An Open Letter To Agents

by

This post, by author Courtney Milan, originally appeared on her site on 7/26/11.

I wrote a very long blog post last night. In fact, I’m not done writing it. It was so long, I’ve split it into two. This half is still pretty darned long. This is the less technical half, the shorter half (gnn, yes, really, sorry!) and it’s the half that I’m going to address to agents.

I want to be clear about one thing–while this is an open letter to agents in general, the agent I’m not addressing this to is mine. She and I have had several conversations about this new world, and I know we’ll have more. What has impressed me about her response is that when I’ve gone to her with a concern, she has thought about it, talked about it with others, and come back to me with a response that tells me that she gets where I’m coming from, that she respects me as an author. This shouldn’t be taken as a passive-aggressive dig at her; everything here I’ve already told her, and then some. If I ever need to tell her something, I’ll send her an e-mail or give her a call, and I know she’ll respect and listen to what I have to say. 

{Edited to add the next morning: Please see my mea culpa here.}

So, to every agent in the world who is worried about the new world in publishing, except Kristin Nelson:

You want to know the number one question that authors are asking me about my self-publishing venture? Bar none, it’s this: “How are you dealing with your agent?” I can’t think of a single published author who wanted to ask me questions about self-publishing who has not asked that question, and wanted to talk about it at length. The ratio of questions about my agent to questions about everything else that I’m doing has been about 15:1. I’ve talked to other agented authors who have self-published, and they are also fielding questions about their agents, I suspect at approximately the same ratio.

Agents, I don’t think you have any idea how much your writers are talking about you right now. Seriously. I don’t think you have any idea. I am getting multiple e-mails every day from writers who are worried about what their agents are doing, and who are worried about how to handle agents, and who want to be fair to their agents but also don’t want to pay them a percentage when there’s little to no work involved, and/or the agent handles little of the risk.


Read the rest of the post on Courtney Milan‘s site, and also see this follow-up post about why the author feels it’s unethical for literary agents to act as their clients’ publishers.

Why the Decision to Kill off a Character can be Murder on an Author

by

This post, by Andrew E. Kaufman, originally appeared on The Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

Somewhere during the course of my novels, someone has to die—actually, several people do. That’s just the nature of the beast. My stories revolve around evil-doers, and most will stop at nothing to get what they want. Even murder. And really, what’s a mystery without a body or three?

That’s not to say writing them is easy—it isn’t. For an author, killing off characters is a big responsibility and in some cases, risky business. After all, plotting a novel is one thing—plotting a murder is completely another. It has to make sense, has to fit in with the story, and most importantly, has to move things forward in a logical manner. Kill the wrong character and you could wind up with a real mess on your hands (so to speak). The effects can be catastrophic, throwing everything completely off-balance. I know this because on occasion it’s happened to me, and when it has I’ve had to chuck the entire story and start all over again. Trust me, folks, it’s no fun: we’re talking pull-your-hair-out-of your-head, gnash-your-teeth-to-powder sort of moments.

Then there’s the emotional side. Like readers, we get attached to our characters, too, probably even more so. For me, they’re like my children. I created them, and sometimes I hate to see them go. So when the story dictates that one of them must die, it can be troublesome, to say the least. I often don’t want to do it. I struggle. That’s when I have to step away from my feelings and remember that it’s all about the story. The good news is that hopefully, if I’m feeling the pain, the reader might, too. Maybe it’s a sign I’m getting it right. Or maybe it’s just a sign that I’ve lost my mind. Not sure which.

And there are other risks, implications which can occur off the page. Killing the wrong character can make readers really angry.

That’s what happened to Karin Slaughter (SPOILER ALERT) a few years back when she ended the life of one of her most beloved characters. It created a huge backlash. Readers were furious, many accusing her of doing it for the shock value and vowing to never pick up another one of her books again. It got so bad in fact that Slaughter ended up having to post a letter on her website explaining her decision. Not sure whether it made a difference, but as an author I can understand what she went through.

So what about you? Readers: ever been really upset over the death of a character? And authors: What have your experiences been while offing one of your peeps?

Let’s chat.

 

 

Jane's Writing Advice Archive

by

Jane Friedman, friend of Publetariat and authors everywhere, indie and mainstream-published alike, has launched her own, dedicated website, http://www.janefriedman.com. Among other things, this is where you can access her Writing Advice Archive. From Jane, on her site:

I’ve been offering writing and publishing advice for a long time.

