John Sayles, Novelist, Seeks A Binding Contract

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This article, by Josh Getlin, originally appeared on The Los Angeles Times on 5/26/09.

The writer-filmmaker is shopping a sprawling work of historical fiction, but no big publishers are buying. Such is the cautious state of publishing today.

Reporting from New York — For 40 minutes last month he held them spellbound, reading about America in 1898. John Sayles didn’t just give the crowd a taste of his new novel, "Some Time in the Sun" — he performed a comedy about tabloid newsboys in New York, playing 26 characters with thick, period accents.

"WAR!" Sayles boomed in the voice of a 13-year-old newsie thrilled ("Trilled!") that the Spanish-American War had boosted his daily street sales: "Remember the . . . Maine! Jeez, the way they played it out — Day 1, the ship blows up. Day 2, who blew the ship up? Day 3, we think we know. Day 4, we sent down our experts!"

When it was over, the audience at City University of New York’s Gotham Center gave Sayles an ovation. But then he was humbled by a question from a woman in the front row: When would the book be out?

"I’ve been done with it for six or seven months, and it’s out to five or six publishers," he said quietly. "But we haven’t had any bites yet."

John Sayles, Oscar-nominated creator of "Return of the Secaucus 7," "Lone Star," "Matewan" and other movies, is having trouble getting a book deal.

The situation is almost entirely traceable to the publishing industry’s economic woes, and it’s raising eyebrows, because Sayles was an accomplished fiction writer long before he made his first film. Weighing in at a whopping 1,000 typed pages, "Some Time in the Sun" is his first novel since 1990’s "Los Gusanos."

"This is really astonishing," says Ron Hogan, senior editor of Galleycat.com, a website devoted to publishing news. "I mean, this is John Sayles! You’d think there would be some editor who’d be proud to say, ‘I brought the new John Sayles novel to this house.’ "

Anthony Arnove, Sayles’ literary agent, sent the novel out on a first round of submissions last fall, and recently sent it to another group of editors. His goal is to land a deal with a deep-pockets publisher who can promote the sprawling, epic tale about racism and the dawn of U.S. imperialism.

Sayles’ 1977 novel, "Union Dues," was nominated for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. "The Anarchists’ Convention," his comic short story about aging Jewish lefties, has become an American classic.

But that’s ancient history in the publishing world, where an industry-wide deep freeze is getting colder by the day. The kind of deal Sayles might have landed several years ago — when publishers might have taken on his new book for the prestige factor, or a sense that the economic gamble could be worth it — is more difficult now.

It’s a jittery moment for writers and publishers, as sales plunge (down 4.2% in the first quarter of 2009) and the big houses lay off swarms of veteran editors. As the economic collapse continues, a novel like "Some Time in the Sun" becomes an increasingly harder sell.
 

Read the rest of the article on The Los Angeles Times site, and this companion piece, Life’s Too Short For Thousand-Page Novels, on The Guardian UK Books Blog.

Great Characters – Their Best Kept Secret

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This article, by James Bonnet, originally appeared on The Writer’s Store site.

Have you ever wondered why characters like Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur, Achilles, Scrooge, Dorothy and Superman go on forever? The real secret of their immortality lies in something you’ve probably never equated with the creation of a great character or a great story — the quintessential.

But if you fathom the secrets of this remarkable quality, you can use it to make your characters truly charismatic and merchandisable and just about everything else in your story more fascinating.

According to the dictionary, the quintessential is the most perfect manifestation or embodiment of a quality or thing. It is the ultimate, good or bad, best or worst, example. The world’s fastest runner is the quintessential runner. The world’s deadliest snake is the quintessential deadly snake. Hitler is the quintessential megalomaniac. Einstein is the essence of mathematical genius. He is symbolic of genius.

Applied to story, it means making the story elements the best example of that element. And that is, in fact, what great stories are all about. Great stories, myths and legends are dominated by quintessential elements.

Zeus is the most powerful god. Helen of Troy is the most beautiful woman. Achilles is the greatest warrior. King Arthur is the most chivalrous king. Camelot is the most fabulous kingdom. Excalibur is the most powerful sword. Samson is the strongest man. King Herod is the nastiest tyrant. King Solomon is the wisest and richest king.

It is the key to their success. Why? Because if you make something the most extraordinary example, you will make that idea more intriguing. A secret chamber is fascinating in itself, but you could make it even more fascinating by making it the most intriguing secret chamber of all time. The black hole of Calcutta is more fascinating than an ordinary prison. A perfect murder is more fascinating than an ordinary murder, and the most perfect murder of all time is more fascinating than your run-of-the-mill perfect murder.

If your story is about ghosts, injustice or romance, taking that subject to the quintessential will make that subject more fascinating. In ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ the subject of love is taken to the quintessential. It is the greatest love story of all time. ‘Harry Potter’ is about the most extraordinary magic the world has ever seen. ‘Gladiator’ is about the greatest tyranny. The Roman Empire is itself the quintessential empire. ‘The Perfect Storm’ is about the storm of the century. ‘Titanic’ is about one of the world’s worst disasters. All of which adds considerably to our fascination and interest in these stories.

The quintessential can be applied to any element of your story but is especially effective when applied to the professions and dominant traits of your characters. If you take these dimensions to the quintessential, you will make your characters more intriguing. They will make an important psychological connection and that will add significantly to the power of your work.

