Hugh Howey's Blog, page 50

Pics from Book Tour

Six countries and five weeks in to my European tour, and I thought I’d share some of the pics I’ve been posting on Facebook.

Frankfurt (The world’s largest book fair)

Paris pics

Second Paris set

Spain and Holland

More from Amsterdam

And right now I’m in Italy.

Only three weeks left to go!

Signed Books and Thumb Drives

For those who have inquired about when signed books will be available again, the answer is: Now. And also: For now.

If you check the drop-down links on the sidebar, there is an option for purchasing signed copies. I’m setting this up a full two weeks before I get home, so everyone who wants one has a chance. I plan on keeping the links active through the first of the year.

Signed books became impossible to handle during my heavy travels, and I have more trips coming up in 2014, so this is as much of a window as I can manage. I’ll be sending these out less often but in larger batches. The first couple of shipments should arrive well ahead of Christmas. Oh, and the Thumb Drives are back. They are identical to the last set with the inclusion of a copy of Lightspeed magazine (with my story DEEP BLOOD KETTLE on it). I have 400 of these, which should be enough for everyone (famous last words. I said this last time).

My WIP.

“When?” you might ask.

Or, some of you might ask, instead: “WHEN???!?!!!?!?!”

“Soon,” I say.

I hope to have the first part out before Christmas. It all depends on whether I decide to release these serially as I finish them, or if I feel it might be better to have them all done first. This first part is about the same length as the first WOOL. And no, despite my love of 4-letter words, this world has nothing to do with that other world. It leans more toward dark fantasy, and there is a ton of cussing. I will have ample warnings in the book’s description.

This series will also be less allegory and more of an adventure/mystery story. At its heart, it’s about family. It’s about forgiveness. It is about enjoying life, no matter how shitty any one moment is, even if those shitty moments are all strung together on one unbroken line. I am trying to mix in a few of the recurring themes from my other books, simply because I enjoy doing that. So if you see something familiar, it won’t be by accident.

(And no, I haven’t forgotten about Molly or my romance novel. Just working through this story first.)

They All Have a Right To.

“Not every book should be published.” It’s a line I’ve heard a few times. It comes up often around NaNoWriMo, when hundreds of thousands of people across the globe embark on the challenge of becoming an author, working to complete that first novel, chasing a dream. Not every book should be published, sure, but I think they all have the right to.

Otherwise, how do we decide who can or can’t? Where do we draw the line? And who sits on that board? Agents and editors are incapable of allowing all the quality books through, if for no other reason than they’re too busy. All it takes is the death of one great manuscript for this to be true. Seeing how close CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES came, I think it’s safe to assume that there were casualties out there. This flaw in the system remains hidden because the corpses are rarely unearthed.

I think it helps those who are gravely concerned with the torrent of published works to consider that these books do not get in the way of anyone’s reading or anyone’s discoverability. Hundreds of thousands of books are completely invisible to the shopper (alas, those who are hidden might say). But at least they are there. All it takes is one cousin or best friend to relent to familial pressure and give the work a chance, find that work riveting, and tell a few others. The system isn’t perfect, but no system is. The only worse chances of discoverability are to go unpublished. Some people complain that the slushpile is now open to the public. I lament that it ever wasn’t.

Let’s also keep in mind that these are early years. The tools and methods for publishing, reading, and discovering great books should only improve with time. Look at the Napster days and compare that to iTunes and Spotify. I believe the industry will continue to mature, and readers and writers will be better off for it.

 

Apocalyptic Love Story

So this is how my NaNoWriMo is going. I set out to tell a romance novel, and I got a few chapters in when all the writing about strolls on beaches filled my head with sand, and then I found myself launching into SAND for some reason, which led to 12,000+ words rattling off, and now it looks like I’m writing this story for my NaNo, which is fine but not what I set out to do.

Oh, and the first eight or so chapters of SAND are totally clean enough to share right now. I just feel like it might spoil the read for later. I’ll keep mulling it over.

