Submissions
The recent Writer’s Digest article has caused a spike in queries about submissions.
So first of all, I am looking for writers. If we agree to work together, I will either publish your book via Flap Jacket Press or get you a deal with a larger publisher (as I did for “The Lace Reader”). Either way, there’s no cost to you. I make money when your book sells. Given that, I’m very selective so please don’t be offended if I decline to work with you. I simply can’t handle every author that wants to be published.
You can send me the first 50 pages and a complete synopsis. I can’t return anything to you so don’t send me your only copy. If you want me to mail you a response, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. I prefer just to send an email so include yours if you have one.
Send your materials to:
Submissions Manager Flap Jacket Press 49 Atlantic Avenue Marblehead, MA 01945
Thanks and good luck!
Gary Ward
Topics: Submissions, The Lace Reader, Writer's Digest | No Comments »
Praise for “The Lace Reader”
We’re delighted that our newest title, The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry (in bookstores on Sept. 1), is receiving such great reviews. Visit www.LaceReader.com if you want to learn more about the book.
Publishers Weekly gave it a coveted “Starred Review” (meaning “a book of outstanding quality.”) Here’s part of what they had to say:
“A captivating debut. Barry excels at capturing the feel of small town life, and balances action with close looks at the characters’ inner worlds. Her pacing and use of different perspectives show
tremendous skill and will keep readers captivated all the way through.”
The entire Publishers weekly review is here although it is mixed in with many others and you’ll have to page down several times to find it. Look for the red star and “The Lace Reader.”
Tom Jenks, editor of Narrative Magazine and former fiction editor of Esquire, advisory editor of The Paris Review, senior editor at Scribner’s, and literary editor of Gentlemen’s Quarterly had this to say:
“In The Lace Reader, Brunonia Barry has created a delicate yet powerful story, combining sorcery, family saga, New England’s most legendary town (Salem, Massachusetts), contemporary human drama, and mystery. Barry’s novel is that rare thing — a literary page-turner, worthy for its story and for its art.”
Finally, Brunonia visited with another book club last week and was greeted with enthusiastic praise. The host commented:
“The Lace Reader is the perfect book club book because it’s about perspective. Different people see different things when they read it. When we gathered together to discuss it, we were able share our individual experiences and gain even more insights into the book because no one got everything. Plus, it’s a fascinating story, very well written, and a real page turner. I stayed up until 2 AM reading it because I had to find out how it ended. It’s going to be a bestseller.”
Wouldn’t that be nice?
Gary Ward
Topics: Bestseller, Book Clubs, Esquire, Narrative Magazine, Paris Review, Predictions, Publishers Weekly, Scribner's, Starred Review, The Lace Reader | No Comments »
Have Breakfast with the Colbert Nation
BookExpo America has just released the audio from June’s breakfast in NYC with MC Stephen Colbert and authors Lisa See, Ken Burns, and Khaled Hosseini. You can listen to / download the MP3 for free by clicking here. Their post about the event is below. Warning: Colbert begrudgingly allows others to speak during the event so it’s not as funny as it might have been had he constantly talked over them as is his traditional conversational style.
This BEA Book and Author Breakfast brings together Ken Burns, author (with Geoffrey C. Ward) of The War: An Intimate History, 1941 – 1945, Lisa See, author of Peony in Love, and Khaled Hosseini, author of A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Master of Ceremonies Stephen Colbert, author of I Am America and So Can You, hosts this very special event. Each author speaks about their latest books and the influences and journeys that inspired them.
Gary Ward
Topics: BookExpoCast, Books, Ken Burns, Khaled Hosseini, Lisa See, Stephen Colbert | No Comments »
Want to read a good book? Watch TV.
CSPAN’s BookTV has several shows this weekend worth watching. I’ll recommend a few but you can get the entire schedule here.
On Sunday at 7 AM, you can watch a panel discussion from BookExpo America on bestsellers and the American culture. Lots of insights into why we love the books we love (60 minutes).
Also, The Cult of the Amateur author Andrew Keen will discuss how a populist Internet is destroying our culture. You can watch it this Sunday at 4:30 PM (90 minutes). Why hasn’t this important video been chopped up into 5 minute chunks and posted on YouTube where large numbers of people could view it? Also, is there a way that the owners of short attention spans can be exploited such that their book reading increases? Can you turn poison into a nutrient? Hmmmm.
Finally, author Stephen Hayes will discuss his book Cheney at 11 AM and 7 PM on Sunday. There’s been a lot of press about this book, always good to hear from the author (60 minutes).
Many other authors and sessions this weekend so take a moment to browse the schedule and you’ll probably find something of interest. Click here to view it.
Gary Ward
Topics: Andrew Keen, Bestsellers, BookExpoCast, BookTV, Books, CSPAN, Cheney, Cult of the Amateur, Stephen Hayes | No Comments »
It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Where You Know
So says Ted Smith, Research Fellow at CNET Networks. Ted has posted three short video clips investigating how people influence others online. In a previous post, I talked about finding the story that causes others to talk about your book (or anything else for that matter.) Ted expands on this idea by looking at what motivates, activates, and destroys this phenomena. The segments are brief but insightful and take you through the entire life-cycle of an act of influence. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time. You can watch the videos for free (no registration required) here. You can also watch some brief interviews with influencers (I found these to be light on content) and request a white paper.
Gary Ward
Topics: Influencers, Marketing, Technology, Viral Marketing | No Comments »
What’s Your Story?
“It’s not the book, it’s the hook” is an old book marketing saying. It basically comes down to this: What story can you tell about your book that will get other people telling your story about your book?
