Blogger: Mary Keeley
Following a recent conversation with industry professionals, I’ve been reflecting on the shifting journey in publishing through the years. Nothing earthly stays the same for long in either life or business. We find ourselves continually tweaking goals, strategies, and yes, manuscripts. This isn’t a bad thing as long as we’re making necessary adjustments with a forward view. After all, we humans get bored with the status quo eventually, and this is a factor that publishers and authors need to consider in their efforts to reach readers.
Think of your favorite meal. How would you like it served to you for dinner 
every day, with the only variations being a different green vegetable and an occasional baked potato instead of mashed? Eventually, your appetite for your special meal will diminish to the point of tasting same ol’ same ol’. This is why authors need to feed their readers something fresh in each new book, while at the same time holding fast to the core elements of their brand. Publishers that still are operating in the stay-safe rut are missing this characteristic of human nature.
Back in the day when content editors were the driving force in book publishing, they often went with their gut instincts about a book’s chances. This worked well for the time. More recently, as publishers released more books per year, they realized the focused work of editing manuscripts and the business of looking for new books to contract and monitoring reading trends were too much for one role. The solution in many publishing houses has been to divide the responsibilities and thus, the role of acquisitions editor came into being. This has been a good adjustment in my view, because the roles require partially different skill sets.
Acquisitions editors became the primary champions of the projects they took to pub board meetings. They prepared for these approval or rejection meetings by collecting sales data from the sales department and calculating a cost-of-goods analysis for the book’s packaging that would provide a margin of profit.
Necessary Adjustments
Notice I used past tense. That’s because in the years following the economic dive in 2008, and the birth of independent ebook publishing, publishers chose the safe, proven route. Sales reps’ projections, based on what sold in the past, became a dominant factor in pub board decisions. It was a sensible choice for the recovery period. It’s the responsible approach any of us would take when our personal finances are in jeopardy.
Generally speaking, sales reps, who have only a few minutes of a retailer’s time, present books by current top-selling authors, which they know retailers are most likely to want to load in to the stores. They deal in the now through the lens of what has been.
Acquisitions editors knew what they had to do to help the publisher turn a profit—and to keep their jobs: offer new, multi-book contracts to their best-selling authors writing in the current popular genres.
Consequently, unpublished and mid-list authors have had to make necessary adjustments too. Adjust to waiting. Perhaps adjust their stories to fit the mold in an effort to make their novels more marketable for publishers. New nonfiction authors have had to put their book on hold while they build a strong platform. Some have resorted to the self-publishing route. Hopefully, they did their homework beforehand and are aware of the massive amount of work that is involved in hopes of selling a respectable number of books.
A Forward View
I’ve given you all this backstory for a reason. Publishers are beyond that recovery period and most have recovered from the more recent losses from the Family Christian Stores bankruptcy. It’s time to embrace a forward view again.
Sometimes it wise to reflect on what worked well in the past, which can be resurrected and adapted to create a new view with growth potential. The new “big thing” publishers are hoping for isn’t going to have a track record of sales. But if pub boards were to invest in a few more risks, based on editors’ gut instincts, they might discover it. The Left Behind serendipity is a classic example. As we know, that series opened the door wide to Christian fiction. Janet Grant blogged about risk-taking on Monday.
What does all this mean for authors? Those who understand that they won’t reach their publishing goals by resisting or ignoring realities have the best chance of living their author dream. Wendy Lawton blogged on Tuesday about circumstances in which it’s best to stay within established parameters, a forward view for writers in those circumstances. For others, taking a calculated risk to offer your readers a fresh twist, within the bounds of your brand, could be the best way to whet their appetite for more.
Years ago I heard wise counsel in regard to the spiritual life. I don’t remember who said it, but the words have stuck with me as a measuring stick for my own spiritual growth. It went something like this: If you aren’t growing, you are shrinking. There is no standing still. Its wisdom can be applied across all areas of life and business.
In what ways have you made adjustments in response to the current publishing climate? As a writer and a reader, what would you like to read in Christian fiction that is already popular in general market fiction? Is there something new you would like to see addressed in Christian nonfiction?
