Iain Cameron's Blog, page 7

Amazon Opens Bookshop

Amazon has opened its first physical bookshop, 20 years after turning the world of publishing upside down. The Seattle shop will stock around 5,000 titles, all priced the same as they are on the Amazon website. The Company has cherry-picked the Amazon catalogue, an obvious move when you consider they sell over a million titles on their website, and even have a section of books which have scored an average of 4.8 (phew) in customer reviews. Shops have been a fantastic success for Apple, and recently Google partnered up with Curry’s in their Tottenham Court Road shop to sell Android phones, tablets and Chromebook laptops. Perhaps Amazon feel they are missing out.

To me it seems a strange move given that independent bookshops are having such a bad time of it, and also if they do see growth, it will be minuscule in relation to the growth they have experienced with their website. The MD of Waterstones, James Daunt was quick to criticise their decision to display books face-out, ‘we could stock over ten times that amount,’ he said.

I personally don’t see the point, even if the shop is in a relatively ‘safe’ environment, as their headquarters are in the city and many of the bookshop’s customers will come from there. They will soon run into issues of staff sickness, thieving, out of stock, limited opening hours, restricted range, a whole host of issues most independent retailers are very familiar with. What do you think?

The Books We Lie About Reading

A study of the reading habits of 2,000 Britons found that 25% lied about reading a classic if they’d seen the TV serialisation. The respondents said they did it to make them appear more intelligent and so they wouldn’t miss out on participating in the conversation. This has implications for booksellers as it suggests that people do believe they should read the classics, but won’t if there has been a TV serialisation or a movie.

My own progress, or lack  of it, is noted in bold italics alongside the list of the 20 most lied about books. How do you compare?

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland – Lewis Carroll unfinished
1984 – George Orwell   Read
The Lord Of The Rings trilogy – JRR Tolkien Unread
War And Peace – Leo Tolstoy  Unread
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy  Unread
The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle  Unread
To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee Read
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens Read
Crime And Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky  Unread
Pride And Prejudice – Jane Austen  Unread
Bleak House – Charles Dickens  Unread
Harry Potter (series) – JK Rowling  Part-read
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens  Unread
The Diary Of Anne Frank – Anne Frank  Unread
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens Read
Fifty Shades trilogy – EL James Read to P61
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie  Unread
The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald  Read
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller  Read
The Catcher In The Rye – JD Salinger  Read

Peter James Wins CWA Diamond Dagger

The Brighton crime novelist, Peter James, has won this year’s Crime Writers Association Diamond Dagger. He received it for sustained excellence and making a significant contribution to the crime genre. Peter is the author of the ‘Dead’ series of crime novels – Dead Simple, You Are Dead etc, – featuring Detective Roy Grace. From the beginning, Peter spent time with Sussex Police and injects much of what he has learnt into his novels, making them both authentic and believable, and as a result, the books are often read by police officers. He has forged strong links with Sussex Police and it’s possible to see one of the two patrol cars he’s sponsored when walking around Brighton. The CWA is an organisation which supports published authors and Peter, who has sold a staggering 16m books, was chosen by its 600 members.

Does Hollywood Love Authors?

With the date of the 2016 Oscars fast approaching, I thought I’d take a look at the movie industry’s relationship with writers and in particular, what it means for authors of popular books.

If you take a look at the Oscar nominations for any year, lying somewhere near the bottom of the list are the awards for Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay. In case you’re wondering what they’re awarded for, let me explain. The starting point for any film is the screenplay; a document which tells actors what to say, when to say it and what action will take place. You can see an example here. They originate from two main sources:

Original Screenplay:

Universities run courses to teach the art of screenwriting and various cafés and coffee bars in Los Angeles are filled with young hopefuls, typing away at scripts and hoping to catch the eye of a producer. Directors have been known to write them, (Avatar), actors too, (Good Will Hunting) and in more troubled projects, a succession of scriptwriters will be hired when others are deemed not good enough (Gladiator).

Adapted Screenplay:

This may involve an individual or a team of screenwriters, but their work will be based on a book. A director may slavishly follow every sentence of the original text and re-create every action scene with unerring accuracy (Lord of the Rings), or they may take liberal sidesteps from the story to save money or to satisfy the demands of the studio financing it (One Day).