So I thought it might be time to create a handy archive of what’s available online, especially for those who haven’t been following me since the very beginning.

Click here to browse.

If you know of something wonderful I’ve written that isn’t included here—or if you’re looking for something you can’t find—let me know. I’ll try to remedy!

Thanks so much for providing (and being!) such an invaluable resource, Jane!

The Hybrid Writer: Balancing Traditional and Self-publishing

by

This post, by Bob Mayer, originally appeared on Publishing Perspectives on 7/25/11.

From Edward Nowatka: Bob Mayer published over 40 books with traditional publishers before he decided to go DIY and convert his backlist into e-books. It has reinvigorated his career, but it’s not for everyone.

In January of 2011, just six months ago, I sold a total of 347 of my books for the Kindle. Last month I was able to sell 2,100 e-books in a single day and sales are increasing.

What changed?

My focus.

Two years ago I hit a milestone in my career as an author. After twenty years and over forty books, I’d written myself out of my last contract. It was a good news, bad news situation. The good news was for the first time in two decades I could really sit down and think about what I wanted to write. The bad news is, that in traditional publishing, an author without a contract is unemployed.

It was more than deciding what I wanted to write. Because publishing was changing, I had to consider how I wanted to publish. Hard to believe, but in January of 2010, e-books were only 3% of the market. Most people were predicting it might hit 5% by the end of the year.

However, I had a treasure chest of backlist to which I owned the rights — over 40 titles. Some of these titles had never been released in e-book format. Many had hit the print bestseller lists. I knew there was a market for them so with the help of Jen Talty I launched Who Dares Wins Publishing and we started loading my books, starting with my bestselling Atlantis series on various platforms, like Kindle. My primary focus, though, was still on NY and traditional publishing. I was working on a new thriller and a new historical fiction. My plan was to go to my agent and go through the traditional publishing process, just as I had for the past 20 years.

Through 2010, I kept the same focus, but as the year came to a close, I was accepting that publishing as I had known it was going through drastic changes.


Read the rest of the post on Publishing Perspectives.

Resources For Young Writers

by

I have had a number of teenagers email me in the last year and have been so encouraged by their eagerness to write and become authors.

I am also helping my 9 year old niece write her first book at the moment. Even if it’s just for the grandparents, she is learning the process of writing, editing, illustration and book production. It’s amazing to be able to help people at such a young age.

I had that spark at 13 but I lost it over the years and only rediscovered it in my 30s. I don’t want the same thing to happen to these young people, so here are some tips and resources for young people wanting to write and be published.

  • Don’t listen to anyone who says that one type of writing is better than another. This is what killed my young dreams of being a writer! There is a snobbery in the book world that says literary fiction is the best kind, that winning prizes is more important than sales and that genre fiction is somehow less than other types of books. You need to decide a) what you like to read and b) what you like to write. If you like vampire romance, then go ahead, write some yourself. Stephanie Meyer did that with Twilight. If you like war books, or space ships, or explosions, or love stories – or of course, if you like literary fiction books – then write what you enjoy. If you want to earn money from your books, check out what the most highly paid authors have in common here.
  • Not everyone will like your book. Don’t worry about it. But learn about editing. There is a lot of criticism in being a writer, but don’t let it get you down. Not everyone will like your writing. Do you like every book you read? Probably not and that’s ok isn’t it? You don’t need to. So it goes for your book. You will want everyone to love your writing but they won’t. Family can be the most critical and that will hurt a lot. Sometimes it’s best to keep it a secret. There is also a difference between criticism that doesn’t help and constructive criticism which could also be called editing. This is very important for all writers. We all need editors to help us improve. It’s like having a coach at school and we learn that way. An editor will help you to improve what you have. Basically, someone saying your writing is terrible doesn’t help. Someone who says that you need to add some dialogue and improve this character in this specific way is helpful.
  • Try online networking. I personally love twitter for finding like-minded people who are into the same things as me, but I know young people are into different networks. Spend some time on your favourite network finding a group that might suit you. It may be that the best encouragement you can get is from another young person on the other side of the world. I had pen-pals when I was younger (in the days of hand writing letters!). Now you can email someone in another country. Look for someone who you can talk to about being a young writer. Encourage each other and you can always read each others work – but be kind and supportive.
  • Learn about editing, publishing and book marketing as well as more about writing. It’s not just about the initial writing. There is a process in becoming an author and you need to be aware of it all or you will find it much harder when you want to get into publishing. Click on the following links for more information: Writing and Editing, Publishing options and Book marketing. The exciting thing is that as the market changes, there are many more opportunities for all writers either with small independent presses or by publishing yourself onto ebooks or in print. It’s the best time to be a writer right now!

