Rafael's Blog
June 9, 2017
Stalking An Agent
While I've begun to incorporate Seraphim's critiques and suggestions and also the uncovered typos and grammar problems, I'm also scouting agencies that might be interested in giving an unknown a chance.
I hope my fellow Indie writers trying to find a publisher who can take over the marketing efforts, will find it useful to read my thinking as I plow through the scores on my list. I'll only cherry pick a few to highlight here, so hopefully committed indie writers will find it at least interesting.
First, I'll repost the story's blurb which with the addition of the book's metadata (thriller/suspense, 89k word count) and a brief introductory bio, will serve as the Query Letter. Explaining the protagonist's drama in last week's post became the best summary and simplest solution for completing it. I guess I had over thought the problem. I'm praying Eldon doesn't see this. He'll berate me for increasing it to four paragraphs. :-)
"No one associates the Vatican with assassins. That their allies dwell in Western China's Kunlun Mountains makes it an easier secret to keep. Still, the tiny village of Yincandi is not immune to the vagaries of fate. Little does a lost mountaineer imagine what will become of the infant he leaves with the villagers. Nor can Trajan, an orphan of Christian missionaries, imagine the true nature of the Buddhist monks raising him. Until the moment arrives when he must choose between Buddha and Christ.
"Seraphim, Mujahedeen madmen of the Catholic world, have reignited their centuries-old war against the Church. The continued slaughter of Middle East Christians has placed them on extinction's edge and the Seraphim blame the Pope's cowardice. Their Cardinals marked for assassination and trapped by their own secrecy, the Vatican can only hope Trajan will stand between them and a religious war foreshadowing the apocalypse.
"Trajan's decision will not be an easy one. If he remains true to the non-violent traditions of the Buddhism he grew up with, innocents will be killed. If he embraces the Christianity of his parents, he will be the killer.
"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, a woman appears astounding the world with miraculous abilities and declaring
herself the successor to the prophets and the Servant of the One Lord."
As a general rule, when I'm studying an agency's agents, I ignore owners, President's, CEO's, etc, even if they have declared themselves open to submissions. Too often they're caught up in other matters, know their submissions are piling up, then bulldozer through them.
But exceptions prove the rule and since agent hunting is not a science, sometimes instincts and gut feelings, along with something concrete, play a larger role. Like number picking for a $300 million lottery.
My first agency spotlight falls on JABberwocky Literary Agency here in NYC. Its staff picture caught my eye as a fun-loving group who don't take themselves too seriously. Two characteristics, I've come to find, shared by people who take their work seriously.
Dubious as I am of biography claims, two items of the President's caused me to break my CEO rule, one of which I found persuasive. See if you can spot it in Joshua Bilmes' bio that I edited for space.
"After being closed to queries for a few years, I decided to reopen in early 2016, and I've kept on it since. It's always special finding something great through the query box. One of the first and most important things to do, however, is follow...
THE GUIDELINES:
1. If you don’t follow the guidelines, your query will be deleted, unread and without a response.
2. The query letter should be brief. If you were to print it on old-fashioned paper, it should fit onto a one page standard business letter.
3. And while brief, the query should have relevant information on both yourself and your manuscript. For a published writer, your credits are relevant. For other authors, it might be having a job or life experience of some sort that ties very directly to the book you have written. For authors without credits or credentials, it might be adding something that suggests your knowledge or familiarity with the genre or category you plan to write in. And when all else fails, tell us about where you grew up, where you went to school, but always something.
If you think it's silly to start telling me where you grew up, where you went to school -- well, I can understand why; it does seem silly. But it's a lot less silly than writing a query letter that suggests there isn't a single interesting thing about the author.
4. Relevant information about the manuscript: Avoid adjectives. You're not a third-party observer who's earned the right to say your manuscript is "romantic" or "thrilling" or "fast-paced" or any other adjective you might choose to apply to your own work.
5. Here’s what I want: I always like science fiction and fantasy, but there are also at least three other people at the agency who look at science fiction and fantasy. Will I look? Sure! But ask yourself if there’s some extra special reason that you want to direct the submission to me instead of Sam or Eddie, and Lisa is likely to reopen to submissions in the next few weeks. I tend to shy away from the more literary part of the sf/fantasy spectrum, but I’d rather make the call here. If it looks intriguing, but not in line with my personal tastes, I may share with someone else in the office.
On the other hand, I also like good mysteries and thrillers, and there aren’t as many people here who share that interest. I’d love to see some great projects in these genres. The very first novel I ever sold was a mystery novel [so] I’m open to the full range of work in these categories."
This bio reads as both heartfelt and honest, not something prepared by an image consultant from a public relations firm. We have a lot of those here.
And honest because he let slip the bottom line reason why it's so hard for an unknown to come in from the cold: "If it looks intriguing, but not in line with my personal tastes..." Ultimately, an agent will take on an unknown if they like the story. And, of course, reject a story because they don't like it. Meanwhile, because of a glossed over bio, I might have overlooked the agent sitting in the next cubicle who would have loved it.
But what sold me was his admonition against adjectives. I get that they're for description and not emphasis or hype. I have a few in my Blurb/Query but except for perhaps 'tiny', they are all for description, not the latter categories.
I just have to keep picking numbers. One of them is bound to hit. Maybe.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
I hope my fellow Indie writers trying to find a publisher who can take over the marketing efforts, will find it useful to read my thinking as I plow through the scores on my list. I'll only cherry pick a few to highlight here, so hopefully committed indie writers will find it at least interesting.
First, I'll repost the story's blurb which with the addition of the book's metadata (thriller/suspense, 89k word count) and a brief introductory bio, will serve as the Query Letter. Explaining the protagonist's drama in last week's post became the best summary and simplest solution for completing it. I guess I had over thought the problem. I'm praying Eldon doesn't see this. He'll berate me for increasing it to four paragraphs. :-)
"No one associates the Vatican with assassins. That their allies dwell in Western China's Kunlun Mountains makes it an easier secret to keep. Still, the tiny village of Yincandi is not immune to the vagaries of fate. Little does a lost mountaineer imagine what will become of the infant he leaves with the villagers. Nor can Trajan, an orphan of Christian missionaries, imagine the true nature of the Buddhist monks raising him. Until the moment arrives when he must choose between Buddha and Christ.
"Seraphim, Mujahedeen madmen of the Catholic world, have reignited their centuries-old war against the Church. The continued slaughter of Middle East Christians has placed them on extinction's edge and the Seraphim blame the Pope's cowardice. Their Cardinals marked for assassination and trapped by their own secrecy, the Vatican can only hope Trajan will stand between them and a religious war foreshadowing the apocalypse.
"Trajan's decision will not be an easy one. If he remains true to the non-violent traditions of the Buddhism he grew up with, innocents will be killed. If he embraces the Christianity of his parents, he will be the killer.
"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, a woman appears astounding the world with miraculous abilities and declaring
herself the successor to the prophets and the Servant of the One Lord."
As a general rule, when I'm studying an agency's agents, I ignore owners, President's, CEO's, etc, even if they have declared themselves open to submissions. Too often they're caught up in other matters, know their submissions are piling up, then bulldozer through them.
But exceptions prove the rule and since agent hunting is not a science, sometimes instincts and gut feelings, along with something concrete, play a larger role. Like number picking for a $300 million lottery.
My first agency spotlight falls on JABberwocky Literary Agency here in NYC. Its staff picture caught my eye as a fun-loving group who don't take themselves too seriously. Two characteristics, I've come to find, shared by people who take their work seriously.
Dubious as I am of biography claims, two items of the President's caused me to break my CEO rule, one of which I found persuasive. See if you can spot it in Joshua Bilmes' bio that I edited for space.
"After being closed to queries for a few years, I decided to reopen in early 2016, and I've kept on it since. It's always special finding something great through the query box. One of the first and most important things to do, however, is follow...
THE GUIDELINES:
1. If you don’t follow the guidelines, your query will be deleted, unread and without a response.
2. The query letter should be brief. If you were to print it on old-fashioned paper, it should fit onto a one page standard business letter.
3. And while brief, the query should have relevant information on both yourself and your manuscript. For a published writer, your credits are relevant. For other authors, it might be having a job or life experience of some sort that ties very directly to the book you have written. For authors without credits or credentials, it might be adding something that suggests your knowledge or familiarity with the genre or category you plan to write in. And when all else fails, tell us about where you grew up, where you went to school, but always something.
