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Leapfish.com gathers the search results of the bigger search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Twitter, Image Authorities, Blog Authorities, Wikipedia, Yelp, Digg, CyberHomes, Yahoo Answers, Amazon. Just plug in your search term and go, it’ll search through news, video, everything!

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Too much to read online? Save your Internet articles for later with Instapaper, http://www.instapaper.com. It’s a simple tool for saving Web pages and articles. If you’re like me, you often get a ton of content to read online, which can be very distracting. In order to stay focused on your work just click the “read later” button on Instapaper’s toolbar and it’ll save your articles for later reading in whatever format you want.

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1) Almost all literary agents are listed in The Publishers Market Place or LMP, a huge, expensive, 1,229 page volume which you should be able to find in a public library. It contains their actual and email addresses, and a brief description of the kinds of book they represent as well as titles recently placed.

Image via Wikipedia

2) Approach an agent with both an email and letter that cogently describes your book – the description should not take more than a paragraph or two – followed by a brief bio that makes clear why you have the authority (called a platform) to write the book if it is nonfiction. Or a brief description of your novel in which the premise shouts, “Yes, I would like to read that manuscript.” Whatever you do, skip the hype. Big turnoff.

3) You need to able to send the agent a proposal that includes an overview, a table of contents in which you include a paragraph or two describing the contents of each chapter and two sample chapters if the work is nonfiction, or at least one hundred or more pages if a work of fiction.

4) Conduct a thorough search and list and describe the competition for your book, especially nonfiction, and spell out how your book is different. For fiction, name works similar or genres that were and are successful.

Image by brewbooks via Flickr

5) A way to find a potential agent appropriate for your work: cruise a book store, select a volume similar to yours and check out the acknowledgment page that often lists the name of the agent for that work. Then in your email and letter write that the recipient represented such and such work which you enjoyed reading and that your work is of the same genre and might be of particular interest to the agent.

6) Provide an estimate of the number of words of the work and length of time it would take to complete it.

Tip submitted by Hillel Black, free lance editor of over 20 NY Times best sellers and member of the Consulting Editors Alliance. Visit http://www.hillelblack.com/.

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We had a great Publishing Insiders show this week with three guests: erotic romance author Jayne Rylon, Ellora’s Cave founder Tina Engler Keen and cover model CJ Hollenbach.

After a post-mortem on Book Expo America (here’s a more thorough overview, http://ame.wpengine.com/ameblog/publishing/the-week-in-publishing-bits-and-bites-for-may-29-2010/), our SEO expert Susan Gilbert offered her tip for authors:

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If you haven’t worked with Google docs you don’t know what you’re missing! Google docs are a collaborative workspace that allows users to first create a document and then invite others to either view or edit each document. The creator controls access, documents can be view only or you can allow others to edit the documents.

All you need to get started is a free gmail account. Then you can create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms and drawings. Instead of sending emails, which can get pretty complicated and contain a lot of attachments, Google docs allows you to create, store and share documents in one space.

Susan uses Google docs for project management, since works with people all over the world, and it’s an amazing tool. Authors are business people and they are working with many different people to bring their project to success, and working with Google docs will make their lives easier.

For additional resources and tips check Susan Gilbert’s website, www.susangilbert.com.

Erotica: The Hottest Genre in Publishing Today

It’s not only the book content and covers that are hot, sales are even hotter for erotica. Ellora’s Cave Publishing offered a few interesting facts:

* They release 10 titles a week.

* Their backlist is over 3,000 titles.

* They publish more than 400 authors around the world (they also have editors around the world).

* While e-books are their bread and butter, Ellora’s Cave also publishes print books, which are available in Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other major and indie bookstores.

* Their books are sold internationally and some are available in Spanish, Russian, French, Japanese, and German.

* Their e-books are now available in almost all ereader formats currently in use, including the Kindle, Nook, and Sony eReader, and will soon be available for iPhone and iPad.

* November 2010 is Ellora Cave’s 10th anniversary, and they will be celebrating it at their annual convention, RomantiCon.

Tina Engler Keen, Ellora’s founder, said there was once a sentiment that women didn’t want to read erotic romance – or wouldn’t – but that is not the case as their sales success illustrates.

E-books equal great sales for erotica, with low overhead, and large profits for authors. The new e-reading devices also make it easier than ever to sell e-books.

