By Kelly Diels of Cleavage
Want a book deal? Think your magnetic, compelling, ninja talent for the written word is all it takes?
Think again.
Now, says author/blogger/truth-telling goddess Danielle LaPorte, “two-thirds of a publisher’s decision is based on your platform”.
In other words, your blog. How famous are you? How big does your audience and ‘platform’ need to be?
“Pretty effing huge, apparently…” continues LaPorte, who was in New York last month pimping her latest book proposal to agents and publishers, “because I just got told I’m not famous enough.”
Publishing. It is Ancient History so Study the Scrolls.
Danielle LaPorte knows a lil’ something about the publishing racket.
In a former life, LaPorte was freelance book publicist for publishing houses like Simon and Schuster and Harper Collins. Now she has a juju personal development site called White Hot Truth, a rockin’ inspirational speaking career, and a new TV gig. And thatís not all: four years ago, she and a co-author wrote Style Statement and sold it to the prestigious Little Brown and Company for a $150,000 advance.
Back then, she didn’t even have a blog. True story.
Bestselling author Gretchen Rubin didn’t have a blog, either, when she pitched her Happiness Project book proposal to publishers. An established, best-selling author of four books, her read on the blog/book deal relationship is a little less go-blog-go.
In publishing circles, says Rubin, “there is some skepticism about bloggers. Books and blogs are very different mediums. Can a blogger write a book that hangs together as a narrative?”
Still, Rubinís agent encouraged her to start a blog.
“She planted seeds,” says Rubin, “and I was resistant…” Eventually, though, she started her blog, The Happiness Project, to test her thesis that novelty (new medium, the blog) and consistency (maintaining the blog and writing new content daily) are essential components of happiness.
Now, Rubin has been told that “your blog is more important than your book. Never forget that.”
Those stories’n legends of non-fiction book deals signed only three to four years ago and captured without carefully cultivated venus-blog-traps – might be ancient history.
Printasauras Rex? Meet Twitter. It Will Eat You Alive. Play Nice.
It was about a two-and-a-half year process from securing an agent to it [the book] coming off the presses. Painfully long. It is totally Jurassic. The publishing industry is antiquated.Publishers have not seen the future. There are a few who are admitting that things have to change and that they are Jurassic and that the future is social media. The future is multimedia expressions of all forms of literature. ~ Danielle LaPorte
The publishing industry might be prehistoric, Jurassic and slow-moving, but it will follow the scent of food. Or cash.
You’ve got a blog and an email list and an RSS feed of devoted readers to whom you can announce – and pre-sell – your book? Yes, please.
Gary Vaynerchuk knows this. He also knows his worth. Vaynerchuk worked 5 days a week for seventeen months to create his cult/platform and estimates the audience for Wine Library TV at 90,000 people per episode. He has 850,480 followers on Twitter. When he mentions a wine, it sells.
Craig Haseroty, the owner Sojourn Cellars, a small winery in California, told the New York Times that ìnothing has put more people on our database and sold more wine than Wine Library TV.î Vaynerchuk mentioned their wine and their switchboard lit up. In 24 hours, Sojourn Cellars answered 500 phone calls and e-mails. They sold a lot of wine.
Thatís the power of suggestion. Vaynerchuk’s followers are vayniacs.
Somewhere out there, Seth Godin and Chris Brogan are smiling, knowingly.
With this kind of clout, the wine-spitting social media maestro Vaynerchuk was not likely to say ìbook deal? Really, ME? Really REALLY? Oh THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.î
Legend has it that Harper Studio is publishing 2.0. They’ve heard of this little thing the kids call a ‘platform’ and are willing to share the profits – and also the pain and price of promotion – with authors.
And President Bob Miller apparently doesn’t pay a penny over $100K for an advance.
What is a Vaynerchuk with a legion of devoted, possibly tipsy vayniacs to do with a price ceiling?
Blow it up.
Veynerchuk set up shop in the Harper office. Tweeted about The 26th Story, the Harper Studio blog. Watched, in real time, as that blog suddenly drowned in traffic.
His point: my people like me. They like my suggestions. They WILL buy my book and make all of us rich and pfooey! I throw down my handkerchief in a faux snit and laugh at your measly $100K!
(This is not a direct quote.)
