Can I Make a Living as a Writer?

This question is a common one. Especially for people new to writing and wondering if there's any real money in it. Unfortunately, to truly answer this question, there are all kinds of other issues that come into play that agents can't speak to, such as, what is your standard of living? How much do you really need to earn to support yourself or your family?

But there is some basic information we can provide to help people understand how money works in the industry. First, publishers do typically pay authors an advance in exchange for the publishing rights to their book. This amount can vary widely, but is typically based on the publisher's estimate of how many copies they could sell of your book in the first 9-12 months of publication. Obviously, the more reason they have to believe they will sell a lot of copies, the higher this number will be.

This advance amount is typically broken up into two, and sometimes as many as four, payments. You get a percentage on signing the agreement, and then a percentage on the publisher's acceptance of the manuscript for your book. If the advance is broken up into additional payments, typically at higher dollar levels, then a third payment would be made on the publication of your book, and a fourth anywhere between 6-12 months following the publication of your book. So even if you were to be offered a significant amount of money for your book, it's likely you would be paid that money over the course of 1-3 years. After that and assuming your book sells really well, any additional royalty amounts are paid by the publishers on a quarterly or semi-annual basis.

In short, even if you're a successful author, you need to have good cash flow and money management skills.

But there are other ways to supplement income besides authoring your own books. Many of our clients also speak, write for other people, provide proposal coaching, write for news outlets, offer workshops and consulting services, or have developed a significant enough blog following to earn income from advertising and the sale of resources off their website.

In short, there is a small percentage of people who are successful enough to truly earn a living simply by authoring their own books. But there are ample opportunities to make a living as a writer if you're willing to look for those opportunities, practice your craft in multiple ways and work hard.

Have a question you want us to consider for our Ask An Agent series? Submit your question here.

Do I Need a Synopsis?

You’ve been working on your killer idea. You’ve put time into developing your chapters, your narrative arc, your proposal. By chance you run into a publisher who asks, “So what’s your book about?” You have 30 seconds to tell her. You’ve been waiting for this moment! You can do this! But your mind goes blank …

While the chances of randomly running into a publisher are slim (unless you’re headed to a writers conference), your proposal is your response as your agent submits it to interested publishers. But publishers are busy and they look at so many proposals a day and they run out of time and they’ve heard it all and even though you’ve worked so hard on an entire proposal, chances are, you have 30 seconds to pique their interest. So what do you do?

You write a killer synopsis!

To match your killer idea. The synopsis, aka the elevator pitch, is your first line in your well-crafted proposal, and your chance to introduce your book to publishers, to hook them, to inspire them to continue reading. The synopsis can be one or two sentences long or could even be the title and subtitle. Either way, it must be

Concise

Clear

Compelling

If your response is, But my idea is bigger than a single sentence! It’s more complicated then that, then your proposal is not ready to be shopped yet. Fly higher and see the bigger picture.

Need some inspiration? Take a look on amazon and look at your favorite books’ descriptions—usually the first sentence draws you in. Look at how movies are marketed and described. Peruse Netflix. (And then you can rewrite them in your head as some of them are a bit ridiculous and don’t draw you in at all.)

The bottom line: while you have a great chance to describe your book idea in your overview section (which is usually a page long), your synopsis is your 30-second chance to gain publishers' interest and inspire them to read more. 

Have a question you want us to consider for our Ask An Agent series? Submit your question here.

How Important Is Your Platform?

We are often asked: how important is my platform as an author?

The quick answer is that your platform is just as important as the quality of your content and concept, especially in the crowded world of book publishing today. 

Most publishing houses take a three-pronged approach when reviewing proposals:

1. strong and fresh concept

2. stellar content and writing

3. platform

If one of these three are weak or missing, it's not likely that the proposal is going to make it through the process.

There was a time, even a decade ago, when an author’s platform didn’t carry as much weight as the quality of their concept and writing. This was before the power of social media, the change in the way people get news, and the rise of online shopping. Now publishing houses need to know there’s a proven way to reach the core buyer for an author’s message.