Here are some other resources:

If you are a young writer, do you have tips for other people? If you are a parent/teacher/author, please also leave your tips for young writers in the comments. I would love for this to be a good resource page.

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

6 Dialogue Traps To Avoid

by
Dialogue is an area where many writers struggle. This is pretty ironic when you consider that words are writers’ stock in trade, and unless a given writer is mute, he or she has been plying that trade since about the age of eleven months. Yet while most of us communicate normally and without much difficulty in our everyday lives, for some reason many of us have a tendency to go all flowery, choppy, melodramatic or wooden when it comes time to put words in our characters’ mouths. Avoiding the following dialogue traps will go a long way toward making your dialogue more natural and believable.
 

1. No two people talk exactly the same. In believable stories, as in life, each person will have his or her own rhythms of speech, pet phrases and regional or family expressions. This doesn’t mean each character should broadcast his geographic or cultural background with every sentence, however. It just means that if, by about a quarter of the way through the book, a reader can’t tell your characters apart merely based on their dialogue, you haven’t made each character’s "voice" distinctive. The important thing here is to be subtle when drawing those distinctions. If you’re not sure what this means or how to go about it, here’s an exercise to try: the next time you’re in a crowded, public place, pay attention to the bits and pieces of conversation floating all around you. Notice how different people express the same thoughts differently.

For example, where one person might say, "I called Sally," another might say, "I phoned Sally," or, "I rang Sally." Where Joe (in his forties) says, "That whole night was a waste of time," Jake (a twentysomething) might say, "Two words: epic fail," and Steve (an ex-military man) might say, "FUBAR, all the way, man." Thinking about your characters’ backgrounds, histories, and even biases and motivations when constructing their dialogue will help in making their voices distinct from one another.

2. Life is not a movie. While heated exchanges, adamant diatribes and weepy heart-to-hearts all have their bit to contribute in various stories, they should be used sparingly if you don’t want your novel to read like a soap opera script. If you’re prone to succumb to melodrama in your dialogue, try reading it aloud. If the words feel or sound unnatural coming out of your own mouth, they shouldn’t be coming out of your characters’ mouths, either. Of course there’s some wiggle room here if you’re writing something historical, a fantasy, sci-fi, or anything else with purposely unusual language.

 
3. Men and women communicate differently. This really boils down to a single, simple concept. Speaking in gross generalizations, the masculine communication style is based on utility, whereas the feminine communication style is about socialization. 
 
In the masculine, words are used to accomplish some goal. The goal is usually imparting necessary—and that word, "necessary", is key here—information, but it can also be to quickly size up a person or situation, or to establish or reinforce the pecking order (e.g., teasing). Generally speaking, believable masculine characters talk less than feminine characters, and get to the point pretty quickly. With feminine characters, a given conversation need not have an intrinsic point: the point of the conversation may simply be for the feminine characters to hear and be heard, and feel validated by one another as a result. But having said that, I’d caution against too much mutual navel-gazing on the part of your feminine characters, lest you bore your readers.
 
4. In general, the words should not draw attention to themselves. Dialogue should never take your reader out of the story, for any reason. If your reader must reach for a dictionary or fire up some device that has access to Wikipedia in order to understand what the heck that character is talking about, that reader is being pulled out of the story world.
 
While particularly intellectual characters may employ five-dollar words at times, try to err on the side of conservatism in that area. If you can substitute a word or phrase that’s better-known, though still only rarely used in everyday conversation, make the change. Similarly, if a given character wants everyone to think she’s worldly and well-traveled she may pepper her speech with foreign words, and that’s appropriate. Just make sure the foreign words are familiar to most readers, or that their meaning is adequately conveyed through context.  
 
5. Dialogue that’s used for exposition will sound stilted 99.99% of the time—so don’t do it! As a general guideline, characters should NEVER say things to one another only for the purpose of conveying necessary information or background to the reader. If a given character might just as well open his bit of talking with, "Well, since the reader probably doesn’t know anything about particle physics, let me give you a thumbnail sketch of string theory," then you’re doing something wrong. Find a way to get the expository into your story in other ways: through actions, settings, and so on. Consider the following example.
 