Read the rest of the article on The Writer’s Store site.

Why Self-Published Music Sux

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This (satirical and comic) piece, by Zoe Winters, originally appeared on Publishing Renaissance on 6/2/09.

I feel the need to talk about this troubling issue I’ve seen cropping up. It’s self published music. You see, Britney Spears may not be the height of all musical talent, but there is a certain level of quality we know we get from her music since it’s produced by a big record label. It doesn’t matter if you know who her record label is, it’s just important that you know she has one. This means she has been vetted.

Other people have put their money into her, and so therefore we can trust her far more than we can trust a garage band we’ve never heard of. Why doesn’t the garage band have a recording contract? There is SO much music out there and so much of it self published now, that we have all this crap we have to wade through. I mean do you seriously seriously think that people have the time to listen to a full song before deciding whether or not to buy your self-produced CD?

And with all the vanity self-publishing music companies out there that allow people to put their music up, well it’s a problem. Youtube anyone? Holy crap what were people thinking there? And now even iTunes just lets any joker who thinks he can write and play music to just… put it out there for SALE!!!! OMG

And here we, the unsuspecting customer are supposed to just trust it. There are even some bands who go so far as to make up their own record label. And that’s lying. Because you’re not allowed to start a business with a business name. Even though it’s perfectly legal. If you start a flower shop and you name it Awesome Flowers instead of your name, then that’s lying. Cause we think it’s a real legitimate flower shop instead of just someone who started their own business. If I don’t know who your recording contract came through, I can’t trust your music. I can’t just test it out cause that would be too hard to do. Why should a consumer be responsible for checking out a product before purchase?

Now, I will admit that it’s become increasingly difficult to get a BIG recording label (even though that’s the ideal we ALL strive for and no one has any other goals or dreams), and so sometimes it’s a little bit respectable if you have a small recording label, but the most important thing is… you can’t be your own label. You need to get a neighbor down the street or something to start a record label and sign you. Then it’s legit see? Cause a different person from you is running the show and paying the bills. If you’re the one paying the bills and investing everything in your own work, how can we trust you? How do we know you aren’t just self-absorbed and delusional? I know other businesses work on this initiative principle, but music isn’t the same. Music is different, just trust me on this one.

Self published music just isn’t the same as big record label music. And no matter what any of these “indie musicians” (like who do they think they are calling themselves that? Like we can’t see through that) say, it’s just always going to be this way. They don’t have respect, they’re never getting respect, so they may as well give it up now.

And do you know why they aren’t getting respect? Because most of them suck, and most of them think they automatically deserve respect, just for creating something and working hard to package and distribute it. Well get in line buddy! I am making my music the legit way, and you should too.

Who ever heard of a world or culture where a mega-corporation didn’t first approve all artistic expression and turn it into a mass consumer commodity? That’s how shit should be done, dude. And if you don’t agree, well, you’re just delusional. This country was NOT founded on any kind of dreams of independence or doing your own thing. We are all supposed to follow. So get back in that line and follow. Some day if you’re good enough, a big record label will smile down upon you and make all your dreams come true. And then we’ll respect you, because you will have done something respectable. Instead of this fake self publishing music stuff you’re doing now.

Read the rest of the article on Publishing Renaissance.

Eighteen Challenges in Contemporary Literature

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This list, by Bruce Sterling, originally appeared on Wired.com’s Beyond the Beyond blog on 5/30/09.

1. Literature is language-based and national; contemporary society is globalizing and polyglot.

2. Vernacular means of everyday communication — cellphones, social networks, streaming video — are moving into areas where printed text cannot follow.

3. Intellectual property systems failing.

4. Means of book promotion, distribution and retail destabilized.

5. Ink-on-paper manufacturing is an outmoded, toxic industry with steeply rising costs.

6. Core demographic for printed media is aging faster than the general population. Failure of print and newspapers is disenfranching young apprentice writers.

7. Media conglomerates have poor business model; economically rationalized “culture industry” is actively hostile to vital aspects of humane culture.

8. Long tail balkanizes audiences, disrupts means of canon-building and fragments literary reputation.

9. Digital public-domain transforms traditional literary heritage into a huge, cost-free, portable, searchable database, radically transforming the reader’s relationship to belle-lettres.

Read the rest of the list on Wired.com’s Beyond the Beyond blog.

Demystifying The Creative Process

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This post, from Charlie, originally appeared on his Productive Flourishing site on 9/29/08.

“I’m not creative.”
“I wish I could be more creative, but I don’t have it in me.”
“Why are some people creative and others aren’t?”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard those statements or questions…

The truth is almost everyone has creative potential. What separates good creatives (or dormant creatives that get lucky) is that they’ve learned how to walk through the creative process. The irony is that most of them don’t know that there is a documented process, yet they’ve developed habits and processes that allow them to walk through the process. On some brute level, they understand the process, though they don’t know how the process works.

A large part of the problem is that there is an air of mystery and mysticism around the creative process. Because people assume and reinforce the idea that some have creative potential and others don’t, those that do harness their potential and work through the process become all the more “different.” And because so few of us see that leveraging our creativity is inextricably linked to how we make money, we let our creative process devolve into a daily crap shoot.

So, let’s take a few minutes and demystify the creative process.

