Tag Archives: publishing

More On eBooks

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On Thursday, Amazon reported 4th quarter profits of $400,000,000, which disappointed investors and caused the share price to drop.  Perhaps of greater interest to literary folk, the company reported that sales of ebooks had eclipsed paperbacks for the first time (they exceeded hardbacks last summer).

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133293543/Amazon-Reports-Profit-Margins-Slid

The report featured comments by Nancy Pearl, an author and librarian, who noted that convenience often comes at a price; she mourned the loss of interaction with librarians and booksellers.

I’m not so sure.  I had two thoughts right off the bat:

1)  I have never had a “relationship” with a large bookseller since Tower went under.  I used to wander the aisles of the local Tower and make interesting discoveries on a regular basis.  Quirky titles on all kinds of subjects offered plenty of room for surprise.  I frankly do not like the shopping experience at Borders or Barnes&Noble.  Too slick.  Market and demographic research has smoothed out the quirks.  I shop at Amazon by preference, since I find the homogenized selections at the mega-stores depressing; online search and “my recommendations,” are more likely to yield exciting new finds.

2) I do have a great relationship with the local used bookstore, one of the Bookworm stores.  Ebooks won’t change that.  I don’t know how many times I’ve gone in to ask for a good book by a specific local author, or a good action-adventure title for a rainy weekend, and gotten spot-on advice.  I’ve had the same relationship with other used bookstores, and with a late-lamented fantasy and sci-fi specialty shop.

I am not going to offer predictions because I think ten years from now they will all sound foolish, but I am going to offer some reflections on ebooks and the changes in publishing, just because I find it fascinating.  These thoughts are just random and not in order of importance.

3) Certain titles I will always want as printed books:  books I read again and again, like some of the favorites I write about here.  Like certain non-fiction titles from cookbooks to Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind that are highlighted and have notes in the margins.  Illustrated books.  Books that are good friends; it wouldn’t be home without Lord of the Rings on the shelf.

4) I’ve had my Kindle for a month now, and love it.  It’s perfect for books I may not read more than once.  I would not have so many  books in boxes in the  garage  if I’d had the option at the time I purchased them. You never know in advance of course, but there are even must-read best sellers I won’t read twice – The DaVinci Code now that I know what happens. Cold Mountain because I was so pissed when Inman died.

5) In 2010 I came to love audio books so much that at my request, I got a year-long membership in audible.com for my recent birthday.  I got seriously into audio books last year as I was making regular trips to the bay area.  I think almost any kind of story is feasible on an audio books, but I really enjoy action-adventure titles while traveling or commuting.  More than once I’ve been so engrossed in a James Patterson book that I was disappointed to reach my destination early, and sat in the car listening until the last moment.

6) I was recently discussing publishing upheavals with several other writers, specifically eBooks and Borders’ financial troubles (that seem to derive from coming late to the party).  No one seemed to think brick-and-mortar bookstores would go away any time soon.  Someone made a plausible case that indie and specialty stores could experience a revival.  I am all in favor of that!

7) In parallel with Amazon’s financial report, a Wall Street Journal article posted on Yahoo suggested they aren’t yet doing that well with Kindle.  The piece claimed they are loosing money ($20 or so) on the latest hardware.  That is acceptable as they are working on the “razor blade” business model – sell the razors cheap and make your money on blades.  But Amazon will not reveal their actual profits from eBooks, and if profits are disappointing and that is their biggest driver…   Clearly the revolution won’t happen unless the manufacturer/publisher is making sufficient money.

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The only things one can be sure of are trueisms, along the lines of, “Change is the only constant.”  The only thing I am certain of in this arena are that the landscape of book publishing and distribution will be very different in five years, let alone ten. 

I would be curious to hear other people’s opinions.  Leave a comment or drop an email.  Do you like ebooks?  Hate them?  Are they a boon or bane for new writers trying to launch their work?  Are books on paper going the way of manuscripts on parchement?  Or none of the above but something else?

