It is absolutely vital for any author to build a loyal, and hopefully, large fan base. The benefits should be obvious. With a loyal fan base you have readers waiting for your next book to come out. This enables publishers to get larger numbers of pre-orders directly from readers and larger initial orders from bookstores (both offline and online). It also means you can earn your book advance more quickly and start earning royalties sooner. Remember an advance payment from a publisher is one made against future royalty payments, so you have to earn your way past the advance money to get to the royalty payments. A loyal fan base for an author also makes publishers feel more comfortable printing a larger number of books in the first print run.

So how exactly does one build this large and loyal fan base? First, you need a sharp looking author website that you can send people to for more information about you. Your website should allow readers to purchase autographed copies of your books from you directly. To inspire them to do so, it should have some extras to help build their interest in you. Remember, these people haven’t been sitting around in the desert waiting for your coming. They already have two or three favorite authors who are tying up a lot of their superfluous cash. What can you give them to convince them to make you number three or four?

First, your website should contain a biography, one filled with interesting facts, things that make you sound interesting and fun, informed and a decent human being. Someone they would like as a friend. We’re not saying you should lie here. We’re saying you have to remember that these people are not idiots. If you want their money, and more importantly, their loyalty, then you’d better come up with something that says you deserve it. Add an FAQ (frequently asked questions) section as well. Hey, they more of these you answer up front, the fewer you will have to answer in e-mails. Remember, this website is also going to make you more accessible to the public.

Next, stick in a list of upcoming personal appearances — convention guest shots, one-day-shows, book store readings, radio or TV appearances, signings at a local library — whatever ya got. A brief news column is always a good idea as well. Anything that is going on in your life that is in any way related to you as a writer. And, speaking of that, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be posting a few samples of your staggering talent as well. A free short story or two should appear on the site, especially if you are a new writer. If you don’t write shorts, then throw up a few rolicking good chapters of your best book.

Another good idea is a recent picture of yourself, one that makes you look both presentable and approachable. This is an especially good idea if your target market includes females. Women like a photo of the author — most men don’t care one way or the other. Unless, of course, you’re an attractive woman. We realize this is like telling a black author to play the race card, but here are the stone cold facts. Others are doing it. Female and male authors are not only having special portraits taken for their book jackets, websites and other publicity outlets, but they’re having them taken by professionals and then having them airbrushed by experts.

If you don’t listen to anything we say, listen to this. Talent is necessary, but it is not the only thing you need. Yes, you can turn out good work with talent. But that alone does not guarantee sales. Writing is an art. Publishing is a business. If you’re not willing to throw yourself into playing the game, you’re going to lose to others who are willing. It’s a sad, cold fact, but it’s the truth.

Connected to that truth is another one: never put anything negative about another author, an editor, or a publisher on your website. The book business is a small community, and the easiest way to burn important bridges is to bad-mouth others. Doesn’t matter if your speaking the God’s honest truth. There’s only one Harlan Ellison. Everyone else has to be as polite as a Warner Brothers’ gopher.

If you are good at keeping a daily or weekly journal you should consider offering a blog through your website. Putting an RSS feed on your blog also helps people find your blog as they search the Internet for information. If you have a nice sounding voice and like to talk you might also consider doing a podcast show from your website. A podcast is an offshoot of the journal-like blog, basically radio (MP3 recordings) or TV (MP4 video) on demand. You give it away for free through I-tunes and other online distributors to help drive traffic to your website. And, don’t forget, always include your website address in every blog or podcast you create. Blogs and podcasts are great ways to build a fan base and drive traffic to your website.

To build a database full of fan email addresses offer a free short story or non-fiction article in exchange for their email address. This opt-in solicitation of an email address should go with your strict promise to not sell the customer’s information to another organization. Once you have a substantial list built up, you can consider occasionally sending your email list free stories and make special offers to them to help sell your books and turn them into loyal fans.

Another great way to build a fan base is through those personal appearances we mentioned above. Genre conventions are a great place to start. Every genre of fiction has related conventions. You can find them in every state across the country and in other countries around the world. At a convention make sure you negotiate with the staff for a book signing time or even a free dealer’s table from which to sell your books. Attend panels about writing topics as another way to meet potential readers. Always mention your website info as well as where your table is located there at the convention. Place your latest books up in front of you while you are on a panel. The book covers will attract people to approach you immediately after the panel ends. Always be prepared to sell books at any time during a convention, as well. And, that means having copies of the books, change, and a pen or Sharpie to autograph each book with you at all times.