If you think it's silly to start telling me where you grew up, where you went to school -- well, I can understand why; it does seem silly. But it's a lot less silly than writing a query letter that suggests there isn't a single interesting thing about the author.
4. Relevant information about the manuscript: Avoid adjectives. You're not a third-party observer who's earned the right to say your manuscript is "romantic" or "thrilling" or "fast-paced" or any other adjective you might choose to apply to your own work.
5. Here’s what I want: I always like science fiction and fantasy, but there are also at least three other people at the agency who look at science fiction and fantasy. Will I look? Sure! But ask yourself if there’s some extra special reason that you want to direct the submission to me instead of Sam or Eddie, and Lisa is likely to reopen to submissions in the next few weeks. I tend to shy away from the more literary part of the sf/fantasy spectrum, but I’d rather make the call here. If it looks intriguing, but not in line with my personal tastes, I may share with someone else in the office.
On the other hand, I also like good mysteries and thrillers, and there aren’t as many people here who share that interest. I’d love to see some great projects in these genres. The very first novel I ever sold was a mystery novel [so] I’m open to the full range of work in these categories."
This bio reads as both heartfelt and honest, not something prepared by an image consultant from a public relations firm. We have a lot of those here.
And honest because he let slip the bottom line reason why it's so hard for an unknown to come in from the cold: "If it looks intriguing, but not in line with my personal tastes..." Ultimately, an agent will take on an unknown if they like the story. And, of course, reject a story because they don't like it. Meanwhile, because of a glossed over bio, I might have overlooked the agent sitting in the next cubicle who would have loved it.
But what sold me was his admonition against adjectives. I get that they're for description and not emphasis or hype. I have a few in my Blurb/Query but except for perhaps 'tiny', they are all for description, not the latter categories.
I just have to keep picking numbers. One of them is bound to hit. Maybe.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
June 2, 2017
The Making of a Blurb
So your mid finger presses 'd' and now 'The End' appears at the end of a manuscript you dragged through Hades to reach this point. It is a moment for reflection and quiet satisfaction. It doesn't last long. Formidable obstacles lie ahead. Depending on how you organize yourself, one will be the book's Blurb. Here's how I went about it and I hope it can help shape your approach and diminish its difficulty.
First, it is not possible to summarize a full-length novel in a blurb and I think trying to do so is what gives so many authors agita. Once one comes to peace with this, everything falls into place. Here's the pertinent question. What formed the basis for writing this story? What is its core premise? A proper response to either question should result in a one-sentence answer. Two sentences is a kludge, a fudge, poppycock. Even if the book is part of a series. Try it yourself. A succinct answer (as opposed to a run-on sentence) is a strong indication of a tight, focused, logically coherent story. In fact, a blurb written before the novel itself obviates an outline. In any event, that foundational concept will form the blurb.
Second, a blurb must tell a story. Limited real estate, however, means the beginning will do the yeoman's work of revealing the premise, implying an unstated middle, and pointing to but not detailing the end.
Lastly, a blurb does not have to have ** absolute ** fidelity to the story. Lying is, of course, always unacceptable. But if a little descriptive sleight of hand (word?) can eliminate a sentence or two of explanation, I'm sure the pearly gates will not be denied you.
So, with 'The End' written and the real work underway, here is Seraphim's one-sentence premise.
An orphaned infant grows up among Buddhist monks allied to the Vatican and will come to defend the Church against a centuries-old enemy: the Seraphim.
With 'what' out of the way, who, where, when, and why will form the blurb's first draft.
"Tiny Yincandi lies hidden within the remote wilds of Western China. Shielded by the rugged Kunlun Mountains, its Buddhist monks come to raise an orphaned American infant. The training they provide is not just for discipline as young Trajan learns the simple villagers are clandestine allies of the Vatican. Generations of Yincandi assassins
have defended the church in its centuries-long battle against the fanatical Seraphim.
"With a worldwide religious war threatening to erupt, Trajan must choose between returning to his Christian heritage or abandoning his Buddhist principles to death and destruction.
"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, the Servant of the One Lord appears."
What we have now is a structure, scaffolding if you will. Stated in only three paragraphs, room exists for more detail and applying flourish and color.
As with any chapter, providing an early sense of place is always essential to ground and orient the reader. Here, while providing 'place', the opening sentence contributes nothing to grab the reader's attention. In a piece where every word counts, be alert to show and hype. 'Rugged' qualifies under both counts. As a sharp-eyed friend pointed out, "death and destruction"? In the world of blurbs, is there a two-word phrase more clichéd?
But, with the essentials in place, let's put it through the style rinse.
"No one associates the Vatican with assassins. That their allies dwell in Western China's Kunlun Mountains makes it an easier secret to keep. Still, the tiny village of Yincandi is not immune to the vagaries of fate. Little does a lost mountaineer imagine what will become of the infant he leaves with the villagers. Nor can Trajan, an orphan of Christian missionaries, imagine the true nature of the Buddhist monks raising him. Until the moment arrives when he must choose between Buddha and Christ.
"Seraphim, Mujahedeen madmen of the Catholic world, have reignited their centuries-old war against the Church. The continued slaughter of Middle East Christians has placed them on extinction's edge and the Seraphim blame the Pope's cowardice. Their Cardinals marked for assassination and trapped by their own secrecy, the Vatican must place their hope Trajan will stand between them and a religious war foreshadowing the apocalypse.
"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, a woman appears astounding the world with miraculous abilities and declaring herself the successor to the prophets and the Servant of the One Lord."
Now the piece opens with a sentence I'm sure very few people would imagine. The second provides 'place' as well as giving the Vatican's association with assassins plausibility. It's a secret. The next three sentences, with the help of a little fudging, further develop the story's core premise. The phrase 'lost mountaineer' can provide a literal, though misleading, interpretation. He is in fact lost, but had every intention of coming to Yincandi. And he's not a mountaineer but a priest who received alpine training as a member of Switzerland's most elite special forces unit. So rather than explain all that and twist my brain through mental pretzels making detail not germane to the premise, succinct, my special forces priest became a 'lost mountaineer'.
The paragraph's last sentence needs work before the blurb is finished. It is a preliminary attempt to provide the
protagonist's conflict at the heart of every story's drama. What terrible thing will happen if he chooses 'A'. What terrible thing will happen if he does not.
The nature of the protagonist's conflict is a complex one. He is trapped between the Buddhism he grows up with and the Christianity his parents expected of him. If he chooses Buddha, innocents will die. If he chooses Christ, he will be the killer. I want to introduce this religious conflict and not provide any indication the story may take religious sides because it doesn't.
The second paragraph implies what the story's middle will develop. It introduces the protagonist(s), the nature of the conflict/drama and points to the denouement heralding the end.
Still, to this point, all we have is another thriller. The last paragraph provides the left hook, the monkey with the wrench, the fly in the ointment. If I missed a cliche, please place it in the comments.
I've got my fingers crossed I can find an agent who agrees. Meanwhile, I've begun work on the cover. Just in case.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
I am a non-professional student of history and not too much time passes before I re-learn a lesson learned long ago: the only thing new is the history I don't know.
As writers, we are all familiar with perhaps the most iconic opening to any piece of literary fiction: Charles Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities" published in 1859: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
203 years earlier, in 1656, Robert Shirley found himself caught in the turbulence of England's struggle between the Royalists and Independents. When Oliver Cromwell got wind of Shirley's plans to build a cathedral he sent the Baron a letter which stated if he had the money to build a church surely he could contribute to the building of a war
vessel. Shirley ignored the message and Cromwell's cronies had him arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London where his death is suspected of having been the result of a poisonous meal.
The good people of Leicestshire completed the cathedral, known as Staunton Harold Hall, and placed a placard over its entrance, there to this day. It reads:
"When all things sacred were throughout ye nation Either demollisht or profaned Sir Robert Shirley Barronet founded this church whose singular praise it is to have done ye best things in ye worst times. And hoped in them the most callamitous. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."
In honor of those determined people, long forgotten but now remembered, and of that feeling of impertinence against authority which eventually gave rise to the country I am a citizen of, I arise each morning hoping I may endeavor to do the best of things in the worst of times.
