“They cannot say that they did not have the means. Our government is supposed to be one of the greatest, but it’s proven to me that, hey, if you don’t have money and you don’t have status, you don’t have the government.”

That’s a quote from the 2009 Academy Award-nominated documentary Trouble the Water about Hurricane Katrina. If those plain-spoken yet profound words don’t spur you to action or compel you to make some changes, the raw, on-the-ground images captured on film will. The critically lauded film’s promotional strategy included a robust online engagement program that was key to galvanizing action and helping spread its message — even though filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal say they didn’t set out to “deliver facts or information,” rather to simply “tell a story.”

Trouble the Water follows the story of Ninth Ward resident and rap star-hopeful Kimberly Rivers Roberts and her husband Scott as they document the harrowing events that come before and after the storm. The film, directed and produced by Lessin and Deal, did become more than just a story, though. Its website, TroubleTheWaterFilm.com, became a hub of information — a place that gave people something “something to do with that hell-raising energy the audience feels when they leave the theater,” Lessin and Deal say. The documentary duo will be honored at the 28th annual Harry Chapin Media Awards presented by WhyHunger and Mediabistro on September 28. Ahead of the awards ceremony, we caught up with Lessin and Deal via email to find out how they produced the acclaimed documentary and developed an online community around it.
What was your strategy for raising funds to produce Trouble the Water?

Strategy? Initially we didn’t have a strategy, we started making Trouble the Water on an impulse. Kodak donated film stock, friends donated camera equipment, family donated frequent flier miles, and we flew to the central Louisiana city of Alexandria a week after the storm and started shooting. Later, we received grants from the Open Society Institute, the Sundance Documentary Fund, Creative Capital and other documentary funders. And then private investors put up the finishing funds before we premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

You chose a compelling, visceral, and timely subject for your documentary. What advice would you give to others selecting material and interview subjects for their docs?

Trust your instincts, listen carefully, and be impacted by what happens around you. Life takes place outside the narrow lens of the camera, so try to respond to what is going on in the moment, not just what’s in your head or written in a treatment. Let yourself be surprised, and your audience will be, too.

“Because the scale of the tragedy was so immense, our goal was to tell an intimate character-driven story, bringing unheard voices to the screen.”

How did you find the videographer [Kimberly Rivers Roberts] whose footage is featured?

When we set out for the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Katrina, we wanted to make sense of the disaster, not by talking to experts or officials, but to people who were surviving it. Because the scale of the tragedy was so immense, our goal was to tell an intimate character-driven story, bringing unheard voices to the screen. Kimberly and Scott Roberts approached us about 10 days after the levees failed. We were all in Central Louisiana at a Red Cross Shelter. They were just at the beginning of their post-Katrina journey, and we had just been shut down by the military after filming several days with Louisiana National Guard soldiers returning home from Baghdad. The Roberts were looking to sell their extraordinary POV video which Kimberly shot the day before and the morning of Katrina, and we ultimately used 15 minutes of that footage in the film. But more important than the footage was the Roberts as subjects in front of our cameras: In them, and in their companion Brian Nobles, we found smart, funny, undefeated, indignant and determined survivors struggling to overcome not only Katrina and its aftermath, but also their own troubled pasts. We filmed with them on and off for two years. By sticking close to their journey, we were able to distill so much into one story — the abandonment of the city’s poorest, the incarcerated, and the hospitalized to Katrina’s floodwaters, and the government’s failures well before, during, and after the storm.

Why do you think your film resonated with audiences, especially critics?

The response of audiences and critics to Trouble the Water has been overwhelming, and we are very grateful for the beautiful emails and reviews. There’s nothing more satisfying than watching an audience watch our film. We can’t tell you why audiences like the film, but we can tell you why we do. We set out to tell a story, not to deliver facts or information, and we tried to craft a film that was experiential — rather than just describing an experience, we hoped to give the audience the feeling they were experiencing it first-hand. We didn’t want to make the kind of film that told you where it was going before you go there. Perhaps it surprised audiences, because it was such an intimate story, because we didn’t include, “Heck of a job, Brownie,” as people would expect in a film about Katrina to do, perhaps because the characters we focused on were not the Katrina survivors we saw profiled on the nightly news.

“Our online approach is less about promoting the film and making sales (that we leave to the distributors), and more about sharing new information and giving people something to do with that hell-raising energy the audience feels when they leave the theater.”

We think the film continues to resonate five years after the hurricane because Trouble the Water is not just about Katrina — it’s a film about navigating through hard times, through storms big and small, natural and man-made, and these are hard times for so many right now. We suspect that is why the film has reached well beyond the art house crowd and the festival circuit. The Bush Administrations and the conservative right led this country into some very, very dark times over the past three decades. They dismantled social services, gutted environmental protections, deregulated the markets, exempted the U.S. from international laws, and we are all experiencing the tragic consequences of those policies now. It makes sense that a film like Trouble the Water has appealed to audiences and critics alike.

Is there any difference between marketing a fiction film versus a nonfiction film online?

We’ve never marketed a fiction film online, so we can’t answer that question. But we worked hard to build a Web presence as part of our online engagement program, centered on our website. In addition to posting constantly updated news and reviews, a regularly updated blog, and background information about the making of the film, the website gives visitors opportunities to take direct action. One campaign generated nearly 30,000 letters to congress asking lawmakers to take action to create green jobs and sustainably redevelop the Gulf Coast. That campaign was developed with the Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign, Oxfam America, the RFK Center for Human Rights, and other partners who blasted their lists, as well, directing letter-writers to our online action page.

When did you realize your online marketing efforts were paying off?

Our online approach is less about promoting the film and making sales (that we leave to the distributors), and more about sharing new information and giving people something to do with that hell-raising energy the audience feels when they leave the theater. A great thing about online engagement is that it can be measured in numbers with tools built into the website, or with free tools like Google Analytics. So we know there have been over a million page hits on TroubleTheWaterFilm.com, and we know that tens of thousands of people signed up for our email updates, and we know exactly how many of those subscribers have responded to the direct calls for action (more than 25 percent), and so on. If there is a moment where we realized the power of the tool, it was when Hurricane Gustav hit the Gulf Coast in 2008. The film was in its first week of release and so was drawing more Web traffic than usual, and that morning we routed 15,000 Web visitors looking to help people forced to evacuate the Gulf Coast to our partner, the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation, which was providing immediate financial assistance on the ground in that very moment of crisis.

Given that so many filmmakers and studios are taking advantage of social networking, blogging, mobile applications and so on to promote their films now, how can filmmakers continue to distinguish themselves among the media noise?

Here’s what we did beyond the usual film promotion and marketing: Developed an online “Speak Out” campaign that allows anyone to use TroubleTheWaterFilm.com to send a letter/fax directly to their representatives in Congress to demand action along the Gulf Coast; launched the “Share Your Story” campaign to tell stories and involve our audience in content creation; launched an event module for community groups to add their event and use the site as a resource to RSVP, recruit volunteers for the event or follow up with reminders and information; created and circulated an e-zine about the film which contained content, new and old, and links for viewers to take action; and curated and published a variety of underexposed news articles and reports from partner organizations on the website’s news blog and Facebook page.

How important was the interactivity factor (Share your story… Host a screening… on TroubleTheWaterFilm.com) in getting the word out about your film?

The “host a screening” link on TroubleTheWaterFilm.com has brought in thousands of requests to organize community and/or educational screenings of the film — resulting in countless events at museums, places of worship, community centers, high schools, universities, and even the harder to reach “beyond-the-choir” organizations like civic and professional associations and government agencies. The distributor of Trouble the Water has told us that the scope of this institutional interest in a film exceeds anything it has seen in its 20 years as one of the leading distributors of independent films, and they credit the strategic outreach campaign for this.

You seem to have formed some strategic partnerships with other organizations. How important were those relationships in spreading your message?

By partnering with organizations at the forefront of Gulf Coast recovery, or groups leading the debate about social and economic justice, we’ve been able to leverage the film outside the theater to bring more attention to the underlying problems that remain along the Gulf Coast long after the floodwaters receded — the failing schools, record high incarceration, government accountability, and poverty. What happened in Katrina shined a light on the structural problems that give rise to all these problems, and it happens everyday in New Orleans, and it also happens in New York, and in every other community in the country. The partnerships give the audience new ways to get involved to make change.

Deal and Lessin’s Tips for Marketing Your Documentary Online
1. Build a Web presence in addition to a website
2. Harness the time, energy, creativity, thinking, and innovation of your audiences to engage with your content
3. Promote storytelling and involve your audience in content creation
4. Get your audience to take action and create tools that they can share with their networks.

NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Write A Tome For Social Change, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn?

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Jennifer Pullinger is a freelance writer and book and film publicist in Richmond, Va. Visit her at www.JenniferLPullinger.com or @JLPullinger.