What are we talking about when we use the term platform?

Platform refers to your level of visibility or influence, expertise or authority on the subject matter, proof of engagement and your target audience. Editors and agents alike are looking for answers to these questions when reviewing the platform section of your proposal.

So often I hear writers say they are overwhelmed when it comes to their platform because they aren't marketers by nature. The truth is, you don't have to have a degree in marketing to put in the time and consistent effort to build and enhance your platform. You simply have to be true to your message and consistent in providing quality content for your followers/readers.

A writer should put as much creative effort into developing their platform as they do in their writing, because it's a natural extension of their overall message.

Platform building is not the same for everyone and it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a process that involves long-term strategic work and planning ... much like writing!

The question is: are you willing to engage the process?

Have a question you want us to consider for our Ask An Agent series? Submit your question here.

How Do I Find An Agent?

Whenever I am speaking at any form of writer's event, be it a Learning Community during the Q Conference, at Writer's Boot Camp or the Frederick Buechner Writer's Workshop at Princeton Seminary, one question is asked more than any other.

How do I find an agent?

We'll be answering questions throughout this series on how you approach an agent, but assuming you're all ready to go, here are some ideas on how you might go about actually finding one.

Agents are a lot like publishers, in that each has their own unique approach to the business. They have certain genres they represent authors in and others they don't. There are certain types of voices and projects they're drawn to and others they're not. The number one thing you can do to advance your cause of successfully finding an agent to represent you is to do your research.

There are a number of ways to accomplish this. First, go to the bookstore or library and find books similar to the genre your writing in. Often times the author's agent is thanked in the acknowledgments or listed on the copyright page. Find authors similar to you and check who their agent is. Websites like Writer's Digest are all over the internet with agent information you can find through a simple search. There are books such as the Guide to Literary Agents, which has tons of information about the agencies working in the business and the types of projects they're acquiring.

If you're willing to spend a little money, you can subscribe to a site like Publisher's Marketplace. This site not only has contact information for agents and publishers, but also has comprehensive deal reporting where you can track the projects specific agents have actually sold and get a feel for the types of projects that agent is working with and the publishers they do business with.

But once you've compiled a list of potential agents, do a little more digging. Most agents list their clients on their website or have specific submissions guidelines. Even with an agency like ours where we've intentionally left a list of our clients off the site, we post agency news and blogs about what our clients are up to. You can find out a lot about who we represent and the books we work on by doing a little digging. When you ultimately query an agent, anything you can do to personalize your query by telling the agent why you think you'd be a fit based on their previous work will go a LONG way.

My last piece of advice? You have to persevere. I often tell my clients and prospective clients that this is a business of rejection. Even when I am representing a well established author to publishers, I hear "no" more often than yes. You don't need every agent banging down your door asking to represent you. You just need one. And doing your research will get you a lot closer to finding the right one.

Have a question you want us to consider for our Ask An Agent series? Submit your question here.

The Importance of a Book Proposal

Your proposal is not only the tool by which you will obtain your literary agent, it's also the tool your agent will use to shop your book and, hopefully, get you a publishing deal. This is not a post about how to put a proposal together. There are tons of resources online to help with that including this one and this one. I do, however, want to share some tips on things you should and shouldn't do when putting your proposal together.

Your Book Proposal Is Your First Impression!

Just like when you are meeting someone for the first time, you put extra care and attention into what you wear and say in the hopes of impressing the other person. The same extra effort should be poured into your book proposal. Put your best foot forward!

When I first started working in publishing, the lens through which I reviewed book proposals was as a publicist. Seven years later, my role, and therefore my lens, changed to that of an acquisitions editor. While those roles were different, there were still so many similarities in how a book proposal is ultimately reviewed. Now as a literary agent, my previous experience in book publicity and acquisitions plays a large role in how I review a book proposal today. The first three things I look for are (1) strong and fresh concept, (2) phenomenal writing, and (3) a well established or growing platform. Following are some tips to consider when developing your book proposal. 