The eight films nominated in 2016 for Best Film category are:

The Big Short – book by Michael Lewis

Bridge of Spies – original screenplay

Brooklyn – book by Colm Toibin

Mad Max: Fury Road – original screenplay

The Martian – book by Andy Weir

The Revenant – book by Michael Punke

Room – book by Emma Donoghue

Spotlight – original screenplay

On this evidence, book adaptations win hands down, and a good thing for we authors you might think. However, when the top 100 grossing films of all time are analysed, a list that includes blockbusters such as Avatar, Star Wars and The Avengers, adapted screenplays only feature in a quarter of all films. If Harry Potter, Twilight and Lord of the Rings are excluded, the number wouldn’t reach 10.

What does this tell us? That things are changing and in future we should expect to see more of our favourite authors on the podium at the Dolby Theatre? I don’t think so; basing a film on a book may make good cinema, but it’s unlikely to give you a high-grossing blockbuster.

Depressingly, the high-grossing list is dominated by movies based on previous movies, comics and even a ride at a Disney theme park. It is films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which by 12/01/2016 had grossed over a billion dollars at the box office, and not those like Brooklyn, which grossed $22m by 08/01/2016 that dominate the best-seller charts and keep movie studios in business. Add to this Hollywood’s aversion to losing money, it’s no wonder production companies frequently take out options on books but few are made into films.

The Joy of Editing for Self-Published Authors

This article is aimed at novel writers, but the issues raised also apply to authors of dissertations, essays, short stories; basically any type of long-form writing.

The Idea

How many people think a clever idea is enough to create a novel? Tell an author you have a good idea and he or she will tell you the idea is but one part of the book writing process. The main part, as you have probably guessed, is actually writing the novel.

First Draft

To most authors, except the naïve, the manuscript you produce at the end of the novel writing process is not called a masterpiece but your first draft. The bane of self-publishing has been the unseemly rush by many first-time authors to publish their book soon after it was rejected by innumerable publishers. They do this with their first draft, following a quick proofread or even using a professional proof reader, but it is not enough, as they have found to their cost and long-tern credibility when they receive a succession of one and two-star reviews.

First-Stage Editing

After completing the first draft, your manuscript should undergo a first edit. It is possible for the author to do this, providing a one or two-week gap has been left from finishing the first draft to clear the head. Various software editing products can help you here and I recommend and use, AutoCrit. The system will highlight duplicate words, adverbs, overlong sentences, redundancies, clichés and a whole host of other grammatical anomalies. It is a brilliant and easy to use tool which will give your prose some well-needed polish.

At this stage the author has done all he or she can do, and it is time for others to take a look. If you feel uncomfortable about letting your precious manuscript be seen by foreign eyes, why bother writing a book? It is better you hear any criticism now, before the book is published, than it appearing later on Amazon or Goodreads for all the world to see.

There are two types of editing self-published authors need to consider: structural editing and copy editing.

Structural Editing

A structural editor will review your book as a reader would and identify parts of the story that don’t hang together with the main story, digressions which lead readers into blind alleys, characters who don’t ring true and endings which leave the reader dissatisfied. In fact, all the things a critical reader will be thinking about as they are reading a book or writing a book review. Remember, a structural editor will only look at the big picture, the form and shape of your manuscript, not the words; correcting those is the job of the copy editor.

Copy Editing

A copy editor will review your manuscript word by word and highlight: inconsistent word-use, grammatical inaccuracies, superfluous text, misspelt words, missing words and lots more, with the aim of ensuring your manuscript is consistent, chapter by chapter. If you think this process is unimportant, take a look at book reviews and you will see many authors are criticised for calling a character by one name at the start of a book and something else a few chapters later and for misusing or confusing the placing of commas and semi-colons. Copy editing will fix those.

It is unlikely many new authors will have friends with copy-editing skills, but it is possible to find some friends who would be willing to read a draft of your novel and provide detailed critical analysis. If not, a web search will reveal a plethora of freelance editors, some with experience of working with self-published authors and many who are members (in the UK) of the Society of Editors and Proofreaders. My only advice in selecting one, is to do so on the basis of book genre. I don’t believe an editor with experience of working with gardening books or romance novels will be as helpful with your horror or gory crime novel as one with experience in that genre.

At last, and after many months (or years) from the day you started writing, you will now have a near-complete manuscript. Don’t uncork the champagne yet, your book still requires a final proofread before publication.