The Four Steps of Creativity

We’ve known for a long time that the creative process can be broken down into four distinct processes, most of which can be fostered and augmented. The processes are:

  1. Preparation
  2. Incubation
  3. Illumination
  4. Implementation

I’ll spend some time on each step.

Preparation

This is the first phase of what most call work. A writer, for example, prepares either by writing, reading, or revising earlier work. A musician plays scales, chords, or songs…a painter messes with paints or visits an art gallery…an entrepreneur researches problems to solve….a programmer plays with code. In each example, the creative is going through relatively mundane processes.

The reason I say most call this phase “work” is because these processes may or may not be inherently enjoyable. They’re also fairly mundane and tedious, but the creative has learned that this process is necessary to plant the seeds that lead to…

Incubation

This would be the mystical process if there were one because you often don’t know that you’re percolating an idea, or if you do know you’re working on one, you don’t know when it’s going to come out. It’s at this phase that your conscious and subconcious mind are working on the idea, making new connections, separating unnecessary ideas, and grabbing for other ideas.

This is the phase that most people mess up the most with distractions and the hustle and bustle of daily lives. Modern life, with its many beeps, buzzes, and distractions, has the strong tendency to grab the attention of both our subconcious and unconscious mind, and as result, the creative process stops and is instead replaced by more immediate concerns.

However, from this phase comes…

Illumination

This is the “Eureka” moment that many of us spend our days questing after. When it hits, the creative urge is so incredibly strong that we lose track of what else is happening. The driving impulse is to get whatever is going on in our head down into whatever medium it’s intended to go.

The most frustrating thing for me is that the “illumination” moments happen at the most inopportune times. They invariably happen when I’m in the shower, when I’m driving by myself, when I’m working out, or when I’m sitting in mind-numbing meetings that I can’t get out of. Of course, the bad part is as I said above: the impulse is to get the idea out as soon as possible, so it’s not at all uncommon for me to stop showering, driving, or working out and run to the nearest notepad – and, in meetings, I start purging immediately anyway. I’ve yet to gain enough clout to excuse myself from the meetings, but I’m working on it.

Read the rest of the post on Productive Flourishing.

A Week of The Variant

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This post, by screenwriter John August, originally appeared on his site on 5/31/09. 

My short story The Variant has been on the market for a week. As promised, here’s an update on how the 99-cent experiment has gone.

variant sales table

Short version: I sold more copies than I expected, with fewer technical issues. I had picked the Friday of Memorial Day weekend precisely because I hoped it would be slower-paced, allowing me to fix whatever disasters struck without a crush of weekday traffic. But I could have been more ambitious, and a mid-week launch would have made more sense.

I get 35 cents on each Kindle sale, versus 89 cents on each download.

I’d be less grumbly about Amazon’s 65 percent cut if their reporting were better. Their DTP publisher tells you almost nothing about your sales. It only shows how many total units, with no breakdowns at all — not by day, not by state, nothing. Fortunately, I had embedded my Amazon tracking number in links from my site, so I do know that 458 of my Kindle sales came from people who clicked through from the launch page. That’s only a third of the Kindle sales, so many people were getting it in one of three alternate ways:

  • Following a direct link from an outside site, such as Daring Fireball.
  • Buying it through Kindle itself, either the device or the iPhone app.1
  • Finding the book on the Kindle bestseller list.2

Downloads provide a lot more data. I’ve already written about the international readers, but the numbers also help show the falloff over time. It sold ten times more on the first day than the seventh.

Read the rest of the post (including footnotes and a chart) on johnaugust.com.

THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE by Michael Phelps

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Good Morning Everyone here on Publetariat,

My name is MICHAEL PHELPS . . I am the good-looking, OLD Writer . .

NOT the good-looking, YOUNG & talented Olympic Champion with all that Gold.

My recently released novel; THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE has received NINE REVIEWS thus far. All reviews can be seen on my web site: http://www.MichaelPhelpsNovels.com, www.amazon.com and www.BarnesandNoble.com.

I just returned from the BOOK EXPO AMERICA show at the Jacob Javitts Center in New York City.  It was a very busy, long and productive four days.

At the show, I experienced the great honor of meeting MR. DONALD MAASS, Founder and President of The Donald Maass Literary Agency, Inc. (New York).  He is the most respected and successful Literary Agent of all time. In addition, he is a Best Selling Author in his own right.,  He is NOT my Agent (yet), but I was impressed with his graciousness and interest.

My publisher has also entered into a contract with Small Press United to be the exclusive distributor for my novel, THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE, so it will be available nationwide in major and independent book stores.

In addition, I am Re-Releasing "DAVID JANSSEN – MY FUGITIVE", which I co-Authored with ELLIE JANSSEN in 1994. It appears there exists a great deal of sustained interest in the Golden Globe winning, Emmy Nominated late actor, best known for his staring role as "THE FUGITIVE" (ABC Television – 1963-1967.

Thank you all for reading this, and have a great week.

Michael Phelps

www.MichaelPhelpsNovels.com

BOOK EXPO AMERICA MAY 28 – 31, 2009 – NEW YORK CITY

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I am pleased to have attended the BOOK EXPO AMERICA show at the Jacob Javitts Center in New York City.

It was a very busy and productive show.  I was honored to meet MR. DONALD MAASS, Founder and President of THE DONALD MAASS LITERARY AGENCY, INC. of New York.  He is NOT my Agent (yet), but he is the most successful Agent ever, and a Best Selling Author in his own right.

