This post is about a different kind of contract—it’s the contract you make with yourself as a writer.

Thanks to National Novel Writing Month—NaNoWriMo—November has become an annual fest of unfettered word-cranking.

Participants are encouraged to write at least 50,000 words from scratch.  Your inner wordsmith gets the keys to a gassed-up muscle car and an endless row of green lights.  Your internal editor gets locked in the trunk or ditched at the rest stop.

What’s new this year is that a computer-book publisher I’m starting to edit and acquire for, Pragmatic Bookshelf, is encouraging would-be high-tech authors to write in November. The result is editor/author Daniel Steinberg’s PragProWriMo.

No participating authors are under any obligation to submit their results to Pragmatic, and I’m not directly involved—I’m just cheering this on.  (Personally, I may do NaNoWriMo to finally finish my coming-of-age novel!)

Here are the PragProWriMo mechanics:

If you are on Twitter, just tweet when you have finished your writing for the day. Use the tag #pragprowrimo and let us know what you wrote and how it went.

If you’re not on Twitter go ahead and post your progress in the comments to this blog. Somewhere you need to declare what you’ve done. It will keep you writing.

The only rule is to keep writing. Other than that, have fun and check back in with us to let us know how it’s going.

Deadlines work, and I hope this helps!  Leave a comment to let us know if you’re trying NaNoWriMo or PragProWriMo!

From my perspective, Gary Vaynerchuk—the boy from Belarus who grew his family’s liquor store in New Jersey into a multimillion-dollar business, and who is now teaching others to use customer service (especially via social media) to grow their businesses—has set a new standard for all authors supporting their books.

I’m piecing together a write-up of his efforts—and maybe a college course—but check out GaryVaynerchuk.com and his Twitter account to see how he spent several months engaging his audience and building anticipation for the October 2009 release of his book, Crush It!, which as Gary announced should hit #2 this Sunday in The New York Times.

For an example of Gary’s promotional efforts, consider his “experience” bundles, offered through his site: http://crushitbook.com/crush-it-the-experience/. If you buy 35, you get a personalized video; if you buy 150, you get an hour on Skype; and so on. This sets an expectation for bulk sales—which I think motivates single-copy sales—and demonstrates the way premium/ancillary offerings will help authors sell books in a world in which content is expected to be (nearly) free. [Authors: What experiences or ancillary offerings can you share?]

In line with his belief in contact and word-of-mouth promotions, Gary hosted a launch party last night at The Bell House in Brooklyn—very cool bar and performance space—exposed brick and rafters, cement floor, set in a warehouse. Gary went through the crowd, thanking everyone.

On stage, Gary said he sees himself benefiting from the “thank-you economy,” in which the people who have received his free videos and advice are purchasing his book out of gratitude. He said that his success comes from actually caring about his audience—by giving, he is getting. [Authors: How can you give to, care for, and support your audience?]

He showed a video preview of the “vook” edition of his book. The vook combines text, animation, music, voiceovers, and still photos. Then, with help from the crowd and verification from the yellow-blazered judges from the Universal Record Database—Gary set the universal record for most glasses clinked in one minute! Closing out the night, Clabo performed the “Crush It!” rap for charity—each $.99 download will feed six in Haiti. See below.

Let me round out this post—a sort of long thank-you to Gary, actually—by embedding two other videos: His powerful presentation at MediaBistro’s Circus in August 2009, and his adventurous Wine Library tasting of the best pairings for breakfast cereal.

See the full-sized version here: http://tv.winelibrary.com/2009/09/08/what-wine-pairs-with-cereal-episode-734/

Recently, I was speaking with a consultant who is writing her first book.  Since I found myself rambling and ranting, I knew I had some bloggable material.  Below, I present some of what I learned on the editor’s side of the wall:

• First of all, don’t worry about marketing strategy unless you’re sure that you can channel 100% of your creative energy into the book itself.  All else follows from the richness you put into the book or whatever portion you’ll submit with proposals.  I think you’ll produce something more timeless by following your energy rather than trends.  (Coming soon: Notes on Gerald Weinberg’s “Energy Principle,” from Weinberg On Writing.)
• See who publishes the books you admire – identify ways you’d like your book to be similar or different; study the publishers’ other books; then contact those publishers with your proposal.
• Try to target editors by name and mention their recent work.  (Check the front matter and acknowledgments, articles from the industry or about the book, and publisher newsletters and/or press releases.)
• Follow the publisher’s proposal instructions strictly (and watch out for mentioning the wrong publisher in copies of your proposal – this happens!).  Avoid calling editors – they’re too busy (as a broad generalization :)
• Try to contact the authors you admire and tell them about your manuscript.  Comment on their work, but only if you can offer something that’s informed and authentic.  Authors are experts in their work – they have canine-quality olfaction when it comes to sniffing out phonies.
• Study the way authors  promote themselves.  Look at the best and/or most popular authors in your field and other fields.  Add some techniques and channels to your own (planned) marketing platform.  For example, right now, I am enthralled with studying the way Gary Vaynerchuk – wine expert and motivational social media genius – uses Twitter, Ustream, Facebook, Tumblr, events, and other channels to promote his October 2009 release, Crush It!
  
• Don’t forget to search for small presses with well-regarded, well-produced books:  These publishers may be easier to approach and sign with, and they may devote more attention to your project.  Study the membership of small press organizations, especially IBPA.  Watch for award-winners inside the small press world.
• In your book proposal, emphasize competitive analysis (why you’re different, but also why you’re similar to authors/books that have succeeded recently – especially in terms of the target publisher’s books), trends (try to estimate your audience size and/or topic popularity and how these dimensions are growing), and marketing (try to list ways that you can promote the book – writing articles, blogging, speaking, teaching, etc.).  You want to make it easy for someone inside the company to pitch your book.
• Only consider self-publishing if you’re sure that no one will publish and market it for you – and if you’re sure that you have an established process for fulfilling orders, stocking the book, and promoting it.  Working with an established “vanity” press may be better than simply printing the book and hoping for the best – a lot depends on your own abilities as an extroverted salesperson or social media mogul.  (My plug for Wordsupply is that we can help authors and publishers edit and promote their books in traditional and social media!)

I will continue with a number of these points soon – especially the virtue of working with a small press.  (That’s the world I came from – where editors generally interface with authors directly, rather than through agents.)

What would you add?  If you’re writing your first book or one of many published, let us know your strategy for approaching (or eschewing) publishers.  How would you tailor this list to target agents instead of editors?