Cheryl Brown has navigated the career jungle gym, honing her editorial know-how across both digital and print platforms. She is never one to turn down an interesting opportunity. For example, in addition to her coveted editor-in-chief role at Meredith’s Allrecipes magazine, she’s also a partner at a New York City bar, which gave her “a different perspective on an audience, what people do and what they need.” She even spent the first six months in the trenches, out on the floor — managing, hostessing and dealing with media inquiries. But her full-time baby, the print incarnation of Allrecipes.com, was recently released upon its loyal audience of home cooks. Brown shares her success story, her take on what makes print an enduring and unique art form, and she also serves up some advice for breaking into this competitive market.

Resume: Worked at Gourmet magazine for a decade, starting as an editorial assistant and working her way up to senior editor. Transitioned to managing editor of Disney’s Wondertime magazine, then to digital/editorial director at AOL, overseeing KitchenDaily.com and Slashfood.com. Arrived at Meredith in 2011 to oversee Recipe.com. Transitioned over to Allrecipes in 2013.
Birthdate: “I’m an Aries. Let’s leave it at that!”
Hometown: Westfield, Mass.
Education: Amherst College
Media mentor: “Colleen Curtis, who hired me at AOL. Her creativity and big-picture thinking is off the charts, but what’s really impressive is how she leaped among media platforms — she’s done magazines, newspaper, television and digital — and she’s a rock star because of it.”
Best career advice received: “Colleen Curtis said, when asked if you can tackle a seemingly insurmountable project, ‘don’t ever say no. Instead, say, sure, I can absolutely execute — it would take X, Y and Z resources to make it happen.’ Be upfront about what would be required to pull it off, even if you know those resources are as impossible as the request itself.”
Guilty pleasure: “I’m ashamed to admit I’ve become addicted Candy Crush. So instead of reading the Times or doing something useful or intellectual with my subway ride, I’m playing that damn game.”
Last book read: The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud
Twitter handle: @Allrecipes

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Tell me about your food-media background — how did you break in?
When I moved to New York City after college, I intended to go into book publishing. I had a very romantic vision of what that would be like, thanks to a summer internship at David R. Godine Publisher in Boston. Nothing was opening up at any of the big publishing houses, and I was panicking about money, so I took a roving internship at Condé Nast. You get to work at a bunch of titles; they move you around to wherever help is needed. I figured out pretty quickly that fashion and beauty weren’t going to be my thing, but I was enjoying magazine work and an editorial assistant position opened up at Gourmet, and I thought ‘Food and travel, that’s cool.’

How did your decade working at Gourmet shape your career?
Gourmet was really my seminal job that gave me the confidence to move forward with food editing. It taught me how to cook and how to ask questions. When I started recipe editing, it was terrifying because it’s such a foreign, specific world. Recipe editors knew I was pretty green and junior to start, and they would take my questions initially with a grain of salt, like, ‘Oh, she doesn’t know this’ or ‘She doesn’t know that.’

“All media brands want to be on whatever platforms their consumers are using. The Allrecipes.com consumer is clearly digital and mobile savvy, so in this case, print was the missing link.”

So I would take the manuscripts home and I would cook from them. Then I would go in to work the next day, armed with my questions. Being able to tell my editors that, ‘Last night I made X, and I struggled over this direction,’ they took on a whole new respect for me. My understanding of food and cooking and recipe editing went through the roof. For the first time, I really understood what a recipe is supposed to tell you.

People underestimate how challenging it is. Nowadays, you can pop onto YouTube and check how something’s done if you don’t understand it. But when I was at Gourmet, back in the day, it wasn’t that easy. Sometimes explaining something that’s so simple when you see it but trying to say it in words is really challenging.

Describe the unique model of Allrecipes. What’s your mission for the magazine?
Allrecipes is one of the first magazines born out of a website — it’s reverse engineered, so to speak. All media brands want to be on whatever platforms their consumers are using. The Allrecipes.com consumer is clearly digital and mobile savvy, so in this case, print was the missing link. My primary challenge is to bring the Allrecipes.com community to life on the printed page. I have to make sure the conversations, the personalities and the real-life vitality are coming across loud and clear. The second layer is to constantly reinforce the relationship to the site and spotlight all the things that Allrecipes.com is known for, while still bringing in new content. It’s a crazy fun project.

Do you think this web-to-print model will become the standard in the future?
I can’t say whether it’s the future or not, but I do think that all media brands are going to be exploring options like this one. There’s so much talk of being on all platforms, but print is very much an active platform and I think it’s not to be overlooked. The opportunities are different, and the way it serves the consumer is different.

“Print is very much an active platform and I think it’s not to be overlooked. The opportunities are different, and the way it serves the consumer is different.”

It’s so funny, having worked in both mediums. Digital is about utility, about finding what you need right away, getting a lot of ideas and instruction quickly. I think what print speaks to is a little more of — I don’t want to say leisure time, because I don’t think anybody has leisure time these days, but I think magazines bring a curation to the table that other platforms can’t do in the same way. Nobody can do photographs like magazines. Magazines don’t have to be driven by SEO, so they’re able to bring attention to really interesting stories or unusual topics. In my magazine, I call them hidden gem recipes: recipes that maybe don’t have 9 billion page views, but they’re still really good and I think people should know about them.

What career advice would you give to journalists hoping to break into food media?

Don’t be afraid to try something that isn’t part of your intended ‘career plan,’ and don’t avoid jobs or tasks you think are at a level below where you currently are. Some of my most important learning moments came from trying things that had nothing to do with my day-to-day job. For instance, when I switched from print to digital, my world was rocked in a lot of ways. I remember learning to program a website. I sat down and I had no idea how to make it go live, how that even worked. So I was doing entry-level programming and coding that any assistant can do — they were actually all doing it better than me because I was learning. But I have a completely new skill set and career path because I took that chance with digital.

Also, I think it’s always helpful to do tasks that your staff is doing, because then you fully understand what the effort level is and you can be a better manager. But also you really know whether a task is really so difficult that it takes that much time, or if somebody is just not being efficient. You honestly don’t know unless you’ve done it yourself.

And I have to say, in reference to all those stops in my career between Gourmet and Allrecipes, working for a few mass-market brands was a step in a different direction, too. But actually I think those experiences put me in a good place for this position, helped me understand what the average home cook needs and wants, because the truth is Allrecipes is the whole country. It truly is all of America.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.

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Toby Daniels is an entrepreneur with a passion for emerging media, technology and open innovation. He is the co-founder and CEO of New York-based Crowdcentric, whose mission is to help people and organizations effectively collaborate and share information in order to create a more open, connected and sustainable world. The company achieves its goals via media conferences, digital marketing and by developing web and mobile products that help businesses thrive in the areas of communication and technology.

Crowdcentric Media, a division of Crowdcentric, runs Social Media Week, a worldwide event that captures, curates and shares ideas, trends and best practices on social media’s impact on business and society. Over the past six years, Social Media Week has expanded to 26 cities around the globe, exploring the cultural and economic impact of social media and gathering more than 6,000 media impressions.

The theme of this year’s Social Media Week, which kicked off in cities, including New York, Milan and Tokyo, on Feb. 17, is “The Future of Now,” a reflection of our always-connected lifestyle.

Mediabistro recently caught up with Daniels to tap into the Crowdcentric philosophy and get a sneak preview of this year’s Social Media Week.

Name: Toby Daniels
Position: CEO and founder of Crowdcentric
Resume: From 2000 to 2009, managing director of Online Creative Communications, a London-based interactive agency. Came to the States in 2006 as a rep for social design firm Mint Digital and soon headed up the company’s U.S. launch, acting as director of business development from 2007 to 2009. Created Social Media Week in 2009 and founded Crowdcentric in 2010. Daniels, a regular contributor to a number of nonprofit organizations, serves on the senior board for CampInteractive, which empowers at-risk, inner-city youth. He’s been featured by CNN.com, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, the BBC, PSFK and Fast Company.
Birthday: Aug. 11, 1976
Hometown: London
Education: University of West London
Marital status: Married
Media mentor(s): Seth Godin
Best career advice received: “Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are. Take a look at my team and you’ll see what I mean,” he said.
Guilty pleasure: Triple IPAs
Last book read: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, by Leander Kahney
Twitter handle: @TobyD

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What is the Crowdcentric approach to social media?

We believe in a genuine and consistent approach. We approach new platforms not just with interest but also with an understanding that any platform we invest in requires a full investment. You can’t engage halfway; so, each platform receives solid and consistent attention and strategizing for ensuring we’re being respectful to our audiences on it. We also strongly believe in creating something of value. We can’t be there to hear our own voice; it has to be a presence that we know will create something for our community.

Can you describe Crowdcentric’s involvement in crowdfunding initiatives? Where is crowdfunding headed in the future?

We believe crowdfunding is a huge potential for us all. Businesses no longer need to rely upon big banks, but it puts their future into the power of the community. As a collective, we can decide what we want to see succeed. What’s remarkable is that studies show that those invested in crowdfunding tend to be discerning and accurate judges of what will succeed.

“Crowdfunding is a huge potential for us all. Businesses no longer need to rely upon big banks, but it puts their future into the power of the community.”