First, it is not possible to summarize a full-length novel in a blurb and I think trying to do so is what gives so many authors agita. Once one comes to peace with this, everything falls into place. Here's the pertinent question. What formed the basis for writing this story? What is its core premise? A proper response to either question should result in a one-sentence answer. Two sentences is a kludge, a fudge, poppycock. Even if the book is part of a series. Try it yourself. A succinct answer (as opposed to a run-on sentence) is a strong indication of a tight, focused, logically coherent story. In fact, a blurb written before the novel itself obviates an outline. In any event, that foundational concept will form the blurb.
Second, a blurb must tell a story. Limited real estate, however, means the beginning will do the yeoman's work of revealing the premise, implying an unstated middle, and pointing to but not detailing the end.
Lastly, a blurb does not have to have ** absolute ** fidelity to the story. Lying is, of course, always unacceptable. But if a little descriptive sleight of hand (word?) can eliminate a sentence or two of explanation, I'm sure the pearly gates will not be denied you.
So, with 'The End' written and the real work underway, here is Seraphim's one-sentence premise.
An orphaned infant grows up among Buddhist monks allied to the Vatican and will come to defend the Church against a centuries-old enemy: the Seraphim.
With 'what' out of the way, who, where, when, and why will form the blurb's first draft.
"Tiny Yincandi lies hidden within the remote wilds of Western China. Shielded by the rugged Kunlun Mountains, its Buddhist monks come to raise an orphaned American infant. The training they provide is not just for discipline as young Trajan learns the simple villagers are clandestine allies of the Vatican. Generations of Yincandi assassins
have defended the church in its centuries-long battle against the fanatical Seraphim.
"With a worldwide religious war threatening to erupt, Trajan must choose between returning to his Christian heritage or abandoning his Buddhist principles to death and destruction.
"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, the Servant of the One Lord appears."
What we have now is a structure, scaffolding if you will. Stated in only three paragraphs, room exists for more detail and applying flourish and color.
As with any chapter, providing an early sense of place is always essential to ground and orient the reader. Here, while providing 'place', the opening sentence contributes nothing to grab the reader's attention. In a piece where every word counts, be alert to show and hype. 'Rugged' qualifies under both counts. As a sharp-eyed friend pointed out, "death and destruction"? In the world of blurbs, is there a two-word phrase more clichéd?
But, with the essentials in place, let's put it through the style rinse.
"No one associates the Vatican with assassins. That their allies dwell in Western China's Kunlun Mountains makes it an easier secret to keep. Still, the tiny village of Yincandi is not immune to the vagaries of fate. Little does a lost mountaineer imagine what will become of the infant he leaves with the villagers. Nor can Trajan, an orphan of Christian missionaries, imagine the true nature of the Buddhist monks raising him. Until the moment arrives when he must choose between Buddha and Christ.
"Seraphim, Mujahedeen madmen of the Catholic world, have reignited their centuries-old war against the Church. The continued slaughter of Middle East Christians has placed them on extinction's edge and the Seraphim blame the Pope's cowardice. Their Cardinals marked for assassination and trapped by their own secrecy, the Vatican must place their hope Trajan will stand between them and a religious war foreshadowing the apocalypse.
"But things will become far more complicated than anyone can imagine. As the battle lines harden between Muslim and Jew, Buddhist and Christian, a woman appears astounding the world with miraculous abilities and declaring herself the successor to the prophets and the Servant of the One Lord."
Now the piece opens with a sentence I'm sure very few people would imagine. The second provides 'place' as well as giving the Vatican's association with assassins plausibility. It's a secret. The next three sentences, with the help of a little fudging, further develop the story's core premise. The phrase 'lost mountaineer' can provide a literal, though misleading, interpretation. He is in fact lost, but had every intention of coming to Yincandi. And he's not a mountaineer but a priest who received alpine training as a member of Switzerland's most elite special forces unit. So rather than explain all that and twist my brain through mental pretzels making detail not germane to the premise, succinct, my special forces priest became a 'lost mountaineer'.
The paragraph's last sentence needs work before the blurb is finished. It is a preliminary attempt to provide the
protagonist's conflict at the heart of every story's drama. What terrible thing will happen if he chooses 'A'. What terrible thing will happen if he does not.
The nature of the protagonist's conflict is a complex one. He is trapped between the Buddhism he grows up with and the Christianity his parents expected of him. If he chooses Buddha, innocents will die. If he chooses Christ, he will be the killer. I want to introduce this religious conflict and not provide any indication the story may take religious sides because it doesn't.
The second paragraph implies what the story's middle will develop. It introduces the protagonist(s), the nature of the conflict/drama and points to the denouement heralding the end.
Still, to this point, all we have is another thriller. The last paragraph provides the left hook, the monkey with the wrench, the fly in the ointment. If I missed a cliche, please place it in the comments.
I've got my fingers crossed I can find an agent who agrees. Meanwhile, I've begun work on the cover. Just in case.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
I am a non-professional student of history and not too much time passes before I re-learn a lesson learned long ago: the only thing new is the history I don't know.
As writers, we are all familiar with perhaps the most iconic opening to any piece of literary fiction: Charles Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities" published in 1859: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
203 years earlier, in 1656, Robert Shirley found himself caught in the turbulence of England's struggle between the Royalists and Independents. When Oliver Cromwell got wind of Shirley's plans to build a cathedral he sent the Baron a letter which stated if he had the money to build a church surely he could contribute to the building of a war
vessel. Shirley ignored the message and Cromwell's cronies had him arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London where his death is suspected of having been the result of a poisonous meal.
The good people of Leicestshire completed the cathedral, known as Staunton Harold Hall, and placed a placard over its entrance, there to this day. It reads:
"When all things sacred were throughout ye nation Either demollisht or profaned Sir Robert Shirley Barronet founded this church whose singular praise it is to have done ye best things in ye worst times. And hoped in them the most callamitous. The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance."
In honor of those determined people, long forgotten but now remembered, and of that feeling of impertinence against authority which eventually gave rise to the country I am a citizen of, I arise each morning hoping I may endeavor to do the best of things in the worst of times.
May 27, 2017
Summer's Start
Though the calendar says it's still a month away, here in America this three-day Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the summer season. As a military veteran, I will join my countrymen celebrating getaways, beaches, pools, barbecues, hamburgers, hot dogs, cold beer, and lots of relaxation.
I will also take a moment to remember my brothers and sisters who did not return. Those who fell in battle to protect our freedoms expect us to do exactly that: enjoy our freedoms. I will honor their sacrifice and heroism. Happy summer, everyone. See you next week.
I will also take a moment to remember my brothers and sisters who did not return. Those who fell in battle to protect our freedoms expect us to do exactly that: enjoy our freedoms. I will honor their sacrifice and heroism. Happy summer, everyone. See you next week.
May 19, 2017
Starting With The End
David Baldacci, who writes in my genre, is #2 on Amazon's most read list with his release of 'The Fix'. Of course, I could not resist 'looking inside'. 17 of the first 25 sentences used 'was' as the main verb. Five began with 'there'. He also has a very comfortable relationship with adverbs. Here's an example. Not the most egregious but just so obvious. "He abruptly walked out without another word." The sentence's context not only obviates the adverb but also makes the prepositional phrase extraneous. I repeat. He's #2 on Amazon's most read list. Who's #1? Stay tuned.
I don't begrudge Mr. Baldacci anything. Good for you, David. I wish you every success.
At 3:58pm on Saturday, May 13th, 2017, I wrote 'The End' to my sixth novel, 'Seraphim' and I will make a determined effort to gain agent representation. 'Was' exists only in dialogue. No sentence begins with. 'there'. I haven't counted, but would be surprised if more than five adverbs exist. And if so, nothing like the monstrosity above (lol).
So though I felt thrilled, excited, and relieved to finish it, a pall of uncertainty hangs over me. I have this nagging feeling that none of the work to improve my craftsmanship matters. Something about this publishing business makes no sense. It's all a matter of sheer, dumb luck. Amanda Hocking anyone?
How much effort should I put into an eye-catching, attention-grabbing cover? I would have whisked right by this one.
