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Kathryn Mattingly

~ edgy words unleashed

Kathryn Mattingly

Tag Archives: publishing

The Addicted Writer’s 12-Step Plan (part 2)

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by Kathryn Mattingly in Blog Post

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

agents, book proposals, publishers, publishing, synopses

imagesIn the first post of this series we discussed writing a synopsis (fiction) or a book proposal (memoir). This is the first thing a literary contest, agent, or publisher will see. That makes it more important than you might think, which is unfortunate, because writers suck at writing this important road map.

How do I know this you ask?

Because I have seen over 300 synopses before reading, critiquing, and judging those manuscripts for the very large literary contest I have been volunteering my services to for over a decade now.

Luckily for the writers of these terrible synopses, I don’t let their lack of skills with laying out their plan affect my opinion of how well they actually write those first 30 pages of the manuscript.

Speaking of how publishers will read your road map before experiencing firsthand the journey that would be your book, they are the next step to consider in that 12-Step plan. It is not news to anyone that publishing has become quite a diversified field. Here is how it breaks down:

3-Publishing: Do your homework on your publishing options. This, obviously, is not one of the criteria on the sheet we follow to judge manuscripts, but I have inserted it as an important step in my fiction-memoir writing class for those would-be authors who need to know what to do once they have written their Great American Novel.

There is a sea of publishing options out there including large traditional publishers (mainly based in New York), and small independent and boutique publishers (still traditional).

There are also hybrids, which offer something between an independent press and self-publishing (non traditional because you pay them for their services), self-publishing – which provides all the services you could ever need or want (you pick what services by what price you’re willing to pay) and purely independent self-publishing.

In that last category (purely independent) you man your own ship from start to finish, with no one to hold your hand, support your efforts, or share much of your profit. Of course, you need to be a savvy computer program whiz to pull this last option off without needing psychiatric sessions.

Large publishers give you little to no control over anything from editing to your front cover. They do, however, write you a check up front to ease the pain of turning your baby over to them after the excruciating process of birthing and raising it to be world-ready.

Independent and boutique (which specializes in certain genres or a certain image) publishers do not write you a check up front, but they don’t charge you anything either and you share in the royalties at a better cut. You also have tons of control over your editing, front cover art, and all other factors such as in-house marketing strategies.

Hybrid and full service self-publishing companies offer you quality services for a price. The difference is that the hybrid companies might turn you away if your work is not of a standard they deem worthy, whereas straight-up self-publishing companies are not concerned with the quality of your work if your money is green and plentiful.

Pure independent self-publishing (usually through internet sites such as Amazon) only require your ability to maneuver through it, and generally do not charge you for using their self-publishing program; however they do want a portion of your profit. For clarification, ALL forms of publishing will take a portion of your profit. 

4-Agents: Speaking of publishers, traditional publishing will not (as a rule) take un-agented manuscripts, which means if you have chosen this route, you will need an agent. You do not pay agents up front, but if they sell a publisher on your manuscript they will expect a percentage of the profit from your book sales. What do you get in return for going traditional by paying an agent AND a publisher part of your profit?

That’s a good question. Truthfully, it narrows down to credibility, and knowing that you have made the grade. Your work has stood out above all the other work out there, and like fine art, is generally valued by the caliber of gallery that will accept it. This is because experts in the field (professional agents and editors) have the well-honed skills necessary for skimming the cream off the top.

If nothing else, it will certainly help establish you as a serious author sooner, and it will bring greater attention to your book when released. Traditional magazines and the top tier of social media marketers will review your book, because someone other than you and a self-publishing service have deemed it as worthy-mention.

Having said all that, obviously, there are a lot of very good quality novels out there that chose to take a more independent path because it is much less of a hassle and the more independent your publishing route, the more of your profit you keep. It is also true that anyone can pay independent book reviewers such as Kirkus for a review. Regardless of your publishing credits or lack there of, the cream will always float to the top. And that’s the beauty of it. In the end, the reader decides.

As it should be.

It is also important that your novel get noticed. No one can read or appreciate something they don’t know about, no matter how good it is. If you have decided to go the route of traditional publishing, that means the first person who needs to know about and appreciate your work is an agent.

