A Writer’s Schedule: Myfanwy Collins

Today we’re talking to Myfanwy Collins. Over the past 25 years, Myfanwy Collins has written and published three books, numerous freelance articles, advertorial, web content, newsletters, blog posts, book reviews, short fiction, and essays. She has also worked as a ghost writer, editor, and creative writing teacher to continuing education students. And, Myfanwy just happens to be the office manager at Firebrand Technologies, NetGalley’s parent company.

How do you set your goals?

I’ve always been goal oriented so I truly like to make goals and stick to them. I have different goals for large projects than for small ones. For instance, I will say to myself that I’m going to finish a draft of this manuscript by x date, which is usually something that corresponds with my Astrologyzone monthly horoscope. Not even joking. One time I told myself I could not watch the latest season of Game of Thrones until I finished my manuscript. If it’s a quick project, I will tell myself I can’t have a glass of wine or piece of chocolate or whatever until I finish. Basically, my jam is a mixture of astrology and denial and treats. I guess I’m sort of like my dog that way.

Describe your routines as a writer and how they help you stay on track with your goals:

I got divorced two years ago which sort of blew my routines to smithereens. I’m just now beginning to reclaim and rework them. With that said, I’ve never been a sit at my desk every day and write person. I will do that if I have a project I’m working on and excited about and then I tend to blast through the first draft pretty quickly. After the first draft, I put the manuscript away for a period of time (weeks or sometimes months) and then come back and revise and then put away again and revise until I feel it is ready for other readers. At that point, I pull in my trusted readers and gather their feedback. My trusted readers are my friends who write. They don’t all write the same types of things, but they all know and understand my work and what I am trying to achieve and aren’t afraid to ask me hard questions or tell me when something’s off. Also, they know how I like to receive feedback. Once their feedback is incorporated and I feel like I have done all I can do, I send the manuscript to my agent and wait for her feedback. After her feedback, I revise and return it to her and repeat this until the manuscript is as good as we think it can be.

As for shorter work, one new routine I am really enjoying is that my fiance Evan (also a writer!) and I taking part in #submissionsunday on Twitter each week. We submit at least one piece of work to a venue each Sunday. Doing this is actually making me eager to work on new pieces.

How did you develop your writing routines?

I have been writing professionally for nearly 30 years at this point and so my routines have been established over time as I worked. When I was younger, I was more impatient to get work out there when it really wasn’t ready to be seen. I was essentially giving all editors an opportunity to say no to my work. After several years of that I began to learn about the importance of taking my time during revision. I learned this also through years of being a reader for various literary journals. When you read submissions you tend to read a lot of work that could have used more time and more revision. Reading submissions is something I cannot recommend highly enough to writers. It really does help you understand your own shortcomings as a writer.

Ask journals if they need help. You can also look on their websites and see if they have any openings listed. Another place to look is on Twitter. If you follow a lot of writers and journals (as I do) you will often see calls for readers or interns. Finally, I think Submittable probably posts some openings. Pretty much all reader positions are unpaid (mine were) and they do require quite a bit of work but I promise you they pay off is that your own writing will improve.

What routines have you tried that didn’t work for you? Why didn’t they work?

I’ve tried to use writing prompts in the past in order to get myself writing more but they generally don’t work for me because I’m a bit of a rebel.

What do you do when you feel stuck?

I do a couple of things:

I read (I do this all the time anyway but I do it more so when stuck).
I force myself to sit at the page and I set a timer for myself for 20 or 30 minutes and tell myself I must write during that time. It helps me get past the anxiety of the blank page. This is something I recommend to my writing students as well and it’s been very helpful to them.
I go back to Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and work the program. The book is a 12-step program for creative people and it is so immensely helpful. In fact, I think I’m past due for another session.

Describe the balance between having a full-time job, family, and writing. How do you manage both?

