Business
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but I’m working on book chapters for a nonfiction assignment. Specifically, I’m providing the chapters on nutrition and fitness for a new book on self care. Cool, eh? So I hope you’ll forgive me if I point you toward an interesting blog post today instead of attempting to write one myself. Today’s best bet: Read Janet Reid’s post on making mistakes by defying conventional wisdom, HERE. Then come on back and tell us what you thought.
I liked this, too, from this week’s Writer’s Almanac:
It’s the birthday of the woman who wrote under the name Isak Dinesen, born Karen Dinesen on a rural estate called Rungsted near Copenhagen, Denmark (1885). Her grandfather was a friend of Hans Christian Andersen. Her father committed suicide when she was 10 years old, and she spent the rest of her childhood in a house full of women: her mother, her grandmother, and all her aunts. As a girl, she loved listening to stories about Danish mythology, ghosts, or the magical powers of women.
As a young woman, she and her husband moved to Africa to try being colonial farmers. In order to pass the time there she wrote her first collection of short stories, Seven Gothic Tales (1934). The book was full of wild, magical tales. One story is about a group of people telling jokes while trying to survive a flood. Another is about a woman who exchanges her soul with an ape. Dinesen said, “Truth is for tailors and shoemakers. … I, on the contrary, have always held that the Lord has a penchant for masquerades.”
Read MoreBetter late than never, but Bookseller.com reports some interesting trends in YA fiction from the Bologna Children’s Bookfair:
Fiction, especially series fiction, remained strong. Maeve Banhan, RH rights director, said: “It feels as though there is a definite move away from fantasy.” Instead publishers have been taken by the realism of a contemporary teen story from RH, Keith Gray’s Ostrich Boys, which has attracted strong interest in central and southern Europe, according to publicist Clare Hall-Craggs.
At the same time, Hodder reported exceptional translation interest in a futuristic debut novel, The Carbon Diaries by Saacci Lloyd, “a strong fiction title about a time when carbon is rationed, set in south-east London”. Davies said: “Horror is the new fantasy – there is still life in a dark, gothic romance,” adding that publishers were looking for “high-concept, fresh mystery” and strong contemporary fiction for girls aged 8-12.
HarperCollins held a one-hour presentation to showcase its ambitious plans for its new Bella Sara property, which combines books, trading cards and a website on a fantasy/horse theme, and by the end had two proposals on the table from major European publishers, said brand and properties director Claire Harding. HC also reported international appeal for its Magic Ballerina series with Darcey Bussell, and for David Walliams’ forthcoming novel, Boy in a Dress.
Doesn’t mean that your great fantasy WIP is dead, but that the YA market has finally reached saturation point in this genre.
Read MoreSo I’m gearing up for the paperback release of The Department of Lost and Found, which basically doesn’t mean that much since most of the promotional push goes to the hardcover release, but one thing that will catch readers’ eyes is that I have an entirely different cover for this version of the book. At first, I was aghast. Now, I’ve changed my tune a bit. Here’s why and how the changes came about.
When the hardcover jacket (at right) was created, I was asked for my input and thoughts, and I was tremendously grateful for that. I sent over a list of books whose covers I admired, and savvy detectives might notice that as a result, The Department hardcover is a near exact blend of the covers of The Myth of You and Me and The Dive From Clausen’s Pier. The process was somewhat collaborative (from what I understand, not all writers receive this privilege), and we all declared this cover both stunning and marketable. And to me, it was. The rub was this: it was marketable, at least according to the folks at HarperCollins in hindsight, to a very specific demographic, namely, my demographic: urban, willing to pay for hardcovers, well-heeled, etc, (no wonder I loved it!) and missed the boat for a lot of readers for whom the words inside might resonate but for whom the cover did not.
Hrmph. That’s what I thought when they sent me the image of the paperback cover. (Well, I thought a lot of other things, but they’re not printable right now.)
With time, however, I’ve come not only to accept the new cover, but I’ve even come to like it…
Read MoreMore fallout continues over Amazon’s powergrab in the print-on-demand segment of publishing.
The American Society of Journalists and Authors, the nation’s trade association for freelance nonfiction writers, announced that it “is disgusted with Amazon’s announced move requiring that all print-on-demand (POD) books sold on Amazon’s site be printed by their own print-on-demand house. Authors Guild Looking at Antitrust Issue of Amazon’s POD Plan.”
Writer Beware posts the Author’s Guild position on Amazon’s decision:
We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors — since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher’s gross revenues — and publishers.
Of course it is. Can there be any doubt?
Publisher’s Weekly on PMA’s announcement to push back:
PMA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, has added its voice to those against Amazon’s move to make publishers print their print-on-demand titles through its BookSurge subsidiary in order to sell directly through the Web site. In a statement released yesterday, PMA executive director Terry Nathan said the policy “imposes a significant financial burden on tens of thousands of small and independent publishers who can least afford it. Without the opportunity to benefit from competitive pricing, small publishers risk at best an expensive and needless overhaul of their manufacturing process, and at worst, the loss of their livelihood.”
