Is This Really How You Want to Make Money?

Two years ago, I wrote a post here on April 28, 2007, in which I said:

So how DOES a publishing house justify its existence in a digitized world?

. . . While anyone may be able to produce an e-book, the failure of most self-published books is evidence that merely having a book is not enough . . . What I suspect is going to happen is that the lines between publisher, distributor, bookstore and author are going to start blurring. Unusual contracts among the different parties are likely to emerge.

Yesterday a piece in Publishers Marketplace reminded me of those words--and not in an entirely comfortable way:

. . . Thomas Nelson has launched a self-publishing imprint, WestBow Press--though they are outsourcing the bulk of the operation to self-publishing giant Author Solutions. AS will design, publish and distribute the books. Nelson's primary roles appears to be sharing revenue and promising customers an "opportunity to be discovered by parent company Thomas Nelson.... For authors who hope to one day be signed by a traditional publisher, this is an opportunity to get your foot in the door."

Thomas Nelson is, of course, the world's largest Christian publisher. Mike Hyatt is the president and CEO and someone for whom I have enormous admiration.

Author Solutions, as I've described it previously, is the Mother of Self-Publishing. Among other properties, the corporation owns AuthorHouse, iUniverse, and Xlibris. Entrepreneur interviewed Keith Ogorek, Author Solutions' director of marketing in April, 2008: "'As a company, Author House will publish about one of every 17 titles in the United States this coming year,' Ogorek says. That's about 20,000 titles."

I squirmed when I read the blurb by Publishers Marketplace, thinking "Who are we kidding here? The self-publishing industry has made millions stomping on newbie writers' dreams for money. And now Nelson is going to help lure more people into using a vanity press with the vague hope that they'll get a 'foot in the door'?"

My mood was not helped by this statement from the Nelson press release yesterday:

Titles published through WestBow Press will be evaluated for sales potential and considered for publication under the Thomas Nelson imprint.

Come on, folks. What are the odds that a writer self-publishing through a vanity press will end up with a traditional publishing contract?

And before anyone points to The Shack, please go here to read my previous blog titled "Should You Self-Publish?" William P. Young did not go to a vanity press. He went to a pastor friend he trusted. That friend and another former pastor formed their own company, Windblown Media, to publish the book.

In other words, someone besides the writer saw the value in the book and was willing to invest cold hard cash in it. The writer ("a former office manager and hotel night clerk" according to the New York Times) did not pay to be published.

Mike Hyatt wrote about the new Nelson division in his blog yesterday here. The post made me feel both better and worse. It also left me with questions.

Mike specifically said, "If prospective authors are convinced their book should be in print and are willing to fund it, they should be able to do so without the fear that they might be ripped off."

I worked as a licensed social worker in both inpatient and outpatient settings for a number of years. The medical field uses "informed consent" forms in order to make sure that any patient considering treatment has "a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications and future consequences of an action" (thanks, Wikipedia). In other words: the patient must understand the risks involved before commencing treatment.

So, is WestBow going to ensure that potential clients are offered informed consent? If the book in question is the typical self-published mess and the writer is entertaining the fantasy that Nelson will soon be offering a contract, will WestBow disabuse the writer of such notions? Is WestBow going to offer a reality check, or are they simply going to collect a check?

In his post, Mike offered a list of seven situations in which self-publishing makes sense. I completely agreed with four of them (the third, fourth, fifth and seventh). The first, second and sixth sounded dangerously like the pap most self-publishing companies offer.

The thing that disturbed me most about Mike's post was the following statement:

We also want to work with agents and consultants as “WestBow Press Affiliates,” so that they can help more authors realize their dream of getting published. Rather than simply send a rejection letter, they can now offer a legitimate alternative and earn a referral fee in the process.

So now we're offering agents the opportunity to pick up extra cash by making referrals to a self-publishing company.

I know things are tough in publishing today. But seriously, guys, is this the way you want to go?

Thomas Nelson enjoys a sterling reputation in the publishing business. Newbie writers are going to be reassured to see that WestBow belongs to Nelson. To me, that says Nelson has a higher obligation to provide information and assistance before taking a check from a still damp, newly hatched fledgling writer.

That's the Christian thing to do.

Henry Ford, Publishing Needs You

I've been thinking about Henry Ford a lot lately.

Ford is often credited as the father of the assembly line (he was probably more its godfather). Despite developing mass assembly factories that used interchangeable parts, he was an individualist. He was also blunt, pragmatic and optimistic--all qualities that appeal to me a great deal.

I can usually find a Ford quote to suit any occasion. Today's quote:

History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present . . .

I was reminded of that quote when I read an article in last Wednesday's New York Times here with the depressing title of "Book Sales Are Down, Despite Push."

The story focussed on the disappointing sales of blockbuster titles like Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, the late Ted Kennedy's True Compass and Audrey Niffenegger's new book after The Time Traveler’s Wife.

The Times went on to say: "And over all, according to BookScan, book sales were down about 4 percent compared with the same week last year . . ."

Henry Ford, where are you?

We all know publishing is first and foremost a business. Corporate heads roll with depressing frequency. Last Monday, Publishers Marketplace reported:

"After just five months as chief executive at the Headline group in the UK [owned by Hachette Livre, which also owns Grand Central Publishing], Kate Wilson has left the company by 'mutual agreement' according to a brief statement . . . Wilson was supposed to be taking over from Martin Neild as he prepared to retire from the company in 2010."

Two weeks before that, Steve Rubin--whose position as president and publisher of Doubleday was eliminated in December--announced he'd be leaving Random House, the parent company of Doubleday, after 25 years.

With these kind of examples, you can understand why New York is risk-adverse and very focussed on the bottom line. The problem is that this reluctance to take risks has publishers placing large bets on a small group of celebrities and best-selling authors.

Thinking that well-known names are more likely to sell than unknown names, the New York houses compete at auction, offering huge advances to obtain the rights to a few releases they hope will become blockbusters.

You can see the problem. In an effort to avoid risk, publishers gamble millions of dollars. If it works out . . . fine, they can relax next summer at that rental in the Hamptons. But if it doesn't work out . . . splat!

Because all of them follow the same (supposedly conservative) strategy, they are inadvertently contributing to greater risk for all by bidding up the price of books. Instead of offering more safety, this herd mentality is actually increasing the risk.

Last December here, I talked about the Boston Matrix as a model for assessing product lines. The problem publishing faces is that they are pouring too much money into their "cash cows" rather than investing money into up-and-coming writers who could become "stars."

While I'm at it, I also take issue with the way media reports book sales, including that New York Times quote about sales being down four percent compared to the same period last year.

According to a June, 2008 article in the New York Times, Nielsen's BookScan "usually tracks about 70 percent of sales." BookScan collects information from over 12,000 locations weekly, including bookstores (like B&N, Borders and college bookstores); discount stores (like Amazon.com and Target) and non-traditional stores (like Kroger and Starbucks). While they are working toward making their results more meaningful (they added the non-traditional category just last year), BookScan misses segments of the market. As examples, they don't capture either Wal-Mart's sales or e-book sales.

Even the Census Bureau, which releases retail sales each month, doesn't include used book sales. The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) reported that 8.3% of all books sold in 2004 (one out of every twelve) was a used book. They anticipated that number would be one out of every eleven by 2010.

Consider. Rather than overall book sales being down, perhaps consumers are shifting venues. It's possible in this slow economy the reading public is purchasing used books or shopping for new books at Wal-Mart where they can get a deeper discount.

I'd also argue that it's possible consumers are buying e-books instead of hardcovers.

I've said it before. The publishing industry needs to pay more attention to their consumers . . . and their consumers' reading and buying habits.

And, of course, Henry Ford has a quote for that, too.

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

Dexter Rides Again

Last evening I finished the fourth "Dexter" novel by Jeff Lindsay: Dexter by Design, which was released on September 8 in hardcover.

For those of you not familiar with the books or with the HBO series (season four premiered two weeks ago), here's a quick summary from a post of mine in 2006:

Dexter was orphaned at an early age and adopted by a police officer and his family. When the neighborhood pets began to go missing, Harry, his foster father, was the first to put the pieces together and realize that Dexter was "different." Rather than institutionalize the teen, Harry urged Dexter to channel his energies for good. The result is that Dexter Morgan, now an adult, works as a blood splatter expert for the Miami police department and kills serial killers on the side.

In contrast to the bloody details, Lindsay writes in a humorous and playful voice although--occasionally--his penchant for alliteration has Dexter sounding like a drag queen hopped up on coke.

The fourth book begins with Dexter on his honeymoon in Paris with Rita, his unsuspecting new bride. Waiting at home are Rita's two adorable children, Astor and Cody. Dexter was the first to realize that the children were "as permanently scarred as I was, forever twisted away from fuzzy puppy reality and into the sunless land of wicked pleasure."

