The Extra Squeeze

Dear Extra Squeeze Team, Should I Just Give Up?

March 31, 2019 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team tagged as Indie, Jenny Jensen, Rebecca Forster., Rejection, writing

Dear Extra Squeeze Team, I just got my 20th rejection. Should I just give up?

Rebecca Forster | Extra Squeeze — Rebecca Forster
USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.

Don’t give up!

Learn!

Something isn’t striking a chord with editors so figure it out.

Perhaps your blurb is off-putting, the book is slow to start, pacing is awkward, or your characters aren’t defined.

Are you sending the right work to the wrong editor?

Have you truly defined your genre or are you waffling between two or even three?

I often ask people about their genre only to hear “well, it’s sort of a historical, coming of age, horror novel with aliens”. That’s not going to fly with editors.

Ask the most successful author you personally know to read your pitch and first chapters and give an honest opinion. If they cannot articulate their objections, then ask them to point out the areas where they got stuck or where they lost interest. Some of my best learning experiences have been through my rejection letters. I keep a file to remind me of my strengths and weakness. It is like having a tutorial at my fingertips

P.S. I had a friend who write 70 books and when she hit, there was no looking back. Be objective about your work, learn, and move forward. Good luck.

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Jenny Jensen | A Slice of Orange — *Jenny Jensen*
Developmental editor who has worked for twenty plus years with new and established authors of both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and indie.

Rejection – the inescapable bane of a writer’s life.

JK Rowling in her own words received “loads” of rejections and now she posts them on Twitter to encourage aspiring writers. I think that’s wonderful and says it all. If writing and sharing your work (publishing) is your driving passion then no, never give up.

It could, however, be time to ask yourself why. Publisher and agent rejections are based on a myriad of reasons. Sometimes you’ll get a form letter or you could receive a note with some details explaining the rejection. If you have, then study the reasons closely and consider revising your manuscript to accommodate the input. Hire an editor for a review from fresh eyes.

If you’re 100% confident your story is ready for publication, take another look at your submissions material. Could there be a better way to present the story? Be certain you’ve submitted to the right publisher. Harlequin is not interested in political thrillers and a romance editor would likely not read past the first line of your letter.

If you feel you have the perfect trifecta – manuscript, letter and synopsis – then keep on submitting until you land before the eyes of just that editor or agent who is looking for exactly what you’ve written. According to Ms. Rowling, that’s pretty much how it went for her: the right editor with the right eye and the right curiosity. Go for the long haul.

Today’s huge Indie market allows a writer to bypass traditional publishing (which has always seemed to be somewhat arbitrary) without giving up the dream. Self-publishing is a lot of work on top of the time and effort invested in writing a novel. It’s not enough to simply post the book. You must publicize and tout and twitter and tweet, Facebook and Instagram and fish for reviews. Going that particular long haul gives the author far greater control and ROI than any traditional publisher will provide—especially to a first-time author.

If you believe your work is the best it can be you have choices. Never give up.

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Do I Need a Pseudonym to Write Fiction?

February 28, 2019 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team, Writing tagged as author branding, Pen Names, Pseudonym, The Extra Squeeze Team

Do I Need a Pseudonym | The Extra Squeeze Team | A Slice of Orange

Dear Extra Squeeze Team

Do I need a pseudonym to write fiction?

No, you don’t need a pseudonym to write fiction unless you write hard core erotica and you don’t want your mom to know. I used a pseudonym twice in my 30 year career. The first time I was writing for Harlequin and they contractually owned an author’s name. That meant if I wanted to write for anyone else I would have to leave the name–and any consumer base that had accrued to that name–behind. The second time was when I wrote my first legal thriller. The men were big back then–Grisham, Turow–and the publisher wanted readers to assume I was a man. I went by my last name but initials for my first. There was no ‘about the author’ in those books and the whole thing felt very odd. In this day and age when building a brand is your sole responsibility, own your name and build a loyal readership around it.

Traditionally, publishing under an assumed name was a useful tactic when a writer crossed genres. A non-fiction author whose brand is based on expertise in hunting edible fungi would want to use a pseudonym to publish a steamy romance. A fresh identity to woo a new readership avoids any confusion, possibly even irritation from those readers whose expectations would not be met. A reader who gets a lusty countess when they’re expecting a description of the spotted Nigerian toadstool will not be a repeat reader.

Fiction writers often use pseudonyms to switch between fiction genres. Robert Galbraith jumps (beautifully, I might add) between wizards and detective fiction. Harry Potter fans are diehards so it was wise for J.K. Rowling to present her new detective fiction under a pseudonym. Otherwise fans might have cast a withering spell when their expectations were squashed. Cormoran Strike solving crime was a big step off brand from Harry Potter.