Michael was physically and mentally abused for years at the hands of his mother and as a result, he has a great deal of trouble extending trust to any females. This history informs the character and actions of Michael, but is not a central focus of the story at hand. When Michael visits a new girlfriend’s home for the first time, one writer might include a confrontation between the two characters in which the girlfriend voices concerns about Michael’s unwillingness to open up to her and Michael responds by spilling his guts about his mother. A better writer will have Michael flinch when the girlfriend removes her belt while changing out of her work clothes, when she playfully quotes an overbearing female movie or TV character, or when she reaches for the knife block while preparing dinner, and then have the girlfriend notice this.
 
6. When in doubt, read it out…loud. This goes back to trap #2, but it bears repeating.


This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton‘s Indie Author Blog.

How to Create Ebook Covers with Phoster Application

by

Phoster is a fantastic application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, perfect to create posters, cards, invitations and, yes, ebook covers.

I’ve used the word “create” instead of “design” because it better describes what you’ll be doing.

You don’t need to design a layout, it’s already done by the developers of the application, folks from Bucket Labs – Phoster comes equipped with as much as 72 layout templates. All of them are top-level design. Thanks to that the application can be a very powerful tool to create professionally looking ebook covers.

Below I’ll show you how easy it is to create a cover. The general advise is to keep things simple and not to change the layouts too much. They are perfect as they are and there is no need to improve them.

4 steps of creating a cover with Phoster

I’ll create a cover for a book about mobile natives (I hope one day I’ll write this book).

1. Choose a template

I’m sure you’ll find a template which is closest to your needs. Layouts differ in selection of fonts, position of text boxes and a general style. For each of the template, in a next step you can add a picture. You can also leave a background as it is or just change its color – this would make a nice non-fiction book cover.

When you’ll be selecting a template just keep in mind that you can’t add any more text boxes. So, pick up the template, which is closest to what you want and has enough number of text fields positioned where you want them to be.

For my book I’ve chosen the template below. I like simple design and I want to use a picture which will work best with the title aligned to right. I also need only three text boxes – two for the title and one for the author.

After choosing a template, tap on a Next button at the bottom right.

 

 

2. Insert a photo or choose a color of the background

Use an icon of a camera to add a picture, either directly taken or from a photo library. You can make basic color adjustments within the application (brightness, contrast and saturation) by tapping on a slider icon.

Remember, you can always use one of the photo applications, which can give a stylish look to your picture. I’m sure you have one of them: Instagram, PictureShow, Camera+ or Hipstamatic.

Second option is not to add a picture, but only change a background’s color. To do that, tap again on a slider icon – you’ll see at the top a set of predefined colors to pick up from.

I’ll be using for my cover a photo previously edited in PictureShow (by the way, you can see a #1picstory made with it). As you see it’s dark enough to use against white letters and there is a lot of space in the upper right corner. That’s where I’ll place the title.

 

3. Type the text

To change text tap on a “T” icon. An edit box will appear, where you can replace the existing text with your own title. Use Previous and Next buttons to switch between text boxes. Alternatively you can open the edit box if you quickly tap on the text.

You can change the color, the size and the font style of the text. There is a plenty of typefaces to choose from, but I recommend to keep the predefined style. Any major change may break the original design idea of the template.

If you want to move a text box, tap and hold it until you see a shadow.

I moved the title a bit to the right and higher. As you see, I didn’t change anything else.

 

 

4. Choose the effect

After you’re finished with texts and pictures, tap Next to move to the last step – applying the effect.

This is the most enjoyable part of the work. There are 19 style available. You can select one of the vintage styles, including paper and dust textures, or you can decide to use color stripes or patterns (see picture below).

I’ve selected a simple pattern and the cover looks like this. What do you think?

Although Phoster is positioned as a tool to create posters, cards, invitations, I think it’s an awesome way to create professionally looking ebook covers. It’s one of those mobile applications which redefine our approach to creation. You can focus solely on finding a concept and big picture, leaving the craft to the application itself.

Phoster costs $1.99 (iTunes link). Consider it as a money spent for a professional cover artist, who gives you 72 proposals of the layout.

Remember to include credits to Phoster in your ebook. Write down a link to both the application at iTunes and the developer’s webpage: http://www.bucketlabs.net.