We believe crowdfunding will expand personal projects. With the further expansion of the JOBS Act, businesses will slowly start to optimize this, engaging their communities in more tangible ways, with rewards consumers care about. This is why we have a host of events during SMW focused on crowdfunding, from looking at crowdsourcing real estate with Prodigy Network to having [filmmaker and actor] Pawan Kumar talk about funding your dreams.

After Social Media Week we will be announcing the launch of new project that will build on the CROWDFUNDx conference we hosted in New York City in July 2013.

What inspired you to create Social Media Week and when did you know it was a success?

I had a simple goal of bringing people together to share ideas for how social media was changing society, business and culture. Inspired by the presidential election in 2008, for which social media played an integral role, I wanted to make the conversation about the societal changes that social media could bring about, as much as the business and cultural implications.

For us, knowing that we have hosted more than 5,000 events in more than 30 cities around the world and brought together more than 100,000 people offline, while reaching millions more online and through social and mobile — that is success. We’ve seen local teams convene government officials in Lagos, Nigeria; musicians and actors in Los Angeles; technology entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley; brand marketers in the UK; and agency heads in Bogota, Colombia, who have connected, engaged and shared their experiences and expertise with the rest of the world.

Content marketing seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. Is it a passing fad or here to stay?

It’s the way forward. With an information abundance, brands need to make their content relevant and crouch their marketing more in what their audience cares about. It’s not just product placement but giving your consumers something they care about. We know it’s the future, which is why we’re working with Percolate for a half-day track specifically on the topic this SMW.

“Communication technology unites us, relays news equally with opinion, transports us to worldwide events and shrinks distances between our relationships.”

Why is building trust and personal relationships with customers increasingly important for today’s social networks?
All relationships are built on trust. Without it, there is not a relationship; it becomes just transactions then. So, whenever you’re engaging with someone, online or off, you must be thinking about the long-term relationship. Zappos is a great example. It’s not about whether they lose money on return shipping. It’s about ensuring their customers feel like they are a part of something important and will always get what they need out of it.

In an interview with SocialTimes, you mentioned emerging trends, such as wearable technology and “the quantified life.” Can you expand on this concept?
Our lives are becoming increasingly digitalized and we can use this to improve our lives. What’s great about wearable tech is that it can allow for tech to get out of the way of our lives, while gathering data. The more we know about our habits, our tendencies, the better we can structure our days, lives for success in relationships, work and health.

What else does Social Media Week have in store for us in the “Future of Now?”
“The Future of Now” is an inclusive theme — all of us are struggling with the appropriate balance in our lives. Communication technology unites us, relays news equally with opinion, transports us to worldwide events and shrinks distances between our relationships. We’re tuning into events that we’ve never before been able to access and witnessing other people’s experiences unfold in real time.

Our latest video really highlights what we’re wanting to discuss at SMW.

Christie Barakat is a freelance writer based in Florence, Italy. Follow her on Twitter @christiebrkt.

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A quick perusal of the millions of eBook titles available online can leave an ambitious writer caught between laughter and tears: Although it’s amusing how much dreck is out there, the equally vast number of quality reads can be disheartening to a new self-publisher hoping to break in. How do you know if boarding the eBook train is a good move for your career, or if you’re better off pursuing a traditional book deal? Like most conundrums in this crazy industry, the answer is it depends on your personality, your goals and the type of writing you do.

Before you decide you want to digitally self-publish, ask yourself these questions:

1. Are you an entrepreneur?
Self-publishing requires an entrepreneurial spirit: you must be as much a visionary as you are a businessperson. Kim Bookless, a Chicago-based publishing consultant, editor and writer, states that “having a vision of your book’s purpose, your goals for the book and your audience determines the entire publishing strategy.” If you can’t see the big picture, self-publishing may not be for you.

2. Are you a control freak?
One common thread among industry experts regarding the positive side of self-publishing is how it gives you total control. Diana Burrell, co-author of The Renegade Writer and self-pub guru, sums it ups: “I’m a control freak. I love everything about [self-publishing]: Picking out my covers, working with editors. I like having my fingers in all those pies. If you like bringing a whole project together, you will love self-publishing.”

3. Do you have the means to hire a team of professionals to help you?
Whether you’re independently wealthy or you have a killer fundraising strategy, successful self-publishing — the kind that strengthens your career, that is — isn’t cheap.

4. Do you want to make money?
Although there’s no guarantee your eBook will sell, digital self-publishing makes much more sense from a business viewpoint than waiting years to get a book deal with a traditional publisher. Orna Ross, author-publisher and founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, says that self-publishers “don’t tend to be the kind of writers who say, ‘I don’t care about money.’ Writing can be about craft, but publishing, while it can be highly creative, must succeed at a business level.”

5. Do you have the time, energy and availability to write and market a book?
Where traditional publishers will handle the end-to-end production of your book, a self-publisher must have the energy and time to oversee every stage himself.

6. What are you true goals?
David Gaugran, indie author and blogger, says, “Writers get so obsessed with finding an agent that representation becomes the goal. They forget that’s just the first hurdle.”

After that, your book gets passed to editors, marketing teams, sales teams and booksellers — and there’s a good chance your book may fail at any of those crossroads. If you need an agent and a traditional publishing house, rather than readers (and yourself) to verify your awesomeness, are you writing for the right reasons? Gaugran urges writers to consider, “why don’t you pick yourself, instead of waiting to be picked?”

“Digital self-publishing makes much more sense from a business viewpoint than waiting years to get a book deal.”

Bring the right people on board.

Just because you may have the means and desire to self-publish, doesn’t mean it’s a foolproof way to boost your writing career. To get that competitive edge, there are a number of pre- and post-publication steps you can take to bring in money and influence with your eBook.

The best decision a writer can make before debuting an eBook is to hire people to help. Burrell explains, “That’s the thing a traditional publisher would do for you, but as a self-publisher, you have to do it yourself.” Your creative team should include a copy editor, proofreader, cover designer, marketing expert, publicist and an attorney.

And although it may be tempting to save money by asking your teenage son to tinker around on Paint and design a cover for you, don’t. “There are certain things only a book designer knows,” says Bookless. “For example, a designer may have gone to art school and may design an awesome-looking cover. But you’re looking at it full-size. It might look terrible on a thumbnail.” If you’re really pressed by budget constraints, Bookless urges you to, if nothing else, invest in an editor first and cover designer as a very close second.

However, Gaugran recommends you self-publish direct, rather than using a self-publishing company. With a self-publishing service, even one born from a large, reputable publisher, “at best, you will lose key aspects like the ability to make quick price changes, and you won’t have live sales reports. At worst, you will get scammed by one of the vanity presses masquerading as a self-publishing company.”

It’s true: because more people are self-publishing, more scams are cropping up. Bookless says, “Depending on the company, they may jack up the printing cost, or they charge more for the book to balance it out. Some of them will try to take a portion of your royalties, or upsell you. I’ve seen people spend $20,000 or more. It’s amazing how many people get taken in by that kind of thing.” Bookless recommends visiting the Preditors and Editors website, Writers Beware or the BBB to check if a company is reputable. Even simply Googling a company name alongside the word “scam” or “ripoff” can help.

“If you need an agent and a traditional publishing house, rather than readers (and yourself) to verify your awesomeness, are you writing for the right reasons?”

Have a marketing strategy.
You should also allow your marketing plan to develop organically, and early. “Think about how you will reach readers as you write your book,” says Ross. “See your marketing as a natural extension of your other writing. Do what you love — it’s much more likely to win your readers than trying to do things for the motive of trying to win readers.”

Once your book is out, your work has just begun. “Get out there, do social media, get a website. You have to do a big push and be prepared to tout your book,” says Burrell. However, she warns, don’t go overboard by spamming your friends, family and followers. “It’s good to let your friends know, but it’s not good to drive them crazy.”

Getting your book noticed in a sea of eBooks may seem challenging, and in some ways, it is. But Burrell offers this encouragement: “There are wonderful, traditionally published books that get overlooked by all the big authors. It’s less likely to happen with self-publishing. If you have a good marketing campaign, you get the books into the hands of readers who can do pre-release reviews — that’s going to help you.” She mentions the algorithms within the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites, and how they will push popular books with reviews and word-of-mouth appeal to the top of their rankings so they’ll sell better. “It’s just a very democratic way to sell books,” she says.

The bottom line.

Despite the work and upfront cost involved with digital self-publishing, the verdict among experts is overwhelmingly positive: The eBook is a great way to start, or boost, your career as a writer. Ross states, “I think it is a better for the author to self-publish first. Then when you have established a platform, if you still want to be trade published you can have those conversations with the publisher from a much firmer foundation.”

Gaugran agrees. “There’s no question in my mind that a new writer is better off self-publishing. If you look at the [traditional publishing] package offered to most debut others, they will have to sink or swim on their own. They’re not going to be on the front table at every Barnes & Noble, they’re not going to get a serious push, but they will be handicapped with a high price tag. The writer will be the one that’s expected to reach readers and, if you have to do that, you might as well self-publish and earn 70 percent royalties.”