The classic way to build a fan base, of course, is the book signing event. This can be set up through the local independent bookstore or the bigger chain bookstores. The retailer can order books from your publisher or get them on consignment from you. (A retailer receives 40% of the retail price of the book.) Practice reading a dramatic piece of the book to hook your audience into buying the full book. Readings and short entertaining talks about the book business or how a book came about are great ways to convince people that you’re a wonderful human being, and sell books as well.

A final word about building a fan base — avoid being arrogant no matter how big a brand name author you become. Nothing will allienate a fan base faster than an author who refuses to sign autographs, or acts like he or she is better than their fans. Make time to talk to your fans and always be polite. Avid readers and fans are the ones who often start new publishing companies. One day that fan in the front row could end up being your immediate boss.

We say “immediate,” because, well … in case you haven’t figured it out from the above yet, the fans are already your boss!

What’s the biggest challenge facing us as writers. Many beginners look at the half-empty glass and consider their greatest obstacle to be the finding of the right publisher for their work. Well, maybe that isn’t quite the challenge you think it is.

Today there are about 83,000 independent publishers in North America, working, of course, in the most serene of harmony with the six major publishers (all based in New York City). The six major publishing houses are Random House, Penguin Putnam, Hachette, Von Holtzbrinck Publishing Services, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins Publishers.

And, this is merely covering books and/or novels. When you include print magazines along with Internet based e-magazines and e-book only publishers, the opportunities to get published expand even more. No, there are plenty of publishers, and they all want things to publish. No, the big challenge is: how do you find the right publisher for you?

First, take a look at your own bookshelves. There’s a good chance that the publishers you read the most are the publishers looking for the kind of material you want to produce (or are already producing). This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s a good starting place.

C.J. Here: Of course, you could be like me. My strong suits are (according to most of my fans and critics) action, adventure, hardboiled realism, and lovecraftian horror. But, what do I read the most, what movies and shows do I enjoy the most — comedies. Yes, I do write comedies, but they aren’t the big ticket items in the Henderson display case.

Bruce & C.J. Here: The bottom line is, you should determine what publishers lean toward your kind of work. Find the people who are looking for you. And, you do have to go to them. They aren’t going to come to you. Why should they? They’ve got hundreds of people banging on their doors every day. So, to be seen and heard, you’re going to have to do some more work. And, here’s a popular mantra of this blog, there is always more work to the job of writing than just the writing. Getting the work done is certainly a hard part of the job, but it’s not the only part. However, before we get sidetracked into all those additional things you have to do to get yourself in print, let’s stick with this one for the moment.

First, go online and research the names of editors and publishers at each company and print out each company’s submission guidelines. Next, see if the publisher’s website has a public appearances calendar. If an editor or publisher is going to attend a convention this is a golden opportunity to meet them personally. A great deal of actual publishing business occurs at conventions, often in the bar. So you need to attend science fiction, fantasy, and horror conventions on a regular basis. If there are any conventions in your immediate area, you should check their guest and attendance lists to see if any editors you might need to meet are scheduled to be there. If you’re a sci fi writer, and you find that at a local con two sci fi editors are going to be there…what are you waiting for?

Usually at a convention an editor or publisher will speak on panels about the book business. Attend these panel discussions, take notes, and introduce yourself at the end of the panel. Instead of trying to sell them a finished work of your own, ask them a straightforward question such as, “What fiction does your publishing house need right now?”

Don’t be afraid of these people, either. They’re just people doing a job. Ask things like, “I was thinking of forcing all 700 pages of my new manuscript on you right here and then calling your office every day for weeks, but my schedule just won’t allow it. Do you have any better suggestions?” Show them you have a sense of humor, that you understand how tough their job is, and things will go a lot smoother. If you manage to find them in the hotel bar, don’t feel awkward about offering to buy them a drink.

Here’s a universal truth: It is easier to get published by supplying a publisher with what they need. If you have no reputation established with a publisher and no fan base waiting for your first novel it is — sadly — really hard to get published. If you can fill a need at a publishing house, however, you can establish yourself at the right publishing house for your fiction. This is a case of opportunity meeting preparation. Always deliver high quality fiction — on time — for a publisher and they will come to rely on you. Independent publishers are very approachable via query letter or email. Submission guidelines on their websites will inform you about what they need at the moment.

Bruce here: If you don’t find what you’re looking for, then ask. “Excuse me, but can you tell me what you need at the moment.” Let me give you an example: when I founded Marietta Publishing in 1996 I published only horror for the first six years. Then I decided to expand to the science fiction and fantasy genres. Two savvy authors asked me what I was looking for and immediately sold me two novels and a short story collection in those new genres. All because they asked me the key question!

