January Notes: Elizabeth Naughton

1. General Trends—figuring out what’s hot in the market

Publisher’s Marketplace is the best place to see what the trends are in publishing. Other places that might help are:

Amazon booklists
Bookstores (look for the books displayed on the displays and on the front tables)

Paranormal is the current popular trend: angels and demons, werewolves, and zombies. Some trends stay popular for a long time like romantic suspense.

2. Movies

Movies are not always the best way to tell what is currently selling in books because of the long lag time. For instance, Twilight came out several years ago (2007) before the big craze.

3. Getting Published the First Time

Agents:

If you’re trying to be published, then it’s highly recommended you try to get an agent for two reasons: (1) agents are better at handling contracts and getting you a better deal and (2) agents can act as your foot in the door to publishing houses.

If you’re in the market for an agent, you can try these sites for a list of resources:
1. agentquery.com
2. Preditors & Editors
3. RWA (Romance Writers of America)

Before you submit to an agent, make sure to check out their websites and submission guidelines (every agency is different)

It is important to understand that publishers are in this business to make money—not to make the author happy. Don’t ever assume they will give you something (media rights, publicity, etc.) in a contract. Agents can help you navigate this side of the publishing industry.

Author Branding:

Author branding is what readers think of when they hear your name. You want to write books that are similar in nature to build your author brand. If you write in multiple genres, it’s still important to keep the theme so that readers know what to expect.

Some writers will say don’t switch genres at all until you have established your brand. For this reason, some authors take pen names because they want to cross genres.

4. Staying published

Sales numbers:

Publishers will look at sales numbers of your book. It takes about 6 months for a debut author’s book numbers to come in.

Publishers determine book numbers by (1) how many books were printed, (2) how many went out, and (3) how many were return. Publishers expect debut authors to have low number.

If your sell-through rate is over 75% that means your publisher printed enough books that sold the first time through. As a debut author, you want to shoot for a sell-through rate of anything above 50%.

Business of writing vs. art of writing:

Before being publishing, writing was an art (did it to relax). Once the book sold, it wasn’t a hobby or an art anymore, but a business. At that point, you, as an author, are an entrepreneur. You have to brand yourself and promote. Just like every other business, there are startup costs, promotion costs, marketing costs, etc. Most times, every cent earned goes right back into the business. It’s very important to keep in mind that it is a business.

Sometimes what you write is not always up to you after a publishing contract. When you write a book, make sure that you want to write more books just like that one because that is what your publisher will want.

Staying fresh:

Trends come and go. Authors that are staying published are authors that write what they like to write and pay attention to what is happening in the market. Always know what is being published in your genre.

Above all, write what you want to write. Pick something you love and then put a new twist.