Things Heat Up Over Amazon/BookSurge Demands -- This Writer's Waiting for the Smoke to Clear

Things are heating up in the Amazon/BookSurge debate, if you can call it that. No one sitting on this side of the fence (meaning on the side opposite Amazon and BookSurge) sees anything to debate. Amazon and BookSurge are obviously in the wrong. It's a case of the big guys against the little guys. The whale wanting to eat up all the minnows. The king wanting to take over the adjacent smaller kingdoms.

As for us writers, however, speaking for myself, I'm still waiting to see how it all pans out. My manuscript will remain at home with me until I get a better feel for what the POD marketplace will look like when the fire dies down. I'd be curious to know how many authors who intend to self-publish their books are simply going ahead at this time. Are they voting for the small POD publishers by handing over their manuscripts and their money despite the fact that their books may never appear on Amazon.com with a "buy" button or are they waiting for the smoke to clear before they decide which POD publisher will actually publish their book? (Or have they changed their minds about self-publishing altogether and opted to find an agent and a traditional publishing house?) How much money is this Amazon/BookSurge issue costing POD publishers every day at this point without even considering the future cost of printing through BookSurge or of not selling books through Amazon? And how much time is it costing writers?

Back to the news... Today, Monday, April 7, 2008, the UK's Leading Writers Website, YouWriteOn.com, called for a Boycott of Amazon. I found this posted on WritersWeekly.com:

I manage YouWriteOn.com, the UK's most popular Arts Council funded site for budding writers, with leading publishers such as Random House involved who consider highly charted new writers in our charts, and also free critiques from editors for publishers such as Bloomsbury and Orion. We are calling for a boycott on Amazon here in the UK over the news about Amazon and Print-On-Demand which we consider are attempts to monopolise the POD industry and will lead to considerably less choice, less opportunities, and less royalties for POD writers, and also opens a door for Amazon to consider similar approaches for other mainstream commercial publishers and authors. This YouWriteOn move has been reported in The Bookseller: http://thebookseller.com/news/56180-youwriteoncom-calls-for-amazon-boycott.html

YouWriteOn.com in response is inviting all POD authors everywhere to list their books on our site with a free 'book-buy' link to any bookseller other than Amazon. Effectively we are calling for a proactive boycott of Amazon and are encouraging all writers and readers and other writers' sites to join in this by doing the same in their writers communities, which drive the POD industry, and to also email their discontent to Amazon. It is also a red-flag to the publishing industry in terms of how Amazon may use their influence on books from mainstream commercial publishing houses in the future.

POD may sometimes be viewed as 'vanity publishing' but it can be an important progression step for writers who are locked out from mainstream commercial publishing by the current 'mid-list' book problems that authors suffer in the industry. We have helped writers achieve success with publishers like Random House and Quercus, and for non-mainstream publishing we give, as an example, Bufflehead Sisters by YouWriteOn US member Patricia J. DeLois, which was turned down by agents and publishers here and in the US. We published the novel by POD and it sold 1,200 copies over Christmas 2007 and the author received agent representation and is being considered for a two book deal by a leading publisher as a result. Amazon's move would have seriously impacted on the writer's chance of this opportunity as well as leading to considerably lower royalties for her. POD is driven by writers outside of mainstream publishing, and, in the same way that peer to peer feedback on YouWriteOn has helped writers achieve publishing success, we'd like this boycott to be taken up by all writers communities.

Kind Regards,
Edward Smith
Manager You
WriteOn.com

In case you don't subscribe to Publisher's Weekly online, which you should if you want to be kept up to date on what's going on in the publishing industry, here's the latest story. It's good news -- The Authors Guild is examining BookSurge's move for antitrust issues. As I told Angela Hoy when I first heard the news about BookSurge demanding that all POD publishers use their printing facilities, somebody's bound to sue BookSurge or Amazon over this. It just reeks of monopoly in a country built on free trade.

Authors Guild Looking at Antitrust Issue of Amazon’s POD Plan
By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 4/6/2008 10:03:00 AM

Saying it is reviewing the antitrust and other legal implications of Amazon’s “bold move,” the Authors Guild sent an e-mail late Friday to its membership questioning the motives—and implications—of the e-tailer’s new position on print-on-demand that makes publishers use its BookSurge division if they want the sell their titles on Amazon in the traditional manner. While Amazon is pitching the move as a consumer-friendly change that will improve the speed of shipping books and other products, the Guild says it suspects the motivation has more to do with profit margin than customer service.

If Amazon is successful in wresting a large chunk of pod business away from current leader Lightning Source (which the Guild says does a good job), they will have taken a huge step in controlling publishing’s supply change and thus control much of the industry’s long tail business, the Guild said. “Once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the "long tail" of publishing,” the statement reads. “Since Amazon has a firm grip on the retailing of these books (it's uneconomic for physical book stores to stock many of these titles), owning the supply chain would allow it to easily increase its profit margins on these books: it need only insist on buying at a deeper discount -- or it can choose to charge more for its printing of the books -- to increase its profits. Most publishers could do little but grumble and comply.”