Also: Amsterdam has been the best writing city every. And no, not because of the brownies. I’m flying out tomorrow having sampled nothing but the occasional secondhand whiff on the streets. It’s the ease of transportation, the perfect hotel room, the cold and the rain, the great (non-smoking) cafes, and the awesome people. I could have a helluva writing career if I lived here. Now it’s off to Rome, where I hope I can be half as productive.

The Anthology of Tomorrow

I fear that I have a habit of blathering about the future. On this blog, just in the past year, I’ve written about future of the bookstore, where I see more interaction between author and reader, more writing workshops and book clubs, more indie bookstores with bibliophile sellers, more local authors represented on the shelves, and of an end to the returns system and the rise of local, print-on-demand.

I’ve also written about the future of the book, with more dynamic interaction between reader and writer, animated covers on webstores, wider variety of genres now that shelves are infinite, cheaper prices and bundling, and less concern over how the work was published and what form it takes and more worry over whether the story is any good.

Of course, I’ve also spent quite a bit of time prognosticating the future of the industry as it pertains to writers and readers, and I confess to being naively optimistic for both parties. I’m fond of saying that there’s never been a better time to be a reader or a writer, and this conviction strengthens with each passing day. Of course, I could be dead-wrong about all of my predictions. Hey, I’m a speculative fiction writer, I get paid to make up stuff that never comes true. You’ve been warned.

Having said that, allow me to speculate about something very niche and particular about which I and perhaps only a dozen others care about, and that’s the future of anthologies.

Not since Apple was headquartered in a suburban garage has a stock with so much potential sold for so little. The anthology has a long history of being an also-ran when it comes to sales and popularity, but I believe it is ripe for a Renaissance. Let me tell you why. The short story simply fits our hectic lives. They carry us from one bus stop or subway station to the next. They while away our lunch breaks. They eat up halftime for those non-DVR’ed games. They satisfy our craving to finish what we start. And as digital creatures, the size is irrelevant. It’s all about reading time. You can gobble them up on your cell phone.

Anthologies adopt the maxim of: “more of a good thing is gooder”. Eloquent, if you ask me. A good anthology will also serve some theme, so the collection is more than the sum of its parts. Each story gives a slightly different view of the same vista. They augment, like overlapping waves. They also have a feature that I believe is ripe for digital exploitation, and that’s the un-fixed reading order of the anthology. Think about these various future possibilities:

The Do-It-Yourself Anthology

Here, the anthology is the basket and the short stories are fruit. You head over to Amazon’s short story market, where dozens of themed anthologies are presented to you. These are editorial suggestions. There are also anthologies put together by knowledgeable readers. These are rated (and ranked) by other readers for the quality of the collection. NCbusyBEE32 is the top-rated editor on Amazon, it appears. Her collections are a mix of esoteric and whimsy that readers can’t get enough of, with a 98% rating. She always finds that hidden gem before anyone else. You consider grabbing her latest collection, but there are two stories in it you’ve already read. You grab the anthology anyway, and you swap these two stories out with two from the pile. Or two from IMyoMOMMA7′s latest collection. You give the anthology its own name and shuffle the contents in the reading order you want. What you pay for is the “basket,” or a credit of ten stories. The unique work is assembled immediately and sent out to all of your reading devices.

The Shuffle Anthology

This one works with existing anthologies. You select the edited work, but you set the reading order. Maybe you set it to “short to long” or vice versa. Or you place the names you recognize first or decide to save them for later. When you go to read, the order you selected makes up the custom table of contents. You dive right in to the story you’re most interested in. It’s the reading equivalent of the mix-tape. As you read and complete a story, you can rate it quickly, and then the story is shuffled to the end of the work and marked as “read”.

For all of these, Amazon’s algorithms take into account how you rate the short stories, which ones you finished, and makes recommendations for the future. There are “Best of 2014″ anthologies in a dozen or more genres (and overall, so you can explore new genres). Readers get badges for the number of stories read in a year. And even though many complain that 99 cents is too cheap for a story, I think there’s room to make them even cheaper. Let’s say a basket of 10 stories costs $7.99. And let’s say Amazon pays 50% royalties. There is the potential here for a lot of reading to be had for not much money, a lot of writers to be newly discovered, and for money to be made by those who explore the craft of the morsel-sized story. Everyone wins.

