Mary Martin, Ph.D.

On the Importance of Publisher's Weekly

Publisher's Weekly (PW) has many benefits and one significant drawback--the cost. A one-year subscription to the magazine in print is $239.99, and a one-year subscription to the virtual edition is $180.00. If your business is writing, you'll get special offers that will save you some money, but no matter how you look at it, this is not an inexpensive venture.

There is a lot of great material online for no cost, however I recommend the purchasing the virtual edition (who needs to recycle another magazine, plus you save nearly $60!) because PW has so many useful features that you'll be shocked you ever lived without it.

What's so great about it, and is there anyone who won't benefit from it?

I'll deal with the second part first. There are probably people for whom it is less necessary, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that they wouldn't benefit. People who are going to write what they're going to write and don't care about what's actually going on in the industry will find it less helpful. However, even if no one can persuade you to alter your focus, give up on your idea, or make it fiction rather than memoir, you can still benefit from PW, and here's why (i.e., here's the answer to the first part) . . .

If you're a writer, publishing is your industry and it behooves you to keep abreast of its ever-changing landscape. PW tells you who is coming and going, as well as what companies are merging or going out of business. It tells you what books are coming out and who the agents are (and that could be your cue to write an agent if your book is similar to one listed). It devotes entire issues to mysteries, romance, health, and many other topics and genres. It reviews books (that's where the coveted "starred review" can be seen) and has author interviews.

Because there's so much useful information online, here's what I suggest before purchasing any kind of subscription: Spend some time on the site, and also purchase a copy of the magazine. Determine which sections are helpful to you and which aren't and whether you can get everything you need online. If you're in the business of writing, you always need to weigh how much something will cost against its advantages and disadvantages. This particular purchase, similar to a subscription to the Oxford English Dictionary, is one that requires deliberation.

On Creative Ways to Find Funding

When you're looking for potential funders, one way is to search for organizations or agencies with a mission that is similar to yours and visit their websites. Usually, their biggest funders will be listed somewhere on the site, and might even have logos of the funders that you can click on and go directly to (it's unlikely, but possible). When you visit the sites of the funders, you want to go to the page that lists what their giving parameters are and make sure your project is a good fit. Sometimes, there's a personal relationship or some other non-traditional factor that allowed the funder to go outside its parameters to fund an initiative. In other words, just because a funder gave to an organization similar to yours, doesn't mean the mission of your organization is technically within the guidelines, and you'd be wasting your time applying.

If following the leads of individual foundations doesn't pan out, be sure to check out any corporate affiliations. Though you might not have the exact same corporation in your area, if another organization forged a successful relationship with, say, a construction company, perhaps you should explore how a local construction company might be a good fit for you.

Similarly, if a community foundation or United Way funds an organization similar to yours, perhaps you should explore your own community foundation and United Way.

Google (and other search engines) as well as Charity Navigator can help you locate organizations that have a mission similar to yours.

Some of My Favorite Writing Books

Whether writing is a hobby, a passion or a career for you, it would behoove you to read about writing. I was recently asked to list some of my favorite books about writing, grammar, punctuation and style. Without further ado . . .

• Lapsing Into a Comma and The Elephants of Style by Bill Walsh (who has a great blog at TheSlot.com.
• The First Five Pages and A Dash of Style by Noah Lukeman.
• Woe is I by Patricia T. Conner (who has some great grammar myths here).
• On Writing Well by William Zinsser.
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss.

The dominant theme in most of these book is that they're funny, and I like to laugh. There's a decent amount of overlap in the material, but considering repetition is the mother of mastery, the overlap can't hurt and is likely to help.

What's a Buy-Back Clause?

If you're a first time author with a decent, but not spectacular platform, you might be able to get a deal with a large publisher if you agree to a buy-back clause in your contract. What this means is that you are agreeing (as in contractually obligated) to buy back the first, say 5,000 books if they aren't sold in a certain period of time. Essentially, the publisher is saying that your track record isn't good enough for them to publish you, however, if you'll agree to paying for the first run of books (5,000 or 10,000), you can have their prestigious name on the spine of your book.

For some authors, having that name on the spine is necessary, or at least they think it is. Although self-publishing isn't exactly the same as the vanity press, it still doesn't have the same credibility as a large or mid-size publisher. But if it costs you more to have that name on the spine than it would if you self-published, and you're an entrepreneur, you probably wouldn't pursue a contract with a buy-back clause because it's not a great deal financially.

With that said, it has its benefits. First, there's that name on the spine. Next, you don't have to do anything but write the book, try your best to sell it, and then write a check for the remainder of the buy-back quantity. (And you'll also need space to store all those books.) Finally, you don't have to worry about getting your book into bookstores, and you don't have to worry about reprinting it just to get it onto Amazon.com.