Looks like writers and small publishers are taking this to the mat.
More newsworthy links can be found on the WU’s Google Notebook, including who won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in fiction, a writing contest for Harry Potter fans that’ll have them drooling, and the latest on Border’s financial woes.
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Two weeks ago in North Lauderdale, Fla., funeral services were held for Russell Shaw, a prolific blogger on technology subjects who died at 60 of a heart attack. In December, another tech blogger, Marc Orchant, died at 50 of a massive coronary. A third, Om Malik, 41, survived a heart attack in December.
The NYT article outlines the grim reality of writers who make their living from blogging: traffic generates ad revenue.
Blogging has been lucrative for some, but those on the lower rungs of the business can earn as little as $10 a post, and in some cases are paid on a sliding bonus scale that rewards success with a demand for even more work.
There are growing legions of online chroniclers, reporting on and reflecting about sports, politics, business, celebrities and every other conceivable niche. Some write for fun, but thousands write for Web publishers — as employees or as contractors — or have started their own online media outlets with profit in mind.
One of the most competitive categories is blogs about technology developments and news. They are in a vicious 24-hour competition to break company news, reveal new products and expose corporate gaffes.
I’ve noticed this trend not only in technology blogs, but political blogs, gossip blogs, and fashion blogs…among others. The pressure to load fresh content on an hour-by-hour basis can literally kill bloggers. I don’t know how Perez Hilton does it by himself.
Getting paid to write whether it be on a blog or a magazine or newspaper is one and the same to me, and good blogs rely on good writing. Therese and I take pride in Writer Unboxed, and the posts we and our contributers write. We hope we add something useful to the public discourse about genre fiction.
But you might notice something about us that’s different from other blogs: we don’t have ads.
Read MoreIt’s something I joke about, but it’s true just the same: It’s a good thing I’m a freelance writer who receives regular assignments or I’d be playing Tetris all day. Query? Shop around? Try to charm a new editor? No, no, please no.
So you can imagine how I feel with regards to marketing my fiction, where I don’t even have a strong writing portfolio to point at, just a passion. Can’t someone just do it for me? Please? I’ll give you my pinky toe.
No?
Well, hell.
I finally sent a mass of queries off last week, and I’ll continue this week. Why the setbacks? General life stuff, mostly, details of which I’ll spare you. But the other big issue (aside from fear of rejection and crushed self-esteem issues that I’m loathe to admit) is that I didn’t have a clear idea how to market my story. I wouldn’t go so far as to say my manuscript is ultimately Unique, because I know Eric will call me on it, but it wasn’t cakewalk for me to ID another work like it. My story is part family saga/ women’s fiction, part paranormal, part mystery… You get the picture. I have a fuzzy-genre manuscript. Who should I query? Who’d want to represent it? Who might be looking for what I have to offer? But I finally settled on a plan.
Read MoreI fell behind with the WU Google Notebook last week, but it’s updated now. Check the Notebook HERE for news. Here’s what amounts to probably the biggest industry bang: Amazon is making moves to elminate the middle man, publishing things onsite themselves instead of using on-print demand services. This has big implications for writers who utilize these services (less money for them in the end), but it also sounds warning bells for many. Richard Curtis sums up the possibly worst-case scenario:
Though Amazon’s ploy comes as a shock to publishers and authors, it did not come as a surprise to me. In the summer of 2005 Amazon.com announced the acquisition of MobiPocket, an e-book company, and BookSurge, a print on demand operation. A lot of ink was spilled on the MobiPocket deal but no one except me speculated on what it meant for a book retailer to have the capability of printing books on demand. In a guest editorial in Publishers Weekly, I wrote, “It’s hard to say for sure what is behind amazon.com’s acquisition of BookSurge, the on-demand book-printer. But any move the Nine Gazillion Pound Gorilla makes is worthy of serious consideration. Indeed, the implications of the deal, especially combined with amazon’s purchase of e-book company MobiPocket, are profound.”
The implications were so disturbing that PW’s editors urged me to tone down my speculations, which seemed to fall at the red end of the spectrum of possibility. Actually, I suspect that the editors were so freaked out that they went into denial. And who can blame them? In my editorial I spun the logic of Amazon/BookSurge to the max.
Here is the conclusion I reached:
Read MoreUh, oh. It’s looking bleak for the second-largest book chain in the US. Check out the WU Google Notebook for books & business news, including the scandal over a British author not allowed to enter the US; a movie and a degree for author Sandra Brown; the latest on the Audible-Amazon love connection; the book whose sale at auction resulted in a new world record and more.
Read MoreVia Dear Author, The Worst Agent in the World (TM), Barbara Bauer, is suing Preditors & Editors and their sister sites for libel. Dave Kuzminski, editor of P&E, posts on Absolute Write:
P&E is being sued by Barbara Bauer and by Victor E. Cretella, III, Esq. in two separate courts.
Ms. Bauer is a literary agent who alleges I/P&E called her a scam and a scammer and is suing for libel.