This could be a boon for literary fiction, which is seeing journals disappear left and right. It would serve Science fiction, fantasy, horror, erotica, romance, and mystery equally well. (Remember the old Encyclopedia Brown and Great Brain stories? Where are those mystery shorts today?) The best part is this: Like fan fiction, short stories are the perfect way to cut one’s teeth on the thrill of writing. This could increase the participation of aspiring writers and young writers. It could grow the community of authors — which tends to grow the community of readers. Imagine seeing your story anthologized alongside that of your heroes! Imagine the readers out there who will take pride in discovering latent talent, because reading a short is far less of an obligation than reading a novel, and then gaining a reputation as an editor extraordinaire! Maybe Amazon would provide basket credits to anthologists whose works are downloaded a certain number of times.

These are just a few of the ways I can think of playing around with the medium. The fact that anthologies are not set in stone, that their themes can be numerous, that they can be read in any order, provides unique opportunities in this digital age. And there’s something powerful about giving the consumer some editorial power. It’s the thrill of choosing the ingredients and then watching someone else cook your omelette. It’s the pride of picking out the components for your new computer. When books can be stitched together on the fly and delivered instantaneously, these same joys can be applied to publishing. It’s only a matter of time.

Unless I’m making all of this up. Unless I’m dead wrong about everything. Again.

The Greatest Music Video Ever Made

And there will never be a greater one.

Astronaut Chris Hadfield does a cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity . . . in outer space

Also: Does anyone see a resemblance to a certain TV character? Is NASA cooking meth beyond the mesosphere?

5 Things Authors Don’t Fully Appreciate

Some of you might find this guest blog I wrote interesting.

Writing Advice from C.L. Stone

Ever seen an interview happen in reverse? Or inside-out? I think that’s what’s about to happen here.

C.L. Stone is an indie author with a few published works to her name. She has built up a loyal following and is having success with her ACADEMY series. A month ago, she released her latest novel, and it shot up into the top 300 on Amazon. That’s no mean feat. She posted a thread on KBoards’ Writers’ Cafe about the launch, and then she posted two follow-ups full of writing advice.

I was struck by how concisely Stone outlined so many truths that I feel to be true but don’t get stressed enough. I nodded and uttered “Amen” throughout the posts. And so I reached out to C.L. to see if she would mind my posting her gems here along with my own wordy and less astute observations. Like an interview in reverse. You can save some time by reading her lines in quotes and ignoring what I have to say altogether. Check out C.L.’s first book here (it’s FREE). This is a link to her newest release, which is still going strong.

Write a million words. Your first million is practice.

This is so difficult to appreciate and even harder to do. Writing a novel is such a brutal undertaking, something we dream about but put off for years and years, that when we finally succeed, to say that this was nothing more than “practice” is heart-rending. I told myself that I would write for ten years before I expected any sort of success or to write anything worth reading. That would be 20 or 30 novels. A long view like this helps you settle into becoming a writer rather than rushing the process and becoming disappointed or disillusioned.

When you’ve finished one book, write the next one.

Amen. My father used to ask me why I wasn’t promoting my first book more. As a loving parent and someone with strong work ethics, he thought I should be out doing more for the book. I told him I wanted to keep writing while I had it in me, that I had the rest of my life to promote that work. The next book is what we should be thinking about, first and foremost.

Write the thing you love, and it becomes much easier and your readers will love it, too.

C.L. is battering us with the truth. One thousand times, this. Feel your story bursting out of your chest, begging to be told, full of mystery and majesty, a hidden present in your mind that you can’t wait to unwrap.

Don’t read in your genre. Read other books.

