Andrea Hurst & Associates

The AUTHORNOMICS Interview Series with Jennifer Basye Sander

By: Andrea Hurst

With a publishing industry that is ever in flux, it can be hard for an aspiring author to figure out what information is relevant and what she needs to do to be successful. Recognizing this, literary agent Andrea Hurst and writer and blogger Katie Flanagan will be introducing a series of weekly interviews with publishing industry specialists. The AUTHORNOMICS Series features literary agents, editors, authors, marketing experts and more talking about their opinions on the publishing industry, writing, and what a writer needs to know.

Interview with Author, Book Packager, and Editor Jennifer Basye Sander

Jennifer Basye Sander creates books that sell.  In her twenty plus years in the publishing business her ideas have generated more than forty million dollars in retail sales.  A longtime  book packager  and a former Random house senior editor, she has personally developed and launched more than 75 titles.  The book she co-authored with agent Sheree Bykofsky, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published, is now in its fifth revised edition.

A New York Times bestselling author herself, Jennifer continues to work with writing and publishing clients to develop their ideas.  She teaches non-fiction writing and publishing at UC Davis Extension, and runs two writing retreats, Write By The Lake, a women’s weekend retreat in Lake Tahoe, www.writebythelake.com, and her newest, Write at The Farm in Washington’s Skagit Valley, www.writeatthefarm.com

1. You have been involved in the publishing industry from many different angles, including editing, packaging, teaching, and authoring. Do you have a favorite role?

I love to make books happen. This can be through writing them myself or helping other writers shape their ideas, focus them to be more marketable, come up with a new angle, and get energized about finishing a project that has fallen by the wayside. So all of those are a part of teaching, of leading seminars and running writers’ retreats. The past few years I have focused more on that part of my career, and it has been so rewarding. I never thought of myself as a teacher, that seemed kind of dull. Acquisitions editor, that was glamorous. But the last few years I really have been developing more into a teacher, and am surprised to find how much I get out of it, too.

2. What does a book packager do? How is it different than a publisher?

Book packagers come up with ideas for books and then make them happen. So it is perfect for me. I can spot a need or hole in the marketplace and develop a book idea around it; usually I have the perfect author in mind and ask them if they’d be interested. I write the proposal, I try to sell it to a publisher, and if and when the deal is done, then the writer I’ve asked gets to work. Up to that point I have done the work and managed the process. Once it is a done deal, the writer takes over and I am hands off. Book packagers are usually former acquistions editors, as coming up with ideas for books and making them happen is such a large part of that job. Once you know how to do it and have enough contacts throughout the publishing world, you can do it on your own without working for a publishing company.

3. As a writer of over fifty nonfiction books, can you speak to the importance of a good hook to catch the publisher’s attention?

I’ve written more than 50 books myself (far more than 50, in fact, but I lost interest in counting), and each one has had a very strong hook. This is such a busy, crowded world we live in that it is hard to get a reader’s attention. Writers need to really work to hone their hook. Without a strong one you won’t get an agent, and the agent wouldn’t be able to get an editor interested. I just saw a review in People magazine of a new book “A Year with Eleanor,” I think it was called. Eleanor Roosevelt is attributed with the quote “do something every day that scares you.” I’m paraphrasing here, but you will probably recognize the quote. So this author spent a year doing something every day that was scary. GREAT hook, easy for everyone along the way to understand (agent, editor, bookstore buyer, potential reader). Can your book be distilled that easily? If not, go back to the drawing board and figure out how to make it so.

4. How important is it for writers to spend time networking and building their platform?

I think the better way to get a book deal is to make the book world come to you, rather than chasing after it. So the way to do that is to have your book be secondary to what you are doing, to what you are all about. Build up your speaking career, teach in your field, invent something amazing, save the world in some dramatic way. Publicity always attracts interest in your projects, and let an agent or editor think that having you write a book is their idea. The same can be true for novelists: if there is something about your life that generates interest, and surprise, you let it slip that you are working on a novel that somehow ties in with what you are becoming known for… it can happen.