Margaret Atwood's, 'The Handmaid's Tale' is Amazon's #1 most read and most sold book. I 'looked inside'. I had no idea what was going on. It recalled the late Elmore Leonard's dictum. "If it sounds like writing, I re-write it."
I offer this not as criticism of Ms Atwood. Mazeltov, Margaret. May you sell a million more. But as I embark on the road to that dark, treacherous forest within which agents dwell, it occurs to me I might be profoundly clueless. A naive ingenue (or whatever the male equivalent is). A babe in the woods ripe to have his lunch handed to him. I've run out of cliches. lol
I also fret over Seraphim's provocative nature. It crosses one of polite society's red lines: religion. The chronological appearance of history's great religious figures, with the exception of Judaism which still waits for its Messiah, all ended centuries ago. But why should Mohammad be the last one? Seraphim posits the arrival of another in a modern setting. How would the world and its religions react to a prophet with astounding abilities claiming to represent the God of Gods? Into the millpond of religious stability, Seraphim hurls a boulder. How are agents going to react to that?
In any event, indie or trad (forgive me, Eldon. I just don't have your panache), the work begins when 'The End' is written. I've started converting my double-spaced, 1.5 inch margin manuscript to Kindle format so that my first and beta readers have something convenient. I'll give it an author's read through then let it go to them.
This being my sixth, I've tried both editing styles. Most experts advise mowing through the creative process first then re-write and edit when complete. When I tried that, I grew to hate my own book. Reading the same story over and over is a torture best reserved for al Qaeda. I find dynamic re-write and edit much easier while the material is fresh to mind and it spurs the imagination as I contemplate and structure upcoming scenes. Take your pick.
I also have to begin the tedious process of updating my agent database. Like any business, people move around, retire, get fired, get promoted. When finished, I'll make it available to anyone interested by just sending me a PM. But, after, I send out my own queries !! :-D
I think it will also be interesting to blog on my thinking as I process through agent selections. One thing I've learned, other than genre preference, their bios are worthless blah blah. Why can't people say what they mean and mean what they say?
Then of course, there's the crafting of a blurb and Query Letter. I'm pretty comfortable with both and have already begun the process (thank you, EG !!). I'll wait for the critiques and corrections to roll in and when I have something more substantial, I'll post both here.
I also think those changes and corrections, without giving anything away, will prove instructive and interesting. So I'll post those too. After that, it'll become a case of waiting for the rejection letters to start arriving.
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
I don't begrudge Mr. Baldacci anything. Good for you, David. I wish you every success.
At 3:58pm on Saturday, May 13th, 2017, I wrote 'The End' to my sixth novel, 'Seraphim' and I will make a determined effort to gain agent representation. 'Was' exists only in dialogue. No sentence begins with. 'there'. I haven't counted, but would be surprised if more than five adverbs exist. And if so, nothing like the monstrosity above (lol).
So though I felt thrilled, excited, and relieved to finish it, a pall of uncertainty hangs over me. I have this nagging feeling that none of the work to improve my craftsmanship matters. Something about this publishing business makes no sense. It's all a matter of sheer, dumb luck. Amanda Hocking anyone?
How much effort should I put into an eye-catching, attention-grabbing cover? I would have whisked right by this one.
Margaret Atwood's, 'The Handmaid's Tale' is Amazon's #1 most read and most sold book. I 'looked inside'. I had no idea what was going on. It recalled the late Elmore Leonard's dictum. "If it sounds like writing, I re-write it."
I offer this not as criticism of Ms Atwood. Mazeltov, Margaret. May you sell a million more. But as I embark on the road to that dark, treacherous forest within which agents dwell, it occurs to me I might be profoundly clueless. A naive ingenue (or whatever the male equivalent is). A babe in the woods ripe to have his lunch handed to him. I've run out of cliches. lol
I also fret over Seraphim's provocative nature. It crosses one of polite society's red lines: religion. The chronological appearance of history's great religious figures, with the exception of Judaism which still waits for its Messiah, all ended centuries ago. But why should Mohammad be the last one? Seraphim posits the arrival of another in a modern setting. How would the world and its religions react to a prophet with astounding abilities claiming to represent the God of Gods? Into the millpond of religious stability, Seraphim hurls a boulder. How are agents going to react to that?
In any event, indie or trad (forgive me, Eldon. I just don't have your panache), the work begins when 'The End' is written. I've started converting my double-spaced, 1.5 inch margin manuscript to Kindle format so that my first and beta readers have something convenient. I'll give it an author's read through then let it go to them.
This being my sixth, I've tried both editing styles. Most experts advise mowing through the creative process first then re-write and edit when complete. When I tried that, I grew to hate my own book. Reading the same story over and over is a torture best reserved for al Qaeda. I find dynamic re-write and edit much easier while the material is fresh to mind and it spurs the imagination as I contemplate and structure upcoming scenes. Take your pick.
I also have to begin the tedious process of updating my agent database. Like any business, people move around, retire, get fired, get promoted. When finished, I'll make it available to anyone interested by just sending me a PM. But, after, I send out my own queries !! :-D
I think it will also be interesting to blog on my thinking as I process through agent selections. One thing I've learned, other than genre preference, their bios are worthless blah blah. Why can't people say what they mean and mean what they say?
Then of course, there's the crafting of a blurb and Query Letter. I'm pretty comfortable with both and have already begun the process (thank you, EG !!). I'll wait for the critiques and corrections to roll in and when I have something more substantial, I'll post both here.
I also think those changes and corrections, without giving anything away, will prove instructive and interesting. So I'll post those too. After that, it'll become a case of waiting for the rejection letters to start arriving.
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
May 12, 2017
What Do Readers Want III
The timing of this post, for me at least, could not be more perfect. More in a bit. While it is always important to know what to do, we often profit greatly by knowing what NOT to do. This is especially true for Indie writers who have to make careful decisions about how best to spend the limited funding available for marketing. This is of crucial importance to those serious about what readers want and how to provide it. So let me try and first sweep away some clutter to see exactly where marketing dollars and pounds are most effective.
1. Forget the distribution channels servicing large scale retailers (Walmart, Trader Joe's, Costco et al), malls, airports, and newsstands. Unless you're a well-established and well-known author you will have to submit extensive marketing plans, sales figures for the prior year, self-finance the print run, offer a steep discount on the unit price, and accept unsold returns shipped back at your expense.
2. It is possible to cost effectively enter the large retailer distribution channels but only through Amazon which provides the service at no cost. The catch? You'll have to go through the Createspace process and make a print version of your book available. I consider it a no-brainer under any circumstances to have a print version available and capture sales which would otherwise be lost. Having gone through the process, it is a technical challenge and I consider myself a technologist par excellence. Do feel free to PM me with any conceptual/technical problems you may need guidance with. Happy to help out.
3.There is no easy answer between deciding whether to go Amazon exclusive (KU) or a wider distribution through Kobo, Apple, B&N, Google Store, Smashwords, etc. In 2016, Amazon-only authors received $180M in royalty payments. All non-Amazon eBook authors *combined* received 50M. However, Amazon-only means forgoing external marketing and promotion for a given title thus reducing the 'virality' word-of-mouth can foster. Also, if a title appeals to Canadian or Australian readers it will be unavailable in the retail channels where half of their eBook sales occur. Therefore, if you want to expand your readership into those markets and have a limited marketing budget, forego Amazon exclusivity.
4. Given the above and a limited marketing budget, a website represents the most cost-effective tool an Indie writer can have to optimize sales. Investing $20-$40/month on ads, consistently committing to monthly site updates, and maintaining internal key word lists and sitemap plans has resulted in a traffic increase on my site over this time last year of 58%, an activity surge of 136%, and a corresponding paid sales growth of 33%. All without free promotions or review gathering. Once properly set up, monthly time investment runs 2 to 3 hours.
So, after ten months blogging on the ups and downs we Indie writers must cope with here are my conclusions.
1. Unless one sits down to plan a marketing budget, the only option remaining is the Amanda Hocking school of lightning strikes. How many free download days have you offered? How high have paid sales increased?
2. I remain convinced accumulating reviews past 25-30 is wasted effort. I presume flat or zero sales precipitated the effort to gather reviews. Have you reached 60, 70, 80 reviews? Are paid sales zooming?
3. Amazon's sheer size strengthens the argument it is a place of purchase not discovery. One can browse for hours and not scratch the surface of its inventory. When was the last time you said, "I've got a few hours to kill. I think I'll browse Amazon."
