Writing for Magazines

Whether you want to keep up with the onslaught of new magazines because you want to freelance to them or check out potential competitors because you want to start one of your own, have I the resources for you! First stop is to visit Mr. Magazine.com - The Official Site of Samir "Mr. Magazine" Husni, Ph.D.. Husni is the experts' expert in what's happening with the mag world. To stay abreast of the news, don't miss his blog, apparently with the same name as his website.

Another resource for finding out about new mags is Magazine Yellow Pages. They even project launches as far as the third quarter of this year. It's also a subscription service with many features.

If you've been thinking about starting a magazine yourself, Husni provides a step-by-step free list of FAQs to help you get started, in addition to his book, Launch Your Own Magazine: A Guide For Succeeding In Today's Marketplace. Once you've determined your new enterprise's launch date, don't forget to let the Magazine Yellow Pages know by phone: 1-877-205-8061 or e-mail info@magazineyellowpages.com.

Book Publishing Business

Anyone who hopes to have a book published, and everyone who considers self-publishing, will benefit by reading Rachael Donadio's essay on the NY Times website, Why Does It Still Take So Long to Publish a Book? Although she writes extensively about pre-pub marketing strategies, another take-away point is this:

As soon as a literary agent has sold a publisher a book, and even before it’s edited, copy-edited, proofread and indexed, the publicity wheels start turning.

Notice all the editorial steps that take time to accomplish. One would hope that the book had already been edited before it was submitted to an agent, and sometimes agents suggest rewrites (requiring another edit).

All this gate-keeping scrutiny of traditional publishing, that self-published books seldom receive, contributes to the negative impression about and discrimination against reviewing self-publishers.

Now go back and study the marketing description Donadio provides. Could you possibly do all that as an individual? Did you know of these strategies necessary for a published book to become even a mild success? Those who think that self-publishing is a fine alternative because it is faster and cheaper are short-changing themselves and their customers. And I haven't mentioned product quality, fodder for another post.

Is Your Writing Published or Not?

Frequently people ask if they can submit a piece of writing to a contest or a magazine, publisher, agent if it had already appeared on a web page, in a blog, at a critique site. I advocate playing it safe, because appearance on any web page fulfills the definition of being published. A web page is anything that will appear on your computer monitor's screen. As quickly as it appears, a search engine robot may be "spidering" that website and capturing an image of the page for the search engine's index. There the page becomes part of an archive.

The definition of "published and first rights used" depends on the potential buying publisher, contest holder, agent. Some dismiss appearances on critique sites, some don't count blogs, some will even waive self-publishing (with minimal distribution). Jordan E. Rosenfeld explores the vague and shifting boundaries in a Writer's Digest article, Shades of Gray:

Here's his quick list to determine if your piece counts as "previously published."

It was published if...

• you gave up your first North American serial rights

• it went through an editorial process

• it appeared in an online journal, even a defunct one

• it appeared in a print publication with a small print run

• it appeared in a literary anthology

It's unpublished if...

• it won a prize but was not printed

• it was workshopped in an online writing workshop

• it appeared on your blog or someone else's (though this is changing, so tread carefully)

Size Matters with Bar Codes on Books

I don't mean to scare you, but publishing a book yourself takes you out of the realm of writer and into a new business as fraught with dangers as a war zone. One such minefield concerns what appears on your book's cover. No, I'm not talking about the front of the cover this time as previously. I've hit that topic every year: 2004, 2005, 2006.

On the back of your book, in addition to an enticing blurb and endorsements, certain information is required so that others can order and sell your book. These items are generally referred to as the "bar code". Yes, literally a bar code like the ones that appear on products in the grocery stores. This one, however, is the Bookland EAN, a series of electronically readable bars and numbers incorporating the book's 13-digit ISBN and often the book's price. For background and details about this bar code, see the Book Industry Study Group.

Book cover designer Cathi Stevenson offers an article focusing on issues about the size of the bar code in The Truth About Bar Codes--Size Matters. She warns:

It should also be noted that Barnes and Noble will not accept books from small publishers that do not comply with their format, which is slightly smaller, although it's always better to cover all basis and go with the larger format, and the following is from the Barnes and Noble website.

Amazon's POD CreateSpace

As if one publish on demand service wasn't enough, last August Amazon.com began CreateSpace, which seems to be more for audio and video projects than the paperback book publishing they advertise. Apparently the only way to easily discover costs and benefits is to register and begin a project, although a FAQ exists specifically about books, and you might glean some insight from a pricing page. I love the example they use--a 100 B&W book priced at $25 "would earn a royalty of $14.85 per sale." Whee! Oh, wait--who would pay $25 for a 100-page trade paperback?

Currently free CreateSpace services are dangling before writers entering the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest:

the winning author will receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group, including promotional support for their book on Amazon.com, and a media suite from Hewlett-Packard. All entrants are eligible to self-publish their novel with CreateSpace and sell it on Amazon.com. Enter your manuscript for consideration by November 5, 2007!

An overview on the book service is available.

Get Books in Barnes & Noble

One of the many myths about self-publishing is that if you pursue that course, you can't get your book carried by major stores like Barnes & Noble. Let's see what Marcella Smith, Small Press Business Manager, Barnes & Noble says:

The process for contacting Barnes & Noble for our decision about whether or not we want to distribute the book into our stores is pretty straightforward and pretty simple. All you need to do is send a copy of the finished book to us along with a cover letter letting us know how you're going to promote the title, what you're marketing and publishing plans are, when you plan to publish the book and what your credentials are for writing it.

Sounds simple enough. You might also consult the book store's online help desk's Publisher and Author Guidelines and the details about Submitting Content for a heads-up on what is involved if B&N accepts your book.

Book Publishing Encyclopedia

In a recent newsletter, Dan Poynter wrote about his latest self-help for self-publishers:

Finding book resources fast. Time is money. Writers, publishers and publicists need access to resources--quickly. Whether you deal in entertainment (fiction) or information (nonfiction), you need information on the book industry.

Dan Poynter's Book Publishing Encyclopedia is the "Book Publishing Answer Book." It has thousands of tips and references in an easy-to use alphabetical encyclopedia. Each fact, figure, resource or reference, in its 222 pages, links to a specific page on a web site for more information.

Red emphasis mine, because it made me assume this is an eBook. How else could it "link" to information on his website? I hurried to Amazon and was confused to find the reference available only as a paperback. Discouraged from buying it, I wondered, what good is a link if it doesn't work? I guess saying "link" was short for "URL" or "web page address", but still, misleading. C'mon, Dan, release this in electronic format with real links.

Self-Publishers Print Costs

According to Mark Levine, a 200-page, 5.5 x 8.5 paperback, with a laminated, full color cover costs a self-publishing company about $3.90 (or less, given the volume of business they provide to printers). That includes $.015 per page and $.90 for the cover. In his book The Fine Art of Self-Publishing, Levine compares the cost to print such a book by six big publishers and calculates the profit they make on each book. iUniverse, Lulu.com, Outskirts Press, Trafford, Xlibris and Authorhouse pay $3.90 to print your book, but charge you, respectively, $10.37 (35% off retail price, for orders of 6-19 books), $8.53, $6.16 (when ordering publisher's $999 publishing package), $8.37, $13.19 and $9.71 per copy. Do you really think you could sell a paperback for the price it would take to recoup your cost? $8.99 is about the maximum the public will pay.

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