Finally, Burrell mentions the economical logic of self-publishing for the working writer. “[Traditional publishing] is really not a living wage. However, if you can write quickly and get your books out there, if you’re good at what you do and you’re resonating with people, you can actually make a pretty decent living off your self-published work.” She adds, “it’s like the Wild West out there, and it’s fun, if you’ve got that kind of personality.”

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter @AmandaLaymanLow.

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NEXT >> 6 Ways to Effectively Market Your Book

I stand outside the lecture hall with my laptop bag while a small crowd gathers in the hallway around me. We’re at the Self-Employment in the Arts Conference in Springfield, Missouri, and we’re waiting for the current session to end so we can file into the classroom for the 1 p.m. session on writing for the web.

This time, I’m not an attendee of this conference. I’m a speaker, and the web writing session is mine.

It’s surreal, especially because I don’t look any more accomplished or knowledgeable than the writers gathering near me at the door. There’s a man with a briefcase. A briefcase, people. I think everyone assumes he’s the speaker. I suddenly regret my rainbow-striped laptop bag.

But when the former session lets out and everyone files in, I take my place at the podium and pull out my note cards. When everyone settles down, I clear my throat and begin. The room is silent except for my voice. By no means am I an expert in public speaking (I’ll need a briefcase for that, I think), but my first professional speaking gig taught me tons about myself and what makes for a good presentation.

Know thy audience.
Maybe it should go without saying, but knowing your audience is essential to both speaking and writing. In the same way you wouldn’t try to sell your 101 Cupcake Recipes book to a gluten-free health fanatic, the success of your speaking gig depends largely on your audience’s needs. Though it’s impossible to make everyone happy, get a feel for your crowd’s energy before you begin. Ask the event coordinator for information on the event, or if it’s a recurring conference, ask about last year’s turnout. Get specifics: How old are the attendees on average? Gender? If it’s a conference, what types of writers are in the crowd? What level? If you’re speaking at a bookstore or college far from home, consider the political and religious affiliations of the geographic area.

“You should give your audience a head’s up about your content early in your speech by weaving your main points into a digestible thesis.”

I asked my audience at the SEA Conference to state their names, type of writing they do, and current profession, and discovered that a third of my audience was made up of students at Evangel University. As a result, I made a mental note to substitute a talking point involving an article I wrote on atheism with an article I wrote on parenting. Not only did I potentially avoid offending a third of my audience, but getting a feel for each person’s writing genre allowed me to tailor other pieces of advice to fit their ambitions. Occasionally referencing specific people in the audience as you talk (“Which applies to you, Joe, since you write fantasy novels!”) makes things cozy and personal. Plus, it keeps people alert.

Have a structured presentation.
As a common courtesy to your audience, I think it’s a good idea to be as transparent as possible about the structure or duration of your speech. For my session, I offered eight practical tips for earning money as a writer for digital publications. I provided handouts listing each of my tips, with a little room under each for notes. Having this structure, and having it out in the open, prevents any misunderstandings about what to expect from your speech.

Of course, not all speaking gigs fare well with list-type formats. Keynote speeches, motivational or humorous speeches often require a little more artfulness, which may be stunted by a rigid “step one, step two.” But you should still give your audience a head’s up about your content early in your speech by weaving your main points into a digestible thesis.

Regarding your use of media and other resources, do what’s comfortable to you. If the thought of all of the variables of setting up a presentation rich with media makes your chest tighten, go low tech. On the other hand, using PowerPoint or video clips or Shakespearean thespians to do dramatic reenactments can ease your nerves, especially if you’re the introverted type who hates having all eyes on you.

“If anything about your talk bores you, cut it or change it. Just like in your writing, you can’t expect someone to be interested in what you’re saying if you’re not.”

Practice… but don’t go overboard.
If you haven’t done a ton of public speaking, your instinct may be to practice over and over, for days on end. While it’s important to rehearse your presentation aloud to uproot and replace awkward phrases, I’ve found that my sweet spot is three or four full rehearsals. Beyond that, I second guess myself, I get bored with my own content and I start panicking over little things like my pronunciation of words.

If anything about your talk bores you, cut it or change it. Just like in your writing, you can’t expect someone to be interested in what you’re saying if you’re not. Finally, the best pointer, and one that you probably remember from Public Speaking 101, is to never write out your speech word for word. Limit yourself to a couple of note cards with bullet points for reference. Usually, if you’ve been invited to speak somewhere, you know your material, so trust yourself. You’re not a fifth grader making a speech on Alexander Hamilton. You’re a professional who’s excited to share her expertise with an eager audience.

Realize you don’t need to have all the answers.
Although I’ve only spoken at one conference, I’ve attended enough literary events to know there’s always going to be one curmudgeon, one audience member who either knows everything or hates everything, including your face. And if you’re the speaker, they’re probably going to ask you something.

My curmudgeon wasn’t terrible, but she sensed my uncertainty on a particular topic — making money on one’s personal blog — and dug deeper. “So how do you make money from blogging, then?” she asked me. I nodded, apparently mulling over the wording of my confident, educated answer, but this is what my internal monologue looked like: Crap. What did I read about blogging for money a month ago? Something about selling a product? Google Ads? Right, growing an audience, platform — ugh…

“Even if the only crowd you ever address is your local writers’ group, knowing what you might face at your first speaking gig can relieve some of the tension you may be feeling.”

“Honestly,” I told her, “I haven’t done it, so I can’t tell you how. I’ve only written for multi-author blogs with budgets big enough to pay writers. I do remember learning that it’s best to write about one specific topic, and update your blog regularly, so you can grow an audience and develop your platform for future books and articles. But there are entire books written on blogging for profit, so I’d look into those.”

The great thing about events like these is that you don’t have to have all the answers. If you really have no idea, I’d suggest you don’t pretend like you do. Most people have pretty good BS detectors and you’ll look arrogant if you completely make something up. Another option is to crowdsource your answer. Not only does this open up the entire room to learn from one another, but it takes the focus, and pressure, off you.

Enjoy the experience.

Embrace any opportunities you have to speak to a group. If you write fiction, you may be asked to read excerpts or make speeches at book-signing events. If you’re a nonfiction writer, you may be invited to speak at gatherings pertinent to your topic of expertise. Book authors are required to speak constantly when they’re on tour. Even freelance article writers often bring in extra income by taking on speaking gigs (plus it’s an excuse to travel, sometimes with expenses paid). Even if the only crowd you ever address is your local writers’ group, knowing what you might face at your first speaking gig can relieve some of the tension you may be feeling.

And when it’s all over, you may surprise yourself. I felt exhilarated by my presentation, convinced for a few moments that public speaking was my calling. And as my audience cleared out, my curmudgeon actually thanked me, as did one of the Evangel students. And another young girl came up, shook my hand, and said, “Thank you. That was interesting but also really practical. I was joking to my friend that I’d need caffeine for this session because the speaker at lunch was really boring, but you kept me awake!”

I’d missed the lunch speaker, so out of curiosity I opened my pamphlet to see who it was. What do you know. It was one of my very own audience members: the man with the briefcase.

Amanda Layman Low is a freelance writer and artist. Contact her on Twitter
@AmandaLaymanLow.

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NEXT >> 10 Surefire Ways to Not Suck at Skype or Webcam Interviews

Janet Mock first felt the stirrings of storytelling’s transformative power when she was a young girl in Honolulu stalking literary icons like Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan and Zora Neale Hurston in the Kalihi-Palama Public Library stacks: She knew she needed a notebook to capture the overflow of thoughts and feelings that the words elicited. Years later, after accomplishing her childhood dream of moving to New York and becoming a writer, she gained national and international attention when she shared that she is a transgender woman in a 2011 Marie Claire profile. Mock has since used that spotlight to give greater visibility to the devastating injustices faced by the trans population, availing herself of every opportunity to advocate specifically for young, low-income trans women of color.

Mock believes that the conversations facilitated by storytelling can deeply affect social movements. In 2012, her Twitter campaign #GirlsLikeUs gave trans women an open forum to connect and share their stories. Her recently released memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, is her ultimate act of storytelling thus far. “Creating this work taught me that [I am] enough, that [I] deserve to be heard and affirmed,” she said.

Mock’s recent appearances on Piers Morgan Live and the ensuing contentious debate about Piers Morgan and his show’s language regarding Mock’s trans background are a striking reminder of why she feels it is so important to educate the media and public at large about trans people. In an emailed statement about that incident, Mock told Mediabistro that, “The show framed our conversation with problematic language that showed their lack — and our culture’s lack — of understanding about trans people’s right to define themselves. It’s problematic for media professionals to use terms and words that we do not use to identify ourselves. What we must do is give people the freedom to declare themselves and define themselves.”

Read on for our conversation with Mock about her memoir and her mission.