If Amazon does impose deeper discounts, the big losers, other than Lightning, will be authors, since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher’s gross revenues, as well as publishers, the Guild says.

The statement closes by inviting anyone who has information that could help the Guild investigate the matter to contact it by phone at 212-563-5904 or through its site, authorsguild.org.

If you haven't been keeping up with the news by going to WritersWeekly.com's clearinghouse (http://www.writersweekly.com/amazon.php), here's the run down since I last posted.

After Amazon began threatening publishers who offer customer-direct discounts on their own web sites, things heated up last week in the publishing industry.

In addition, the American Society for Journalists and Authors released a statement on Friday denouncing the Amazon/BookSurge ultimatum to POD publishers. They also sent a letter to their general membership. You can read both at http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?p=63789. The Author's Guild also published a statement. You can read it here: http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?p=63794. Another POD publisher, AuthorHouse, appears to have fallen into BookSurge's den, and Scott Flora of the Small Publishers Association of North America sent a letter to Jeff Bezos at Amazon. You can read that at http://www.spannet.org/Amazon-POD.htm.

If you haven't already, be sure to sign this petition: Stop the BookSurge Monopoly

And check out these blogs, which are much more up to date than mine:

United Against Bullies

Amazon Troop (Book) Surge

More in a few days or when some really breaking news happens. (Although I might just pop in to give you some better news about blogging for authors...)

Self-Publishing World in an Uproar! POD Publishers Held Hostage by Amazon/BookSurge!

I know this blog was supposed to lie dormant until almost November, at which time it would gear up for another flurry of writing activity during the 2008 Write Nonfiction in November challenge. However, I had to show my face (well...words) here today to let you all know about some pretty darn important developments in the world of self-publishing. Actually, I should have written something last week, but there was still lots of speculation then and now a lot more facts are available.

If you haven't already heard the news, in brief, BookSurge/Amazon.com basically is trying to force all POD (print-on-demand) publishers to use their printing facilities to print their POD books sold on Amazon.com or else those books will have their "buy" buttons turned off on Amazon. com. In other words, if your book has been or will be (or you were considering having it) published by a POD publisher that isn't using BookSurge's printing facilities, Amazon.com customers will no longer be able to purchase it. At least that's what Amazon is trying to accomplish.

I, for one, was outraged when I heard this news. I had just found a small POD publisher right here in Los Gatos (http://www.robertsonpublishing.com/) where I live that could get my book into all the Internet bookstores as well as into Ingram for a very reasonable price. Plus, I could walk right in to their shop and deal with them face to face! How many authors get to do that these days? Plus, they were willing to send editing work my way as well. I was very excited, and I was seriously considering doing some self-publishing beyond my little booklets. Now...well...Suffice it to say, I'm hesitating. My projects are on hold.

For any writers considering self-publishing or who have had their books self-published already by a POD house, you better start reading and get up to speed on the Amazon/BookSurge issue. It's HUGE! It could mean big changes in cost, pricing and quality when it comes to YOUR self-published book -- and mine.

Rather than give you the whole scoop on this news myself, since I'm not the expert on this subject, I'm going to let someone much more knowledgeable do it for me. That person is Angela Hoy of WritersWeekly.com, one of the most popular and widely read, free, writing e-zines published today. (If you don't already subscribe, you should.) Angela and her husband run Booklocker, a POD publishing house. She's had her finger on the pulse of what's been happening for a week now. So, I'm going to put a copy of the article she posted today here for you to read. After that, I suggest you go to http://www.writersweekly.com/ for all the latest info. Angela's set up a page meant to be a clearinghouse of information at http://www.writersweekly.com/amazon.php. Or you can go to http://www.writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004610_04022008.html for the latest news on what's going on.

I suggest that you take Angela's advice and begin e-mailing and writing letters and calling the people she suggests. We writers have to take a stand on this development. I, for one, would like to have a choice about who publishes and/or prints my book and what I pay for that service (not to mention the quality of the product I get in return for that fee). I don't want to have to go back to my local POD publisher and say, "Sorry. I'm not going to use you now, because Amazon and BookSurge have me by the...well, I don't have any of those, but they've got my hands tied anyway!" That said, I surely would like my self-published POD book sold in all the Internet bookstores, including Amazon.com. I hate to say it, but Amazon.com is where most people go to buy their books. While other sites offer free shipping on orders over $25, most can't beat Amazon.com's prices.

If you want to read my initial thoughts on the subject, I have left Angela two comments on her blog. My comments, along with everyone else's, and many people's blogs can be found at http://www.writersweekly.com/amazon.php.

Without further ado, here's the original article that appeared in Publishers Weekly, which has a link to Angela's first article on the subject, followed by today's update:

Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge
by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 3/28/2008 8:34:00 AM

BookSurge, Amazon’s print-on-demand subsidiary, is making an offer that most publishers would like to refuse, but don’t feel they can. According to talks with several pod houses, BookSurge has told them that unless their titles are printed by BookSurge, the buy buttons on Amazon for their titles will be disabled. A detailed explanation of her how the new program was explained to her is provided by BookLocker.com co-owner Angela Hoy on her writersweekly.com blog.