Dexter feels a vague responsibility for Rita, whom he describes thus:

She was like a mother lamb in a wolf pack, and she only saw white fluffy wool all around her when in fact that pack was licking its lips and waiting for her to turn her back. Dexter, Cody and Astor were monsters.

Like the previous novels, Dexter by Design has the protagonist hunting down a serial killer (this one stabbed his foster sister Deb) while trying to keep the cops and FBI from guessing his true nature. Lindsay still exhibits his passion for alliteration as when Dexter describes himself as "Digitally Dominant Dexter."

There were the usual genuinely funny moments in the book such as when Astor and Cody stop the bad guy from kidnapping them:

"Well," [Officer] Lear said, "anyway, the guy got away. He ran clear over to U.S. 1 and headed for the strip malls . . . Gotta say he ran pretty good for having a pencil stuck in his leg."

"My pencil," Cody said with his strange and very rare smile.

"AND I punched him really hard in the crotch," Astor said.

I looked down at the two of them . . . They looked so smug and pleased with themselves; and to be honest, I was very pleased with them, too. [The bad guy] had done his worst--and theirs was just a bit worse. My little predators."

While this book was not quite as tightly crafted as the earlier books and the climax not quite as satisfying, I have to say I always enjoy a new romp with Dexter.

If you lean toward very dark humor . . . and have a strong stomach, I can recommend Dexter by Design.

Writing Lessons Hard-Learned

I've been pretty much out of touch the last month or so for a variety of reasons. I've been extremely busy at my day job . . . so much so that on my way home from the university late one evening I actually fell asleep for about fifteen seconds at a stop light (a horn from the car behind woke me up and the song still playing on the radio clued me in as to the time gap).

Anyway, I'm close to the end of my temporary duty assignment and will soon begin to train my replacement so I'm looking forward to getting my life back.

Since I missed Friday's post, I figured I'd make up for it with a Sunday post on writing. Consider the following a list of things writers need to remember. And, please know, I have learned each of these lessons the hard way . . . by making the mistakes in question.

1) The importance of continuity. When I'm critiquing a full manuscript--mine or another writer's--I keep a little list of the characters and the plot lines beside me on a pad. That way, I can spot any thread that is left unresolved. Invariably, in every full I've ever read, some detail was left hanging. It's really hard for a writer to notice these things because s/he is aware of how all the threads are supposed to end. I know this because it's happened to me. I've been shocked when a critique partner drew my attention to something I thought I'd addressed. I meant to address it . . . I knew how it was going to be resolved . . . I just forgot to put it on paper.

2) Logic holes. I'm convinced the film industry is responsible for this problem. How many times have you sat in the theatre just glued to the story on the screen? Then you and your spouse or friend walk out into the light of day, and one or the other of you points to a huge logic hole in the story. Out of the theatre, away from the thrilling musical score, the terrific acting and the fast-moving camerawork, you suddenly realize there was a plot hole big enough to drive a Mac truck through. I call it the "Don't go through that door" syndrome. The protagonist has absolutely no reason to walk into that house or office . . . except that the story stalls if he doesn't do it. In real life, you'd be a fool to do what the protag does, but on the screen, it seems perfectly logical.

Unfortunately, reading a book is not yet a multi-media event. We're close to that day, but not quite there yet. Without the actor's dazzling smile or the crescendo of musical foreshadowing, the writer's plot holes leap off the page at the reader.

3) Coincidences. Yes, I know coincidences do happen in real life. Twins separated at birth and never told about each other do meet at college years later and hundreds of miles from either's home. But that's why these stories make the news . . . because they are so remarkable and rare. Don't depend upon coincidence to resolve your plot. It's cheating, and your readers will not forgive you for it.

4) Stephen Parrish sent me a link to Maureen Dowd's review of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol in the New York Times here.

I need to point out that I have not purchased that book because it took me SIX . . . count 'em . . . six tries to get past the first fifty pages of The Da Vinci Code in hardcover. For that reason, I figured I'd save time and money and just wait for the paperback edition of The Lost Symbol or buy it used in another few months. (I should also point out that I purchased his earlier book Angels and Demons and really liked it, which was why I shelled out my hard-earned money for the hardcover of The Da Vinci Code).

Anyway, Dowd takes Brown to task for "metaphors and similes [that] thud onto the page." She gives the following examples:

­Inoue Sato, an intelligence official . . . “cruised the deep waters of the C.I.A. like a leviathan who surfaced only to devour its prey.” Insights don’t simply come to characters: “Then, like an oncoming truck, it hit her,” or “The revelation crashed over Langdon like a wave.” And just when our hero thinks it’s safe to go back in the water, another bad metaphor washes over him: “His head ached now, a roiling torrent of inter­connected thoughts.” You can practically hear the eerie organ music playing whenever Mal’akh, the clichéd villain whose eyes shine “with feral ferocity,” appears.

The lesson: restrain yourself when it comes to metaphors and similes. A single good one is much better than a half dozen overwrought ones.

That's it for today.

We Interrupt Our Regular Scheduling

Back in 1988, Sly Stallone made a god-awful movie where Rambo went into Afghanistan and essentially defeated the entire Soviet army. The film was simply dreadful. MovieCynics.com said: "Rambo III is the movie that killed the Rambo franchise for the next 20 years." They were right.

But it's funny the quotes that stick in your mind. I've never forgotten this exchange from that movie, which I saw in the theatre twenty-one years ago (courtesy of IMDB.com):

Mousa: This is Afghanistan... Alexander the Great try to conquer this country... then Genghis Khan, then the British. Now Russia. But Afghan people fight hard, they never be defeated. Ancient enemy make prayer about these people... you wish to hear?

Rambo: Um-hum.

Mousa: Very good. It says, 'May God deliver us from the venom of the Cobra, teeth of the tiger, and the vengeance of the Afghan.'

Both Publishers Lunch and Shelf Awareness directed my attention this morning to an article in the Wall Street Journal about two books, which are drawing a lot of attention from U.S. policy-makers trying to divine the path the administration should take in Afghanistan.

Both are examinations of the United States' involvement in Vietnam forty years ago. The books in question are Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam by Gordon M. Goldstein and A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam by Lewis Sorley.
Lessons in Disaster is a posthumous look at McGeorge Bundy, national security advisor in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Bundy was a well-known hawk who supported the bombing of North Vietnam. In later years, he came to regret his part in escalating the American presence in Vietnam. According to Publishers Weekly, Goldstein's book concludes Bundy came to believe "Vietnam . . . was overall, a war we should not have fought."

The Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama recently finished Lessons in Disaster and that the book's message is the U.S. military viewed the Vietnam War "too narrowly to see the perils ahead."

The second book, A Better War, points to 1970 as a crucial moment in Vietnam. Late that year, General Creighton Abrams replaced General William Westmoreland as commander of the American troops. Westmoreland had focussed on a war of attrition with strategies like the Tet Offensive while Abrams sought control by interfering with North Vietnam's ability to fight. Amazon.com Reviews reports Abrams was "less interested in counting enemy body bags than in securing South Vietnam's villages."

The Wall Street Journal reports A Better War's message is that at the moment when the U.S. military "finally figured out how to counter the insurgency," the White House gave in to popular opinion and ended the war. The article says this book is enjoying peer recommendation by U.S. military officers.

Every Sunday morning, I watch George Stephanopoulos' news show This Week on television. At the conclusion of each show, a list of the soldiers who died overseas that week is run. Every Sunday, I read the names and ages of Americans who gave their lives so I can continue living mine in peace. The overwhelming majority of these heroes were between the ages of 20 and 25. It breaks my heart to watch, but each week I force myself to read the names. Then I say a prayer for their souls.

I don't want to see more of America's youth die so far from home and their loved ones. But I don't want to see those 5,215 deaths (4,351 in Iraq and 864 in Afghanistan as of October 7) have no meaning either.

I'm not smart enough to say whether we should continue in Afghanistan. But--by God--I want President Obama to make the right decision.

My prayer today will be to give the president the wisdom to discern what we need to do and the courage to do it.

Go here to read the entire Wall Street Journal article.

A Sign of the End Times???

A week ago Monday, the New York Times reported on an innovative publishing joint venture by the Perseus Books Group and the Daily Beast: A new imprint called Beast Books.

One of the people behind Beast Books is Tina Brown. You probably know her as a magazine editor. At varying times over the years, she has edited Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. A year ago yesterday, she hopped online with the launch of the Daily Beast, a news aggregating site here that includes original content.

With The Daily Beast under her belt, Brown is ready to enter the world of print publishing . . . with a twist. Beast Books seeks to tighten the time schedule in bringing books to release. The plan is for an author to spend three months writing a non-fiction book on a topical subject, which Beast Books will then release as an e-book a month later and then follow up with the paperback release shortly thereafter.

This model for publishing is exactly the reverse of the model currently being pursued by the Big Six publishers. Most of the New York giants are releasing the print book BEFORE the e-book, hoping to protect the p-book sales.

