Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers

 

Happy Friday, Seekerville!

I'm delighted to be back with y'all today. I've taken a break for the last few months as we dealt with some family changes. My father died in December, so I've of course been working through my grief and figuring out how to do life without his hugs or his steadiness. Then my father-in-law moved here to Georgia from Kansas after some significant medical challenges, and the tentative new normal we'd established after my dad's death was altered again. So needless to say this year has been one of adjustment, but I'm happy to say that I finally feel able to breathe again 💜

When I first started blogging here at Seekerville (gosh, that feels like just yesterday and forever ago, all at once) I had ZERO intentions of ever publishing a book. There were several reasons for this, but the main reason is that I am almost exclusively a fiction reader and I don't have any stories clamoring to be written. I'm content reading the ones that authors like my Seekerville sisters write - and then talking about them to whoever will listen haha

But in the middle of this crazy year of hard changes, I was invited to participate in a special project - a non-fiction book written by four authors - each a 'gatekeeper' of the industry - to help aspiring AND multi-published authors learn how to win the hearts of agents, publishers, editors, and readers. (That last part is where I come in.) Did I have time to write a book - even a fourth of a book? Nope. LOL. Did I decide I had crossed the line into 'insanity' more than once during the process? Yep. But ultimately I agreed to write my section of Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers because I knew it was one more way for me to do what I love most - help authors get their words read! 

And thus a book was born. 

What can you find in Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers? 

1. Candid conversations from an agent (Hope Bolinger), a publisher (Linda Fulkerson), an editor (Rowena Kuo), and a reader/influencer (me) on how to align yourself, your platform, and your writing in ways that will make you an appealing author to each of these gatekeepers. 

2. Among other practical tips you'll learn how to work with your agent as a team, how to polish your manuscript before submitting it, and how to build a platform that publishers AND readers will gravitate toward.

3. Behind-the-scenes insight to make you more aware of what it's like on the other side of the aisle, such as the work that goes into your manuscript from agents, publishers, and editors ... and how to find and approach influencers.

What can you find specifically in my section of the book? 

I love that Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers doesn't only address issues and questions that aspiring authors might have - I get to continue the conversation for published authors with topics such as:

• where to find readers of your type of book
• prioritizing your focus instead of trying to promote in all the places
• how to determine which influencers truly want to help & which influencers are only in it for the free books
• how (and how not) to approach influencers
• what makes readers try a new-to-them author
• the importance of cover, blurb, and author website must-haves in making a good first impression on readers
• how to make word-of-mouth work for you
• the importance of community in reader engagement
• why your story matters

I am so grateful for the sweet endorsements I've received from authors, including these from some of the Seekers!

Carrie Schmidt is someone I've learned knows more about Christian fiction and how to promote it, than anyone I've ever known...certainly more than me. For Carrie to gather her knowledge together in one place and share it with the world is a true gift. I can't wait to get my hands on this book and keep it close. – Mary Connealy, author of The Lumber Baron’s Daughters series

What author hasn’t wondered how to reach readers? Carrie Schmidt speaks to writers – not only the successful and accomplished author, but the introverted and overwhelmed author – giving them tools to engage readers in authentic and personal ways. From tips on participating in a successful blog tour to finding and retaining enthusiastic readers, Carrie gives the author the tools they need to reach those most important of all people – the readers they long to share their stories with. You will be putting this book on your “keeper shelf” and referring to it often! - Jan Drexler, author of The Sign of the Calico Quartz 

Carrie Schmidt not only draws from her years of involvement in the bookish world and her love of books, but also her heart of readers and authors alike. As she’s done so well in her blogging and social media outlets, Carrie continues to use her encouragement, knowledge, and passion in helping build a bridge of understanding between readers and authors so that we can all tell one big and beautiful story together. ~ Pepper Basham, author of The Mistletoe Countess and Authentically, Izzy. 

Want a copy for yourself? 

Getting Past the Gatekeepers is available for preorder (releasing October 11th) in ebook & paperback, with hardcover & audiobook versions coming soon!

Remember when Dorothy finally reached the Emerald City only to be halted by the Gatekeeper, blocking her hopes of seeing the Great and Powerful Wizard? 

The path to publication is like that. Agents, and Editors, and Publishers, oh, my! Each one is a barrier between you and a publishing contract. 

But what if you understood what agents, editors, publishers, and readers really want? 

If you’re struggling to get past the publishing gatekeepers, this book will give you a behind-the-scenes peek at how to win the heart of each type of publishing professional. In fact, Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers won’t just give you a peek—it will give you a guided tour. In this book, four publishing professionals—an agent, a publisher, an editor, and an influencer—share what it takes to unlock each “gate” within the publishing industry. 

Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers is a must-have resource for all aspiring authors, and it offers insights to help multi-published authors as well.

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | BookDepository

Subscribe to the Publishing Gatekeepers newsletter and receive a tip sheet on 12 ways for getting past the gatekeepers.