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Name: Janet Mock
Position: Writer, activist and author
Resume: Started her career at People.com, where she was a staff editor for more than five years. Left to focus on her writing, public speaking and advocacy centered on trans women of color from low-income communities. Has made televised appearances on shows, including Melissa Harris-Perry and Piers Morgan Live, and her commentary has been on BuzzFeed, NPR, Colorlines, The Huffington Post and more. Has received accolades from the ADCOLOR Awards and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, among others. Board member at the Arcus Foundation, a global social justice organization; is an advisor for the media site Youngist; and has served as a consultant on programming for trans youth at New York’s Hetrick-Martin Institute. Her memoir Redefining Realness was published on Feb. 4, 2014, by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster. She is also the founder of the Twitter campaign #GirlsLikeUs, and creator of the Redefining Realness Storygiving Campaign (the initiative to donate copies of her memoir to low-income trans people raised $2,500 in two weeks and garnered 127 book orders) and the user-submitted storysharing project I AM #RedefiningRealness.
Age: 30
Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii
Education: BA in fashion merchandising from the University of Hawaii at Manoa; MA in magazine journalism from New York University
Marital status: Single
Best career advice received: “I’d say it would be [Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and poet] Alice Walker. And it’s not necessarily like she told me this directly, but she said, ‘Write all the things that you should have been able to read.'”
Guilty pleasure: The Real Housewives
Last book read: Bone Black by bell hooks
Twitter handle: @JanetMock

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When did you know you wanted to be a writer and a storyteller?
It was in a public library in Honolulu, where I grew up. I remember I was sitting in the stacks and I was trying to look for Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. And [there was] that sense of reflection that not only was I feeling Maya Angelou’s story, but also that sense that there’s so much coming up and welling up in me. And I felt I needed to have a notebook while reading. Because it wasn’t my book… so I couldn’t write in it and I didn’t have money to buy books anyway. But I knew I could get paper and I could start writing my thoughts down… I was in the fifth grade. And I knew that words would be my refuge and words were where I could create a composite of the dreams and the life that I wanted to live, and really write about my reality and bring words to that.

Describe your early journalism career in New York.

At [my] internships a lot of it was in the fashion closet and packing up boxes and writing shipping labels and assisting editors with products. I was like, so I definitely don’t want to work at a women’s fashion magazine. And then I was rescued, I think, by the online world, which was slightly different. It’s not like how it is now.

“It’s problematic for media professionals to use terms and words that we do not use to identify ourselves. What we must do is give people the freedom to declare themselves and define themselves.”

People.com was a stepchild of People magazine, which was the juggernaut. They were creating… the mold and creating what social media is and communicating [immediacy] to readers… And so that’s how my career was. It was sitting in a cubicle. I wasn’t a features editor. I didn’t write long-form pieces that I thought I would be writing. I was writing smaller blurbs, learning to sharpen language, and communicate what readers actually wanted and how to entice them to click on things without sensationalizing.

Storytelling is a common theme in your life. How did you develop your voice to make it adaptable to the different social media platforms that you use it on?
That’s what I learned from working at People.com for more than five years. You just know that people want certain things when they’re looking at certain spaces. Twitter is more about creating small conversations… Facebook is a lot more photos. Instagram is all photos… It’s about creating conversations outside of just getting [people] to click on your story. Because sometimes the conversation will then lead them to the story and to further engage with your work.

[S]ocial media has been a way for me to not only raise the visibility of this marginalized group of women, young trans women, it was also a way for me to get people to understand or at least know someone in their life that’s trans, which oftentimes [is] me. I’m the first trans woman that many people meet through social media. So it’s knowing that that’s not just an interaction in which I’m broadcasting, it’s also an interaction in which I interact with their content through Twitter, through Facebook, through their blogs and YouTube and all of this stuff.

Why and how do you encourage other trans women to share their stories?

It’s not enough for me to tell my story, it’s also [important] to then create spaces for these young women to share their stories. And so that’s why I started the hashtag #GirlsLikeUs. That’s why I started the storysharing platform [I AM #RedefiningRealness] on Tumblr.

And so it’s just constantly creating opportunities for others to share. Not just for me to talk at them, but for them to have a conversation with me. I think that’s where a lot of media platforms get it wrong. They think that you talk at people, and there’s no value in talking at people. There’s a lot of value and growth in conversations and that’s how you can move social movements forward.

“[S]ocial media has been a way for me to not only raise the visibility of young trans women, it was also a way for me to get people to understand or at least know someone in their life that’s trans.”

What has been the most personally gratifying outcome of all of your trans community advocacy work?

I feel like I have those moments every day. For so long I think that trans peoples’ stories have been told by journalists or by other people telling us what our lives look like and then warping that and not telling it in totality. But now, with social media and the tools that come with being able to buy a computer and a couple of free programs online, you can create the content of your own life. And I see that every day online through Twitter, through YouTube. Trans people are telling their own stories. Unfiltered. Away from the gatekeeping of media professionals who have good intentions but oftentimes just want to entice readers with sensationalized stories. Instead, now trans people are creating the record of their lives… I feel like that’s a monumental success.

In October, you spoke on a panel with bell hooks at The Ohio State University, and you realized she had read your entire memoir the night before and even quoted passages from the book during the discussion. Tell us about that experience.

That moment was just surreal for me. Period. I studied bell hooks’ work, I looked at her theory and it’s just shaped me. A book like Feminism Is for Everybody, I read that one first. And then I fell even deeper in love with her when I read Ain’t I a Woman? because so much of that intersected with my sense of womanhood as a young trans woman of color… but then to have her have this transformative experience through my book because she carried my story with her, it was profound for me. It was a great dream enough to just share a space with her…

I hope that the book is what she calls it, a life map for transformation. That it does change minds and it gets people to see trans people and their identities as not something that’s foreign, [but as] something that we’re all striving for. We’re all striving for authenticity and to be loved and affirmed as exactly as who we are, you know. And I think that that would be the ultimate goal for me. [That] someone reading this… would feel transformed and also moved. Not so much to advocate for trans people, but to challenge the media’s and pop culture’s perception of trans people as jokes and punchlines and tragedies. We’re so much more than that. That would be the greatest goal or the greatest dream to be fulfilled with the book.

“We’re all striving for authenticity and to be loved as exactly as who we are. And I think that that would be the ultimate goal for me… that someone reading this would feel transformed and also moved.”

In a recent interview, you mentioned that you had considered being a showrunner. What would your concept for a show be?

For me, it would be kind of like… Living Single or Girlfriends. Something like that. It would definitely be a women-centered show about, maybe like bell hooks says, bringing the margin to center. You know what I mean? Like centering a story of a trans woman, but [so that] her ‘transness’ is not what defines her. I would like to create a show… that really shows the lived experiences of being someone that’s told her womanhood is not real or valid. That would be powerful. But just to have her doing fun stuff. Really living life where everything is not about transness or gender 24 hours a day.

I just think about something like [the web series] Awkward Black Girl. Just creating a show out of nowhere. That would be fun for me. Another dream is to have a conversation series, a space where I sit and hear stories and share conversations with other people, and give space to other stories. Cause at the end of the day that’s what I do. I’m a storyteller, I’m a writer and I would like to find out how to do that in different platforms outside of just the written word.

Do you have any last words of wisdom for the storytellers out there who want to make a positive impact?
Anchor yourself in your own experience and write from that place. And you’ll find your voice. You’ll find out what you want to do. You’ll find your purpose. And I think that everything comes out of that. It’s [about] being able to sit still with yourself and really excavate those parts of yourself that were shut off or silenced or put into the dark a long time ago. I know that when I actually sat down with myself to do that work… that’s when my life began transforming.

Janday Wilson is a storyteller based in the greater New York City area. You can find more of her work at jandaywilson.com.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Terry McMillan, New York Times Bestselling Author?

Having just celebrated his 61st birthday at the beginning of September, Phil Hendrie is acting more like a 20-something entrepreneur these days. He’s knee-deep in relaunching The Phil Hendrie Show as a “cartoon” and growing the subscriber base for his recently fully upgraded website philhendrieshow.com.

All on the heels of six years with a syndication service that, by Hendrie’s own admission, did a terrible job of marketing his program. Now, together with a small crew and group of fictitious on-air cohorts, he’s intent on reclaiming his place in terrestrial radio.

As a result, Hendrie has tabled for the moment his pursuit of on-camera acting and voice-over work that had him popping up in 2012 in everything from New Girl to the animated version of Napoleon Dynamite. He’s now on the producer side, getting ready to pitch an animated project developed with a TV series veteran.