Kassia Krozser described this protectionism approach as a "stupid publishing trick" in her post here. Kassia argues that "There is absolutely no evidence that withholding the ebook will encourage ebook readers to purchase the hardcover instead."

The New York Times reports the first release expected from Beast Books will be Attack of the Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America by John P. Avlon, a CNN commentator. It will be released as an e-book in December and as a paperback in January, 2010.

I was initially appalled by the three-month writing term. Then I saw this paragraph in the Times article:

She [Tina Brown] envisioned most of the Beast Books titles as being 40,000 words, or about 150 pages. They would cover touchstone political and cultural topics first addressed on the Web site, as well as more personal memoirs.

That's 160 manuscript pages. Most writers would not have difficulty producing 53 manuscript pages a month for three months. That's 2 1/2 pages a day on weekdays only, taking the weekends off. {grin}

All the hoopla in the press was about the quick turnaround to release. But what I find really interesting is this: Brown is proposing not a full-length book, but a demi-book, which should really appeal to today's busy multi-taskers. If you think about it, it's sort of a super-size expanded version of those in-depth articles you find in Vanity Fair or The Atlantic now. Something you can read while waiting in an airport or on a plane flight. Easy to read on your iPhone or your e-reading device.

Brown herself told the Times "there was a gap between online writing and full-length books that was no longer being fully met by a dwindling market for magazines."

A terrific niche market to capture the burgeoning e-reading populace.

She's aiming to capture those hot topics that have a short shelf life. Everyone talks about them for fifteen minutes--or three months--and then forgets about them. By the time traditional publishers produce a book, no one cares any more.

I couldn't find any mention of the pricing of the e-book. And there was no listing for Attack of the Wingnuts on Amazon, B&N or Borders.

I'm wondering if Beast Books will price the e-books at or higher than the price of the paperbacks in order to cash in on the topicality of the subject matter. It's a safe bet they'll advertise on The Daily Beast. But I'm wondering what distribution channels they'll use.

This is really interesting. Stay tuned . . .

To read the New York Times article, go here.

FTC Changes the Rules on Endorsements

Yesterday the FTC announced new changes to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Yeah, with a title like that, it has to be a government publication.

The Guides addresses "endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers."

If you aren't familiar with it, don't feel alone. The Guides haven't been updated in almost thirty years.

The Guides are responsible for a phrase you're probably familiar with in ads: "Your results may vary." That "safe harbor" phrase permitted advertisers to describe their product in glowing terms as long as they indicated that the consumer's experience might be different.

The new Guides pulls the plug on that dispensation. Henceforth advertisers "will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect."

The revised Guides also addresses celebrity endorsements outside of ads. We're all pretty clear when we see a celebrity like Dennis Haysbert flacking Allstate Insurance in an ad that he's being paid to be the company's official spokesman. But what if he flacks Allstate while he's a guest on Jay Leno's show?

Under the new Guides:

. . . both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.

The thing that caught my attention was that the new Guides also talks about endorsements by ordinary people like bloggers:

The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

I read the Federal Register Notice in which consideration was given to two types of bloggers, making a distinction between "blogs that are just personal communication spaces, and those that are essentially commercial communication spaces."

The question becomes "although an 'advertising message' is intended by the latter – making it subject to the Guides – no such message is intended by the former." In those cases, the FTC had to struggle with whether the Guides should apply to that first blogger. The decision was made that, if a blogger received any kind of compensation, including a free copy of the book to review (and certainly monetary compensation as a reviewer), s/he needed to disclose that fact.

The Register continued:

An advertiser’s lack of control over the specific statement made via these new forms of consumer-generated media would not automatically disqualify that statement from being deemed an “endorsement” within the meaning of the Guides.

According to Publishers Marketplace:

In other words, bloggers as well as "reviewers" posting to sites like Amazon and LibraryThing who are writing about a book after receiving a free reviewer's copy are expected to disclose that information. And publishers who "sponsor these endorsers (either by providing free products - directly or through a middleman - or otherwise) . . . should establish procedures . . . to monitor the conduct of those endorsers."

These new rules will go into effect on December 1, 2009.

Go here to read the FTC's notice on their website.

Go here to read the Federal Register Notice.

It's the Economy, Stupid

Publishers Weekly reports:

All citing economic reasons, the Association of American Publishers postponed its Small & Independent Publishers Annual Meeting scheduled for October 9 in San Francisco; the California Writers Club canceled its Jack London Writers Conference scheduled for Oct. 10-11 South of San Francisco; and Book Group Expo decided to take a hiatus this year for its annual fall event in San Jose. Those cancellations followed the news that the Stanford Publishing Course for Professionals has shut down.

On Prologues (and Backstory)

Among the issues that seem to cause writers angst is the question of prologues. At one time or another, agents like Kristin Nelson, Nathan Bransford and the inimitable Miss Snark have all advised against including a prologue in your novel. And they all said the same thing: "We're not opposed to prologues. It's just that we've rarely seen one done well."

Why is that? Bear with me, and I'll explain.

Years ago, I was a volunteer for Dallas' Suicide & Crisis Center. We were taught to intervene using a specific model of crisis intervention. One step of that model was to make an early determination as to whether the caller was in crisis or not. This was because crisis intervention does not work unless the caller is actually in crisis.

We were taught to look for the precipitating event (PE)--something that happened in the six weeks prior to the alleged crisis. PEs don't have to be big events although they often are: "My wife left me." "My mother died." "My youngest son left for college."

Sometimes the PE can be a small thing . . . the straw that broke the camel's back. "My husband left his boxers on the bathroom floor for me to pick up . . . for the hundredth time. I called a divorce attorney."

The important thing is that callers in crisis can generally point to the exact moment when things went haywire.

Why six weeks? Because, in crisis, our bodies produce a "fight or flight" reaction, pumping adrenaline so that we can either fight or run like hell. And our bodies cannot sustain that "fight or flight" mode indefinitely. After about six weeks, we begin to adapt, and the situation becomes more of a chronic one. The crisis resolves itself. We may be operating at a lower functioning level than previously, but we adapt to the circumstances.

So let's get back to that prologue. IF your prologue includes a precipitating event in the RECENT past that is the catalyst for your novel, you may be able to pull off a prologue.

However, the precipitating event MUST be the springboard that puts your novel into action.

And in most novels with prologues, this is not the case. The prologue is often about an event that occurred many years before. It is backstory, the story that happened before the real action begins.

Backstory is important, but it is static. It sits there without moving. And that's the problem. It's not part of the story. It is what helped to inspire motivation and goals and helped to create a character's personality, but it isn't going anywhere. It is usually presented in narrative form.

Narrative form. TELLING.

Do you see why most prologues don't work? They include backstory, too much narrative and "telling" instead of "showing."

Do you want a test of whether your prologue is necessary? Try taking it out of the novel altogether. Does your novel hold together? Is is possible to dribble that backstory into your manuscript one line at a time?

If you can remove the prologue and the story still works, you have your answer.

Remembering a Miracle

Four months from now, we'll celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the "Miracle on Ice."

Veteran Olympic watchers will remember when the United States team, composed of a motley group of amateur and college players defeated the Soviet Union team, the best hockey team in the world, in the 1980 Winter Olympics.

Sports Illustrated named that win the greatest sports moment of the 20th century.

Sportscaster Al Michaels called the game for ABC, and his words that day are now sports history: “ Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow [defenseman], up to Silk [right wing]. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES! ”

That call led to the nickname of "The Miracle on Ice."

I mention that today because of a video I just saw on Yahoo.

In 2004, Walt Disney released a film titled Miracle. It starred Kurt Russell as the team's coach, Herb Brooks. Go here to watch the video clip of Brooks' motivational speech to his dispirited team.

After you've watched that speech, go here to watch a four-year-old recreate the speech. It's precious.

We Interrupt Our Regular Programming

Like most published writers, I get a number of emails a week from newbie writers asking questions . . . a few want to know where I get my plot ideas, more want to know how to find an agent and still others ask about things like promotion and marketing.

By far, the most emails I get are from writers whose first novel has been repeatedly rejected. They are depressed, uncertain and asking me what they should do next.

On my journey to being published, I was helped by many kind people. Because I was completely unfamiliar with the publishing industry when I began, I spent a fair amount of time on the Internet, reading and trying to learn the ropes. I sent emails to people like Jodi Picoult and Miss Snark, asking questions for which I had been unable to find answers anywhere else. I don't recall an instance when I did not receive a courteous and helpful response.

Now I am trying to pay it forward by offering the same help to newbies.

This post is prompted by a couple of emails I got this week from newbie writers.

The first was a pretty common occurrence. I received an email from a woman I don't know, including her forty-one-page first chapter and asking for a critique because she has received over twenty rejections.