5. Was your cover a project in and of itself? It's beautiful, title and author displayed prominently. Good visibility at thumbnail size. How high have paid sales increased?
5. Use the sites that promote free download days to their memberships. It's not a bad thing, but if you took seriously #1 above, far better to purchase an ad and give it a month while monitoring your sales. No sales bump? Scratch them off your list and move on. Broke even? Buy another month.
6. Don't direct your ads to places where readers hang out, like Google, Goodreads, Smashwords, et al. Your ad will be lost in the clutter of everyone else doing the same thing. Women buy shoes and cook. Many via recipe. Your book ads will stand out there. How about travel and ticket purchase sites? People like to read while getting to the destination. Or anywhere that has nothing to do with books. Guaranteed a subset of the traffic reads. No sales bump? Move on.
7. Blog interviews, blog promos, and blog ad buys work. All of them? Of course not. So you'll have to stick with it and do your homework.
Our business is a slow and steady one. The turtle wins this race. Writing a book now? Promote the other ones. In a year, when it's finished, you'll have a larger base to market to.
This past Thursday, I finished the final chapter of my current project 'Seraphim'. Sometime this weekend, I will complete its Epilogue and write 'The End'. After a long, too long delay, this blog will finally get back to what I originally intended it to be: a chronicle of my efforts to gain agent representation. Why? I really don't want to do the stuff I detailed above. I will if I must, but I'd rather off load it to an agent.
Moreover, I honestly feel the intervening months have strengthened my ability to find one. After all, with everything I've learned about marketing, finding one in a universe of about 1,200 should be cake. Yeah, right. I'm not delusional.
But in case not, I'll be right there with you trying to break through Amazon's trenches where Indie and Amazon-imprint authors daily sell more eBooks than all traditional publishers combined. Meanwhile, as I make final preparations, any readers of this blog interested in taking a beta-reader spin need only PM me and let me know what format you prefer and where to send it. I'd be honored.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
1. Forget the distribution channels servicing large scale retailers (Walmart, Trader Joe's, Costco et al), malls, airports, and newsstands. Unless you're a well-established and well-known author you will have to submit extensive marketing plans, sales figures for the prior year, self-finance the print run, offer a steep discount on the unit price, and accept unsold returns shipped back at your expense.
2. It is possible to cost effectively enter the large retailer distribution channels but only through Amazon which provides the service at no cost. The catch? You'll have to go through the Createspace process and make a print version of your book available. I consider it a no-brainer under any circumstances to have a print version available and capture sales which would otherwise be lost. Having gone through the process, it is a technical challenge and I consider myself a technologist par excellence. Do feel free to PM me with any conceptual/technical problems you may need guidance with. Happy to help out.
3.There is no easy answer between deciding whether to go Amazon exclusive (KU) or a wider distribution through Kobo, Apple, B&N, Google Store, Smashwords, etc. In 2016, Amazon-only authors received $180M in royalty payments. All non-Amazon eBook authors *combined* received 50M. However, Amazon-only means forgoing external marketing and promotion for a given title thus reducing the 'virality' word-of-mouth can foster. Also, if a title appeals to Canadian or Australian readers it will be unavailable in the retail channels where half of their eBook sales occur. Therefore, if you want to expand your readership into those markets and have a limited marketing budget, forego Amazon exclusivity.
4. Given the above and a limited marketing budget, a website represents the most cost-effective tool an Indie writer can have to optimize sales. Investing $20-$40/month on ads, consistently committing to monthly site updates, and maintaining internal key word lists and sitemap plans has resulted in a traffic increase on my site over this time last year of 58%, an activity surge of 136%, and a corresponding paid sales growth of 33%. All without free promotions or review gathering. Once properly set up, monthly time investment runs 2 to 3 hours.
So, after ten months blogging on the ups and downs we Indie writers must cope with here are my conclusions.
1. Unless one sits down to plan a marketing budget, the only option remaining is the Amanda Hocking school of lightning strikes. How many free download days have you offered? How high have paid sales increased?
2. I remain convinced accumulating reviews past 25-30 is wasted effort. I presume flat or zero sales precipitated the effort to gather reviews. Have you reached 60, 70, 80 reviews? Are paid sales zooming?
3. Amazon's sheer size strengthens the argument it is a place of purchase not discovery. One can browse for hours and not scratch the surface of its inventory. When was the last time you said, "I've got a few hours to kill. I think I'll browse Amazon."
5. Was your cover a project in and of itself? It's beautiful, title and author displayed prominently. Good visibility at thumbnail size. How high have paid sales increased?
5. Use the sites that promote free download days to their memberships. It's not a bad thing, but if you took seriously #1 above, far better to purchase an ad and give it a month while monitoring your sales. No sales bump? Scratch them off your list and move on. Broke even? Buy another month.
6. Don't direct your ads to places where readers hang out, like Google, Goodreads, Smashwords, et al. Your ad will be lost in the clutter of everyone else doing the same thing. Women buy shoes and cook. Many via recipe. Your book ads will stand out there. How about travel and ticket purchase sites? People like to read while getting to the destination. Or anywhere that has nothing to do with books. Guaranteed a subset of the traffic reads. No sales bump? Move on.
7. Blog interviews, blog promos, and blog ad buys work. All of them? Of course not. So you'll have to stick with it and do your homework.
Our business is a slow and steady one. The turtle wins this race. Writing a book now? Promote the other ones. In a year, when it's finished, you'll have a larger base to market to.
This past Thursday, I finished the final chapter of my current project 'Seraphim'. Sometime this weekend, I will complete its Epilogue and write 'The End'. After a long, too long delay, this blog will finally get back to what I originally intended it to be: a chronicle of my efforts to gain agent representation. Why? I really don't want to do the stuff I detailed above. I will if I must, but I'd rather off load it to an agent.
Moreover, I honestly feel the intervening months have strengthened my ability to find one. After all, with everything I've learned about marketing, finding one in a universe of about 1,200 should be cake. Yeah, right. I'm not delusional.
But in case not, I'll be right there with you trying to break through Amazon's trenches where Indie and Amazon-imprint authors daily sell more eBooks than all traditional publishers combined. Meanwhile, as I make final preparations, any readers of this blog interested in taking a beta-reader spin need only PM me and let me know what format you prefer and where to send it. I'd be honored.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
May 5, 2017
What Do Readers Want? - II
The first ebook reader appeared in 1998. Two years later, Stephen King released 'Ride the Bullet" as an ebook. In just under two decades, an astonishing development has taken place. Across the entire US ebook market, ebooks without ISBNs now command a greater share of consumer ebook purchases, reading time, and author earnings than all 1,200 of the American Association of Publishers put together , including the Big Five.
Continuing last week's examination of what reader's want, this time I'll look where they're buying and begin with Great Britain and Canada. In my opinion, and I would welcome any countervailing points, an author without an existing reader base and at least some net capital, would do well to begin their marketing efforts here. Not because it'll be easier than anywhere else, certainly not. But because their smaller market size will enhance the penetrative power of marketing outlays. As the opening statistic so vividly points out, those of us here in the States stand before a tsunami that swells every five minutes with a new ebook.
In fact, bypass Britain and Canada altogether and get thee to New Zealand. With a population of 4 million, they bought 1 million ebooks last year.
Except for those with altars filled with votive lights before a picture of Amanda Hocking, marketing is an inescapable reality for independent authors. But the marketing budget of a typical indie will be a pinprick against the tough US ebook hide. It sells 300 million more ebooks than the rest of the world combined. And the behemoth astride that mountain is Amazon. It dwarfs its competitors.
Apple ibooks (63M), Kobo (11M), B&N (19M) totalled 93 million unit ebook sales for 2016. Amazon sold 518M. I hear New Zealand is lovely this time of year.
Still, a closer look at Apple and Kobo's numbers brings my point into sharper relief. Together, they sold 27 million ebooks in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. That's a lot of readers who suffer only by comparison. Far easier to reach them, than trying to drill into the tectonic plate Amazon has over the rest of the market.
And marketing also entails a psychological component. Kobo's Canadian base are not only friendly and nice, they're loyal to Kobo and want to see it succeed. They're much more willing to give an unknown a chance. And the um, enthusiasm, of Apple's followers is legendary. Anything sold by Apple has an automatic seal of approval.
