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Interview with
Elizabeth Lyon
How did you get your start as a writer? Like so many others, I began writing as a child; I loved those diaries with little gold locks on them, then progressed to large blank journals. In my early twenties, I took a workshop on the Ira Progoff method of journaling and kept that for a year. When I was 10-12, I created a mock newspaper that I sent to distant friends. I corresponded with up to 20 people through my twenties and in those years experimented with writing short stories, novellas, memoir, articles, instructional manuals, and poetry. Even so, the idea of
being a writer didn't dawn as a vocational direction until age 29 when one day, it hit
me: 'I've always been a writer. This is my calling.' That's when years of education and practice began. "Platform," also referred to as "outreach" and "franchise," are synonymous marketing terms. They refer to a writer's marketing network, the pre-existing channels of personal sales. Unfortunately, authors' ability to sell their own nonfiction book may even supersede the content and worth of the book they are writing. I have had a number of editing clients with superb book ideas and well written books who could not sell them because they had not developed their platforms. Developing a national platform is very necessary for any writer who wishes to gain publication by a large publisher and developing a regional platform is necessary for publication with most small presses. However, writers have no need to fret. You can build a profile of your
platform-- present and promised-- with some shrewd writing of your own. I recommend
Jump Start Your Book Sales by Marilyn and Tom Ross and 1001 Way to Market Your
Book by John Kremer. Read these and build a substantial "About Promotion" section in the book proposal and a "condensed" version for a paragraph in the query, and you'll be fine. If a writer cannot, or does not want to, physically promote his or her book, develop a platform around the radio talk show forum and marketing articles related to the subject. The public buys books about areas of pre-existing knowledge. They also buy books on subjects that have been advertised in the media. When a book has "never been done" because the topic of treatment is truly new, the publisher and author face a job of educating the public to the subject. Recognition of the subject plus a need for the information propel most nonfiction book purchases. For instance, I have a friend who spent his life developing what he called "a non-psychological, language-based paradigm of human behavior." His ideas are cutting edge. Even if some of us think his work is of Einsteinian brilliance, he would probably get rejection letters to a query for a book. He might see publication in some scholarly journals, but to sell to mainstream publishers, he must coin a catch phrase, an analogy of his new ideas in terms of something familiar to
us; he has to publish many "educational" articles on the subject in general interest magazines. Then he must develop a greater platform yet. Most of us
buy books about subjects within our existing familiarity. To your first question regarding contacting a publisher of a competitor's book, the answer is this: First of all, I hope you are not sending your proposal directly to them, or any publisher, without being invited to do so in response to your query. Second, for a book that might be published by Simon and Schuster, you'll probably need and want an agent, and the decision of marketing would fall to her or to him. That said, you would certainly want to market your book to a publisher who has previous works on that subject. You've done great market research and know they "do" your kind of book. If the competitor's title meets several criteria, you would include it in your "About the Competition." The competitive title needs to be in print within the last five years or be an out-of-print classic on the subject. In your profile of the book, you can sincerely praise what the competitor has done, especially in areas that your book is similar. Instead of trashing the competition, which you never want to, you can reveal your book's superiority in phrases like the following: In contrast to xyz; In greater depth and breadth than xyz; Filling a void about x not covered in xyz, etc. In other words, be specific about your features and benefits as your means to demonstrating that you book is new, different, or better. Lucy Hedrick used this statistic to begin her "About the Book" section, which I then quoted. Authors can glean statistics from newspaper articles on their subjects, from features on their subjects in
Publishers Weekly, and from statistical databases. It's a matter of digging and luck. To some degree, information about book sales is proprietary, loosely a trade secret. However, you can go to an author's website and ask directly about book sales, you can call the publisher's marketing department, and you can look for the needle in the haystack by reading Publishers Weekly and hoping it gets mentioned. While it is excellent to mention people, programs, and organizations by name, only mention Oprah, or anyone other celebrity, if you can add exactly how you can guarantee access to her. Mention of possible celebrity contacts to aid promotion reduce a writer's credibility and
professionalism if the mention is "pie in the sky." If writers will back every planned or hoped for promotional idea with specific connections or follow-through, they'll do well. The same advice holds for what magazines you list where you plan article publications and what organizations you hope will invite you to be a speaker. Only list those where you have a connection and a plan. Many, if not most, agents do charge a representation fee that covers costs for copying, postage, messenger service, etc. When their clients are asked to pay varies widely. One hundred dollars a year might be a ballpark figure to expect. However, what bothers me is that some of the unscrupulous agents, having learned that about the widespread advice to writers against agent reading fees, now state that they only charge representation fees. That way, they still make out like bandits. Some of these bad eggs have six-month contracts with renewable