Where’s the payoff?

If you don’t have a wide circle of edit-savvy friends to call upon, and who does, the process outlined above will cost in excess of £1,000. Is it worth it?

The emphatic answer is yes. You will find your manuscript has improved from the bloated, error-ridden, fault strewn, grammatically incorrect document that you once believed was publishable, to a sleek, easily readable book that you can be proud of. You can also be confident any criticism you receive now will be about the story and characters, and not the misuse of grammar or an inability to spell.

The bonus

Long descriptions and endless narrative, some of which you may have agonised over for days, are often reduced to a single sentence or deleted, but you will realise how much better it reads. This leaves the text crisper and more succinct and helps you develop a skill, well understood by seasoned authors. ‘How to write’ books often call it ‘show don’t tell’, but it’s something more subtle. I would call it, ‘don’t say, imply.’ If you allow readers to fill many of the gaps in plot and character features by themselves, you will be offering them a more satisfying reading experience. If that isn’t your aim in writing a book, what is?

The Best TV Detectives

The Daily Telegraph recently published a list of the 40 best TV Detectives & Sleuths. I highlight a few of my favourites but if you’d like to see the full list, you’ll find it here http://bit.ly/1RowsIy.

Morse. The whisky drinking, opera loving, Jaguar driving, Chief Inspector who always did things his way irrespective of his boss’s wishes. Ran for 13 years and even spawned a couple of spin-off shows involving his sidekicks.

The Bridge. This original detective series started with a body lying on the border between two countries (The Tunnel was a carbon copy). Cooperation between the Swedish and Danish police is essential to solving the crime but it isn’t easy with dysfunction Swedish detective Saga Noren (played by Sofia Helin), making you wonder at times how she stayed employed.

The Fall. A moody and at a times dark drama about a serial killer in Northern Ireland, a ‘normal’ killer whose day job is a bereavement counsellor. Gillian Anderson played CS Stella Gibson, a sexy, intelligent woman who gets too close to the villain for her own good.

The Sweeney. Noted for its non-pc approach to policing and criminals. It wouldn’t work nowadays with a more forensic and police procedure-savvy television audience, but it was raw and exciting, and who doesn’t want to see criminals getting a bloody nose rather than a bloody caution?

The Killing. Sofie Grabol was terrific as Swedish detective, Sarah Lund, the wearer of natty jumpers and the driver of dirty Volvos across a bleak, winter scared landscape. Very atmospheric.

Sherlock Holmes. Almost too clever for its own good, with little asides and a pop-up computer graphic indicating which parts of the victim’s anatomy or crime scene Holmes was analysing with his computer-like brain. Benedict Cumberbatch did a great job bringing Sherlock Holmes to a modern audience.

NYPD Blue. New York to it’s very core with almost unintelligible street slang and odd mannerisms but evoking the heat (and the cold) of dirty, steamy streets with great accuracy and verve. Dennis Franz played Detective Andy Sipowicz for 12 years, but he didn’t get to say the show’s most memorable line, ‘Just remember, be careful out there.’

Hill Street Blues. Chronicling the life and characters at the fictional Hill Street police station in a unnamed town. Bruce Weitz won a supporting actor Emmy award for his role as Michael Belker. He played the cigar chomping detective who often looked more like a tramp than a detective.

Which one is your favourite and who should play DI Angus Henderson?

 

Libraries – Use Them or Lose Them

First up, last week Fife Council agreed to close 16 libraries as part of a major drive to save money. Libraries at Abbeyview, Bowhill, Colinsburgh, Crail, Crossgates, East Wemyss, Falkland, Freuchie, Glenwood,  Kinghorn, Lundin Links, Markinch, Pittenweem, Pitteuchar, Thornton and Townhill are all to close. Councillor David Ross said: ‘Libraries are an important and valuable service for our communities across Fife but we need to acknowledge that the way people use them is changing.’ He went to say that half of the respondents to a questionnaire agreed with the closures.

As an author, I abhor library closures, and as a citizen and Council Tax payer (not in Fife), I feel equally cross. Libraries are a valuable source of human knowledge and should be made available to everyone, not just the well-off who can afford books and a decent wi-fi connection. They are a sanctuary for the homeless on cold days and a place of wonder for pupils from local schools, who are usually in my local library whenever I go in, and everything else in between. Resist further library closures, write to local councillors who are considering such measures and tell them you will start a campaign to unseat them if they persist.