 

Workshop with Donald Maass, Feb. 21, in San Francisco

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In response to my post yesterday about the agent workshop in Sacramento, I got a very nice email from Margie Yee Webb, President of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writer’s club, and author of Cat Mulan’s Mindful Musings: Insight and Inspiration for a Wonderful Life which is scheduled for publication in February, 2011. Congratulations Margie!!!

Ms. Yee informed me that Donald Maass, whose, Writing the Breakout Novel, I reviewed here (see the December archive), is giving a half-day seminar called “Micro-Tension: The Secret of the Best-Sellers.”  This will be a post-conference session in connection with the San Francisco Writer’s Conference:

This workshop has been given to rave reviews throughout North America by the man who wrote the book (and workbook) on writing the novel that will break you out of the pack. In the course of two decades Mr. Maass has arrived at a number of definite and highly perceptive conclusions on just what the differences are between an ordinary, pedestrian but enjoyable novel and an ostensibly similar work that catapults the book and its author into an entirely new plane of literary success.

Details on the San Francisco conference and this workshop can be found in the comment Ms. Yee was kind enough to post here:

https://thefirstgates.com/2010/12/07/donald-maass-and-the-breakout-novel/#comments

Workshop, Feb, 5: Make Yourself Irresistable to Editors and Agents

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On February 5, the Sacramento branch of the California Writer’s Club is hosting a workshop called, Make Yourself Irresistable to Editors and Agents. 

Steve Liddick, who is in his second year of organizing workshops for the club, has posted a notice to Craigslist and asked us to spread the news:   http://sacramento.craigslist.org/cls/2146711302.html  I’ll be happy to email the brochure upon request (click the gravatar for my email). 

Times are 9:00-4:00, in the conference room of the Luau Gardens restaurant.  This is the club’s regular meeting venue, has wi-fi, and is close to the intersection of all the Sacramento freeways.  Steve said the presentation will be lively and enterataining, and everyone will have the option of a three minute, for-real pitch to one of the agents in attendance.  Price is $99 for non-club-members, $85 for members.

Steve organized the all day blogging workshop last June that got me started in this endeavor.  The California Writer’s Club also gives me a sense of connection to one of my writing ancestors – it was founded by Jack London.  If you haven’t seen my post on a visit to his ranch, please look in the October 2010 archive.

If you do decide to attend, I’ll see you there.

A Kindle for Christmas: Thoughts on Ebooks

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I wasn’t a stranger to ebooks.  I have apps on the iPod that I use for reading in places like doctors’ waiting rooms, but the screen is too small to look at for long at a time; it would never do on an airplane, for instance.  I have Kindle, Stanza, and Nook apps on my laptop as well.  It’s  great for reference materials, but not for kicking back on the couch with a mystery.

This year, after a lot of vacillation, I sent my letter to Santa, and he brought me a Kindle.  So far, I love it.  This no more negates my love of “real” books than enjoying an apple means I’m about to give up oranges, but it does raise some interesting questions.

After charging the device and reading the instructions, I jumped on Amazon to find something new to read, and I wound up downloaded half a dozen free Kindle books in rapid fire – indulging the rare guilty-pleasure of judging books by their covers.  Unfortunately, I deleted most of them after the first few pages; they were simply not very well written.

On one hand, I was reminded of the predictions of Laura Roberts, a literary agent who cautioned that the eBook revolution is not necessarily going to be a simple egalitarian paradise for creative people too long repressed by the publishing establishment.  In an article I quoted here in July, she said that when paid agents and editors no longer serve as screeners, we’ll have to do it for ourselves, on our own time and our own dime:   https://thefirstgates.com/2010/07/08/the-brave-new-world-of-epublishing

I find my somewhat ambivalent judgements interesting too.  (“Not very well written” in this case, a euphemism for “this book sucks.”)

