Stuff to Write Down

Before You Need It.

Hi friends,

How ya doing? Me, I’m doing ok. Been some real ups and downs in my house over the last few weeks, but we’re all healthy and hanging on and have nothing out of the ordinary to complain about. I hope the same is true for you.

Today, I want to talk about a very practical thing that any writer can do at any stage of their writing journey. Whether you’re done with your proposal or book or not. Whether you want to traditionally or self-publish. Whether you have an agent or not. This might be the only really universal advice I’ve ever given. Maybe?

And here it is.

Write things down before you’re going to need them.

GROUNDBREAKING, right? Me, telling a bunch of writers to write things down, lol. I know! But hear me out. There is going to be a point in your writing/publishing journey when people are going to ask you questions, not about your main character or artistic influences or where do you get your idea?s but who do you want to send your book to for a blurb? or do you have any friends at any publications? And your mind is going to go blank! Truly blank! You suddenly live on a deserted island and have never interacted with another human writer in your life! Or they might be like what are some comp titles for your book? Maybe you put those in your query letter or proposal, but do you even remember them now????????? I thought so.

So, you should write these things down. What things? I’ll tell you below. More important than what you write down, right now, is where you write them down. You have almost infinite options, both physical and electronic. The very, very, very most important thing about this place, though, is it should be the first place you think of. Right now. Go. Where’s the first place you think of if you’re like where did I write that important thing down?

That is where you write this stuff down. Why? Because it’s the first place you thought of. It doesn’t have to be the best place. It doesn’t have to be something fancy like Evernote or some complicated system you go build in Airtable or strips of vellum deposited in a chalice or whatever. Now is not the time to build a new system. You just need it to be top of mind, accessible, and right for you.

For me, that means the Notes app in my phone and on my desktop. On my mac, I have a Note open all the time in the corner of my desktop that I can just tab over to and write something down—editors to follow up with, comps for different books, draft submission lists. And it syncs to my phone, of course. It’s not my to do list (that’s in about three different notebooks right now) (don’t ask), it’s a specific Note that’s just for these kind of work/book things. Just a list, no more complicated than that. The point will be that when you think oh! that would be a great place to send my book! Or So and so said to send them a galley! or a new indie opened in my neighborhood! you’ll have that information when you need it at various points down the line.

What should you write down? Here’s where to start.

• Comp Titles: a Comp title, or comparative title is a book that’s like yours, but not as good. (Kidding, mostly). Comp titles are used by publishers to gauge possible future sales of your book (sad but true) and by readers to answer the question will I maybe like this book? Publishers want at least three comp titles published in the last five-ish years that answer the question readers of that book will probably buy this book, too¹. It doesn’t (always) answer the questions: are these books both the same quality? are these books both stylistically similar? are these authors basically the same? or is this new book guaranteed to sell as much (or as little) as the already-published book? Your comps might touch on some of those things but the MOST important thing is the buying-part, not the quality part. Your book might be better! But, when you’re out in the world, at a bookstore, or reading reviews, or browsing Goodreads or whatever and you see a book and you think that’s what I want my book to look like one day or ohhh, that feels kinda similar to what I’m trying to do (in a good way! not in a oh no they stole my idea! way) then write it down. It’s not a final list. When you need comps for your query or a marketing call, you’ll at least have a place to start. When it’s time, you can investigate more, see what fits or does not, but you won’t be wracking your brain for that random book with the yellow flowers on it that you saw in that bookstore when you visited your sister in Portland. Because you will have written it down when you saw it! You were so smart.

• Big Mouths/Blurbers: Blurbs are those little quotes on the back of the book by authors that say things like “this book is an enlightening look at mushroom foraging. I couldn’t put it down,” by some author who’s written a book you’ve (hopefully) heard of. A Big Mouth is what we call (or, maybe it’s just me lol) a person with a good following online or other kind of platform who the publisher hopes will post about the book somewhere, even if they couldn’t blurb it. These lists might overlap, because a person who doesn’t have time to blurb a book still might post a picture of the free copy they got from the publisher, which they got because you remembered that great interaction you had with them that one time at that conference, and you wrote their name down. I KNOW THAT FEELS WEIRD. I know it feels awkward and like no one will ever want to do this nice thing for you and I’m telling you know to ignore that feeling and just write the names down and deal with the feelings later. You don’t have to personally know these people, but it is ALWAYS helpful to have a list of names when the time comes. Especially if those names are not like Oprah, Steven King, Obama, or Reese Witherspoon, etc. Yeah of course that would be great! But it is not going to happen for 99.9% of us. Instead, go look at your Twitter mutuals or people you’ve met (IRL or virtually) writing in your genre, or authors you greatly admire or celebrities who champion the same cause you wrote your memoir about. You won’t have to personally call all these people. But the list helps soooo much when the time comes.

• Bookstores: I’m sure you do not need to write down the name of your favorite local indie. But what about that one in the beach town you go to every summer? Or the one where your best friend lives? Or the one near your aunt that has those great events? Book tours don’t really sell a HUGE quantity of books, but they can still be part of your marketing plan, whether you’re putting it together yourself or the publisher is. Knowing the names of the stores where you have a local connection and can help bring in a crowd is a BIG help.

• Websites: Where have you been published before (if applicable)? Where do you read a bunch of stuff at least semi-related to your genre/topic? Do you have any connections at these websites? (You might not! That’s ok!) Your publisher isn’t necessarily going to know every single website that might post about or review your work. They can’t! So you can help with this, and you can keep this list running for however long it takes.

• Newsletters/Podcasts/Etc: Same as above, but for other media forms! Who do you like? Who do you know? What’s big in your space?

I know you’re thinking What’s the point? I’m never going to remember this stuff². I don’t know anyone special enough for these lists. I don’t live in NYC or LA! I don’t know anyone cool! I only read Twitter!!! What’s a website again? I could NEVER EVER ask someone to blurb my book!!!!! You can, and hopefully you will. No one is going to see the raw content of this list but you. You’ll likely be able to edit and vet it with the help of several people, including your agent, editor, and marketing/publicity team. They will all have heard how weird it is to ask for blurbs one thousand times, and it’s ok! It’s weird for everyone all the time. But if you write it down, at least you’ll have something to be weird about already prepared and won’t have to come up with it on the spot.

You will look like the most prepared and competent writer in all the land if you do this. Paper notebook, Notes app, Evernote, Google Doc, white board, voice memo, whatever works for you. Just write it down.

OXOXOXOXOX,

Kate

1. Avoid the biggest, biggest, biggest sellers ever like Harry Potter and whatever. Those are outliers.

2. That’s why you’re writing it down!!!!!!