If starting a publishing company, getting your ISBNs, finding a layout person, a cover designer, an indexer, a proofreader and a distributor sound like more than you can handle, and you can get a publisher to sign you with a buy-back clause, it might be worth it for you. This isn't one of those issues that's always good or bad. You have to weigh the benefits for your unique situation, crunch the numbers, and decide whether it's worth it for you to accept (or pursue) this type of deal.

On Style Guides

If your job is to write or edit, chances are you have been given a style guide to help you make important decisions such as which words should be capitalized in a title or headline.

Or whether to hyphenate if you're writing in industry that could easily be overrun by hyphens, such as the financial services industry (or financial-services industry, wherein you'll find estate-planning attorney or estate planning attorney and wealth-management specialist or wealth management specialist).

Or how to punctuate and capitalize the information in bullets.

If you're ever unsure about, for instance, whether you should put a period after the information in a bullet point, here's a tip: Ask if there's a style guide for your work. All publications either follow a style guide or have one of their own (e.g., the New York Times Manual of Style is for the obvious, while most other journalists will follow the Associated Press' Stylebook). Depending on the field, you may have be governed by the Chicago Manual of Style, the APA (American Psychological Association, and it's not just for psychologists) style, or the MLA (Modern Language Association).

If you're writing for yourself, hoping to be published someday, write in the style of the field and genre that you'll soon be a part of. If you're writing for someone, let's say a small company, who doesn't have a stylebook, you should at least always be consistent when it comes to style. Make sure all of your bullets have the same format, punctuation and capitalization. If you use hyphens, make sure you use them in the same way throughout the document.

And if you want to try to make a couple extra bucks (I've done this, by the way), ask your client/employer if you can (for a fee, of course) create a style guide to prevent future streams of questions by allegedly nitpicking writers and editors.

What? You Don't Have A Blog?

A baby boomer client of mine has a great business card and a fabulous logo she paid thousands of dollars for. She also has a website, thank heavens, which gives her another place to show everyone how fabulous her logo is.

But she doesn't have a blog.

Now, that might be fine if her website was interactive and she was constantly in touch with her clients and the site had some kind of mechanism for communication back and forth--not to mention a built-in reason to communicate.

But that's not quite her reality (at least not today, but by next week I'm hoping her reality will change).

Twenty years ago, you needed a great business card and a great logo to be up and running and get the word around about your services. Ten years ago, though you needed a business card, it should have had your website address and e-mail on it. That's what made you cutting edge.

Now, if you're a writer or offering writing or editing services, you'd best have a blog. Why? So you can communicate--daily if necessary--with your audience and/or clients. In this impersonal, global world, they want that vehicle that allows them to feel like you're in their living room. They want the possibility for intimacy.

And if you want to nurture your relationships with them, you need to work on your end, just like in any other relationship. You need to be in touch with them.

People work with people they like and trust. People buy from people they like and trust. Someone might even buy your book despite the fact that the subject matter doesn't interest them--because they like you and trust you.

Part of building rapport in 2008 is maintaining a blog or at least adding an interactive component to your website AND letting your audience know they have a reason to return to it weekly. After all, you can have a complex interactive site, but if no one knows that your site is anything but a showcase for who you are and what you do, it won't help you.

Your goal is for your website and your blog to work for you. To drive you business. To increase your exposure. To build relationships, if for no other reason than to connect with like-minded individuals.

On Outlines for Agents and Publishers

When submitting an outline to an agent or publisher, I refer to my mantra: Give them exactly what they want.

A friend recently asked me to help him with his outline and asked if he was doing it correctly, to which I replied: That depends on what they asked for.

Agents and publishers have "Submission Guidelines" on their sites (and sometimes the guidance is: Unfortunately, we don't accept unsolicited manuscripts. Sometimes they don't even accept queries. But if there is indeed guidance about what to submit, you ought to follow it. And if that means customizing each submission for the person who asked for it, so be it. You customize query letters, don't you? (Now, by "customize," I don't mean you change the gist of your work. But you might change your pitch to that individual based on their tastes or what they have worked on recently.)

Regarding outlines, they are usually of the annotated-table-of-contents variety. This means they want each chapter listed, with a description of the chapter (not the subject). In other words, what happens in the chapter? It begins with A, moves to B, C is introduced, and it ends with D. Note also that there's a formula for how much you should write about each chapter: One sentence for each page (approximately). So a 15-page chapter will be described in 15 sentences. That gives the reader an idea of the length of each section, whether it is written or not.

If, however, the agent or publisher asks for a different variety of outline, you'll create and send an appropriate one. But if you haven't visited their website, you won't know that they have a preference. And in 2008, when it is extremely difficult to get published unless you're a celebrity or you have a well-stocked platform, you need all the help you can get. And that begins with submitting the appropriate material.

On "Writuals"

In "'Writuals' - Scribes Reveal Daily Routines," we learn about the writing rituals of some famous authors. It's always a relief to find out that you're not the only one who has a difficult time producing something valuable, and that even bestselling authors have quirks and insecurities, and can procrastinate just like the rest of us.