I have often encouraged people by saying, “Everyone has a story to tell.”  That is, everyone. Is it a bad thing that anyone who wants to can now post their ebook to Amazon?  Aren’t many of my judgements arbitrary and conditioned by the literary and publishing status quo?

I suppose it boils down to something simple.  Everyone may have a story to tell, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pay money to read it.  And given a finite amount of time, there are some books I want to read before the others.

My first new rule of thumb for managing the Kindle is this:  never pay for (an unfamiliar) book that does not have a print edition I can search through first.  I really understand why editors and agents emphasize the importance of the opening pages.

I’m sure there will be further revelations.

Donald Maass and the Breakout Novel

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I first heard about Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass in a notice from Amazon, but dismissed the book, reasoning that writing a novel is hard enough without the added burden of trying to invent the next Harry Potter.

Later, a friend in one of my critique groups recommended the book and passed around his copy. I found it interesting enough to order and  give a quick read, but it wasn’t until a few months later that I really started to pay attention.   In that time, my friend’s fiction improved so dramatically that I gave the book a second reading and ordered its companion, the Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook.

As a literary agent for 25 years, and the author of 14 novels (under pseudonyms), Maass knows the publishing industry. In the Breakout Novel introduction, he says good enough is not good enough anymore: “the midlist has been in crisis since I was a green editorial assistant in 1977. Its demise has been pronounced many times. I never believed it…until now.”

The reasons he cites pale beside the experience of another critique group friend, author of ten published biographies for children.  She passed around a rejection letter she had received from an editor for a novel she recently submitted:  I loved your story.  I stayed up late to finish it.  Unfortunately, I do not think it has the qualities that will allow it to break out.

It’s not hopeless, according to Maass, and as a matter of fact, we not simply pawns at the mercy of the publishing industry, or demographics, or new technologies spinning out of control.  In a 2007 interview, Maass insists that “99% of success is in the manuscript.  Everything else flows from that.” http://writerunboxed.com/2007/11/30/interview-donald-maass-part-1/.  Not that he claims that anything about it is easy.

One of Maass’ motives in writing these books was to explore why some novels, regardless of genre, are dramatically successful and others are not.  What are the qualities of those stories we come back to read and reread?  The ones we can’t wait to share with our friends?

I actually prefer the Breakout Novel Workbook, since it breaks the humongous task of creating “cut above” fiction into manageable chunks. Here is one from the second part of that interview, an exercise he presents at his fiction seminars, which are clearly not for beginners, but for those who actually have a manuscript in hand and want to take it to “the next level:”

Maass: The absolutely essential exercise that everyone should do, with every novel, is to toss the manuscript pages in the air and collect them again in random order. (The pages must be randomized or this won’t work.) Next, go through the manuscript page-by-page and on each page find one way to add tension. Now, that sounds easy enough but most people are quickly stymied. That is because they do not truly understand what tension means. In dialogue, it means disagreement. In action, it means not physical business but the inner anxiety of the point-of-view character. In exposition, it means ideas in conflict and emotions at war. Study your favorite novelists. If they make you read every word, even while turning pages rapidly, it is because they are deploying tension in a thousand ways to keep you constantly wondering what’s going to happen. Tension all the time is the secret of best selling fiction, regardless of style, genre or category. If it sells big, it’s got tension on every page. http://writerunboxed.com/2007/12/07/interview-donald-maass-part-2/

One page at a time – the same way any writing is going to happen.  I got hooked on the Workbook in the first exercise, which starts with the importance of a character we can identify with and care about.  From Winnie the Pooh on, the books in my life that have mattered have all had living characters that shaped my imagination and personality. How does that come about?

Who are your heroes? What are their special qualities? How can your own fictional characters manifest those qualities? These are the first exercises in the workbook, and…hey, I can do that!

For anyone writing fiction, in any genre, I seriously recommend that you take a look at both of these books.