Success Stories: Patrick O’Keefe

I met my friend Patrick O’Keefe at the South by Southwest Interactive conference this fall where we were both speaking and I interviewed him for BlogTalkRadio. We met online sometime before that, however. Through Twitter we discussed community and social media and Patrick asked if I would like to read and review his terrific book, “Managing Online Forums.” I did and I’m and learned so much.

I invited Patrick to be the second interview subject for our Success Stories series because he took his passion and used it leverage a business and write a book. I feel the community here can benefit from Patrick’s experience pitching, writing and promoting a book. I hope you enjoy his story as much as I do.

Tell us about Patrick O’Keefe

I’ve been professionally developing websites since 1998 and run the iFroggy Network, which is my network of websites covering various interests. I’ve been managing online communities for more than 9 years now and my passion for doing so led me to write “Managing Online Forums.”  It’s a practical guide to managing online forums, communities and social spaces. I also speak at conferences and events about online community, social media and related subjects.

What is iFroggy Network

iFroggy Network is really the banner brand for my sites – all of the sites I run fall under the brand and cross promote each other where appropriate. It includes sites like phpBBHacks.com, KarateForums.com, PhotoshopForums.com, Bad Boy Blog , YanksBlog.com and more.

Why online forums? What is so great about them?

What’s so great about Twitter? Or social networking? Or the internet itself? I like all of these things. It’s not so much a competition between the new and cool and forums, but that they all fit together. Forums are, at the most basic level, a text based communication platform that is threaded. This is a great means of communicating and one that many prefer.

In fact, Forrester Research released a survey last year where they asked 10,000 U.S. consumers about their participation in various forms of social interaction online. They found that more people read forums or discussion groups than blogs and that more people contribute to a forum or discussion group than comment on a blog.

Why did you decide to parlay your love for forums into a book?

In addition to my network related duties and managing online communities, I also write a lot. I felt that I could help people with my knowledge and sharing it in a book form just appealed to me greatly because, even though most of my reading is done online, I love the book format and I wanted to see if I was up to the challenge.

Take us through the process, was it difficult to query publishers? Were you turned down at first?

I don’t know if I would say it was difficult to query publishers (most have the info on their website), but yes, I was turned down – many, many times.

I pitched myself at first and I pitched maybe 12 or so publishers. Some interest here and there – but, in the end, it didn’t work out. After that, I asked my friend Jeremy Wright if he’d introduce me to his agent (Jeremy had just launched “Blog Marketing,” his book from McGraw-Hill) and he did and I signed with the agent, Neil Salkind. And then Neil probably pitched to 80 publishers or so… 79 nos and 1 yes. But, that doesn’t mean anything, honestly. You just need one person to believe.

Did you use an agent?

Yes, and I definitely recommend that people have an agent. Having a good agent is well, well worth it. You don’t have to have one and you can do great, it’s not really a matter of that. It’s not a requirement. But, having a good agent can make things go faster, can increase your chance of success and can help you to generate more money.

Neil helped me improve the manuscript and to do things that would help attract the publisher, he pitched the work and knew the people to pitch to and how to best present it and, when it came time to negotiate, he raised my advance and added a bunch of nice provisions to the contract, as well. So, it’s definitely worthwhile.

Tell us about the book writing process from beginning to end? What is it like starting a book project from scratch?

For me, it took five years, but I took my time and went slow. I wanted to write the book first as I wanted to make sure I could actually write something long enough to be a book. This ended up working out even better because, when you are an entrepreneur and run a business (or even if you have a demanding job), you can’t just throw it aside for 3-6 months and say “hey, I’m just going to write a book!” and be at the behest of the publisher’s schedule.

How I started, when I decided I wanted to try, was to make a list of notes – things I wanted to talk about. I would literally be managing my forums and I would do something, maybe I would deal with a challenge or some slimeball and then I would think “I should write about that!” And I’d make a note. Eventually, that list of notes grew quite long. I organized it into chapters and wrote them out.

I then went through various revisions. I’d write new notes and incorporate them. I’d read through the whole work and adjust, remove, add and edit where I saw fit and, after many iterations, I finally saw fit to pitch it. I discussed that earlier, but once I did sign on with the publisher, it was about a year until the book was available. We went through a few different stages with editing – development, copy editing and final editing. Even though I turned in a “finished” work, there was still a lot to do and a lot to improve that helped to create the finished project.

So, if you are looking at it from concept to publis hing – it was five years.

Did you ever get discouraged?

Discouraged, not really. Disappointed, yes, sure. It’s hard to receive tons of nos and not get a little disappointed. But, I always felt it would be published and because of the amount of work and honesty I put into it, I hoped that it would be well received and that it would help people.

What types of promotion do you have to do in support of your book?

This is the case for most authors these days and I was no exception: I am most of the marketing. I booked nearly all interviews I’ve done. I set up nearly all review copies that AMACOM has sent out. I e-mailed hundreds of people, one by one, from the host of the smallest podcast, to a reviewer for a major publication, just introducing myself and asking them if I could please send them a copy of the book. I do everything I can.

What has the response been like for “Managing Online Forums?”

I have been really blessed. The book has been very well received. I have received amazing praise from people from all walks of life, all backgrounds and levels of experience. From people just starting their first community to social media veterans and people who have been managing forums for a very long time. It’s been humbling and I am truly grateful.

Did you have an interest in writing before your book?

Yes, writing is something I’ve been doing for many years, through my network and elsewhere. I write for a few blogs and have written articles and guest posts for other publications, like SitePoint and ProBlogger, many times.

Any more books in the works?

I would like to do it again. I have some ideas that I’m playing with, but nothing that is concrete or that I’m ready to pitch, let alone talk about. You have to keep in mind that I told maybe 3-4 people about the idea of my first book, outside of publishers, before I had a contract in my hand. I didn’t even tell my family. I’m a little superstitious, I guess you could say. I hate to talk about something – and not do it. But, we’ll see.

What is next for you?

Managing my network is what I see for now. I’m working on getting into direct ad sales as a means of increasing my income. I also hope to get more into speaking and start to do some paid speaking, if I am given the opportunity.

What is Patrick O’Keefe’s definition of success?

There are a lot of answers and it depends on what we’re talking about. I think that creating value is a good one because if you create value for people, you are successful and it’ll come back to you.