Starting today, you can read the introduction to each section (a new one releases each day) in the four (!!!) days leading up to release day! You can click the preview graphic above or go to gatekeepers.link/preview.

Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers is also on tour with JustRead Tours this week, and by leaving a comment on this post you can gain an entry when you fill out the Gleam entry form!

 

 

Leave a comment & then enter the giveaway here

 

Which section of Getting Past the Publishing Gatekeepers
do you think will be most helpful for you - agents, editors, publishers, or readers? 

~*~*~*~*~

 

Carrie Schmidt is an avid reader, book reviewer, story addict, KissingBooks fan, book boyfriend collector, and cool aunt. She also loves Jesus and THE Story a whole lot. Carrie started the popular blog ReadingIsMySuperPower.org in 2015 and since then has had the honor of co-founding the Christian Fiction Readers' Retreat and JustRead Publicity Tours. In addition to these endeavors, she is a regular contributor to Seekerville and has written for magazines such as RT Book Reviews and Christian Market. Carrie now lives in Georgia with her husband, though her roots range from East Tennessee to Central Kentucky and northern Illinois. 

 

Connect with Carrie by visiting readingismysuperpower.org to follow her on social media or subscribe to email updates.

Who's Your #1 Fan?

For the last couple of months I’ve been focused on newsletters, not so much the content, but how to manage your subscribers as well as how to keep costs down with the your software service.

Today, let’s talk a bit about figuring out what makes someone engage with your newsletter and what keeps them engaged.

I have more thoughts on this and we’ll get to them next month, but today’s topic is going to be VERY narrow, maybe because the remnants of a summer cold has my ears stopped up and I have tunnel vision …. uh … hearing, but a nice, simple, detailed topic seems to fit the bill today.

Reader "A"

I bought this little ebook a few months ago called Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque. It’s an interesting read and the more I dig into managing my own list, the more some of what she says in the book makes sense, like segments and tags, and autoresponders and all that stuff. I’m slowly learning, but trying not to become so focused on the nuts and bolts of my newsletter list that I forget the purpose of my newsletter.

Which brings me to Tammi’s mailing list philosophy. She says, “First, you are not selling what you think you are. Second, if all you’re using your list for is selling, you’re doing everything wrong.”

Okay, that makes sense. For those of us who’ve been around the marketing block a few times, we understand what she’s saying, but if not books, what are we selling?

Reader "B"

Tammi declares that we are selling ourselves. But I’ll go one better. We’re selling relationships. Or, more accurately, we’re creating relationships.

Generally, people signed up for our newsletter either because they found us through a blog tour or giveaway, as a direct contact at a festival or event, or they read one of our books.

I think about those people that I’ve met at events and we had time to chat and get to know each other a bit, and they signed up for my newsletter. I feel really good about our relationship as an author and an engaged subscriber and reader.

One lady I met at a book fair several years ago stands out. In her 70s, petite, short permed hair, twinkling blue eyes, Margaret emails me almost every time a newsletter goes out. We’ve only met that once, but I’ve never forgotten her because SHE keeps he lines of communication open. Now, isn’t that cool?

Reader "C"

Another one of my #1 fans is Clent. Clent and his wife had a booth across the way the first year I had a print book out. It was Claiming Mariah. I was so nervous selling my ONE book that year. I had a few minutes to spare once I got my booth set up, so I chatted with Clent and his wife Reba. Clint was there for moral support for his wife who was selling homemade soaps, lotion, jewelry, etc. About the time the festival got under way, Clent walked over and bought a copy of my book. Then he spent the rest of the day reading. And he’s been reading ever since. He always makes sure to seek me out and buy a copy of my latest novel. Clent’s a truck driver, if I’m not mistaken.

Then there’s Caroline (18) and her aunt Anitrel (40s)….

Margaret: Female. In her 70s, petite, owns a printing and frame shop.

Clent: Male. Early 60s. Truck driver.

Caroline: Female. 18. Just graduated high school. Wanted ALL my books for Christmas.

Anitrel. Female. Guessing she’s in her 40s, and refuses to share he copies with her niece and vice versa.

Reader "D"

So back to Tammi’s advice in her book Newsletter Ninja. Tammi suggests creating the ideal subscriber and write to that person. She declares it works. How do you create a relationship with 2000 or 10,000 subscribers when they’re all SO different? I just listed four who I’ve met personally and on the surface none of them (other than the aunt and her niece) have much in common with each other. 

I’ll call my perfect subscriber Tammi (fitting, since the author of Newsletter Ninja called hers Pamela!). Tammi is 39 years old and is a school teacher in rural Tennessee. Her husband works for the electric company. He works a M-F shift, but is on call during storms and bad weather, so reading keeps her mind off the danger her husband is in while working during storms. Tammi reads historical romance, and she enjoys long weekends out of school, winter breaks and the long summer break so she can relax and read as much as she wants to.