This is the hardest balance. It was hard when I was a part-time working married mother and It’s hard now as a full-time working divorced mother. My child and family come first in all things and so writing becomes secondary when I am momming. Since I am divorced, there are times when my son is with his dad and so I could be writing but am often sad and missing my kid which gets in the way of writing. But the good news is that I have a really great therapist! I’m starting to listen to her about using my time more wisely instead of allowing myself to be mired in grief.

How do you think about finding a job that supports you financially and supports your writing? Do you need something that leaves room in your mind for creative work, something that keeps you in the habit of deep thinking and frequent writing, something else altogether?

Financial support is key to me and so that is always my first priority. With that said, it is wonderful to have a part of my current job that feeds me creatively. I think if my job were writing all day, I might not pay any attention to my own creative writing. So right now I have a job that is one part business oriented, one part process oriented, and one part creative. It’s a really nice mix.

For more perspectives on creating a successful schedule as a writer, check out our interview with Stuart Evers!

Up Your Instagram Game with Stories

Most publishers already know that they need to be on Instagram. It is a thriving platform for businesses. There are 1 billion active accounts on the site, per month. And of those accounts, 80% follow at least one business.

After you’ve mastered the basics of the perfectly arranged photo of your book surrounded by aesthetically pleasing and thematically appropriate props, #bookfacefriday, and engaging your followers by asking questions for them to answer in the comments, it’s time to use some of Instagram’s other features to engage your audience and build enthusiasm for your list and for your brand as a whole.

Instagram Stories let users post disappearing slideshows of both photos and videos. Stories are visible on a profile for only 24 hours, unless the user decides to pin them to their profile as a “highlight,” in which case they will be available indefinitely. In a story, a user can create a temporary post, ask a question, create a poll, and more.

Many brands and companies are already using Instagram Stories as part of their overall strategy. According to Instagram, 50% of businesses on the site create a story within a typical month. And members are engaging with these stories. Over 400 million members use stories every day and 1/3 of the most viewed stories on Instagram are from businesses.

Take a look at some creative ways publishers (and a library!) are using Instagram stories to share updates, highlight their offerings, and grow their brand.

Engage your audience with quizzes and questions

Dutton took advantage of some nasty winter weather to post a timely quiz as a story, featuring their titles. They asked their audience what kind of survivalist personality they identified as, and showed stacks of books with the different character archetypes represented. Quick yes or no quizzes are low-impact ways for your followers to engage with you. Ask questions, and post the results! Posting responses signals that your audience is engaged. The audience will instantly see the results of the poll once they have responded. You can see who has responded and how by swiping up on your story post.

Grow your newsletter list

Penguin Random House uses stories to invite their audience to receive cus tomized book recommendations from their list. Followers who click for recommendations are brought to Penguin Random House’s website and invited to fill out a brief profile with genre preferences. They are given recommendations by genre and added to Penguin Random House’s newsletters. It’s a quick way for PRH to move their audience from Instagram to their website and to put them on their mailing lists for relevant releases, all the while offering something of interest to their followers.

Offer a sneak peek

Verso Books teases new releases, like Jenny Hval’s forthcoming Paradise Rot, in their stories. They give followers a little taste within the Instagram story itself, and also a link to read a fuller excerpt on Verso’s website. Like Penguin Random House, they are using stories to drive traffic to their website by providing interesting content.

You can also consider taking a page out of New York Public Library’s book and post whole texts (or maybe just a chapter). Consider using this as a special time-based promotion. For example, read the first few chapters of an upcoming title for one week only.

Share your list

Grove Atlantic uses their stories to showcase their most current titles. Followers can click through their highlighted stories to see what titles are currently or recently pubbed. Effectively, it’s a catalog on Instagram, full of well-composed photos, reveal videos, and blurbs. For your audience who might not spend the time to go to your website to look at your most current releases, Instagram stories is a great way to keep them informed about your most important titles.

Use stories to highlight events without distracting from your grid

One of our favorite publisher Instagram accounts, Graywolf Press, has a visually pleasing grid full of bright colors and clean lines. They use their highlighted stories to keep their audience aware of upcoming events while maintaining their Instagram’s overall aesthetic.

