Author, Publisher, Library Rep Share Secrets of Publishing Success

Self-published authors don’t face the same stigma from the mainstream publishing industry as they used to.

This was one of the insights a panel of publishing and library representatives shared during a panel titled “Publishing: Everything You Wanted to Know.” The panel discussion was one of several free presentations that took place during the Ohioana Book Festival, held April 25 at the Sheraton in downtown Columbus, Ohio, where I live.

Panelists who participated in the “Publishing: Everything You Wanted to Know” included author Lucy Snyder, Toledo Lucas County Public Library Humanities Department Manager Ben Malczewski and Ohio University Press representatives Gillian Berchowitz, director, and Samara Rafert, promotions and exhibits manager.

While there is more prestige to being published by a mainstream house, self-published authors aren’t looked on with the same disdain by the literary establishment as in previous decades, Berchowitz said.

"I think the whole landscape of self-publishing has changed,” she said. “There's just so many ways in someone can publish their work. That being said, there is a difference."

The difference, Berchowitz added, is that self-published books often don't go through the same “vetting process.” In other words, many self-published are poorly edited – or not at all.

So, self-published authors would be smart to hire a competent editor who can give a manuscript a professional polish before it’s released. And with the ultimate goal being to reach readers, authors should start figuring out who their target readers might be before they publish, Malczewski said.

“Identify, who is your audience. Have a good idea of who would read this," he said, adding that the Toledo Lucas County library has a special section devoted especially to local, self-published authors.

Snyder, who said she has sold more than 80 short stories and 10 books, said she prefers to work with traditional publishers rather than self-publishing. She shares more of her advice in the how-to guide “Shooting Yourself in the Head For Fun and Profit: A Writer's Survival Guide.”

"Because I'm more interested in being a writer than a publisher, if I have a niche publication, I'll look for a small press" rather than self-publish her work, Snyder said.

Of course, many self-published authors would like to transition to having their work distributed by a mainstream publisher. One of the main avenues to accomplish that is to secure an agent. Snyder said she landed her agent through word of mouth by participating in collaborative projects such as short-story anthologies with other writers.

"Networking with other writers and participating in writers' communities is often a very good way to find an agent,” she said.

When trying to sell a fiction book, authors need to do their best to make the best first impression as they possibly can, Berchowitz said.

"The first 50 pages of your manuscript that you send, that's it,” she said. “That's the bottom line."

While fiction books generally need an agent to garner the attention of a traditional publisher, non-fiction book proposals can be submitted directly from the author, Berchowitz said.

"I think it's understood that you can send your [nonfiction] proposal around to a number of houses,” she said.

And how do you decide which publishers to send your proposal to?

“Writer's Market is a great resource for that,” said Malczewski, referring to the directory that lists publishers, agents and many other resources in the publishing world.

One surprising insight that the panelists shared was that short-story anthologies can be difficult to market to readers.

"Short stories are a harder sell than novels,” Snyder said. “Most people prefer to read novels."

This fact is surprising because readers supposedly have a very short attention span these days because the Internet and digital technology has opened up a universe of choices.

However, short-story anthologies in all genres can find an audience if properly marketed, especially through crowdsourcing sites like Kickstarter, Snyder said. Crowdsourcing literally gives audiences an ownership stake in projects they contribute to.

"Anthologies are doing fairly well right now. I've been attached to about a dozen Kickstarter [campaigns],” she said. “It's an update of the old method of doing preorders [prior to a book’s publication].  ... It integrates everything into social media."

And if crowdsourcing isn’t for you and you want to hold out for a traditional publisher, don’t lose faith if you can’t land an agent right away, Snyder advised.

"I wouldn't lose faith if I couldn't get an agent,” she said. “I would start sending [your manuscript] out to presses... Start at the top and work your way down.”

One bit of encouraging news came during the panel's Q&A with the audience. One of the audience member said he's really busy with work and raising his family right now, but would like to explore a second career as a writer one day when he retires.

Berchowitz said it's never too late to dip one's foot in the literary pool: "Writers hit their stride whenever..."


