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Writers’ Mill Minutes October 2020

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Writers’ Mill Minutes October 18 2020

Our speaker this month was Joe Biel, a self-made autistic publisher and filmmaker, the founder and CEO of Microcosm Publishing https://microcosmpublishing.com/, and the co-founder of the Portland Zine Symposium. He has been featured in Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, Art of Autism, Utne Reader, Oregonian, Broken Pencil, Punk Planet, Bulletproof Radio, Spectator (Japan), G33K (Korea), and Maximum Rocknroll. He is the author of many books, director of five feature films and hundreds of short films, and he lives in Portland, Ore and his work can be found at joebiel.net

If you missed his talk, you missed a fantastic meeting. Joe’s insights didn’t just bring the world of publishing to life, but will also help us all think more clearly about what we’re writing, why we write, and how to tell someone else (friends, agents and publishers) about what we’re writing. Notes from his talk will be at the end of these minutes.

Joanne revealed a wonderful “newspaper headline” and article in announcing this month’s winner of the “Beyond the Headlines” contest. https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/contest.jpg

  1. In first place was Von with The Half of It, then
  2. Zita in second place, a story Lost in the Retelling, and
  3. Robin in third place From the Valley of the Smoke.

Other entries were Back to Phase One from Judy, The Fat Cat Sings from Sheila, Life on Venus from Peter, Power of the news from Karin and the War is Over from Jessie.

Upcoming contests topics, each with 1200 word limit, all genres accepted, entries to CONTEST @ portlandwritersmill . org, and deadlines at the end of the 1st Sunday of the month:

A quick recap of Anthology News: Our anthology will be uploaded to Amazon in kindle and print at out next meeting – Nov 15th – so that’s a don’t-miss meeting for anyone thinking of self-publishing as an option for their book.

  • The title is: Journeys Through Chaos – An Anthology to Bring us Together: the Writers’ Mill Journal Volume 8
  • Release date on kindle will be during our next meeting. Release date in print will be as soon as Amazon approves our files.
  • Print cost will be around $2.81 for “author copies,” but they recommend adding $1 per copy for postage. We will ask for $4 per copy, with extra funds, if any, used to buy a library copy, “spare” copies to give to speakers, and maybe postage to mail books to speakers during a time of Covid. Please send checks or deliver cash to Sheila Deeth, 14725 NW Forestel Loop, Beaverton, OR 97006 and plan to pick your copies up from Sheila after they are delivered.
  • Cover: Pati is working on a “real” cover, using art especially designed for us by Erik Nebel (who read the whole anthology before creating the art work! https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/coverikd.jpg) So this year, if all goes well, we’ll demo how to upload a real cover to Amazon.
  • We’d appreciate as many eyes as possible on the file before we upload it so please, authors and artists, continue to check your own pieces – they may have been edited, and it’s your job to make sure we didn’t “break” anything. Sheila had just uploaded a “latest version.” https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Challenges-5.pdf
    • Check the contents page.
    • Check the references in the back for the images.
    • And check the author bios – yes, I spelled someone’s name wrong in their bio!
    • Check anything you can think of.
    • This time, if so inclined, please check for widows and orphans to help Sheila format the print version for us.
    • And do it NOW. THANK YOU!

Ria led an excellent discussion and critique of Matthew’s (excellent) chapter 7, and we’re all now eagerly awaiting chapter eight. Discussion ranged from characters:

  1. How dialog, internal dialog, growth and change, relatable traits that let the reader make connection, and believable aspirations work together to create believable characters.
  2. How new facts and facets round out a personality
  3. How letting your character’s perceptions of others change, reminds readers not to rely on first impressions either.
  4. The value of contrast
  5. The importance of difficulties and obsessions in creating real characters.

To history:

  1. The importance of different points of view
  2. The question of where people (especially children) get their information
  3. How politics was entertainment in days before modern entertainment
  4. How much we learned about the world in elementary school, and how much others might have learned in different times.
  5. How character obsessions relate to what they know of their world.
  6. When were the first X-rays available?
  7. What was happening in 1908?