Your Book Proposal Should:

• Have a strong title/subtitle
• Have a very clear and fresh idea or concept that can be conveyed in 1-2 sentences
• Include why you are the best person to write on the topic
• Have a well thought out and developed outline with well written chapter synopses that convey the full direction/flow of the book
• Have absolutely stellar writing
• Include previous sales history, if applicable
• Convey the size and power of your platform, and show any major growth that's taken place, and explain how you will use your platform to help sell books
• Include an author photo, as it personalizes the content
• If possible, include a short video (2 minutes or less) sharing your heart behind the book
• Convey your overall style and personality. While there are items of a proposal that must be included, feel free to be creative in how it conveys who you are

Your Book Proposal Should Not:

• Contain incorrect or inflated information
• Be more than 50 pages (Shorter than that is even better)
• Be a rough draft of an idea you have
• Be off brand from the niche or area of expertise you've built your platform on
• Contain multiple misspellings or grammatical mistakes

The more excellent and thorough your proposal is, the better impression you will make when publishing houses review it for the first time.

In the words of Jerry McGuire, you might hear your agent say:

Have a question you want us to consider for our Ask An Agent series? Submit your question here.

Launching Ask an Agent Blog Series

This year our desire is to regularly post articles not only about what's going on with the Agency, but also information that is helpful and useful to you. To that end, we're launching a new "Ask an Agent" series.

While we have a number of topics we'll be talking about over the coming weeks, we want to make sure we address what you want to know, so we've created a Contact form where you can submit your questions. You'll also see an Ask an Agent button at the top right of our website that will also take you to this form. In addition, Angela and Jana have a lot of experience as editors and working in publicity, respectively, and we want to provide an opportunity to address questions directly geared toward those topics as well. In the Contact form you'll have an opportunity to choose the topic for your question.

We look forward to hearing from you! What do you want to hear from us?

Become Part of the Remarkable! Movement

Our clients Randy Ross and David Salyers have just released their new book, Remarkable!, an entertaining and enlightening business parable that has the power to turn any team around. But they're up to so much more.

Randy Ross is a master of cultural transformation, with a unique understanding of employee engagement. As a professional consultant and coach, he offers practical solutions for increasing both the morale and performance of your teams. David Salyers is the VP of National and Regional Marketing for Chick-fil-A. As a passionate student of life and business, he has spent over thirty years seeing the principles in this book play out corporately and in over 1,600 Chick-fil-A restaurants across the country. Together, they've launched the Remarkable! Movement.

Check out the book, and join the movement.

January Round Up

We've had a lot of things going on over the past month and wanted to make sure we shared and celebrated everything! From clients' publishing books this month to the addition of new agents, check out the links below. 

Client New Releases

Beginnings by Steve Wiens

Be You. Do Good. by Jonathan Golden

New Faces at the Agency

So thrilled to welcome Angela Scheff and Jana Burson to the team. Check out the press release to read more, and you can read more about our agents here.

New Release Giveaway!

Congrats to client Steve Wiens on the release of his new book, Beginnings!

We'd love to give a copy away to one lucky reader to celebrate. 

To enter, fill out the contest form by February 5, and we will randomly draw a name and contact the winner via email.

New Year Giveaway #3

Our third giveaway of the year is here and it was just released last week!

Are you interested in doing work that matters but not sure how to make a difference? Jonathan Golden is living out his unique calling to promote social, spiritual, and economic justice while providing a living wage to 2,500 farmers in Rwanda. Now the founder of Land of a Thousand Hills coffee company reveals how to embrace the meaningful life you were meant to live.

To enter, fill out the contest form by January 29 and we will randomly draw a name and contact the winner via email.

Find out more about Be You. Do Good here.