Over the last year, BookSurge has been trying to cut into the market share of pod leader Lightning Source and is using the selling clout of Amazon to generate more business. “I feel like the flea between two giant elephants,” said the head of one pod publisher about the upcoming battle between Lightning Source and BookSurge/Amazon. He said although the deal with BookSurge will be more expensive, he has no choice but to make the move since most of his authors expect their titles to be for sale on Amazon. He added that his company will also continue to use Lightning Source for printing as well. Amazon's BookSurge mandate extends to traditional publishers as well as to online pod houses.

An Amazon spokesperson explained that the new policy will allow the company to "marry" books with other products that a customer might buy at Amazon, which would be combined in the same package. She said for publishers that don't use BookSurge for pod, they can still use Amazon's Advantage Program (which works on a consignment model) or third party vendors to sell their pod books.


April 02, 2008
IT'S NOT OVER! Amazon Tells Publishers, Pay Us To Print Your Books...Or Else
By Angela Hoy, WritersWeekly.com

Tuesday, April 1st, was the rumored deadline Amazon.com gave to some POD publishers to sign an agreement allowing their printing division, BookSurge, to print each publisher's book to be sold through Amazon, or risk having their "buy" buttons turned off on the Amazon.com website. Publishers, authors, and even book buyers were outraged by this apparent power-grab by Amazon. Attorneys and government officials are still studying the legality of their actions. How could they demand such a thing and what publisher in their right mind would agree to their ridiculous terms? While a band of POD publishers stayed together, refusing to sway to Amazon's demands, some did not.

Monday, March 31, 2008: AuthorHouse/iUniverse (owned by Author Solutions) announced they had reached an agreement with Amazon to allow Booksurge to print their books.
Monday, March 31, 2008: A Lulu representative posted a cryptic announcement that suggests they, too, likely signed the Amazon contract.

We are in possession of the Amazon contract and, while I'm sure AuthorHouse/iUniverse and Lulu negotiated special terms for themselves, I can tell you that the confidentiality clause in that contract is the tightest I've ever seen. Don't expect anybody at those firms to ever talk about what they had to give Amazon to keep their "buy" buttons turned on.
It's been reported that some other publishers signed the contract as well and that others are still considering it, believing they have no choice.

HOW COULD THEY CAVE?

We think we figured out why AuthorHouse/iUniverse and Lulu felt they had to sign an agreement with Amazon/Booksurge. Of course, since nobody's talking (Ken Weiss at AuthorHouse never returned my call on Monday and Bob Young's people gave me a humorous run-around, before finally admitting they didn't want to comment), we can only speculate. But, I think the keys to the cave-ins can be found on the publishers' websites.

You see, I've always felt that having our BookLocker books listed in the online bookstores was a privilege. You can't promise your authors something that involves another company if you don't have a contract with that other company. Our BookLocker contract states, "Sales channels can be added or removed at the Company's discretion and without prior notice. While the Company provides listings to Ingram for print books, online bookstores, such as Amazon.com, are not required to list these titles for sale. Listings offered by online bookstores are at the discretion of each particular store." Furthermore, we don't up-sell authors on marketing services. If an author wants us to add additional content to their Amazon.com page, we do it for free. If an author wants their book in the Search Inside the Book Program, we show them how to submit it (our authors get copies of their files for no extra charge) or we do it for them.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, some POD publishers decided to start charging for these services. And, perhaps their greed has now forced them to start using Amazon's printer.
AuthorHouse charges authors an extra $75 to submit their book to the Amazon Search Inside the Book Program. If an author has paid for that service, they would, of course, expect and demand that Amazon have their book available for direct purchase by Amazon customers (have the "buy" button turned on). Since AuthorHouse charged authors for that service, they may have inadvertently put themselves in a bind with the threat of having the "buy" buttons turned off.

Lulu has third party service providers (that pay Lulu commissions) that offer Amazon listing enhancement services for a fee to Lulu authors. One Lulu author surmised on their forum, "Lulu will just have to supply Amazon with books..." So, perhaps they found themselves in the same bind as AuthorHouse.

The deadline given to some publishers was rumored to be April 1st and AuthorHouse/iUniverse and Lulu both announced agreements with Amazon on March 31st. That leads me to believe Amazon may have had them both by the...well, you know.

No word yet from Xlibris. I left a message on John Feldcamp's voicemail on Monday but he hasn't yet returned my call (tap, tap, tap). I've met John and found him witty and charming...yet he absolutely does not appear to be the type of person you can push around, even if your name is Jeff Bezos.

We were already in contact with POD publishers who had received the "buy button threat" before last week's story ran. After we broke the story, several other small publishers contacted us as well. Some didn't mind giving their names but many begged us to not reveal their identities, hoping to stay under Amazon's radar.

WORLD DOMINATION OF THE PUBLISHING AND PRINTING INDUSTRIES?