Read also about another great tool, Wordle. You can use it to create great-looking covers based on a word cloud from your book.

 

This is a reprint from Piotr Kowalczyk‘s Password Incorrect.

Handling Writer’s Block the Piers Anthony Way

by

How fortuitous it was that a copy of Piers Anthony’s second autobiography, How Precious Was That While, came to me shortly after I had blogged about Writers Block. It was published by Tor in 2002 in mass market paperback with an ISBN 9780812575439. If you’re a fan, you’ll love this curmudgeon fantasy author talk about his self, his books, and the industry. He devotes a whole chapter to the writing process, to include avoiding writers block in Chapter 4: Ironies. I’m taking the priviledge of encouraging you to find a copy and reading this book. I’m going to list some of his observations and tips as a way of explaining why this is such a worthwhile book:

Writing a novel is like running a marathon. It takes steady endurance.

Writers block may be an excuse not to do what people don’t want to do–write.

Always have a variety of projects to work on (like my writing both a mystery and a fantasy every other day).

Use a bracket system so that when you come to a stumbling block, use a bracket and [write a short note to yourself as to what you think should go there and that you should come back to it later]. Then keep on going. I review these every day and write notes in a journal to myself before quitting for the day.

Keep a daily Work Record and track your progress. (He writes 3,000 words of text, 1,000 words of novel notes, and 1,000 of Personal file every day for a total of 5,000 words a day.) He’s 77 YO and still writing. When he wrote this autobiography he had written over 125 novels. Writers block? I don’t think so.

A real writer should generate his inspiration as a tool, ready whenever he needs it.

Have a working spouse to take off the stress of supporting a family, freeing you up to write. (Try it for a trial year like he did).

He goes on with many other writing realities in this chapter, which is why you should try to get a copy of this book. He has a blog at http://piersanthonyblog.blogspot.com/ His Twitter address is PiersAnthony.

Finally

These are Piers’ thoughts, not mine. Don’t shoot the messenger! On the other hand, take these suggestions seriously. Piers is one of the most successful genre writers in the past 50 years or so.

 

This is a reprint from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

The Long (and Sometimes Broken) Road to Publishing

by

This post, by Liliana Hart, originally appeared on her site on 7/19/11.

As of this blog post, I’ve been self-published for exactly fifty days. We’ll get back to what this means a little later, because I want you to see the journey before the results (unless you’re one of those people who reads the back of the book first. You guys should just skip to the bottom).

I’m all about being open and honest about my career, because I wouldn’t be where I am if it weren’t for other authors who did this for me. Hopefully, my story will encourage those of you who’ve had a similar journey. Now don’t get too excited, my career isn’t cause for fireworks and explosions. Not yet. But I have hope that it will get there if I stay the course and keep writing books. This business is about consistency and perseverance. And writing books your fans will love.

I wrote my first book during Spring Break of 2005. I’d started books a million times before (this number is a slight exageration meant for impact), only to stop halfway through and toss it in the trash. I’m talking a lot of books here. I’d been trying to write a book since my freshman year of college, but I NEVER FINISHED. This is key. The finishing.

I was still teaching in 2005, and I’d declared Spring Break to be just for me. I was going to sit down and write. I didn’t want to go out with friends. I didn’t want to take a trip. Quite frankly, I didn’t even want to have a conversation. I wanted to write. So I did.

By June of that same year, my book was finished. It was a 120,000-word thriller about a virgin assassin who’d been raised by the CIA to kill (Stop Laughing-I know it sounds ridiculous). This was actually a very high concept book (I won’t tell you the high concept part right now because I’m actually rewriting it to publish-Don’t worry, she’s no longer a virgin). But as several agents and publishing houses said at the time, the concept was higher than the execution. I needed to hone my craft. But the rejections I got from this book didn’t discourage me, they only pushed me to keep writing. And to write better.


Read the rest of the post on Liliana Hart‘s site.

Five Good Grammar Habits Every Writer Should Adopt

by

This post, by Melissa Donovan, originally appeared on Writing Forward on 7/21/11.

Can you imagine a nutritionist who eats exclusively at fast food restaurants? A personal trainer who never exercises? A writer who can’t be bothered with grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

In most professions, best practices and tools of the trade are mandatory. If you want to be a doctor, you have to have a PhD. If you want to land a job in accounting, you need math skills. But writers can easily finagle around best writing practices, especially with the increasing accessibility of web- and self-publishing.