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Name: Phil Hendrie
Position: Radio personality, actor, voice-over artist, entrepreneur
Resume: Like so many popular radio personalities, Hendrie has had an itinerant career. He began his radio odyssey as a disc jockey at WBJW 1440 AM in Winter Park, Fla., a suburb of Orlando. Fifteen years and a number of stations later, he decided he didn’t want to spin records anymore. Beginning with a weekend show on L.A.’s KFI 640 AM, he made his way eventually to introducing his first fictional character on air at KVEN-AM in Ventura, Calif., during the Gulf War. Raj Feenan’s vociferous defense of Saddam Hussein inflamed callers and the rest was radio history. Hendrie went national with Premiere Networks in 1999, retired briefly from radio in 2006 to pursue acting full-time and is now back at it. His acting credits include King of the Hill, Team America: World Police and This Is 40.
Birthdate: September 1
Hometown: Arcadia, Calif.
Education: One year at Pasadena City College to earn an English degree
Marital status: Single
Media mentor(s) : None
Best career advice received: “Always prep your show as if you’re not going to get one call.”
Guilty pleasure: Reese’s Miniatures
Last book read: Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, by Joseph Plumb Martin
Twitter handle: @realphilhendrie

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Where do you tape your new radio show?
I’m in a place called Channel Islands Beach, which is close to Ventura [California]. We’re about 40 miles north along the coast from Los Angeles. What I call the land of fog and sea lions, because that’s what we get a whole lot of — fog and sea lions.

I have a studio on the beach, about three blocks from my home, in a leased office. That’s my radio base. We have our studios there, my radio company is headquartered there. It’s a great set up, the new reality, you know?

How big is your crew?
On the air, it’s just me, our technical director and our maintenance engineers. Our technical director, C.J. Wheeler, is at our remote studio, which is in Washington, D.C. We don’t have the capability to automate our commercials yet. I’m working on digitizing our studio, so we can do that, but in the meantime, we use the remote studio in D.C. and then the show is up-linked to the satellite.

There’s also the person who will someday be my partner; right now he’s kind of our operations manager: Alex Cohen. He’s also my stepson. Alex is one of those guys who’s kind of a genius in every area, he’s technical and he knows marketing. He’s my closest adviser on how to move the business forward on all fronts.

“If I get any sense that these are people playing along, they’re gone. As well-meaning as some of those people may be, it always makes for a bad call.”

What is the current format of your show?
The show has changed dramatically, out of necessity. It has evolved from phone callers calling in to talk to a created person that they think is real to what I call a cartoon. The reason for that is that over the years, for a number of reasons, we’ve lost the churn necessary for these callers.

The caller base has dried up, but that’s not because the show concept has dried up. I did a year on weekends on KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles and we were getting phone calls every weekend. There were no warm bodies out there for the national show because the affiliates that we had basically had no listeners. Basically, the quality of affiliate dropped in the last six years. So that’s one thing that we’re having to build back up. We just got back on in Sacramento, which is huge. We got back on in New York. We need to be on in other markets like Miami and San Diego and Chicago, but we need to be on stations that have good listener bases.

[Now] we’re doing characters interacting with me in a radio play that’s improv-ed, that is a full-on satire of talk radio. I have a panel — Margaret Grey, Bud Dickman and Robert Leonard — all characters I’m doing interchangeably, and they’re all on the air with me and we’re discussing things… And we never get to what we want to discuss, because they’re taking things personally, and people are farting in the studio, and somebody’s got to go to the bathroom. We’re turning the whole thing into one giant clusterf*ck.

And then we bring on guests, which are also characters that I’m doing. Taking the whole thing and turning it into a radio party, with me playing all the characters. The callers will eventually return. We had one actual live caller on Friday — yaaay! — which beat the heck out of the five previous nights. As we get into the right markets, we’re going to pump in more of those calls.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jay Mohr, Comedian and Fox Sports Radio Host?

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Is there a danger of people eventually all cluing in to what you do? The secret being fully out, so to speak, and not being able to fool callers anymore with your characters?
No. As I said, when I was on KFI for a year starting in 2011, we had phone calls. We had people who knew the act and tried to sneak in, like they do. The talk show caller today may have a little bit more savvy than they used to, but I believe that there is also a large portion of people that are media “un-savvy” because of the Internet that are coming into the game now.

In terms of people knowing my act, yes, more and more people know my act. But nowhere near the number that you would think. And you can become famous, internationally, and people can know your name. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they know exactly what you do.

The honest information here is that we were on the air for six years with a company that did a bad job of supporting our show. From affiliates to sales to everything. We were put on stations that had no listeners. And that station list was not maintained very well. And so on and so forth.

How do you handle callers that are in on the joke, when they call?
If I get any sense that these are people playing along, they’re gone. As well-meaning as some of those people may be, it always makes for a bad call. You’re better off getting rid of those calls. I’ve had that sense ever since we started doing the show 20, 30 years ago. That there are people who want to call up and play along. And they always get hung up on.

What kind of person is signing up to your website at $9.99 per month?
Those are fans. Those are people who totally get the show and love it and want to be a part of it, regardless of the generation. We have a generation of new fans who don’t know about the phone caller aspect as much as they just know that I do all these character voices. Those are stone-cold fans and that is stone-cold money. That’s about as direct as it gets in my business in terms of making revenue.

“There may be a day when radio revenue comes up to digital. But for now, it’s the digital money that’s wagging the dog.”

If you want to be real honest, the radio show is a billboard for the digital business. My subscription business makes really good money. The radio show right now, and for the last six years, has not. Radio just in general is in the sh*tter. So, what can I use my radio show for? Well, I can use it as a billboard for digital, which is exactly what we do. Now there may be a day when radio revenue comes up to digital. But for now, it’s the digital money that’s wagging the dog.

What about the TV-film side; do you have any projects you’re working on for those media?
Yes, I’ve kind of gone in a new direction. I’ve partnered with Angela Frame, she’s an animator and a project manager in the animation world. We have developed an animation narrative show. We have partnered with Starburns Industries in Burbank. We have a fully developed show that we’ve attached a couple of huge names to. I’m not currently at liberty to say who. And we’re now going to go out and pitch it.

This is where I feel my theatrical efforts should be focused. It’s a really good product, a really funny show. One of our executive producers is Justin Roiland, who is a co-creator of Rick and Morty on the Cartoon Network. He’s a great guy. I worked for him on Rick and Morty, I asked him to executive produce for us. So he’s with us.

It’s based upon a world that you know, and it’s well written. And there [are] a lot of options and [opportunities] out there, even the large number of new platforms that are out there for video. Whether it’s Netflix or Hulu or all of these smaller places, there [are] tons of places for content. It’s such a wonderful world out there; anybody who has an idea, who’s creative, you’re in a pretty good place. It’s definitely a seller’s market in terms of creative stuff.

We started writing it back in February. The next step is pitching. It could be a half-hour or more like Paul Scheer’s National Terrorism Strike Force, which I worked on. That’s a 15-minute live show on Adult Swim. It’s pretty interesting the way stuff is being delivered and the ways people are consuming content.

Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlNY.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jay Mohr, Comedian and Fox Sports Radio Host?

While other Big 6 publishers were reporting losses and massive layoffs, she propelled Grand Central to the #1 spot for trade paperback bestsellers. From discovering Nicholas Sparks to scoring titles from Stephen Colbert, the late Ted Kennedy, Lady Gaga and The Family Corleone, the forthcoming posthumous novel from Mario Puzo, Jamie Raab’s tenure as publisher at GCP reads like a Who’s Who of newsmakers.

Yet, the business of books is changing (or crumbling, depending on who you ask), and this seasoned publisher isn’t oblivious to the effect that the digital revolution is having on her bottom line.

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Name: Jamie Raab
Position: Publisher, Grand Central Publishing; SVP, Hachette Book Group
Resume: After receiving a degree in city planning, got an entry-level position in the publicity department of Ballantine Books. Took a detour into editing for Family Circle, then became senior editor at Warner Books (now Grand Central Publishing). Rose up ranks before being named publisher in 1997.
Birthday: August 6, 1953
Hometown: Elkins Park, Pa.
Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania. Summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Marital status: Single (widow)
Media idol: Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher, “because they are smart AND entertaining”
Favorite TV show: Downton Abbey
Guilty pleasure: Spending time in the Hudson Valley, movies, yoga
Last book read: The Marriage Plot
Twitter handle: @GrandCentralPub

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Grand Central has done remarkably well in comparison to the other Big 6 publishers. What’s the secret to being a great book publisher today?
It’s a combination of things. Hachette has poured millions of dollars into upgrading our systems, which sometimes helps us do our jobs better. We’re better marketers than many publishers. I think we have some of the best covers; I’m a big believer in the power of a cover. We have a lot of veterans, who understand the unique mentality of this company, and new people in the digital realm. It’s a really nice combination of old and new. And the final thing is you’ve got to pick books really well, because you can hype a book to the ends of the earth, but if people read it and don’t love it, that hype’s not going to take you too far.

There was much ado about the leaked Hachette memo that explained why publishers are still relevant. Some saw that as a real indication that publishers must feel threatened by the new wave of eBook authors. What is your take on that letter?
I agree with absolutely everything in that memo. We’re not just a distribution chain. I do believe curating is important. And I really do believe that we nurture talent by working hard, and we pay advances that offer writers the time and luxury they need to write the book they want to write. The truth is writing and putting a book out into the world is only a small part of it. If, as a writer, you want to spend the time going to the different distribution channels and marketing and doing publicity yourself, that’s less time you have to write. Look, we’re aware that many authors are choosing to e-publish, that they can make money quickly. We know there’s a lot of competition and whenever there’s competition, you’ve got to prove your value.