My novel, THE EXECUTION OF JUSTICE has received Nine Reviews thus far; 5 are FIVE STARS, and 4 are FOUR STARS. All reviews can be viewed at my web site: http://www.MichaelPhelpsNovels.com, www.amazon.com and www.BarnesandNoble.com.

I have posted new photos here.

Have a great week, and READ and WRITE!

Regards to all,

Michael Phelps

Interview With Cliff Pickover: Mainstream/Indie Author

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Dr. Cliff Pickover is a very successful scientist, researcher and mainstream author, with over 40 published titles to his name and a list of accolades and reviews that reads like a who’s-who of the publishing and media businesses. So why has he gone indie with some of his books?

 
Dr. Pickover is the author of over 40 books (many of which can be found on various Amazon bestseller lists on any given day). He has published through mainstream presses such as Oxford University Press and John Wiley and Sons, through smaller outfits like Smart Books, and he has self-published as well. His books have received rave reviews from the likes of Publishers Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Booklist and Wired magazine, and he’s collaborated with celebrated fantasy author Piers Anthony on the book Spider Legs. He’s also the author of the tremendously popular Mind Bending Puzzles series of calendars and cards.
 
Dr. Pickover’s professional stature as an inventor and scientist is no less impressive. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University’s Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, he holds over 50 patents, and his research has received attention from such media outlets as CNN, Wired magazine and The Discovery Channel.  
 
Dr. Pickover: you’ve been a mainstream author, and a very successful one, for a very long time. Yet your novels, The Heaven Virus and Jews in Hyperspace, are indie endeavors.
 
I have published both fiction and nonfiction books, but finding a publisher for fiction is much more difficult than for nonfiction. More generally, if the ability to find a publisher for nonfiction can be compared to walking across the street, finding a publisher for fiction is like walking from New York to California, backwards. According to Marc McCutcheon, author of Damn! Why Didn’t I Write That?, of the 50,000-plus new books published each year, only about 3,500 are fiction. A mere 120 fiction releases each year are first novels of an author. Although these numbers are a few years old, it gives you an idea of the magnitude of the challenge.
 
I’m not the only author to realize the immense challenge in publishing fiction. For example, John Scalzi has written extensively on the difficulty of publishing science fiction. First let me tell you a little bit about John. He is a published nonfiction book author. He has written for the Chicago Sun-Times, the Washington Post, the San Diego Tribune and the San Francisco Examiner. He’s even been on Oprah. John has been an editor, most notably for a humor area on America Online. He even has an agent — for his nonfiction.
 
Scalzi believes that in order to get science fiction published, you need to have accomplished only two things: 1) You must have published a science-fiction novel in the past, and 2) You must be writing military science fiction. He’s conducted extensive surveys of bookstore shelves devoted to science fiction. By his estimate, eight out of the ten books on the shelves are from well-established science-fiction writers, many of them dead, such as Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and Niven. The remaining two books of the ten are from relatively new authors, and most of these are “hard” science fiction dealing with space battles, military machines, starships, and the like. Scalzi concludes that this leaves only “four science fiction books out of a hundred that feature new authors not writing about space navies and powered war suits.”
 
Some fiction publishers receive so many submissions in just one day that they would need huge staffs just to read the first few pages of each submission. Even having an agent can be fruitless. For example, publishers will read few manuscripts submitted by agents who are not very well connected or well known. Many publishers and authors have said, “Your odds of getting hit by lightning are higher than getting a novel published by a name publisher.” 
 
Along those same lines, with respect to your mainstream-published books, what has your typical marketing and promotion experience been?
 
If you are speaking of author-based promotion for mainstream books, then I would have to say that book-signing at local bookstores has little value. I’ve been interviewed on some big radio shows, such as Coast to Coast, and this appears to be useful. 
 
Your earliest books were strictly nonfiction. At what point did you decide to try your hand at fiction, and why?
 
For a long time, my mainstream science books have incorporated elements of fiction. For example, in order to teach readers about black holes or time travel or mathematics, I have used fictional settings in which the reader explores the science with a quirky set of assistants. In other words, many of my own science books include science-fiction story lines to stimulate readers’ interest in the serious science. For example, my “nonfiction” books Black Holes: A Traveler’s Guide, Time: A Traveler’s Guide, The Stars of Heaven, Surfing through Hyperspace, The Mathematics of Oz, The Loom of God,and The Paradox of God all feature fictional characters who investigate astronomy, physics, mathematics, and religion.
 
I have always written fiction. As I said, fiction is very hard to publish, even if one is a published author and even if one finds an editor who likes the novel. As an example, an editor at a mainstream publisher actually liked the sample of my latest novel Jews in Hyperspace but did not have the time to proceed further in his consideration of the work. Science-fiction editors are so swamped and drowning in submissions that they often are too busy to respond to most authors and continue the dialogue needed to get a book submission published. For Jews in Hyperspace, I decided to publish directly to the Kindle as an experiment. I consider self-publishing an experiment that gives authors hope and more exposure.
 
I’d like to help novelists reading this interview with this “Tips for Writers” page, which I’ve assembled for you. I hope you and your readers find it helpful.
 
Have you made the decision to go indie—whether that means publishing yourself or through indie presses—for your future works? Why or why not?
 
