Author, poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou died at age 86 at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina last Wednesday. Angelou had been frail and suffering from heart problems, according to her agent.

Angelou's contributions to the literary world are legion. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years.

Maya Angelou (Marguerite Ann Johnson) was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou attended high school in San Francisco, where she studied dance and drama. At the age of 14, she dropped out of school and became the city's first African-American, female street car conductor . She later graduated from high school,and soon after gave birth to her son, Guy. As a young woman she worked as a cook, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, cast-member of the opera Porgy and Bess.

Angelou's most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tells of the life of Marguerite Ann Johnson up to the age of 16. Abandoned by her parents and raped at the age of 7 by her mother's boyfriend, she was homeless and became a teen mother. The book, which has been banned many times, has become a mainstay of student reading lists.

Although she was called Dr. Angelou, she never went to college. But she had more than 30 honorary degrees and taught American Studies for years at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. She also spoke six languages, and worked as a newspaper editor in Egypt and Ghana.

Maya Angelou will be remembered for her stunning poetry, and for her words of inspiration, which will provide a source of strength and courage for generations to come.

Here are four literary agents actively seeking new clients. Make sure to read everything on their agency website to get a feel for what they represent. Some agencies are geared more toward commercial fiction while others prefer literary works. You should also check Absolute Write to see if other authors have had experience with them.
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Andy Kifer of The Gernert Company

About Andy: Andy joined The Gernert Company in 2012 after two years working for Aram Fox, Inc., where he scouted books for foreign publishers. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, lived in North Carolina for five years, and worked briefly as a cross-country coach at a boarding school before starting his career in publishing. He lives in Brooklyn and runs in Prospect Park.

What he is looking for: “I’m looking for literary fiction, smart genre fiction (in particular, high-concept thrillers or sci-fi), and nonfiction with a strong narrative bent. I’m a sucker for love stories and inventive narrative structure.”

How to contact: Please query by following The Gernert Company’s submission guidelines (see www.thegernertco.com): send a query letter to info [at] thegernertco.com, with “Attn: Andy Kifer ” in the e-mail’s subject line. "I’d prefer to see the first few chapters pasted into the body of the e-mail. Snail mail queries to The Gernert Company’s office, addressed to me, are fine too! I promise I read everything that comes my way, though at Gernert we tend to respond only if something piques our interest."
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Jessica Watterson of Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency

About Jessica: Jessica Watterson joined Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency in late 2013, and currently assists Sandra Dijkstra and Elise Capron. She graduated from the University of California at Irvine with a degree in Sociocultural Anthropology and English. Jessica has made books a serious part of her life for many years. During college, she started an indie review blog which has featured author interviews and has reviewed several self-published books that eventually ended up on the New York Times Best Seller list.

What she is looking for: Jessica is most interested in all subgenres of adult and new adult romance, and women’s fiction. She is looking for heartfelt and unique romance that will instantly draw a reader in and keep them hooked.

How to contact: Email queries to jessica [at] dijkstraagency.com. “We only accept electronic submissions. Any hard copy submissions received by mail will be recycled unopened. Please send a query letter, a 1-page synopsis, a brief bio (including a description of your publishing history), and the first 10-15 pages of your manuscript. Please send all items in the body of the e-mail, not as an attachment.”

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Annette Crossland A for Authors, Ltd. (U.K.)

About Annette: In a career spanning more than 30 years, Annette has worked in high-profile positions in some of the UK and USA’s most successful publishing companies. She has worked with some of the top bestselling authors in the world, touring overseas with Elizabeth George, Dennis Lehane and Frances Fyfield, amongst others.

What she is looking for: "We are always on the lookout for exciting new work and we welcome submissions across all relevant genres by email."