Here are my favorite quotes:

• Bernard Maclaverty

Q: Is there anyone else in the room?
A: Madeline occupies a desk in the corner, she's often there. She does the essential administration; if it was left to me, I would be in jail by now.

Q: What time of day is it?
A: No particular time. Sometimes I don't write at all.

Q: What do you look at when you're looking for inspiration?
A: An awful lot of looking out the window goes on

• Maeve Binchy

Q: What are you writing with?
A: I use a laptop but I wish we still had typewriters - the amount of times I've pressed the wrong button and something's disappeared!

Q: What's the oddest object in front of you?
A: I have a big box of business cards on the desk. If anyone gives me a business card it goes in the box and then I look in there if I need a distraction. I find myself looking at cards and thinking why would I have the address of a man in Kentucky?

Q: What are you listening to?
A: . . . . I don't listen to music with words that much or I tend to stop and think about them.

Q: What time of day is it?
A: I write in the mornings, I'm at my best in the mornings. I'm doing something in the afternoon now because I had to go out this afternoon and it's killing me, I go downhill in the afternoons.

• Comedy writers Tim McGarry and Damon Quinn

Q: Is there anyone else in the room?
A: Tim: It's happened a few times that people have said: "Can I come and watch you write?" But they can't really. We can't write if there's someone in sitting in the corner looking at us. We've been doing it so long together we have a sort of symbiosis. We can sit around for hours scratching our backsides and then produce 10 minutes a day.
Damon: The most significant thing about writers is that writers hate to write, so we'll find any excuse not to write. We'll talk about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, the weather.
Tim: Why did Hitler invade Russia?
Damon: Yeah, we could have that conversation for half an hour, just to stop us writing a script. Best thing you can give a writer is a deadline.

Sound like anyone you know?

On Writing as a Financial Plan

I had lunch today with a friend who wants to write a book. In fact, I think I have yet to meet a person who doesn't want to write a book.

What worries me is when someone wants to quit his job so he can focus more on writing his book, when he has bills to pay and isn't really in a position to not work. Of course, I point that out--always--and almost always the response is, "Yeah, but once I sell my book I'll be fine."

Here's a tip: Your financial plan should never include the profits from a book that not only is not finished so it technically doesn't exist yet, but it might never be published. And if it does get published, there is a strong possibility that you might never make a dime (depending on your contract).

I understand that your book is screaming to get out of you. And I understand that it is most unromantic of me to say that you shouldn't quit your job to follow your passion. I feel obligated to suggest that you review your current financial situation and all of your obligations. Some families can indeed afford to have someone write for potentially no money. But that set-up isn't for everyone. If you have a family and a mortgage and you're the breadwinner and must remain the breadwinner, your financial priority should be making certain you don't sacrifice your family's well-being in order to write.

Meanwhile, if you're single, not in debt and can downsize or move if you need to cut expenses so you can change jobs or take a leave of absence for a while to write, I say Go for it! Everyone's situation is unique and must be considered in its context before making the decision to spend more time writing.

Sometimes, a change in job is all it takes to free up mental and physical time. Check out the job job and the junk job here.

How to Decide Whether to Apply for Funds

When it comes to the business of looking for funds to support your nonprofit--or even your for-profit business--if the funder isn't a good match for you and your cause, you're wasting your time applying for support.

How do you know if you're a good match? Here are some tips:

• The person in charge of allocating funds suggested you apply. In this case, it doesn't matter whether you think you're appropriate--what are you waiting for? Apply immediately!
• You know someone on the board or another person of influence. This isn't cheating. All board members have pet causes, and the entire board is more likely to go with a cause already supported by a member than a cause no one has any connection to. This is the way many grants end up being awarded.
• You don't know anyone related to the organization, yet when you go to their website, the areas they fund are very similar to what you do. In addition, when you look at the list of organizations that were funded recently, they're similar to yours. Now, note that this can also work against you with: Sorry, but we're already funding a similar organization. But if there are more than one funded organizations that are similar to yours, that's probably good news as it tells you the funder is concentrating on your issue. (Note there's still the possibility of: Sorry, but we're already funding two similar organizations.)
• The funds will be allocated largely due to geography. For instance, a foundation that gives to animal welfare causes in New Jersey. If you are in New Jersey, and you deal with animal welfare issues, regardless of whether you know anyone at the foundation, you should apply.
• The same is true of other niches, such as start-up organizations. Some foundations fund only start-ups. If you're a start up, you should apply.
• Ditto for minority or women-run social enterprises.

Because we all have a limited amount of time to pursue funding, it behooves us to apply to organizations we have the best chance with. Think about all of the people related to an organization and its board. If no one you know has any influence with anyone related to a funder, the odds are very much against you as funding is a personal business largely based on relationships.

With that said, if you don't know anyone of influence, yet the funder's interests are very niche-y (including geography, minority-run nonprofits, start ups) and match what you are offering/doing, you should always apply.