As long as I'm sharing writing and publishing advice, I thought I'd show off my successful query letter for DON'T EVER GET OLD. I sent this out as unsolicited slush, and that's how I found my literary agent, Victoria Skurnick at Levine Greenberg:
Ninety year-old Baruch “Buck” Schatz remembers a time when the only “portable handheld device” anybody needed was a .357, “Google” was the sound a guy made when you punched him in the throat, and “social networking functionality” came out of a bottle.
These days, though, this retired detective is extremely frail and frequently confused. But when he learns the SS officer who tortured him in a POW camp may have escaped Germany with a fortune in stolen gold, Buck decides to hunt down the fugitive and claim the loot. He’s got nothing better to do, and keeping his mind occupied is supposed to ward off dementia.
Assisted by his grandson, a law student who knows how to find information using a computer and is allowed to drive at night, Buck finds a lead down the Nazi’s long-cold trail. But lots of people want a piece of that treasure, and Buck’s investigation quickly attracts unfriendly attention from a Mississippi loan shark, a seven-foot tall Hasidic Jew, a preacher on the take, a cop with a grudge and a bloodthirsty maniac hell-bent on rubbing out everybody who knows anything about Nazi gold.
“Don’t Ever Get Old” is a 76,000 word mystery/thriller about a hard-boiled man in a world gone soft, confronting the existential reality of his inevitable decline and death while trying to get rich quick.
Showing posts with label DON'T EVER GET OLD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DON'T EVER GET OLD. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Why Authors Sign With Commercial Publishers
We've been hearing a lot of narratives over the last few years about self-published bestsellers, but it remains true that almost everyone who has the option to publish with a commercial publisher chooses to do so.
Literary agent Rachelle Gardner had a post a while back about why authors still want deals with trade publishers. I'm going to point out a few other things that come with traditional publishing that are unavailable to self-published authors, and which translate into real benefits:
1. (Perceived) Legitimacy
A lot of authors say they want to publish commercially because they want "validation" from a trade publisher. This may sound like a vanity concern, but reviewers and readers also perceive a validity inherent to trade-published books that is not automatically assumed of self-publishers.
All writers think they're talented, and that their books are good. Most of them are wrong. Readers want to see some endorsement of a book's quality other than the author's high opinion of himself. When a publishing house puts a book out, there's an expectation that it will at least meet a certain standard of competence.
There's nobody standing behind a self-published book except the author. For new self-published authors, it can be very difficult to get anyone else to look at the book, even if it's actually good. Many readers -- perhaps most -- won't read self-published books at all. Many online reader forums, including Amazon's customer discussions, have made rules excluding authors from participating in forum threads because readers don't want to interact with self-published authors or have their discussions spammed with self-promotion.
In 2011, Bowker counted 211,000 new ISBN numbers for self-published books. That's a huge number of people competing for readers' attention. Even bloggers and reader-reviewer communities who are dedicated to spreading the word about self-published books can't possibly sift all that slush.
The solution to this problem has been for self-published authors to give away a ton of e-books. The hope is that, by giving away 5000 downloads, maybe a couple of hundred people will actually read the book and five or ten will review it on Amazon or on their blogs, or recommend it to friends. But with so many authors giving away books, even the audience for free e-books is swamped.
All the things that might have helped a book stand out eighteen months ago, like buying professionally designed covers, running large-scale giveaways, and pursuing pricing strategies to manage Amazon's internal recommendation system are becoming standard practice across a much larger chunk of the market, so it's getting harder for self-published authors to gain traction.
A survey of self-published authors by Taleist found that the median self-published author earns $500 per year. In fact, that number is probably high; the survey uses self-reported data, so unsuccessful authors may have lied about their sales or may have been less likely to respond to the survey. And since Taleist found self-published romance authors make twice as much as other self-published authors, if you're writing in any other genre, your results will probably be even worse.
If the median self-published author pays a freelance editor for copy-editing and hires a freelance jacket designer, the cost of these services will likely exceed the royalties from the author's book.
2. Trade Reviews
There are four major trade publications that review books ahead of their release: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and Library Journal. Each of these magazines reviews about 7500 trade-published books a year, so if your novel is published by a big publisher, there's a good chance you'll be reviewed by a trade. If your novel is published in hardcover by a Big-6 house, you're likely to be reviewed by all of them.
