Warren Adler's Blog, page 67

25 Years After: The Dark Appeal of the Divorce Novel

February, 2005

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the publication of The War of the Roses, by Warren Adler. Long considered a classic novel of divorce and the American zeitgeist, the book was further popularized by a film adaptation and remains in print as well as a variety of e-book formats.

In 2004, Mr. Adler published a sequel, The Children of the Roses, which follows the fates of the second and third generation. Along with these characters, readers are often haunted by the plausible mayhem, recognizably suburban with combatants true to life: hapless, heartless husbands and desperate, diabolical wives.

Q: Let’s get to the most important question first. In the book, The War of the Roses, and its movie adoption, there is a famous scene where the wife tells the husband she has just served him a dish of meat made from his pet dog. The husband goes ballistic, and, it’s hard to believe she would actually kill the animal, grind it up and serve it. As the author, and creator of these characters, only you can tell us: did she really kill the dog?

A: Yes she did. Remember, the husband killed her cat. This is angry retaliation. Two weeks before the movie was being released, James L. Brooks, who produced the movie, met me in a restaurant and asked if the killing of the dog was in the book. I said, of course, it was. He said: Okay we can blame you. In the end they cut out the scene. The dog came back to life in the movie.

Q: Most of us are familiar with the book through the movie, which seems to have a perpetual life on cable TV. Do you get residuals?

A: No. Unfortunately not.

Q: The War of the Roses is just one of several novels you have sold to Hollywood. Are you working on anything for the screen right now?

A: As a matter of fact the sequel to book The War of the Roses titled The Children of the Roses which was published last April is being considered for a TV series. But more on that later.

Q: Elsewhere on your website you have a chat page for writers working on and selling screenplays. What’s your best advice, in a nutshell?

A: Bow to the east, then north, then south, then west. It’s all pure luck, contacts, whatever. I’ve sold or optioned ten of my 27 novels to the movies. Another of my books Random Hearts with Harrison Ford got to the silver screen. I hated it. My short stories from The Sunset Gang was made into a three-hour trilogy on PBS, with Jerry Stiller and Uta Hagen. First class. I loved it. They’re still after my work, but I’m a lot more cautious.

Q: In 2004, you published a sequel, The Children of the Roses. After so many years, why was it important to take up the story thread again?

A: I always wanted to find out what happened to the children of this misguided couple who put materialism above all. It had to be written. I wrote it and found out.

Q: In both books, extramarital sex is used as both a crutch and a weapon. Are marriage and divorce any different now than they were 25 years ago?

A: In The War of the Roses marital sex had nothing to do with the marriage breakup. It was not an issue. In the sequel it plays a far more important part in the disaster of the marriage of the children. In some ways marriage is different, although I would go back further than 25 years. More mobility. More options. Less of a stigma. More sexual independence. Divorce is now an acceptable alternative, fairly easy to effect with no social consequences, except the affect on the children of these breakups.

Q: In the sequel, The Children of the Roses, food is used as both a crutch and a weapon. Care to comment on that?

A: Food is the battleground between temptation and deprivation. It is an obsession, a powerful sensual pleasure with enormous physical consequences. It is both the enemy and the ally within. In The Children of the Roses, one of the “children,” now a grown woman, a gourmand, truly believes that “Food is Love.” Yes, it is a crutch and a weapon. Indeed, its pleasures are the last thing to go. Sex may falter, but the taste buds active stay active until the end.

Q: The movie, The War of the Roses, has gone from film to cable to videocassette and now to DVD. The book The War of the Roses is available still in hardcover, paperback, print-on-demand, and several electronic book formats, including Palm and Microsoft versions that can be read on a hand-held device. Since both movie and book are digitized, what’s next?

A: This book is a phenomenon. When I was writing it in my windowless basement room in Chevy Chase, Maryland, I had no idea it would still be going strong after a quarter of a century. Obviously, it hit a chord. It’s been said that my novels and stories are like depth bombs. They explode long after they are launched. I like that. I hope there’s some truth in it.

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Peachtree City Library launching online book dialogues in August

From The Atlanta Journal Constitution, August 9, 2001

By  ABBY G. BRUNKS

The Peachtree City Library will soon be offering more than the usual literary selections.

Starting Aug. 16, Author Access online book discussions will debut with author Warren Adler as the first guest.

Adler, who has written 23 novels, is one of the few, and perhaps the only, novelist who has had all his books digitized.

Jill Prouty, library technology and training manager for the library, said the new service grew out of the library’s online book club.

“We found that we can reach out to more people online, and decided we could increase our online electronic presence by inviting authors to chat with other people online,” she said.