How have you used Instagram stories? Let us know in the comments. We hope to feature your success stories in future posts.

Social Sharing on NetGalley is Buzzing!

Make the most of NetGalley’s social integrations

Word-of-mouth is one of the most effective ways to increase book sales. Whether this chatter happens face-to-face with friends, or digitally through online reviews or social media shares, the earlier audiences are talking about your book, the better! In order to facilitate this digital word-of-mouth, NetGalley introduced simplified social sharing in November 2017, to allow NetGalley members to connect their NetGalley profile with their Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn accounts to share their reviews with just one click.

This is great news for your titles! Reviews of your books are being seen on more platforms by broader audiences. You can track where reviews are being shared by checking the book’s Feedback Report in NetGalley. Plus, it’s easier than ever for publishers to encourage more cross-posting and successfully leverage the buzz. Here are some ideas and best practices we’ve observed in action:

Incorporate hashtags: Publishers can add a custom hashtag for any title on NetGalley. This helps to focus the buzz around a title, and can make members feel like they are joining a rich conversation online. Ask members to share their reviews on social media with the hashtags when you follow-up with them, and then use those hashtags to identify your most vocal pre-publication advocates. Retweet them, favorite them, and consider auto-approving those members in NetGalley! For more information about including hashtags in your NetGalley marketing plan, check out this 2-minute video.

Share the shares: If NetGalley members are sharing reviews on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere, consider using those reviews in your own social strategy. Retweet or re-post the reviews you see, and be sure to thank the member. Everyone loves a shoutout! Use screenshots or quotes of these shared reviews to demonstrate the word-of-mouth energy behind your titles and include them in sales presentations. They are visible proof of early consumer interest.

Learn more about your audience: In addition to watching your hashtags, you can use your NetGalley Feedback Report to see who has shared their reviews online. Digging into your data, including the social media presence of members who are talking about your book online, can give you some powerful demographic information about your audience. Are they mostly millennials who post on Instagram? Are they primarily baby boomers who use Facebook to stay in touch with their friends and family? Use this insight to guide your marketing messages and to determine which platforms are worth your investment of time or advertising dollars.

How have you successfully leveraged social media sharing in your marketing campaigns? We love to feature case studies from our community of publishers and authors.

Case Study: The Trans Generation by Ann Travers

**How NYU Press used strategic timing, leveraged comp titles, and engaged with NetGalley members to make The Trans Generation a success**

On NetGalley Insights, we highlight the successes of NetGalley publishers and authors, and share some of their strategies. Today, we’re talking with Betsy Steve, publicity manager at NYU Press about how she used NetGalley to ensure that The Trans Generation: How Trans Kids (and Their Parents) are Creating a Gender Revolution got the enthusiastic launch it deserved.

Published on June 5, 2018, The Trans Generation uses interviews with trans children and their parents to explore gender in the 21st century, and the experiences of navigating schools, healthcare, and society as a trans youth. Written by trans activist and advocate, Ann Travers, The Trans Generation is designed for both academic and popular audiences.

Our audience is always eager to learn more about how others are planning their publicity and marketing efforts on NetGalley. Where did NetGalley fit into the overall strategy and timeline for The Trans Generation?

At NYU Press, we find that NetGalley exposure plays an extremely important role in elevating the titles that we believe have potential for a more general readership. These are also titles that we want on librarians’ and booksellers’ radar as soon as possible. We pay close attention to early feedback from users as it helps us position our books in the marketplace.

We knew in the early stages of planning for The Trans Generation that NetGalley would play pivotal role in its success. Last year, we had a separate book dealing with issues affecting the transgender community that was hugely popular with NetGalley readers, so we knew that there was a strong interest in the topic. As soon as we were ready to make ARCs, which for us is about 4-5 months ahead of publication, we posted the materials to NetGalley. We were able to use the widget in our ARC follow up and also email reviewers that we work with who primarily use digital galleys. The book’s publication month was during Pride month, so we also wanted to do a push with readers during that time.