TWEETABLE:
If you aren’t growing, you’re shrinking; there is no standing still. Wisdom for publishers and authors. Click to Tweet.
Punctuation Challenge!
This is a great topic, Mary. As a reader, I tend to prefer YA and mid-grade, but I’m picky, especially with YA. I don’t want to read something that glorifies sex or demonic activity.
As a writer, my heart-felt goal is to provide young adult readers in the Christian market with stories they’ll find exciting or perhaps a bit edgy, but still
remain Christ centered.
We don’t really know much about Jesus’ life as a teenager, but he must have faced some of the issues kids do today. I guess what I really want is to see the YA section in a Christian book store as overflowing as mainstream.
Lara, I’m with you in the desire for more YA fiction with a Christian worldview and values. It will take 1) fascinating stories with hooks that captivate those readers as much as the attraction to sex and demonic activity, 2) stories that will attract general market readers as well as Christian readers in hopes of having the books placed with other YA books on bookstore shelves where more readers can see them, rather than being relegated to the Christian fiction section in the back corner of the bookstore, 3) written by authors who have grown an audience among these readers, 4) Christian publishers who will take on this mission and find new channels to market and distribute these books.
Mary, one of the nice things I noticed in New Mexico, while I was well enough to go to bookstores, was that Christian fiction actually had pride of place, alongside general fiction. To be sure, it was in its own section…but I did observe browsers wandering over and stopping there.
* A hopeful sign, I think. More people are tired of sex and gratuitous violence and demonic influences than ABA may realize.
Mary, thank you for your helpful response. I’m prayerfully hoping to accomplish all of the above with my current WIP.
I love reading YA and Middle Grade and wish there were more of it in the Christian market as long as it’s not teach-preachy. What kids read now influences them for the rest of their lives.
Interesting an thoughtful post, Mary.
* On a philosophical note, I don’t know that I quite agree with the adage “if you aren’t growing, you’re shrinking”. Depends on context and circumstance.
* In my particular life-situation, I’ve found that I have ‘reverted’ to a paradigm and persona invoking a kind of hard ruthlessness that served me well in the past, but that had developed into something else, the ‘kinder and gentler me’, as I found a second career in teaching, and marriage.
* Unfortunately, some enemies that strike from within don’t respond to kindness and gentleness, and since they ARE within, a pitiless drive has to begin at home, so to speak. I’ve been compared to a gut-shot hyena snapping at its own entrails, but I’ve always rather liked hyenas. They have a certain focus.
* My relationship with the Almighty, the most important part of any life, has been informed by this, and has returned to a kind of steely simplicity. Pain is God’s will, and He is under no obligation to vouchsafe its origin or purpose. My job is to carry on regardless. Next question?
* So the old me is back, and no-one much likes him, but he’s surviving and doing his job, and that’s at least useful. (And yes, he’s not beloved because immitior quia toleraverat is, as Tacitus observed and C.S. Lewis seconded, is quite true, even if only a fear among one’s immediate cohort.)
* Does that constitute shrinking? Certainly I don’t think so, but I suspect I’m being self-serving. I do rather like the analogue of the peach tree, whose nascent buds must remain in stasis in a winter which sees a freeze, in order to bloom again.
* And I intend to bloom. There is going to be another spring, by sheer force of will.
* (There was supposed to be a verbose bridge to writing in all this, but I’m not up to trotting it out at the moment. Thus, perhaps, small mercies.)
For the non-Latin-literate: inmitior quia toleraverat =sterner because he had endured.
The kinder, gentler you lives on in your blog and Emerald Isle, Andrew.
Carol, thank you. You give me hope that the frost is indeed protecting the softness of the sleeping blooms
Andrew, I beg to differ. Your perception of your persona “reverting” does not equate to “shrinking.” Pain might provoke your sterner responses when you least want it to, but at the same time rather liking your response as a means of fighting it. That is part of the human condition. However, there is no denying your your softer, gentler side that reigns in your writing and conversation. There is no semblance of shrinking in that, only growth and a forward view. And you help us here in our blog community to grow by your participation and example.
