The other evening I was at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff minding my own self’s business while waiting in line to see Saturn through their HUGE telescope. I’ve lived in Phoenix two years now, and we rarely have cloudy days or nights. It’s great for star gazing if you can get away from the light pollution of the city. Anywhoooo, it just happened to be one of Flagstaff’s partially cloudy nights when I was standing in the block-plus long line to see the ringed planet. When we’d entered the observatory, we’d been told of the cloud situation, but I held out hope. I’d come to see Saturn, so I’d see Saturn. No cloud would stop me!
So an hour into the line, I’m about twenty people from the entrance and getting excited because I’ve only seen pictures of Saturn and now I would be seeing the real thing. Then it happened. The clouds moved over this area of stars. I wasn’t worried. With the billions of stars out there, what were the chances this bunch of clouds had covered my view of the planet Saturn? One of the astronomers came out and said something on the lines of, “We didn’t want you all in line expecting to see Saturn, and not see Saturn. The clouds are moving and may be covering Saturn when you go inside, so let me give you a tour of what you’re seeing now.”
I was disappointed. I came to see Saturn and those dang blasted clouds were trying to stop me. I was disappointed because my expectations weren’t being met. He proceeded to whip out this way coooool laser pointer that seemed to reach all the way to the stars. He pointed to different constellations and even Saturn. I was like, wow, I thought Saturn was another star.
By the time it was my turn to look through the telescope, I’d resigned myself to possibly not being able to see the rings of Saturn. Why set unrealistic expectations and then be disappointed? So I’ll give you one guess what I saw when I looked through the telescope—SATURN! Yeah baby, no stinking clouds could stop me. LOL. Seriously though, if I hadn’t of been able to see Saturn, I would have been slightly disappointed, but fine because I’d dropped my unrealistic expectations of seeing Saturn through the clouds.
How many times have you set yourself up for disappointment by having unrealistic expectations?
Here are a few unrealistic expectations I hear waaaaaay too often from authors looking for traditional publishers:
· Unrealistic Expectation – I won’t have to worry about marketing my book because the publishing house pays for marketing.
o Reality check – For most authors, unless you are bringing in Stephen King type money, the publishing house’s main goal is to get your novel into the bookstore and you will need to do the overwhelming majority of the marketing. The distributor for the publishing house usually creates a catalogue and presentation for book sellers such as Barns and Noble or Borders to purchase your novel for their bookshelves. Many publishing houses have newsletters and websites that also promote the authors work, but for the most part, authors are on their own. You are responsible for your writing career.
· Unrealistic Expectation—My publisher is going to send me on an all expense paid book tour.
o Reality Check—Book tours are GREAT, but it’s usually the author who has set this up. The publisher may pay a little supporting role, but don’t expect a lot of cash to help you out. Expect flyers and sometimes they’ll give you contacts. At times book clubs will pay the author’s expenses to come speak to their book club or the author pays out of their own pocket for conferences and such. Many times, authors choose to do a book tour, but to save on expense, they tour the region they live in or if they are on vacation, will do a signing or whatever while they are in that area.
· Unrealistic Expectation – I’ll be able to live off my advance and subsequent royalties.
o Reality Check—Most new authors do not understand how advances and royalties work. Here are a few facts.
n Advances for new authors usually range in the low thousands to the high hundreds. That’s not enough to live off.
n If an author makes eighty cents royalties off each book sale, they are ahead of most.
n Advance means advance on money you will be earning in the future. I have always thought of an advance as a payday loan without interest. Many authors do not understand that you must pay back the advance before you receive royalties. Don’t worry, the publishing house will not send you a bill. Let’s say you received $1000 advance and make fifty cent royalties from each novel sale. You’d need to sell 2000 novels to equal $1000. After you’ve sold 2000 novels, you will receive royalties on additional sales.
n Most authors (new or seasoned) do not sell enough novels to actually receive royalties. This is why many publishing houses are considering dropping advances.