Basic grammar skills used to be mandatory — not just for writers but for all high school graduates. These days, you can get out of college with a degree but no clue how to properly structure a sentence or differentiate between they’re, their, and there.

I’ve lamented about the fact that grammar is absent from education. But I’m even more saddened by the absence of good grammar among self-proclaimed writers.

Good Grammar Habits for Writers

I’m not going to rehash all the reasons writers should practice good grammar. It all boils down to being a professional and showing respect for the craft of writing and for your readers.


Read the rest of the post, which covers the promised 5 good grammar habits, on Writing Forward.

Ebook With Audio!

by

Everyone loves a good spy story … especially when it’s true.

Double-agent’s memoir integrates actual taped phone conversations into e-book

 

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 21, 2011 – How does a roofer with a Master’s degree in Library Science become a double agent recruited by the FBI, the Russian GRU and KGB? In John Pansini’s explosive new memoir, you’ll learn exactly how an “average Joe” was recruited by some of the world’s most powerful intelligence services.

But what makes this new book release truly unique is the embedded recordings of the actual conversations between Pansini and his spy masters and handlers. Ten of the seventeen chapters that make up Roofman: A true story of cold war espionage have embedded conversations taped by Pansini throughout his years as a spy during the height of the cold war in the 1980’s.
 
“What I have published has never been done before. This is an “enhanced” ebook with real conversations of real people,” said Pansini, the author of this revealing new memoir. The fact that most of these ‘real people’ also happen to be spies and spy-chasers make’s ROOFMAN all the more "intriguing". 
 
Those interested in receiving a review copy of Roofman: A true story of cold war espionage may request a free copy of the memoir by emailing him at roofmanpansini@aol.com. Please specify which publication you represent and in which format you would like the review copy (available format’s include .Pdf, epub or mobi).
 
The author is available for interviews. Please email John Pansini at roofmanpansini@aol.com with “Interview Request” clearly printed in the subject line. For more information on Roofman: A true story of cold war espionage, please go to http://www.roofmanthespy.com/

To listen to all the embedded audio tapes, please go to http://www.roofmanpansini.com
 

 

 

 

Thank you.

 

Harry Potter 7.2 – The End Of An Era

by

We went to see the latest and last film installment in the Harry Potter series yesterday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The film is pretty good, even if it is pretty much one long action scene. With a story there are normally three acts. There’s a setup, with questions asked and situations created, then there’s some kind of action and usually some extra problems thrown in, and finally there’s resolution. I recently saw something that sums this up beautifully:

vonnegut three acts Harry Potter 7.2 the end of an era
I found this via Chuck Wendig’s Tumblr, and I love it so much I want to punch it in the face.

So, the problem, if you can call it that, with the last Harry Potter film is that it’s all the last cup. It’s all resolution, action-packed climax. But that’s okay. Because seven previous films have done all the work of the first two acts.

Say what you will about J K Rowling and the Harry Potter stories, there’s something truly amazing about the achievement. Sure, the stories may be derivative, distillations of so much fantasy that’s gone before. But everything is informed by something. Sure, Rowling may not be the greatest writer on the planet, but she does spin a yarn that keeps you reading, and what more do we really want than that? These aren’t wanky literary explorations of language and word form. They’re rollicking yarns, aimed mainly at young people. And Rowling does have a dab hand at naming things. She comes up with the best names.

I was a bit of a critic at first, especially of the first couple of books. Poorly written, derivative stories that insult the genre, blah, blah, blah. Yes, I’m blah, blah, blahing myself. It’s true to some extent, but Rowling kept going, she created a remarkable world and truly interesting characters. Well, mostly. Ginny Weasley, for example, was always a bit of a glyph. But Rowling got young people excited about books again, and for that she deserves a knighthood or a statue or something. We can forgive the small things in the face of the big achievement.

And that achievement is seven books that sell better than the Bible. A merchandising empire that makes nation states weep. Rowling is worth an estimated £500 million. That’s pounds sterling. That’s a mental amount of money from writing about a boy wizard. On top of that, we’ve got the films.

Never has a film franchise like this happened before. Sure, there have been film series’, though none with a single story that runs to eight full-length episodes. There have been characters who have cropped up way more than seven times, like James Bond. But each of those is a seperate story, and there have been many actors playing Bond. To have a story like Harry Potter extend over eight films, over ten years, with the same cast literally growing up as their characters is something we may never see again.