Mary, I will accept that in humility and gratitude. It’s just been so damned hard recently.
Mary, I had an awesome time at the ACFW Dallas meeting last weekend. There were probably some 20-25 women. It was like conference time in my heart … and sitting in that room among other writers–amazing, published writers–stole my breath. It was tempting to feel I didn’t belong, but I refuse to let myself scare me off. And you know, they wrapped their sweet arms around me. 🙂 We sat thru a webinar on blogging/website with Thomas Umstattd Jr. You asked me to report back to you … so I’ll give you the highlights.
*Be a servant; focus on readers (do not focus on yourself)
*Use WordPress because they offer more for the writer
*If you go to Amazon’s Kindle version of your book, there is an “embed” button … and you can place the Kindle Instant Preview on your website. Off to the side, there are social media buttons, and you’ll see … 🙂
*Make your book covers clickable … navigate you to Amazon, etc
*For the reader, offer deleted scenes, etc.
*Offer a progress bar on your current WIP (mybookprogress.com)
*Never respond to negative comments. In fact, he recommends to turn off comments because they can be draining, distracting. (This is a good discussion issue … I can see this if you’d have thousands of comments like Ann Voskamp … tho, people do comment on her Facebook)
*Offer printable discussion questions
*Offer bulk book ordering
*Be a speaker and provide info on that–subject, previous speaking engagements, audio sample (fiction or non-fiction writers)
*Use high resolution photos–book covers, head shots (nothing worse than clicking on a photo, and it comes up quarter-sized. Lol)
**This is probably nothing new to y’all. But the “embed” button was new to me. I’d not heard that before.
Many thanks for the summary, Shelli! I plan to use most of the recommendations…except for maybe the one about the picture. At least one of us looks SO much better in a low-resolution shot that fuzzes out when you try to blow it up, only to find a pixelated image like a very small cross-stitch picture.
*It’s sort of like marrying a near-sighted man. More than 12 inches away and with his glasses off, mine can honestly tell me I look just like I did when we married 40 years ago. I’m still the same-sized fuzzy blob as the day we walked down the aisle.
You are so cute, Carol. I think you are selling yourself short. 🙂 That’s like someone pointing out my gray hair … if you can see my gray hair, you are looking too close 🙂 (However, it’s getting much more noticeable now, fyi). My grandfather tickled me to pieces once … my grandmother was cleaning under the beds for someone’s visit … he said, “If I catch someone looking under the bed, I’m gonna kick ’em.”
Short? Short?? Who you callin’ short? I’ll have you know I’m 5 foot 3 and 3/8 inches with legs so long that petite pants are always high-water on me.
For what it’s worth, Carol, I’m 5-9 and about the same width at the shoulders…at best I weighed 225, and was nicknamed The Cigarette Machine. SSAD – Squatty Square Asian Dude.
Carol, all my main girls are petite in my stories. I always wanted to be petite. 🙂
And the men are tall, except in my current WIP. The hero is short (although brawny . . . of course), not even quite eye-to-eye with the girl who always thought she wanted a really big man until she gets to know him. His motto: “It’s the heart, not the height, that matters,” and he proves it brilliantly.
*Short has its disadvantages. Ever try to step up into a stirrup when it’s almost waist high? At least the planes are comfortable, even in sardine class. Thank goodness for tall people…especially when I need something off a top shelf in Walmart.
Shelli, I for one really appreciate your taking the time to write this recap. A lot of great suggestions.
* And one that is not-so-hot (in my non-professional opinion) from Mr. Umstaddt…turning off comments. Michael Hyatt tried that for a year, and then turned them back on. His readership went down, and, trying to read between his lines, I think he missed the engagement. But a lot of readers didn’t come back; they drifted off, and one thing about blog engagement by readers (again, my opinion) is that you have to make visiting your site a habit. That’s a reason for regular posts, no matter what.