On a more positive note, from next year authors will earn more from library books borrowed, from 6.66p per book to 7.67p. Before ordering that new Bentley, just remember less books are being borrowed and there is a £6,600 ceiling on an individual author’s earnings, designed to ensure the pot is more fairly distributed.

Mixed News About Libraries

First up, last week Fife Council agreed to close 16 libraries as part of a major drive to save money. Libraries at Abbeyview, Bowhill, Colinsburgh, Crail, Crossgates, East Wemyss, Falkland, Freuchie, Glenwood,  Kinghorn, Lundin Links, Markinch, Pittenweem, Pitteuchar, Thornton and Townhill are all to close. Councillor David Ross said: ‘Libraries are an important and valuable service for our communities across Fife but we need to acknowledge that the way people use them is changing.’ He went to say that half of the respondents to a questionnaire agreed with the closures.

As an author, I abhor library closures, and as a citizen and Council Tax payer (not in Fife), I feel equally cross. Libraries are a valuable source of human knowledge and should be made available to everyone, not just the well-off who can afford books and a decent wi-fi connection. They are a sanctuary for the homeless on cold days and a place of wonder for pupils from local schools, who are usually in my local library whenever I go in, and everything else in between. Resist further library closures, write to local councillors who are considering such measures and tell them you will start a campaign to unseat them if they persist.

On a more positive note, from next year authors will earn more from library books borrowed, from 6.66p per book to 7.67p. Before ordering that new Bentley, just remember less books are being borrowed and there is a £6,600 ceiling on an individual author’s earnings, designed to ensure the pot is more fairly distributed.

Boys in the Trees

The singer-songwriter Carly Simon has just published her autobiography, Boys in the Trees. Carly is the writer and singer of the famous single, You’re So Vain (allegedly about Warren Beatty) and albums such as No Secrets and Never Been Gone, but many people will have come to her music through the Greatest Hits or Anthology albums, as she had over thirteen Top 40 hits. However, the buzz surrounding this book’s release has focussed more on the relationships she had with the rich and famous, including Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Jack Nicholson and of course, her decade-long marriage to James Taylor. If this wasn’t enough to keep you interested, this might. Her father David, is one of the founders of the giant publishing house, Simon and Schuster. But no, Boys in the Trees is not published by them, but by Constable, an imprint of Little, Brown.

The Rise of the Digital Publisher

The last few years has seen profound changes in the publishing world, first with the development of the eBook, then the appearance of Amazon and the Kindle Store and now it is the turn of digital publishers.

Traditional Publishing

Traditional publishers have been with us for decades and include many household names such as Penguin, McMillian and Pan. Their main focus is paperback sales and even though all offer ebooks, their pricing tells you where their allegiances and profits lie. Many ebooks are priced close to their paperback equivalent and a new trend is emerging of pricing ebooks higher than the paperback. Nearly 75% of book sales in the US are controlled by the ‘Big 5’ companies: Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.

Digital Publishing

Ebooks have been around for many years but the introduction of the Kindle Store 5 years ago produced an explosion in their adoption and in their wake we now see the arrival of the digital publisher. Unlike their traditional competitors, large corporations with a presence in many countries, digital publishers tend to be small, staffed by the former cohorts of the big 5, but are now at the forefront of the next publishing revolution.

They provide authors with the same proofreading, editing and marketing services they would receive from a traditional publisher, but with a higher royalty as they are not burdened with printing books or pulping those unsold. Their progress has been quiet but the impact has been remarkable. If you think this is an exaggeration, take a look at the top twenty crime authors on Amazon UK. Digital publishers account for nine of the top twenty books, and there are six in the top ten, unfamiliar names such as Bookouture, Joffe Books and Amazon’s own publishing company, Thomas & Mercer. The situation in the US is different due to the dominance of the ‘Big 5’ but nevertheless, digital publishers are beginning to make an impact.

The Future

If there is one thing we can say with any confidence, the future is wide open. It’s easy to set up a digital publisher and many self-published authors have their own, either as a separate company or simply a name. Digital publishers will grow and become a dominant force in the market if they continue to produce a quality product and pick winners, and they will increasingly become an acceptable choice for authors, particularly those more interested in gaining readers than enjoying the sight of their novel on the shelf of an airport bookshop.