Submissions: With your submission, please include your name, address, phone number, title of the material. All material should be emailed as Microsoft Word attachments. Downloadable material, e-books, or links to any such items are unacceptable. For fiction please send a synopsis and three sample chapters (50 pages or fewer) and for non-fiction send a letter outlining your intentions. No radio/theatre/TV scripts, poetry, SF/Horror genres, or short stories. Response time 12 weeks.
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Kate Johnson at Wolf Literary Services (UK and US)

About Kate: Kate Johnson is a literary agent at Wolf Literary Services, based in Glasgow and New York. Prior to joining Wolf Literary Services, Kate was an agent and vice president at Georges Borchardt, Inc., for more than eight years. She previously edited and reported at StoryQuarterly, Bookslut.com, New York magazine and elsewhere, and graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

What she is looking for: Kate represents award-winning novelists and journalists. She is actively acquiring adult fiction, and looks for a work that combines both a strong story and a strong voice, hitting the sweet spot between literary and commercial. She is drawn to strong characters and sense of place, psychological suspense, family sagas, magical realism and a book that can make her laugh, cry, and miss her stop, all in one subway ride. Nonfiction-wise, Kate is on the hunt for cultural history, literary memoir, the occasional, not-too-belligerent polemic, and narrative nonfiction (particularly related to food, art, pop culture, history, politics and the environment).

She likes to work collaboratively with her authors to edit and refine their projects, through all stages of their career. She does not represent erotica, sci-fi, diet books, young adult or children’s books. Query by email preferred.

Submissions: To submit a project, please send a query letter along with a 50-page writing sample (for fiction) or a detailed proposal (for nonfiction) to [email protected]. Samples may be submitted as an attachment or embedded in the body of the email.

Laura Miller quit buying books from Amazon because of its monopolistic tactics. She asks the question, "Is it impossible for book publishers to do the same?" 

In all likelihood, it will be impossible for publishers to quit Amazon as easily as Laura did - in spite of their dirty tactics. Amazon's recent punishment of Hachette authors is a case in point. When Hachette tried to negotiate better terms with Amazon, Amazon retaliated by delaying publication of Hachette titles, stalling shipments, and raising prices while offering cheaper substitutes. 

How long will Amazon get away with being the biggest bully on the block? 

As long as Amazon holds most of the cards in the Internet deck, publishers don't stand a chance.
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Goodbye, Amazon: We’re through!

By Laura Miller - Salon, May 20, 2014

No longtime observer of the power struggle between Amazon and traditional book publishing could be surprised by the news, delivered by the New York Times last week: Amazon is playing hardball with the Hachette Book Group while the two companies renegotiate the terms of their contract. As David Streitfeld reported, Amazon has been delaying shipments and raising prices on Hachette’s titles while emblazoning the Amazon pages for books like Jeffery Deaver’s thriller “The Skin Collector,” with banner ads across the top touting “similar items at a lower price” from more compliant publishers.

Such tactics — an inconvenience to consumers and a hardship for the targeted authors — are not new. When Macmillan Publishers attempted to wrest control of the prices of their e-books from Amazon in 2010, the retailer removed the buy buttons for all Macmillan titles (print as well as e-books) for a few days. Brad Stone’s “The Everything Store” documents Amazon’s view of itself as a proud predator, a “cheetah” that aims to take down the “gazelle” of book publishing.

But even cheetahs have their weaknesses, and a little poking around on Amazon’s site revealed that the retailer is not hobbling every Hachette title in its online store. Specifically, Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” a bestseller since it was released last fall and the recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, can still be purchased, in hardcover, at a handsome 45 percent discount and without its buyers being subjected to pitches for substitutes.

This may not comfort Sherman Alexie — an outspoken Amazon critic — much; would-be purchasers of Alexie’s acclaimed 2007 novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” will still have to wait a ridiculous two to three weeks for the paperback to ship from Amazon. Nevertheless, the exception made for “The Goldfinch” is telling.

Read the rest of this interesting article here.

If you are a children's or young adult author, you have the option of submitting your work directly to a number of publishers without needing a middleman. While most of these are small to mid-range publishers, some are big names in the industry.

As always, go to the publisher's website and read their lists to see if your work would be a good fit. Read their submission requirements very carefully. If you don't follow their submission guidelines to the letter, they will not read your manuscript.