I have relatively little problems selling math or science books to traditional publishers, so I wouldn’t “go indie” for those. Indie is great for experiments with fiction, and we can always hope that such an experiment will bear fruit. It is easy to publish to the Kindle, and I give tips for writers who wish to publish to the Kindle. In fact, April, I learned a lot from your great document on Kindle publishing. All indications point to the fact that the Kindle is taking off in terms of popularity and importance. It may be a turning point in the history of book publishing. I want to help authors publish to the Kindle, and I hope that the instructional document I have placed at the web site is of some use to authors and to your readers.
 
Have any of your books gone out of print, and if so, do you have plans to re-release them yourself?
 
Yes, some of my books have gone out of print. In fact, Sterling has brought back into print The Loom of God , and some of my other books have been brought back into print by mainstream publishers. I have no major plans to bring my out-of-print books back into print, preferring to focus on new works that would help me connect with readers.  
 
Many of your works are available in Kindle editions, but no other e formats. What is it about the Kindle that convinced you to release Kindle editions of your books?
 
In fact, the mainstream publishers of my books made the decision to release Kindle editions. I suspect that they felt it a valuable experiment, given the ease with which people can purchase books from Amazon.com for the Kindle. In seconds, an author’s book can be downloaded to the Kindle.
 
Incidentally, my novel The Heaven Virus is available as a 99-cent download from Lulu.com. I have not yet determined if setting so low a price helps sales, because potential readers may feel that if a book is too inexpensive it may be of inferior quality.
 
None of your books are available in audio format. Do you have plans to create audio or podcast editions in the future?
 
I do not have plans for audio format at this point in time. Many of my books are quite visual, with numerous figures, and many have equations. These may be a little bit harder to convert to audio than works such as novels.
 
A common complaint among authors is the difficulty in finding time to write. You’re extraordinarily prolific as an author—releasing a book a year on average—, as well as an inventor and researcher. You’re the editor of Reality Carnival, an editor of technical journals, a regular past contributor to Discover Magazine, a frequent contributor to numerous other periodicals, and you’re a very avid reader as well. Do you have any advice or tips a more typical author can use to improve his or her level of productivity?
 
The key is for writers to avoid perfection as they write. Writers should give themselves permission to be sloppy as their thoughts gel.
 
The French writher Marcel Proust composed his books in a haphazard fashion. He did not start at the beginning and finish at the end. He did not write linearly. Instead, ideas came to him in flashes as he went about his daily routine. Most of my own books are composed in the same way. As ideas come to me during the day or in the realm between sleep and wakefulness, I jot them down and continue to fill in details in the book. For me, writing is exactly like painting, adding a spot of color here, a detail there, a twig on this tree, a bit of foam on that ocean wave… No painter starts at the top of the painting and finishes at the bottom.
 
My approach to filling in detail, like a painter dabbing paint, is fine in the age of word processors, but it was amazing that Proust used the same approach so well. He would dictate to his stenographers who would type an initial manuscript. Then, he would crowd the margins with additional details and establish links between scenes and characters. He would paste in new pages and have the new work typed again and again. Edmund White notes in his biography of Proust, “If any writer would have benefited from a word processor, it would have been Proust, whose entire method consisted of adding details here and there and of working on all parts of his book at once.”
 
When I start writing my novels, I do not know how the stories will end. I let the characters and initial crazy situation drive the plot, forcing both me and the book’s characters to attempt to solve the challenges that come along. 
 
It’s obvious how your education and professional experience have informed your writing, but do you feel your experiences in authorship have informed your professional life to any extent?
 
My writing has greatly influenced my professional life in ways too numerous to mention. However, it is easy to see how my own writing has made me more skillful in editing the work of others, which plays a role in my professional life as a journal editor. I also do a lot of inventing and have many patents. For inventing, the ability to write helps quite a bit. One of the challenges for new inventors is the need to express the essential aspects of an invention in words.
 
As you must know by now, self-publishing and promoting your own books takes a lot of time and effort. Given that you’re already very successful in numerous other venues and can probably go on selling nonfiction and reference manuscripts to publishers for many years to come, why bother with indie authorship?
 
Indie authorship lets authors connect with people— it lets authors experiment, it lets authors hope, it lets authors dream. Through the Kindle, Lulu.com, and similar avenues of publication, authors gain exposure and learn about the process of writing and promotion. One thing is certain: the author has no chance of fame and fortune without trying and connecting with readers. Indie authorship gives everyone a chance.
 
Finally, can you tell me a little more about your book, Jews in Hyperspace? What is it about, and can readers without any background in science or Judaism understand it?
 
Jews in Hyperspace is one of my favorites, and I published it directly to the Kindle. I give a free excerpt here — a website at which I also tell your readers how the book came to be written.
 
Readers need no special background in science or Judaism to enjoy the wondrous adventure. In the book, I mix higher dimensions and religion, miracles and modern technology, and politics and physics to produce a gripping tale set in a future Jerusalem. It’s a strange blend of scientific thriller and a quest for religious harmony.
 