I thought I was the only one who felt this, but it’s true. Having read in your genre is no bad thing, but don’t do it while you’re writing. It’ll close you off to things that are already being done or make you write like someone else. If you write romance, read biographies of people living in romantic times. If you write science fiction, read mysteries and thrillers to learn how to inject some of both into your work. I mostly read non-fiction, as it gets me thinking. The ideas that go into my stories end up more my own. And I write books that no publisher would touch, because nothing is being done like it anywhere. This is a good thing. Don’t ignore the power of ignorance.

Know everything about your characters and love them. If you love them, readers will, too.

Preach it, sister! If you believe your characters are real, and if you truly know them and love them, you will write characters that jump off the page. You have to ask yourself about them as if you’re going to date them yourself. As if you’re going to convince some immigrations officer that you really do want to marry and you know every detail about this person. What kinds of relationships have they been in? Who is the closest person that they lost? What do they carry in their pockets? What do their parents do for a living? How did this influence them?

None of this has to go into the novel, but you need to know it. Give your characters scars and stories behind those scars. Give them hobbies and passions, and think about how this will affect the way they see the world.

You have to know the writing rules and then know when to break a few of those rules.

Yes. Don’t be afraid of -ly and -ing words. Don’t be afraid of “be” verbs and the passive voice (and learn that the former is not always the latter). Feel free to head-hop, to change tenses between chapters, to do what the story needs. That doesn’t mean you should ignore the rules or flaunt them just to flaunt them, it means you need to be true to the story and be clear to the reader.

Don’t be afraid to write anything. Don’t worry about what the world will think or if some people might not like this. Write what you would love to read.

How in the hell is one writer able to cut through all the B.S. and give us everything we need to know in just a handful of sentences? It’s eerie. I wonder if this is Robert Galbraith writing as someone else. What C.L. (if that’s your real initials) is saying here really resonates with me. Several times in my brief writing career, I’ve ignored what would have been logical to write and wrote what I wanted to read. It has also helped me as my audience has grown. Having eyeballs trained on you can make you freeze up or second-guess yourself. Don’t. Write what you want to read. Pretend you have an audience of one.

Write big. Write a series. It can be loosely connected based on an area (Debbie Macomber) or a series of one big book (Lord of the Rings). Don’t give them one thing to love. Give them reasons to come back. You want to build the ongoing relationship, not a one off fling.

Agreed. Leave room for your stories to grow. One thing I would add to this, however, is that you shouldn’t get trapped writing in one series over and over. That leaves you promoting your first book with each release. Write several stories and follow the one that grabs you the most. And wrap up your stories in a finite time, even if you go on to write books in that same world with new or less prominent characters.

For me, I gave the first away free. The readers who read it really liked it and picked up the other books in the series.

Sounds familiar. Trust in the reader often goes rewarded. I don’t want someone to pay for a work they don’t enjoy. Try it. Let’s have a relationship only if you like it. This does not devalue literature; it values the reader.

The most important part is the writing! You may not connect with everyone, not everyone will understand you, but those that do will love you for it. That’s just how it works.

C.L. final point in her second post is the real key. You have to write. That might mean neglecting other things you’d enjoy doing. Those things will understand. Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo kicks off, which means a month of me neglecting emails and FB messages and Tweets. It means brutal and early mornings of writing so I can continue to fulfill obligations while on the road. But if I’m successful, by November 30th, I’ll have another rough draft in my hands. One more book written. More practice, more of what I love doing, more characters I care about, and the bones for a future release in a new genre that maybe one or two people will enjoy.

Thanks for the advice, C.L.! Best of luck to you and to all the other happy writers out there.

How to Save Books

Four countries down and two to go on this wild European tour, and every publisher I’ve worked with has been amazing. We have had a ton of great conversations over meals and in bookshops these past weeks, mostly about this changing publishing landscape. And one topic in particular keeps coming up. It’s as universal as the Starbucks on every corner. What does the future of books look like?

Here’s what I usually say: The future of books depends on happy readers. It’s that simple. Let’s start from there. Because there are a lot of ways people can spend their time, and our passion — as readers, writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, editors — depends on growing the enjoyment of reading.