Be forewarned that if you submit your work directly to a publisher, and are rejected, you can't backtrack later and submit it again through an agent. Most agents will not represent works that have been previously "shopped" to publishers.
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Albert Whitman & Company has been publishing award-winning children’s books since 1919. Albert Whitman’s special interest titles address subjects such as disease, bullying, and disabilities. Submissions: Albert Whitman and Company currently has an open submissions policy. They read and review unagented manuscripts and proposals for picture books, middle-grade fiction, and young adult novels. Email submissions only. Note:They will not review any submissions that do not follow their submission guidelines.

Arthur A. Levine Books was founded in 1996 as an imprint of Scholastic Press. Since then, they have produced more than one hundred seventy-nine works of hardcover literary fiction and nonfiction for children, teenagers, and adults. Submissions:  Picture Books: Query letter + the full text; Novels: Query letter + the first two chapters + synopsi;, Other: Query letter + five page samples (five poems, five nonfiction pages, etc.); Illustration: Three sample illustrations via attachment, and links to online portfolios. Do not send full manuscripts.

August House focuses on world folktales and the art and uses of storytelling. Submissions are by regular post only. Please review their guidelines before contacting them about publishing your work. They do not respond unless they are interested.

Boyds Mills Press is the trade division of Highlights for Children, Inc. They publish their books under five imprints. Submissions: Picture Books: Please submit the entire manuscript of your picture book; Middle Grade Fiction: Please submit the first three chapters (do not include chapters from the middle of the book) and a plot summary; Nonfiction: Include a detailed bibliography with your submission and a detailed explanation of the books in the marketplace that are similar to yours. Regular mail only.

Capstone publishes both fiction and nonfiction books for struggling and reluctant readers. They have four imprints and three separate divisions with over 3,000 books in print. Submissions: Most of Capstone's books are produced in-house, but they are also interested in receiving writers’ manuscripts and reviewing artists' portfolios. Fiction submissions should be sent via email, nonfiction by regular post only. They respond only if they are interested.

Charlesbridge publishes both picture books and transitional “bridge books” (books ranging from early readers to middle-grade chapter books). Nonfiction books focus on nature, science, social studies, and multicultural topics. Fiction titles include lively, plot-driven stories with strong, engaging characters. Submissions: Please submit only one or two manuscript(s) at a time. For picture books and books, please send a complete manuscript. For fiction books longer than 30 manuscript pages, please send a detailed plot synopsis, a chapter outline, and three chapters of text. For nonfiction books longer than 30 manuscript pages, please send a detailed proposal, a chapter outline, and one to three chapters of text. Regular mail only. No simultaneous submissions. Read guidelines here.

Dial Books for Young Readers is a hardcover division publishing approximately 70 titles per year for children of all ages, from preschool through young adult. It is currently a division of Penguin Young Readers Group. Submissions: Dial accepts entire picture book manuscripts, and for longer books a maximum of 10 pages.When submitting a portion of a longer work, please provide an accompanying cover letter that briefly describes your manuscript's plot, genre (i.e. easy-to-read, middle grade or YA novel), the intended age group, and your publishing credits, if any. Regular mail only. Read guidelines here.

Free Spirit publishes nonfiction books and learning materials for children and teens, parents, educators, counselors, and others who live and work with young people. They do not publish fiction. Submissions: Proposals to be considered must be sent by mail (not by fax or email). Include the following: A cover letter briefly outlining your project, the intended audience (including age ranges), and your relevant expertise; A current résumé; A detailed chapter-by-chapter outline; At least two sample chapters. (If a full manuscript is available, you may send it.); A market analysis with a comprehensive listing of similar titles and detailed explanation of how your project differs from available products; A description of your personal promotion plan for the proposed book (including both in-person and social media outreach). Read guidelines here.

Holiday House specializes in hardcovers, from picture books to young adult, both fiction and nonfiction for ages four and up. They do not publish mass market books, including pop-ups, activity books, sticker books, coloring books, or licensed books. Submissions: Holiday House only responds if they are interested in publishing your manuscript. Please send the entire manuscript, whether submitting a picture book or novel. All submissions should be directed to the Editorial Department, Holiday House, 425 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10017. They do not accept submissions by email or fax.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publishers are the oldest publishers in the world. They publish a range of fiction and non fiction books for adults and children.Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers and Clarion Books are hardcover imprints. Submissions: They do not respond unless they are interested in publishing your work. Response time is twelve weeks. Manuscripts should be typed and submitted via regular mail. They do not accept submissions by e-mail or fax. For picture books and novels, please send the entire manuscript. For nonfiction, submit a synopsis and sample chapters. Please submit exclusively to one HMH imprint only.