Again, however, all this is not say Australia, Canada, NZ, and UK will throw rose petals at your feet on the way to literary nirvana. But if you do possess multiple titles, at least one should be travelling this path, thus expanding opportunities.
What else has emerged in researching the data? Well, I have become thoroughly impressed by my indie friends and colleagues. In answering the question, 'What do readers want?', I can extend the answer, 'They want to read' with 'and they want to read indie'. In every country and as a group, indie writers are squeezing out the big five. Our market and revenue share collectively across all countries is approaching 45%. Readers are almost definitionally a discriminating lot. In ever greater numbers, they are choosing to read what we author. Yes, the industry is still shaking out the sloppy, unedited cheapies and the Amanda Hocking wannabe's, but what the rest of us are writing they are willing to pay for. That's something to be proud of.
This week my sources included Forbes Magazine and archives, authorearnings.com, and for a more human perspective, Nicharl Kozlowski, blogger.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
A grammarian sent me the following:
"When an attribution is followed by a paraphrase that is grammatically integrated with a partial quotation so that the paraphrase and the partial quotation form a complete sentence, no punctuation should appear between the paraphrase and the partial quotation."
The next time he walks by me, I'm going to stick my foot out and trip him.
Continuing last week's examination of what reader's want, this time I'll look where they're buying and begin with Great Britain and Canada. In my opinion, and I would welcome any countervailing points, an author without an existing reader base and at least some net capital, would do well to begin their marketing efforts here. Not because it'll be easier than anywhere else, certainly not. But because their smaller market size will enhance the penetrative power of marketing outlays. As the opening statistic so vividly points out, those of us here in the States stand before a tsunami that swells every five minutes with a new ebook.
In fact, bypass Britain and Canada altogether and get thee to New Zealand. With a population of 4 million, they bought 1 million ebooks last year.
Except for those with altars filled with votive lights before a picture of Amanda Hocking, marketing is an inescapable reality for independent authors. But the marketing budget of a typical indie will be a pinprick against the tough US ebook hide. It sells 300 million more ebooks than the rest of the world combined. And the behemoth astride that mountain is Amazon. It dwarfs its competitors.
Apple ibooks (63M), Kobo (11M), B&N (19M) totalled 93 million unit ebook sales for 2016. Amazon sold 518M. I hear New Zealand is lovely this time of year.
Still, a closer look at Apple and Kobo's numbers brings my point into sharper relief. Together, they sold 27 million ebooks in Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. That's a lot of readers who suffer only by comparison. Far easier to reach them, than trying to drill into the tectonic plate Amazon has over the rest of the market.
And marketing also entails a psychological component. Kobo's Canadian base are not only friendly and nice, they're loyal to Kobo and want to see it succeed. They're much more willing to give an unknown a chance. And the um, enthusiasm, of Apple's followers is legendary. Anything sold by Apple has an automatic seal of approval.
Again, however, all this is not say Australia, Canada, NZ, and UK will throw rose petals at your feet on the way to literary nirvana. But if you do possess multiple titles, at least one should be travelling this path, thus expanding opportunities.
What else has emerged in researching the data? Well, I have become thoroughly impressed by my indie friends and colleagues. In answering the question, 'What do readers want?', I can extend the answer, 'They want to read' with 'and they want to read indie'. In every country and as a group, indie writers are squeezing out the big five. Our market and revenue share collectively across all countries is approaching 45%. Readers are almost definitionally a discriminating lot. In ever greater numbers, they are choosing to read what we author. Yes, the industry is still shaking out the sloppy, unedited cheapies and the Amanda Hocking wannabe's, but what the rest of us are writing they are willing to pay for. That's something to be proud of.
This week my sources included Forbes Magazine and archives, authorearnings.com, and for a more human perspective, Nicharl Kozlowski, blogger.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
A grammarian sent me the following:
"When an attribution is followed by a paraphrase that is grammatically integrated with a partial quotation so that the paraphrase and the partial quotation form a complete sentence, no punctuation should appear between the paraphrase and the partial quotation."
The next time he walks by me, I'm going to stick my foot out and trip him.
April 28, 2017
What Do Readers Want?
Last week I hinted this post would seek to answer the question posed by the title and my good friend and colleague, Joanna Elm. At the risk of appearing a bait and switch huckster, or worse a Kobayashi Maru cheat, I'm going to change the question. I think, on reflection, you'll agree it must provide the same answer and with the additional benefit of being quantifiable. What do readers buy?
Let me begin by saying what I am not going to do. I am not going to provide comparative lists of sales by genre. For our purposes, comparing how many mystery vs romance books sold over a given period is useless. I want to look at sales on an industrial level. Through which channels are readers buying books, e.g., Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book stores, Retail and Club (Walmart, Trader Joe's), Mass Merchandise (the distributors who fill the stands at train stations and airports)? Why? Because examining the trends might have a profound impact on our marketing decisions and provide insight on what readers are buying (what they want) and where they're buying it.
Before I continue, let me make an important point my preliminary research has made clear. The amount of data available is HUGE. As I stated last week, it would be "stupefying hubris" to think I could summarize it all in one post. So I would certainly urge those interested to stay tuned, as I estimate, to even begin doing the subject justice, will require up to five or six more posts.
Also, since Newton's Third Law of Advice states that for every expert there is an equal and opposite expert, I will at every post cite my sources for the data cited and my conclusions therefrom. For this post I used Publisher's Weekly, Fortune Magazine, the website authorearnings.com, and for granularity, the blog by an industry respected "expert", Jane Friedman. And for those whose neck hairs might be rising, I am not going to turn this into a statistical slugfest. Nonetheless, numbers don't lie.
One thing those numbers made clear. People buy printed books, both hardcover and paperback. In very large quantities. It would be
a mistake if you are "limiting" yourself to digital. I place limiting in quotes because, contrary to published reports, digital is fast becoming the 800-pound gorilla in the marriage bed. More in a moment.
Still, paper is not going away anytime soon. Even if you are on Amazon, they have a print-on-demand service called CreateSpace which is free. And since the print versions represent greater cash margins for Amazon, they do promote them more aggressively.
However, digital is booming. Recently, headed by the NY Times, a tremor rumbled through the industry when they pushed the story that digital sales were falling and print was rising. While the Times was factually correct, so far as it goes, as a charter member of Big Media, they were toeing the Big Five publishers' line and citing half the story.
Coming off the Big Five's successful lawsuit to prevent Amazon from discounting their books (thus safeguarding one of their last dependable distribution channels: book stores who had been losing sales to lower priced Amazon), the publishers raised the prices on their clients' Ebooks. What happens when you raise prices? Purchases drop. The Law of Unintended Consequences bit the Big Five in the you-know-where. But here's the kicker. Sales on Amazon's ebooks, and not the 99 cent ones but those in the $2 to $5 range, swelled. Readers are determined to read but they won't pay through the nose for it. The Big Five's branded clients, the Pattersons and JD Robb's, held steady, but the publisher's lesser known stable saw their income levels drop.
In fact, the market share of Ebook sales by the Big Five fell to 23% while those of Indie Publishers (that's us boys and girls) rose to 43%. By the end of 2016, though the Big Five's share held steady, ours rose to 48% at the expense of small and medium-sized publishers. And the Indie market share is across all genres: Paranormal, Romance, Thrillers, Suspense, Science Fiction, as well as Cozy Mysteries. Furthermore, our share of the Ebook market is grossly understated!
43% of the Ebooks purchased on Amazon are not, repeat not, reported by any industry standard statistics (Bowker, Nielsen, et al). Why? Because independent writers are, well, independent. Thousands never bother to get an ISBN number. Amazon records them, but the algorithms of everyone else require an ISBN for their statistical models to work. I'm grinning right now. I love the delicious subversiveness of that.
In any event, we Indies have well over half of all Ebook sales and revenues. Double that of the Big Five and growing!
So what do readers want? They want to read. And except for those wedded to their favorite authors, are very price sensitive. What do we authors have to do? Market, market, market. And, oh yeah. Writing something also helps. Anyway, stay tuned. Consider this just an introduction as I have barely scratched the surface.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
I would urge those of you interested in promotion to not be shy about having me insert your links here whenever relevant. As I researched this post, I fell out of my chair when I came across the Google search results page below. You just never know who might click the link.
