Leadstart Publishing's blog

Writing Those Unforgettable Stories

Effective storytelling is a fine art only if you know the science of it. We all tell stories at some point or the other. Lies and excuses, sprinkled with right amount of expressions, usually make for good hearing with a ready audience. But writing or publishing them and reaching out to a fair amount of readers is a more difficult process. There's nothing more special than writing a compelling story. Some say it’s a creative process while others harbour a completely different view.

In this article I am not discussing the oft-repeated importance of characters, conflict, crisis and resolution aspects. There can still be a story without one or two of them. Of course, readers are more engaged when you have all of them in your story with enough drama thrown in. But then your story may get forgotten soon enough. What I shall discuss here are the stories that are well remembered and have made it to the classics list. Stories that book publishers are eager to publish.For example, 'A lamb to the slaughter' by Roald Dahl, is an example of excellent short-story telling.
A good story makes no assumptions about its readers. If you make assumptions, you tend to contrive the plot and characters to some extent. Readers are as well informed as you. Not many of them are naive. If you begin to judge the readers, you will soon fall into the familiar trap like most amateur writers. Readers vary in a lot of factors: Geography, upbringing, social values, education and so on. They often have their own value judgements that might differ from the writer's own view. By making these judgements yourself, you may cause discomfort to your diverse readers.
Holding that climactic revelation till the end and using it as an emotional parting, like in Guy De Maupassant’s 'The Necklace', can be a master stroke. The reader won’t suspect it till the end. But if you, as the writer, begin to provide clues about the ending, you will surely miss an opportunity to strike the right chord with your readers. They might be able to guess what’s going to happen without actually reading it. Being too obvious with characters and plot can be boring to the tee.
Narration is another thing that can make a lot of difference. It can be easy to read with simple words or the other way round, but make sure that the flow is not disturbed. When there is a good flow and the reader is going through the story with ease, you can subtly build the scene to the crisis point. When the crisis strikes, the reader is then caught unawares. It’s like a road without any signs. If you don't tell what’s ahead, the driver hits a speed-breaker and he is shaken. If you tell him to expect a road-block ahead, there is nothing that can surprise him. You, as a writer, have to make sure that you are not playing a good traffic cop for your readers. There is no danger, if you let them read along. If there are any psychological disturbances, you are on your way to becoming a great writer!

We at Leadstart Publishing are looking for such collections of short stories from authors. Happy writing!!

How do I pitch my idea to a publisher?

How do I get a publisher? Do I need to hire a literary agent? What is the role of a literary agent? Don’t let these questions bother you any more. Check right here…

1. What are the trade norms between an author and a literary agent?
This varies from project to project. Normally, 15 per cent is what the literary agents get from everything related to the book’s sale. This broadly includes the following - upfront fee if the publishers offer the same, royalty on all books sold, paid excerpts in newspapers, magazines, websites, etc, audio books and e-books
2. What services do the literary agents deliver?
Literary agents pitch the author’s proposal or manuscript to the publishers and help the author negotiate the best deal. It works well as the agent makes money from the deal, hence he tries and gets the best he can. Most agents edit and fine-tune the book pitch. They have an idea of which publisher is looking for what genres of books hence pitch likewise. This drastically improves the chances of the book’s success with the publishers. Once the contract is signed they act as the author’s face to the publisher.
3. Do publishers pay the literary agents independently?
Generally, they do not. Publishers buy projects at a cost. The agreement between the literary agents and authors is not the publisher’s concern. Literary agents get their commissions out of what they do for the authors
4.What are the different deals?
Upfront buying: The publisher pays a one-time fee for the copyrights and owns it from there on. The writer gets due credit but no royalty thereafter.
Royalty format: In this case, the publisher pays the author a particular royalty from the sales of the book.
Signing fee and royalty: Well-known authors sometimes charge a signing fee as well as a royalty.
5. What royalty is a good royalty?
Just like any regular deal, it depends upon who is in greater need. If the manuscript happens to be extraordinary and the writer already has a few bestsellers to his/her credit, publishers pitch to get the rights, leading to better deals for writers. If several publishers have rejected the manuscript, the one who picks it up and invests logically negotiates harder. Hence royalties have no fixed rates. An industry average is 8-10 per cent.
6. How do I pitch a manuscript myself?
Do your homework well. Following pointers may be of some help to you:

1. Pitch to the right publisher. Most authors make a terrible mistake of assuming that all publishers publish every genre. Well, many big publishers publish across genres, but not all. Most publishers have special genres/sub genres like spiritual, children, fiction, investment, management etc. Trying to sell a non-priority genre to a publisher is like selling a fridge to an Eskimo.
2. The genres publishers want to buy are listed on their websites.
3. What does your book have for the publisher? : For a moment assume you are the publisher and think of all things the publisher will be looking at before buying the manuscript. Publishing house is not a charitable institution. People do not enter the industry to serve art. They are here to make money, period. Before you approach any publisher, read the Leadstart Manuscript Evaluation Metrics, which will give you a clear understanding of the publisher’s requirements. Each publisher has his or her own evaluation and methodology.
4. What does your book have for the publisher? : For a moment assume you are the publisher and think of all things the publisher will be looking at before buying the manuscript. Publishing house is not a charitable institution. People do not enter the industry to serve art. They are here to make money, period. Before you approach any publisher, read the Leadstart Manuscript Evaluation Metrics, which will give you a clear understanding of the publisher’s requirements. Each publisher has his or her own evaluation and methodology.
5. Sound professional: It is absolutely okay if you a first timer. No sweat. Just don’t be silly. Please read through a lot of stuff on the Internet before you start approaching the publishers. A lot of authors feel they present themselves better in person than via written communication. Well, if being an author you fail to communicate through writing, how can you impress your publisher? Any registered publishing company starts working with you only after they have chosen your manuscript to publish.

Contact us at : http://www.leadstartcorp.com

An Author's Guide To Publishing A Book

Ask any author whose book has been published, and he’ll tell you it's a monumental task. The process is long, drawn out, and grueling. Even if you enjoy writing – and don't mind penning down lines on the same subject over an extended period of time - the very process will, undoubtedly, exhaust you. Getting your book published, however, will take even more time and effort than writing it in the first place.
Are you thinking of writing a book? Have you already written it?

 

Key processes at the publisher’s end, before release of a book ; where can the author help the publishers

The journey from having the manuscript selected by a publisher to getting it into the bookstores is both interesting and painstaking for both the publisher and the writer.

Once both the parties, i.e. the writer and the publisher sign the publishing contract, work merely begins at the publisher’s end. A good writer can effectively contribute towards the success of his/her book at several stages of pre-production through post release.

The stages are as follows.

1. PRE PRODUCTION:
   Proof reading
   Editing
   One round of author proof corrections
   ISBN Assignment read more (http://www.isbn-international.org/)
   Cover page design ( Front Cover , Back Cover, Spine , Inside cover)
   Page making and layouts
2. PRODUCTION:
   Book printing
3. POST PRODUCTION – PRE RELEASE:
   Pre- Release PR : Making of Press docket and sending the book to all major media (Newspapers, magazines and websites )
   Media Tracking: Tracking Media coverage across media for Book Reviews.
4. DISTRIBUTION AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT:
   Dispatching the books to various distributors / bookstores as required. Maintaining a required inventory level at distributors and at publisher’s warehouse

Book publishers always do more for authors who behave as partners, than those who keep cribbing about the book’s media coverage, distribution, etc. Following are a few tips for authors to help them add to their book’s visibility and sales:

• Even the most well known publishers face a lot of problems finding good display spaces in bookstores for first-time writers. It’s therefore, easier if the writer can create an initial buzz, at least talk to his friends and family members about the book. Once these people go to a bookstore and ask for the book, the very act creates a demand for the book in the market and helps the publisher push it through. Moreover, if the booksellers think they have a big book, they give the book prominent displays, which further add to the book sales.
• Marketing and PR of a book: Media of any form is split into two parts, content and advertising. Content is what the media house decides and advertising is what the advertisers decide; content (ethically) is not for sale and buying ads in national media is an expensive affair. Rarely would you see a book being advertised in Media, the reason being unlike toothpastes and soaps which everyone uses, a very small audience reads book and an even smaller spends money to buy original copies. The only pragmatic option left is sending the book across media to get book reviews, which has a good impact and is free of cost. But everything that’s free comes with its own set of problems. In India there are over 300 new books (published in India + imported from abroad) released in a month. All are sent for media coverage. A newspaper only covers 4 books in a w eek and magazines review 4 books once / twice a month i.e. approx 30 odd books get reviewed (mostly duplication of reviews happen across media). The remaining books either become a part of an infinite pipeline or go to the bin. The books, which definitely get reviews, are the ones by noted authors or famous personas. Everything else remains on the publisher's media network. Publishers try to get the book reviewed across media with their own contacts. If the author knows a few media people it always comes in handy. Adding a few more book reviews helps the cause of the book in a big way.
• Improving saliency of the book on the Internet: This is something each author can do. You can blog about your book, provide some excerpts, sample chapters, add links to websites which are selling the book, maybe create your own website, blog on writers’ forums etc.
• Authors can also use social networking sites like orkut , facebook ,etc. effectively to reach out to a larger audience.
• Authors can make the cover page of the book as an e-mail signature in their mails.

Contact us at: info@leadstartcorp.com, website: http://www.leadstartcorp.com