Tongues have been wagging (okay, fingers have been typing) online for a week now, speculating about Amazon's future plans. Many guffaw the idea that, after taking over POD titles, Amazon might dare to go after traditional publishers, too. What most don't understand is that it's already happening. Booksurge is already printing POD versions of back-list, out-of-print and large-print books for HarperCollins, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, Springer, Gale, Oxford University Press, and others.

Last week, the University of Pennsylvania Press contacted us, reporting they'd received the Amazon ultimatum, too. She said, "I work at a medium-sized university press, where most of our titles are conventionally printed via offset. However, Amazon called our director about two weeks ago, telling him that soon we would be required to use Booksurge."

If Amazon does ramp up, and can process all those files and print books in every one of its facilities, those huge, expensive, maintenance-monster warehouses may become obsolete. They will, instead, be printing and shipping facilities.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if Amazon's ultimate goal is to print every single book they ship. I bet Walmart's sorry they didn't think of it first!

WHY THIS IS BAD... VERY, VERY BAD
QUALITY

Publishers who sign Amazon's contract must let Booksurge print their books.

These are results that pop up if you Google the words booksurge complaint without any quotes.
"...the binding of the book isn't that great as one of my pages fell out."-Review by Robert Youngsource(This is an Amazon page and they might yank it after this article is published.)
"The majority of books produced were defective: pages falling out, discolored covers, white splotches on the covers, etc. Of the 135 books I purchased, over 100 were defective. It was a huge embarrassment and headache for our organization."source

"Additionally, the book is poorly constructed. The book fell apart (literally, the pages falling out) before I made it to page 24."source(This is another Amazon page that may get yanked after this article is published.)

"Please be patient, and if you do happen to get a book with pages falling out, kindly return it to BookSurge for a replacement."source(This site is tied to the Amazon.com bookstores so it, too, might disappear!)

"April McDonald is suing Amazon for 10.5 million dollars and its vanity press, BookSurge, claiming that the book was full of typos and other errors."source(The article above includes direct quotes from the book's author.)

"Koziol alleges that the trade paperback copies he received were 'riddled with misspellings, jumbled text, mismatched pages and other errors,' according to TimesUnion.com."source
"I POD'd my book in spring of 05 and my first 250 copies had the cover so violently off center as to make me return ALL of them. Booksurge replaced them, but with the back 4 pages missing! Ugh!"source

TESTING, 1-2

I purchased a Booksurge book last night and had it shipped overnight. It did indeed arrive this morning. It has a cover that isn't centered (the back is off-center by at least half an inch - very noticeable and very unprofessional) and a glue smudge on the back as well. I won't even get into the interior formatting. It looks like somebody designed this in their garage (my apologies to anyone who actually does write in their garage) and, on the first page of the forward, the drop cap ink is bleeding into one of the sentences. If the author paid Booksurge for editing, he needs to ask for his money back. I won't mention the book's name here because I don't want to embarrass the author. It's not his fault. I will keep it, however, in case Amazon tries to deny my claims. Frankly, there is no denying how crappy this book looks.

IF THE BOOK IS CRAPPY, WHOSE FAULT IS IT? YOURS!

If your customer gets a book with loose pages, or upside pages, or a crooked cover, or a cover that isn't centered, or a glue smudge on it, or bleeding ink, who's going to get the blame? The publisher and author, that's who. The customer isn't going to blame the bookstore (Amazon), even though Amazon printed the book. Readers will very likely have no idea the publisher had to let Amazon print their book.

IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY

Less $ for Publishers + Less $ for Authors + Less $ for Book Buyers = MORE MONEY FOR AMAZON!Amazon's actions may force publishers to increase the price of all books for readers. Being forced to pay printing fees dictated by Amazon (that can increase at anytime), deep discounts dictated by Amazon (that can increase at anytime), and setup fees dictated by Amazon (that can increase at anytime) can mean higher prices for books (less money in the book buyers' pockets), less money for publishers, less money for authors, and, of course, higher profits for Amazon. Trust me. Despite their rosy statement, Amazon didn't do this just for "customer service." They're doing it to MAKE MORE MONEY.

GETTING IT FROM BOTH ENDS

It is our opinion that Amazon is creating an unfair competitive advantage for itself in two ways... possibly more.

1. Production and Printing - They force publishers to use their printer (who has a bad reputation for quality), which they profit from (cha-ching), and force publishers to give them a deeper discount (cha-ching), and force publishers to pay setup fees for new titles (cha-ching). All this is just for books being sold through Amazon directly. Amazon knows the publisher must also pay to have files formatted to different specs in order to get Ingram distribution (considered imperative for bookstore sales). In fact, all this expense and trouble could even make it more difficult and more expensive for Amazon's other competitors (bookstores) to obtain these books for their customers.

2. Amazon also competes directly with these publishers for authors. Authors can pay Amazon/BookSurge an average publishing package fee of over $1,000 to have Amazon publish their book. So, Amazon is competing directly with its publishing customers for authors' books and will, of course, even have access to the publishers' customers' (authors!) contact information. I wonder if their new contract protects publishers from Amazon going over their heads and trying to land contracts with the authors directly?