For traditionally published books, these reviews are free if your publisher sends galleys for the trades to review. But the booksellers and librarians who subscribe to the trades don't stock self-published books and aren't interested in reading about them. The freelance critics who review galleys for the trades don't especially want to read self-published books. The only people who want to see self-published books reviewed in trades are the authors, and that means self-published authors have to pay the trades to review their books.
If your book is self-published, you can pay a fee for a listing in Publishers' Weekly's quarterly supplement about self-pubbed titles. They also select some titles for review, but buying a listing does not guarantee a review. Kirkus charges a significant fee to review self-published books, and they post these reviews in a segregated part of the Kirkus website. Kirkus calls prides itself on employing "the world's toughest book critics;" so even if you pay them, they may not say nice things about you. If you don't like your review, Kirkus won't post it, but they'll keep your money. Booklist and Library Journal do not review self-published books.
A positive review from a trade gives you a good pull-quote to use for promotional purposes, and earns you notice from booksellers in librarians. Fewer than 10% of the books reviewed by any given trade will earn a starred review. DON'T EVER GET OLD was starred by all four trades, which is very rare, and really jump-started my sales.
3. Libraries
Libraries are a major revenue stream for the publishing industry and for trade-published authors, and they're almost entirely inaccessible for self-published authors.
There are 9200 public library systems in the US and nearly 17,000 library facilities. They buy a lot of books. Many hardcover releases from Big-6 publishers sell thousands of copies into libraries. To put this in perspective: if you sell about 20 self-published e-books a day, you'll maintain a Kindle store rank of around 5,000, which is very good. That moves about 600 copies a month, so it takes you 5 months at that rank to sell 3000 copies. If only 1 out of every 5 library branches buys just a single copy of a traditionally published author's book, he's matched your 5 months of Amazon self-published success before he sells his first retail hardcover or e-book.
DON'T EVER GET OLD sold very well into libraries, likely on the strength of the starred trade reviews. Librarians have also been very enthusiastic promoters of the book to their readers and on their blogs.
4. Foreign/Subsidiary Rights
Some self-published authors have secured foreign rights sales, but it's uncommon, and your self-published sales have to be extremely strong to generate international interest.
Translation and other rights are often very lucrative for traditionally published authors. DON'T EVER GET OLD has sold Portuguese, Japanese and French translation rights, as well as large print, audio and film rights.
5. Events/Speaking Engagements
There are literary festivals all around the country, and a number of famous and bestselling authors spend a lot of time traveling among them. These trips offer great opportunities to attract new readers, and the costs are often partly defrayed by event organizers or publishers.
I've been invited to the Decatur Book Festival outside Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, and the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville in October.
While some of these events do include self-published authors, the indies are often put in a separate tent or have their readings scheduled on a separate stage, and they may have to pay the festival for space to exhibit their books.
Literary agent Rachelle Gardner had a post a while back about why authors still want deals with trade publishers. I'm going to point out a few other things that come with traditional publishing that are unavailable to self-published authors, and which translate into real benefits:
1. (Perceived) Legitimacy
A lot of authors say they want to publish commercially because they want "validation" from a trade publisher. This may sound like a vanity concern, but reviewers and readers also perceive a validity inherent to trade-published books that is not automatically assumed of self-publishers.
All writers think they're talented, and that their books are good. Most of them are wrong. Readers want to see some endorsement of a book's quality other than the author's high opinion of himself. When a publishing house puts a book out, there's an expectation that it will at least meet a certain standard of competence.
There's nobody standing behind a self-published book except the author. For new self-published authors, it can be very difficult to get anyone else to look at the book, even if it's actually good. Many readers -- perhaps most -- won't read self-published books at all. Many online reader forums, including Amazon's customer discussions, have made rules excluding authors from participating in forum threads because readers don't want to interact with self-published authors or have their discussions spammed with self-promotion.
In 2011, Bowker counted 211,000 new ISBN numbers for self-published books. That's a huge number of people competing for readers' attention. Even bloggers and reader-reviewer communities who are dedicated to spreading the word about self-published books can't possibly sift all that slush.