Through Author Access, participants can e-mail questions to Adler regarding past books or future plans. Prouty said questions need to be submitted via the library Web site by Monday at 5 p.m. E-mails need to include name, city and state.

On Aug. 16, Adler will post answers to the questions by 7 p.m. Those waiting for answers will know which response is theirs, based on information they provided.

Prouty said it’s not a live online chat, but rather a time-delayed conversation.

“It’s more like a bulletin board,” she said. “We will see how well this one takes off, and if all goes well, we will invite other authors either monthly or bimonthly.”

While computers are a big part of the library business, with more than 1,000 users a month on the Internet computers, Prouty believes paper books will never be extinct.

“In my opinion, nothing will replace the aesthetics of a book, especially fiction books,” she said. “But we do get lots of reference questions, and that’s when our computer know-how comes in handy.”

On the Web: www.peachtree-city.org/library Click on the link for Author Access to submit questions to author Warren Adler.

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Authors Branding 101: Engage Readers Every Way You Can

Savvy Authors Speak To Potential Book Buyers In-Person and Online

BY JIM BARNES

The Internet has changed our lives in many ways, not the least of which is the way we buy and learn about books. But has it really changed that much? Isn’t the Internet just another version of the stone circle around which storytellers and listeners sat? Isn’t a Web page just a sophisticated version of the leaflets dispersed by the first publishers of the printed word? In this article we examine how authors are using both the most natural and long-standing means of self-promotion: the human voice — and the most up-to-date, Web-based technologies like streaming video and audio downloads — to get their message to potential readers.

When Jason Epstein talks about publishing, people listen. In the National Book Award and Curtis Benjamin Award winner’s July 5th New York Review of Books article, he continues his dialogue on the Future of Publishing:

“The convergence of the Internet with the instantaneous transmission and retrieval of digital text is an epochal event, comparable to the impact of movable type on European civilization half a millennium ago, but with worldwide implications,” says Epstein. “In the digital future groups of writers, editors, publicists, and Web site managers anywhere in the world will combine to form their own Web-based publishing companies and sell their books directly to readers.”

Author Warren Adler is a living example of Epstein’s model, and arguably the only author in the world who has taken his extensive backlist (24 books) and converted them to every conceivable technology platform. For visionaries like Adler the future is now, as he and others like him take control of their books, their marketing efforts, and their identities. Adler has taken full advantage of digital technology to reissue his out-of-print titles-he wrote The War of the Roses, the popular 1981 novel that became a hit film–in both print and electronic formats.

Adler may be somewhat ahead of his time, but he’s making all the right moves with the technology at hand, and Jason Epstein’s ideas reinforce this notion. More Epstein: “Even in today’s rudimentary digital marketplace some authors have linked their Web sites to sites of related interest, hoping to create their own expanding communities of loyal readers with each new book they write. Minor technological modifications will soon enable writers to sell their books to readers throughout the world directly from these Web networks, bypassing publishers who may have rejected their work, while established writers may choose to forego the security of a publisher’s royalty guarantee in exchange for keeping the entire revenue from the sale of their books.”

Adler is doing just that. www.WarrenAdler.com is linked heavily throughout the Web and is a content-rich, efficient website that includes features like author chats, a book club, and a monthly newsletter.

For all his technological savvy and futuristic thinking, the veteran author also realizes that making books available is not enough, and that good old-fashioned marketing and promotion are still the keys to selling books.

“In today’s frenetic world, reaching an audience of readers requires lots of energy, and meeting potential readers face to face is still one of the best ways to acquire them and attract them to your books,” he says. So Adler is out there, speaking to the faithful at fairs, conferences, and bookstores. “I am I have spoken at hundreds of events in the past 25 years, at clubs, bookstores, book festivals, colleges, and now I’m speaking at conferences that deal with new technologies.” For example, he’ll be addressing the Frankfurt “Big Questions” Conference that precedes the Frankfurt Book Fair this October.