Ideals Children’s Books publishes fiction and nonfiction picture books for children ages 4 to 8. Subjects include holiday, inspirational, and patriotic themes; relationships and values; and general fiction. Submissions: Manuscripts should be no longer than 800 words. CandyCane Press publishes board books and novelty books for children ages 2 to 5. Subject matter is similar to Ideals Children’s Books, with a focus on younger children. Manuscripts should be no longer than 250 words. Ideals magazine welcomes the opportunity to review your poetry or prose. Complete manuscripts only, sent by regular mail.

Just Us Books publishes children’s books that celebrate the diversity of Black history, culture and experiences. Submissions: Just Us Books is currently accepting queries for chapter books and middle reader titles only. Please send a query letter pitching us your manuscript, 1-2 page synopsis of your manuscript, 3-5 sample pages of your manuscript, a brief author bio that includes any previously published work, self-addressed stamped envelope. (Submission guidelines are located on Contact page.)

Kane Miller is expanding its picture book, chapter book, and middle-grade fiction lists. They are interested in all genres (mystery, fantasy, adventure, historical, etc.), especially those with particularly American subjects. Submissions: Please send either the complete picture book manuscript, or a synopsis and two sample chapters of your fiction work. Electronic submissions accepted.

Lerner Publishing Group is one of the nation’s largest independently owned children’s publishers with more than 5,000 books in print. Their Jewish-themed imprint, Kar-Ben, is the only division accepting submissions. Submissions: (Scroll down page for PDF submission guidelines.) Kar-Ben accepts unsolicited manuscripts by regular post only.

Meadowbrook Press specializes in pregnancy, childcare, children’s poetry, juvenile novels, children’s activities, party planning, and adult humor. They are also the number one publisher of baby name books in the country, with six baby-naming books in print and total sales of over eleven million copies. Submissions: Fiction writers, please send a cover letter, your credentials and market analysis along with a table of contents and a sample chapter. Poets may send completed (funny) poems. Postal submissions only. Response time: six months.

OnStage Publishing publishes chapter books, middle grade novels and young adult novels. They do not publish picture books, short stories or poetry. Query first for non-fiction. They only publish fiction books for ages 8 to 18. Submissions: Fiction: If under 100 pages, submit the completed, double-spaced manuscript. If over 100 pages, submit the first three chapters and a plot summary. Cover letter with market analysis required. Submissions may be sent via regular mail or email. Please read author guidelines here.

Pants On Fire Press, located in Winter Garden, Florida, publishes picture, middle-grade and young adult books. They are always on the lookout for Action, Adventure, Animals, Comedic, Dramatic, Dystopian, Fantasy, Historical, Paranormal, Romance, Sci-fi, Supernatural and Suspense stories. Submissions: Pants on Fire is acquiring Chapter Books, Middle-grade and Young Adult fiction. Please read complete author guidelines here.

I ran across this blog post via Publisher's Weekly, which is a great source of publishing news and information. Of course, I expected that Kafka would have ordered all of his works to be burned (that is sooo Kafka-esque), but Ian Fleming?
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10 Great Authors Who Disowned Their Own Books

By Madeleine Monson-Rosen and Charlie Jane Anders, i09.com

1) Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me

Fleming wrote this novel, in which James Bond is basically a secondary character, in an attempt to caution his readers against making Bond into too much of a hero. Fleming said he wanted to make Bond's misogyny apparent after being shocked to discover that his Bond novels were being taught in schools. This "experiment," Fleming wrote to his publisher after the book received overwhelmingly negative reviews, had "obviously gone very much awry," and Fleming attempted to keep the book out of print. After Fleming's death, however, the value of his backlist overwhelmed the author's wishes, and The Spy Who Loved Me came back into print.