It wasn’t long before the public learned that Galbraith was J.K. Rowling—with a brand that strong anything she writes would be impossible to hide, and why hide it. With her pseudonym public knowledge readers knew what to expect. Rowling’s brand remains intact and Galbraith’s work took off with a new readership. Impossible to say how many of those new readers were enticed simply by the author’s name, but the work stands solidly on it’s own merits now.

Your brand may not be as mighty as Rowling’s but it is as important to your success. No reason not to use a pseudonym to publish your fiction and no reason not to be completely open about it. Supplement the marketing of the fiction by using your existing fan base and marketing tools to launch this new facet of your career. Share the pseudonym on your twitter feed, tout the cover on your pinterest posts, introduce the new personae and the new fiction on your blog. If both your established name and your nom de plume are connected to your brand then fans can seek out whichever genre fits their reading expectations. And your brand is strengthened.

Robin Blakely | The Extra Squeeze Team | A Slice of Orange — Robin Blakely
PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.

From a branding perspective, maybe you do need a pen name to write fiction. Here are some questions you might ask yourself…if any of your answers are yes, lean toward a pen name.

Ask: Is my own name too difficult to say, spell, or remember? Does my own name confuse readers with other authors or commercial brands? Does the subject matter or the chosen genre of my fiction conflict with the character of the other brands that I am building? Do I have a plan to manage the transparency required to promote a pen name?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, explore the pen name option with enthusiasm and care. Remember: You are the brand. The books you write are products of the brand. No matter what you do, you must be able to represent your brand and your products with authenticity and with transparency.

I once advised a mystery-writing dentist to use a pen name because his novel was filled with graphic violence and hot sex scenes. His novel directly conflicted with the business brand for his successful dental practice which was built upon his real name. The novel he had written revealed a side of the mild- mannered doctor that the public did not know and frankly might have been shocked to meet. In that instance, using a pen name separated the dentist from the writer so that both could be promoted to proper audiences. A pen name provided some distance between his dental business and his writing business. A plan for transparency was built from the start so that he could be honest and open if patients realized that their beloved doctor was also that wild novelist.

Similarly, you might want to consider a pen name if you are writing fiction in genres that conflict with each other. The motivating idea would be to help the reader know and trust the brand name when they search for your work. The bridge between who you really are and your pen name better be built from the start or it could become problematic unexpectedly with one Did you know social media post.

H.O. Charles
Cover designer and author of the fantasy series, *The Fireblade Array*

H.O. is missing again this month. We suspect a long long holiday is to blame.

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Dear Extra Squeeze Team: What the Heck Is a Platform?

January 31, 2019 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team tagged as Marketing, platform, Publishing Questions, The Extra Squeeze

Platform | The Extra Squeeze Team | A Slice of Orange

Dear Extra Squeeze Team, I’m working on my first book. I go to a local RWA and everyone is taking about platforms. What the heck is a platform? Why do I need one? How do I get one?

You’re in luck. The queen of platforms is Robin Blakely so I would read her answer first. If you’re reading this one, then my simple explanation is that a platform is who you are as an author. Are you queen of erotica? Are you the definitive word on thrillers? Were you a cop and write police procedurals? When you build your platform you are looking for a way to consistently communicate who you are as an author and what a reader can expect from your books. Keep writing and refining your voice. Write in the same genre. Determine what sets you apart from other writers and there you have it – a platform.

I’m not sure I know either. Sounds a bit like business jargon!

A platform is that giant, flashing interactive sign hanging in Times Square that says, “Here I am! I’m a writer and this is what my books are about. You want to read them all!”

A platform gives you visibility as an author. It gives the means to speak to your audience, to gain and nurture a following. You get a platform by building it yourself. It’s a process; there is no ready recipe. And it takes time to build up your presence so there’s no reason not to begin long before you publish. You’re going to need it because that’s how and where an Indie writer markets her books.

Social media is the tool, from your website to blogging to Facebook, to engaging with on-line writer groups to Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter— the whole gamut is possible. Your message should include your unique story and voice. The content should target your audience so that you can reach them directly with an option of back and forth communications.

If you haven’t published yet, consider writing a few short stories and offer them for free. Post links on Face Book, or Twitter etc. to get the word out. Join and engage with writer’s groups. Use those short stories for award entries—the more accolades and experience you garner, the more powerful your platform. Blog about your writing process. Join groups with other new writers. It will all work to build your name and credibility.