5. You are the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published. Have you had to update the newer editions at all to incorporate changes in the industry, and what changes do you think have had the most profound impact on actually getting published?

Every time we have updated the CIG to Getting Published we have had to make sure that all of the newest trends and topics from the book world are included. Fact is, the process of how to get published hasn’t changed in the ten or so years since the book first came out: you need to write a good book. But all of the other stuff surrounding it, all of the noise about electronic publishing and social media and so on, that is always changing. What makes a book sell hasn’t.

6. One of the services Big City Books Group offers is ghost writing. How does a one become a ghost writer?

Ghost writers are usually folks who are already writers, who have teamed up with someone who needs a writer and is willing to pay. It mostly happens accidentally; it would be hard for someone without a track record of published writing to just proclaim themselves a ghost. It is not an easy job, let me warn you. And many folks who think they can just hire a writer to do their book for them don’t actually know how much it costs to hire a ghost writer. An entire book? Twenty five grand at the bottom of the ghost world, closer to a hundred grand if a ghost with a long track record is being hired. So it can be good money, but again, it would be hard to just get started if you weren’t already publishing regularly.

7. When you worked for Random House, what was your favorite part of being an acquisitions editor? What were some common reasons you turned projects down?

I love the meetings. Really, I know that sounds odd, but I love sitting down with a roomful of smart and creative people to discuss how to shape a book, how to market a book, how to design the most effective cover, how to refine a book title. Working alone most of the time, I really miss that. I don’t miss having to reject books though, and most of the projects that are submitted are in fact turned down. Why? Because the idea isn’t good enough. Because the writing wasn’t strong enough. Because it just didn’t connect with me.

8. As a writer, you have had books on the NYT bestseller list. Can you describe that experience?

Well, it was pretty thrilling. Not from a moment to moment standpoint; it is just this underlying sense that you have achieved something pretty rare. And I bought myself an Hermes scarf to celebrate. That book resulted from the efforts of three people, not just me. Jamie Miller and Laura Lewis were my co-authors on Christmas Miracles, and I believe that it was the combined marketing and publicity push from the three of us that made that book work in such a big way.

9. You run a writer’s retreat for women at Lake Tahoe and at the Writers’ House at Century Farm in Washington State. Why are retreats important for the developing writer?

They are such different places – the Tahoe retreat is in a small and intimate house, so I keep it to just women and it is amazing to see how the women writers blossom in a few short days.  These are frequently women who have high-powered jobs—they are doctors, judges, lobbyists—who have a hard time carving out the personal time to work on their writing. That is what every writer gets from a retreat: the focused time to concentrate on your work without interruption. Even the fulltime writers who come up are gratified to be somewhere different, not in their own environment with its many distractions. Up in Washington it is my big rambling family farmhouse, an entirely different kind of vibe. Men, women, children, anyone with a creative project they want to work on will be welcome. A big open dining room table where we can gather a noisy group, I plan to invite other local writers to come and join us for cocktail hour in order to keep the creativity flowing. Our first retreat in Washington is August 12-14, I am so excited about what I can do up there that I can’t do in Tahoe.

10. What is the best piece of advice you can give writers in this digital age of publishing?

Be careful. Be very careful. Sure, you can publish your own stuff in minutes, but it might well put you even farther away from your dreams of publishing success if you do. If you have published a novel through Smashwords or CreateSpace or something like that, and if it doesn’t generate much in terms of sales or interests, it could be a big black mark when you try to sell another project. Everyone wants to work with successful people: agents, editors, media folks. And if there is something out there already with your name on it that wasn’t much of a success, well…  But if you have self-pubbed a business book that you sell thousands of a year in back of the room sales after your speeches, heck yes. Everyone will want to talk to you then. So just always be very clear-eyed about what it is that you want. If all you want is the knowledge that your writing is out there for people to read, go ahead and hit “publish.” But if you think that this is a step towards larger success in the publishing world, understand that it comes with big pitfalls and problems and proceed very cautiously.

Thank you for interviewing with our blog series.

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

Happy 4th of July!