free tool called Hootsuite. If you haven't tried it, I recommend it because it gives people an easy way to Retweet or pass along your tweets--something which can become very viral in spreading the buzz about something.

First, let me say something about taking a break from regular writing. It's OK to give yourself permission. I know the writing books talk about the necessity of writing on a regular basis and I applaud that consistent pattern. At the same, time life happens and you should not feel guilty for stopping a pattern or changing it.

I continue an active role in publishing and actually much more hands on than the last few years. I've closed my literary agency and become a publisher at Intermedia Publishing Group. I'm working with a number of different authors on their books--cover design meetings, editing their books and much more. It's limited my time for writing these entries but I'm determined they should continue.

I hope you will check my speaking schedule from time to time. In the coming weeks, I will be back out teaching and talking one-on-one with writers about their specific projects. I'd love to meet you and talk about your project and how we could work together.

This weekend I head to Baltimore and the Spread the Word Conference. I'm excited about the opportunity to talk about how a published book can be a great calling card for every writer. There is still room for you to register and attend this conference. Hope to see you there.