Author Q&A

Author Q&A: Dee Power

By Jennifer Pullinger, WIW Member

Over 195,000 new books were published in 2004, a 14 percent increase in total output, according to statistics provided by Bowker, the U.S. ISBN Agency and publishing industry research firm. New publishers registered with Bowker in 2004 numbered 11,458, an increase of 5.3 percent over the year prior. This may mean your chances of getting published are getting better, but it also means there is more competition in the market.

To be successful, writers today must embrace the sales, promotion and publicity program that accompany the publication of a book. Dee Power and her co-author Brian Hill have written a comprehensive book on the making of a bestseller from top to bottom, titled The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories From Authors and the Editors, Agents and Booksellers Behind Them (Dearborn Trade). It includes interviews with bestselling authors, editors, literary agents and other industry experts. Some familiar names interviewed are Nicholas Sparks ( At First Sight , The Notebook ), Dan Brown ( The Da Vinci Code ), Barbara Bradford Taylor ( A Woman of Substance) , New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus , local Politics and Prose bookseller Barbara Meade and Lyn Blake , vice president of Amazon.com.

Power knows business. She is a management consultant and founding partner of Profit Dynamics Inc., a research firm specializing in venture capital, entrepreneurs and angel investors. She has written on the subject of business before, including Inside Secrets To Venture Capital, Attracting Capital From Angels and Business Plan Basics, all co-authored with Hill. The writing duo's first venture into fiction resulted in the romantic novel Over Time with sports and business at the heart of its story.

Publisher's Weekly recommends The Making of a Bestseller to "newcomers to the industry or aspiring authors who want to know more about how editors make decisions," while Booklist calls it a "valuable compendium."

Tell us about your book The Making of a Bestseller: Success Stories From Authors and the Editors, Agents and Booksellers Behind Them .

The Making of a Bestseller was written because Brian Hill, my co-author, and I wanted our own books to be more successful and what better way to find out how to do that than to ask authors who've achieved the pinnacle of success, the bestseller list.  

What is the single most important thing we should take away from reading your book?

If you're a writer, don't give up. Perseverance is a key characteristic of authors who've made it. They didn't just curl up and die at the first "no."

How do you write a bestseller? Is there a sure-fire strategy?

Well if you're Nicolas Sparks, who we interviewed, you analyze the bestselling authors by genre and then write in that genre where there is a gap. The only sure-fire strategy for a bestseller is to sell lots of books in a relatively short period of time in stores that report to one or more of the bestseller lists.   

What sort of skills do bestselling authors need to have that will make the difference between toiling in obscurity and barely making ends meet to achieving name recognition and profitability?

Luck has something to do with it--writing the right book at the right time.  

We asked acquisition editors and literary agents what the most important characteristics were for a book to be successful. Number one was that the previous book by that author was a bestseller. However, very highly ranked was also the quality of writing. Now, that's something an author can control. Surprisingly, reviews were not rated nearly as important.   

Bestselling authors recognize that fan loyalty is important to their careers and strive to not only improve at their craft but also fill the expectations of their fans without becoming stale.   

If your name as the author is in bigger type than the title of your book on the front cover, you know you've made it.

What is the agent's role in helping a writer develop their project?

Literary agents are at the forefront of the publishing industry. Many major publishing houses won't accept non-agent   submissions and rely on the agents to separate the slush from the publishable manuscripts. The agents should know what house is looking for what type of manuscript, and which editor to contact.  

The agent can objectively tell the writer what to change or improve. However, an agent isn't an editor, so don't expect them to copy edit a manuscript for you.    

What sort of business challenges do writers face?

These days the author almost has to be an entrepreneur as well as a writer.

Marketing is very important, and authors are expected to take an active role. This does not mean that marketing is the sole responsibility of the author and that the publishing house doesn't do anything. The publisher, at the minimum, will include the title and description in their catalog which is sent to the major independent bookstores and the corporate chains. Most publishers also have a sales staff that calls on these bookstores.  

The publisher should send out advance reading copies three to four months prior to the publication date and review copies. Although some smaller presses can't afford to do both.  

The publisher will also prepare and distribute press releases about the title and the author.  

As far as getting paid, the author should have the right to audit their royalty statements. The author's agent can also make sure that the payments are reasonable.  

How important is it to understand the entire publishing process from query letters and editing to publicity, marketing and the day the book is published and beyond? Is it important to be actively involved in every step?

I think it helps if the author knows how long the process takes and the steps. The process only begins when the author completes the manuscript and sends it off to the publisher. This assumes that the author already has a contract. It takes from 12-18 months for the book to appear on bookstore shelves. Many authors don't realize that time is necessary for structural editing, copyediting, galley proofing and the marketing process. Publishing is really a team effort.  

Any advice on how to handle rejection?

You're talking to the wrong person here. I hate rejection. The only advice I can give, which I don't take myself, is don't take rejection personally. Don't assume that your manuscript or writing is poor if you've been rejected.  

How did your background lend itself to writing on this subject matter?

Our previous two books were based on interviews and surveys, so we had experience at that level. We felt comfortable soliciting the authors, coming up with the questions, taping the telephone interview, transcribing it and then having the interviewee approve the transcript. We knew that we could weave the interview information into the text.  

We had experience developing the surveys for the agents and editors, analyzing the data and coming up with conclusions. What we didn't realize is how helpful the bestselling authors would be and how generous they would be with their time.  

How did you get your start as an author? To what do you owe your success?

Brian had always wanted to be an author. He loves the act of writing. I'm probably a little more practical. We had all this information collected on the topic of venture capital and entrepreneurs. We had written articles. We had written business plans. So I thought why not write a book.  

Luck was on our side. The first publishing house we contacted, John Wiley & Sons, was very interested. In fact, the acquisitions editor there told us exactly what he needed in a book proposal to bring to the editorial committee. Within two weeks we had a contract.   

As far as success, we're still working on it. I guess the key word there is "working." Being an author means more than writing a book and getting it published. It's a tremendous amount of work. You have to be marketing the books out there already, writing the current book and coming up with ideas for the next book.

Any parting words of wisdom for writers on the craft and business of writing?

Before writing The Making of a Bestseller , I didn't realize how important booksellers are to the industry. That sounds naïve perhaps, but it's true. Hand selling a title or recommending a book to customers is one of the ways a bestseller is born. That creation of buzz was critical in the success of, say Reading Lolita in Tehran .

Booksellers can go out of their way to support an author.  

The next time you're in a bookstore, make an effort to thank the bookseller.