Remember, Amazon has a contract with Lightning Source (LSI), but has gone over its head and contacted LSI's customers (the POD publishers) directly. That's how all this trouble began!

THEIR OFFICIAL STATEMENT

Amazon did issue an official statement. It didn't say much. In fact, what made it interesting was what they left out. See this article on PaidContent.org.

CAN THEY EVEN DO IT?

There is much speculation that Amazon doesn't even have the man-power or the resources to quickly acquire and process all of these new interior and cover files from POD publishers (tens of thousands from AuthorHouse and Lulu alone) and that they also may not have POD printing machines in all of their distribution facilities. We're still waiting for Amazon to comment about that. One Amazon employee claimed (see link directly above) they had POD machines in three distribution centers. However, they have 10 centers in the U.S. alone. If they don't have POD machines in all their distribution centers, their statement about "marrying" products to save shipping and fuel expenses doesn't hold much weight. If they can't currently handle the influx of new book titles, and if they can't print POD books at all of their distribution facilities yet, why the rush to make POD publishers sign by April 1st?

*IMPORTANT!* POSSIBLE DIRE CONSEQUENCES FOR PUBLISHERS WHO SIGN AMAZON'S CONTRACT

Morris Rosenthal brought this up the other day and we're wondering if the POD publishers who have already or plan to sign the Amazon contract have considered it. According to The Robinson-Patman Act of 1936 (or Anti-Price Discrimination Act), if Amazon forces publishers to offer them a 48% discount, this action may, by default, force publishers to offer all bookstores a 48% discount. Many small publishers simply can't afford to do this. If they sign the Amazon contract and, thus, then have to offer all bookstores a 48% discount, they may go out of business.
Offering Amazon a 48% discount allows Amazon to discount their prices beyond what another bookstore could if they were not given the same discount. The competing store would, of course, be at a competitive disadvantage. Nobody knows for sure, but it sure seems to me (and this is MY OPINION, mind you) that this windfall of benefits to Amazon may have all been carefully orchestrated through Amazon's contract with POD publishers. They just can't lose no matter which way you look at it. What do you think?

THE GOOD NEWS

Despite all of this, the good news is Amazon has not removed anymore "buy" buttons from POD publishers' books pages. Maybe, just maybe, after such a large public outcry, and perhaps after some consultations with their attorneys, they're realizing that this wasn't such a great idea after all. And, as I noted earlier, attorneys and government officials are still studying the legalities of this situation.

FREQUENT UPDATES

We are posting frequent updates to the top of THIS PAGE. Please send your comments regarding this situation to richard - at - booklocker.com, and let us know if you write about it so we can add a link to your site.
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UPDATE: YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS!
The print on demand (POD) book I purchased from Amazon/BookSurge yesterday is now listed as OUT OF STOCK at Amazon.com! It says: Temporarily out of stock. Order now and we'll deliver when available. We'll e-mail you with an estimated delivery date as soon as we have more information. Your account will only be charged when we ship the item.

Gosh, now what does that mean about their "print and bind a book in less than two hours" statement? Shouldn't their POD books never be out of stock? Hmmm....
We looked around some more and found several BookSurge books that are listed as "out of stock" and "usually ships in 2-4 weeks."
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Personal P.S. from Angela: I want to personally thank every single one of you who has written to me, written to Amazon, contacted your state's attorney general and other government entities concerning this situation. When something is terribly wrong, each and every person who is courageous enough to stand up and shout NO truly can make a difference. We and our small POD publishing colleagues are humbled, blessed, and strengthened by your heartfelt words and immediate actions. Thank you!

Write Nonfiction in November Comes to an End

The month has come to an end. I hope you’ve risen to my Write Nonfiction in November challenge and finished your nonfiction writing project. Depending upon where you live, you might still have a few hours left to do so. As with NaNoWriMo, if you have finished, you can now take some time to edit, polish and fine tune your manuscript. That’s what I’ll be doing during December.

On that note, I’m going to write about editing once more. Actually, I’m going to write about writing.

Recently, I’ve edited several projects that had my hair bristling. I found myself totally frustrated and wanting to ask my clients why they didn’t write more clearly. To be more explicit, I wanted to yell, “Write simply! Write what you mean! Don’t make it so complicated!” I had to spend huge amounts of time – and their money -- trying to make sense of their sentences, which were written in amazingly convoluted ways and with the most absurdly odd word choices.

From this experience, I wan to offer this advice: As you write, rewrite and edit, keep this in mind the fact that most readers don’t want to struggle to understand what you are writing. They want to read your sentences once - - not two or three or four times -- and comprehend your point. They don’t have a need for you to impress them with your amazing use of the English language, especially if that use leaves them wondering what you are trying to say. If you have a good vocabulary, use it, but write as you would speak. If you aren’t sure if your writing is easily read, read it aloud. Does it sound like you? Would anyone speak the way you’ve written? Does what you have written really make any sense? If you answer “no” to any of these questions, rewrite for clarity and simplicity. If you aren’t sure, ask someone who knows nothing about your subject to read a page or two of your manuscript. Then ask them if they understood what you wrote. You can even ask them a few pointed questions to be sure they really got your message. If they didn’t, clearly you need to go back and try again – this time more simply. Believe me, your readers (and your editor) will thank you.