I did what I always do in such cases: glanced over the entire chapter and then gave her a critique on the first three pages. I always start with the good comments first. Her manuscript pages were articulate, and she had a nice way with descriptive phrases, using out-of-the-ordinary analogies that fit the tone of her manuscript.

But then I had to tell her the other stuff: her opening pages were pure backstory, and the rest of the chapter was bloated with unnecessary information dumps. In addition, she "told" more than she "showed." I pointed out that these were common newbie mistakes, which could be corrected easily and suggested she find a critique partner. All told, reading her email/chapter and responding took me about thirty minutes.

I was dismayed to receive an email back, arguing with my comments. She essentially said, "Thanks for nothing."

I resisted the urge to respond and simply deleted her two emails.

The second encounter was a 1,652-word email from a man I do not know. If the email had been in manuscript format, it would have been seven double-spaced pages.

The man started out complimenting me and saying he'd like answers to some basic questions. He is still in the process of writing his first novel and working with a freelance editor to get it to a manageable length. Based on his email, I immediately pictured a 175K-word manuscript.

He wanted to know about the industry, agents, how to write a query letter, and what promotional tools he needed to use. In addition, he sent me his 50-word pitch and asked me to critique it.

Normally, I would have commented on his pitch and referred him back to this blog and others for the answers to the rest of his questions. I'm not looking to take anyone on to raise. Nor am I looking to write customized handbooks on publishing for strangers.

But what really bothered me was his running commentary on the industry. He'd found agents hostile to newbie writers, he believed a one-page query letter would be unable to capture the richness of his manuscript, and he railed against publishers who would not provide promotional support to first-time writers. The overall tone was his concern that his "genuine talent" (yes, he described himself with those words) would not be appreciated by the industry.

He may be a very nice man, but he came across as a pompous, arrogant jerk.

As a public service, here are some tips for newbie writers:

1) Remember: Publishing is a business. Your communications with agents/editors should be in the form of business correspondence. That means brief and to the point. In general, a query letter should be one page. (And that doesn't mean with half-inch margins and a 10-point font).

2) If an agent/editor is kind enough to offer you specific comment beyond a form rejection, do not assume that response is an invitation to open a pen pal relationship.

3) If you write an author or agent with a question, limit it to one question. And limit your response to "thank you." Better yet, ask the question on their blog so that others can benefit from the response.

4) There are no shortcuts. Don't expect anyone else to supply you with a list of agents, a list of likely publishers who would be interested in your genre or a list of promotional tools. There are enormous amounts of information on the Internet. Do your own homework. If there are specific questions you cannot find the answers to, feel free to ask. But don't ask for material that you are simply too lazy to look for yourself.

5) Agents use the query letter to cue them as to what kind of a client the writer would be. They are looking for positive, hungry-for-success people who are willing to do whatever it takes. No matter how good the manuscript is, no agent wants a pain-in-the-ass client. Agents will suggest writers make manuscript changes . . . just to see how the writer responds. Over time, each agent has honed his/her screening mechanisms to eliminate those writers who are going to be problems. It may seem incomprehensible to you, but their methods have proven surprisingly effective in separating the wheat from the chaff.

Frankfurt Book Fair Survey

Monday's Publishers Weekly had a really interesting article about the annual survey associated with the Frankfurt Book Fair, which will be held from October 14 to 18.

I reported on the 2007 publishers' survey here and here.

To see the questions from this year's survey, go here.

The first question sets the tone: Does the respondent regard digitization as a crisis or as an opportunity for the industry?

When asked what the biggest threats are for the media industry, over 72% of the publishers responding said Digitization: the development of new business models, new multi-media products, and new marketing strategies.

Another question asked when digital content would generate more turnover (sales) than business with traditional books? The question offered the following years as choices: 2012, 2018, 2028, 2038 or never. About half the respondents gave 2018 as the tipping point.

Publishers Weekly reports that when respondents were asked which price models for digital content offered the most long-term potential:

Charging readers a flat rate that would allow them access to all of a information provider’s online content similar to a traditional subscription model was favored by 25% of respondents, especially those from Europe. Paying for snippets of content through micropayments was favored by 23%, with that method backed the most in Great Britain and the U.S. The premium model, under which users would pay for selected online content, found support from 16% of respondents.

There were varying opinions on how e-books should be priced. Most publishers believe the price should be lower than that of the p-books although nearly 20% were unenlightened enough to believe the price should be the same for both e-books and p-books or that the e-book should be more expensive [Sweet mercy!!!]

Thirty percent (30%) of the publishers believe the e-book should be priced at 30% below the p-book price.

They're learning although my reaction is that the discount should be greater than 30%.

In 2007, 85% of the respondents were from Europe, compared to 74% this year.

Aide Steals From Steel

Publishers Lunch directed me to a news item I had previously missed.

The Associated Press (AP) reported today:

A former aide to Danielle Steel is facing time in federal prison after admitting she stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from the romance novelist.

Actually there appears to be some question as to how much Kristy Watts stole from her former employer. According to tomorrow's Independent (UK):

Watts has already admitted embezzling $400,000 and it has emerged that she pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion in a hush-hush hearing last week. At the time, Steel was referred to only as "employer A".

However, in the civil lawsuit Steel filed, she alleges Watts cost her $2.7 million over the fifteen years the two were together.

The San Francisco Examiner said Watts pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco to one count of wire fraud and four counts of tax evasion. The Examiner goes on to say:

In a written plea agreement filed in court, Watts admitted that between 2003 and 2008, "I embezzled and stole more than $400,000" from the employer.

My first thought was, "That's the last five years of your employment (Steel fired Watts in December, 2008). What about the first ten years?"

WGAL in San Francisco says that Steel formed the TPA Company (she was once married to financier Tom Perkins) to handle her household and travel expenses. Watts was controller of TPA. WGAL also reports:

Watts, who is also known as Kristy Siegrist, said in the federal plea agreement that she embezzled from Steel in three ways: depositing checks made out by her employer for "cash" to her personal account; using the employer's credit card reward points to buy airline tickets and gift cards for Watts and her family; and arranging for a payroll processing company to pay her more than she was due . . .

The AP indicated that "Sentencing is set for Feb. 4 in federal court in San Francisco."

Requiescat in Pace, Kate Duffy

Before leaving the house this morning to head to the university, I checked Twitter. I was taken aback to find several tweets about the death of Kate Duffy.

Hoping the blogosphere was mistaken, I emailed a good friend who writes for Kensington and who was one of Kate's authors.

On the way to work, I remember thinking of Mark Twain's famous quote: "The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated." I said a quick prayer that Kate's death was one such rumor.

Kate Duffy was Editorial Director at Kensington Books. She was a force to be reckoned with in the world of romance novels. Over the years, she'd worked with the top names in romance. Names like Janet Dailey, Jude Deveraux, Lori Foster, Judith McNaught and Mary Janice Davidson.

When I got to work, I immediately checked my email to find that the rumor was true and that Kate Duffy had succumbed to illness.

I wasn't one of Kate's authors and I don't write for Kensington, but she had a huge impact on my life anyway. You see, Kensington released The Lady's Tutor in 1999. That book was the first erotic romance I ever read.

I cannot tell you the impression that book made on me. First, I hadn't read a romance in more than a dozen years when I purchased The Lady's Tutor from a hotel newstand in Oklahoma where I was stuck overnight, waiting for a meeting the following day at a local stock brokerage house. I'd tired of the genre's coy language and mincing approach to sex. The Lady's Tutor was a revelation to me. I hadn't known there were romances written in such an honest, straightforward fashion.

When I returned to Dallas, I went looking for more erotic romances. They were hard to find back then. Eventually, Ellora's Cave, an e-publisher specializing in Romantica (neologism combining "romance" and "erotica"), opened shop in 2000, but did not initially offer p-books (physical books).

Kate Duffy was a genius. She understood that the time was right for a print publisher to get into the erotic romance genre. She was the force behind Kensington's Brava line, the first imprint devoted to erotic romance in the U.S. The first release from Brava was Intrigued by Bertrice Small in February, 2001.

For more than a year, I watched for each new release from Brava because there were no other print publishers offering erotic romance. Kensington is an independent publisher, which meant that owner Walter Zacharius didn't have to report to a skeptical mega-corporate board. He just trusted Kate's instincts.

Brava's success attracted a lot of attention. Before long, every New York publisher had its own erotic romance line.

On a personal level, I started writing my first erotic romance in 2004, inspired by the books I was reading.

So Kate Duffy had a real impact on my life.

Requiescat in pace, Kate . . . and thank you.

A Gift To You

This news made my day. Because like Brandon Badger, Google's Product Manager, when I was a kid, I loved going through old LIFE magazines. Our public library had racks of LIFE, and I spent many hours curled up in a large chair turning the pages of one issue after another.

Starting today, Google Books has digitized 1,860 issues from LIFE Magazine's entire run from 1936 to 1972.

Go here to read the announcement by Google.

Go here to start viewing LIFE.