Note: This blog replaces a previous post about the Ohioana Book Festival that I originally published on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.

 

Entertainment Diversity Yields Mixed Results (Pun Intended)

The ABC sitcom "Cristela" stars (from left) Jacob Guenther, Carlos Ponce,
Maria Canals Barrera, Cristela Alonzo, Terry Hoyos, Gabriel Iglesias and Isabella Day.

A couple of days ago, on Saturday, April 18, I tweeted the following:

I had obviously assumed that "Cristela," my favorite new sitcom of the 2014-15 season (sorry, "Black-ish"), had been renewed by ABC for a second season.

Shortly after I sent this Tweet, I Googled "Cristela" to make sure that, indeed, its second-season pickup had been announced. I was surprised to find an article linking to star Cristela Alonzo's blog post titled "A Possible Goodbye" about her show being on the bubble - that precarious position between renewal and cancellation.

"I want to be realistic and honest about things," Cristela states in her blog post. "I'm not sure if the show is coming back. It worries me not because I want to be on TV more. It worries me because I think this show gives a voice to people that haven't been given a voice before."

Cristela is absolutely right. How many shows centered on working-class Latino families are on mainstream television? How many shows are headlined by women of color who aren't a size 2?

This troubling news about the uncertain fate of "Cristela" comes on the heels of seemingly contradictory news I'd come across just a couple of days before. While listening to NPR's "Latino USA," I happened upon a segment titled "2 Fast, So Diverse" about the success of "Furious 7."

The latest installment in the action movie franchise had the ninth biggest opening of all time when it raked in more than $392 million worldwide on its opening weekend April 2-5. 

"Latino USA" host Maria Hinojosa and contributor Daisy Rosario cited numbers indicating that the success of the "Furious" franchise may be in large part due to Latinos, whom Nielsen studies show make up around 25 percent of moviegoers and are more likely to be frequent and repeat moviegoers.

Latinos and viewers of all races may be flocking to "Furious," whose ensemble cast boasts Domican-Puerto Rican actress Michelle Rodriguez. But the struggle of "Cristela" to stay on the air shows that diverse casting does not a guaranteed hit make.

When I first saw the ads for "Cristela" last fall, I tuned in because the show looked original and funny, like nothing I'd seen on TV before. (You can read my October 2014 blog post about the show by clicking this link).

It seems that the show would have a built-in audience, since co-star Carlos Ponce is an international sex symbol and pop star and recurring guest star Gabriel Iglesias is a popular comedian with a large, multiracial following. And TV legend Roseanne has made a couple of guest appearances.

Granted, the show's lead and namesake, Mexican-American comedian Cristela Alonzo, isn't as well-known, but she's genuinely funny. Like Roseanne, she has a big personality and screen presence that is definitely compelling enough to headline her own sitcom.

When I'd heard earlier this year that ABC had given "Cristela" a full-season pickup, I assumed the show was virtually guaranteed for a second season. But upon further reflection, I realized I haven't heard "Cristela" mentioned with the same excited buzz in the media as ABC's two other breakout hits with minority casts: "Black-ish" and "Fresh off the Boat."

It's possible that "Cristela" needs a different time slot. It airs on Fridays at 8:30 after the Tim Allen sitcom "Last Man Standing." 

It may be that Allen's viewers - and viewers, in general, who are home watching TV on Friday nights - are older and more conservative and less likely to be interested in Cristela, who is 36 but looks like she could be in her 20s.

As much as I don't believe in lumping minorities together, "Cristela" might fare better if the show were paired with "Black-ish," "Fresh off the Boat" or even "The Goldbergs," which revolves around a Jewish family in the '80s.

There has been much hoopla in the press about how "Black-ish," "Fresh off the Boat" and the cultural phenomenon of Fox's "Empire" represent the growing diversity of television audiences. (You can read my take on "Empire" by clicking this link.)

I just hope "Cristela" will get to ride this new wave of diversity for at least one more season.

Civil Rights Tour Final Stop - Memphis

Today was the culmination of the Civil Rights Tour, ending in Memphis and a visit to the site where Dr. King was assassinated that fateful day on April 4, 1968.