The result? Gary Vaynerchuk ñ who casually admits that he doesnít read books – signed a seven figure (translation for the math challenged: at least a million dollars), ten book deal with Harper Studio. His first book, Crush It, debuted in September 2009, and yeah, it did make the New York Timesí bestseller list.
And he’s not even a writer.
I know. I just died a little, inside, too.
The moral of the story? (And, I argue, the moral is not just a story because it is based on a very comprehensive, validated sample of at least three published authors, which makes it a scientific fact.)
Get a blog, rock it out, and then go get yourself a book deal.
Kelly Diels is a wildly hireable freelance writer and the creator of Cleavage, a blog about the three things we all want more of: sex, money and meaning.
- Find daily inspiration
- Improve your writing overnight
- Get started, even when you don’t feel motivated
- Complete what you start
- Get WTD updates
I talked to a publisher about my book Beyond Blogging and although they knew it would be good, they said I needed to pre-sell 6k copies first.
At that point, my partner and I decided to create an ebook and go digital. If I’m going to sell 6k, I’d rather keep the profit.
What Nathan said.
Kelly,
I’ve been waiting for this article to come out ever since you told me about it. So I’m definitely looking forward to your series of posts on this. It’s something that’s of strong interest to many of us in the blogosphere and I think will also propel you to fame. Then I can say “I knew her way back when” :).
I think the concepts of multimedia, video personalities, etc are really interesting concept that I plan to integrate into my new surfing venture.
Very interesting and well written.
I feel I must point something out about Gary, though, and don’t take this the wrong way, just take it for what it is, I suppose.
Gary had already built a multimillion dollar business (from the Wine Library site – he took the business from $4M to $45M), so he had the chops even before he went “Wine 2.0″.
He probably had a vast network of contacts, and he had already overcome the fear and self-doubt that grips so many people when starting out.
(One might also say, since he had started out working for his parents when they ran the business, he sort of had a built-in safety net.)
What he did *was* pretty amazing, I’m not knocking him.
But I am saying, if I had the resources of a $45M business at my disposal, it would be a hell of a lot easier to get my book noticed.
(I mean, I could pay someone to set up a blog for me, I could pay someone to build contacts on Twitter, etc. – I could even afford to work 5 days a week for 17 months to build my platform or whatever. It’s a bit more of a challenge when you’re a 9-to-5′er – not impossible, mind you – just a bigger challenge.)
@moriah, @nathan – True, you can’t beat the margins on e-books. Danielle LaPorte, whom I interviewed in the piece, has a great essay on self-publishing vs traditional publishing and the pros and cons. You might find it useful:
http://whitehottruth.com/business-wealth-articles/the-first-questions-of-publishing-pursuits/
Kelly! What a fantastic roundup of insights and examples. When I started writing, my first instinct was “get a book deal” – I thought it was the only way to become a published writer. My writing coach then turned me on to the idea of blogging earlier this year – he made me realize that being a blogger is also a way to be “published.” I’ve stayed with it, for a number of reasons, but mostly because I just love doing it and love hearing what others have to say. Thanks for this – and love your post at Problogger today. I might print that one out for the fridge…have a great weeekend!
Interesting article.
This is the approach my wife and I have been taking with our blog and the additional blogs we are contemplating at this time.
A point that we like about blogging is that it enables us to get our content out there much faster than “Printasauraus Rex.”
We might have an article idea or book idea that we may want to write about, and with the blog, as you know, you can release your idea to the world once you have the inspiration.
So, not only is blogging a great way to lead to a book deal, blogging just makes the journey more fun so that if you get a book deal later, you still have the instantly creative aspect of your blog to keep you sane while you hide out writing your book.
Thanks for this insight into the everchanging world of how we like it served and the price tag attached. So interesting. Appreciae the education!
Take Care,
Jill
Great points, and beyond getting the book deal from your blog is the possibility of being quoted immediately on other blogs, a piece blowing up overnight, video, TV, and who knows what else. Not that any of these things come in a heartbeat, but as you noted, this form of media is a helluva lot faster than the traditional approach. You never know who is going to end up reading your blog.
It was quite a shock to realize that the actual writing of a book is a small and only marginally necessary part of getting published. It’s about platform. Yuck.
Great article, thanks.