Have a good weekend. I'll see you again on Monday.

The New iRex Has Arrived

Yesterday, the publishing world was agog over news of the iRex DR800SG, the newest e-reading device to burst onto the scene. The DR800SG has a touch screen and corporate connections to Verizon, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble.

Hearing all the hoopla yesterday, you might have thought iRex was a newcomer to the world of e-book reading devices. That's not the case.

I first mentioned the iRex--a Dutch company which was a spinoff of Royal Philips Electronics--on my blog in January, 2006. At that time their early version of an e-reader was being called the iLiad and was scheduled to be launched in April, 2006. In July, 2006, I reported:

". . . the iRex was scheduled to be released on July 11th. I was shocked to see the advertised price of the iLiad was $811 . . . I [don't] picture them selling many of those babies."

Two years later in May, 2008, I said: ". . . the price has come down. The newest version of the iLiad is *only* $699. More importantly, however, The Bookseller had an article on Monday about the iLiad: 'Borders is to become the first seller of e-book readers in the United Kingdom with seven stores stocking the iLiad reader . . .'"

In September, 2008, I reported: that iRex had distributed a press release:

Gill & Macmillan, the leading Irish book publisher, today launched a pilot scheme that will take some weight off the shoulders of the first-year pupils of Caritas College, Ballyfermot . . . St. Brendan’s class, a group of 18 first year students at the all-girl school . . . will become the first class of students worldwide to replace their academic load with the iLiad, an electronic book device.

Ten days later, BusinessWeek reported on an experiment in France with a prototype digital device from iRex called the Read & Go:

The trial of the prototype will wrap up this month, and by 2009, France Telecom (FTE) aims to start distributing the Read & Go in conjunction with a subscription-based news service of the same name. For a monthly charge similar to a mobile service plan, customers will receive an over-the-air stream of aggregated content from a wide assortment of information sources. Alongside the articles will be ads that help defray the cost of the service.

The article indicated France Telecom was "partnering" with the newspaper industry to offer the major French newspapers, such as Le Monde and Le Figaro, through its cellular network. Ads were planned to run alongside the articles, providing revenue to offset the cost of the service. The newspapers would receive a cut from the subscription fees for Read & Go.

So iRex is not a Johnny-come-lately, and yesterday's announcement was the culmination of years of development. Barnes & Noble has agreed to offer e-books and newspapers for download on the DR800SG although The New York Times claims a deal to put the B&N brand on the e-reader fell through.Publishers Weekly reported:

The new device has a 8.1” black & white e-ink touchscreen; offers wireless 3G connectivity through the Verizon network and will cost $399. The iRex DR800SG and [sic] will be available for sale through Best Buy chain by next month.

In talking about iRex, the New York Times said:

By all accounts, e-readers are set to have a breakout year. Slightly more than one million of them were sold globally in 2008, according to the market research firm iSuppli. The firm predicts that 5.2 million will be sold this year, more than half of them in North America, driven by the popularity and promotion of the Kindle, which is available only through Amazon’s Web site.

Engadget has photos of the DR800SG here. Better yet, watch the e-reader being demonstrated on Fox News here.

Read The New York Times article here.

Tor.com Announces A POD Only Release

About a year ago, Tor Books launched a new website titled Tor.com. The site described itself as:

. . . a site for science fiction, fantasy, and all the things that interest SF and fantasy readers, presents original short fiction, new sequential art, extensive art galleries, and commentary on science fiction and related subjects by a wide range of writers from all corners of the science fiction and fantasy field; both professionals working in the genres and fans. Its aim is to provoke, encourage, and enable interesting and rewarding conversations with and between its readers.

The Fiction Editor of Tor.com is Patrick Nielsen Hayden, well-known sci-fi editor, writer and blogger.

Over the last year, Tor.com has offered some interesting book reviews and even more interesting commentaries. I particularly liked Brian Slattery's comment on genres last Halloween here in a post titled "What Are Fantasy and Magical Realism Anyway?". Slattery said:

From the writer’s point of view, the genres aren’t categories; they’re tools in a toolbox. Which tools—and how many—should the writer use? It all depends on what you’re trying to build, doesn’t it?

About two weeks ago, Tor.com announced the immediate availability of David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s anthology titled Year’s Best Fantasy 9.

There were two really interesting things about YBF 9. First: The anthology "marks something we’re particularly proud of: Tor.com’s debut as a publishing entity, distinct from Tor Books and as a separate imprint under our shared corporate overlords at Macmillan."

And second: "YBF 9 is available only as a print-on-demand book, in keeping with our mission of always exploring alternative forms of publishing."

What does this mean? Tor.com will only print the book when it has an order (and payment) in hand. 100% sell-through. No expensive print runs or warehousing of p-books, no costly returns and pulping of unsold books. Order received, book printed and shipped. Because Tor.com's bookstore has the digital book on file, the anthology can be available indefinitely on a virtual bookshelf in their virtual bookstore.

Remember my post about the Espresso Book Machine last Friday? The new publishing model is right around the corner.

Thinking About the New Technology

After my post on Friday about Google signing a deal with the makers of the Espresso Book Machine, reader Sandra Ferguson asked the following question:

So, do you think this is the wave of the future? Should we be cheering? Or holding our collective writing breath?

I promised Sandra an answer today.

I don't know that I ever said this before on this blog, but my original major in college was History. My first career plan was to become an archeologist. Financial pressures led to my downsizing that vision to teaching history . . . at least initially. Then my life took another direction altogether. But studying the past remains an avocation.

In The Merchant of Venice, Launcelot says:

". . . truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son may, but at the length truth will out."

With apologies to Shakespeare, one thing my studies of the past has taught me: Technology will out.

By that I mean that efforts by companies or cultures to suppress technology have almost always failed. Technology wins in the end. Trying to stop technological progress never works.

In Lawrence Lessig's 2008 book Remix, the Stanford law professor describes John Philip Sousa's testimony before Congress in 1906:

"He had come to Washington to ask that Congress 'remedy a serious defect in the...law, which permits manufacturers and sellers of phonograph records...to appropriate for their own profit the best compositions of the American composer without paying a single cent therefor"--a form of 'piracy' as he called it."

Not satisfied with his tirade against phonograph manufacturers, Sousa railed again the "cultural emptiness that mechanical music would create." He dramatically declared that human vocal cords "would be eliminated by a process of evolution."

Sousa's histrionic tirade seems quaint today. But his fears were very real to him in 1906. Although he succeeded in changing U.S. copyright law, he was unable to stop technological progress.

And I guess that sums up my thinking on the state of publishing today. I believe the following:

1) U.S. copyright law is antiquated and needs to be overhauled.

2) Writers and publishers need to stop trying to stop the new technology and figure out how to make it work for them.

3) The developed world needs to move outside its own egocentric needs and recognize how the new technology can advantage those who are not as well off as we are. As I've previously stated, according to the World Bank's Poverty and Growth blog, the print-on-demand technology of the EBM "offers the opportunity to deliver development knowledge and content to students, practitioners, media, and simply interested individuals in a way they could not be reached before." The prohibitive costs of printing, shipping and warehousing books for underdeveloped nations limits the amount of printed material that can be provided to poor areas of the globe.

EBM machines strategically placed on a regional basis around the third world would make available information in their own language to peoples who have never before had access to books.

So while I acknowledge that the ground under the publishing world is shifting, instead of working on stopping the earth tremors, I'm focussed on learning how to locate the footholds and practicing how to hop nimbly from rock to rock.

The eBooks of the Future

On Thursday I asked the question "What will the e-book look like in the future?"

On Saturday, Computerworld answered.

In an article titled "What's Wrong With eBooks?" Mike Elgan makes six suggestions for publishers. I'm only going to list the four that are specific to ebooks.

1) We need to be able to buy all three versions of a book (audio, ebook and hardcover p-book) at a price about $10 more than the hardcover instead of forking out more than twice the price of the hardcover to get all three.

2) We need ebooks that can be revised or updated without the customer having to purchase an entire new edition.

3) We need a social networking website for all major books (something I predicted in my Thursday post).

4) We need release dates for ebooks that come ahead of the p-book release dates.

Of course, it is suggestion #4 that will make publishers' heads spin like Regan MacNeil's in The Exorcist.

And Elgan knows this. He ends his article with the following message to publishers:

Publishers, here's the bottom line: The future of your industry is in jeopardy . . . Instead of blocking innovation, jerking around your customers and coming up with new ways to protect your tree-pulp business, it's time for you to embrace the book business . . .

Amen, brother.

To read Elgan's terrific article, including his other two suggestions, go here.

Google Signs Deal With The EBM

There was an article in eWeek yesterday about the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) signing an agreement with Google whereby Google will provide the digitized files on two million books in the public domain to On Demand Books (the parent company of the EBM) for printing and sale.