The solution to this problem has been for self-published authors to give away a ton of e-books. The hope is that, by giving away 5000 downloads, maybe a couple of hundred people will actually read the book and five or ten will review it on Amazon or on their blogs, or recommend it to friends. But with so many authors giving away books, even the audience for free e-books is swamped.
All the things that might have helped a book stand out eighteen months ago, like buying professionally designed covers, running large-scale giveaways, and pursuing pricing strategies to manage Amazon's internal recommendation system are becoming standard practice across a much larger chunk of the market, so it's getting harder for self-published authors to gain traction.
A survey of self-published authors by Taleist found that the median self-published author earns $500 per year. In fact, that number is probably high; the survey uses self-reported data, so unsuccessful authors may have lied about their sales or may have been less likely to respond to the survey. And since Taleist found self-published romance authors make twice as much as other self-published authors, if you're writing in any other genre, your results will probably be even worse.
If the median self-published author pays a freelance editor for copy-editing and hires a freelance jacket designer, the cost of these services will likely exceed the royalties from the author's book.
2. Trade Reviews
There are four major trade publications that review books ahead of their release: Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Booklist and Library Journal. Each of these magazines reviews about 7500 trade-published books a year, so if your novel is published by a big publisher, there's a good chance you'll be reviewed by a trade. If your novel is published in hardcover by a Big-6 house, you're likely to be reviewed by all of them.
For traditionally published books, these reviews are free if your publisher sends galleys for the trades to review. But the booksellers and librarians who subscribe to the trades don't stock self-published books and aren't interested in reading about them. The freelance critics who review galleys for the trades don't especially want to read self-published books. The only people who want to see self-published books reviewed in trades are the authors, and that means self-published authors have to pay the trades to review their books.
If your book is self-published, you can pay a fee for a listing in Publishers' Weekly's quarterly supplement about self-pubbed titles. They also select some titles for review, but buying a listing does not guarantee a review. Kirkus charges a significant fee to review self-published books, and they post these reviews in a segregated part of the Kirkus website. Kirkus calls prides itself on employing "the world's toughest book critics;" so even if you pay them, they may not say nice things about you. If you don't like your review, Kirkus won't post it, but they'll keep your money. Booklist and Library Journal do not review self-published books.
A positive review from a trade gives you a good pull-quote to use for promotional purposes, and earns you notice from booksellers in librarians. Fewer than 10% of the books reviewed by any given trade will earn a starred review. DON'T EVER GET OLD was starred by all four trades, which is very rare, and really jump-started my sales.
3. Libraries
Libraries are a major revenue stream for the publishing industry and for trade-published authors, and they're almost entirely inaccessible for self-published authors.
There are 9200 public library systems in the US and nearly 17,000 library facilities. They buy a lot of books. Many hardcover releases from Big-6 publishers sell thousands of copies into libraries. To put this in perspective: if you sell about 20 self-published e-books a day, you'll maintain a Kindle store rank of around 5,000, which is very good. That moves about 600 copies a month, so it takes you 5 months at that rank to sell 3000 copies. If only 1 out of every 5 library branches buys just a single copy of a traditionally published author's book, he's matched your 5 months of Amazon self-published success before he sells his first retail hardcover or e-book.
DON'T EVER GET OLD sold very well into libraries, likely on the strength of the starred trade reviews. Librarians have also been very enthusiastic promoters of the book to their readers and on their blogs.
4. Foreign/Subsidiary Rights
Some self-published authors have secured foreign rights sales, but it's uncommon, and your self-published sales have to be extremely strong to generate international interest.
Translation and other rights are often very lucrative for traditionally published authors. DON'T EVER GET OLD has sold Portuguese, Japanese and French translation rights, as well as large print, audio and film rights.
5. Events/Speaking Engagements
There are literary festivals all around the country, and a number of famous and bestselling authors spend a lot of time traveling among them. These trips offer great opportunities to attract new readers, and the costs are often partly defrayed by event organizers or publishers.
I've been invited to the Decatur Book Festival outside Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, and the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville in October.