Bruce & C.J. Here: Now, it’s still true that in almost all instances, any of the major publishing houses still require writers to have a literary agent in order to submit manuscripts to them. The only weakness to be found in this armor is that due to the excessive downsizing over recent years, most of the majors have come to use book packagers to fill their publishing schedules. A book packager comes up with ideas for series of books for publishing houses and then matches up writers with the project. The packager edits, hires the cover artist, designs the interior and exterior layout, and delivers the completed book on a CD-ROM to the publisher. In our genres the two major book packagers are Martin H. Greenberg and Bill Fawcett. Greenberg is the founder and President of Tekno Books and Fawcett founded Bill Fawcett & Associates. Use Google to look up others by searching under the keywords, “Book Packagers” and “Book Developers.”

Be sure to ask them the same key question and you may get hired to do something new, or possibly even sell something you already have on hand. You won’t know until you try!

To gain a fan-base as a writer, you must create unforgettable characters. Ian Fleming created James Bond. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Frank Herbert created the House Atreides and House Harkonnen in his Dune series. Bram Stoker created Dracula. Mary Shelly created Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. Tom Clancy created Jack Ryan. Agatha Christie created Miss Marples, the great detective. Robert E. Howard created Conan and King Kull. H.P. Lovecraft created Cthulu and the elder gods. Laura K. Hamilton created Anita Blake, vampire hunter. We could on and on, but the point being made, we now sneak in the big question–just what memorable characters are roaming around in your head?

Bruce Here: An easy technique that I use to create characters is a bubble map. In the center circle place the name of your character. Draw a line to another bubble and name a sibling. Another connected bubble contains the character’s parents. More bubbles reveal a description of the character, an education at a college, a home state and country, skills, weaknesses, lovers/spouse, and jobs. Any facet of the character can be jotted down quickly inside a bubble. A bubble map is a fast way to create a three-dimensional character and an easy point of reference for you as the author.

Bruce and C.J. Here: A common mistake made by many new authors is to have characters that are simply too similar to each other. They may have the same hair color and eye color, they may all dress in black leather, they all have the same race or religion, etc. If your characters are stereotypes it can make your story very predictable, especially given the fact that the best stories are character lead. All of these factors can make your story boring and even insulting to your audience.

It is also very important to differentiate your characters by giving them different characteristics in their dialogue. If your characters all “sound” the same on paper, it can confuse the reader. New writers in particular will put their own voice on every character in a story (as well as the narrator) which makes no sense and kills your chances of selling your story. As a writer, you should listen to peoples’ accents when you meet them, then later use that information to help make your characters more unique sounding. Remember no one speaks perfect English when they speak. When you write dialogue include mistakes in the sentences and phrases to add authenticity to your writing. Beware, or at least be careful, however, when it comes to the idea of using what some might call “offensive stereotypical dialogue” with your characters. For example, making a southerner sound like an idiot just because they have a southern accent is offensive to southern readers.

C.J. Here: Now, of course, if you need an idiot, don’t be afraid to make someone a complete and utter idiot. Don’t for an instant think that we are telling you here to jump on board the politically correct bus-to-boredom. Movies don’t worry about having black street punks talk like … well … black street punks, so why should you? What you need to worry about, as mentioned above, is not making them sound like stereotypical black street punks.

For example, take Apu, the Quickie Mart counterman on The Simpsons. Yes, they put upon this poor guy all the stereotypes for fellows of his race, but that isn’t all they put upon him. There is depth and pathos and wit involved, and that’s how you get away with it. In the 20s, Minsky and Ziefeld both had naked women on their stages in NYC. Minsky was constantly being hauled into court while no one bothered Ziefeld. Why? Because Ziegfeld posed his girls in tableaus, while Minsky let them cavort. In other words, Ziefeld was giving people art. And that’s what you have to do.

It takes practice to perfect writing in different accents, but it is well worth your time to work very hard at this particular writing skill. It can help distinguish your style of writing from other writers. David Eddings is one of the very best writers to study as far as dialogue. The late Rod Serling was tops at using different accents in his dialogue. Ray Bradbury and Stephen King are also masters of excellent dialogue and character creation. In our opinion well written dialogue and insuring that your characters have clear differences is paramount in the creation of marketable fiction. Practice is the only way to master your writing. So why are you still sitting there reading this blog? Turn on that computer and start writing something now! Something, hopefully, with good solid characters.

Once you reach that pinnacle where you have a publisher that you are working with consistently, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can relax. No, now that you’ve sold a book, and a second book, it’s the time for you to pitch a series to them. Publishers like talented and dependable authors that write books that sell — we all know that. So how do you become one of those authors?