Tell us a little about the various communities you focused on to promote The Trans Generation.

Outside of the academic community, we definitely wanted parents and caregivers of trans or gender fluid children to be made aware of Ann’s work. The book also has important information that can help teachers, social workers, community organizers, LGBTQ activists, even lawyers and medical providers.

With so much interest from a wide variety of readers, how did you use NetGalley to access these different readers?

Our previous success with Beyond Trans by Heath Fogg Davis helped inform who in the NetGalley community might be interested in The Trans Generation, so we targeted those same users. We were thrilled by the response from parents, many of whom I think were drawn to our book because of the title and cover. We also made mention of the author’s deep involvement with the trans community in our marketing copy to highlight that they are more than just an academic researching this area. Ann is deeply committed to the improving the lives of anyone who identifies as trans.

In what ways were these specific communities important to the success of the book?

Many of the reviews left on Goodreads, NetGalley, and Amazon were from parents or general readers interested in learning more about the trans community. It was fascinating to read that they learned so much from Ann’s work and that they would recommend the book to friends, their local libraries, and community outreach groups. We are thrilled that the book carries a 4.3-star rating on both Goodreads and Amazon, which we believe has helped in the book’s success.

What about the trade community on NetGalley? Were Reviewers, Librarians, Booksellers, Educators or book-trade media especially important to you? Why, and how did you go about reaching them?

The trade community is very important to us. Though we are an academic press, the titles we choose for NetGalley are accessibly-written on topics that appeal to a broad readership. We have cultivated an extensive list of auto-approved librarians and media that regularly check on our listings. We also notify users when we have a book they may be interested in because of their previous activity. When we see that a user posted a review to a blog or website, we make sure to tweet out the link.

How did you optimize your Title Details page to drive requests and reviews for your book?

For this, we made sure to add all the excellent advanced coverage the book received in the “Advance Praise” section. We find that endorsements from library pre-publications and other long lead media appeal more to general readers than praise from academics and scholars. We also added to the title page all the amazing reviews users submitted.

Which NetGalley marketing tools did you take advantage of? How and when did you use them to increase interest?

NetGalley offers some excellent marketing opportunities that I take advantage of whenever they fit with our titles. For The Trans Generation, we nominated it to appear in the “Featured on NetGalley” promotion that coincided with “GLBT Book Month,” which was a perfect and timely tie in. We definitely saw an uptick of requests once that ran.

How did you engage with members who requested access? How did this fit into your overall timeline for marketing and/or publicity?

We create a personalized approval email for each title that encourages members to leave reviews on sites such as Goodreads, Amazon, B&N.com and their independent bookstores’ website. We rely on their positive feedback on these platforms to boost our titles’ visibility. For The Trans Generation, we did a promo push to celebrate both pub and Pride month with all members who requested access. This was a follow up email that encouraged members, if they hadn’t already, to please leave a review of the book as a way to celebrate Pride. We did see an increase in engagement after we sent that campaign.

How has NetGalley been incorporated into your post-pub strategy?

For our more popular titles, like The Trans Generation, we often leave them up for a few months after pub. We definitely want to leave enough time for users to leave reviews with Amazon. National and local review coverage plus radio interviews often provoke members to look up a book and it’s important to us that everyone who is interested in our titles have an opportunity to download them. We also will use the widget in course adoption campaigns that may go out after the pub date.

What are your top tips for academic publishers and nonfiction publishers listing titles on NetGalley?

For academic publishers, try to post titles that are accessibly-written and would appeal to a general reader. This definitely helps with relationship building.
Take advantage of the NetGalley marketing programs. They do an excellent job making readers aware of books they might be interested in. It’s a great way to boost your visibility on the platform and gain some new readers.
NetGalley is a process. The more you take the time to engage with users, the stronger your following becomes.

Betsy Steve is the Publicity Manager at NYU Press.

Finding and Keeping Mentors in Publishing

In most industries, who you know can sometimes be as important as what you know. Publishing is no different. The right mentor has walked the path you are now trying to walk, and can give you a vision of what publishing looks like as a long-term career. Mentors are important for any career path, publishing included. But sometimes it can be challenging to know where to look for mentors, and how to build a mentoring relationship.