April, here’s the premise. Orthodox Jews are disappearing from Jerusalem. One moment they are praying at the Western Wall, and in the blink of an eye, they seem to evaporate, occasionally leaving behind only their fur hats—their shtreimels—that sit like small, soft flying saucers, perched on stone pavement in the dwindling light. In order to build the Third Temple while being respectful of the Islamic structures on the Temple Mount, the Jews have discovered a way to access a fourth spatial dimension. They will build the Third Temple invisibly "above" the Temple Mount and "above" the Mosque in the direction of the fourth dimension. I discuss everything from the future of Israel and Jerusalem to Parallel Universes, the building of Third Temple in Jerusalem, Nephilim, angels, and the fourth dimension.
 
Without indie publication, this novel would be difficult to publish. Jewish publishers are not accustomed to publishing science fiction. Thus, it would surely be difficult to find a route to publication through Jewish publishers.

Publetariat Vault Update: Get Ready!

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The Publetariat Vault is coming, and the Vault FAQ and Terms of Use are up!

The Vault aims to give publishing pros and content producers a tool they’ve never had before: a complete picture of the commercial viability of a given literary work, including actual sales data and reader reviews, provided before rights to that literary work are secured.

Authors: If you’ve self-published in an effort to garner mainstream publisher or content producer attention you will definitely want to list your book, and we’re making it easy by providing a free listing period for the Vault’s grand opening.

The Vault will provide a searchable database of indie print and ebooks available for mainstream acquisition. Listings will include the usual book information (e.g., title, author name[s], brief description), as well as a synopsis, excerpt, keywords, links to reviews of the book on bookseller sites and book sharing sites (e.g. GoodReads, Shelfari), the ability for authors to select up to 4 genre assignments from among over 70 choices, and the ability to provide links to any or all of the following: current bookseller listings (including current sales rank, where reported on bookseller sites), author websites and blogs, author social media profiles, articles published by authors, reviews of the book, author interviews and more.

In other words, all the information publishing acquisions pros and content producers need to decide whether or not a book meets their needs, both in terms of content and marketing criteria.

The Vault is being built by indie authors with publisher input, so you can be sure it will enable you to showcase your book in the best possible light while providing the information publishing pros say matters most to them in deciding whether or not to pursue a given book. The Vault isn’t quite ready for you yet, but it will be soon and in the meantime, you can work on getting the following items ready for your free listing:

Brief Description – plain text passage, up to 1000 characters including spaces. If your book is listed on Amazon, the Vault can pull your description in directly from your book’s Amazon page. Editor’s correction: since tests have shown that Amazon can alter or reformat its data at any time without notice (remember #AmazonFail?), the Publetariat Vault has elected not to rely on the import of any data from Amazon in its listings.

Synopsis – a file in txt, rtf or pdf format, containing a beginning-to-end, concise summary of your book in 2 pages or less, maximum file size of 50k. Be sure to include author name(s) and book title, either at the beginning of the first page or in the header or footer of every page. If you’re not sure how to create a synopsis, Google "book synopsis" for more information and examples.

Excerpt –  a file in txt, rtf or pdf format, containing up to the first 30pp of your book, maximum filesize of 1MB. Note that pdf is the only file format that will preserve your original fonts and formatting. Again, be sure to provide the name(s) of the author and the book, either in the form of a cover page, or in the header or footer of every page.

Author Website or Blog – Whether you need to create a new one or polish up an existing site or blog, it’s time to get started.  There are plenty of free, online resources to help you with this. Several are available right here on Publetariat, in the Sell department, but you can find plenty more by Googling for "author blogs", "build a website" or "author platform".

Social Media Profiles – if you intend to share your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social media profiles with publishing pros who check out your book listing, you’ll want to make sure those profiles reflect positively on you and your book. Remove any questionable material (photos, videos and written confessions of you partying down or badmouthing real and imagined enemies have got to go) and add more material of authorial merit. If your blog, site or social media profiles scream, "BUY MY BOOK!!!!", tone it down. You’ll also need to ensure your social media profiles are set to "public" on sites like Facebook or MySpace in order to allow people who aren’t members of the site(s) in question to view your profile(s).

Book Cover Image – a cover image with dimensions of 125×175, with a file type of gif, jpeg or jpg. If your book is listed on Amazon, the Vault can pull your book cover image directly from your book’s Amazon page. Editor’s correction: since tests have shown that Amazon can alter or reformat its data at any time without notice (remember #AmazonFail?), the Publetariat Vault has elected not to rely on the import of any data from Amazon in its listings.

We’re planning to open the Vault for listings by the end of June—sooner, if we can possibly manage it—, so if you want to be a part of this exciting new opportunity to bring indie books to the attention of publishers who are looking to buy, get ready NOW!

How Giving Ebooks Away For Free Increases Print Book Sales

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This post, by Brad Vertrees, originally appeared on his Brad’s Reader blog on 5/31/09.

I’m always on the lookout for authors who not only embrace ebooks but use them to complement their print book sales. The most interesting way of doing this, I think, is by giving ebooks away for free. Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow does it and I’m sure a lot of other writers do too.

Last night I came across the blog of writer JA Konrath (who goes by the pen name Jack Kilborn) via this Enriched by Words blog post. As I side note, I’d like to mention that I had the pleasure of seeing Konrath in my local bookstore when he stopped by to sign a few copies of his book. He happens to also live in the Chicago area like I do. 