representation-- and accompanying fee. As always, writers should do background checks. Ask about AAR membership (or why they are not members), ask for a list of sales within the last twelve months, including to what publishers, and ask for contact information with satisfied clients. Writers should join writers' organizations and ask members for feedback as well. My second book,
The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit, has "32 Questions You Should Ask the Agent You Hire,' questions that apply equally for agents of nonfiction. Common mistakes: Concept Statement too long and lacking sizzle; lack of clear focus on primary benefit and
feature-- what makes the book new or different and timely; About the Book section too long and/or lacking all of the needed and usual development such as bulleted lists of features, testimonials or anecdotes to humanize the material, insufficient specificity and detail about proposed book, and omission of reference to competitors or author
qualifications; omitted or lackluster leads and conclusions to proposal sections; punctuation and grammar errors; format errors; underdeveloped promotion sections; omission of subsidiary and specialty sales in About the Market; failure to offer specific details contrasting the author's book with competitors' books in About the Competition; Chapter Summaries that lack specificity or extend beyond half a page; Memoir chapter summaries that lack the inner psychological and thematic level; unprofessional writing skills, and more! In all but one situation, query first and include any or all of the following: a copy of one to three of your published articles about your subject or features about you; your book's table of contents; a copy of an article or news release that offers support for the need and timeliness of your book; anything that would be impressive pr about you as the author-- without going overboard. This query package should not be too fat, so select judiciously from this prior list. The situation where you can bypass the query and send the proposal is by agent or editor instruction because you have met this person at a conference or talked with them on the phone. The meeting or talk is your query and they request that you send the proposal. Remember, always include a self-addressed stamped envelope for queries and a mailer with postage
paper-clipped for return of the proposal. If you have some reason you do not want to use the services of an agent (and I can't think of why not), your strategy should be to attend writer's conferences that emphasize marketing. Look for conferences that bring many agents and editors to them and that hold one-on-one meetings. You can also find the names of the editors who handle your subject and query directly. A few houses may still consider unagented queries. Another strategy is to phone a publisher and seek to speak with whomever (editorially) handles your subject. Have a pitch ready because you may end up speaking directly to the editor. If you have superior phone skills, you may get under the "no unagented queries" radar and gain a request. For the record, it is also difficult "making a living" with publication through a large house. Unless you have the good fortune to write a bestseller, the old advice holds: Don't quit your day job. The tortoise wins the race. I'm a twenty-year overnight success; someone who had the passion to become a writer, editor, and writing teacher but who did not have degrees in literature or journalism. I'm self-taught. I'm self-motivated and if one door doesn't open, I look for ten windows of opportunity. One of the biggest mistakes that writers make is to seek to be the exception. What I mean is that if someone doesn't want to take the time to read books on writing or take courses, they hope to "be discovered" without paying dues. I've met some writers who don't want to "bother" with the tedium of marketing, or learning marketing. Yet, it is one of the must-dos of entering the profession. Expect a long haul, expect rejection, expect endless revision, and trust that you will, eventually, succeed. Those writers who do have instant success with apparently little effort probably did something heroic in a past life. I can't answer why some people
are exceptions. That shouldn't concern any writer who wants to succeed. Be humble, be diligent, and let passion dispel the doubts and fears that accompany this endeavor. CLICK HERE TO ORDER "NONFICTION BOOK PROPOSALS ANYBODY CAN WRITE." Elizabeth's author site, www.elizabethlyon.com, includes tips, essays, and her 2003 itinerary. Her editing company site, www.4-edit.com, includes a full explanation of the editing process and their services. The Writer magazine is offering a sweepstakes contest. The grand prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to one of two conferences. One of the two
first prizes is a mentoring session and/or editing (up to a $500 value) with
Elizabeth, and copies of her three books. Also, in the April issue, she is the guest expert in their Dear Writer column. Another company, Free Expressions
(www.free-expressions.com) is sending
Elizabeth to Chicago and Minneapolis this year to do workshops for writers. |
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Text on this site Copyright © 1998-2007
Absolute Write, all rights reserved.
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Author of Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can
Write, The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit, and A Writer's Guide to
Nonfiction, Elizabeth Lyon is the president of Editing International, LLC (www.4-edit.com), a company serving writers in the United States, Canada, and abroad. A popular speaker and teacher, Elizabeth offers seminars and weekend workshops to writers throughout the country. 