Novellas of 15,000 to 20,000 words sell really well in erotica, especially digital versions.

E-books will surpass paper books Engler Keen says; in fact, they are seeing this trend already.

Author Jayne Rylon says erotic romance novels always interested her, and she recalls growing up with an awareness of the genre.

Coffee Time Romance says: “Ms. Rylon is a true talent and her love scenes are scorchers!”

Jayne’s husband has not read her books (yet) and people in her life are only just becoming aware of her books:) Her latest is Kate’s Crew, http://jaynerylon.com/books/kates-crew/. The cover (above) is worth a peek – or two!

Cover model CJ Hollenbach – a hot hunk on the cover of many erotic novels – has been in the romance industry for 12 years.

His start as a Romance cover model began when a family friend suggested he enter the very first “Mr. Romance” contest in San Diego and ended up a finalist. He shot his first romance novel cover, “THE STONE MAIDEN” in 1999, for author Susan King. He can be seen on “With All My Heart” by Caridad Scordado and on the e-books God of Fire, The Jock, and After The Storm.

He’s got a wealth of stories: such as the grandmom type who asked if there was a lot of S&M in the book she was holding, she didn’t want “too much.” Another time, CJ and another model were in a K-Mart, CJ wearing black leather pants, and he had to ask a lady in line to help him get his wallet out of his pants!

Thanks to our fabulous guests! Visit Ellora’s Cave at http://www.jasminejade.com/. You can learn about Jayne Rylon’s books at http://jaynerylon.com/. You can admire many of CJ’s covers at http://www.cjcovermodel.com.

Download the show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2010/06/01/its-getting-hot-in-here–erotica-equals-hot-books-.

And don’t miss our next show:

Powerhouse Promotion with Marci Shimoff: June 15, 4 p.m. Pacific

Cover via Amazon

New York Times bestselling author Marci Shimoff will share the secrets to becoming a successful author and discuss what a bestselling author does to stay on top. You won’t want to miss these insights from an author who is behind the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Shimoff’s six bestselling titles include Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, which have sold more than 13 million copies worldwide, as well as the bestselling Happy for No Reason. She is also a featured teacher in the publishing and movie phenomenon The Secret. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2010/06/15/powerhouse-promotion-with-marci-shimoff.

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1.) Be a story teller. You would be amazed at the number of writers who do everything but. Often novels come as character portraits or memoirs written as fiction. Absent is any attempt at suspense, any motivation for the reader to turn those pages. As the novel unfolds, the story invariably begins to tread water and then sinks beneath the waves. The reader does not sit on the edge of his or her chair, but instead retreats into a glassy-eyed coma.

2.) An oversimplified definition of a good story. Not two cats on a mat meowing at each other or two dogs yawning but a cat and dog growling and spitting and about to launch into heated combat. Conflict, suspense keep the reader reading. Again so often ignored by writers.

Cover of High Noon

3.) Premise. You should be able to sum up the story in one sentence A woman police lieutenant and hostage negotiator must establish contact and overcome a faceless tormentor who is determined to make her a hostage of fear.-Nora Roberts, High Noon. An act of violence shatters a small town and the daughter of the judge sitting on the case should be the state’s witness but cannot remember what happened-or could she.-Jodi Picoult, Nineteen Minutes.

4.) Sympathetic character. You want to portray a character the reader roots for.

5.) Equally important, it helps if you can devise a character who is villainous, evil, bad, someone the reader hates but cannot get enough of. My favorite was Hannibal Lecter. When he arrived on the page, I was always hooked.

6.) A love story always helps. They do not have to go off into the sunset. But it would be nice if they get into the same bed. Sex is good. Love is better. Sex and love is best.

7.) Surgeons go to medical school, lawyers go to law school. All you need to do is go to Amazon or the bookstore or the library. Read, read, read and think about what you are reading and why the novel works for you.

Image via Wikipedia

8.) Writing is not something most people can dash off. Morris West, a best-selling novelist, could and did write his novels in his head but most people need paper and pen or a computer. It is an arduous but an enormously satisfying task.

9.) Before you begin, write a multi-page outline of the novel. A great example of a superb story teller and novelist who does just that is Ken Follett. Read WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL by ALBERT ZUCKERMAN, his esteemed editor and agent. You will learn how Follett does it.