2) Octavia Butler, Survivor

This 1978 novel is the only one of Butler's works to remain out of print. She disowned it and let it stay buried, because she felt it depended on the worst cliches of science fiction:

When I was young, a lot of people wrote about going to another world and finding either little green men or little brown men, and they were always less in some way. They were a little sly, or a little like "the natives" in a very bad, old movie. And I thought, "No way. Apart from all these human beings populating the galaxy, this is really offensive garbage." 

People ask me why I don't like Survivor, my third novel. And it's because it feels a little bit like that. Some humans go up to another world, and immediately begin mating with the aliens and having children with them. I think of it as my Star Trek novel.

While Butler never stopped using science fiction tropes as allegories, she stayed away from the stereotypes invoked in Survivor after that.

Find out which other famous books were rejected by the authors who wrote them here.

These three agents are new, which means they are eager to build their lists. New agents are not necessarily new to the business. Often they have worked as editors, and have years of experience. Read their agency websites carefully to see if your work is a good fit.

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Maria Ribas of Morhaim Literary

About Maria: Maria Ribas graduated with English Honors from the University of Richmond. She began her editorial career at Atria at Simon and Schuster, then moved to Harlequin Nonfiction and Adams Media, where she was an associate editor before joining the agency. As a former editor, she has a keen sense of what editors are really looking for, and she has years of experience building relationships with authors. She has always specialized in practical nonfiction and has a firm grasp of how to assess an author’s platform–and how to help authors build that platform.

What she is seeking: She’s interested in cookbooks, self-help, health, diet, home, parenting, and humor, all from authors with demonstrable platforms. She’s also interested in narrative nonfiction and select memoir, but she’s looking for a story that is absolutely un-put-down-able. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and proficient in Italian and will be working with select foreign authors.

How to submit: To submit, e-mail your query letter along with three sample chapters (for fiction) or full proposal (for non-fiction) to one of the agents listed below. Average response time is 6 to 8 weeks. Please paste materials [no attachments]. Query maria [at] morhaimliterary.com
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Paul Lamb of Morhaim Literary

About Paul: Paul Lamb is a graduate of DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and was a recipient of a POSSE Scholarship. Paul joins the agency after nearly a decade in Marketing at both Penguin and Random House, with various imprints. Owing to his professional experience in trade publishing, Paul has a strong sense of publishers’ needs, and a unique insight into the representation of authors.

What he is seeking: His tastes lie strongly with nonfiction in a wide variety of genres and subjects, notably business, political science, sociology, memoir, travel writing, sports, pop culture, and music. He is also interested in crime, mystery, and literary fiction.

How to submit: To submit, you should email your query letter along with three sample chapters (for fiction) or full proposal (for non-fiction) to one of the agents listed below. Average response time is 6 to 8 weeks. Email Paul at paul @ morhaimliterary.com
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Michael Sterling of Folio Literary Management

About Michael: “I joined Folio Literary Management in 2011. Prior to that I worked at Habitus: A Diaspora Journal, a literary magazine based in Brooklyn. My work there was editorially driven and I’ve since brought that experience to Folio, where I’ve worked with many best-selling fiction and nonfiction authors across various genres, including thriller authors, cookbooks writers, and literary novelists.”

What he is seeking: Fiction: “I love literary, commercial, and upmarket fiction. Thrillers with tremendous commercial appeal and strong writing are of particular interest to me—I’m a fan of anything from Lee Child to John le Carré. As a reader, I enjoy period novels in any genre. 20th century wars provide some of my favorite temporal settings, for instance. I love novels with high concepts (think The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker, or Life After Life by Kate Atkinson) and books that can teach me about new cultures and transport me to new countries are always among my favorite.”

Nonfiction: “A self-avowed foodie, I avidly devour cookbooks and am interested in working with authors who share this passion of mine. My tastes veer towards books with a strong narrative element—I’m seeking political books, memoirs, investigative and journalistic works, or titles that place a specific region, historical event, person or thing under a microscope. For instance, I’d love to read more about the Middle East, especially works in which contemporary issues are explored in new ways.”He is not looking for: Romance; YA/Middle grade/Children’s; Fantasy

How to Submit: Please submit queries to msterling (@) foliolit.com [be sure to remove the parentheses], and include “QUERY” in the subject line. Please include the query letter and first ten pages of your manuscript or proposal in the body of the email.

