I’m liveblogging Session 3 of the “What We Do” track at BlogHer 08–Blog to Book Redux. Here’s the description from the official agenda:

This session rocked the house last year, so we’re bringing in more bloggers, publishers and agents to dish about your opportunities to turn your blogging talent into a book publishing dream come true. Ellen Gerstein from Wiley & Sons has published many a blogger’s book. Neeti Madan is a literary agent with Sterling Lord. Jennette Fulda and Rita Arens represent two different blog to book approaches, one a memoir and the other a blogging anthology. Walk away with some insider info and effective tactics you can employ to get yourself on the published author path.

The goal of this session is to talk about publishing–from conception to birth and thereafter.

Jennette opened the session by describing how her blog translated into a book deal (Half-Assed). She started her website, Pasta Queen, because she weighted almost 400 pounds and wanted to lose weight. At first, she kept it secret but eventually “came out” and built an audience. At the BlogHer conference in 2006, an editor was looking for blogs and someone pointed out her blog. She had thought about writing a book, but had wanted to wait until she reached her goal weight. She put together a book proposal and submitted it. Then she spent nine months writing the book while keeping up with the blog and working full time.

What was the writing process like for Jennette? She ended up rereading her blog 2-3 times, which she had avoided doing. It helped to have the blog because it documented the process. She had to relive a lot of what she went through, but it helped her write the book. She wondered how much of the blog to include in the book versus new and original content. She added more about her childhood in the book, but she also highlighted some posts from her blog in the book.

Ellen has worked with a lot of bloggers who wrote their book on a blog, as well as authors who’ve created new content specifically for a blog. Your blog may also have nothing to do with what you’re writing the book about. For those who are thinking of a book, recognize that Rita and Jennette are examples of how possible it is to write a book.

Rita compiled and wrote Sleep is for the Weak, BlogHer’s first book. She clawed and scratched and got rejected many times before she found someone who accepted her proposal. In February 2006, she was coming to BlogHer for the first time and was excited to meet some of her favorite bloggers. She got the idea that it would be really cool to print out some of her favorite blog posts and put them into a binder and ask the bloggers to sign them. She thought it would be cool to pass on to her daughter. She emailed some of her favorite bloggers to ask if she could use some of their work. They said yes. That built her confidence and the project grew from there.

Persistence is a theme that comes up with authors time and again–not only in the writing process, but also in getting an agent and publisher. Rita thinks that most people would have given up and quit after what she went through. She ended up with 23 contributors out of the original 40 that she had approached. There were many steps–collecting the posts, editing them, getting contributor agreements signed. Rita had an agent who sent it to 5 or 6 big houses and they all said no. The agent said that she wouldn’t send it to anyone else and then “broke up” with her. She almost quit, but her husband convinced her to send her proposal to ten more publishers. She found a publisher on that list. It took two years to find a publisher, and then an additional year until the book will be released in September. (She found her publisher through Writer’s Market.)

An attendee asked if there was an issue with publishing content that had already appeared on a blog in a book. Neeti said that, as long as you wrote the content or have the permission of the person who wrote the content, you can do whatever you want with it. Rita recommends using a lawyer to draw up legal documents.

An attendee commented that, if you’ve written for sites other than yours, you should make sure that you reserve the right to put the content you wrote in your own book.

Ellen often gets asked if authors really need an agent and asked Neeti to speak to that. Neeti said the answer is that it depends on what you’re writing, who your target audience is, and what type of market it is. Some niche writers may find the right publisher without an agent. Neeti works with the large publishing houses of NYC. Those publishers find almost every book they publish through an agent. Writers that want to publish with the large houses or see their book having a large audience probably need an agent. What you’re getting from an agent is expertise, knowledge of the marketplace and which publishers are best for which books, and what specific editors are looking for.

Rita doesn’t have an agent (but she just gave her card to Neeti). She’d like the input of someone who specializes in this market. It’s very lonely out there and it’s a lot of work and a lot of time to put together a pitch.