Tip submitted by Hillel Black, free lance editor of over 20 NY Times best sellers and member of the Consulting Editors Alliance. Visit http://www.hillelblack.com/.

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In an age of new media where the rules are changing faster than we can write them, it would make sense that publishing rules are changing too, wouldn’t it? Does it still make sense to query an agent, go to conferences and network with other writers? Or should you just sit home and blog and hope someone finds you online? Truth be told, it’s a combination of all of it. Sites like Twitter have really leveled the playing field. If used effectively, Twitter can really help you to leverage your market. You don’t have to be a superstar when you start on Twitter but you can certainly become one by being on it. Then of course there’s blogging, and social networking, video and on and on. So what should a budding author do to get noticed? Or, perhaps you have self-published a book and want to get a mainstream house to pick it up. The key here is to first identify your goals, then find ways to go after them both online and off.

Queries, do they make sense?

Yes they do. Publishing still lives by a few standards and this is one of them. There is a process and you should still respect it. This doesn’t mean that you won’t wake up someday to an email from a publisher or agent who has read your blog and wants to publish it (yes, some publishers will publish blogs) but until that happens, the submission process is a sacred, old world tradition that isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.

Does networking matter?

Image by rekha6 via Flickr

Yes but here’s the good news. You don’t have to fly around the country to every conference to do this. You can network right from your own home. The key is to find a network that works, and stay connected. That network could be on Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo, it could even be through your blog, other blogs you follow or, an old fashioned email connection. Whatever it is, it’s easier than ever these days to stay in touch with people without having to hop a plane to do so.

Facebook strategies, what will get you noticed?

Social networking is a great way to get noticed but if you’re using the page as your own personal go-to site for friends and family, then you’re not using it to its full potential. Design your Facebook page to support your work: make sure your blog is feeding to Facebook, keep the site updated with current projects, events, you can even use it to become a filter if necessary. The key is, use Facebook as your professional resume. You should also consider “friending” people who are in similar industries, you can even go in and friend a publisher or two, you never know where this Facebook friendship could lead.

What’s considered a “good” online presence?

Image via Wikipedia

A good online presence is one that helps build your platform. So a web site and blog, a social networking page and if you’re really ready to push yourself online, maybe even a Twitter account. You should also consider a newsletter sign-up on your home page or an RSS feed to your blog. Publishers like to see when authors are building their tribe and once you start adding subscribers, you can also mention this to the publishers you’re pitching.

What are the key pieces that publishers find attractive in a new author?

Your book is your resume: if you decide to self-publish as a means to get the book out there and/or find a publisher, remember that your book really is your resume. You would never send a resume to a potential employer that was full of typos, right? You should never send a book out into the world that isn’t letter perfect. The quickest way to get noticed is by publishing quality work, the quickest way to get dismissed is by producing junk. Second, they want an author who knows his or her market and, if you’re connected to it online, all the better.

Do publishers really care about all of this stuff?

You bet they do. When a publisher is considering an author, they will often look at the author’s “reach” or platform, you can start pulling this together by working your Internet base, building your followers and getting buzz going on your book or topic even before it’s published.

So what can I do right now to get started?

1) Get a web site

2) Start a blog

Image via CrunchBase

3) Get to know your online community, where do they hang out, what blogs do they read. You should be reading and commenting on those blogs. Get to know your virtual neighbors.

4) Find out how you can be of service. This is particularly true of non-fiction authors: find out what the need is and figure out how to fill that need. There’s no quicker way to becoming a trusted resource than by becoming a trusted source.

The Internet has really leveled the playing field when it comes to getting published, getting noticed, and building a platform. With some marketing and careful effort, you can build your platform/audience base, and gain some much needed attention for your work. The years of sitting in some publisher’s slush pile are gone. Now, thanks to sites like Facebook, Squidoo, and Twitter you can cultivate a voice, audience and, if you’re lucky, even a publisher!

This past week brought Book Expo America, the publishing industry’s annual gathering. The show was a two-day affair although word is next year’s event will be extended to three days.

Aside from new book buzz – which is always a show highlight – topics included the future of the industry, digital books and their impact on publishing and social media.