Let’s move on to some unrealistic expectations in editing
· Unrealistic Expectation—The publishing house wouldn’t have picked up my novel if it needed developmental editing. Proofreading is all they’ll do.
o Reality Check—Your book may be fantastic, but there is no such thing as a perfect manuscript. ALL manuscripts go through editing, even the big name authors. True story. I was asked to edit this novel for a publishing house that was purchased as a traditional romance but was written as a mainstream fiction. I have NOOOOooooo idea what possessed them to pick up this novel as traditional romance and asked them to reconsider publishing it as mainstream. They still wanted it to be romance. Romance follows a formula and this manuscript didn’t come close. Needless to say, when the author finished the rewrites, it was a different novel with a little of the flavor of the original. I felt so bad for the author, but when you sign that contract, you agree to make the edits. Granted, this horror story is rare, but once was too much for me. Many times authors have to change names, titles, settings, plots, eliminate characters, eliminate subplots…
· Unrealistic Expectation: When I work with a developmental editor, they’ll perfect my book.
o Reality Check—The developmental editor is not a ghost writer unless you pay them to be a ghost writer. The developmental editor can give you guidance on characterization, consistency, plot, setting, voice… and give suggestions on how you can make your novel the best it can be. But at the end of the day, the writing is yours. Not everyone has the same abilities. So when you complete your rewrites, you may not have that great American novel. Some write better than others. Some take comments and build on them, make them their own or come up with ideas that are even better. Some don’t. Some can’t. If you have comments from the editor you don’t understand or you need further elaboration on, don’t be afraid to ask.
· Unrealistic Expectation: When my novel is traditionally published, it won’t have any errors in it.
o Reality Check—Back in the day, novels went though seven to eight different pairs of trained eyes before they went to print and at times mistakes still slipped by. Those days are gone. No one can catch all of the errors, which is why so many pairs of eyes used to check to ensure the manuscript was correct. But not anymore. Cost cuts hit proof reading years ago. You may have three pairs of trained eyes going through your novel before it goes to print. I HIGHLY SUGGEST everyone take a grammar/punctuation class at least every other year. Clean your novel up the best you can before it hits the editing department.
Whew, I’m tired. There are a TON more unrealistic expectations, but I thought I’d let you chime in. Come on, tell folks what unrealistic expectations you’ve come across and what the reality is.
Peace
Deatri King-Bey
http://www.romanceslamjamconference.com
Thanks for the reality check. It looks like no matter where you are in your writing career you will have to work hard and plan on promoting yourself to the fullest extent. Good points and suggestions on editing too. Thank you…
Hi Dee:
Amen?? Amen!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello RLTaylor,
Thanks for coming by and I'm glad the reality check helped. I speak with aspiring authors all the time and I feel so bad because their expectations usually don't meet up with reality. Have a great week.
Hey LaConnie Love you, guuuuuurrrlllll SMILE.
Peace
Dee
After I stopped laughing I tried to do as you ask and see if I could add anything. How about the expectation of quitting your day job and living off of your writing. Most writers write because they love to write and the characters demand to be heard. As for the living off of my writing….If I didn't have Bill I would have starved and been buried long ago. Or perhaps I would have returned to nursing.
Dyanne
Hey Dyanne,
Thanks for chiming in. It amazes me how many folks believe they will be living from their books. Great if it happens, but the overwhelming majority of the time, this is not possible.
I write for the love of writing and to get those characters and stories out of my mind. If I had to write as a job, I don't think I'd enjoy it as much. That's just me. I write what I want, when, and how I want. I write for me.
With that author's whose manuscript had to be changed from mainstream to romance, I'm the type of person who would have said, then don't publish it. But if my financial livelyhood depended on my putting out books, then I don't know if I could hold my ground so easily.
I agree with the unrealistic expectations. The writers who make a living off of their words do magazines, newspapers, etc. I haven't yet but I need to. As for royalties, since I would need to do most of the marketing anyway, I opted for self publishing at Lulu.com. Higher royalties if anyone buys any. I won't get rich but I get many readers to my blog to read some of my silliness.