“This effort requires vast proselytizing since all my books are totally back in action worldwide. Not all venues are alike and talks must be tailored to various audiences. To women’s groups, I talk about the numerous female characters through whose voice I have told their stories; to men’s groups I would focus on male characters; to writing groups I talk about the creative process and the art and craft of writing works of the imagination; to “techies” I talk about what I have gone through digitizing my books in all formats; to bookstores I try a more hard sell since the audience has the ability for immediate purchase.” “Of course, for the unknown author this is a difficult chore. For a semi-celebrity like myself I sometimes stretch the subject to movie adaptation, as my books The War of the Roses and Random Hearts were both made into high profile movies. My thrust these days is branding my name, keeping it in front of the public as if it were a soft drink or a bar of soap. This is the reality of long term success, of combining my technology-driven backlist with my publisher-driven push through advertising and P.R. in the traditional media. I am handicapped by the fact that I never wrote the same book twice, and I can’t quite be pigeonholed, which means extra work on my part.” “As a book lover, collector and reader, I feel that despite the technological revolution, the content, or the story, is everything. No matter which method of delivery, whether telling a story around a campfire or over the Internet, the teller of compelling tales will find an audience. But I also understand completely the realities of this business: without marketing, however, brilliant and insightful your novels are, they will die a cruel death on the shelves.”

Adler’s new novel Mourning Glory is “a provocative heart stopping bittersweet tale of desperation and desire in the vein of The War of the Roses and Random Hearts. Brilliant and bittersweet, daring, erotic and darkly humorous, Mourning Glory pulls readers into one woman’s tangled web. Here is another blockbusting and timely novel about the cost of getting what you want — when what you really want is priceless.” It will be released this month by Kensington Books, a mid-sized independent publisher in New York.

So, Adler’s marketing program is both author-motivated in the new technologies and publisher-motivated in the traditional way. “It’s a hybrid. I cannot tell you when this backlist project of mine will be profitable, but I can say that a revenue stream has already begun. I know I am a pioneer, but I do believe that what I am doing is the wave of the future and that other authors will eventually follow in my wake.”

“My objective is clear. I am attempting to brand my authorial name so that it will be instantly recognizable in the years to come and to disseminate my books throughout the world, keeping them viable and in print for the foreseeable future. My books are the work of a lifetime and will continue to be written as long as I am able to create them. I believe in them and I believe in their future. Some may enjoy them. Some may not. But at the very least they will be out there and accessible which is about the only thing an author can do. How fast will the technology develop a tipping point and become the reading formula of choice is hard to say but I believe it is coming a lot faster than we think.”

“The secret is to create awareness about your authorial name and keep both the booksellers and the potential customers informed and support their efforts. You can’t get wet unless you’re out in the rain,” says Adler. He is one author not afraid of a little shower…In fact, he’s prepared for a deluge. We spoke with another forward-thinking author and publisher, Jason Ohler, Ph.D, who is a pioneer in the field of Information Age living and learning. While at the University of Toronto he listened to Marshall McLuhan unravel the mysteries of the Electronic Age, and he is widely respected for his articles and books on virtual communities and living in the Digital age. His book, Taming the Beast: Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle won an Ippy Award from this magazine in 1999 for its exploration of the impact of technology on education.

Ohler is currently Professor of Education Technology at the University of Alaska Southeast, and he is about to release a new book entitled Then What? A Funquiry Into the Nature of Technology, Human Transformation, and Marshall McLuhan. In Then What he explores questions like: Do we control our technologies or do they control us? What are our social and cultural responsibilities as both learners and educators in our increasingly global community? Ohler helps us realize that the future will not be about technology but about the relationships and learning communities it cultivates.

IP: Your book deals with new technology, but also with the importance of human relationships. Is it important to you to get out as a public speaker and meet your audience face-to-face?

JO: There is no question that making public appearances has the potential to help your project, whether you are a writer promoting a book or an organization leader promoting a cause. The new model for selling your work or ideas is very much similar to that of the music artist, whose total package consists of creating the music (CD), making presentations (giving concerts), and using the web to promote both of these, while delivering the extra kind of information listeners like to know– stories about their songs, themselves; concert dates; related items for sale (from t-shirts to mouse pads), and so on. This is no different for selling a book, attending a school, or belonging to a cause. People like to belong to the experience; they want “community.”

IP: Some authors are very shy and prefer to “let their pens do the talking.” Any advice for the reluctant author/public speaker?

JO: I would counsel a writer the same way I would a guitar player or singer to get going: find someone you like and try to write or sound like them. Then branch off and find your own voice. So, if you want to speak but are reluctant i would listen to a lot of speakers and find those whose style you resonate with. Study them; emulate them; then develop your own voice.

IP: How is the Internet changing book marketing and promotion? What are some of the opportunities and pitfalls?

JO: Just do the math. A publisher will give 10% of the cover price; deduct your costs in producing your own book and you get about 70% of the cover price. So, you have to sell far fewer. What you don’t have, that a publishing house does, is the ability to get the word out. So, publishing your own book AND public speaking (in which you promote the book) has tremendous potential.

