Writing Group

Turned out, I was. My blog became rather popular, and now (with delays from health issues slowing me down) I am polishing up that book with everything I learned from running the blog. Now that I have a fan base to sell it to, I no longer care about getting an agent or a publisher.

Self-publishing is really self-promotion. It is totally do-able thanks to the Internet, the Amazon Kindle system, and cooperatives like Smashwords. There’s even an inexpensive online shopping cart service like E-junkie, where I sold my first cat care manual, Cat 911, as a downloadable PDF with the purchaser’s email address embedded in it to discourage piracy.

How is it done? Like we say in the online marketing biz: the key is content. Generally, you want a website with a blog component. The rest of the website handles your domain, gives you an official email address, and offers pages about you, your qualifications, contact page, etc.

Cat 911 available here.

For non-fiction, you are informing, guiding, and problem solving. My blog posts appeared a few times a week on different aspects of cat care, training, and understanding. Search engines look for consistency of subject and timely updating. I share these on social media; Facebook (almost 20k followers,) Twitter (over 500,) and sometimes Instagram and Tumblr (I still have limited energy.)
Except for a few boosted posts on Facebook, this has been entirely organic; word of mouth and being high up in the search engine results. In my case, I write about subjects those general cat websites tend to gloss over. I’ve got more material on my blog about dealing with cat grief, cat conflicts, and understanding cat mental trauma than any other site on the web, and with a lot more specific advice. For instance, I just googled “why did my cat pee in my shoes” and bang! I am the top result.

For fiction, you are not solving problems. You are offering a reading experience. So it is important to hang out with other readers and writers of the genre, so they get to know you and your work. Fan fiction sites are one way to get your samples out. Offer short pieces to other bloggers. Join an online writer’s group and reference your website in your online signature. Live Journal used to be the platform of choice for such writing; there were online communities for poetry and genres. Back when there was a market for short fiction, you would write short stories, build a magazine following, then write novels. Now, there are online versions.

The idea is to offer free content, create a fanbase, and then package your work into different formats for sale. People can read my blog for free; but if they want it all laid out in a book, or audiobook, it will be purchased. I also offer video calls as a consultant for tough cat problems.

Of course, there’s tons more to it. I am fortunate that I have always worked in IT; adding plugins, setting up cacheing and spam filters, and troubleshooting my WordPress installation with an FTP program; I can do these things. But that only became important and demanding the more popular the website became.
And, like they say in Brooklyn: you should have such problems!

What have you written since we last met? What obstacles are you facing? And finally, who has some good news for us?

Get to chatting…

Thing is, those large publishing houses will not meet with you or even glance in your general direction without someone drawing their attention to you.

This is why if you want to take that traditional route – even making a deal with a small press imprint – you need to get an agent first.

Literary Agents help in a lot of ways: they understand the structures of good deals and what kind of contracts you should sign. For those agents – or their agencies – that have been in the business long enough, they get a reputation with the major publishers that can ease any introductions and line up deals with a few calls and handshakes. Agents also see the market trends, what publishers are looking for, and can guide you towards making your pitches stick.

There are rules – and tricks – on getting Literary Agents as much as there are rules on getting published. So you need to be aware of this much:

Watch out for any agencies that ask for fees up front, or for you to pay for things. Literary Agents ought to be working on commission: they won’t get paid until you get a contract (they’ll then take 10-20 percent off from that).

Agents work in certain fields and literary genres. Don’t rely on an Agent who handles Romances to get your Mystery Horror novel to market.

Be patient. It takes time for an Agent to get publishers interested in you.

Have some works already finished by the time you reach out to find an Agent. You need a portfolio of work to show off and give your Agent an idea of how to pitch for you (and what to pitch with).

You need to have not only a portfolio of work, you need to create a Query letter – a pitch – to send prospective Literary Agents / Agencies. There are standard formats for Queries, although each Agency may have their own quirks in the format. This is why you’ll need to research to find what Agencies are out there, and how they want you to approach them. There are several references out there, the one we tend to have at our libraries is “Guide to Literary Agents” published by Writer’s Digest. It should include a directory of Literary Agencies (with a subject index) and a how-to chapter on writing Query letters.

One other way to find Literary Agents is through a local or regional Writers’ Association. Agents like to keep in touch with the writers’ groups within particular genres. I know from personal experience that the Florida Writers’ Association has Agents at their Annual Conferences in late October, and they can arrange for writers – for a fee – to meet with Agents to 1) work on their pitches and 2) get an Agent’s actual attention.

In short, if you want to go the traditional route to get published, it’s:

• Finish a novel as well as a portfolio of other works,
• Find an Agent in your genre market (check your library for guide resources!),
• Make a pitch with a Query letter, and make a good impression,
• Work with the Agent who signs you to get a Publisher interested,
• Sign a contract and wait a year for the book to get published (remember, publishers are swamped: they’ll have their stable of established authors getting printed as well as the 1-4 new writers like yourself to get printed in the mix).

That’s if for this week. Enjoy and be kind to one another – TaMara