I’ve pointed out in numerous interviews that authors are not in competition with one another. We are in this together, and we are in it with readers and everyone who loves a good tale, however they love it told. But beyond not being competitors, authors owe it to themselves to be cheerleaders. I have spent a good bit of time on this tour telling publishers about the upcoming new releases I’ve been asked to blurb and that I think they should be interested in (one of my publishers read one of these works and made an offer!) I also tell them about the rising indie stars whose works I enjoy and whom I see busting their butts to keep readers happy.

I do not stand to gain a single thing by doing this. Not directly. But I know this, as a reader: When I pick up a great book, it makes me want to pick up another. When I read a so-so book, I might take a break. I’ve always been an avid reader, but most of us read in waves. We also tend to fly through the books we love, which gets us back in the market in days instead of weeks or months. Great books are the key, and they don’t have to be our books.

I owe my career to the authors who wrote awesome books that sold tons of copies. Especially those who turned new readers onto reading. That’s why I tell everyone to check out Max Barry’s LEXICON, Justin Cronin’s THE PASSAGE, Ernie Cline’s READY PLAYER ONE, and the forthcoming book by Andy Weir, THE MARTIAN. It’s why I tell people about indies like Matthew Mather, Annie Bellet, Jason Gurley, Patrice Fitzgerald, and Michael Bunker (and yes, I’m an ass for stopping there. I could go on and on).

The best thing we can hope for is that someone else writes a great book and that it gets discovered. That’s how we grow the pool of readers. I aimed for this before I even became a writer, always trying to convince others to check out some book or another. I’ll never forget a first mate I worked on a yacht with who said he hated reading. He hadn’t read a book since high school. I knew he was into blackjack, so I bought and handed him a copy of BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE. He read the book in two days. He looked for more books like this. I was just a guy with a passion for reading who wanted to infect others.

So here’s how we save books: We create happy readers. The first thing we need to do is start young. No one should be handed a “classic” until they get into college, and even then it should only be lit majors. Sounds extreme? This sounds extreme to me:

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

Source.

What we are currently doing does not work. Yes, we stuff a few classics down the throats of our kids. Success. Most of them quickly learn to hate reading, that it’s a complete chore (and bore), and remove themselves from the market. We should encourage them to read whatever they want, whether that’s a magazine about cars, or articles about their favorite soccer players, or Harry Potter, or Twilight. We should exercise some patience, turn people onto reading, and then trust that they will broaden their tastes as they get older.

I know a teacher who operated like this. She taught middle school in North Carolina, and her classroom was full of books like THE MAZE RUNNER and HUNGER GAMES and some weird MOLLY FYDE thingy. Her classroom was also full of kids who loved books. Without exception. All they talked about was books. They wanted to be writers. They infected others with their enthusiasm. They were helping to save books.

Smiles on readers. That’s the theme. For writers, that means writing the most enjoyable and engaging stories possible and making sure they are packaged professionally. For publishers, that means getting rid of DRM forever, lowering prices, not worrying about piracy, and bundling ebooks with hardbacks. For bookstores, that means more community events, more book clubs and contests, more writing groups, and it means shelving books based on quality and variety rather than money. It means reaching out to local authors and stocking their books, bringing those authors into the store, and fostering a community both of writing and reading.

What I see around me is a ship taking on water, and the reaction is to eye everyone else to see who is going to eat whom first. The threat is coming from without, not within. We are in this together. My hope is that a ton of readers pick up a great book today, one that I didn’t write, and it makes them want to pick up another. My hope is that we’ll look at our kids and realize they don’t have to be adult readers, that they will probably choose not to be. So stop worrying about what we can force on them before they give up on reading, and instead create a new generation that will seek out the great books because they are as passionate about this medium as we are.

Audiobooks, digital books, paperbacks, hardbacks, it doesn’t matter. Self-published, indie, traditionally published, it doesn’t matter. What matters is smiles on readers. There are hundreds of things we can be doing to make readers smile more. Let’s focus on that.