As our tour group packed up the bus and prepared to leave the hotel where we stayed after arriving in Memphis the night before, I noticed I was one of only two people out of the 50-some members of our group not wearing the Civil Rights Tour T-shirt that leader Napoleon Bell passed out last night. This oversight on my part was probably due to the sense of "individuality that is seared into my bones," to paraphrase Richard Wright.

After a quick dash to change in my room (thank God I didn't turn in my key right away), we set out for the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.

Visiting this sprawling complex tied together everything our tour group had learned up to that point. The center features exhibits on the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Freedom Rides, school desegregation and the Bloody Sunday voting rights march in 1965.

I was overcome with emotion when I entered a room where King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech was broadcast on a large screen alongside artifacts from the March on Washington. 

Though I've seen excerpts from the speech countless times over the years, seeing it in the site where King died made his eloquent words all the more profound.

The most moving part of the Lorraine Motel experience is, of course, visiting rooms 306 and 307, where King and other civil rights leaders stayed while in town to lend their support to striking sanitation workers. 

The rooms have been preserved exactly as they were when King was killed. Across the street is another section of the museum where visitors can see the room where assassin James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot that claimed King's life.

Upon leaving the museum, I walked through Founders Park, which has banners bearing the images of King, Rosa Parks, Shirley Chisholm and other icons emblazoned with the phrase, "They Changed History." 

Our group then broke for lunch and I ventured out in search of authentic Memphis grub. I ended up eating at the historic Arcade Restaurant, a vintage diner that has been the site of several movie shoots, according to a large plaque outside the business.

I sat at the counter, inspired by all I've learned in the past few days about lunch counter sit-ins. The difference between my experience and civil rights demonstrators was, of course, that I received excellent service without incident.

I considered ordering one of Elvis' favorite Southern treats, a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich, but opted for a simple hamburger instead.

 

As I write this post, our tour group is back on the bus, headed home to Columbus, Ohio. This trip has really been a transformative experience. 

Learning about the civil rights movement in school, it seemed like ancient history. But seeing so many civil rights landmarks with my own eyes over the past few days has really made the struggle seem real to me. 

And it's given me a greater appreciation for those who blazed the trail on which we all now walk.

Civil Rights Tour Day Four - Birmingham

Day Four of the Civil Rights Tour took our group to Birmingham, Ala., which Dr. Martin Luther King once described as the most thoroughly segregated city he had ever seen.

Our first stop was the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. This landmark was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing on Sept. 15, 1963, that claimed the lives of teen church members Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. 

This heinous act outraged the nation and was pivotal in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. 

Our group then walked across the street to the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum. This sprawling center houses a variety of memorabilia documenting the origins of Birmingham as a mining town in the 1800s, its violent past as a segregated city that offered a substandard quality of life to African Americans and  its current status as a more progressive place that has been governed by people of color since the election of Richard Arrington Jr. as its first black mayor in 1979.

While browsing the museum, our group was able to piggyback on a guided tour led by an engaging young African-American docent. He was leading a group of middle-school boys from England, educating them about ugly chapters from U.S. history and how far we've come since then. 

As an unexpected treat, the boys raised their voices and serenaded their docent at the end of the tour. Apparently, the boys are a choir who are performing in Birmingham this evening.

The next stop in Birmingham, once again, was a short walk across the street: Kelly Ingram Memorial Park. In early May 1963, police and firemen attacked civil rights demonstrators, many of them children, in the streets surrounding this park.

I made my way through the park following a brick path called the Freedom 

Walk. Lining the path are enormous statues memorializing the civil rights demonstrators such as bronze dogs lunging in attack and a replica of a holding cell emblazoned with the phrase, "I'm Not Afraid of Your Jail."

I'm glad Birmingham is owning up to and embracing its past, which will enable the city and its citizens to continue to move

forward.

As I write this post, our tour group is traveling to our last stop: Memphis, where Dr. King was assassinated. 