How do you convince a publisher that there’s a market out there for your book or your blog? Jennette suggested looking at similar books on similar topics. You can also look at Bookscan numbers to get an idea of the size of the market. Ellen said that doing your homework is really important. Many editors at Wiley get pitches for fiction books. Wiley doesn’t publish fiction. You need to do a little bit of homework whether you have an agent or not. Go to Amazon.com and look at the rankings. See what’s out there and where your book would fall in the strata. Check the rankings and gauge the market. Look at Publisher’s Weekly and Publisher’s Lunch.

Jennette said that it helps if you have a specific platform. She was able to give her publisher traffic numbers and quotes from her readers. That helped her to make a stronger proposal. Rita’s book proposal had 35 pages of marketing with press about the bloggers included in the anthology. Rita said that many publishers ask why anyone would pay for something that’s available online for free. You need to be prepared to answer that question. Prepare a marketing section for your proposal.

An attendee asked if there’s a stigma attached to self-publishing. Can your book get picked up by a traditional publishing house if you decide to go that route? Neeti has represented books that are self-published. The best way to get a deal after self-publishing is to sell a lot of books. If you self-publish and pick up steam, sales reps will pick up on it and refer it to editors. What it shows is that, with no distribution and no contacts, people still wanted to buy the book. There’s no stigma if you can show that there’s an audience.

Jennette thinks that there is a status issue with self-publishing. People will ask who your publisher is. But if you write a book, you should be proud of it whether you publish it or someone else does.

Rita said that distribution was the main issue for her. The cost of getting the quality of graphics and font in self-publishing was overwhelminging. The idea of having to stockpile books in her garage and mail them to people was intimidating. It’s a lot of work. You’ve already invested years of your life into writing the book and then to have to do all the selling too can be very draining.

An attendee asked if agents read every query. Neeti gets a lot of email queries. She doesn’t read any emails addressed to Dear Agent, Dear Sir, or a misspelled name. She feels like that if someone can’t take the time to find out who an agent is, then it’s not worth her time. That takes out about one-fifth of all the queries. From there, Neeti looks at every single one. If the query starts out with a press release type opening, she gets turned off. She looks for well-written, smart query letters that make her want to read a book. It doesn’t matter whether it comes in email or snail mail. She wouldn’t send an agent an entire manuscript unless they’ve asked for it. Don’t oversell (i.e., refer to your book as the next DaVinci Code). You just need a smart, interesting letter. Ellen said that you have to remember that you’re marketing yourself. You need to sell yourself as a writer. Refer to your stats and what your readers are saying.

An attendee asked when authors should start promotion. Ellen says that editors don’t want promotion to begin until the full manuscript is in. You should be in contact with marketing. They should want to hear about your blog and your platform. The attendee asked if she should publish a few paragraphs of her novel on her blog. Neeti said it won’t do any harm, but it probably won’t do any good.

Another attendee asked about the proper sequence of events for getting a book deal. Should you write the full book first? Write a proposal or query letter before you write the book? Neeti said that, for fiction, you write the entire novel first. For nonfiction, it can probably be sold on a proposal and a few chapters. The exception is that if you have such an established platform that you’re already a big name, you could approach an agent before writing the book or the proposal. Rita said that unless you’re Heather Armstrong, you need to do a lot of work on your proposal. Outside of the blogging community, no one knows who we are. Doing your homework makes it easier to approach people and sell yourself.

One attendee wrote a book without an agent. Her publisher has discouraged her from doing events and signings. The publisher said that unless you’re already famous, it’s really not worth your time. Rita says that her publisher discouraged signings, but she’s doing them anyway at her own expense. She wanted to do the signings because she has 23 contributors and they haven’t made any money yet. She wanted the writers to have their moment and sign their book.

An attendee asked what attracts Neeti to a blog, what makes a blog stand out, and how she finds blogs. Neeti said that she finds blogs by word of mouth and from seeing links on other sites. She found one client’s website, Hungry-Girl.com, and after she had a baby and heard about the site at a Weight Watchers meeting. She went home and logged on and thought, “She should write a book.” It came out in April.