Here are some of the strategies that have worked for members of the NetGalley team, and tips to find and keep mentors in the book world.

Cast a wide net

There is great opportunity in the publishing industry to find mentors through advanced degrees or other programs focused on book publishing, including internships. While these may give you access to potential mentors, they aren’t the only place to find professional connections. Even if you don’t have the institutional support of a publishing school or an internship, you can still make inroads in the industry and create meaningful mentoring relationships.

You might find professional mentors even when you aren’t looking for them. Israel Carberry, NetGalley’s Engineering Manager, found two of his professional mentors through their shared interests in civic engagement: One while volunteering at a food bank, another while volunteering at his local chamber of commerce. As their friendships organically grew through shared interests and values, he began to ask for some professional advice, slowly building a mentoring relationship.

Tell friends and acquaintances that you are looking to break into the industry and ask if they know anyone who would be willing to sit down and chat with you informally to share information about their experience. Friends of friends, parents of friends, neighbors, and other members of your community are great resources. And even if you don’t know anyone in your circle who is in publishing, see if you can build relationships with individuals who work in fields adjacent to publishing. For example, a journalist likely knows publicists who pitch them books for review.

Once you have been connected to a potential mentor, ask them to join you for a cup of coffee so that you can learn more about the industry or to get their advice on job hunting. Make sure to do some research before you meet so that you can ask informed and specific questions.

Follow up after an informational interview to thank the person for their time. This helps the conversation continue, and demonstrates that you absorbed the insights they were able to share with you. Find them on LinkedIn, as well, so that you are added to their professional network.

Be Proactive

No matter where you find professional contacts, it still takes initiative and follow-through to turn these contacts into mentors. NetGalley’s Sales Assistant Katie Versluis recalls how she met her mentor, Allie.

“She was doing a presentation in my class about book marketing…Being an eager student I hung on her every word. She’s only a few years older than I, but she had already accomplished so much and was working as one half of the marketing department of a feminist press in Toronto that I admired greatly. During the question period, I asked her if they took on interns, and she said, ‘It’s possible…’ but [that] they weren’t planning to in the near future. I, of course, took that as a ‘Heck yes we are, please apply,’ so I drafted an application email to her before she’d even left the building.”

Katie’s application was successful. While the internship did not transform into job afterward, her relationship with Allie did help her find a job. The two of them stayed in touch after the internship ended, and Allie tagged Katie in a Facebook post for the Sales Assistant role at NetGalley. “She said, ‘Apply!!’ and I said, ‘NetGalley was my baby! I’m all over this!’ And the rest was history.”

Katie gained access to publishing industry professionals through her degree, but she made the most out of that access by proactively reaching out to gain an internship, and then by staying in touch after the internship ended.

Keep in Touch

Most of us are only actively in touch with our networks of colleagues, friends, and mentors when we are in transition–looking for a new job, asking for references and letters of recommendation, thinking about a career change. We might reach out to our mentors to ask for advice or to see if they know of any interesting job opportunities.

However, it’s crucial to stay in touch with your mentors even when you are not actively asking for advice. Mentorship is about relationships and those relationships can grow and change with time. When NetGalley’s Communications Assistant, Nina Berman, was making the switch from radio to book publishing, a friend connected her with Sarah Younger, a literary agent who helped Nina edit and format her résumé and cover letters. This ultimately helped her land a job at NetGalley. Several months after Nina started at NetGalley, the two met to catch up and Sarah mentioned that many of her authors use NetGalley, but perhaps not to its fullest potential. Nina was happy to return a favor and sent along some resources and best-practice materials about NetGalley for Sarah and her authors. These relationships can often be mutually beneficial in surprising ways. Stay tuned for a guest post from Sarah in the fall.