To names:

  1. Why Alice was a common name
  2. How children’s names were chosen

And dialog – since Matthew writes such great dialog, we asked him:

  1. Do you have to read your dialog aloud to make it work, or can you just “hear” it in your head?
  2. What comes first, the character or the dialog voice? Matthew suggests you need to know your character first, so hear how their personality comes out in their thoughts and words.

And finally point of view. Matthew’s chapter is entirely in one point of view (Alice’s) yet other people thoughts and opinions are still clear. How do we stick to one point of view without losing sight of other characters?

In other news: It’s NanoWriMo next month. Is anyone taking part?

OUR NEXT MEETING is Nov 15th, when we will demo how to upload a book to Amazon. Whether you plan to publish and sell, or just publish and print, make sure you’re here to see what can go right or wrong (and let’s hope it all goes right!).

JOE BIEL: A People’s Guide to Publishing

A People’s Guide to Publishing is the title of one of Joe’s books, published, of course, by Microcosm. But Joe didn’t start the publishing house, 20 years ago, to publish his own works—he started it to enjoy publishing. He only started publishing his own books there, 11 years after starting Microcosm, when his other publishers went out of business. You go into publishing because you love it, not to get rich.

What does he love about publishing?

  1. The publisher sees gaps in the market and tries to fill them.
    1. He has a clearly defined niche and
    2. A stubborn passion to fill it.
  2. He can publish the books he wishes he could have read.
  3. He can publish books, as a small publisher, that the big publishers ignore.
  4. He can give people tools to change their lives.
  5. It’s fun—it makes getting up in a morning worthwhile, even during Covid.
  6. Small presses can turn on a dime – change direction, change focus, react to what the readers are looking for.

How many books has he published? And where does he sell them?

  1. 700 titles in 25 years
  2. He prints, on average, 3,000 copies in the first run, distributed from his warehouse. He used to print 5,000 but it’s better to have a second run than to have remainders.
  3. Sold in book stores, record stores, clothing stores, coffee shops, all around the world
    1. Microcosm books are very focused on their audience
    2. Women of color, LGBTQ, youth etc. People the big publishers won’t take risks on.

How did he get into publishing and what was his most exciting moment?

  1. As an undiagnosed autistic runaway, he followed punk rock shows and found he had a passion
  2. Passion plus no experience plus no high school education, but
  3. Lots and lots of enthusiasm and it worked.
  4. They’ve sold a million books, but
  5. When their first book sold more than 100,000 copies, that was special.

How are his books distributed?

  1. He signed up with a distributor after 15 years, got books into their catalog
  2. But it’s hard to make your books visible in a huge catalog – 100s and 1000s of books
  3. Decided to bring distribution back in-house and work directly with foreign distributors, small stores, etc and
  4. Sales went up by 60%!
  5. Independent bookstore sales up 400%, gift store sales up 552%
  6. Small stores carry the business.
  7. Plus
    1. Having a Shakespearean actor read your audiobook introduces new audiences during Covid
    2. Having a feature in the flight mag on Japanese flights to Portland brings even non-readers to the store
    3. Conference keynotes – being an invited guest
    4. City Art Museum
    5. Publishing it great, but don’t go into it for the money. Go there to be “wanted.”

What about the big distributors?

  1. 1989 was the beginning of consolidation. Murdoch bough Harper Collins, etc.
  2. The literary industrial complex took over.
  3. Big publisher needs to sell 50,000 or more of a book to make a profit, so can’t take risks
  4. Books for limited audiences can’t be published
  5. So midlist, poetry, LGVTQ, women’s issues… all get rejected by big companies
  6. And so-called bestselling “authors” might be celebrities getting someone else to write for them
  7. Small publishers can take on authors with well-defined but smaller audiences.
  8. In 1970 there were 3000 small presses, 82000 in 2006 and even more now, so…
  9. In fact, big business only produces 34% of the sales these days
  10. That said, 93% of all books produced sell less than 50 copies a year so
  11. To succeed you need a huge catalogue or a focused catalogue

Isn’t it all a big risk?