I came up a number of learning curves simultaneously in terms of how to advertise, sell, publish, edit, promote my book. In the process I learned about how to compensate for the fact that I was not a large publisher. I got my own Library of Congress number, ISBN; started a publishing company; built the web page that would “add value” to the book; created a customized order form; contracted with Bank of America to handle the credit card purchases…and on and on. However, once you’re up the learning curve on a lot if it, it’s much easier to do, and everything is in place. There will always be new things to explore and old things to improve, but once you are up and running you can see in hindsight how it all fits together and makes sense. If I were to do it all over again I could do it in 25% of the time.

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Authors of their own fortune

After Stephen King’s online experiments, Joel Rickett asks if publishers should fear author Websites

From The Bookseller (UK), May 4, 2001

One year ago, many would have thought Mark Hogarth was set to make a fortune. As Stephen King’s experiment in online publishing, Riding The Bullet, grabbed headlines across the world, the Cambridge academic spotted a potential way to make easy money by registering famous authors as Internet domain names, which could then be sold back to the authors, their agents or publishers. Soon he had registered 130 names, before approaching a number of agents with a view to selling back their clients’ names for substantial sums.

Not surprisingly, agents and their authors were less than impressed. Jeanette Winterson felt so aggrieved that she pursued the case to the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva. By May 2000 she had won a groundbreaking ruling that equated a domain name to a trade mark in which the author has unregistered rights.

Other authors followed. In March this year, the Society of Authors spent heavily to take similar action on behalf of Julian Barnes, Antony Beevor, Louis de Bernieres and Margaret Drabble. Again, they won their claim, and it is now hoped that all the domain names will be handed over.

But what can these authors do with their domain names? While Stephen King’s forays into e-publishing were over-hyped, the schadenfreude at his withdrawal from publishing more on the site was equally misleading. Riding the Bullet attracted 400,000 downloads, while the first installment of The Plant found 150,000 readers, and healthy profits. King was by no means alone in attempting to broker a closer, more active partnership with his readers. The US author Warren Adler, who has written 24 titles including the novel filmed as “The War of the Roses,” believes that the Internet and digital technology offer “the greatest opportunity authors ever had in the history of books.”

He has spent $40,000 (£27,800) to secure e-book rights to all his work, the print rights to out-of-print titles, and to develop a slick Website. He aims to sell single print copies, audio-books, and e-books. He has not abandoned the traditional channels – his new book Mourning Glory is published by Kensington in August. But for this book the site is an aggressive marketing tool: users can read a synopsis, the full first chapter, and preorder the book online.

While few authors have the desire or the means to undertake such an experiment, many relish the close contact with readers generated through their own sites.

Jeanette Winterson has one of the most impressive sites for a UK author, with excerpts and commentary on all of her titles. The site carries a monthly column, and features such as an animated Flash movie offer a distinctive experience.

Jeanettewinterson.com was designed by Pedalo, which has built sites for authors including Alain de Botton and poet David Hartnett for prices ranging from £1,000 to £7,000. “Authors have niche, fanatical audiences that crave more information,” says co-founder Tom Porter. “They have a unique relationship with their readers. And the readers in turn want to feel that the site is being run by ‘their’ authors.”

Writers, he argues, have a “ready made brand” with which to market themselves online. “The majority of Internet companies fail because of the cost of advertising – but authors just need to put domain names in books, and the job is done.”

Diana Kimptom, co-founder of the Word Pool, which links to and builds children’s authors’ Websites, says that many users arrive at the Word Pool site after entering an author’s name in a search engine. She argues that non-fiction authors can use their sites to establish themselves as experts within a field. “If somebody is looking for information on elephants and they find your site is great on elephants, then they’ll be more likely to buy your book.”

Author sites can also grow backlist sales by introducing new readers to old titles. Mr. Porter says: “If people came to Jeanette Winterson’s writing through The PowerBook (Cape), that book may sit alone in a bookshop. On the site it sits next to all the backlist.” Revenue, earned as a commission on sales made at Amazon, is small but growing.

Most UK publishers have been slow to react to the marketing potential of author’s own Internet sites. There are exceptions: Harper-Collins’ recently relaunched Fireandwater.com has 1,500 author homepages. HC’s manager of online services Suzy de Silva says that the pages, which include biographies, author events and interviews, can coexist with authors’ own sites: “Where authors have no Web presence we will provide them with one, and we will also work with them to develop their own Web presences.”

But Mr. Porter argues that a publisher putting its “press pack online” will never satisfy readers. “Publishers should not be scared. The Stephen King model has not even been considered by most of the authors we deal with. The real work is in the books – they just want to display it in another medium.”

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