I’ve Always Wanted to Write a Book

Yesterday I watched the show, Shark Tank, and a guy by the name of Michael Levin, owner of BusinessGhost was asking for backing. He writes books for celebrities and others and was there to help his business grow. Of course, none of the sharks were biting and he left without a deal. The Sharks didn’t see a profit in the business because there are plenty of others out there who ghostwrite.

I have mixed feelings when it comes to ghostwriting. On the one hand, it’s a great opportunity for seasoned writers to make a living. It’s like any other business; you offer your expertise and services for a fee. What I don’t like about it is that it echoes all around the world that writing can be bought. It doesn’t matter whether you can actually write or not, you can be a published author. Even though ghostwriting has been around for many years, it has become popular in current times. I know that people have a right to pay for this service, but I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of other creative arts being done by another person. Maybe my search and thinking is off…maybe there are ghost artists or ghost musicians. There are artists who create for companies (advertising), and musicians who write songs for other musicians, yet it’s not to the extent as writing. I feel like publishing a book is no longer a big accomplishment.

Granted I self-published, and to some that might mean my book isn’t good enough for big houses. I wrote, edited/revised (with the assistance of a paid editor), formatted my book for paperback and e-book, put together the book content, got my own ISBN, created my own bookmarks, website and book trailers, published and promoted my book. My hands got chapped and dirty. I didn’t pay someone to write my thoughts and ideas so I could put my name on it. I practiced writing before I wrote my novel, and then I refined it for a year to make it shine.

To me, ghostwriting is a double-edged sword. It provides profit for writers, yet it diminishes the integrity of publishing. Gone are the days where true writing talent was published through the big traditional houses. The Snookie’s and Sarah Palin’s have taken over promotions and bookstore displays, and everyone knows that neither one sat their butt in a chair and wrote. So instead of great talent publishing with Random House, Doubleday or Penguin, you have words of another publishing for big name profits. This is partly why I didn’t bother to go through traditional publishing—too disappointed. I have a very different opinion of traditional publishing than I did 10-years ago.

I’m sure there are many out there, fists pumping in the air, disagreeing with everything I said. And I’m sure I might have ruined any future chance of publishing with a big house because of my opinions, but I’m fine with it. I think this is a very important topic to discuss with everyone. Life is about learning, and part of that learning is discussing other points of views.

For those of you who are and have gone through the hard work of writing, seeking representation, publishing and promoting, how do you feel about ghostwriting?

For those who have said, “I’ve always wanted to write a book”, would you want someone to write your story, fiction or non-fiction?

Ghosts and writing,

Bea

It Makes Cents

This weekend I read a blog post about book advances—about how they could hurt a writer. After reading it, I realized it makes sense, yet I never really thought about it before.

For those outside of the writing community, the publishing world has changed since the ’60s and ‘70s where authors became rich off their talent, and a household name. Traditional publishing houses began tightening their purse strings, and grew hesitant on taking chances with new writers as opposed to committing to high profile names. If you look at the books out there now, you’ll see more than ever, books published by celebrities (90% of them written by ghostwriters). Writers became frustrated with the way they were treated by agents and publishers, so when they saw a market in technology they went for it. Writers took the opportunity to self-publish by utilizing e-books. You can learn more about e-books and self-publishing on Joe Konrath’s blog.

As for the book advances, traditional publishing houses, Simon & Schuster, Random House to name a few, give authors advances with their signing contracts. These advances are given because the publisher believes they will make a large profit on the book. Let’s say Marsha gets a $25,000 advance on her book. She will not make any more money until she sells enough books to hit the $25,000. Nowadays, this is very difficult to do because of all the competition out there. If Marsha’s hard cover costs $25.00, she would need to sell 1000 copies to hit $25,000. If her soft cover costs $14.95, she would need to at least sell 1700 copies. This is very difficult to do for an up and coming author.

Book advances can also hurt a writer’s chance to publish again through traditional methods if they didn’t sell their first book as predicted. Fortunately, publishing houses haven’t requested the money back on advances. Yet.

Today’s times show that people want things at their fingertips. Unlike me, most people don’t enjoy browsing around a bookstore, looking at the covers, reading synopses and leaving with an armful of books. Believe it or not, it’s only a matter of time before e-books outsell print copies everywhere (here’s a link regarding Amazon sales). Unfortunately, this means our brick and mortar bookstores will slowly disappear. Majority of people do not want to waste their money on a hard cover book—they look for cheap and usually online. I’m not saying selling large quantities of print books is impossible, but as a new writer without an audience, you had better have a great book and a fabulous marketing/promotion strategy.

Writing a book is a small part of publishing. There’s so much more involved in getting it together and ultimately promoting it. I could say that most writers dislike the promoting part of publishing. We want to write, not research on how we’re going to get our name out there. But the fact is if we don’t promote and have people spread the word, then the titles of our books will fade away in a warehouse or in the virtual world. Promotion is key in getting your book in as many hands as possible. Those authors who get large advances should use it for promotional purposes, because like self-publishing, writers who go through the traditional methods are basically in charge of marketing their book, too. Some publicity is given, but not much. Writers are up against hundreds of books published each day either electronically or traditionally. It’s funny that most people think authors are rich. Unfortunately, majority of writers are lucky to sell 40 books a year.

One last thing I’d like to share is an article regarding Penny Marshall’s Memoir. “Amazon Publishing won the rights to the book and will issue both a traditional print and a digital edition.”

Promote and prosper (as best you can),

Bea