I ran across the article below in Publishers Weekly not too long ago, and it got me to thinking. Does it make any sense to crowdfund a book that, if self-published electronically, will cost you less than $100?

The answer is no. But, that does not mean you should rule out crowdfunding as part of a larger strategy.

What if (just indulge me for a moment) you set your sights higher than publishing a book? 

For example, if you intended write a series, wouldn't it make better sense to put your crowdfunding efforts into something more attractive than a single publication? A writer with a series of cookbooks, or themed children's books, or sci-fi books, could use crowdfunding - not to fund a single book - but to start a publishing company.

Most small publishing houses started out as a means for a writer to publish his or her books. I can't see any reason why a crowdfunding platform can't be used to accomplish that, or, in fact, why several authors couldn't use Kickstarter to fund a joint project to start a publishing house.

After all, that is the way Random House began - just a few writers who decided to publish some random books.
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DIY: Crowdfunding 101 - How to use Kickstarter and other services to fund your book

By Jennifer McCartney, Publishers Weekly, Apr 14, 2014

Without an advance or the support of a publisher’s art, publicity, and marketing departments, securing funding to publish and publicize a book can be an uphill battle. Because of this, many enterprising indie authors have turned to crowdfunding platforms -- which pair artists and projects with donors -- to support their publishing efforts. Crowdfunding can be a fun and creative way to raise money to support a new book.

There are book-specific crowdfunding sites well worth checking out such as Pubslush, which calls itself a "global book club with a cause" and Authr.com. Though these have a smaller audience, the advantage is that funders are specifically looking to support publishing projects. The two largest and most popular sites, however, are the more established Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

Kickstarter

Kickstarter is the most popular crowdfunding platform. Via Kickstarter’s user-friendly interface, an author creates a profile for her proposed book that includes a short description, how much she wants to raise, and what exactly she plans to do with the funds. This can cover everything from printing and shipping costs, layout and design fees, ISBN registration, photography expenses, the hiring of an illustrator, or editing and proofreading expenditures. Authors can upload images and post a personal video to add interest to their listing. The site offers helpful tips for creating the best page possible to showcase your idea. Authors should follows these guidelines to ensure that their pages are as engaging as possible.

If the project is fully funded by Kickstarter’s deadline (30 days is the recommended length of time for a project) the author receives the money minus the company’s 5% fee, as well as a 3 to 5% processing fee that goes to Amazon Payments. Contributors can receive rewards from the author based on their level of funding. Authors should think of creative rewards to offer potential funders -- such as a Skype chat for a book club, a bookmark, or signed copies of the finished book.

To begin, authors should check out the Kickstarter guidelines and note that the self-help genre (including business, health, and relationship advice) is not eligible as a Kickstarter project. Authors must also be a U.S. resident with a Social Security Number, U.S. bank account, and credit or debit card, and they must be 18 or older.

Ariane Roberts is using Kickstarter to fund her illustrated children’s book Jamie Loves Her Natural Hair. Her advice to authors is: “plan, plan, and plan!”

“Before you even start your campaign, have your contact list ready to notify everyone about your project once it has launched,” says Roberts. “Make sure you are building a list of contacts that you feel will be genuinely interested in sharing your project with their audience.”

Kate Agnew, who is hoping to fund her Donuts: A Photo Book project through Kickstarter, says her desire to have total ownership over her project led her to the crowdfunding site. She advises potential authors to do their research before setting up their campaign, citing the two to five day waiting period before the project goes live as an example of something for which authors need to plan.

Both Agnew and Roberts cite getting word out about their campaigns to be the hardest challenge. Roberts cautions, “You may need to do some foot work by getting out and speaking to people or groups that could potentially become supporters of your project.”

Crowdfunding also gives an author a sense of how popular her book might be. “It is kind of like testing the water before jumping in, which made it a good fit for me,” Agnew says. “While safe in some ways, I'm still putting myself out there -- still taking the risk. That's what writing is all about.”