Hello Ron,
Thanks for dropping by. If I could afford to self publish, I would. The main issue I've seen with self published authors is getting their novels into the major chains. The publishing houses have priority, but if you get a good distributor, you are on your way. Of course you need to have a great novel also. SMILE.
Happy Writing,
I'm sure there are many aspiring writers who will appreciate your candor Ms. Dee. However I would like to add that the same process holds true for self-published authors.
Linda!
great post. I'm glad you got to see Saturn!
Hello Linda, you are oooooo so correct. These expectations and realities work for everyone in publishing. Thanks for coming over and giving some input.
Summer, if you haven't been to an observatory, GO. It's great. Especially if they open at night. For $9 I got to see this fantastic presentation about the universe, tour the exhibit hall and play with their hands on learning opportunties SMILE, hang out with others who love this type of stuff and got to touch the HUGE telescope. It's HHHHHUUUUUUUUGE. The icing on the cake was Saturn. Whew. GO GO GO.
Peace
Dee, the article is dead on. I know most of it being a recipient of your services. Thank you. What has been unclear to me is the advance and royalty agreement in contracts. That leads me to another question. What if you don't sell 2,000 books to pay back the "loan/advance?" I'm assuming the publisher will drop you after that first book. But what else happens? Can they sue the author, place a lien on your work? What?
Do you know of an online grammar/punctuation class you can refer me to?
Hey Minnie,
Thanks for dropping by.
The publishing companies won't sue you. They can't. They still have rights to your book until it goes out of print. So they can continue selling it. If you lose the company money or don't earn them enough money, they will most likely not resign you after a few books. They are realistic and know you need to grow your audiance base. And as your audiance grows, your older titles sell.
For Grammar/punctuation classes, check your local community colleges. Many offer online courses. Ours does. Here is the link: http://www.ed2go.com/cgi-bin/oic3/newcrsdes.cgi?name=mccce&course=grr&title=Grammar%20Refresher&departmentnum=PW&path=1
I haven't tried this clas so can't actually say if it is good or not. Check out places near you.
Peace
Dee
Payday loan without interest. That's the best and accurate.
Hey Rhonda, I'm still waiting on my world wide tour for my first novel. I think they missed the memo of who I am. They'd better recognize. LOL.
Wow! I'm working on learning the craft and making sure my manuscripts are as polished as they can be prior to doing queries with agents or publishers. Thanks for the insights, especially about how advances and royalties work. Keeping the day job or at least something else on the side sounds like a plan.
Hey Ty,
You have that right. Keep the day job. I know New York Times Best Selling Authors who keep their day jobs. Shooooooot, write for the love of it, not the money.
Happy learning of the craft and writing,
Unrealistic Expectation—I can picture the cover of my novel perfectly and my publisher is going to love the idea I have for the cover of MY book.
Reality Check –You’ll be lucky to be able to keep the title of your novel, let alone design a cover. The publisher has final say so and many times your editor is even kept out of this part. Covers and titles often reflect what Marketing says will sell. You can give suggestions, but don’t be surprised if they aren’t used. Many times the people on the books look nothing like the characters.
Deatri, as always, you speak truth to the masses. I came into this game with ALL of those unrealistic expectations… as well as a few realistic ones (e.g., when I set up a signing or get on a group book tour all on my own, the publisher would have the books available). I started out wanting to get a mainstream book deal and saw self-publishing as a means to that end. Now I've gone back to self-publishing, because I was doing all of the stuff I'm doing now anyway. This time, no one is thwarting my efforts. And the publisher I went with has an extended distribution package, so my books are available through Ingram.
I was able to control everything — you know me, I's a biggety West Indian gyal — including my cover design. Also, my self-published book is available as a Kindle download. The other two mainstream joints aren't.