It takes time. But so does writing a good book. Like all things in life, time management is critical. Decide how much effort toward building your platform is doable without taking too big a bite out of your writing time. But know that every little bit will grow your presence and when you’re ready to publish you’ll have a platform from which to dive into the market.

You need a platform so that you can elevate and protect your brand. To help you wrap your brain around a concept that can be very confusing, try this . . .

Let’s imagine that your platform is a three-legged table and your brand is a glass ball on top of that table. It seems like the glass ball is the thing to focus on, but really it is the table and its three legs that provide the support and elevation your brand needs. If the platform isn’t solid, the table top will teeter and the glass ball will roll and possibly break.

So, let’s keep the brand safe and secure. Let’s look closer at the platform’s three legs.

One leg is all about promotional outreach—you must effectively tell readers about your work. One leg is all about resources—you must manage your time, money, and helpful people wisely. One leg is all about constantly developing the core talent and skill to produce the best products and services you can create—you can’t sell what you never finish.

You need each leg to do its part and at about the same level. In the platform world, the most common problem is that people figuratively build their platforms using table legs of three very different lengths. One leg is typically very long and well-developed, one leg is quite short and under-achieving, and one entire leg may be practically missing. Take a closer look at those three areas of your creative business. When the three table legs of your platform are forced to operate at uneven lengths, it will feel like your success is teetering and wobbling—that your professional life is unbalanced and uncertain—that your brand is fragile and in jeopardy.

Put an end to topsy-turvy, out-of-control feelings by building a platform to elevate and protect your beautiful talent-driven brand. As you learn to level out the structural legs of your platform, feelings of uncertainty will be replaced by feelings of stability. Promotional opportunities will become better in both quality and abundance. As a result, your platform will command attention in your industry. Your brand will be clearly showcased, elevated, and protected.

Sound impossible? It isn’t.

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Dear Extra Squeeze Team How Do I Balance Social Media and Writing?

December 31, 2018 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team

Dear Extra Squeeze Team: Social Media—I hate it. It used to be that all I had to worry about was if I needed to order bookmarks. Now, I’m spending so much time tweeting and Facebooking and Instagraming that I barely have time to work on my WIP and my deadline is looming. How do you balance actual writing with all the stuff you have to do around it? OMG do I still need to order bookmarks?

Asking me how to achieve a balance between constant updates and creative output is like asking a Kardashian for advice on the natural look. I too, hate the treadmill of social media – so much in fact, that I haven’t touched mine in seven years! That gets you sympathy, which isn’t very useful but as this is a problem that plagues all writers, I’ve had a lot of discussion about it with my clients. I’ll share what I we’ve come up with. Every author needs to stay as much in the public eye as possible and every author needs to keep on authoring. It’s a balancing act. Whether you are a full-time writer or must carve writing time out of a busy life, you need to compartmentalize the social media vortex. Decide how much time to give it and stick to that. Your writing is the point.

Focus your efforts. Authors get stretched too thin trying to keep a presence on multiple outlets and since new ones pop up monthly it’s an impossible task. Narrow your social media efforts to fit what you want to achieve; announcements of a new release, updates on a work in progress, what you had for lunch (should your readers be interested), etc. If you feel you can achieve that with three outlets, say FB, Twitter and Instagram, then focus exclusively on those.

Schedule a block of time to devote to social media. This can be 15 minutes a day, 2 hours a week or one day a month. Whatever works for the frequency you feel is important. As an insatiable reader who is always on the hunt for good books, I welcome a post on progress, a new release, or comments on the process of writing, as long as the content is about the work. I’m not much concerned in what they had for lunch. A particular author isn’t always top of mind, but I never forget the ones whose work I love so an informative missive is great, regardless of how infrequent, and brings them quickly to top of mind.

Use this time to create and schedule a month or more of posts.

Automate with Social media management tools like Buffer, HootSuite, Hubspot, TweetDeck. If you have posts in a queue that automates the process and frees your working time to write, edit, write and re-write.

Content is as important to these publicity snippets as it is to your published work. No matter the frequency of your posts or the range of outlets you post on, if the content is empty and uninteresting or poorly written, the response will match it. Give your followers a reason to follow.

No, don’t order bookmarks. Thumb drives with your title on it will do these days. Social media is the bane of every business person’s existence, not just authors. Embrace it. Love it. I pay most attention to what I enjoy and that is Twitter and Instagram. I share what amuses me, inspires me, makes me think and then I throw in some information about my books. I also use Buffer which allows me to queue up three weeks’ worth of tweets, Facebook, linked in or whatever other media I need. Buffer releases my tweets on the schedule I set. I will be on the couch watching TV with my husband and loading up Buffer. By the time lights are out I got a few weeks’ worth. Just remember, there is no rule about how often we need to be seen on any of these platforms.