How do you get an agent you ask? This is another good question. Stay tuned for the answer and more to come in the 12-step series…..

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Kathryn’s next novel, Journey, will be released September, 2015 by Winter Goose Publishing

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Personal blog and website: http://kathrynmattingly.com Edgy Words Unleashed

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00EILN6YE

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/kathrynmattinglyauthor

WGP page: http://wintergoosepublishing.com/authors/kathryn-mattingly/

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Creative Versus Critical

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Kathryn Mattingly in Blog Post

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

authors, editing, marketing, publishing, writers

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I am a perfectionist. I confess this as the disease that it is. I never should have let my husband read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. He now loves to tell me how it must be hell to wake up every morning and be you. Then he grins like a cheshire cat, relieved that he does not have this dilemma of perfectionism.

What is perplexing about this is that my debut novel, Benjamin, is just now typo free. YAY! It only took six months to track down every evil little typo and smash it off the page. Let’s not even examine that I am a professional editor by trade, when not teaching college English, and soon creative writing.

I don’t blame my publisher, because the truth is – the buck stops here. If you want a small personalized press where you have creative input into your final product, you must share equal responsibility for whatever that final product finally becomes.

When wearing an editor hat I catch, well, pretty much everything. I know this by the moaning of my clients. Based on their recommendations written for my website, they eventually are happy to have made those edits.

My own work, on the other hand, I cannot seem to read objectively. Perhaps that would be a little like seeing your child’s glaring errors instead of their beautiful heart, soul and vulnerabilities each time you look at them. Of course, there is also the question of whether you are using your logic (left side) of the brain or your creative (right) side. Creativity has no patience for an English skills assessment.

I’ve learned that it takes a village to edit a book. Every editor brings a different talent to the table for what type of typo they detect. Some editors are best for content rather than commas. They can help you shore up your plot and deepen your characters laugh lines or lines in the sand to make them more lovable. Or they can restructure your sentence structuring. These would be my gifts. I leave correct comma placement to proofreaders.

I have one writer/editor friend who somehow finds every word with a missing letter. You’d be surprised at how many of these show up in a book. The reader is almost always unaware. It’s like the social media posts that show words as random letters but with a few in the correct place and ask if you can read it anyway. Yep, the brain decodes it at rapid speed. That’s why we don’t see those missing letters (or letters out of order) when reading.

My personal angst as a writer is using the wrong spelling for my word choice. Pores for pours. Peer for pier. Funny how I catch these for others when wearing my editor hat. Maybe it’s similar to being more attentive to our guests, while glossing over family with a mere glance.

Small publishers do not have editing villages as a rule. They have passion, heart and soul for what they do, and a good eye for good reads – but not a lot of worker bees for final edits and tedious marketing. Those are going to be our burdens as the author. So, I have formed my own village of editors and I now have a publicist.

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My publisher has been there for me every step of the way. Supportive, informative, and just plain believing in me, which every author needs well beyond that initial I will take a chance on you smile and handshake. This, by the way, is all you might get from the big publishers before being thrown into the lion’s den of the publishing process.

It has been an amazing ride this past year slowly breaking out of my cocoon as a cozy writer cuddled up to my keyboard, all the way to a published novelist fluttering about like a butterfly, signing books for readers and attending promotional events.

I cannot believe how much I have learned past the angst of how to write a synopsis for your well-crafted (because it was rewritten numerous times) manuscript, all the way to collecting and correcting those typos that unfortunately slipped through.

My earthshattering conclusion is that we evolve first as writers and then as authors, because if we don’t evolve we will certainly not be able to maintain an engaged audience and successful career. And this, my friends, is ultimately what it’s all about unless you are a one act pony with a life changing memoir from which you plan to collect your millions and retire.

Best of luck with that. (;

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Click here to Visit Amazon’s Kathryn Mattingly Page

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Click on this link to read ‘Literary Fiction Lovers, Meet Kathryn Mattingly’ Feature Article by Lori Anderson at The Possibility Place

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