My pet peeve -- passive writing -- gets activated almost every time I work on a client’s manuscript. Turning passive writing into active writing takes up about 75 percent or more of my time as an editor. It costs my clients a lot of money. So, here’s my last piece of advice: Learn how to write an active sentence. This means getting rid of any form of the verb “to be” whenever possible. Occasionally, the verbs “is,” “are,” “were,” and “was” do sneak into even the best writer’s work (even mine), but if you can avoid them, you’ll end up with much stronger – and more active – writing. Sometime you can substitute another verb and change a passive sentence into an active one, but, more often than not, accomplishing this requires a full sentence rewrite.

Thanks for joining me for Write Nonfiction in November. I’ve been told that maybe the San Francisco Writers Conference will get behind this idea and turn it into a real contest like NaNoWriMo at some time in the future. If so, it might not happen during November but some other month instead. If you want to know what's happening on that front, you'll surely hear about it on my web site, http://www.purespiritcreations.com/. Between now and next year, if anyone feels the need for some writing, editing, ghostwriting, or writing coaching services, you can find me at http://www.copywrightcommunications.com/ (which takes you to http://www.purespiritcreations.com/, because CopyWright Communications is – There’s that dirty little verb! – a division of Pure Spirit Creations). You also can e-mail me at cpywrtcom@aol.com. If you mention this blog or the Write Nonfiction in November challenge in your e-mail, I’ll give you a 20 percent discount on the first four hours of services rendered.

Happy nonfiction writing! Thanks for joining me for the past 30 days! Good luck!

Of Time Lines, Platforms, Niche Craft, Too Many Ideas, and Getting in the Game

I’m back from my meeting with my agents. Actually, I only met with one; the other wasn’t feeling well. We went for a lovely lunch at a nice restaurant. He brought all the materials I had sent to him, and we ate and talked for almost two and a half hours.

We never really did discuss time lines, though. I think the gist of that subject basically came down to the fact that he said someone else said you need a five-year plan. I’ve been at this longer than five years, but I haven’t had a plan for that long. So, I guess the advice for nonfiction writers comes down to: Create a five-year promotional plan that gets you from where you are now to the top of a very large platform in that amount of time. At least, that’s what I took away from that little bit of our conversation.

I asked what I should be doing to develop a platform that would make it possible for him to market that one book project he sent me off to promote. He looked over my recent accomplishments and liked the fact that I’ve landed myself a spot as a regular guest on a podcast that has over 38,000 listeners per month. (I’ll be on nine or 10 shows in the next year!) He liked what I have been doing to promote myself on the Internet and was impressed (I think) with the growing amount of traffic to my web site. He suggested I do more of whatever I’ve been doing on that front (posting lots of articles to article directories), and that I get out and do much a lot more speaking. (Why was I not surprised?)

We looked at all of my recent work and projects, my old book proposals, my more current book proposals (including the one they didn’t get sold), and then discussed how they all fit together. Basically, we tried to see how we could fit them into a niche that would be uniquely mine. I know about niche craft, but it was nice to see how I could begin to take my booklets and some other book ideas I have and begin to place them all together into a similar form for the same market. My agent has been telling me for over a year that I have the unique opportunity to really take over a particular niche if I try, and I can see how I could begin to do that through really focused promotion. Actually, many of the nonfiction projects I’ve been working on do fit together into a niche, because they have come out of my efforts to promote one or two major projects. In the course of our conversation, I began to see how I could produce a line of booklets with corresponding courses, audio programs, and such. And he suggested I do just that – and go out and use that as the foundation for my efforts to increase the number of speaking engagements I have per year.

I had hoped to come away with a better idea of where to focus my attention – on this book or that one, but instead I came away with more ideas. Some of those ideas fit my niche and some don’t. You see, I write about Jewish spirituality primarily, and, more specifically, Jewish spirituality for women. However, I have some ideas and projects with a more secular nature. These stem from my focus on Judaism, but they apply to a broader audience. So, it becomes hard to know where to focus first. Do I build outward from my small market, or do I circle back from the larger one? It’s best to do the former, my agent and I agree, but some of my ideas, I believe, deserve a bigger audience.

And there are the other book ideas…the ones that fall totally outside the realm of my niche. The ones that I’m sure could be big sellers if only I could get my agent or another agent or a publisher to just take a chance on them. But, like so many other nonfiction writers, I’m left working on my platform, chipping away at that time line, knocking off one more item on my plan, crafting my niche, honing my ideas, and wondering when the time will be right, when my time will come.