“The most important thing an author can do is have his or her book in on time.”

The standard Grand Central contract for eBooks for most authors is 25 percent. How is that the best rate when authors can hire their own editor and cover designer and do the bulk of the marketing themselves?
I guess I don’t buy that at all. I wish that people could come in and see what goes on in a publishing house day by day. Some of the books that you think are so-called small books, I’ve got to tell you, we spend a lot of our time meeting about the books, big and small, and making people in-house read them. We have big marketing meetings and small. We’re not just throwing books out there. That’s so far from the truth. Anyone who thinks that, I wish they could be a fly on the wall at least in the house I work for. There is a whole company working for you. We start marketing, in most cases, a year in advance before a book comes out. The most important thing an author can do is have his or her book in on time.

There are a lot of people in this kitchen. We have an infrastructure that we have to support. You still need the editors, production department, marketing resources, and the artist who designs the book. Everyone thinks that there isn’t a lot of manpower involved in putting out an eBook. There’s more to it than most people ever consider.

If you want to make money quickly and put a book out there and price it at 99 cents so that it becomes enticing, I understand! You can build an audience. Some authors are climbing the Amazon list but, when a publisher approaches them, more times than not, they choose to go with a publisher.

Do you see that royalty rate increasing any time soon?
That’s being discussed all the time. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think that as the business changes, that could be one of the things that change too. Some people say that 70-90 percent of all books will be eBooks. Is it somewhere in between? I don’t know. There is certainly going to be enormous growth over the next four to five years, and that’s going to affect everything. For now, people forget that 80 percent of books are print books. An author on his own cannot get his book into bookstores and, if he does, can’t get the attention to display it. The publisher can.

You are credited with discovering Nicholas Sparks who has since written countless New York Times bestsellers. Tell us about that experience and why you were so convinced of his talent.
I was senior editor almost 17 years ago and a manuscript came to me, called The Notebook from a new agent named Theresa Park. It was a very slim book, and I read it quickly and thought, “This is the most moving story.” It was right at the time of Frankfurt [Book Fair], and when my boss came back I said, “You have to read this.” And she loved it too. We pre-empted it for a lot of money. This very new green agent turned out to be a master negotiator. I was a little terrified because of how much we paid for it, but we were just dead set on getting the word out, and we did very successfully. The rest is history.

“Some authors are climbing the Amazon list but, more times than not, they choose to go with a publisher.”

Nicholas Sparks is known to be very loyal, but are you concerned that big authors such as him will opt to keep their eBook rights and publish on their own?
I think about that a lot because I know it’s on authors’ minds. And I think it’s incumbent on every publisher to do a better job than they’ve ever done before — more creative on marketing and eBooks, working in partnership more closely with their authors, keeping them in the loop, publishing more strategically. We have to work harder than ever to prove there’s a lot of value in an editor and publisher and their relationship with an entire publishing house. You can’t underestimate the importance of editing. I have seen books go from mediocre to good and from good to great because of the relationship between the editor and author. Nothing annoys me more than when I hear them say, “Oh, editors don’t edit anymore.” That has never been my experience with the editors on my team. We owe it to the authors to make the books as good as they can be.

You started your career in publicity. What changes have you seen in the number of outlets that are available for reviews?
In many ways, it’s harder than ever. Used to be, you just get someone on a major TV show, and voila! You’d have a hit! It’s more complicated than that now. Social media is becoming really important. It’s a combination of doing everything. There’s so much happening that, to stand out, you just have to try everything. You just have to get the book in front of people in as many ways as you can, because there is a lot of noise out there, and you just have to do everything possible to get noticed. We have digital publicists now who are focused on bloggers, and they’re working very closely with our authors. We’re also sending galleys out through NetGalley and coming up with interesting online promotions. We still advertise, whereas some publishers don’t. It’s always been my theory to have all your ducks in a row.

There are a lot of changes in publishing happening right now, and I can’t say for sure how this will affect the structure of publishing houses in terms of sales departments or publicity and where more resources are going to. I know that we’re doing everything we can to stay ahead of the curve.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Nicholas Sparks, Bestselling Romance Novelist?

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Jeff Rivera is the author of Forever My Lady (Grand Central) and a GalleyCat contributor.

Carole Radziwill has had one roller-coaster life. She reported from war zones, covered the Menendez murders, interviewed movie stars and produced numerous award-winning stories in more than a decade of working for ABC News. That’s where she met fellow producer Anthony Radziwill, a prince in a line of Polish royals and the nephew of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, whom she wed in 1994.

Tragedy struck when Anthony died of cancer in August 1999, just three weeks after his cousin, John F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife Carolyn (Radziwill’s best friend) died in a plane crash. Radziwill incorporated that painful summer into her 2005 best-selling memoir, What Remains, a candid account of love and loss.

Radziwill is a full-time author now, with her first novel — a roman à clef titled The Widow’s Guide to Sex & Dating — out today. But reality-TV junkies probably know her best as one of The Real Housewives of New York City, which launches a new season on Bravo next month. So how does she explain jumping on board a show best known for catfights and drunken brawls?

“You have to say yes to what the universe puts in front of you, even if it seems counterintuitive at the time,” she says. “I’ve gotten much more carefree and reckless and wild as I age. I’m the opposite of conventional wisdom.”

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Name: Carole Radziwill
Position: Journalist, author and cast member of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York City.
Resume: Started her career at ABC News in 1989 working for Peter Jennings’ documentary unit, reporting from Cambodia, Haiti, India and Israel. Also produced segments for 20/20, Primetime Live and Day One; her work earned three Emmy awards, a Robert F. Kennedy Humanitarian Award and a GLAAD award. Spent four weeks filming with the 101st Airborne Division during the 2001 Afghan War, before leaving the network in 2002 and writing What Remains. Columnist for Glamour magazine, interviewing celebrities and newsmakers such as CNN’s Anderson Cooper, actor Alec Baldwin and rocker Jon Bon Jovi. Joined the RHONY cast in 2012.
Birthdate: Aug. 20
Hometown: Suffern, N.Y.
Education: Bachelor’s degree from Hunter College; MBA from New York University
Marital status: Widowed
Media mentors: Peter Jennings, Diane Sawyer
Best career advice received: Trust your instincts.
Guilty pleasure: Watching bloopers from newscasts, game shows and other programs on YouTube. “It really makes me laugh and puts me in the best mood.”
Last book read: Undisputed Truth, boxer Mike Tyson’s recent autobiography. “When you read the book, you realize there’s a tremendously deep-feeling person under all the Iron Mike façade.”
Twitter handle: @caroleradziwill

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Congratulations on your first novel. Are you nervous about how it will be received, particularly since your memoir spent more than three months on The New York Times best-seller list?

When I was writing the memoir, I thought it would be so much easier to make it up. Then when I started writing this, it was so much harder to write fiction because the only limitation is my imagination. I think fiction says as much about you as a writer — and as a person — as memoir does. So I’m extremely nervous. It’s like giving birth to something that you care about very much, like a little child. But of course… you don’t really get celebrated like you do when you pop out a kid!

Writing your memoir must have brought up a lot of painful memories.

I started writing it four years after the summer of ’99, and maybe I’m romanticizing it now, but I feel like it was a beautiful thing to get that story down on paper. I can look at it and read passages now and smile. It’s true about time — it’s a cliché, but it’s true — that it can heal a lot. This wasn’t emotional in that way, writing Widow’s Guide. I had more laughs doing this.

How much of the novel is based on your own life?

Everyone thinks I’m (the main character) Claire! As a writer, all characters are both real and imagined. There are parts of this person and that person: some friends from high school, and this one date here, another there.

“When I was writing the memoir, I thought it would be so much easier to make it up. Then when I started writing this, it was so much harder to write fiction because the only limitation is my imagination.”

Writers have their real life and their imagination, and sometimes the two just blend. But I’m sure every guy I ever went out with will think he’s the love interest.

There are a lot of dating rules in the book. Do you have your own No. 1 rule when it comes to romantic relationships?

I don’t have that many rules, but I think the No. 1 rule that women should generally abide by is that you can’t have sex with a man until he thinks he’s in love with you. Certainly there are stories of women who’ve slept with their boyfriends on the first date, or second date and they end up getting married. But I guarantee [those men] thought [they] were in love. Men really believe in love at first sight and fate… women are much more practical. I’ve had a couple of boyfriends I knew by the second or third date, they were thinking, ‘I think I’m in love with this girl.’ You know they’re not; they’re in love with the idea.

You said until a man “thinks” he’s in love — not until he actually is in love.

It’s a big distinction. He just has to think he is. Men oftentimes think they are before they actually are. This French philosopher has this [theory] that’s kind of about that. He called it ‘crystallization.’ It’s the moment a man crystalizes a women in his mind as the object of his desire. That’s the moment he thinks he’s in love. Sometimes it happens instantly. I’ve had boyfriends who’ve said, ‘I loved you the minute I met you.’ And you’re like, ‘No, you didn’t, but OK.’ But he definitely believes that he did, and that’s cool. That’s one of the differences between men and women.