Anyway, in Konrath’s blog post Ebooks and Free Books and Amazon Kindle, Oh My he talks a lot about how distributing his ebooks for free has really helped his print book sales, not hurt them, as many publishers fear. He even lists out the reasons why he gives his ebooks away for free. Here are a few exampless:

2. Books Are Expensive. Many people don’t want to spend $24.99 or even $6.99 to take a chance on an unknown. And even fewer want to spend $14.99 on an ebook download. But people love a bargain, and free is the best bargain of all.

Let’s face it: There are many more unknown authors out there than famous ones. And people don’t like to shell out hard earned cash on someone who is unknown. When an author gives away an ebook for free, readers have nothing to lose. They are much more likely to give that author a chance. If they like the ebook, then they’ll probably buy the print book the author is selling. If they don’t like the ebook, they haven’t lost anything.

3. Free is Viral. If you Google Kilborn+Crouch+Serial, you currently get 6550 hits. Part of that is because of an orchestrated campaign done by Blake and I, in conjunction with my publisher, Grand Central. But part of it is because people are talking about it, picking up on it, repeating it, linking to it, etc. Publicity and promotion is free and easier to come by (if you’re a midlister) when you’re giving something away.

This reminds me of something Cory Doctorow said regarding book piracy (forgive me, I don’t have the exact quote). But he basically said he’s more worried about obscurity than someone pirating his books. I think Konrath has the same idea here too. Does Konrath worry about piracy? Probably not. In fact he appears to encourage people to link to his ebooks and some even offer Konrath’s work on their own websites.

Indeed, obscurity can ruin even the most talented writer. If no one knows about you and your books, no one will buy them. And with the sheer number of books being published and sold nowadays, getting noticed is harder than ever. I’ve always maintained that once an author gets a publishing contract and his/her book is on the way to bookstores, it is no guarantee of success. I’ve seen a lot of good books disappear from the shelves of my local bookstore, not because they are [not] selling well, but because they have been returned to the publisher for not selling at all.

Konrath understands this perfectly:

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in the print world is distribution. The number of print books I sell is limited by the number of books printed, and the places they are for sale. If no one is aware of my books, no one will buy them. I strive to make people aware I exist, so readers seek me out rather than accidentally run into me, but I can only reach so many people.

“Free” isn’t a replacement for traditonal print books at traditional price points. Instead, free complements those print books. Free is used to market those books. Free gives an unknown author a chance of being known, which is the key to selling books. This might seem counterintuitive – giving stuff away for free to sell more (and that’s probably why most publishers resist it so much). But it works. Authors like Doctorow and Konrath are proving it every day.

Read the rest of the post on Brad’s Reader.

Here's a Milestone

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Indie authors have many different milestones — the first book published, the first sale, a new review, a great response to a guest blog, an interview . . . but yesterday I sold my 1,000th book over all titles and it only took , , , 18 months. Still, despite the fact that Dan Brown does that in a day or many other Indie authors on this site have done that thrice over, it is a rather nice feeling to touch a thousand souls and still manage good reviews and accelerated sales. I even took the first day off in 18 months from writing yesterday. Had steak and onion soup with the remnants of my family. Anyhow, the sun came up on another era for this author. I shall sail the waters of my ten current projects and perhaps another thousnd sales will be out there. However, I do not think the second will be as satisfying as the first.

Edward C. Patterson
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMI6X8
my new Amazon Author’s Page

Would you rather be a Best-Selling Author or a Best Writing Author?

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Dan Brown’s new book “The Lost Symbol” will be out in September and the publishing industry is looking forward to blockbuster sales. Last week at the Sydney Writers Festival, it was pointed out that literary fiction doesn’t sell and one of the panel asked authors to ‘please write more books that sell’. After all, it will help you as an author as well as the suffering publishing industry!

So what do we aim for as authors?

One the one hand we want to win prizes, be literary geniuses and praised for our glorious ability with words. On the other hand, we want to make money! (after all, most literary prizes are very small! )

Here are some examples of best-selling authors that cannot be considered “literature”, but are definitely books that are popular and have touched the hearts of millions (and made a lot of money for their authors and publishing houses). 

  • Dan Brown “The Da Vinci Code” has sold more than 80 million copies. The movie made more than $700 million at the box office. I have read “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”, the non-fiction book that the ideas came from, as well as perhaps the literary equivalent Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum”. I enjoyed both other books, but Dan’s comes out tops in terms of popular appeal! 
     
  • Robert Kiyosaki with The Rich Dad series of books, which have sold over 27 million copies in 109 countries. Robert is a multi-millionaire, and says himself “I am a bestselling author, not a best writing author”. 
     
  • JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame is constantly criticised by literature fans especially for her use of adverbs. But that hasn’t stopped her from becoming the first ever billionaire author and loved by millions around the world. 
     
  • The Chicken Soup for the Soul series by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen is just a bunch of stories told by real people in simple language. Those simple stories have touched hearts in 40 countries and sold over 112 million copies, as well as developing into aself-development franchise model. 
     
  • Stephenie Meyer with the Twilight series. Stephenie is even criticised by Stephen King on her writing ability, but that hasn’t stopped her books selling over 30 million copies, as well as the movie rights and associated merchandise. 

There are many literature prizes – the Man Booker is just one of them that I follow. I found this excerpt on the impact of winning the Booker Prize on Yann Martel, author of “The Life of Pi” (which is a great book!). 

