My Name is Dorothy Thompson and I Hate Booksignings by Dorothy Thompson

It started out as a nice little day with the sun shining brightly, no rain in sight, and I was about to join three other authors, all three published by New York presses, at a NASA base on The Eastern Shore of Virginia. Oh, I don't mind mentioning where because I'm sure the story I'm about to tell could be read from my eyes by these NY authors that very day. And, I'm sure neither one of them even blog as they're scurrying about doing conferences and giving talks of which their hosts who booked them because they were NY published paid them for.

But, I digress.

There were four of us and I was the only one without a line at her table.

The NY published authors were laughing and gabbing among themselves as they fielded questions from said people in line, and sold lots of books.

I sold two.

The press did announce we were to be there so I'm presuming my name was included, but no one came to see me as I was not a NY published author, but an author published by a small press, even though they are a very respected small press.

I also had something else not in my favor. Their books were related to some kind of military stuff and mine was related to soul mates.

Lesson learned. Don't try to sell a relationship book to a bunch of NASA employees, 'cause they aren't going to buy.

So, who were my two buyers? One was running a craft exhibit opposite me and the other one was a Reiki teacher. Both women.

Who were the customers? Mainly men. A few women walked past me and the NY published authors as well, but the men were lined up to see said NY published authors that were pretty darn well known in my territory.

Although this wasn't my only booksigning, it was my last. Not that I won't partake on other offers to stand there, looking silly, and hawk my books to innocent potential buyers, but it did change my way of thinking.

I now promote exclusively online.

What I have learned in the last six years since I have been promoting online is that I am reaping more sales this way. Sure, it still takes work on my part and lots of it, but I can have bed hair and wear jammies and no one will know the wiser. I don't have to be something I'm not.

What with blogging, virtual book tours, connecting with online writers and readers, there is no reason why anyone has to put themselves through that torture just to sell books. Unless they want to.

It's probably not wise to openly and publicly announce that you hate booksignings, but I have a feeling I'm not alone.

I'm Dorothy Thompson and I hate booksignings. Thank you.

Dorothy Thompson
Editor/Co-Author Romancing the Soul
Co-Author The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost
CEO/Founder Pump Up Your Book Promotion PR
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All for the Sake of the Al'Mighty Pen by Dorothy Thompson

Interesting story in the NY Observer yesterday.

The title was what caught my eye: "My Book Deal Ruined My Life."

Say it isn't so.

Here's part of it:

Brendan Sullivan, 25, moved to New York after studying creative writing at Kenyon College in Ohio. He hasn’t landed a book deal for his novel, but is determined to find a publisher. “Writing has ruined my life and cost me many, many girlfriends,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I have thrown away several careers and one college degree to spend my time working in bars, D.J.’ing in bars and drinking my rejection letters away. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, and I’ve made many of them since I started …. I also abandoned my agent with words harsher than those I’ve saved for lost loves.”

That's only one case. The article quotes other cases where one's life was disrupted by the al'mighty pen.

Six years ago, I had a life. I was thirty pounds lighter, I actually knew where all members of my family were going after they told me and rather enjoyed frivolous waste-of-time shopping trips where I had nothing to do all day but ogle clothes I only wish I had the money to buy.

I showed up for work on time and actually volunteered for overtime to increase the paycheck so I could have more money for said shopping trips.

The car got washed and the garden got watered, not to mention my body took on a golden glow from all those trips out in the summer sun.

Relatives were visited, neighbors were checked in on and playing in the park with my dogs was an every day thing.

Clothes were thrown out on the line to save on the electric bill instead of tossed in the energy-guzzling dryer and food actually was prepared up on top of the stove (or the grill) instead of the microwave.

All for the sake of the al'mighty pen, I have given up all those things.

Every morning, there is a mad dash for the computer to either read email from my writing group, write in my blog or start working on a scene in a novel that was hauntingly driving me to write it down, lest I forget it.

All for the al'mighty pen do I do this because...

I'm not quite sure.

I'm thinking it might be a disease that inflicts ordinary people that drives them to give up on what they used to know as everyday life and turn it into a frenzied marathon of writing, editing, revising, writing some more, sending said writing to agents and publishers, reading the rejections, screaming, writing again, sending again and repeating the whole process over and over until you finally give up and start on another novel and repeat the same process over and over.

It's a disease of the al'mighty pen.

Anyway, what prompted me to get out of bed, empty my bladder, grab a sandwich and some pepsi and turn on the computer at 4 a.m. in the morning when I could still be sleeping is a condition that strikes every known man or woman on the face of this earth if they decide to become a writer. And, God forbid them to want to become a published author because if that happens, they're in for a treat and their life will never be the same unless they take that al'mighty pen, lay it down and refuse to pick it up again.