Mr. Cretella is an attorney for PublishAmerica. He alleges I/P&E harmed his reputation by reporting him to the Maryland State Bar Association and his former employer for his actions against a member of Absolute Write and is suing for libel.
Writers find P&E to be invaluable in helping them to steer clear of scam artists. It seems that the basis of the complaint is on behalf of PublishAmerica (remember them? Worst Vanity Publisher in the World (TM) ) and P&E’s lengthy chronicling of their abuses, which reads like a Fellini movie. Or a Jerry Lewis screwball comedy.
P&E needs help with their legal defense fund. Please visit HERE (scroll down a bit) and donate what you can.
Writers engaged in the agent hunt will recognize Barbara Bauer’s name. She’s listed on SFWA/Writer Beware’s list of the 20 worst agents or agencies. Does PublishAmerica and Bauer really want to air their dirty linen in court?
We’ll keep an eye on this story for you.
Read MoreThis picture pretty much captures how I feel today, which is why I can’t conjure up a thinking post. My cognitive abilities should return to normal after the Odyssey of the Mind competition is over. But I’m a coach. And the meetings are held in my house. And I’m surrounded by props and paint and wads of duct tape and strange gluey masses. Maybe the glue has migrated to my brain, I can’t say for sure, though at this point I won’t rule anything out.
Still, I can still give you some updates.
I had a terrific telephone interview this (see?) yesterday morning with the author of Save the Cat, screenwriting wizard, Blake Snyder. We talked screenplays, novels, genres, formulas, the Oscars and a little about adaptations. Look for it to begin, in at least two parts, starting March 21st.
Read MoreContinuing our examination of how the world of publishing is awakening to the power of the Intertubes (sorry, couldn’t resist), big daddy publishers have now come to terms with the fact that cyberspace is here to stay. Not only that, they are experimenting with ways to market and sell books online to harness the Web’s unbelievable reach, writes UK Guardian’s Nicholas Clee:
Three publishers have announced new web initiatives this week. HarperCollins has uploaded to its website the entire contents of several titles, including The Witch of Portobello by the hugely popular new age novelist Paulo Coelho and Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes and Making the Impossible Easy by Robert Irvine, who is described as a star of a US cable food channel. “It’s like taking the shrink wrap off a book,” HC chief executive Jane Friedman enthused. HC will make available a different title each month by Coelho, who has already gone beyond this strategy by offering links to pirated editions on his blog. You will not be able to download or print the HC texts.
Unclear yet is how both the author and the publisher plan to make any money off the initiative. Coupled with the fact that reading a book online is about as appealing as reading one on a t.v. screen, and, well, let’s just say bibliophiles are less than impressed.
Read MoreFrom Publishers Weekly:
Sourcebooks’s first-ever preempt has paid off: I Love You More, a fall 2007 title from the Naperville, Ill., house’s new Jabberwocky imprint, will hit the New York Times bestseller list for Children’s Picture Books on February 24.
Check out more books and business news at the WU Google Notebook HERE.
Read MoreThe WGA strike, that is. Via Nikki Finke:
SUNDAY 12:30 PM: At the WGA’s news conference today, union leaders declared the new contract is “a huge victory for us”. Trumpeted WGAW President Patric Verrone, “This is the first time we actually got a better deal in a new media than previously.” Verrone credited News Corp. No. 2 Peter Chernin and Disney chief Bob Iger, and also CBS boss Les Moonves, with “being instrumental in making this deal happen” after the WGA spent 3 months “getting nowhere” with the AMPTP negotiators and lawyers. WGA negotiating committee chief John Bowman added that, “What happened to the Golden Globes was instrumental in getting the CEOs to this table. It was a huge symbol.” Bowman said it was “imperative” that the WGA “get in on the ground floor of New Media. Henceforth, we’re in from the start. It’s 2% of distributor’s gross. They can’t have a business model without taking that into account.”
Great news on all fronts.
Read MoreLast week I posted about the effectiveness of online publicity and how professional book publicists were turning to online resources to market their clients books rather than using ‘traditional’ outlets.
Coincidentally, Victoria Strauss over at Writer Beware blogs about the decline of social networks as marketing tools and makes a good point:
Unfortunately, even as older strategies prove not to be magic bullets after all, newer strategies don’t supplant them–they merely expand the field of self-promotional activity, adding to the burden of non-writing tasks that writers must fit into their schedules. If you don’t know what works, you’ve got to do it all, right?
Strauss links to a provacative article in the Register that documents the recent drop in popularity of these social networks.
Maybe that’s good news for authors who are bewildered by the array of online promotional opportunities that they feel they must do in order to get the word out on their book.
So I’ll confess: I don’t visit MySpace or Facebook pages. Maybe I’m showing my age, but (rightly or wrongly) I think of them as places for teenagers to congregate and talk smack about each other. Maybe our readers can enlighten me.
I’ll pose a few questions: would you/do you use a social network to promote your book/writing/self?
Does it work to get the word out for you? Or is it more work than you thought?
A dying medium? Or is it ready to explode in popularity?
I’m interested in your thoughts.
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