An attendee asked for resources on how to write a good book proposal. Jennette recommended Absolute Write. She also looked at other book proposals. People typically write the proposal in the style of the book they’re writing. Rita found an outline for a book proposal online. Her career background is in advertising and PR and she wrote from that perspective. The book proposal is about selling the book and how you will help the publisher sell the book. And remember that query letters aren’t just an email–they are a specialized type of writing. Check out Media Bistro or take an online seminar.

One attendee covers many topics in her blog, and would like to find someone who can look at the raw material and help her put together a book. Ellen recommended finding a freelancer through Media Bistro or a student.

An attendee asked how to keep a balance between writing the book and keeping up with the blog. Jennette says that it was really exciting, but totally exhausting. When she was writing it, she had no social life. Rita said that part of the reason her book took so long was trying to corral 23 people. She had to work on the book between putting her daughter to bed and midnight. That’s where persistence comes in. There’s a lot of unpaid work that goes into writing a book. You have to be passionate about the project in order to get through it.

An attendee asked for recommendations about platforms. Neeti said that a blog that gets a lot of traffic and has a lot of readers is a platform. Anything that gets your name out there and raises your profile–a column, a radio show, speaking engagements. Publishers love when you do speaking engagements because there’s always someone in the back of the room selling your book. Achieving expert status is also a platform. If you’re consulted by magazine editors or talk shows, that’s a kind of platform.

Rita started trying to make an effort to email reporters when they wrote articles about parenting. She’s trying to build a relationship with press so that when the book comes out, she’ll be called on to comment on parenting. Ellen referred to an email list called helpareporterout (haro)–it’s a list of media inquiries. She recommends that you follow his best practice rules and build a media footprint. You also need to find ways to get out of your platform and reach a wider audience. Rita said that bloggers have to be careful not to rely on social media and twitter.

An attendee has several “half-assed” book proposals laying around but is too busy to work on them because she has several blogs and other platforms. Is the blog really that helpful? If she shut the blog down, would it hurt anything? What does it mean to have “a lot” of traffic? Rita said that her contributors have much more traffic than she does. She thinks that it would bother her publisher if it were just her–an unknown blogger without a lot of traffic. She looked at it from a marketing standpoint and said “I want to write books, but you have to start somewhere”. If you’re not an expert in your field, maybe your first book needs to be a business book or something that’s easier to market. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in doing a project that’s a good vehicle.

An attendee wants to be new and different. She doesn’t want to follow all of the guidelines about book proposals and query letters. How important is it to try and stand out? What’s the balance between following the rules and blending in? Neeti said the important thing to remember when you look at guides is that they are a cookie cutter. You don’t necessarily need to follow exactly what the guide says. Take that and write the document that best reflects what your book will be. Rita said that you have to know the rules in order to break them–it’s the difference between bad grammar and e.e. cummings.

Another attendee says that you don’t necessarily get rich publishing a book. Neeti says that there’s not really a rule of thumb with respect to advances. Advances range from $5,000 to seven figure book deals. This doesn’t happen a lot, but they’re the ones you read about and the ones your remember. If there’s a book you really want to write, then write the book. But it’s hard to write the book you really want to write and get rich off of it.

Rita said that her advance was small. She’s had to invest a lot of her own money in the book, but she thinks of it as a career move. She hopes the next one is bigger and the next one is bigger. Advances get bigger and smaller, as do sales. You have to look at it cumulatively. There’s also the royalties.

Another attendee asked–what does it mean to have a lot of readers? Ellen said that it could mean anything. Publishers look for well-written blogs. Rita said you should concentrate on unique monthly visitors. Neeti says that large publishers are impressed by very big numbers–like half a million unique visitors per month.

The panelists recommend taking any media opportunities you can. It helps you build a name for yourself and strengthen your platform.

Tags: BlogHer 08

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