But, we don't do that.

We can't.

We just can't.

So, I'm sitting here at the computer at 4 in the morning - errr, make that 5 by now - and I come across an article in the NY Observer titled "My Book Deal Ruined My Life" and I'm thinking...no matter how much my life has changed and no matter how much I long for the times when I could kick back and enjoy life without having to turn this blasted computer on, I still think because of the al'mighty pen, my life has become a little richer, and a little more meaningful.

I don't know how or why because that book deal is just not happening; but somehow, somewhere, I just feel it and if I wait just a little while longer, and pray a little harder, and keep on writing and revising and submitting, I'll finally get to where I'm going.

All for the sake of the al'mighty pen that just won't let me let it go.

Dorothy Thompson
Co-Author, The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost
Editor/Co-Author, Romancing the Soul
CEO/Founder PUMP UP YOUR BOOK PROMOTION PR
www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com

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Don't Quit Your Day Job by Lois Winston

I am a published author. In April 2006, TALK GERTIE TO ME, my first book was published by Dorchester Love Spell. My second book, LOVE, LIES AND A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION, arrived on bookstore shelves the end of May 2007.

I am a published author. To most of the non-publishing world, that means I'm RICH.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I am a published author. Friends, relatives, acquaintances, and even strangers expect me to give them free autographed copies of my books because I am a published author, and they think I'm RICH.

If you're struggling to get published and expect that when the day arrives, you'll no longer have a financial care in the world, I'm about to clue you in to the truth of publishing: Most published authors can't afford to quit their day jobs.

When the general public hears about a book sale, they hear about James Patterson or JK Rowling. They think in terms of million dollar advances.
They think all authors receive advances of at least a hundred thousand dollars per book. The general public has no idea that the average advance for a first book is less than $5,000 -- much less than $5,000. As a matter of fact, many publishers are now routinely offering less than $2,000 for a first book.

Once upon a time an advance was supposed to support the author between the time the book sold and the royalties started coming in. Those times are long gone except for a select few stars of the publishing world, every Hollywood celebrity and pro athlete who thinks it would be fun to write a book, and a handful of A-list politicians.

And even when an author does start to see royalties, the average author doesn't see lots of zeros on that check. Consider the fact that the average royalty for a mass market paperback for a first time author is 6% (and with some publishers it's as low as 4%.) Now consider the fact that the
author's print run will probably be less than 20,000 books, and if she's lucky, she'll have a 75% sell-thru (the number of books actually sold from the print run.) If the cover price of her book is $6.00, she'll make a grand total of $5,400 on a book that may have taken her years to write.

And that's only if she's getting 6% royalties. Like I said, some publishers are only paying 4%. That's a whopping 24 cents per book or $3,600 if she's lucky enough to sell 15,000 copies. And if she's got an agent, she has to deduct 15% of that for the agency commission. So now she's down to $3,060.

It's kind of hard to live on $3,060 in 2007.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the publisher will probably hold back at least 40% of the author's royalties for up to two years. That's called 'reserve against return.' If your book doesn't sell, the bookstore strips the cover, trashes the book, and returns the cover to the publisher for
credit.

Then to add insult to injury, most publishers expect a first time author to finance her own publicity. Publishers only pay for postcards, bookmarks, mailings, book tours, etc. for the authors receiving the mega-advances.
They need to make back that advance money in book sales, so they throw more money at the author in the way of PR. The rest of us have to pay our own way. Now consider this: The cost of a first class stamp is 41 cents, a postcard 26 cents. If you want to mail out brochures or postcards to announce your new release, you'll lose money with each mailing.

The odds of doing well are stacked against us. We're lucky if anyone even stumbles upon our books in the bookstore. Most of us won't be shelved on the New Releases racks or at the front of the store on the New Releases tables. And we certainly won't be on end caps, displayed in the
window, or featured in special cardboard dumps throughout the store or up at the register. Publishers pay booksellers for those types of placement, and they're not paying it for the average author. If we're lucky, our books will be face out instead of spine out on the shelves, but even that costs extra, and your publisher may or may not pay for it.

The rule of thumb used to be that an author should spend 10% of her advance on PR. When your advance is less than $2,000, you probably won't even be able to get a decent number of bookmarks printed for 10% of that advance.

Most authors I know are routinely sinking their entire advance into PR. They have to. When you consider how many books are published each year, you have to do everything in your power to get your name out there in the hope that people will buy your book. Because if you don't, you won't have decent sell-thru numbers, and if you don't have decent sell-thru numbers,
chances are you won't sell another book.