It would be fantastic if some other great book series’ received the same kind of treatment, but it’s unlikely. Not often does a prospect like Potter come along. Very few stories will guarantee a return on investment like Harry Potter does. It’s beyond mainstream; it’s ubiquitous. Producers and financers knew they could pretty much spend carte blanche on Harry Potter films and guarantee getting their money back several times over. Nothing is a safe bet like that in this world. Rowling created that – a guaranteed massive return investment. And you thought her magic was all fiction. This last installment shattered box office records worldwide, with US$169.2 million in US and Canadian ticket sales over the opening weekend. The opening weekend! And they’ve yet to truly milk it, with the rest of its cinema run, then DVDs, then special edition DVDs, then 8 film boxed sets. Not to mention all the associated merchandising.

Then there’s Pottermore to keep the whole thing monetised. Then there’s always the possibility of more books. The whole 19 Years Later thing at the end of the story is there as some kind of cap, but there are loads of ways around that if Rowling chooses to write more.

Of course, the real test of Rowling’s skill will be to write something else. Amazing as the Potter success is, she’ll always be measured against it and may not be able to write any other stories. I hope not. I hope she comes up with something all new, completely unrelated to Harry Potter and his world of wizards and witches, though I doubt she will.

So, for now at least, it’s over. It really is the end of an era. Children started reading books with the success of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. They grew up alongside their favourite characters while film stars grew up playing those characters. I’m glad to have seen it through. There’s a good sense of closure now and the books and films will stand as one of the greatest storytelling achievements of all time.

I’m still left with one question unanswered. Why does Harry Potter, or any other witch or wizard, wear glasses? They can regrow bones, for goodness sake. Surely they can fix a spot of myopia. Then again, perhaps it’s good to be left with some questions. Well done J K Rowling, and well done Harry, Hermione and Ron. You all did good.

This is a cross-posting from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

As Borders Lies Dying…

by

There’s analysis, punditry and post-mortems aplenty where the failure of Borders is concerned.

This Slate piece asserts Borders died primarily of self-inflicted wounds its competitors have avoided. From the article:

Other companies have adapted to the e-reader revolution, and even benefited from it. Other companies have changed to fit the new bookselling paradigm. And other companies are dealing with the drawn-out aftereffects of the recession. The better reason for its demise is that Borders had long lost its competitive edge on many fronts, from corporate strategy to coffee. It died by a thousand—OK, maybe just four or five—self-inflicted paper cuts.

The Wall Street Journal quotes numerous customers of the chain’s "#1 Store" in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and while all of those customers are disappointed, none are surprised.

The Atlantic takes a broader view in its article, Books, Borders and Beyond: How Digital Tech Is Changing Retail:

"But if there’s one thing the Internet takes away from stores, it’s foot traffic. The Web is a shopping mall. So who needs the shopping mall? It’s more convenient for buyers — and cheaper for merchants — to play with a virtual storefront and bypass the high fixed costs of real estate.

"All retailing is vulnerable," says Joel Kurtzman, senior fellow at the Milken Institute and former editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review. "I’ve spoken with executives at many major big box retailers, and they’re all very worried about how the digital world is changing their business."

Forbes wonders, Does a Failed Borders Presage a Doomed Bookstore Business?

“As Borders expires, new enterprises will evolve to take book retailing’s place,” wrote Gene Hoffman, one-time president of The Kroger Co. and former chairman and president of Supervalu. “Those new enterprises won’t be conventional book retailers but companies that are on the leading edge of what current customers are responding to.”

National Public Radio raises a question about other possible consequences of the Borders failure in its article, When Borders Closes, Do Doors Slam Shut In Classical Music?

Borders’ buying patterns also made for fan frustrations, Goiffon asserts. "For years," he notes, "we pushed in vain to get them to target buying geographically: Instead of sending most of their stock to the biggest markets for classical music, such as New York, they’d send four or five copies of each title to every single store they had — so New York would sell out and be stuck, while all those other copies languished in other stores around the country."

So if you were in one of the main U.S. classical music markets, like Manhattan or San Francisco, you might never see a label’s biggest releases as you flipped through the bins. For many classical music listeners, browsing is still an important pathway to musical discovery, one that many online sellers haven’t managed to duplicate. And lots of people still prefer physical CDs to downloads. (And classical music metadata is still the beast to be tamed.) The Borders experience left a lot to be desired, for sure, but you could walk into one of their stores and know that you’d see classical music there.