Suggested BEA reading includes:

Image via Wikipedia

* CEOs debate e-books, piracy, and the value of the book http://ht.ly/1PF4d

* Online communities meet the real world http://ht.ly/1Q9hD

* Global e-books and the agency model at IDPF’s Digital Book 2010 http://ht.ly/1Q9jq

* Publishing for the age of abundance, http://ht.ly/1QmMm

* Technochondria http://ht.ly/1QmNq

* Designing e-strategy for authors http://ht.ly/1QIBb

* Which books are getting big buzz at BEA? PW takes a look: http://ht.ly/1QIHE

Random tips from BEA:

* Authors should own their own e-mail lists! Do not rely on publisher, empower yourself, grow readership

* New term being bandied about at BEA: authorpreneur

* Bowker: Computer is still biggest e-reading device (37%); then Kindle (32%), iPhone (10%), iPad (3% after 3 weeks in market!)

* 9% of the US adult population bought an ebook in 2009. 56% bought actual books.

* SavvyAunty: it’s ok to repeat yourself across different platforms. Goal is to create higher number of impressions and consistency

* Cell phone books were 4 of 5 top titles in Japan last year. All are free online (w/ writer-reader interaction), millions sold in print.

* Solid advice: publishers need to be training authors on social media, starting with goals & philosophy, not specific platforms

**********************************

And… be sure to tune into Publishing Insiders on Tuesday, June 1, 4 p.m. Pacific where we’ll talk about the hottest genre around – Erotica: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2010/06/01/its-getting-hot-in-here–erotica-equals-hot-books:

Steamy novels and cover boy hunks have given publishing a much-needed shot in the arm. Learn how the Erotic Romance genre is just exploding. Learn about the skyrocketing sales and the methods erotica authors and publishers use to find their audience. And – wonder how those handsome hunks end up on the cover? We’ll find out how they get there and what it’s like to be on the cover of one of the hottest selling books around! Our guests include author Jayne Rylon, http://jaynerylon.com/, Tina Engler Keen, founder of Elora’s Cave Publishing, http://www.jasminejade.com/ and cover model CJ Hollenbach, http://www.cjcovermodel.com/.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

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Book Expo America – publishing’s biggest event of the year – kicks off next week, so we’ll have lots of news and updates during the week next week, follow Penny, @Bookgal and Paula, @PaulaatAME for the latest!

* There was a lot of talk about whether e-readers could transform college education by replacing textbooks. As far as Amazon’s Kindle DX goes, the marks from one Business school were low; most students do not recommend the device: http://ht.ly/1M6PP.

* Just for fun: Check out the solid gold iPad http://tinyurl.com/29elnnc.

* Once upon a time, the book industry panicked over a perceived threat to hardcover books, afraid that hardcover sales would be replaced by this new, cheaper format. And no, we’re not talking about e-books – it was the introduction of the paperback – this piece is a great read for perspective that proves sometimes all that really changes is the date: http://ht.ly/1MvCu.

* Author J.A. Konrath has realized a level of success with e-books that he never did with his traditionally published books. He’s become a vocal advocate of the e-book route, although he admits it’s no guarantee of success. Another writer ponders: “The Konrath Effect: Will New Technology Ruin Talented Authors?” http://ht.ly/1N6nj.

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* Now that LOST is ending, show fanatics can get reading: the show referenced more than 70 books during its six seasons and here’s the reading list: http://ht.ly/1N6PM.

* Borders will enter the e-book market and launch its Kobo e-reader in June: http://ht.ly/1NzSw.

* B&N launches a self-publishing business, PubIt: http://ht.ly/1NzPC. And, making itself competitive on all fronts, B&N now has bookstores, a self publishing divison and of course the e-reader Nook and digital books: http://ht.ly/1O8MD

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* Sesame Street starts a subscription model for e-books http://ht.ly/1NG0n.

* Presidential Pardon? George Washington’s library book returned, 221 years later: http://ht.ly/1O8iE.

* Do book reviews from the New York Times even matter anymore? TNB takes a look: http://ht.ly/1O8ry.

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People ask me how I was able to crank out three books in record time, frankly they’re baffled. The answer, however, is very simple. Creating a newsletter and a blog has forced me to constantly be creating content; this content was then folded into new material for my books. So, another good reason to start a blog and a newsletter!

I want to make a few observations and comments about why it is so difficult for self-published authors to successfully attract the attention of book reviewers, distributors, wholesalers, and retail booksellers. And then offer some suggestions on what to do about it.