In a recent Seth Godin post, he talks about marketing in terms of maximizing what you can do with the resources in hand. Money isn’t always the answer but good storytelling is. You can read Seth’s brief post here.
Your job: Find the Wow! factor that makes people willing, eager, and able to talk about what you’ve written. You literally want to put your words into other people’s mouths. You need to think in terms of talking points.
Why would anyone speak out for your book? Yesterday I suggested controversy as a possible promotional angle. Being exceptional is another. The first, the best, etc. Whatever slant you choose, be sure that it’s genuine. Faking an association with some attribute that you don’t really have will quickly backfire on you.
Gary Ward
Topics: Books, Marketing, Seth Godin, Viral Marketing | No Comments »
The Internet Is Falling! The Internet Is Falling!
You blew it, it’s too late. You should have started blogging five years ago. The Internet is going down because it’s too popular and populist.
How do I know this to be true? Because Harvard Business Review’s IdeaCast interviewed Jonathan Zittrain about some of the ideas in his forthcoming book The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It! His basic premise is that the current open, collaborative Internet allows lots of untalented people to generate useless if not destructive garbage (spam, viruses, MySpace pages, etc.) Nothing useful, grand, significant, clever, wondrous will be created by untalented people on an open network (Uhhh…Wikipedia?) What’s his solution: let’s go back to proprietary networks like Compuserve, AOL, etc. And in the meantime, get much better security software because people can run any code they want on an open Internet.
Agree or not, this is worth a listen. The interview is about 12 minutes and you can download it for free here.
Publishers / Authors: Jonathan’s ideas run counter to the euphoria everyone feels about Web 2.0. His ideas are controversial AND he can argue persuasively for them. Think about how you can use controversy in marketing your titles. Controversy doesn’t always sell but it sure stands a good chance of getting noticed.
Gary Ward
Topics: Books, Harvard Business Review, Jonathan Zittrain, Marketing, Predictions, Technology | No Comments »
Go Ahead, Spoiler Yourself
By now you know that some people claim they have photographed every pair of pages of “…and the Deathly Hallows” and placed everything up on the Net for all to download (gosh, I’ll just sit here all day and download these 350+ JPGs.)
Others have just trumpeted key plot points (who dies when and where, etc.)
Other than keep Scholastic’s lawyers busy trying to stomp out a million little server fires, it has really brought to the fore the long established tradition of spoiling (i.e. ruining the ending for others who haven’t yet read book, seen the movie or TV show, sporting event, etc.)
Now Yahoo claims that it knows where all the spoiler sites are for Harry Potter as well as most popular TV shows and movies (BTW: Harry Potter currently accounts for 40% of their spoiler traffic.)
So if you can’t wait a few more days and want to see Yahoo’s spoiler lists, go here and then click on one of the ten links listed at the bottom of the article.
If you’re too lazy to do that, I’ll just tell you upfront that Harry gets whacked by Tony Soprano in the cafeteria. Tony leaves Carmela and takes up with Hermoine. All of this happens while the Lovin’ Spoonful’s Do You Believe in Magic plays over the scene while random characters from the movie The Sixth Sense order cannolis. Powerful stuff. Please don’t spoil it for anyone else.
Gary Ward
Topics: Harry Potter, Spoilers, Tony Soprano, Yahoo Buzz Index | No Comments »
What every bride really wants to know
I’m sure there’s a sports book division that handles the over / under on celebrity weddings but for the rest of us, it’s more of a private matter. However, in our latest book, The Lace Reader, one of the characters has the ability to read the bride’s future by gazing at the bridal veil. It is such a lovely passage and so many women have quoted that passage back to us that we decided to turn it into a postcard and give it away for free.
You can get your free copy here. It is the first card in the list so just click on the “View Image Full Size” option and you can save a copy by right clicking on it. If you click on the “Send to a Friend” option, you can send it to up to 5 others. There are also instructions at the top of the page on how to use your own email program to send it out. If you know any newlyweds or about-to-be-weds, be sure to send them a copy.
For general info about the book, go to www.LaceReader.com.
Gary Ward
Topics: Books, Brides, FREE! Marketings, Marketing, Predictions, The Lace Reader, Viral Marketing, Weddings | No Comments »
Dude, Get a MySpace page!
BookExpoCast has released the audio from last month’s seminar on MySpace for authors and publishers. With over 100 million users, you have to be aware of MySpace and what it offers for folks in the book industry.
MySpace has a unit that specializes in books and you can check it out here.
You can download the free MP3 audio of the BookExpoCast seminar here. Here’s their description of the session:
MySpace for Authors and Publishers
Since its launch in 2003, MySpace has not only been an internet phenomenon, but has helped boost the careers of numerous bands, comics, and filmmakers. In this BEA session, MySpace for Authors and Publishers: Everything You Need to Know to Make it Payoff, the publishing industry gets a first-hand lesson in how to make this social-networking site work for them.
Led by Lindsay Tredent and Christine Mooreof MySpace, this panel is full of first hand knowledge from authors and publishers who have utilized MySpace to boost book sales. Featured speakers include: Miriam Parker of Hachette Book Group, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, author of I Am Not Myself These Days, Kevin Callahan of HarperCollins, Barry Lyga, author of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Gothgirl, Richard Nash of Soft Skull Press, and Trevor Kelly and Leslie Simon, co-authors of Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture.
Gary Ward
Topics: BookExpoCast, Marketing, MySpace, Technology, Viral Marketing | No Comments »