It’s hard to play small when you really want to play big. And it’s hard to sit on the sidelines waiting for the coach (an agent or publisher) to tell you its time to get into the game when you really want to run onto the field now and show everyone that you can score a goal. In the game of nonfiction publishing, however, it seems that until you are a Barry Bonds, Michael Jordan, David Beckham, Payton Manning (or James Patterson, Mary Higgins Clark, John Grisham, Danielle Steele, or Nicholas Sparks) – someone with a huge fan base, you’ll be sitting bench.

To end this blog on a positive note, I’d like to invite you all to purchase Elle Newmark’s novel, Bones of the Dead, at Amazon.com and then go to her party, which is still going strong, at www.bonesofthedead.com. Her promotion of her virtual book launch party got her seven (yes, seven) e-mails from agents and a contract from William Morris (with talk of foreign and movie rights) and made her novel an Amazon.com bestseller in two categories. She forevermore can call herself a bestselling author and her book a bestselling book. While you’re at the party, check out the party favors I’m offering. You can download my free Abracadabra! The Kabbalah of Conscious Creation Workbook. And e-mail me for a free recipe from my (hopefully) soon-to-be-published Jewish celebrity cookbook (it’s being considered by a publishing house right now). You also can help me get it published by preordering it; you’ll find out about that when you get your free recipe. And, last but not least, you can e-mail me for a coupon good for 20% off 5 hours of editing, writing, ghostwriting, and writing coaching services (a $75 value). Plus, there are lots of other great party favors being offered at the party. Anyway, what Elle accomplished serves as an inspiration to me. It doesn’t matter that she writes fiction; we nonfiction writers can take her lead and accomplish the same thing she did.

Last blog tomorrow….hope you’re finished with your project! If not, get writing. You don’t have much longer.

Research vs. Procrastination and I'm Off to See The Agents, The Wonderful Agents of Mine (Sung to the Wizard of Oz)

Tomorrow, I'm off to see my agents in San Francisco We are supposed to discuss "time lines." I guess that means how long I have to promote myself and my work before they can help me get this next project of mine off and running. If you recall, my agent did not manage to sell one of my projects, and her husband sent me off to promote another one. They said I was "antsy" when I asked if I could find another agent who might take the project on immediately and suggested this meeting. I guess we also will take a look at where I am going, how I am going to get there and how they will help me. Those are my words. I want and need that from them. Anyway, that's tomorrow's agenda, and I'm a little nervous. I don't often get a chance to spend time with them. I enjoy their company and value their time, but I'm always a little afraid of doing something "wrong." Just my stuff... I'll let you know how the meeting goes.

Here's another short bit of news: I finished the first draft of my Write Nonfiction in November project. In fact, I sent it off to my agents, along with a bunch of other stuff. It needs some work, but it's not half bad. I think I told you that its a booklet based on a four-part teleseminar series I taught. I plan to sell it at the back of the room when I teach or speak and on line as well. I'll produce it as an e-book, too.

Okay, a short post on research vs. procrastination (as per Linda's request). Here's my take on this subject, for whatever it's worth. It's very easy for a nonfiction writer to waste away the hours doing research, especially on the Internet. I have often found a whole day gone by without noticing as I've read surfed around the net reading all sorts of things that seem related to my topic. If you've got time to spare, this poses no problem. If you have a deadline or, like me, have few hours in the day to work, this does not serve you. So, Google your subject and try to find the websites that look most promising. Follow your best leads and links. Give yourself a time frame within which you have to quite researching -- 2-3 hours or whatever you can spare -- and then begin writing.

Use this same principle when reading for research. Tons of books have been published on most subjects. You could read for years. Pick the best few books, or the most recent few books, or the books by the most-well-known experts, and then call it quits.

I prefer conducting interviews over reading books, because I don't have enough hours in my day to read as many books as would be necessary to do extensive research. I read a few books or parts of books, and then I start interviewing the authors or other experts. They can tell me what I need to know in a lot less time than it would take to read their whole book. Plus, they answer my questions specifically. Be cautious about spending too much time interview, though. This can become a trap as well. You can spend all your time talking to experts and never get around to writing.

Then, of course, you simply need to know when to stop researching and start writing. Ask yourself, "Am I just procrastinating and putting off writing? Do I have enough research to begin writing?"

I always err on the side of doing too much research, and I don't recommend this. It makes writing more difficult. I think it might be better to research just enough, begin writing, and then go back and do extra research to fill in gaps. The way I do it, I end up having to distill pages and pages of research or interview transcripts into just a few paragraphs of copy. However, an overabundance of research does give you excess material for more articles, books, essays, etc.

The Many Varied Forms of Nonfiction

The I received a request to write about the different forms of nonfiction. I teach this – at least in terms of article forms – in my “Writing for Publication” teleseminar and class, but I’ll give it a go here as well in shortened form and without telling you how to structure any of these articles or books.