* To me, that’s what it’s all about. To engage with readers and potential readers, you’ve got to give them a way to have a conversation…first with you, and then later, as the community grows, among themselves. I’m just starting to see the back-and-forth between readers on my blog, and it’s such a wonderful thing. (It’s obviously a big feature of Between The Lines!)
* Not taking comments sends a message…to me, that message is, here’s my writing. Read it, and buy my books. I don’t really care who you are. That may sound harsh, but that’s my gut-check. And I usually say, no thanks.
* Yes, answering lot of comments can be draining, but these people took the time to say something about what I wrote, and they put thought into it. I owe them respect in equal measure. Some posts, I was not well enough, and I make this clear on the blog. I may not get to reply to every comment, but I read – and treasure – all of them.
* Even the negative ones. Again, I’d disagree with Mr, Umstaddt. One should not engage a negative commenter…but one should acknowledge. “Thank you for taking the time to give your thoughts” is, to me, perfectly acceptable. (The only comments I’ve deleted have been obvious spam…someone offering the services of a spell-caster.)
* I do use big, click-through images on my blog to my books (OOOH, I love saying ‘my books’!). I don’t have a picture of me. Y’all have to be happy with Sylvia, who is better looking than I am, smarter, and, as a service dog extraordinaire, far more deserving of pride of place. She is propping me up as I write this.
* If I ever make it so big that Tom Clancy is asking for signed copies of my books, and I have a gazillion comments, what I plan to do is find a co-writer for my blog, an unpublished or debut author who’s willing to share space, and share the comment load (and who doesn’t mind getting paid a stipend for it). I think it would be fun, and that I could learn a lot from working with someone in that way.
That’s a great idea, Andrew. You know, Beth Moore does that. Her co-worker usually responds to all her blog comments, and Beth will respond to a few. It’s just too many to respond to each one. That would take days for her.
It can take days for me, Shelli, but those are the best days of all.
It sure does, Andrew. That’s a sweet reminder. I don’t know how Thomas started out, but I know for me, who has had zero comments often in the beginning and sometimes even now, I appreciate each one. “Really” appreciate each one. 😉
Shelli, I am going to be honest. Probably stupidly so.
* The comment on my blog are why I keep writing. I am completely out of my own strength, but the love and care I have received from those my words have touched are the thing…the ONLY thing…that transcends pain and despair. I am on my knees now, and my community is keeping my face out of the dirt. That’s straight.
* Comments, as I am sure you know, are Love and Kindness. As Jon Foreman said, Love Alone Is Worth The Fight.
* And as Jewel said, Only Kindness Matters. Well, that, and sometimes a match-grade 7.62 x 54 round coming from an SVD. SSL – Snipers Save Lives.
Oooh, Andrew … my post for this coming week is on loving-kindness … so that’s been on my heart all day. Your community keeps you out of the dirt as you keep us out of the dirt.
I’m not so sure I agree with turning off comments.
That’s be like turning off the conversation.
Yeah, I agree. I couldn’t or wouldn’t do that. I love my comments. But if you got hundreds of comments, that could be a challenge. I can’t even imagine that. I was with him 100% until he made the comments comment … lol … then my eyebrows raised. 🙂 And then I spent the rest of the time trying to walk in his shoes and understand why he’d recommend that. 🙂
When we get to the ‘hundreds of comments’ point in our career, we can discuss this. Over ice cold Cokes, on a beach in Brazil. Fortaleza is always lovely. I know just the spot.
I won’t make it, but put rum in the Coke for me, and slam it down.
Thanks for the recap, Shelli. I’m going to look for the embed button now.
You are very welcome, Norma! 🙂
Shelli, thanks for your recap of the ACFW-Dallas meeting. Your enthusiasm attests to the fact that meetings like these and writers conferences invigorate a writer’s spirit. Double bonus: you found answers to your questions too.
Hey Shelli, what a great summary of what Thomas Umstattd shared. I have heard some of these suggestions, but not all of them.
*Maybe my blog has a small enough following that I don’t get many of those adversarial comments bigger bloggers (like Ann Voskamp) do. I’ve come to love the engagement I have with readers who take the time to comment. I’ve heard that making the comments more of a conversation than a one-sided thing with readers commenting and no feedback is a good thing. Building relationship is important for us writers.