Check back next week to see what our final giveaway will be!

New Year Giveaway #2

Are you ready for our second giveaway?

Next up is a Bible that will provide you with a full year of daily scripture reading. Authors such as Shauna Niequist, Margaret Feinberg, Phileena Heuertz, and Leeana Tankersley share their thoughts on topics ranging from cultural issues like social justice, economic inequality, and social media addiction to personal needs like prayer, decision-making, relationships, infertility, career, and calling.

To enter, fill out this Contest Form by January 22 and we will randomly draw a name and contact the winner via email.

You can read more about the NIV Bible for Women here.

Check back next week to see what our next giveaway will be!

When to Self-Publish

I'm often asked by both would be and published authors, if and when to consider self-publishing. For those unpublished, the question often comes from the desire to be published as quickly as possible and frustration with trying to break into the industry. Both are often asking because they've read of significant success coming to self-published authors and wondering whether they even need traditional publishers anymore. As a literary agent, I earn a living representing successful authors to commercial publishers, but I absolutely believe there is a place for self-publishing. However, whether successfully published or looking to publish for the first time, there a few considerations that apply across the board.

Audience 

Most publishers are looking more and more to the author to help sell their book. Publishers are having a harder time than ever successfully breaking out new authors. However, they can absolutely help amplify an existing audience. When you self-publish, there's no amplification. You want to know how big your "platform" is? Self-publish. Self-publishing may be a shortcut to selling your content, but there is no shortcut to building a following and an audience for your work. Self-publishing will expose how successful you've been at this faster than anything else. 

Market 

When you publish with a commercial publisher, your book is generally available anywhere books are sold. When you self-publish, you are typically locked into a specific ecosystem. For example, to sell your book electronically through Amazon, you have to agree to exclusively sell your book on Amazon. Most people don't consider that a big deal because Amazon controls 65% of the electronic book market. But only 19.5% of all books sold in the US are Amazon Kindle titles. In actuality, you're tapping into a small segment of the overall book market. If you self-publish into a different ecosystem, you're reaching an even smaller segment. All the more reason you need to have a robust following for your work to be successful.

Fulfillment 

A lot of authors will decide to sell their book directly from their own website to cut out the middle man and retain as much of their revenue as possible. But this means you'll have to figure out how to deliver your book in the format your audience wants to read it in. Does you audience read on a Kindle, or a Nook, or an iPad? Do they know what specific file format each device uses and how to load that file onto their device once they've downloaded it from you? What if your audience wants your book in a physical format? Do you have the means of producing, warehousing and fufilling physical book sales? When you become a direct seller, you have to take all of these things into consideration.

In short, there's no easy street to publishing, self or otherwise.  But if you decide to take the plunge, there can be significant benefits. For a published author, it offers you the ability to offer your audience something to tide them over between commercial releases. It can be an opportunity to generate revenue off of valuable content that makes sense for self-publishing, but that wouldn't make sense for a commercial publisher to consider. It can allow you to bring a resource to market to capitalize on a trend significantly faster than most commercial publishers will be able to. It can be a valuable tool used to gain fans and followers and build your platform. For a self-published author, when done successfully it can help gain the attention of commercial publishers and prove that you do, in fact, have a loyal following willing to engage with your content. For anyone, it can be an opportunity to try your hand at content that doesn't necessarily fit your "brand," but allows you to introduce your audience to some of your other interests and creative endeavors.

As a few examples, here are some books my commercially published clients have just recently released as self-published works for many of the reasons above: 

Charles Martin - River Road: A collection of short stories from Charles' early writing days. 

Timothy Willard - Shine So Bright: A beautiful children's Christmas story, successfully funded on Kickstarter and now available for sale. 

Margaret Feinberg - Live Loved: An adult coloring book encouraging scripture memorization, which has since been contracted and published by Bethany House. 

Rob Bell - Millones Cajones: A fun and surprising novel about a motivational speaker that suffers a crises of identity.