According to eWeek:

Google Books titles offered via the Espresso Machine will have a recommended sales price of $8 per copy, though the price is subject to change by retailers. On Demand may have access to sell more works if Google's Book Search deal with authors and publishers passes muster with the New York District Court in October.

I was most interested in the economics of the deal. The article says that the Espresso Book Machine is available for sale to publishers, libraries and retailers for $75,000 and can produce a professional-quality paperback with a full-color paperback cover in about five to ten minutes.

The Associated Press claims the EBM sells for $100,000 and that On Demand Books and Google will each get about a $1 from a book sale. Google has announced it will donate its proceeds to charities and other nonprofit causes.

Either way, the price of the machines are coming down. When the University of Alberta Bookstore installed its EBM on November 1, 2007, the price was $144,000.

The AP says:

On Demand's printing machines already are in more than a dozen locations in the United States, Canada, Australia, England and Egypt, mostly at campus book stores, libraries and small retailers. The Harvard Book Store will be among the first already equipped with an instant-publishing machine to have access to Google's digital library.

Go here to read the eWeek article.

Go here to read the AP story in the New York Daily News.

The Questions to be Asking

Two interesting blog posts to recommend. First is Kassia Krozser's follow-up to her post about the implosion of Quartet. On Monday here, Kassia talked about the business model for digital publishing.

And in his post for Tuesday here, agent Nathan Bransford asked "Will Authors of the Future Need Publishers?"

Nathan’s question is one I've struggled with. Here’s an excerpt from my post of March 7, 2007:

A digitized industry doesn't really rely on the publisher any more, does it? It would be very easy for a group of writers and artists to band together to produce their own works (United Artists, anyone?). In the future, there is the very real possibility that publishers will find themselves being edged out of the equation . . .

At the same time, Kassia said something that resonated with me: “[the digital business] model has been evolving for well over a decade, and will continue to evolve.”

Along with Nathan’s question of “Will Authors of the Future Need Publishers?” I think we need to ask two other questions:

1) What role will the Internet giants play in the evolving publishing landscape?

2) What will the book look like in the future?

Back on May 20, 2007, I said on my blog:

The large [publishing] houses face competition on two fronts: from the Internet giants and from the e-publishing industry. When I say Internet giants, I'm talking about Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo, eBay and Microsoft. Of the five, I suspect the biggest direct competition will come from either Google or Amazon.com. My money is on Amazon.

It's no secret that Amazon is trying to become the dominant force in publishing. I've talked about its vertical integration before (go here if you want to read more about vertical integration). However, in its rush to achieve hegemony in the publishing world, I believe Amazon may have planted some very noxious weeds in its garden.

Amazon is working both sides of the street: acting as a publisher/distributor through its BookSurge unit while offering retail services on its website. The company slaps self-published books up on its website next to traditionally-published books. Unless a customer is savvy, he can find himself the proud owner of a really awful book (I'm not saying all self-published books are terrible, just the majority of them).

In his blog, Nathan pointed out that traditional publishers serve an important role, acting as the gatekeepers for the publishing industry, assuring consistency of quality as well as distribution channels. As a rule, a reader can purchase a book from a bookstore with the confidence that a professional has vetted it and deemed it worthy of publication.

Amazon's BookSurge acts as a POD press to small publishers and as a vanity press for self-pubbed writers. In its latter role, BookSurge will publish any manuscript that comes accompanied by a check. Like all vanity presses, its quality control mechanisms relate to the production values of the physical product, not the manuscript’s content.

And therein lies Amazon’s problem. The company talks about customer service, but customers need to remember caveat emptor when it comes to buying books on Amazon’s website.

And what about Google? Google’s ambition to copy every book in the world could lead to its becoming the biggest bookstore in the world.

Thus far, Google has stuck to its plan to remain the largest search engine in the world. Copying the world’s books is a strategy to strengthen Google's search engine business. The company provides links to buy the books it displays. It remains to be seen whether Google has larger ambitions in the publishing world.

And the future of the book? Today reading is primarily a solitary experience, even for those people in book clubs who join together after the fact to discuss a book they've read. I think Robert Stein is on the right track in describing the book's future. Stein is a senior fellow at the London School of Economics and director of the Institute for the Future of the Book. He believes that in the future reading will become more of a social experience.

In the very near future, people will be able to read a digital book in a social networking environment. They'll be able to comment on the material being read in real time. And the author and fans will be able to converse digitally as the readers progress through the book.

Think about a thousand teenagers reading the next Twilight in a virtual reading room with the author available to talk about the characters and plot.

Today's traditional publishers expend a huge amount of money and time producing the physical product. Their marketing efforts are geared primarily toward the creation of their seasonal catalogs and in promoting their best-selling authors and a few up-and-comers.

In a digital environment, the production and distribution of a (virtual) book is less expensive and a much simpler process. I suspect a publishing house's marketing expertise will become far more important as well as its main draw in attracting authors.

Think of it as a different form of gatekeeping. Instead of holding the keys to production of a book, publishers might be the experts in growing readership for an author.

Check out the concept of the salon here. Amazon is trying to do a digital version of a salon by offering readers places to gather to discuss books. THAT's what publishers should be focused on; not Amazon's $9.99 price point for ebooks.

The Lost Symbol's First Day of Sales

Reuters reports:

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world`s largest bookseller, announced today The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown has broken all previous one day sales for adult fiction in the first 24 hours of its release at its retail stores and online at Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com). The company also said that the eBook edition of The Lost Symbol is now the number one title in its eBookstore.

The Ventura County Star of Camarillo, California reported:

At Borders in Oxnard, inventory supervisor Elisha Ellsworth said that “normally we get 20 to 30 copies if it’s a big new title. For this one we got 300.” The store opened at 9 a.m. rather than 10, Ellsworth said, but “it was a smaller turnout than we expected.”

The UK's Telegraph reports:

The Kindle edition of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol . . . has become the top-selling item on Amazon.com. The e-reader edition is outselling the hardback copy of the novel, which had previously become the sixth best selling book of 2009 on pre-publication orders alone.

The Telegraph points out that the Kindle edition costs $9.99 while the hardback version of The Lost Symbol on Amazon is selling for $16.17. The newspaper wonders out loud if "the book is heralding a new era in publishing" because of the robust e-book sales.

The Lost Symbol, published by Doubleday Books, had a first print run of five million copies.

Another New Amazon Policy?

On Friday, GalleyCat reported that Diamond Book Distributors sent an email to the publishers it works with, saying:

"Going forward, Amazon will require all titles on their site to participate in the Search Inside the Book (SITB) program,"

Avid readers are familiar with Search Inside, which allows someone interested in a book to search for specific words or to browse several pages.

According to GalleyCat, the email from the book distributor also said that Amazon wants to have the Search Inside feature operational for new titles "3-4 weeks before publication--sooner, if possible."

The UK's The Bookseller had this to say:

The move will enable Amazon.com to aggressively grow its repository of digital content as it seeks to combat the growing threat it feels from Google's book-scanning programme.

GalleyCat made a point of saying it had not yet been able to confirm that this was, in fact, Amazon's new policy.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn this is the case. Back in early May, I said on this blog: "Amazon has already made it plain that they are willing to use their considerable clout to demand EVEN MORE advantageous terms than they are already getting."

Go here to read the GalleyCat article.

Go here to read The Bookseller article.

Quartet's Experience Can Teach Us All

On Saturday I reported on the closing of Quartet Press. I also directed readers to Kassia Krozser's excellent post here explaining what she took from her foray into the world of digital publishing.

Kassia had some really good advice for the publishing industry. I'm going to focus on three parts of her message today:

1) Don't look to traditional publishers to lead the way into the future.

Kassia's right. The New York houses start from a position of trying to support (and protect) their print business. The big six tried to justify pricing both the ebook and trade paper versions at the same price. And in one embarrassing case, a publisher released the ebook with a price that was higher than the trade paper cost.

2) Publishers need to start listening to their customers.

New York keeps pointing to their low ebook sales as proof that digital publishing will never amount to anything. I look at this as a chicken-and-egg argument. New York's unrealistic pricing model has put a stranglehold on ebooks and kept the digital market from growing.

If you expect readers to pay $15 for an ebook simply because that's the price of the p-book (physical book), of course, you'll never see any growth in the market. Readers are not stupid. They're voting with their wallets and saying, "Give us a break. We know you have lesser costs when you release an ebook. You've eliminated the printing and binding of a physical book, plus the costs of warehousing and the physical distribution AND the costs of returns on unsold stock and pulping those bound books. Get real about your pricing."

3) Kassia's own words are powerful: "Publishers cannot expect the digital marketplace to conform to their business as usual . . . (You cannot view) ebooks and digital distribution through a physical lens."