I'm not alone. Taylor Hicks, for all of the American Idol fanfare, was dropped by his label and decided to start his own label, Modern Whomp.
http://modernwhomp.blogspot.com/
Only the strong survive.
Hi, Deatri,
This is a great topic! Thank you so much for bringing some of these things to light. I just attended the National Black Book Festival here in Houston–tons of fun!–and I was amazed yet again at how many authors think they will sell a bazillion books at any event just because they wrote it and appeared before the masses. The reality is, even if an author lays an extensive framework in the cities where he/she will be appearing, readers don't just flock to said author's booth waiting to be dazzled by The Magnificence of The Writer Being. Especially when there are tons of authors in the same place at the same time.
And just having written the book doesn't equate to automatic sales. The art of getting a book out is just that–an art, one which has to be practiced diligently in order to bring satisfaction. And sometimes that satisfaction must be measured in terms of what other perks the author is gaining from these events, or else only negativity will prevail.
Thanks, again!
Hey Rhonda, great points!
You know when I do signings at book stores, I prefer doing them with other authors so at dead times, at least you have someone to talk with.
Peace
Dee
So true, so true. I hope it's okay that I reposted this to my blog. My readers need to see it.
http://www.urbanchristianfictiontoday.com
Deatri,
You hit the nail on the head! Fantastic topic! What I have learned is that the literary industry is just as grimey as the music industry. This is a hustle and you have to have a hustle mentality to generate a buzz about your work.
@Rhonda, I hear you on that…I attended the Romantic Times convention and they only asked that I bring 20 books, afterall I am unknown and self published. Well thank God I sold out of my books, while others around me sold hundreds and some sold none. I think author's are caught up in the whole "I'm an author" ego trip so they do expect folks to buy their books because they wrote it. Not the fact that as a self pub author I not only have to sell my book…I have to sell myself.
One thing I learned is never go to a book signing alone…people will come over and monopolize your time talking about the business of writing and never purchase a book. So I always take my sister/girlfriend with me so that they can step in or do whatever in case an actual sale should come…
Hey Wendy, Thanks for dropping by.
The more time I worked in the industry, but more I see self-publishing as the way to go. You end up doing most of the work yourself anyway. It's the cost that stops most. But if you can get the funds together to do it the right way, you also receive all of the profit.
Rhonda, post to your hearts delight. I want to get the word out to others about how the industry actually works.
Saundra–Welcome to the Readers Rooms. Your points are all dead on. We have really gotten some great responses today.
Keep on reading, writing, and learning,
Peace
Dee
What a wonderful post, Deatri! Amen, Amen, Amen. I would also like to add a few things about advances too as many authors seem to think that it's going to all drop into their lap at one time. Ummmm, not!
Though you may think you'll be set once you get that advance (no matter how big or small), you don't actually get it in one payment. For a lot of contracts, the advance is broken up into 3 or 4 installments, some of which may be a year (or longer) away. The first payment normally comes within 30 days of signing the contract, but publishers will try to stretch out the remaining payments. So they'll stipulate terms like "30 days after publication" or "30 days after acceptance (normally for a 2nd book on a contract)". Authors sometimes fail to realize that if their book doesn't come out for another year (or longer), they won't see that 2nd part of the advance until that time. And we won't even talk about basket accounting.
Lastly, with royalties: even if you do earn out, you only receive a check for royalties twice a year.
Don't even get me to talking about unexpectations as far as agents go and how some authors think agents don't deserve 15% commissions. For those who feel this way…read above and note how often the author gets paid, which equates to how (and when) the agent gets a commission, no matter how much work they're doing on your behalf throughout the year.
Great post, everything was right on point. You forgot the one about the Oprah Book club. Every author thinks their book will make one of Oprah's book picks.
Whew howdy Ellisa, PREACH!!!!! Tee PREACH ON!!!!!
You all are really dropping some real gems.
Nathanial– that darn Oprah still hasn't gotten back to me. LOL. Just kidding. But you are 100% right. Sometimes I wonder about authors SMILE.