*Anyway, that’s my two-cents. 🙂
I agree, Jeanne. Completely. 🙂 I can’t imagine arriving at a place in one’s career where that’s not enjoyable. Can you? Even when I used to comment on Beth Moore’s blog … I’d always check to see if maybe just maybe she’d commented to me. And a few times, I was blessed to hear from her or her daughter. I knew she couldn’t respond to everyone, but when she did respond to me, I always felt so blessed. 🙂 Always made my day.
Interesting post, Mary. Knowing how popular YA and New Adult has become in the general market fiction, I think it would be gooooood to see more books (with a Christian worldview) in these genres on bookshelves.
*What would it take for publishers to take more risks in what they publish?
Jeanne, referring to my response to Lara above, Christian publishers would have to see great books by multiple YA authors who have #s 1-3 in place. They’d need to have more than one or two of these authors to justify time spent undertaking #4.
What I’d like to see in Christian fiction –
* Protagonists that are not so prissily decorous, because I think there’s been a trend toward making Christianity more a reflection of suburban America in the 50s rather than a vibrantly growing vine that is rooted among the fishermen and tax collectors of Judea. Real Christians smoke (I do), drink (I did), and use floridly colourful and imaginative profanity (drop by my house sometime).
* In non-fiction, I would like to see the realization that the twin sins of pride comes from a far more evil and pernicious source than those of lifestyles which we find appallingly distasteful. C.S. Lewis, in his apologia, recognized this, but many modern writers have adopted a prim righteousness that seems to say, “stop sinning, and we’ll consider your probationary application”.
* For Pete’s sake…we are ALL crucifying Christ every day with pride and small cruelties which we use to justify and puff up ur own egos. Christians need to be helping each other trough the mud, not standing on self-erected plinths, carefully cleaning their fingernails.
* Sylvia’s getting tired of propping me up, and wants me to have a cigar and put in a DVD. “Iron Man”, this morning.
OK, time for a Public Service Announcement. Mary, forgive me, and delete this if you want, but I think it’s important, though off-topic.
* In my first bullet point above, I said, “drop by my house sometime”. This was deliberate, though not intentionally personal.
* If you know someone who’s become housebound – as I have – please think about stopping by for a few minutes, on a regular basis, to say hi. The only ‘live’ conversation I have is with my wife, and while I’m sort of a special case (20+ dogs, Asian, ex-sniper, pretty self-contained)…it DOES get lonely.
* For a normal person…I can’t imagine.
* Guys, don’t come trekking to New Mexico…but if you know someone in your home town whose husband or wife is dying, offer to drop by, and play a game of Scrabble.
* Come to think of it, if someone emailed me with that offer, I’d be crying too darned hard to answer.
* The truth sucks. Deal with it.
Thanks for this important reminder, Andrew.
Hmm, this may sound lame, or even ridiculous…but the biggest adjustment I personally have made is two-fold: patience and receptiveness.
Receptiveness: to listen to and hear what my agent has to say, and then do it. I come from a long line of “you can’t tell me what to do” types. Before I signed with or even considered my (beloved) agent, I struggled and fought against being told what to do. Oh, and doing it. I knew nothing and still know very little about publishing. So, I listen and do what I am told. It’s not that hard to do.
Patience: I’ve always been an “I want it NOW, or yesterday” kind of person. God is teaching me patience. In that time of teaching, I am learning to observe far more than I used to. Nuance, body language, tone and delivery, what remains unsaid, and even energy levels of the person I’m observing. It’s as if God spent the years between starting to write, and now, teaching me to teach what I know. You see, I cannot teach and tell what I don’t know. And I don’t know what I don’t know, until I know what I didn’t know.
I walked through Chapters last night, the Canadian version of Barnes and Noble, and looked at MANY of the books on display.
Not a lot of hope out there, people. Not a lot of hope.
What would I like to see more in Christian non-fiction?