In a blog post on Valentine's Day this year here, I said that the cognitive biases of New York endangered its future. These are the biases I identified:

• Confirmation bias: the tendency to select information that supports the individual's preconceived notions and to avoid information that contradicts those existing beliefs


• Conservatism bias: the tendency to be conservative, to wait and see before making a change. A refusal to acknowledge both technical and social change even to one's detriment


• Illusion of Control: the tendency of people to believe they can control outcomes over which they have no control


• Status Quo bias: the tendency of people to want things to stay as they are, to not change

I hate that hackneyed phrase "Think outside of the box," but this is one time I think it truly needs to be said.

3) Stop angsting about Amazon's $9.99 price point for ebooks. Rather than worry about the price in a vacuum, focus on figuring out what your real costs are.

Kassia suggests that publishers throw away their assumptions and, instead of building a financial model from the top-down, try to build one from the bottom-up.

Again, publishers need to go back to her advice to throw away traditional assumptions and start fresh. Wake up and look around you. In a green world, printing and shipping and warehousing and returning and pulping--the Dead Tree Model--wastes energy and costs you too much.

Yes, there are always going to be readers who prefer a p-book. That's the beauty of print-on-demand (POD), digital technology and contraptions like the Espresso Book Machine. A book is only printed when an order is in hand. And with digital files, that book can be sold for an indefinite period of time--not just the brief period of time books currently get to sit on store shelves.

I can think of no better way to end this post than to quote Kassia's own words:

"The ability to move fast and change with the business is key. The ability to think beyond 'that’s how we’ve always done it' is essential. The importance of focusing on talent and creativity is critical. But the most important thing of all is this: your customers are talking to you. Listen."

If you're not in the habit of reading her blog, you should be.

Quartet Press To Close Before Opening

In June, Publishers Lunch reported Kassia Kroszer, Kirk Biglione, and Kat Meyer had announced they were joining forces to launch "Quartet Press, a 'fledgling digi-publisher' accepting submissions for its romance line Quench! starting this fall. Their books will be available without DRM."

In July, PL reported "SVP and publisher at The Taunton Press Don Linn is leaving that post to join digital publishing start-up Quartet Press, overseeing finance, administration and general management."

And, in August, PL announced Angela James had left Samhain Publishing to join Quartet Press as editorial director.

On Wednesday, PL reported that Quartet Press has decided to discontinue operations.

Kassia Kroszer, who blogs on Booksquare, talks about the decision to close the e-publisher before opening on a post here

I strongly recommend reading Kassia's post. It has a lot to say about the state of publishing. I'll have more to say about this on Monday. I'm taking Sunday off.

Judge Rules on the Seinfeld Plagiarism Suit

Yesterday U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain threw out the lawsuit Missy Chase Lapine brought against Jessica Seinfeld. Ms. Lapine alleged that Jerry Seinfeld's wife had plagiarized her cookbook.

Lapine's book--The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids’ Favorite Meals--was released April 4, 2007 by Running Press. Seinfeld's book--Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food was released almost exactly six months later on October 5, 2007 by HarperCollins.

Both cookbooks became best-sellers, with sales probably helped by all the media fuss created by the lawsuit.

The Associated Press had this to say:

She (Judge Swain) called Lapine's book "a dry, rather text-heavy work" done predominantly in black, gray and shades of brownish-orange. She said Seinfeld's book was "bright and cheerful, full of different colors and various patterns." Consumers who looked at each book were unlikely to be confused, the judge said, tossing out trademark infringement claims.

Judge Swain refused to address Lapine's charge of libel (sic) against Jerry Seinfeld. She referred Lapine to the New York State Court to pursue that claim.

Seinfeld appeared on the David Letterman show about a year ago and spoke of the lawsuit. He said that his wife was being accused of a "Watergate-style break-in at HarperCollins" (Lapine's publisher).

Seinfeld went on to say, ". . . we're sorry that she is--you know--angry and hysterical and because she's a three-name woman, which is what concerns me. She has three names and--you know--if you read history, many of the three-named people do become assassins . . . Mark David Chapman."

You can listen to the segment on Letterman here.

Of course, the judge might have refused to hear the libel charge because she has a conflict of interest, also being a "three-name woman."

This morning's Publishers Lunch reported:

Lapine's lawyer Howard Miller tells the AP they will indeed refile those charges: "The claims against Jerry Seinfeld for defamation are still fully alive. Miller says that "claims against HarperCollins that the publisher misappropriated information from Lapine's book when it rejected her proposal in February and May 2006" will also continue.

To read the background on this case, go to my post of 10/21/07 here.

Tolkien Estate Settles L-O-T-R Trilogy Lawsuit

Almost a year ago, on September 27, 2008, I did a post in which I talked about "Hollywood accounting," the practice of using creative bookkeeping to turn a blockbuster film into a loss on paper.

That post was prompted by a ruling in the lawsuit brought by the family of J.R.R. Tolkien and HarperCollins against New Line Cinema for failure to pay royalties on the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge barred the family from suing for punitive damages in that lawsuit while clearing the way for the heirs to continue their $150 million fraud suit against the studio.

On Tuesday, New Line Cinema settled that lawsuit with the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins. According to the Los Angeles Times:

The suit sought to block production of "The Hobbit" films until those claims were resolved. The three films, which were released in 2001, 2002 and 2003, amassed close to $3 billion in worldwide ticket sales. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Both sides expressed pleasure over the settlement. A follow-up story in the L.A. Times yesterday had this to say:

The lawsuit . . . was settled in the nick of time. Not only were the plaintiffs scheduled to go to trial Oct. 19, but the two "Hobbit" movies are slated to go into production next year with director Guillermo del Toro and producer Peter Jackson.

Go here to read my post from last year, explaining the background to this lawsuit and what writers need to know about "Hollywood accounting."

Go here and here to read the two articles in the Los Angeles Times about the settlement.

Disney To Acquire Marvel Entertainment

Last Monday, the Walt Disney Company announced it will buy Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars. This will give Disney all those famous Marvel Comics' superheroes.

Disney went to some lengths to assure everyone that they did not plan to make drastic changes in the leadership of Marvel Entertainment. They stressed their faith in the Marvel creative team.

Among the details reported by Comic Book Resources:

• Existing licensing and distribution deals should remain where they are.
• Disney said the deal was attractive not just because they’re buying great characters, stories and brand, but about working with people who know these characters best and how best to work with them in other media.
• With respect to Paramount’s distribution deal with Marvel and the Iron Man franchise, Disney has every intention to respect the deal that’s in place, but noted that it’s in their best interest, overtime, to become the sole distributor of Marvel films.
• Disney said this deal is expected to benefit Marvel’s retail efforts, being able to leverage Disney’s shelf space and relationships with major chains and distributors.

Go here to read more details from Comic Book Resources.

Color Me Green (With Envy)

Okay, before we do anything else today, we must pay homage to Neil Gaiman's home library housed in his basement.

Go here to drool.

Urban Fantasy, Anyone?

I've mentioned before that my pleasure reading these days is mostly confined to urban fantasy.

I recently finished Thicker Than Water, the fourth in Mike Carey's Felix Castor novels.

Carey's books are darkly witty and entertaining; so much so that I forgive him his major flaw: uneven pacing. I'm curious as to whether the fact that Carey began his writing career as a graphic novel writer rather than as a prose novelist has anything to do with the pacing issue.

By the way, Carey is an award-winning graphic novelist. He wrote Lucifer and Hellblazer and is the current writer on Marvel's X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four.

In Thicker Than Water, Castor's past catches up with him when a bully from his childhood is found murdered in the front seat of a car with Castor's name in blood on the windshield.

Here's some sample dialogue. In Chapter 11, Castor is ambushed by a zombie on an elevated train station. The zombie picks him up and throws him down toward the tracks in the path of an oncoming train. However, the zombie's timing is off, and Castor hits the roof of the first car, bouncing off into the high grasses, which break his fall. Chapter 12 begins with Castor in the hospital visiting with Nicky Heath, a friendly computer hacker who is also a zombie.

"You any good at syllogisms?" I countered.

"Socrates is my bitch."

"Then work it out. Everyone in a hospital eats hospital food. Everyone in a hospital is sick. Conclusion?"

"Right. I heard it was even worse than the shit they give you in prison."

"Makes sense. In prison, most people are strong enough to fight back."

Okay, I'll admit my humor can be adolescent on occasion, but I loved that "Socrates is my bitch" line.

I had to order Thicker Than Water from the UK, but it was well worth it. If you love urban fantasy, try to scare up one of the four Felix Castor novels. Thicker Than Water is my favorite. I just ordered The Naming of the Beasts, the fifth novel which came out last week in the UK, from a bookshop in Southport, England. Paid $19 for a new paperback to be shipped to Texas.

And some people believe I can't commit!