Brett, why the downer? Get a blog, rock it out, and then go get yourself a book deal. That’s Kelly’s advice, not mine. Gary Vaynerchuk is a great example of how to show your brand. Maybe you’re feeling a little sorry for yourself? I know I am.
I’ve got some sad numbers, but I’ll share them. Maybe it’ll cheer you up. I’ve got a blog I named DG’s B&B so I could write in the voices of my guests, but I ended up taking over. Now I don’t want to change it and loose the casual reader. My mom still asks why she can’t make a reservation. Out of town friends of friends have stayed here because of my blog name mistake.
Sad numbers: 136 posts, 25 pages, 93 comments, 20,000 hits in six months, 2 subscribers (of which I’m one. I know, sad isn’t it. My son is the other. My younger son won’t commit, neither will my wife. That’s how it is sometimes.)
My biggest day so far is 663 hits.
I add these numbers up, and the word count of linked posts on my blog, along with the time it would take to turn each 600-1000 word post into a cohesive narrative, and come up with ebook?
Sure it would be a treat to go bigtime with a big show in some posh office with an unbelieving audience, then go to the coolest restaurant you’ve ever been in to eat, drink, and sign contracts.
Brett, my brother, we all think we could do it, you know, sign that seven figure deal without our hand cramping so bad we’d have to staple a pen to it, if only. If only we had that thing someone else did it with.
I plan it this way: someone will read how you did it, or I do it, and they’ll say “well, yeah, I could do all that if I’d only follow Kelly Diels advice.” Brett, you can do it.
Now about paying someone to start your blog?
wordpress.com
No charge man.
@David,
You took me the wrong way, which seems to me is a growing issue online.
Let me explain.
No, I am not feeling sorry for myself.
I read the post, which was very well written, and then thought to research the “story behind the story”. I thought it would be interesting to point out that Gary – who *is* a very successful blogger – was also a very successful businessman prior to blogging.
I have noticed that a lot of blog posts tend to gloss over or omit the back story, so I shared what I had found, and tried to add something original and interesting to the conversation, rather than just saying “great post – I’m going to try that!”
I suggested that having a multi-million dollar business might just give you a bit of a head start over someone like you or me, when trying to get a book deal. It does not mean that we cannot, just that having those resources might not hurt.
Now, to the issue – I have noticed over the past couple of years that many blogs are starting to suffer from a sort of “groupthink”.
If someone stops by and offers up a suggestion or opinion that is just a little “too different” from what the writer said, the “faithful followers” chime in to defend the original post – which is fine – but it seems more and more often…
…the suggestion is that the person who has a different opinion is somehow unhappy with his or her life.
A few times this year, I have dropped by blogs that were previously “debate friendly”, attempted to engage the author in an intelligent conversation with a slightly different opinion, and been shouted down by the masses.
I find this a bit amusing, because it suggests to me that blogging has grown up. It may no longer be the “edgy upstart” that it once was, the challenger to the media throne, and could be going the way of mainstream news where thinking different is heresy.
How do I measure my success?
My wife and I have a comfortable home, and four wonderful children. We have a yellow lab named Walter. I am writing a book (surprise!) and I have a plan for a self-run business in the works.
I am an experienced nuclear engineer, and my wife also has a successful career in the nuclear industry. Together, we have a greater than six-figure income, and I am likely to surpass that myself this year alone.
For what it’s worth, I also have a successful blog that I have run in my spare time. You may go to it by clicking on my name, if you wish.
It is a hosted blog, not a free WordPress blog, and I had a custom theme designed for me, all for the princely sum of about $500 including a year’s hosting. My good salary allowed me this luxury.
I set out to learn about blogging and meet some people. That is all.
If we are to talk numbers, I have around 183 subscribers as of today. It has at times topped 200, but today it is lower because I have not blogged for some time – partly due to the fact that I am moving on to another online venture and have been busy, and partly due to what I said above…
…lack of interesting conversation. I don’t want a bunch of “yes guys and gals”, and I certainly don’t want any fans of mine (if there are any) to shout down someone who disagrees with me.
And believe me, I have had a few who disagree with me – some were out for blood, rather than a friendly debate, but I let their comments stand, and in one case I even defended a person’s right to his opinion when one of my friends came to my defense.
The numbers do not matter to me – the conversation does.
Anyway – I hope that you will read all of what I have said above, and then read the remainder of my comment without having taken offense to my reply.