Let me begin by saying what I am not going to do. I am not going to provide comparative lists of sales by genre. For our purposes, comparing how many mystery vs romance books sold over a given period is useless. I want to look at sales on an industrial level. Through which channels are readers buying books, e.g., Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book stores, Retail and Club (Walmart, Trader Joe's), Mass Merchandise (the distributors who fill the stands at train stations and airports)? Why? Because examining the trends might have a profound impact on our marketing decisions and provide insight on what readers are buying (what they want) and where they're buying it.
Before I continue, let me make an important point my preliminary research has made clear. The amount of data available is HUGE. As I stated last week, it would be "stupefying hubris" to think I could summarize it all in one post. So I would certainly urge those interested to stay tuned, as I estimate, to even begin doing the subject justice, will require up to five or six more posts.
Also, since Newton's Third Law of Advice states that for every expert there is an equal and opposite expert, I will at every post cite my sources for the data cited and my conclusions therefrom. For this post I used Publisher's Weekly, Fortune Magazine, the website authorearnings.com, and for granularity, the blog by an industry respected "expert", Jane Friedman. And for those whose neck hairs might be rising, I am not going to turn this into a statistical slugfest. Nonetheless, numbers don't lie.
One thing those numbers made clear. People buy printed books, both hardcover and paperback. In very large quantities. It would be
a mistake if you are "limiting" yourself to digital. I place limiting in quotes because, contrary to published reports, digital is fast becoming the 800-pound gorilla in the marriage bed. More in a moment.
Still, paper is not going away anytime soon. Even if you are on Amazon, they have a print-on-demand service called CreateSpace which is free. And since the print versions represent greater cash margins for Amazon, they do promote them more aggressively.
However, digital is booming. Recently, headed by the NY Times, a tremor rumbled through the industry when they pushed the story that digital sales were falling and print was rising. While the Times was factually correct, so far as it goes, as a charter member of Big Media, they were toeing the Big Five publishers' line and citing half the story.
Coming off the Big Five's successful lawsuit to prevent Amazon from discounting their books (thus safeguarding one of their last dependable distribution channels: book stores who had been losing sales to lower priced Amazon), the publishers raised the prices on their clients' Ebooks. What happens when you raise prices? Purchases drop. The Law of Unintended Consequences bit the Big Five in the you-know-where. But here's the kicker. Sales on Amazon's ebooks, and not the 99 cent ones but those in the $2 to $5 range, swelled. Readers are determined to read but they won't pay through the nose for it. The Big Five's branded clients, the Pattersons and JD Robb's, held steady, but the publisher's lesser known stable saw their income levels drop.
In fact, the market share of Ebook sales by the Big Five fell to 23% while those of Indie Publishers (that's us boys and girls) rose to 43%. By the end of 2016, though the Big Five's share held steady, ours rose to 48% at the expense of small and medium-sized publishers. And the Indie market share is across all genres: Paranormal, Romance, Thrillers, Suspense, Science Fiction, as well as Cozy Mysteries. Furthermore, our share of the Ebook market is grossly understated!
43% of the Ebooks purchased on Amazon are not, repeat not, reported by any industry standard statistics (Bowker, Nielsen, et al). Why? Because independent writers are, well, independent. Thousands never bother to get an ISBN number. Amazon records them, but the algorithms of everyone else require an ISBN for their statistical models to work. I'm grinning right now. I love the delicious subversiveness of that.
In any event, we Indies have well over half of all Ebook sales and revenues. Double that of the Big Five and growing!
So what do readers want? They want to read. And except for those wedded to their favorite authors, are very price sensitive. What do we authors have to do? Market, market, market. And, oh yeah. Writing something also helps. Anyway, stay tuned. Consider this just an introduction as I have barely scratched the surface.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
I would urge those of you interested in promotion to not be shy about having me insert your links here whenever relevant. As I researched this post, I fell out of my chair when I came across the Google search results page below. You just never know who might click the link.
April 21, 2017
The Home Stretch
Last week' post prompted a spirited discussion which my friend and colleague, Joanna Elm, succinctly summarized as, "What do readers want?"
For reasons I'll elaborate in a moment, this post will not posit a response in any great length but I am beginning to coalesce around the notion the question may need reframing.
A science reporter interviewing an astrophysicist once asked, "What came before the Big Bang?" The scientist responded, "That question must needs produce the same answer as asking, 'What is south of the South Pole?'"
Some may view, any attempt to answer it, as stupefying hubris. After all, major publishing conglomerates employing a myriad of experts to analyze exactly that, still purchase properties that produce a collective yawn among the reading public.
In fact, my initial research showed that publishers deliberately re-interpret the question as an indication the asker wants to read something from a list showing what everyone else is reading. Google will return page after page of listings showing the top bestsellers which show no consistency and no numbers.
Some highlight children's books, others gardening, or recipes. The number of self-help books is stunning indicating no shortage of people reading them. I imagine the social counselors out there recommending writing a book for those seeking closure have become the grief industry's equivalent of 'take two aspirins'.
In any event my time to properly research the topic fell victim to my closing in on writing 'The End' to my current project. It has become a painstaking, sentence by sentence effort. Why?
Though it is not a religious book nor advocating one particular viewpoint over another, the main characters are people of faith, forced to confront the possibility God may not be Who they think He is. It is a very challenging theme which can easily compromise my absolute priority to entertain and a need to bring the narrative to a satisfying conclusion.
A reporter interviewing Ernest Hemingway after the novelist won the Nobel prize, in large part for 'The Old Man and the Sea', learned the author had re-written the ending thirty-seven times. "Were you having technical difficulties ending the story?"
"No. I wanted to get the words just right."
Please bear with my foreshortened post as I struggle to "get the words just right."
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
For reasons I'll elaborate in a moment, this post will not posit a response in any great length but I am beginning to coalesce around the notion the question may need reframing.
A science reporter interviewing an astrophysicist once asked, "What came before the Big Bang?" The scientist responded, "That question must needs produce the same answer as asking, 'What is south of the South Pole?'"
Some may view, any attempt to answer it, as stupefying hubris. After all, major publishing conglomerates employing a myriad of experts to analyze exactly that, still purchase properties that produce a collective yawn among the reading public.
In fact, my initial research showed that publishers deliberately re-interpret the question as an indication the asker wants to read something from a list showing what everyone else is reading. Google will return page after page of listings showing the top bestsellers which show no consistency and no numbers.
Some highlight children's books, others gardening, or recipes. The number of self-help books is stunning indicating no shortage of people reading them. I imagine the social counselors out there recommending writing a book for those seeking closure have become the grief industry's equivalent of 'take two aspirins'.
In any event my time to properly research the topic fell victim to my closing in on writing 'The End' to my current project. It has become a painstaking, sentence by sentence effort. Why?
Though it is not a religious book nor advocating one particular viewpoint over another, the main characters are people of faith, forced to confront the possibility God may not be Who they think He is. It is a very challenging theme which can easily compromise my absolute priority to entertain and a need to bring the narrative to a satisfying conclusion.
A reporter interviewing Ernest Hemingway after the novelist won the Nobel prize, in large part for 'The Old Man and the Sea', learned the author had re-written the ending thirty-seven times. "Were you having technical difficulties ending the story?"
"No. I wanted to get the words just right."
Please bear with my foreshortened post as I struggle to "get the words just right."
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
April 14, 2017
The Writer Who Wrote Too Much
In last week's blog post, my dear friend, EG Manetti, author of the 12 Systems Chronicles, mentioned a novelist in the comments section and once again showed me how oblivious I am to large segments of the world.
I say 'again' because the first time occurred when I joined a GR SciFi Review Group and received her novel for my first of four reviews. As it became apparent I would not be reading about aliens, FTL ships, or shifting dimensions, I remember thinking, as my eyes grew wider and wider, "Boy, there sure is a lot of sex in here."
I have since (ahem) become a bit more sophisticated and would today describe it as an isolated human society, evolved into a patriarchal extreme, punctuated with steamy four-flamers.
Anyway, I suspect EG was trying to keep me from falling into despair by pointing to another suspense writer who also writes in a mixed genre format: JD Robb. I'll just go ahead and expose myself by admitting that I had never heard of her. A few facts to put my ignorance in context.