I am a published author. Do you want fries with that?
******
Award-winning author Lois Winston writes humorous, cross-genre, contemporary novels. She often draws upon her extensive experience as a crafts designer for much of her source material. Her first book, TALK GERTIE TO ME, a combination chick lit/hen lit/romantic comedy with a touch of the paranormal, was an April 2006 release from Dorchester Publishing and has to date won a Readers and Bookbuyers Best award and racked up nominations for a Reviewers Choice Award, a Golden Leaf Award, and a Beacon Award. LOVE, LIES & A DOUBLE SHOT OF DECEPTION, a mom-lit romantic suspense, is a June 2007 release from Dorchester. Lois also contributed to DREAMS & DESIRES, a charity anthology of 19 romances by 19 authors which was released in February from Freya's Bower. All proceeds from this anthology go to a shelter for battered women. In addition, Lois is a contributor to HOUSE UNAUTHORIZED, a November 2007 release from BenBella Books.

Lois Winston
Author, Talk Gertie to Me
www.loiswinston.com
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Sometimes It Pays To Embarrass Your Mother by Marilyn Celeste Morris

I have to tell a story about how my 86-year-old mother reacted to my first novel, Sabbath’s Room. Keep in mind it’s a paranormal murder mystery.

She called me and said, “I sat down and read your book today, all in one sitting.”
I said, “Okay, what did you think?”
She kind of stuttered a bit, and I prompted her, “Go ahead, tell me if you didn’t like it.”
“Well, that’s not it. It’s just that….well, I was surprised by all the sex and violence.”
I have to tell you here, that the “sex “consisted of passages such as “necking like teenagers” and “she lay in his strong arms.” And it is a murder mystery, so it has some violence in it.
“Well, Mother, I’m sorry you feel that way. I could have put in a lot worse on the sex scenes and made the murder much more graphic, so what you’re reading is pretty mild. Are you ashamed of me?”
“Well, no. I’m not ashamed of you. It’s just that --- well,” she finally said in exasperation, “It’s just that I recommended it to my Sunday School class.”
I laughed and said, “Well, okay, next Sunday, apologize to your Sunday School class for the recommendation; that you didn’t know it had so much sex and violence in it.”
She said she would do that.
And guess what? My sales went up.
Gotta love those Methodists.

Marilyn Celeste Morris
Author of The Women of Camp Sobingo, Once a Brat and Sabbath's Room
www.sabbathsroom.blogspot.com

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THE ARROGANCE OF IT ALL by Karen Magill

What annoys me is some of the people involved with the literary world. A lot are fantastic but then there are those who aren’t. They are unprofessional, childish, narrow-minded and seem to like to belittle others.

In my opinion being narrow-minded is the death of a writer. A writer has to have an open mind and be willing to accept new ideas. When it comes to publishing many aren’t. They are trapped in the idea that a person has to be published by a big New York house or they aren’t published at all. I was like that until I grew up. Well, as much as I’ve grown up.

I am proud to say that I am independently published. Or self-published or vanity published; whichever term a person wants to use, it doesn’t matter me. I know that I am a talented writer yet I also know that the avenue I’ve chosen is going to close a lot of doors in the publishing industry. That’s fine, I just have to operate within my boundaries and work at opening those doors.

But other writers are a hassle. I don’t need to be insulted by them, though it doesn’t faze me. It lessens them in my eyes. I have had writers on Yahoo groups act like they are really interested then start with the snide remarks. Some writers that start out the same way develop an attitude when he or she gets a contract. Suddenly the old route, which they were very supportive of, is to be ridiculed. Along with anyone who is still publishing that way. I have even had another writer who is not published tell me that those who self-publish will never make it in the industry because they don’t have the patience to last. After all, I didn’t have the patience to wait for New York to recognize me.

I don’t have time for this. I am an entrepreneur of sorts. I am at the grassroots and learning as I go. No one who is published can get away without self-promotion anymore and this is the way I have chosen to learn it. The pressure isn’t on me to sell so many units in a certain amount of time or I will lose my contract. No. I can muddle through and make mistakes – believe me I have made some – and hopefully learn from them. I don’t have people from all sides telling me what to do and letting me know that my future relies on it. Because it doesn’t. Now is the time to make the mistakes so that when a big house publishes me, I won’t make as many.

Perhaps the other writers don’t realize that we are all after the same thing, just going about it in a different manner. If we all got along a little better, put our egos aside, maybe we could all learn from each other. Or maybe the problem is that I am just too much of a threat? Interesting concept.

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