As well as authors that set up their own publishing company to produce their books, I include in the category of self-published authors those that utilize POD companies like iUniverse, AuthorHouse, Trafford, Infinity, BookSurge, Outskirts Press, PublishAmerica, Lulu, Vantage, Tate, and the dozens of other companies who, for a price, will take any author’s manuscript and turn it into a book.

It is very well known (or should be) that the Midwest Book Review has championed self-published authors from our very beginning in 1976 down to the present day. And will continue to do so for as long as I remain its editor-in-chief.

Our current book review publications for May 2010 feature reviews for 47 POD published titles and reviews for 6 books whose self-published authors didn’t even bother to create a publishing company name for themselves and so were identified in the ‘info block’ that is a part of all our reviews as being ‘Privately Published.’

There’s about a half-dozen reviews for self-published books that didn’t even have snail-mail addresses available for their ‘info blocks’ – only email ones.

Those self-published authors who did make up their own company names (complete with intact address contact information), the number of reviews runs to somewhere around a hundred or so.

Therefore my comments on why self-published authors tend to labor under a prejudice within the publishing industry are well-meant by a truly sympathetic observer.

Here they are:

1. Substandard covers which render a book to be uncompetitive on esthetic grounds to the casual bookstore browser. You can have pure literary gold inside, but if the outside screams ‘amateur’ or is otherwise repellent, it will get passed over as its competition on the shelf proves more attractive in seducing the buyer’s attention. This lack of competitive appeal also applies to reviewers, bookstore managers, and everyone else in the between the publisher and the reader, when considering to accept or reject a title.

2. Interior flaws that run the gamut from excessive typos, to grammatical errors, to exasperating font selection.

3. Content categories that are flooded in the marketplace with competition and/or have limited mainstream audience appeal. The market for poetry is minuscule. The demand for personal memoirs of overcoming medical, psychological, or flawed upbringing adversities is even smaller. Because of the ease of desk-top publishing, each year sees works of general fiction increasingly flooding a marketplace where each of those years sees a smaller percentage of people spending their leisure time reading general fiction.

4. Ignorance and/or naivety in dealing with the various elements of the publishing industry and therefore coming across as non-professionals. With respect to reviewers, this is often displayed by inadequate review copy submissions where the requirements were not met. With respect to booksellers it is very much the same.

5. When it comes to reviewers, the single most grievous thing a few (and in my experience, very few) self-published authors do to ‘spoil it’ for all other self-published authors is to harass a reviewer about the review process – that is, persistent and frequent questioning as to when their book will be reviewed, why their book was not selected for review, taking personal offense with respect to the actual review when one is done. It only takes a handful of such experiences to sour a professional reviewer or a book review editor into not wanting to deal with someone who is not a seasoned, experienced, professional author. For wanting to avoid authors who are so emotionally and/or financially invested in their self-published book that they become rude, and even down right abusive.

And please believe me when I say that in the 34 years I’ve been doing this I’ve had these kinds of encounters more times that I can count.

So how can a self-published author overcome this publishing industry reluctance to get involved with a self-published book?

1. Appear and act as professionally and maturely as you possibly can in every aspect of your contacts with reviewers, booksellers, and everyone else in the publishing industry you encounter, solicit, or market to.

2. Insure that your book is flawless with respect to what’s inside, and competitive in terms of its outside appearance.

3. If your book is in a category where the numbers of competing titles is enormous, concentrate on marketing your title as if it were something very special, identifying and capitalizing on something that would make it ‘stand out in the crowd.’ If your book is in a category of a minimal or a specialized readership, target your marketing efforts directly to that niche group.

4. Don’t expect to make a profit, or even recoup your initial investment, in the short term. Be prepared to engage in a long-term effort, one in which the months will turn into years, and the years into decades – with you plugging away in your marketing efforts throughout it all. And expect to learn new (and hone existing) publishing and book marketing tips, tricks and techniques throughout it all.

Reprinted with permission from the Midwest Book Review. Jim Cox is Editor-in-Chief and founder of the Midwest Book Review from 1976 to the present day, producing nine monthly book review publications and a major provider of reviews for Amazon.com and library systems across the country. The Midwest Book Review is dedicated to promotion literacy, library usage, and small press publishing. Visit the Midwest Book Review at http://www.midwestbookreview.com.