Yer gonna laugh….satire. Comedy. Serious, intelligent comedy. Some Christians have a hard time seeing the humour in their worlds. And no, I will NOT be the one to change things, but I’d like to see more of it.
Patience to wait
Nice proofreading job, Jennifer.
Poor little orphaned last line…
Actually, Jennifer, the last line, exactly as it is, was the perfect coda to your essay.
* Hope you don’t mind my saying this, but you have a genius, both instinctive and learned, in the shadow of which I would be honoured to spend my writing career. You are all that.
“What remains unsaid” … amen. Oh, to tap into that. And about knowing, Karalee once said when she was tiny, “You just can’t know what you know what you know.” Tickled me to pieces. She came to that conclusion watching us try to put her swing-set together … in the dark. 🙂
*And I loved your last line. Bravo …
Patience, Jennifer. That’s been one of the biggest things I’m learning on this journey too. And being teachable. And humble.
*It’s amazing how God can use this writing journey to make us look more like Him . . .
You and me both on the patience issue, Jennifer. It’s training for a humble spirit, which is needed to maintain the right perspective in this publishing life.
I would love to see more YA and middle grade in the Christian market. Stuff that is fun and not preachy, where the Christian values just seep naturally from the story in a believable manner. I read to my boys a lot and have noticed a lack in this area. Just because we love God doesn’t mean we have to lose the magic and the fun factor in our books.
SAME HERE!!!
Our youngest is 13, and we went through this with the older three. Our daughter read lots of books written for girls, but there’s almost a total lack of YA stuff that is riveting for boys. The sweet romances and middle school life lessons about friends and making the dance team don’t quite cut it for 13 year old male goalies who have nerves of steel.
I know! Mine are all boys. Hank the Cowdog does have a church picnic mentioned once in awhile and is clean and fun and all 3 boys are zooming through Suzanne Collins MG series The Underland Chronicles. But in the CBA we are having a hard time finding things. I loved the sugar creek gang books as a girl, but I’m not seeing a lot out there.
And that’s probably what drew boys into the Harry Potter world.
Have you checked out the Hardy boys? >50 volumes with every chapter hanging so you have to read on into the next and then your hanging again at the end of hat one.
Typos on iPhone. Aargh! I really do know you’re from your and that from hat.
W.r.t. Hardys, many times I read til one a.m., long after my son went to sleep, because I had to find out what happened next.
Yes, Carol, my girls are watching Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew on NetFlix.
Hi, Mary. Thoroughly enjoyed this post. As a not-yet published author, I’m fascinated by the publishing climate. I’ve taken on the viewpoint that I do not have the luxury of ignoring it if my goal is to experience a traditional publishing career. Thus, for me, it has manifested in a slower pace and willingness to partake in more edit sessions that I can count. Get it right to get it into the right hands. That’s the goal.
*As both a writer and reader, I’d like to read more Christian fiction that does not shy away from writing characters with real life challenges such as divorce, addictions, and colorful pasts. While I fully respect the CBA and its standards, I am passionate that my writing conveys characters that my readers can easily see themselves reflected in. Real people with real problems = real need for grace to intervene in REAL and palpable and gut-wrenching ways. Members of my own family have struggled with some of these issues. If they cannot pick up one of my books (one day, hopefully) and see themselves in my main characters who yearn for the same redemption they do, then what’s the point? They won’t want to read it. This is a bit of a soap box for me, and I continue to struggle with how to navigate it as an author striving for publication within the Christian genre.
*And, please don’t misunderstand. My beef, so to speak, is not at all with the CBA. It’s more with the general notion that Christian lives are prettily tied up, neat and tidy. In reality, it’s anything but — right? Do my romances have likable characters and happy endings? Yes. Happy endings sell. But to see more stories on the shelves with BOTH Christian themes AND real characters whose pasts are messy and untidy on the road to healing, would make me so happy. I’d read those. Every one of them. And I’d be excited to recommend them to all demographics of my friends and family.
*Just my 10 cents worth. Haha.
Teresa, those are my favorite speakers. I don’t really want to hear from someone who got it all right. I want to hear from someone who got it all wrong, and then, got it all right. That’s real.