Writers: A tough, dedicated bunch by Linda S. Glaz

Writers are tough. They write when their hearts are breaking, they’re sick, they’re family members are in trouble. Writing is first for them at many levels.

I recently had a friend tell me she had three family members ill. And she didn’t know what she would do about her writing. I told her to put it aside. And I could tell that guilt was guiding her. She felt as if putting it down for even a few minutes was somehow not honoring the craft. It took some serious conversation to convince her it was all right to tackle the family issues first. Priorities—a tough juggle for writers.

Writing is the one craft that has your heart. You don’t clock in at nine and out at five. Your mind is forever dashing off the lines of a scene, the dialogue of a character. It isn’t something that turns off automatically when it’s time to make supper, do the dishes, wash a load of laundry.

You watch the news and a unique story starts to weave through your mind. All else must come to a screeching halt.

Writers get sick and immediately an idea perks. What if someone felt this way and had been poisoned. The writer snuggles under a couple quilts and wonders what being poisoned really would feel like. Or maybe a rare disease had finally made its way to the writer’s town and, alas, the writer had become the next victim. Enter a new scene and the CDC. Hazmat outfits rush through the front door.

Writers have to make choices for more folks than themselves. A sick child, parent, friend just as two lovers finally cross the abyss and discover each other. What to do?

I know of no other heartier folks in my acquaintance who are able to juggle so many daily chores, emergencies, and still manage to write the next page. Yessir, they are a tough, dedicated bunch.

Is it okay to contact more than one agent or editor at a time? by Terry Burns

Of course it is. Unless someone has posted that they require exclusive submissions they expect it. That is yet another reason why no one should send any submission without first checking the submission guidelines posted for the person they are submitting to.

Depending on the place we are submitting to it can take from a few weeks up to a year or more to get a response on a submission. The most common response time is around 90 days. I don’t even follow up on anything until it hits the 90 day mark.

If we had to wait on each submission until we heard back on another one and had a minimum of 90 days between them it would take forever to find a place for our work. Editors and agents know that and know multiple submissions have to be made. On those occasions that I am dealing with someone who requires an exclusive read I will only do so for a defined period of time, not to exceed six weeks.

There are some courtesy rules involved in multiple submissions, however. First, submissions should never be made to more than one person in the same agency or publishing house at a time. That can cause problems.

Submissions should be personally addressed even though we are sending to multiple people. Many agents and editors feel if someone is not paying them the courtesy of personally addressing it, they don’t owe the courtesy of a personal response.

“Dear Sir or Madame” letters are generally regarded by editors and agents as “Dear Occupant.” What do you do with your occupant mail? We do too.

Submissions with dozens of email addresses showing in the TO box tend to be regarded as spam. Everybody can wind up looking at the list and thinking “Well, somebody will answer them.” And nobody ends up doing so. Dozens of rejections by omission occurring just because someone was too lazy to individually address them.

Back on the submission guidelines. I did a survey of agents and editors a while back for an “editor and agent pet peeves” course that Linda Glaz and I are both offering at conferences. The number one pet peeve, the thing mentioned the most was not following the submission guidelines. There are a number of things in submissions that can be a problem, but most of them can be avoided by looking up and following those guidelines when making a submission.

Can more than one agent or editor be contacted at a time? Absolutely, as long as we are smart and courteous in doing so. And in looking at those guidelines please not that some want to be informed if it is a multiple submission. Most of us just assume that it is.

The Do’s and Don’ts of a Successful Book Launch by Diana Flegal

This past Saturday I had the privilege of attending a client’s book launch. Since my clients are scattered all over the US of A, it is rare for me to be able to lend my physical support to them all, as much as I’d like to.

 Author Amy L. Sullivan did a stellar job hosting a fun, creative and successful book launch both online and within her local community. I thought I would interview her and pass along some do’s and don’ts in an effort to assist you in preparation for your launch event planning.

Do’s

Do Become Visible Online

Amy purposefully supported others online. She joined groups, wrote articles for websites, completed interviews via Skype, committed to pray, and became genuinely interested in the projects other people were doing. She sought out those who had similar missions as she did and joined forces to work on new endeavors together. 