Thanks everyone, Keep on giving out this information. This will help so many.
Peace
Oh Tee, I forgot to say please feel free to give folks the scoop on unrealistic expectations folks have of agents
Peace
This is an excellent article with helpfulinformation for those who will read it. I am sending some authors here to read this. Too many think that if they write a book, everybody's gonna love it and buy it.
What a great article. I hope this helps new authors, realize that it's hard out here for a pimp! We avid die hard fans, really do love you and all that you do to get your treasures to us. I certainly have gained even more respect, just working with many authors, watching, learning and hearing the woes of publishing the last few years.
Bunches of Love and Hugs, Deb
Rose and Debra,
Thank you for coming by and showing support. The more input the better. Please feel free to spread the word all you'd like.
Happy Reading, writing, learning and teaching
Peace
Hello Room!
What an awesome display of talent and wisdom. Detri, this one thread needs to be a webinar, included in panels around the country and most of all blasted to all the authors at BEA. You truly nailed the majority of dreams new authors conjure. This is one of the best publishing threads I have read in 3 years! One of the most interesting parts was Tee's post on agents–never thought about half of this info. Great job, all! Elissa what a great list of links, I am off to read all of the sources, fabulous!
Ella
Hello Ella,
Thank you so much. I am tryly humbled.
Everyone contributed to make this one fantastic thread full of knowledge that will really help authors.
Thanks EVERYONE. And keep on adding on. There is so much ground to cover.
Peace
Dee
I am glad my publisher, Rose Jackson-Beavers, sent this article to me. I was freaking out when I saw errors in my book….we must have looked over it a hundred times! This is a great blog site…I'll visit again.
Hello Renita,
Welcome to the Readers Rooms. Glad you could pick up a little knowledge. Be sure to come on back.
Peace
Hey Dee!
I have to commend you on this blog. I'm a writer from eons ago and have YET to get some of the things new writers expect within the first week. I get at least 2 emails a year in my writers group asking the following;
1. How can I get on Oprah?
2. How much money can I make when I sell the movie rights?
3. Can I introduce them to my/Maya Angelou/Terry McMillan/etc's agent?
I could go on and on and on but I think you get the gist. Writing is a gift, a talent, a skill that has to be developed and nurtured. Writing is something that you have to love first and worry about earning the big bucks later…if ever.
Thanks Deatri
Peace
Kim
Hey Kim,
You are right, writing is a gift and yes we can make money from it, but that's not why I do it either. I love bringing the characters to life and reading what others have created.
Thanks for coming by,
Peace
An interesting post.
I spend as much time marketing as I do actually writing- and I think that is where most of those new to the game fail. They seem to think their work is done when the book gets published- on the contrary that is when the real work begins. The writing is the easy bit!
Paul
http://www.hypericon.info wwww.darkdel.com
This is an excellent thread. I'll definitely send it to other writers who are trying to be authors.
Everyone should know up front that its not a get rich quick occupation.
Hello Paul and Karyn,
Thanks for coming by. I'm so glad you found the thread useful.
Have a great day.
Peace
Dee
Tee, I didn't think about the agent's payday. Wow! How to they catch up, take on many clients? What are their day jobs?
Oh my goodness, this post (and all the comments) needs to be reprinted in Publishers Weekly, Romantic Times, the RWA and all other writer websites and blinked from a jumbotron at BEA! It is amazing how many people come up to me and say that they too want to be a writer, that they've got a story (we all do, really, but I digress) and then ask how can I help them get published. Most don't realize the work that goes into that 5X8 or 6X9 jewel they hold in their hands. Still, with all of the challenges and all the hard work, I'm sure we writers will agree that holding one's own novel in your hands is the closest thing to holding ur newborn child! Deatri, this is so on point, and I can't wait to check out some of the comment links.
Hugs to all…Lutishia
Thanks for coming by Lutishia. It's always good to hear from you and spread the word. We need to inform our aspiring authors.
Peace
Dee