One of the best ways to become a solid, continually selling author is to write a series. Now, even if you only write short–and you think you don’t have a novel within you, don’t worry–just write those tales with the same main characters, but write them in a consecutive (chronological) order. And, that doesn’t mean you must write them in order. You can write them out of order, but just make certain there is an order. That something happens. That the characters grow.

Understand, because of the shrinking of global boundaries over the centuries, all entertainment has begun to suffer from over-exposure. It used to be that people didn’t have the time to take in a lot of entertainment. However, these days, the available storylines get used up at a tremendous rate. For example, who hasn’t seen Dickens’ A Christmas Carol ripped off by a sit-com? Or It’s a Wonderful Life? The old show Quantum Leap stole the plot of a different movie almost every week. And yet, people are entertained and don’t complain.

Why?

It’s because it isn’t so much the plot of a particular story that concerns the audience so much as what the author does with it. Boy meets girl. A classic. But, who are our boy and girl? What obstacles stand between them? How will they conquer them? Friends, classic sit-com, lasted ten years. Went off the air at the top of the heap. And how did it start and how did it end? They told us we should be concerned over whether or not Ross would get Rachel. And then they spent a decade making us wait for the answer, telling hundreds of little stories along the way.

Now, back to our point.

When you write these short stories, it is best you get them out in front of the public, not just save them up for a book. You get out there and work at selling them to online and offline magazines and themed anthologies to get your name in front of readers. When you hit around 70,000 words, you begin thinking of a couple of story ideas that would help make a boffo ending. Then, when you’ve reached 80,000 words in the storyline, you have a collection that reads like a novel. Then you have something to pitch.

And here’s the big secret — pitch it as a novel! The first short story becomes Chapter One, the second story Chapter Two and so on. Why do this? Because novels sell better than short story collections and bookstores are more willing to carry a novel over a short story collection.

We have done this with our forthcoming book Where Angels Fear. It was written as a series of short stories and novellas in the Blakely & Boles universe which is an urban fantasy. We sold most of the stories to a number of different magazines and anthologies and then capped the lot off with several unpublished stories so that the loyal fan still has a reason to look forward to buying the book. The collection reads like a very fast paced novel as a result. It also has a fan base ready and waiting for it to come out because of the readership gained from the separate short stories being published as our creative ambassadors.

We also created a side character in the Blakely & Boles universe that became very popular. The character is Donna Fargo and she was the first female Sheriff of Waycross, Georgia. She met Blakely & Boles in the third story (now Chapter Three) of Where Angels Fear and learns firsthand about the supernatural world around us. Eventually she joins the Blakley & Boles team during the course of the stories. Why do we mention this here? To point out the simple fact that as you create your universe, you never know where it will lead you. Donna has grown in both stature as a character and in popularity with the public to the point where now, one day we may have to do a solo Donna Fargo book!

Bruce Here: Unlike my very talented co-author, I have never written a novel before. Now that Where Angels Fear is being published it is time to begin writing the first novel in the series. C.J. and I have worked out a rough storyline and we are using the working title, The Canyon of Madness. I am reading a Dean Koontz novel for inspiration (I’ve read all of CJ’s) since Koontz is a master at writing novels that are very hard to put down. He hooks the reader at the beginning of the chapter and ends a chapter with a mini cliff hanger that makes you want to turn the page and keep reading.

C.J. is very good at doing that with his novels as well, so I want to live up to his standards. Right now C.J. is very busy writing a new comic book series with William Shatner as well as his second novel in a series for TOR. As a result the first draft of the Blakely & Boles novel is up to me. Wish me luck people.

Or, better yet, start making your own luck. Get started on tying those miscellaneous shorts you’ve completed into a novel of your own!

As we have been discussing in earlier blogs, the invention of the Amazon Kindle e-reader has created an exciting, and completely new form of book. Kindle e-books are less expensive than most printed books today or as inexpensive as a mass market paperback with a retail price less than $9.99 typically. We predicted before in this blog that the second generation Kindle (not yet available) will probably create a combined e-book and audio version book. By being connected to the Internet 24/7, the Kindle has finally created a superior form of the traditional book that will most likely kill off a vast portion of what we now think of as the publishing industry in no more than the next ten years.

As authors, the big question for you is, how will all of this, as well as other on-the-rise technologies such as print-on-demand printing, affect the book business for you personallyr?

Amazon.com can offer some 1.6 million titles online each year to its customers — world-wide — while a brick and mortar big chain bookstore such as Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million can only offer about 56,000 titles per year to those customers willing to leave their homes and walk through their doors. As the availability of e-book versions expands through the Amazon Kindle system and its competitors, the demand for more expensive print books will steadily decline. The big chain bookstores are going to have to sell more books online as a result. Large square footage stores are going to be replaced by book cafes where a reader browses websites and then orders a book to be printed in the back room of the book café on a print-on-demand printer. (A hot off-the-printer book to go with your hot bagel and hot coffee!)