Yes – we can do it, you and I – and we can do it without having that thing someone else did it with.
But you know, having $45M in the bank and a well-developed business sense would make it easier, and you cannot realistically deny that. Having a good salary made it easier for me to set up my blog the way I wanted it, because I could pay someone to create a custom theme rather than looking like everyone else.
That was my point.
That was a good point. I don’t look at the money, I look at the words. The opera singer in Citizen Kane had it all, except the voice. Talent is the key. Your blog looks good.
You are right, talent is the key. I have also looked at your blog, and I like it – I think it is good, don’t stop writing there.
You’ve got another subscriber (me) – I like your message.
The numbers don’t matter, you know. It’s the words.
@Brett @David – I wish this kind of conversation happened on my blog. This is what is about. We’re all in it together.
@David I looked at your blog and read the voices and thought hell yeah, I wanna stay there. I LOVE imaginary hotels. With wrestlers.
@Brett “the numbers don’t matter, you know. It’s the words”. YES.
My blog is tiny. Really tiny. But the words are love and the love is fierce.
Really interesting read. I am looking to get a book deal next year and this was well worth reading. Thanks for putting in the effort to put it together.
Like Laura and others referred to above, I wasn’t even interested in blogging until a few months ago, after having slaved for a couple of years on two books.
My biggest gripe was I’d bore myself to tears writing about me everyday. I hate journalling unless I’m pissed, when it morphs into surprisingly great DIY therapy.
Now I’m thrilled with it — because I write about and interview OTHER fascinating people. Who knew?!
Great article Kelly -
@Kelly – I wish this kind of conversation happened on my blog. No quotes. It’s on your blog, not mine. Boo hoo for me. You are a catalyst. Wait a minute. I’m going to your blog right after…
@Brett – I’m doing my subscriber dance here. Thanks. It’s not often that someone can increase a subscription number by 33%, and you did.
Without sounding like a lame blogger (huh?) I’m a little slow on the syndication. Okay, it sort of spooks me. Since I post on a wordpress blog I can’t add code, or can I?
I’m with HOWDIDYOUGETTHERE regarding my feeling about blogs. Then the smartest guy I know heard me whining about my book proposal woes and said “blog, facebook, twitter.” I said okay. He said use your name and I said okay. And we’re off.
For my next fun thing I’m going to add a dramatic reading of my posts at the end of each one for portability. Has anyone got James Earl Jones’ number?
I’m heading over to Cleavage and hope I don’t get stuck there, but I probably will.
Great conversation, intriguing information. I’ve felt involved enough to visit other people’s blogs — very cool. Kristi
@Kelly,
Your blog is awesome. It may be tiny, but awesome.
Tiny but mighty. Do not underestimate the power of tiny.
I have four children.
Children are tiny, or at least, they start out that way, but they ultimately change the world.
@David,
Lame? No – everyone starts at the beginning. I know a lot more now than I did two years ago about blogging, and I know that I still know very little.
(I believe you are right, you can’t add custom code to the free WP blogs – but perhaps you don’t have to, yet. When the time is right, you will know what to do.)
I’m trying that route. I’ve wanted to be an author for a long time, and I’ve often considered myself a writer. Earlier this year, I finally started a blog, and I’ve had decent success with finding readers. But they’ve plateaued now, and I am having a hard time getting new readers. I keep hearing that social media is the way to go, but I’m only having limited success with Twitter and commenting (I know the Facebook fan page is my next step).
I have recently moved into the mindset that I absolutely must finish a novel draft in the next year, and then the real work starts. I hope that within an year and a half of my blog’s debut that I’ll have a decent enough following that I can use it as a jumping off point to brand myself and establish a platform. Or maybe that’s wishful thinking.
But it’s really great to read that someone else thinks that blogging before publishing doesn’t equate to shooting oneself in the foot.
I would add Chris Brogan to this proof of concept too.
Publishing 2.0 is all about the platform, obviously. Knowing that it’s that important, I think it is critical for an author to look as much at how they built these enormous platforms than reviewing their books.
Having said that, both are pretty darn good books too.
Great post! Highlighting an important point I am not sure anyone else has pointed out. Thank you.
This article is killing me if its true!!! Everyone says I have good writing, but I have no blog and I have no “Platform” to speak of!