  1. Life needs to be 40% confidence, 60% challenge to be fun.
  2. The big companies operate from fear – scarcity economics – the pie is too small
  3. Smaller companies operate from hope, can turn on a dime, change, refresh…
  4. It all depends how you define value and success
  5. Value what you believe in, not what you oppose.

How do you choose a book to publish – or to write?

  1. Every book you publish displaces another book on the shelf
    1. Is that shelf too crowded already
    2. How does your book empower readers?
  2. Ask, what benefit does this book bring to the reader – if you’re an author, ask a friend to answer this.
  3. Look at other books which offer similar benefits.
    1. How are they packaged?
    2. How do they attract readers?
    3. How are they marketed?
  4. Ask how your book is distinct from others
    1. Often end up writing what you wish had been available
  5. Find a way to describe your distinct niche in 5 seconds!
    1. THIS IS NOT saying what you put into the book.
    2. IT IS saying what readers will get out of it.
  6. Look where your potential readers hand out – publishers, bookstores, clothing stores, etc
    1. Don’t look for backdoor ways in. The front door, and the rules, are there for a reason.
    2. Always follow the instructions when you pitch your book
  7. Have a clear mission and maintain continuity
    1. If you write in lots of genres, what the connecting fact/feeling/meaning…?
    2. Writing in one genre is easiest, so know your reason if you’re writing in many – what passion drives you to keep writing and cross genres?
    3. Find a (5-second) way to describe your passion, and
    4. A 5-second way to illustrate it so your covers all have something in common.
    5. Know what box you want to be put in.
  8. Know your story and know why people will love it.

What’s the five-second rule?

  1. Pitch your book in 5 seconds. DON’T say why you wrote it. Say what the reader will get from it.
  2. Now give a 30 second description – it’s still about the book, not you.
  3. Hierarchical information builds up on that.
  4. Your pitch should be your shortest and your best ever piece of writing – you’re competing against millions!

Who might we submit books to?

  1. Microcosm publishes nonfic
  2. Tor has an open submission period – open submissions are an open invitation to authors

Who chooses a book title?

  1. Author suggests. Publisher works on it with a team
  2. Author titles are kept in about 10% of cases
  3. Publishers know how they’re planning to market and distribute, which affects the title

Who designs the cover?

  1. Usually an in-house team.
  2. Author illustrator might design their own cover, but it might not be good – they’re illustrating the book; publisher is trying to market it.
  3. Fine art is great for classics that the readers already knows all about.
  4. Cover art needs a balance between boring and authentic
  5. Balance between honest representation of the contents and not giving away secrets.
  6. Don’t try to lure in readers who aren’t going to like the book. Be authentic.
  7. You have five seconds to catch the reader’s eye and make them open the book
  8. Five seconds to catch their attention with your words and make them buy it.
  9. In gift shops, covers face outward, so maybe 10 seconds. In book store it’s just the spine, maybe 4 seconds.

What about keywords to attract readers?

  1. Keywords on Amazon, meta-data in book parlance –
  2. spell out for the reader what to expect; don’t make them figure it out.

How important are genres?

  1. Changes over time.
  2. This year everyone wants books on anxiety
  3. But no one wants books on death this year.
  4. People want to be better people now that they’re locked in. Feed that need

How does a “small audience” book find an audience?

  1. Poetry – you have a small audience box of other poets
  2. Add photos – now you have an adjacent photography box. Your audience has grown.
  3. Add a theme – a frame – e.g. healing – now you have another box and the audience grows again.
  4. Set a good title and keywords to attract all these boxes of people. Your audience expands again.

Thank you so much Joe. This was such a fun talk – informative, interesting, provoked lots of questions. We really enjoyed it.

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