“…after the announcement of the Booker win, Life of Pi sold 7,150 copies in the UK, making it the bestselling hardback fiction that week…. D.B.C Pierre “Vernon God Little” went from a sale of 373 copies to 7,977 in the week after” 

Clearly, literary fiction sells less than mass market popular fiction. 

 

Some of my groaning bookshelves

Some of my groaning bookshelves

Now, I love books of all kinds. I have a lot of literary fiction, stacks of non fiction and many popular fiction novels (although those often get recycled through second-hand bookshops!) 

I go to Writers Festivals, I have taken writing courses. I write journals and poetry and have 3 non-fiction books to my name. I have always wanted to win the Booker Prize because of the prestige! 

But I have decided that I want to be a best-selling author, NOT a best-writing author lauded by lit fic critics! I want to write well, but not be classed as literature. I want to be popular, not literary. 

How about you? Would you rather be a best-selling author or a best writing author?

This post appeared on The Creative Penn: Writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion…for your book.   

The Literary Agent's Contradictory World

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This morning I was FeedBlitzed with "Four Tips for Submitting Nonfiction" by literary agent Ted Weinstein. I had to wonder why is Ted promoting himself as a literary agent. Very recently, Ted rejected me as a prospective author-client, stating, "We encounter many more talented writers and interesting projects than we can represent, so we carefully guard our time to serve most effectively our small number of clients." Suddenly, here’s Ted, out in public, leaving his clientele unguarded, as he trolls for new clientele and new projects.

Never before had it occurred to me that seeking an agent or publisher is no less demeaning than finding a girl friend during post puberty. Agents and publishers present authors with a strange and sometimes bizarre world, consumed in contradictions.

Take Ted’s "Four Tips," for example. They’re actually three.

First Ted says, if you’re writing nonfiction, assume you will be self publishing. OK…then no need to have an agent. Right?

Next, Ted advises, don’t submit the introduction, if you’re submitting a sample chapter, or two. Bravo! Such clarity. This makes sense.

Thirdly, Ted says, use the term "comparable titles," rather than "competitive titles." Oops! Ted must have grabbed this tidbit of advice from my recent submission to him. I used "competitive titles" in my proposal. My author’s logic tells me my book is special in the marketplace, and not "comparable." If, anything my book is incomparable. But I can’t see stating a list of other "incomparable titles" in a book proposal. This really would be tortured contradiction.

As for using "competitive titles," I live in the Kentucky Bluegrass. In my experience, a thoroughbred author runs against his or her own abilities only. A thoroughbred author doesn’t compete against the pack among which we can find ourselves. While we authors may be thoroughbreds, admittedly our product may not be. At least, not until proven. The proof comes in the actual competition against other titles in our genre. Hence, once more in my author’s logic, the term "competitive titles" seems to be the appropriate term.

But, as I’ve said, finding an agent is like finding a girl during post puberty. To your face, she says one thing. Elsewhere, she says the opposite. In Ted’s public forum, he advises, use "comparative titles." On the Submissions page of Ted’s web site, however, Ted advises in writing to use "competitive titles." As my aunt would say, "Oh, my."

Lastly, Ted’s fourth tip is no tip at all. If he requests a book proposal, Ted asks for no more than a week to review it, he says. Fair trade! I’ll forego an author tip any day for a prompt review of my submitted proposal that’s been requested. This must be the agent in Ted rising to the surface. He’s not Moses laying down the four commandments for nonfiction submissions. He’s Ted Weinstein, the literary agent. He’s a negotiator!

I wish I had met Ted Weinstein long before I met all those post puberty girls I once pursued.

Tension, Pacing and Speedboats

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This post, by Ben Whiting, originally appeared as a guest blog entry on Tricia Goyer’s My Writing Mentor blog on 4/20/09.

Every good story has some degree of underlying tension. Even in a character-driven novel like Pride and Prejudice, which is totally devoid of exploding helicopters and other modern action conventions, is full of internal and external conflict. The question is not if? but how much?

Think of your story as a speedboat. You, as the author, are the pilot of this speedboat, charged with controlling both the speed and direction of your story at all times. The reader is pulled along behind you as a water-skier and is free to let go of the rope at any point. Your job is to keep the ride interesting—by taking unexpected turns or traveling at break-neck speeds. Another method of maintain interest is alternating your speed, which is our focus here.

The first reason to vary the speed at which you pull your reader is simple: boredom. Going at the same pace through an entire novel, no matter how gripping that pace may be initially, will sooner or later grow tiresome to the reader. Clichés are avoided for the same reason. Variety is the spice of life. Familiarity breeds contempt. We’ve heard these self-condemning sayings so many times they have lost their impact, and a constant pace in your story will have the same affect.

Perception is the other reason speed variation is important. You need go no further than your local highway to test this theory. To the pedestrian standing on the side of the road, sixty miles and hour is very fast. To a passenger in a car going ninety-five, sixty seems as slow as dial-up Internet access. By taking advantage of this comparative aspect of pacing, an author can make an already tense portion of the story seem even more intense.

Ben Whiting is a full-time English student at the University of Texas at Arlington and co-general editor of the award-winning collegiate publication Marine Creek Reflections. His current writing project, Penumbra, is a contemporary suspense novel that he hopes to finish over the summer.

Read part two, ‘More Boating Techniques’, on Tricia Goyer’s My Writing Mentor blog.