First, of course, we have the news article. You can find a news story in any newspaper. Most newspaper articles are written in the classic “inverted pyramid” form, which means it begins with the most important facts and ends with the least important ones. News stories are comprised of all facts and no opinion. They can be slanted by presentation of facts, but they are supposed to be unslanted (written in a way that offers no opinion) and neutral. That said, I’ve read some wonderfully slanted news stories. Here’s an interesting fact: The reason the most important facts are at the top and not at the bottom of the article is due not only to the fact that they make up the crux of the story but because if that particular day’s edition happens to be crammed full of news, the story can be cut by full column inches from the bottom without worry. They just delete the least important paragraphs from the bottom up. Most news stories cover the 5 W’s and 1 H – who, what, where, when, why, and how – and they often manage to give readers those details in the first paragraph or two.

Feature stories often arise out of news stories. In a newspaper, these would be more in depth coverage of a news story. In other words, the reporter or journalist takes the basic facts and digs deeper, looking for more meaning and information. Often a feature story will deal with one aspect of a news story, an issue, a problem, etc. The story might take the form of a trend piece, or it might focus on one individual, thus becoming a profile article, or it might be a general feature about a certain subject. General features, trend stories, profiles often are found in magazines, since feature articles are the name of the game in magazine journalism. (I should know, since that’s my specialty.) You could take a news story and write a book about that news story in much the same way you write a feature article -- only longer.

How-to articles, a favorite of mine, offer readers advice on – you guessed it – how to do something, such as lose weight, find a mate, sell a house, make money, or change jobs. These stories represent a staple in the magazine industry. E-zine directories also love how-to articles. Many books on the market today are how-to books.

Essays appear commonly in magazines, but they can be found in some newspapers, too. These articles are based on personal experience; however, the writer then broadens the subject so it applies to a wider audience. I love writing essays. They are slice of life pieces with an educational twist. If you learned something from an event that happened to you, teach others what you learned. Essays require little to no research or interviews, making them quick and easy to write – another reason I like to write them.

If you prefer to voice your opinion, you can write an opinion piece. Newspapers love to publish these on their op ed pages. These are short opinionated essays on a subject you feel strongly about.

Narrative nonfiction has become a big deal these days. It’s like literary journalism or a nonfiction novel. The writer writes a story based on facts or goes out and conducts interviews and then writes a novel based on those interviews. All the information in the novel is true and factual – none of it is made up.

Other nonfiction books are based either on interviews (with experts, people who have had a common experience, etc.), research, or the author’s expertise. As such, they are factual rather than fictional.

Then, you have the autobiography, a book written about your whole life.

A biography is a book written about someone else’s whole life.

A memoir is a book written about a period of time in your own life.

An anthology is a compilation of essays or articles written by many people.

Most nonfiction writers aspire to write a book. So, maybe this blog seems a bit off base, but my college professor once told me that if I could write an article, I could write a book. He said, "Each chapter in a book is like one article. You just write one article after another." So, if you haven't ever written a book, you might want to try your hand at writing a few articles first.

(If I missed any article or book forms, I’m sorry. Drop me a note. I'll write about it tomorrow.)

The Benefits of Attending a Writers Conference

Today I'd like to encourage you to attend a writers conference if at all possible. I know these can be expensive, but I feel they are well worth the money and the time.

Given that I live in Northern California, for the last three years I've attended the San Francisco Writers Conference. When I lived in New York, I had the opportunity to attend a variety of different conferences in Manhattan. Each time I've attended a conference I've left with loads of great information on writing, getting published, the publishing industry, publishing trends, and promoting myself and my writing projects.

Conferences are a great place to hobnob with other writers and to learn what they are doing to help themselves obtain an agent or sell their work to publishing houses. As nonfiction writers, networking with other nonfiction writers who are building their platforms can help us find places to speak and think of unique ways to make ourselves known in our own marketplaces.

Conference usually feature expert speakers who offer advice on building platforms, promoting our books, self-publishing, writing query letters and proposals, gaining Internet exposure, building readership, getting an agent, approaching a publishing house, pitching our work, writing for publications, and much more. In addition, many of the sessions are led by agents and editors at publishing houses, so you get to hear from publishing professionals first hand.

In addition, at conferences you get the chance to meet agents and publisher face to face. Many conferences feature sessions during which you can pitch your book idea directly to agents and editors. For instance, at the San Francisco Writers Conference, every year I have participated in their "Speed Dating for Agents" session. I get three minutes to pitch an agent before moving on to another. Some years I've pitched to as many as 10 agents! The interested agents give me their contact information, and I then follow up with a proposal. Also, I can send them the requested information an envelope that indicates that they did, indeed, request it, which means my work doesn't disappear into a slush pile. It may get read sooner; thus, I may get a reply sooner. In addition, the conference normally provides attendees with contact information for all the agents and editors participating in the conference, so you can pitch to them by query letter and at least mention that you were at the conference.

Then, of course, you might have the opportunity to talk to an agent or editor in the bar or in the lobby of the hotel where the conference is being held. Or you might meet another writer who gives you a lead on the perfect publisher for your book.

You just never know what will happen at a writers conference, but I can assure you that whatever happens it will be good and it will further your writing career.