Think opera. When operas were in vogue, they were the only game in town. That’s why they were three, four hours long, because for those who could attend, they were sometimes the only entertainment to be found outside the home for six months to a year. Then, over the centuries, traveling shows, then theater circuits, then radio, movies, television came along, the marketplace for operas shrank, and shrank some more. Now, it’s an art form kept alive through grants, tax dollars, and as Blanche said, “the kindness of strangers.”

Or, if you need something more recent, the reel-to-reel, then the cassette, the 8-track, the CD. Or all the various permutations of television. Technology mutates, and those whose ability to make a living depends on any particular branch of technology had better keep their eye on what’s going on within the nuts and bolts section of their industry. Buggy whips, anyone?

Not all of these retailers are going to make the transition, especially after publishers and authors realize they can sell directly to the readers with much greater ease than ever before. Book wholesalers and distributors are going to become a thing of the past in the next ten years. We can say that confidently because there will in all probability be no traditional bookstores (outside of a handful of used book stores) with printed books in ten years. The Amazon Kindle Internet based e-reader system is actually a distributor and retailer combined. The big difference is the Amazon Kindle sells electrons while old fashioned book distributors have to physically warehouse and ship printed books all over the place. Amazon already uses the Amazon Advantage program to cut out book wholesalers and distributors by buying books directly from publishers such as Marietta Publishing and hundreds more. The Amazon Kindle e-reader system accomplishes the same goal for Amazon.

Because of all this, we predict there will be five major delivery systems for e-books in the near future.

1. Amazon.com
2. I-Tunes (Apple)
3. Fiction Wise
4. E-Bay
5. Barnes & Noble/Sony Entertainment

You read it here first— Borders and Books-A-Million won’t be around in ten years. Barnes & Noble will have to combine forces with Sony to create an Internet based e-reader distributor/retailer system to compete with the Amazon Kindle system. The current Sony e-reader is the next closest thing to an Amazon Kindle. The key is having a strong Internet platform to transmit e-books to shoppers and then a quality e-reader for them to build an e-book library inside.

Currently Amazon charges a 65% discount off the cover price to publishers to distribute and retail their e-books. The e-books are converted to a unique e-book language designed specifically to be read on an Amazon Kindle only. That leaves 35% for the publisher and author to divide up between them. With a $9.99 retail price 35% is $3.50 with $1.25 going to the author and $2.25 going to the publisher. For the author that is a 12.5% royalty rate which is much higher than the average 8% royalty paid by publishers. So everyone makes a higher profit. It is a win, win, win business situation. The publisher has no printing costs, no inventory taxes and no shipping costs to pay, so the $2.25 is a net profit before taxes.

It is highly likely that publishers will produce only e-books and audio books in the very near future. Audio books will be produced automatically by sophisticated software programs that will “read” the words in the text file to create a synthesized voice “reading” the words out loud like a recording — but it will not be a recording. This software technology is already being developed and will be commonly used by publishers to produce the e-book of the future that incorporates text and audio combined. When a publisher sells an e-book from their own website or a genre specific book club, the profit margins will be even higher.

Let us also remember that E-books can also be produced as multi-media presentations with animation or video components as part of their whole. Indeed, who is to say that these electronic books will not follow the path of the DVD? Author commentary, deleted scenes, extended scenes, outlines, character sketches, bonus short stories–once paper, ink, binding, et cetera, and their inherent expense are done away with, there is no telling where the idea of books will go.

Amazon Kindle e-books can also contain advertisement directed at a very specific target market. A publisher can sell ads inside Kindle e-books and update them automatically through the Kindle system periodically. This idea constitutes the first new profit center in publishing in centuries.

E-books can also be shorter “one sitting” reads designed for readers’ faster paced lifestyles. The price can be lowered for the shorter work as well. A writer can create more products more quickly this way. A lower e-book price will help readers try new writers. When a writer has established a large enough fan base they can use the Amazon Kindle system to self-publish and cut out the publisher to make a higher profit margin. For a publisher to survive in the near future they will have to provide better editing and marketing services to a popular author. Publisher websites will have to be excellent promotional tools for writers.

So what does all this mean to you, the up-and-coming author? It means you may have less than a decade to get all your ducks in a row. So, turn off that TV, put down that beer, et cetera, and get to work. Now.

Or, don’t blame us when you get left out in the cold.