While some of these events do include self-published authors, the indies are often put in a separate tent or have their readings scheduled on a separate stage, and they may have to pay the festival for space to exhibit their books.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Further Blurbage for DON'T EVER GET OLD
DON'T EVER GET OLD moves closer, still to its eventual publication next year. This week, I got two new blurbs from awesome and famous authors whose books you should probably be reading.
Harry Dolan, author of BAD THINGS HAPPEN and VERY BAD MEN said: “If you read one book this year about the adventures of an eighty-eight-year-old Jewish retired cop and his frat-boy grandson, it had better be Daniel Friedman’s Don’t Ever Get Old. Friedman creates a colorful cast of oddball characters and sends them on a quest to recover a stash of Nazi gold. The result is a twisty, funny, fast-paced treat.”
Alma Katsu, author of THE TAKER said: "We have nothing to fear from aging, if DON'T EVER GET OLD is any measure. By turns gritty and snappy, Dan Friedman's protagonist, WWII vet and former Memphis homicide detective 'Buck' Schatz rises to the occasion despite old age and the indignities that come with it, to resolve the terrible injustice from his war years that he thought he'd put to rest. As a former war crimes analyst, I have to say Friedman's treatment of his villain, Nazi war criminal Zeigler, was entirely satisfying: a most fitting punishment for a too-human monster. Friedman's clever debut novel is like an epilogue to 'Inglorious Basterds,' sixty-six years later."
Harry Dolan, author of BAD THINGS HAPPEN and VERY BAD MEN said: “If you read one book this year about the adventures of an eighty-eight-year-old Jewish retired cop and his frat-boy grandson, it had better be Daniel Friedman’s Don’t Ever Get Old. Friedman creates a colorful cast of oddball characters and sends them on a quest to recover a stash of Nazi gold. The result is a twisty, funny, fast-paced treat.”Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Further Appreciation for DON'T EVER GET OLD
He read the book in two days. Had this to say:
"Daniel Friedman is the Jewish Elmore Leonard. If you read only one novel featuring a gun-toting, wise-cracking, octogenarian protagonist this year, make it Don't Ever Get Old. Friedman is a master storyteller who can speed your heart up and stop it on a dime."
Someday, you'll also have a chance to experience the majesty that I have wrought. I will keep you posted on future developments.
Monday, October 25, 2010
More Blurb Love for DON'T EVER GET OLD
"Skin that bruises from the slightest bump, muscles no longer able to throw a punch and a brain suffering from "mild cognitive impairment" aren't enough to stop retired homicide detective and WW2 vet Baruch "Buck" Schatz from embarking on one last mission—capturing the Nazi war criminal who nearly killed him and got away with a fortune in stolen gold. If this sounds like serious business, on the one hand it is— old age ain't for sissies—but on the other, Schatz' comic but clear-eyed misanthropy and stubborn refusal to quit make the journey laugh-out-loud funny as well as surprisingly poignant.
Kudos to Daniel Friedman for giving us a nearly ninety-year-old hero who's not going gently into that good night—he's going out with guns blazing, F-bombs flying and a pack of Lucky Strikes."
Friday, October 22, 2010
Praise for DON'T EVER GET OLD
Bestselling author Nelson DeMille has provided the following blurb for DON'T EVER GET OLD, a novel that I wrote. You will have an exciting opportunity to buy this book in stores in about a year, so start saving your money:
"Baruch "Buck" Schatz is an 87 year-old cigarette-smoking, foul-mouthed, very funny Jewish former homicide detective who is on the trail of an equally ancient Nazi war criminal. And I guarantee you, once you start reading this wonderfully original and totally engrossing story, you'll do what I did: keep reading, mostly to see what comes out of Buck's mouth next. When I'm 87, I want to be Buck Schatz.
Thank you, Daniel Friedman, for creating an octogenarian wise-ass who's earned the right to say and do whatever he wants."
"Baruch "Buck" Schatz is an 87 year-old cigarette-smoking, foul-mouthed, very funny Jewish former homicide detective who is on the trail of an equally ancient Nazi war criminal. And I guarantee you, once you start reading this wonderfully original and totally engrossing story, you'll do what I did: keep reading, mostly to see what comes out of Buck's mouth next. When I'm 87, I want to be Buck Schatz.
Thank you, Daniel Friedman, for creating an octogenarian wise-ass who's earned the right to say and do whatever he wants."
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