This is a busy time for you, with the novel’s release and a new round of Housewives premiering March 11. Did you have to think hard about signing up for another season?

I’ve been working since I was 13, and at the end of the day, I’m a single girl with bills. I tend to look at things as job opportunities, so that’s how I thought of it, and it worked out pretty well the first season.

“When I signed up to do the show, I made a commitment to be honest about my life, what I do and who I am. I thought everyone else made a similar commitment, and it turns out that they didn’t.”

The second time around… it was much more work for me. But I knew I had this book coming out, and it’s not enough to write anymore; you’ve got to hustle. And I thought: It’s a TV show. I’m not thinking about getting married or having a child, something that would really change my life. It’s a TV show and life goes on. So I said, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’

What’s the most shocking thing that’s happened to you so far on the show?

Believe me, from a scale of 1 to bat-s*** crazy, this season is bat-s*** crazy. The drama that involves me involved another woman on the show making up a lie about my career, and then trying to sell it as industry gossip. That was an eye-opener for me. I thought: You can’t air that. It’s completely made up. It’s not true. Then to turn to the producers and see them smiling, saying, ‘We’re not looking for the truth. We’re looking for drama.’ And [you realize], wait, this isn’t 60 Minutes.

Was that a huge surprise, after spending so many years behind the camera as a news producer?

It was, and shame on me, because it’s an entertainment program and not a news program. But when I signed up to do the show, I made a commitment to be honest about my life, what I do and who I am. I thought everyone else made a similar commitment, and it turns out that they didn’t. That’s OK — my bad. But there’s gossip and then there’s outright lies. I feel like we’re all in it together in a way, but clearly, there are people who are just looking out for themselves.

Backing up a bit, how did an Emmy-winning journalist end up on reality TV in the first place?

I think journalists are all attracted to spectacle, whether it’s war, politics or cultural phenomenon. I’m also an experience junkie and this was an experience. It’s something I’ll do for a few years, and when I’m 80, I’ll look back and say, ‘Oh, that’s why I did it.’ If it’s the worst thing I ever did in my life, I’m OK with that. But I don’t think it will be.

Heather Salerno is a freelance writer based in the greater New York City area. Follow her on Twitter @heather_salerno.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Lola Ogunnaike, Freelance Journalist and TV Personality?

Veteran editor Bonnie Fuller is the queen of magazine makeovers: She’s famously reinvented some of the industry’s biggest titles, including Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and Star. Most notably, she turned a struggling Us Weekly into a huge newsstand hit, creating the title’s now much-copied rainbow-bright palette, exclamation-point-laden headlines and signature sections like “Stars: They’re Just Like Us!” That achievement earned Fuller both praise and disapproval: Gwyneth Paltrow once called her “the devil” for single-handedly ramping up public interest in celebrities.

Either way, no one can deny that the hard-driving Fuller knows how to attract an audience. Four years ago, she transferred that remarkable skill online, with the launch of entertainment-news website HollywoodLife.com. According to Internet analysis firm comScore, the website’s visitors increased by an impressive 66 percent in the past year.

Fuller herself makes no apologies for being fascinated by the lifestyles of the rich and famous. “Women have been interested in fashion and beauty role models since the dawn of time,” she says. “They paid attention to Queen Elizabeth I’s hair and what Marie Antoinette wore before she got her head cut off… so it’s not a new obsession.”

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Name: Bonnie Fuller
Position: Founding president and editor-in-chief of HollywoodLife.com

Resume: Editor-in-chief of Canadian teen magazine Flare before moving to New York to lead YM, where she grew circulation from 700,000 to over 1.7 million. Established American edition of Marie Claire before being named editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, succeeding the iconic Helen Gurley Brown. Took over Glamour in 1998. Twice named Editor of the Year by Advertising Age for revamping Cosmo and Us Weekly. Served for five years as executive vice president and chief editorial director of American Media Inc., overseeing AMI’s weekly and monthly magazines, including Star, Shape and Men’s Fitness. Launched HollywoodLife in November 2009. Author of The Joys of Much Too Much: Go For the Big Life – The Great Career, The Perfect Guy, and Everything Else You’ve Ever Wanted. Contributor to The Huffington Post, the Today show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and others.
Birthdate: Sept. 8, 1956
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Education: Bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto
Marital status: Married with four children
Media mentor: Hearst’s former COO Gilbert Maurer. “He really gave me my first big break.”
Best career advice received: “Have a career and have a big career was my mother’s advice.”
Last book read: A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin. “I’m in the midst of reading the whole Game of Thrones series. I can’t wait to get home and read a few pages every day. It’s work, too, because we cover Game of Thrones intensely when it’s on, so I’m really getting prepped for next season.”
Guilty pleasure: Chocolate and powder skiing
Twitter handle: @BonnieFuller

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You were well known for transforming women’s magazines and tabloids before being hired to do that at HollywoodLife. What’s your secret to successfully overhauling publications?
My first secret is not being afraid of change. I never was afraid to upend the apple cart if I felt it was necessary. I was always a big reader of the magazines I was editing, so I felt familiar enough with them and knew what I wanted to read… I’ve never been able to read magazines with type that is so dense without subheads, pictures and pull quotes. It’s just too hard on my eyes. Maybe I have bad eyesight! But I’ve never been able to read those magazines. It has to be enticing. It can’t be formidable. So that’s guided me. Plus, I want to be entertained as well as learn things, and my instinct was that other women wanted that too.

You spent your entire career in print before HollywoodLife. Was it difficult to leave that for an all-digital platform?
I was excited about being able to write and report stories in a completely timely fashion. It was actually my decision to leave [American Media]. I wanted to create this women’s destination. I knew what I wanted to do; I just had to find a way to do it. Initially, I looked into raising money and launching my own media company, but it was during the great recession, so that didn’t turn out to be the best time for raising money from investors. Then I met Jay Penske [CEO of PMC, which owns HollywoodLife.com, Deadline.com and other lifestyle websites], who already had a digital content company. He had the name HollywoodLife and needed a concept for it, and I had a concept and knew how to edit. That’s how we partnered up.

“[Jay Penske] had the name HollywoodLife and needed a concept for it, and I had a concept and knew how to edit. That’s how we partnered up.”

What’s the biggest difference for you in editing a web-only outlet?

You get even less sleep. Seriously. You can’t predict when news is going to happen. It doesn’t stop when you leave the office, and it doesn’t stop on the weekends. At HollywoodLife, we put up 70 posts a day. We’re trying to lead news by breaking stories, and we break stories every single day — exclusive stories. When news breaks that’s of interest to our audience, we’re very much at [its] mercy. It’s not like we can go, ‘Oh, we’ll write about that tomorrow.’ We’ve got to write about it now.

There are critics who say our culture is too obsessed with celebrities and gossip. Some even argue that this trend contributes to a dumbing down of the nation’s young women, your site’s target audience. How do you respond to comments like that?

I just sigh. It’s ridiculous. Young women today are brighter and more news-focused than ever, and a large reason is because they are on their digital devices all the time. Yes, they’re interested in big celebrity news, like when Kanye West proposes to Kim Kardashian in a stadium, or when someone they care about like Cory Monteith [of Glee] dies.

But equally, when major news happens in the world, they’re very interested. Election night was huge for us. When we put up the post about Obama becoming president, we got huge traffic. Our third biggest day ever was the Boston bombing. They wanted to know everything about what was happening, and we did a tremendous amount of reporting on it.

Young women today are extremely informed. I don’t think that because they have digital devices and can easily look things up on the Internet makes them any less intelligent than any other generation.

“Young women today are extremely informed. I don’t think that because they have digital devices and can easily look things up on the Internet makes them any less intelligent than any other generation.”

The site just had its four-year anniversary. What’s been the best day on the job so far?
I really love the nights we’re here in the office covering one of those big awards shows. They’re exciting because unexpected things can go on. Nobody expected Miley [Cyrus] to twerk like that at the VMAs! You can’t make this stuff up. It’s fun. Celebrities are doing their thing, and you’re covering a live event, and your audience is completely interacting and appreciating it. That’s a good high.

What advice would you offer to those interested in breaking into celebrity journalism?
The biggest advice would be to have digital skills because I think the world is only going to go more digital and more mobile. Now, I don’t believe magazines are going to go out of business, but even magazines all have growing websites. So if you want to have a long career in this business, you have to be prepared to have those skills. The second thing would be that every rule used in normal journalism should be applied to celebrity journalism. Just because you’re dealing with celebrities and news about celebrities doesn’t mean you don’t apply a high standard. You should apply the same level of quality journalism skills to the topic of celebrity as you would to any other topic.

Heather Salerno is a freelance writer based in the greater New York City area. Follow her on Twitter @heather_salerno.

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NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jane Pratt, Editor-in-Chief of xojane.com?