More On A Literary Scam

In yesterday's post, I reported that the Florida Attorney General is going after Writer's Literary Agency and its numerous offshoots, which include:

WRITER'S LITERARY & PUBLISHING SERVICES
THE NEW YORK LITERARY AGENCY
THE CHILDREN'S LITERARY AGENCY
POETS LITERARY AGENCY
THE CHRISTIAN LITERARY AGENCY
WRITER'S LITERARY SCREENPLAY AGENCY
RAPID PUBLISHING-SCREENWRITER911, INC.
RAPID PUBLISHING, INC.
THE GLOBAL BOOK AGENCY
AMERICAN ENTERPRISES GROUP, LLC
AMERICAN ENTERPRISES GROUP, INC.

I read the actual lawsuit filed by the Attorney General, and it should be handed out to all newbie writers as a part of a manual on how to avoid being scammed.

Here are the relevant pages:

"Each of DEFENDANTS’ websites advertised “NO UP FRONT FEES OR COSTS”. According to the websites, aspiring authors, the prospective customers, would, at no cost, submit manuscripts for review by the representatives of the numerous business entities, all of which were created by DEFENDANT ROBERT M. FLETCHER.

"The websites misled the consumer to believe he, or she, would receive a legitimate evaluation of whether the submitted manuscript was qualified for publication. Following the submission of a manuscript by a consumer to one of the corporate Defendants, or one of the other unregistered companies under which DEFENDANT FLETCHER conducted business, an email response was immediately sent out to the consumer by a representative of one of FLETCHER’S many businesses, advising the consumer (in glowing terms)that the manuscript was, indeed, appropriate for publication and (that the DEFENDANTS were thrilled) to enter into a contract with the consumer to assist in the consumer’s efforts to achieve publication of the consumer’s manuscript.

"This proposed contract included a proposal for a critique review by a “trusted” affiliated agency for between $50 and $90 to assure the best reception by publishers. No disclosure was made to the consumer that the “trusted” affiliated agency was, in fact, another business owned, and run by, DEFENDANT FLETCHER.

"Once this critique was completed, the suggestion for a new author edit (to fully polish the work) soon followed for between $99 and $169 (which would allegedly consist of a cursory review of the first 30 pages, or 3 chapters). Again, no mention to the consumer that this edit was by another FLETCHER affiliate.

"Upon the new author edit being completed, the “Look for Now” database at another additional cost was suggested to “boost” the chances of a sale. If the manuscript was for children, an offer for illustrations by another “trusted” affiliated agency for a “reduced” price was made. Again, an undisclosed FLETCHER business.

"These added expenses were soon followed by a suggestion for website building for another $129. Again, no mention that this “trusted” affiliate handling the website building was another FLETCHER connection.

"Finally, the advice followed that (despite the brilliant manuscript) the initial attempts to seek publication had been unsuccessful and recommending the “aggressive agent” program for another additional payment.

"Eventually, the aspiring authors would realize they had been the victims of a scam, or tire of the constant requests for more money, with no results, and either end the contract, or stop communicating with the DEFENDANTS to whom the money had been sent.

"Usually each prospective author was good for about $600.00 and DEFENDANT ROBERT FLETCHER, was turning over about 500 consumers every six months, or receiving approximately $600,000 per year for no legitimate efforts to provide the consumers the help they paid for, leaving only frustration and disappointment for aspiring authors once they realized their money was paid, not to a legitimate literary agency, but a scam."

Newbie writers need to remember:

MONEY SHOULD FLOW TO THE WRITER, NOT FROM THE WRITER.

Florida AG Goes After Writer's Literary Agency

While scanning the publishing news tonight, I came across an item that warmed the cockles of my heart: a press release from the Attorney General of Florida. Here are portions of it:

"Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced that his office filed a lawsuit against a Boca Raton company that allegedly preyed on aspiring authors. According to the Attorney General’s lawsuit, Writer’s Literary Agency and owner Robert Fletcher used more than 20 websites and related companies to collect funds from potential authors, but misled victims about fees, costs, and promised results.

".. . . Potential writers paid anywhere from $89 for an initial critique to over $600 for various services including editing and marketing of a manuscript to publishers . . .

"Investigators determined Fletcher expanded into the field of publishing within the past year. Fletcher admitted to having no background as a literary agent and to using at least 10 aliases in his businesses.

"The lawsuit seeks injunctive relief against Robert Fletcher and his associates, as well as his many businesses, prohibiting further business activities in the field of literary agencies or publishers. The Attorney General is also seeking full restitution on behalf of all victimized consumers, civil penalties of $10,000 for each violation of the Florida Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and reimbursement for fees and costs related to the investigation."

In the summer of 2007, I did a two-part post on this blog titled "Spotting a Literary Scam." At the end of Part I, I invited readers to review the Writer's Literary Agency and decide whether or not it was a scam.

You can read those posts here:

Part I

Part II

Way to go, Florida!!!!

Appeals Court Reviewing "Catcher" Decision

Back on July 8, here, I reported that a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction barring the unauthorized sequel to Catcher in the Rye, titled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, from being published in the U.S.

Swedish author Fredrik Colting used the pseudonym J.D. California in promoting his unauthorized "sequel." He appealed the July injunction, and yesterday the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York held a hearing on the matter.

Regular readers of this blog will already be familiar with U.S. Copyright law's Fair Use test. The test has four factors which determine whether the use of another artist's work qualifies as fair use. The four factors are:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Please note #2 of the four factors above, which refers to the "nature" of the original copyrighted work. If the artist creating a derivative work "transforms" the original work into something new and different, he has a better chance of winning a fair use case.

During the J.K. Rowling infringement case, I cited an article by attorney Jonathan Band titled "Educational Fair Use Today," which argued that, even when a work is derivative, "repurposing" it or "or placing it in a new context may be sufficient to render a use transformative."

The lawyer for Colting was quoted in an Associated Press article saying his client's new work was "highly transformative with enormous amounts of commentary and criticism."

According to the AP story, the Catcher in the Rye case will also address another point:

The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals expressed doubts about whether a lower-court judge heard enough evidence before blocking the U.S. publication this summer of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye."

Salinger's attorney's argument focuses on #4 of the four factors. She believes Colting's work would impact her client's ability to publish his own sequel to Catcher.

Go here to read the Associated Press article, which includes one of the judges' comments on the quality of the new book.

Stay tuned . . .

USA Today Fall Book Picks

USA Today's five book critics each made a list of the five books they are dying to read this fall.

Here are the 25 titles from authors who include well-known names like King, Kingsolver and Stoker:

Deirdre Donahue picked:
1. Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility
By Mireille Guiliano; release date Oct. 13.

2. The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
By Max Brooks; release date Oct. 6.

3.When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present
By Gail Collins; release date Oct. 14.

4. Cockroach
By Rawi Hage; release date Oct. 12.

5. The Possibility of Everything
By Hope Edelman; release date Sept. 15.

Jocelyn McClurg picked:
1. How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood
By William J. Mann; release date Oct. 21.

2. Prospect Park West
By Amy Sohn; already in stores.

3. Stardust
By Joseph Kanon; release date Sept. 29.

4. Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife
By Francine Prose; release date Sept. 29.

5. The Lacuna
By Barbara Kingsolver; release date Nov. 3.

Carol Memmott picked:
1. Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and ObsessionBy Julie Powell; release date Dec. 1.

2. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
By Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters; release date Sept. 15.

3. Under the Dome
By Stephen King; release date Nov. 11.

4. Eating Animals
By Jonathan Safran Foer; release date Nov. 2.

5. Dracula the Undead: The Sequel to the Original Classic
By Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt; release date Oct. 13.

Bob Minzesheimer picked:
1. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
By Jon Krakauer; release date Sept. 15.

2. Spooner
By Pete Dexter; release date Sept. 24.

3. Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
By Jeannette Walls; release date Oct. 6.

4. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America
By Timothy Egan; release date Oct. 19.

5. Lit
By Mary Karr; release date Nov. 3.

Craig Wilson picked:
1. The Time of My Life
By Patrick Swayze and Lisa Niemi; release date Sept. 29.

2. Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage
By Christopher Andersen; release date Sept. 22.

3. The Queen Mother
By William Shawcross; release date Oct. 20.

4. Pop: The Genius of Andy Warhol
By Tony Scherman and David Dalton; release date Oct. 27.

5. Making Mischief: A Maurice Sendak Appreciation
By Gregory Maguire; release date Sept. 15.

If a title interested you and you want to read the blurb on the book or find the publisher and price, go here to read the entire article.

Grant Thornton Predicts the Future of Retail

For the past month, I've been totally consumed with the task of closing the old fiscal year out at my university department.

Today starts the new fiscal year, and I'm glad to be back. I've missed blogging.

Let's start off slow.

Last Wednesday, Grant Thornton (as in the audit, tax and advisory service guys) was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times saying that "as many as 10,000 retail stores will close nationwide this year, led by clothing stores, electronics and food-and-beverage stores, and department stores, in that order . . ."

Of course, I was mostly interested in what they had to say about bookstores. Here it is:

Though bookstores represented only a fraction of the total, their closings are forecast to jump 500 percent from last year, to 400 stores.

Help the economy. Buy a book.