This is such a fresh concept for me that I’m not sure I can really picture my fictitious Tammi when I’m putting together my newsletter, but I sure can picture Margaret, Clint, Caroline, and Anitrel. So that might work for me.

Reader "E"

What about you? Do you have a newsletter subscriber or a #1 fan that you picture in your head when your writing or putting together your newsletter.

For fun, pick one or more of the people in today’s post and develop a reader/newsletter subscriber around them. Give them a name, age, occupation, family (or not), where they live. The whole works. 

Make them somebody who’d be YOUR #1 FAN.

And... celebrate with me! Love is a Puzzle is here! 

Originally part of Barbour's California Gold Rush Romance Collection, it's now been re-published as part of my Calico Trails Collection.

Shanyn Duvall’s cartographer father is missing in the Sierra Nevadas; his maps and his hand carved jigsaw puzzles the only clues left behind. Nick Johnston guides the group of mapmakers into mining territory, but isn’t keen on having women on the dangerous trek. When Shanyn needs to follow her clues deeper into the mountains, will Nick help? And will the two of them puzzle out their own feelings for each other to find their own happy ever after?

One Thing That Works For Me with guest Roseanna M. White: Surprise and Delight

 

Good Monday morning, Seekerville! I (Carrie) am here to introduce today's guest for this month's 'One Thing That Works For Me' series. Please join me in welcoming author Roseanna M. White as she shares about 'surprise and delight'!

For the last several years, my husband has been fine-tuning a marketing approach that he learned via Rob Hardy called “Identity Marketing.” It was originally created for filmmakers but was oh-so-easily adapted to the book world that he invested quite a bit of time into writing out those adaptations…and of course, sharing them with me, mwa ha ha ha. The whole system is amazing and works super well with the outlook I’ve always tried to have—that it’s not about selling, it’s about serving. And one of the tenets of this system that I especially latched onto was the principle of “Surprise and Delight.”

What is it? Very simple—whenever you can, come up with something that will surprise (in a good way, of course!) your readers. We all love plot twists in stories, right? Well, one of our goals should be delivering little twists in our marketing too. Things that our readers don’t expect, and which put big smiles on their faces.

Great in theory…but what about in practice? How do we actually come up with these things? I have a whole list of things I’ve done and tried, and many have worked quite well. But today I want to tell you about my absolute favorite.

So around two years ago, when we were just beginning to test this system, I had the idea for an online Tea Party Book Club. Now, this was before the world went virtual thanks to The Pandemic That Shall Not Be Named. The inspiration came in May of 2018; I had a book coming out…I went to a tea with the ladies from my church at a local tea house…and my husband had been running some virtual events via online meeting tech similar to Zoom. All these things swirled together in my mind and made me say, “Hey! Why couldn’t we do a tea party online?? I could put together packages, mail them out, and then get together with readers to chat about the book and have tea and treats together!”

I quickly became OBSESSED with this idea. (This is pretty typical of me, LOL.) I priced bulk tea. I priced pretty vintage teacups. Spoons. Sugar cubes. Individually wrapped treats. Candy. Mints. I weighed and priced postage. I considered how much I pay for this sort of thing at the local tea house. I came up with a package price and built it out on my website. And then… then… I presented it to my readers.

Would they love it too? Hate it? Not want to pay for that sort of thing? I didn’t know—all I knew was that I found the idea delightful, LOL, even though it would be a ton of work on my part.

I didn’t have to wait long to find out how my readers would receive it. Within a few days of announcing the idea, I had people filling the parties, ordering “starter kits” that involve tea pots and vintage cups and spoons, a lady from my church volunteered to make tea cozies for me, and I even had some people so excited that they signed up for all the extras and then realized an hour later that, oops, they were out of town that day or already had a tea set they could use.

But this was my answer—this idea, unheard of at the time, sounded so fun that my reader friends JUMPED to be a part of it. Where else did they get an hour with other fans of the book and the author and receive a hand-selected package of goodies to go along with it?

Now, granted, in the last year and a half everything has gone online, and we’re beginning to see a lot more things like this. But I’m thrilled to be able to say that I’ve been at it for over two years, that kinks have been worked out, processes have been streamlined…and that the seats keep filling up.

Best of all, relationships have been developed. I have regular attendees, and they greet each other like friends when they see a familiar face come back for this month or that month. Readers have become friends. And the conversations have been AMAZING.

Will I do these tea parties forever? Who knows. But I’m having a blast doing them now—especially because my readers are too. It’s just one thing in the many that I do to try to reach out to them, but it’s been a total success. It’s one way to Surprise and Delight them…and seeing how well it’s worked, it’s an inspiration to keep coming up with new ways to do just that in the future.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award nominated author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing for WhiteFire Publishing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary. 

You can learn more about her and her stories at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

 

Roseanna is offering a $15 credit in her online store to one commenter!

 

Authors, what questions do you have for Roseanna about her tea parties or her 'surprise and delight' strategy?
Readers, what are some ways other authors have 'surprise and delight'-ed you?