Finally, and most depressingly, The Detroit News looks at the effects Borders’ failure will have on local and national economies and unemployment rates:

Borders workers will be hurt because retail employment has stalled and it could be difficult to find a new job, says John Challenger, chief executive at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago job outplacement consulting firm.

Borders will lose its 10,700 employees nationwide, which represent just less than 0.1 percent of the country’s roughly 14.5 million retail workers, Challenger said.

"That’s a big loss of jobs," Challenger said. "We haven’t seen five-figure mega-layoffs in a while."

It takes a retail worker three to four months on average to find another job in the sector, he said.

 

Use Autoresponders And Emails To Promote Your Book

by

Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, it’s important to have an opt-in form on your website to capture email addresses of visitors, so that you can contact them now and in the future. Keeping in touch through email helps to build relationships, reinforce your expertise, and keep potential customers from forgetting about you.

You can send "broadcast emails" to your list at any time and use "autoresponders" to automatically send out one or more pre-written emails at specified intervals after someone joins the list. Here’s an example of an autoresponder: when you submit an online form to get a free ebook from someone, you might get an email with a link to the ebook immediately, and then get a follow up message seven days later, and another message ten days after that.

Here are just a few of the ways that authors can promote through autoresponders and broadcast emails:

  • Offer a sample chapter, short story, prequel, ebook, report, or instructional video to people who sign up for your mailing list. This free bonus should be designed to promote your book or other products.
  • Send a newsletter to subscribers with educational or entertainment value.
  • Send your list an announcement of new books or products, and new editions and formats of your book.
  • Offer free or paid mini-courses, online training, or teleseminars, and use the autoresponder to deliver information to the registrants on an automated basis.

In my latest newsletter, I published a more in-depth article that explains how autoresponders work, explores ways that fiction and nonfiction authors can use autoresponders to promote books, and offers tips on choosing a service provider. If you’re not already a subscriber, sign up today to get access to the archive of in-depth newsletter articles and get three free ebooks on book marketing.

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Borders Liquidation

by

It’s official: Borders is liquidating all of its remaining inventory and equipment and closing its doors. What follows is a reprint of Borders’ press release, dated 7/18/11.

Borders Group to Submit Hilco and Gordon Brothers Proposal to Court for Approval

Hilco and Gordon Brothers to purchase store assets of the business and administer liquidation process
Borders extends gratitude to dedicated employees and loyal customers

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ —

Borders Group reported today that, in accordance with the terms of its financing agreement, the Company will submit to the Court for approval the previously-announced proposal from Hilco and Gordon Brothers to purchase the store assets of the business and administer the liquidation process. Borders said that, in the absence of a formal proposal from a going concern bidder, it did not require an auction prior to presenting the proposal to the Court at a scheduled hearing on Thursday, July 21, 2011.

"Following the best efforts of all parties, we are saddened by this development," said Borders Group President Mike Edwards. "We were all working hard towards a different outcome, but the headwinds we have been facing for quite some time, including the rapidly changing book industry, eReader revolution, and turbulent economy, have brought us to where we are now," he added.

"For decades, Borders stores have been destinations within our communities, places where people have sought knowledge, entertainment, and enlightenment and connected with others who share their passion. Everyone at Borders has helped millions of people discover new books, music, and movies, and we all take pride in the role Borders has played in our customers’ lives," Edwards continued, "I extend a heartfelt thanks to all of our dedicated employees and our loyal customers."

Borders currently operates 399 stores and employs approximately 10,700 employees. Subject to the Court’s approval, under the proposal, liquidation is expected to commence for some stores and facilities as soon as Friday, July 22, with a phased rollout of the program which is expected to conclude by the end of September. Borders intends to liquidate under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and, as a result, Borders expects to be able to pay vendors in the ordinary course for all expenses incurred during the bankruptcy cases.

About Borders Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group, Inc. is a leading specialty retailer of books as well as other educational and entertainment items. Online shopping is offered through borders.com. Find author interviews and vibrant discussions of the products we and our customers are passionate about online at facebook.com/borders, twitter.com/borders and youtube.com/bordersmedia. For more information about the Company, visit borders.com/media.