Civil Rights Tour Day Three - Montgomery

After touring Selma this morning, the Civil Rights Tour took us back to Montgomery for a visit to the Rosa Parks Museum.

The guided tour began with a short documentary about the stifling segregation in Montgomery. The unbearable oppression prompted Rosa Parks' brave act of refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger.

 

Watching this video, a realization occurred to me: racism can turn a mundane, everyday act like riding the bus into a dehumanizing practice of apartheid.

The video also related that the organizers of the Montgomery Bus Boycott spread the word to participants via flyers produced on primitive mimeograph machines. These flyers were like the precursor to Facebook, Twitter and other modern social media employed by activists all over the world today.

It also occurred to me that the system of private cars that transported boycott participants to work and school while they avoided buses was like an early version of contemporary rideshare services like Uber.

Our tour bus then drove by the Greyhound bus station that has been converted into the Freedom Riders Museum. The site commemorates the activists who participated in the historic Freedom Rides in the summer of 1964.

The next stop was the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is dedicated to fighting hate crimes. I added my name to the center's Wall of Tolerance, which requires that you pledge to fight injustice, intolerance and hatred.

The next stop was the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and so many of the milestones of the civil rights movement.

The final stop for the day was Dexter Baptist's "minister's home," where Dr. King, his wife Coretta and their children lived. 

My impression of this landmark is that it's a rather modest, one-story dwelling like any other middle class home of the era. With one exception: a crater on the cement front porch that is a remnant of when the home was fire-bombed.

We concluded the day with a communal meal at Martha's, a soul food restaurant that serves traditional Southern cuisine. I stuffed myself silly with black-eyes peas, cornbread, greens, peach cobbler and other delicious dishes. The food was as good as the fellowship between myself and my fellow travelers.

Now it's on to Birmingham and then Memphis for the fourth day of the Civil Rights Tour.

Civil Rights Tour Day Three - Selma

The third day of the Civil Rights Tour began with a stop in Selma. 

Driving from Montgomery to Selma, our tour group followed the route of that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and hundreds of other actvists traveled on the historic 1965 voting rights march. Our bus journeyed the approximate 50 miles that the marchers walked on foot, camping out in fields along the way.

Our first stop in Selma was the Slavery and Civil Rights Museum. The tour guide, Sam - who, interestingly, resembles actor Samuel L. Jackson - gave our tour group the full experience. 

He acted as a slavemaster and ordered our group members to act like slaves, walking with a stooped demeanor as if our legs were in chains. He also ordered us to turn off all cellphones, since, obviously, that technology didn't exist in slavery times.

Unfortunately, I had to miss the tour of the Slavery and Civil Rights Museum, ducking out to take a work-related call. As much as I'd like to totally "unplug" and fully experience this tour with none of our modern-day distractions, the reality of life today just doesn't make that possible.

Fortunately, I did get to complete the tour of the next stop, the National Voting Rights Museum And Institute. Our group got to hear a firsthand account of the Bloody Sunday voting rights march from someone who lived through it - our tour guide, Sam.

I got to sit in a replica of a jail cell that was typical of those where civil rights activists were held when arrested. 

I also ran my hands over the knobs of a vintage voting machine, one of the first used by African-American voters when they finally received the hard-won right to cast a ballot.

The highlight of today's tour so far was walking over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of Bloody Sunday and the subsequent successful march led by Dr. King 50 years ago. 

The bridge and the marches have been immortalized in the Oscar-nominated movie "Selma" and hosted crowds from all over the world last month during 50th anniversary celebrations of the Voting Rights Act.

After walking over the bridge, our group formed a circle, held hands and prayed that we could honor the sacrifices of those whose footsteps we followed in. We also sang "Amazing Grace."

This has been an incredibly moving experience. I can't help but think about all the struggles that gave way to the freedoms so many of us now take for granted.

Civil Rights Tour Day Two - The Tuskegee Experience

The second half of the second day of the Civil Rights Tour yesterday (Wednesday, April 8), took our group to the Tuskegee Airmen Museum and Tuskegee University in Alabama.