Indiegogo

Indiegogo is a popular crowdfunding site that’s available to anyone in the world with a bank account, making it an option for authors based outside the U.S. Unlike Kickstarter, Indiegogo allows users to keep the funds they raise even if they don’t make their funding goal with a program called Flexible Funding. The site takes a fee which is 4% of the money raised if an author’s funding goal is met or 9% if it’s not met. Authors are also charged 3% for credit card processing, plus a $25 wire fee for campaigns outside the U.S.

Indiegogo also offers something called the Gogofactor, which measures the activity of an author’s campaign with an algorithm, rewarding active authors with newsletter or blog mentions and better search rankings.

Linnie von Sky successfully crowdfunded her first children’s book Our Canadian Love Story with Indiegogo and is following that success with another campaign for an anti-bullying children's book.

"Running a campaign is a full time job," von Sky says. Most funders are people in her extended social circles, but she notes that, given the broad appeal of the anti-bullying message of her second project, she was able to attract funding from people she doesn't know. She says the key to making a campaign successful is to be be fully engaged on all social platforms. "Defending your idea and its place in the crowded crowdfunding universe is an excruciatingly exhausting effort," von Sky says.

While crowdfunding isn’t for every author, it can be an essential tool for the right project -- if an author is willing to work hard to promote her book.

Jennifer McCartney is a freelance writer, editor, and author of the novel Afloat. Follow her at @jennemem.

Amazon Phenomenon: NYT Article Boosts Obscure Book to Bestsellerdom

By Matthew Kassel, NY Observer, 04/21/14 

This past weekend, a little-known book called All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw was resurrected from obscurity when it surged to the top of Amazon’s rankings and became the bestselling book in America.

The reason for the sudden boost in popularity was a New York Times article by the book critic Dwight Garner, which appeared online on Friday and on the front page of the New York edition of the Times arts section on Saturday. By Saturday evening, the book was No. 1 on Amazon’s best sellers list, and its sales numbers had surged by a staggering 1,542,000 percent, according to the website’s Movers and Shakers list.

All God’s Dangers is a 600-page oral history, compiled by Theodore Rosengarten, of a black Alabama sharecropper named Ned Cobb. (Nate Shaw was a pseudonym.) It won the National Book Award in 1974 and was well-reviewed. “But it seems to have vanished from the culture at large,” Mr. Garner wrote in his critical appraisal.

Until now, that is. Garrett Kiely, director of the University of Chicago Press, which has published All God’s Dangers in paperback since 2000, said the article—and the concomitant boost in sales—was a welcome surprise.

“We vaguely knew something about the New York Times interest in the book because they’d asked us for copies to check some details,” he told the Observer. “But we didn’t quite know what it was, and it was nice to see.”

Mr. Kiely said that most copies of the book are sold for courses at the university level: history and African-American studies, for instance. “It wasn’t off our radar,” he said. “It was just off everybody else’s radar.”

This isn’t the first time that academic books from the backlist have gained momentum due to a mention in the news cycle.

Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, a seminal book of economics also published by University of Chicago Press, had languished in academic circles until a positive mention by Glenn Beck sent it to the top of Amazon’s best sellers list in 2009.

Another book of economics, Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, published by Harvard University Press, is the current best-selling book in the United States, according to Amazon. It appeared in the No. 2 spot alongside All God’s Dangers over the weekend, possibly boosted by Paul Krugman’s glowing review in the latest issue of The New York Review of Books. (As Mr. Kiely noted, it was a rare treat to see university press books at the top of the listings; All God’s Dangers, as of this writing, remains in the top 100, at No. 17.)

Mr. Garner, who, as one of three daily book critics for the Times, maintains what is perhaps the most influential perch in American literary taste-making, said he had never in his years as a reviewer seen one of his articles affect a book’s sales in this way.

“Being able to give a small boost to worthwhile books is easily the best thing about being a critic,” he said in an email to the Observer. “But no, I’ve never seen anything like this. We’re not talking about a new Michael Lewis book here; we’re talking about a 40-year-old autobiography of an illiterate sharecropper in the deep South. This is deep Americana.”

He added: “Ned Cobb is worth every bit of the attention, and I suspect he’d love it.”