Do Share Your Vision

Since Amy’s book is on generous living, in addition to an online book launch, she wanted to host a local event where families and nonprofits could meet one another with the hopes of becoming involved with each other.

Amy prayed about a venue for her local event. She wanted a place in the midst of her community where families could come and children were welcome. Once the venue was found—a perfect place in answer to her prayers—she assembled her event team—comprised of 6 local people. This team met twice and communicated regularly through email. 

Once Amy shared her vision with others, she was surprised how many people wanted to rally and help her.

Do Assemble a Team to Get Behind You

Three months before the book’s release, Amy also assembled an online launch team. Amy had been building genuine online relationships for a few years, and at this time, she simply asked people if they would be interested in helping her spread the word about her new book when it released.

Three weeks before Amy’s book released, Amy gathered the people who said they would support her in a Private Facebook Group. Forty-seven members participated in challenges and online sharing about the book.

Do Plan Out What You Will Ask of Your Online Launch Team

Examples of things she asked them to do were:

§  Share about Amy’s book on their blog.

§  Tweet and retweet: Amy provided them with already made tweets to share.

§  Share photos of the book’s cover and quotes from the book online.

§  Amy sought 100 people to participate in Thuderclap (an online platform which allows tons of people to share about the same message) and CLAP her book once.

§  Pray. Amy felt prayer was of extreme importance in her book launch’s success. One launch team member’s sole contribution was to pray every day for the book launch and the local event.

Do Brainstorm    

Amy’s wish list for her local event included a face painter, live music, a graphic designer, fun decorations, and kid-friendly food. By the end of the first meeting with her local team, all items from Amy’s wish list had been assigned to others.

Don’ts

Don’t Forget to Reciprocate. Amy made it a priority to share about what others were doing. She made sure to highlight the successes of those around her, and she worked hard not to make things all about her.

Don’t plan to do everything yourself.

“Taking on too much will burn you out and steal your joy. People love to help out—delegate!” Amy knew she wanted to share photos with quotes from her books on them so she asked her photographer friend for photos and a techy friend to place the quotes on the pictures. This was the result.

Don’t be afraid to ask people and agencies in your community to attend local events.

Although Amy’s book is Christian, she invited nonprofits which were not, and guess what? They came.

Amy’s nonfiction topic related to the entitlement of today’s children and how parents can help their children be more “others-centered” lent itself to her inviting and building the event around eight nonprofit organizations. The nonprofits were happy to come and share what they were about with Amy’s community, and many of them provided the children with hands on things to do. This photo is related to Project Linus.

Don’t Exceed Your Budget

There are many venues in your community that you might be able to use free or pay little for. Check with your church or synagogue. Many of them prefer their buildings be used for community events. Consider bartering, offering to help them set up and tear down for their next event.

Amy can you give us an idea of what this event cost you and how you budgeted for it? Overall what did you spend?

“Prayer was a huge factor –An online group I started called #RiskRejection presented me with a donation of $800.00 to hold the event, and I stuck to that amount, but I used every cent.

“Besides showcasing the nonprofits, face painting, photo taking and snacks, I wanted to hold a drawing in which one of the organizations would win a $100.00 donation, but I ran out of money. So we held a drawing, and instead of a financial prize—I gifted the winning charity with a media promotion I created and will implement for them. Who can’t benefit from online promotion?” 

That is a crazy cool idea Amy, and I loved the scratch off cards you had that each of the guests took to each of the nonprofits table and had scratched off. It was a great way to see that each nonprofit was visited by your guests. Then turning them in and choosing our favorite charity to gift the prize to- brilliant.

Nonfiction titles can easily have themes built around them, but fiction titles could be fun as well. If your book is a Historical, consider dressing in period costume, and preparing snacks relevant to that time period. Check with historical groups in your area and see if they would be willing to present a table about them and what they offer to the community. Ask Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Pioneers or other youth groups if they would provide a type of entertainment for your event.

I hope this interview with Amy has been helpful. 

By the Way: Amazon just put Amy's book on sale today- the print version is  now just $6.17
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1941103243/

 $6.17

• List Price: $13.95
• Save: $7.78 (56%)

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Your turn: If you have published a book, tell about your book launch. We’d love to hear ideas and strategies that worked for both online and local events.