Walking around the huge airplane hangars at Moton Field and seeing the Tuskegee Airmen's aircrafts, offices and uniforms really brought home to me the bravery of these African-American soldiers.

Our group then journeyed to Tuskegee University, which was founded by legendary educator, author and activist Booker T. Washington. 

Touring Washington's spacious home was a truly amazing experience. I was especially moved to see the office where he did much of his writing. His autobiography, "Up From Slavery" was one of the biggest influences on me as a young writer.

We also toured the George Washington Carver Museum. This ingenious African-American trailblazer, whose numerous inventions included everything from buttermilk to shaving cream, was the Bill Gates of his day, as one of our tour group members so aptly put it.

I'm really looking forward to today's activities, which will take us to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, site of the historic voting rights march led by Dr. King 50 years ago...

Civil Rights Tour Day Two - The King Center

I began the second day of the Civil Rights Tour with a sunrise power walk outside the Hampton Inn in Atlanta. Later this morning, the tour group visited the Martin Luther King  Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

To get myself in the spirit, I listened to motivational music during my power walk, from Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" to Sheila E.'s "Save the People."

At the King Center, I sat through a half-hour documentary on King's life and work. Although I'm familiar with many of these facts, it reinforced my appreciation of the brave sacrifices that he and thousands of other activists made to bring about the freedoms that I take for granted.

I sat in the front row of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, which reminds me of many of the churches I attended and visited with my family as a kid.

Walking across the front porch of Dr. King's birth home and seeing his personal items, including his room key to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where he was assassinated, really helped me see that this looming historical figure was a real person like me. 

Next stop: the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which we're on our way to this afternoon.

Civil Rights Tour Day One

I'm writing this post on a charter bus en route to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

This trip to the King Center is part of the annual Civil Rights Tour sponsored by the Community Relations Commission in my city, Columbus, Ohio. The sold-out bus trip consists of a multi-generational, multi-racial group of my fellow Ohioans.

In addition to the King Center, the tour will make stops at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., site of the historic 1965 civil rights march that was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie "Selma." 

Since 2015 is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, this trip is incredibly meaningful to me as an African American who grew up in an interracial family.

The tour began this morning at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. 

A very knowledgeable docent named Harvey kicked off our tour by teaching us about the history of Ohio River, which can be seen clearly outside the Freedom Center's windows. Though it's named for the Buckeye State, the river is actually owned by Kentucky, as we learned.

Harvey related that Ohio's motto, "The Heart of It All," grew out of the fact that the area was the center of trade during slavery, when barges carrying indigo, cotton and other crops passed through. 

The river also marks the line between Ohio and Kentucky, where many runaway slaves crossed over into freedom, as depicted in the classic novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The book was written by famous Ohioan Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Harvey related that the term "sold down the river" originated in this area. The term refers to hucksters deceiving free blacks into being sold into slavery and sent down the Ohio River to plantations in the Deep South.

This "sold down the river" practice is one of the key plot points in the Oscar-winning movie "12 Years a Slave." The Freedom Center includes a "Solomon Northrup Tour," named after the real-life historical figure from the movie who lived to tell about his experience of being tricked into servitude.

The Freedom Center also has a Holocaust Memorial and a piece of the former Berlin Wall on display.

After the enlightening experience at the Freedom Center, I'm looking forward to the rest of the journey. 

Before we departed Cincinnati, the city's Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell, who is African American and used to be a Columbus police officer, addressed the group and wished us well on our travels.

As we continue on the long journey to Atlanta, the mood on the bus is jovial. Columbus Community Relations Commission Executive Director Napoleon Bell invited the "freedom riders" to come to the front of the bus and share their impressions of the Freedom Center tour.

Two white female students from Columbus State Community College's "Diversity and Inclusion" class spoke movingly about how their eyes have been opened to the atrocities African Americans endured during slavery.

I also spoke, overcoming my shyness. I shared that as a native Ohioan, I'm impressed that my home state - though considered "flyover territory" - has a world-class museum and many other resources that not enough of us take full advantage of.

If Day One is any indication, the rest of the trip will be bountiful...