Give me some advice because I am terrible at updating my social media!!

Robin was out of the loop this month but hopes to be back in January.

If you have a topic or question for the Extra Squeeze Team, contact Extra Squeeze online producer Marianne Donley by clicking the link below to send us your questions.

Contact the Extra Squeeze Team

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Dear Extra Squeeze Team: Do I REALLY Need an Agent?

November 30, 2018 by The Extra Squeeze in category The Extra Squeeze by The Extra Squeeze Team tagged as Agents, Extra Squeeze, Newbie Questions

Agent | The Extra Squeeze Team | A Slice of Orange

Dear Extra Squeeze Team, Do I REALLY need an agent? What can they do for me that I can’t do myself? Are they worth the money?

Rebecca Forster

USA Today Bestselling author of 35 books, including the Witness series and the new Finn O’Brien series.

If you want to play with the big boys then, yes, you need an agent. They will negotiate for you, they will field opportunities you may not have the expertise to deal with (case in point I had a contract with an Italian publisher I did myself and found I needed my agent’s guidance for tax purposes. Wish I had let them handle it). An agent can manage tricky creative questions with your editor. An agent will be the first to hear of new publishing opportunities – new lines coming out, changes being made that might affect yours. Having an agent also gives you street creds. If you are going to publish as an indie you don’t need one, of course.

Robin Blakely

PR/Business Development coach for writers and artists; CEO, Creative Center of America; member, Forbes Coaches Council.

Anything an agent can do, you can do better—as long as you have enough knowledge, connections, and experience. An agent is worth the money if you need help navigating the industry. An agent is worth the money if you do not already have an indomitable entrepreneurial spirit working to build your career in the face of a highly competitive industry. The choice of working with an agent or going solo is entirely up to you. You certainly do not need an agent if you plan to go indie. You most likely cannot go it alone to the highest levels if you plan to go traditional.

H.O. Charles

Cover designer and author of the fantasy series, The Fireblade Array

I was speaking to a couple of friends in the non-fiction world who wouldn’t have been able to get the lucrative deals they had without an agent. They had nothing but praise for their agents, especially when it came to sorting out problems with the publisher (international rights). That said, there are agents and agents. Some are fabulous and will work their socks off to help you. Others are terrible and will never do anything for you. If you self-publish, you don’t need any of that, but you will have to put in a little more work yourself for the same gains.

Jenny Jensen

Developmental editor who has worked for twenty plus years with new and established authors of both fiction and non-fiction, traditional and indie.

The answer depends on what it is you want.

You’ve written a book so now it’s time to take it to the next level. If having a traditional publisher is the one thing that will satisfy you, then you will need an agent. They say hen’s teeth are rare, but not as rare as a legitimate publishing house taking an unsolicited manuscript. An agent’s job is to champion your work to publishing houses. If she is successful, l then you have a publisher- at a cost. The agent will receive a percentage of any contract she sets up and a publisher will take a further percentage of sales.

I’m not demeaning those percentages; after all both agent and publisher have earned it but chances are, you’ll have to be the Champion of your work anyway. By champion I mean you will have to make the effort to market and publicize your work so that it will stand out to potential readers – stand out from the thousands of books posted daily on Amazon, Smashwords etc., or the hundreds of printed books on the shelf. Unless you’ve created a ground-breaking runaway akin to Hunger Games it’s unlikely that the publisher will do more than simply produce and distribute your physical book. For that service the publishing house takes its percentage of sales.

If you’re willing to take the time required to try to find a good agent – query letters, samples, response time – there is no reason not to at least give it a try. Unless Amazon et al change tactics you always have the option of Indie publishing should no agent work out for you – no agent required. In that case know that you have a marketing road ahead for you to personally strategize and implement in order to generate sales and the – all important – reviews.

Indie publishing is an ever-evolving critter and it’s a full-time job just to keep abreast of new developments nearly every day. (I’m amazed my clients have the time to write.) Amazon’s ever-changing algorithms give me a headache; I don’t pretend to understand them all, but that has created a need. That need has given rise to a new indie publishing niche – the Virtual assistant or VA. These are people who you pay a fee to deal with your social media. There are also agents who specialize in Indie authors and look for review options, seek foreign markets, manage rights, etc. Of course, there is a fee and many of them earn it righteously. The decision to take on an author will be based on sales history by volume and price.

The success of a book has costs – either in the author’s time and effort to market or in a share of sales dollars. Whether you have an agent or not, success ultimately depends on content. Be sure your work is the best you can make it.