Some ways to stay in touch: If you had an informational interview with someone during the course of a job hunt, follow up with them once you have found that job. Let them know that their advice was useful and that you are grateful for their support. If you see their name pop up on Publishers Lunch, drop a line! If their imprint is putting out a book that you think looks terrific, send a quick congratulatory note. It keeps the conversation going and can help transform a one-time meeting into a relationship.

Publishing can be a daunting industry to break into, full of ambitious and talented people, but it is a friendly one. People want to help others succeed!

How have you found mentors in publishing? Let us know in the comments! We’d love to feature your advice and experiences in a future Insights post.

Break Through the Noise: Building Pre-Pub Discoverability & Buzz

Before a book goes on sale, publishers and authors must consider what will help that book break through the noise in the market. While there’s no easy answer for how to make a book stand out, there are strategic ways to help it along. Here are some of our best practices for thinking about building pre-publication discoverability and buzz.

The devil really is in the (metadata) details

Metadata refers to all of the rich information about your book that helps readers discover it, including information like the title, author name, book description, ISBN number, category, and keywords, among other details. Metadata is extremely important, especially if you want your title to show up in recommendation algorithms on retail sites. In a digital marketplace, where readers aren’t looking at any physical objects, discoverability relies on these details. For instance, if you don’t have any categories in your metadata, the book will simply not show up in any category that readers may be browsing. It’s like putting your book in a bin full of other random books, instead of placing it carefully on a shelf among similar books for readers to find.

For more information on metadata, Publishing Perspectives has a nice overview of metadata from 2011 that is still relevant today. Nielsen recently published a paper on the relationship between metadata and sales. And if you’re really curious about metadata in today’s publishing landscape, BISG has plenty of resources.

Goal-focused strategies

It’s important to set and monitor goals for your marketing and publicity efforts during the entire life of the title; from pre-publication to publication, and even through backlist, if appropriate. For all of these strategies, ask yourself: What am I trying to achieve with this promotion? What constitutes success? If the promotion is not achieving my goal, what will I try next?

Gain early impressions

“Effective frequency” is the concept that consumers are more likely to complete a purchase after having seen the product a certain number of times. While there is no magic answer about what that number might be, we do know that visual and name recognition are crucial. The more your title, book cover, and author name are out in the world, the better. So how do you go about getting all those eyes on your book, especially before it’s on sale?

You already know that galleys are a great way to start buzz about a new book. Whether you’re sending printed galleys, utilizing NetGalley to deliver secure digital galleys, or using BookishFirst to give readers a sneak peek at your book and a chance to win a galley in a raffle, you should think about whose eyes you want on that early content, and why.

Reaching influencers

When you’re thinking about the right audience to create pre-publication buzz, make sure to consider influencers like librarians, booksellers, and educators. These are some of the most important voices for building word-of-mouth buzz about books, and are important advocates for books in their communities. Identify trade publications that these influencers are reading, like Library Journal and Booklist, and focus effort there. Pitch the title for review or use some of your budget to advertise in that space. Plus, be sure to leverage any reviews you receive by adding Advanced Praise blurbs to your metadata, share them on social media or in press releases. These are widely trusted and respected outlets, and their reviewers’ opinions are held in high regard.

Don’t forget that many libraries and independent bookstores have blogs. Reach out to your local branch of the public library and talk to your neighborhood bookseller about reviewing your book, or nominating it for recognition on the Indie Next List, LibraryReads, or Loan Stars, all of which are monthly lists based on recommendation by those influencers.

Early reviews

When you solicit reviews in a targeted way, it’s likely that you’ll see a greater return on the number of copies you’ve given out. Figuring out who the most likely reviewers are takes time, but it’s a worthwhile endeavor. Before you start, determine where you would like your book reviewed, and why. Where is your target audience going for book recommendations? A bevy of reviews in that space is a convincing argument to a reader that yours is a book being talked about, and that they should join that conversation.

Keep your goals in mind during all your efforts, and continue to reevaluate how your strategies could change based on results. And don’t forget: every time someone sees your book, it’s a valuable impression.

Originally published on Booknet Canada, March 9, 2017