JD Robb is the pen name Nora Roberts assumed when her publisher complained she produced too much content. Too much content? Silhouette Romance published her first novel in 1981. Over the next 35 years, 1982 to 2016, she published 236 novels, an average of almost 7 books per year. In my 6 years writing, I produced 5 novels. She published 49 in the same span of time. Worldwide, she has over 300 million books in print. She's had 148 best sellers, 39 when they debuted.
I also think I would like her. An interviewer once asked, "What are you writing now?" I imagine she had a deadpan expression. "Nothing. Right now I'm answering your questions." That I never heard of her says more about me. Go ahead. Insert your jokes here.
But what about the writing? Is it any good? Better yet, does it matter? In one two-year period, she produced 23 novels, effectively one a month. Think about that.
Maureen Corrigan, literary critic for the Washington Post pulled no punches in reviewing one of those novels, 'Black Hills'.
"I'm going to say what I think straight out: 'Black Hills' is synthetic mind candy. It's not even very satisfying synthetic mind candy, like, for instance, Clive Cussler in his prime or Patricia Wentworth's soothing Maud Silver mysteries. Roberts could probably do better than a novel that, chapter by chapter, feeds her readers the top 100 female fantasies: (1) a rock-'em/sock-'em romantic partner who also takes out the garbage the minute he's asked; (2) a French lover; (3) lustrous hair that keeps its shape even when a serial killer is looking to scalp its owner; (4) a rollicking shopping spree with the girls, followed by a spa day the following week; (5) a fierce wild animal (in this case, a cougar) that, inexplicably, forms a loving bond with the heroine. Need I continue?"
Ouch.
I think, however, it would be intellectually careless to dismiss Ms Robb and her readers with the usual snide, lazy comments about the Romance crowd. We're fiction writers. Fantasy and escapism are what we offer. We have more than enough reality. Well, maybe except me. Obviously, I don't even know who's in it.
Reason tells me Ms Robb is a plot point on a probability curve. In a universe of writers, someone must succeed. But if reason obtained, I wouldn't be a novelist.
And, as I detailed in an earlier post, beyond a certain point, the pursuit of reviews falls to the Law of Diminishing Returns. No. Ms Robb shows us that readers read. Especially, if they trust you. Scrimp, scrape, save, cut corners, shave luxuries if you must, but market, market, market. Get your book out in front of paying eyes. The Law of Probability also dictates a tipping point will eventually be reached. To paraphrase a term currently in political vogue, persist!
Besides, I have no choice. Unlike many writers before me, the bottle is not an option. My second hangover transformed me into a cocktail nurse. There's never been a third.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
Ms Corrigan's observation of Clive Cussler affirmed mine. I have often taken the advice to read authors in my genre. When I read him, he must have already been past his prime. But he does duplicate the JD Robb experience. Once you breakthrough, readers will read you.
P.P.S.
Ms Corrigan also confirmed why I remain a bachelor. Though I consider myself a rock 'em/sock 'em kind of guy, I never felt it my destiny (fate?) to take out the garbage.
I say 'again' because the first time occurred when I joined a GR SciFi Review Group and received her novel for my first of four reviews. As it became apparent I would not be reading about aliens, FTL ships, or shifting dimensions, I remember thinking, as my eyes grew wider and wider, "Boy, there sure is a lot of sex in here."
I have since (ahem) become a bit more sophisticated and would today describe it as an isolated human society, evolved into a patriarchal extreme, punctuated with steamy four-flamers.
Anyway, I suspect EG was trying to keep me from falling into despair by pointing to another suspense writer who also writes in a mixed genre format: JD Robb. I'll just go ahead and expose myself by admitting that I had never heard of her. A few facts to put my ignorance in context.
JD Robb is the pen name Nora Roberts assumed when her publisher complained she produced too much content. Too much content? Silhouette Romance published her first novel in 1981. Over the next 35 years, 1982 to 2016, she published 236 novels, an average of almost 7 books per year. In my 6 years writing, I produced 5 novels. She published 49 in the same span of time. Worldwide, she has over 300 million books in print. She's had 148 best sellers, 39 when they debuted.
I also think I would like her. An interviewer once asked, "What are you writing now?" I imagine she had a deadpan expression. "Nothing. Right now I'm answering your questions." That I never heard of her says more about me. Go ahead. Insert your jokes here.
But what about the writing? Is it any good? Better yet, does it matter? In one two-year period, she produced 23 novels, effectively one a month. Think about that.
Maureen Corrigan, literary critic for the Washington Post pulled no punches in reviewing one of those novels, 'Black Hills'.
"I'm going to say what I think straight out: 'Black Hills' is synthetic mind candy. It's not even very satisfying synthetic mind candy, like, for instance, Clive Cussler in his prime or Patricia Wentworth's soothing Maud Silver mysteries. Roberts could probably do better than a novel that, chapter by chapter, feeds her readers the top 100 female fantasies: (1) a rock-'em/sock-'em romantic partner who also takes out the garbage the minute he's asked; (2) a French lover; (3) lustrous hair that keeps its shape even when a serial killer is looking to scalp its owner; (4) a rollicking shopping spree with the girls, followed by a spa day the following week; (5) a fierce wild animal (in this case, a cougar) that, inexplicably, forms a loving bond with the heroine. Need I continue?"
Ouch.
I think, however, it would be intellectually careless to dismiss Ms Robb and her readers with the usual snide, lazy comments about the Romance crowd. We're fiction writers. Fantasy and escapism are what we offer. We have more than enough reality. Well, maybe except me. Obviously, I don't even know who's in it.
Reason tells me Ms Robb is a plot point on a probability curve. In a universe of writers, someone must succeed. But if reason obtained, I wouldn't be a novelist.
And, as I detailed in an earlier post, beyond a certain point, the pursuit of reviews falls to the Law of Diminishing Returns. No. Ms Robb shows us that readers read. Especially, if they trust you. Scrimp, scrape, save, cut corners, shave luxuries if you must, but market, market, market. Get your book out in front of paying eyes. The Law of Probability also dictates a tipping point will eventually be reached. To paraphrase a term currently in political vogue, persist!
Besides, I have no choice. Unlike many writers before me, the bottle is not an option. My second hangover transformed me into a cocktail nurse. There's never been a third.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
Ms Corrigan's observation of Clive Cussler affirmed mine. I have often taken the advice to read authors in my genre. When I read him, he must have already been past his prime. But he does duplicate the JD Robb experience. Once you breakthrough, readers will read you.
P.P.S.
Ms Corrigan also confirmed why I remain a bachelor. Though I consider myself a rock 'em/sock 'em kind of guy, I never felt it my destiny (fate?) to take out the garbage.
April 7, 2017
The Problematic Middle
We authors have no shortage of advice on making sure our stories open with strong, action-packed starts and end by tying up loose ends with definitive resolution. But what about that long, wandering middle?
This week found me rummaging through my hard drive for a note filed-somewhere-on the ancient city of Ephesus, needed for my current project, Seraphim. I came across a folder of creative fiction links and advice used as I sat to write my first novel.
Since that time, the world of writing/publishing/marketing has made me wary of 'experts' and much of it, experience has reduced to drivel. But a few items caught my attention. So if you're having trouble filling the story's middle with prose that will hold attention and add richness and texture, here are three tips that might help. The first comes courtesy of Ian Briggs, another British blogger to the rescue. I took the liberty to amend and extend his example.
The Five Why's
So you're merrily writing along, adding one or two chapters a week, then, bonk. You know where you want to go but become stuck on how to get there and not stretch credulity by dropping a miracle from heaven.
Let's say a dastardly wife needs to shop without her husband finding out. Time for the first 'why'.
Because their finances can't justify another pair of shoes to fill the last remaining spot in her closet. Why? She has a taste for shoes made from the very expensive underbelly of Australian, two-year old, salt-water crocodiles. Why? She once, on an Australian holiday, seduced a young man whose left arm an Australian, two-year old, salt-water crocodile had made a stump. Why? Because their passionate love-making always ended with him fondling and suckling her feet and toes. Something her husband rarely does. Why? Because he's protective of the extra income her foot model moonlighting brings in.
Note that each response to why opens rich avenues for exploration and character development, not to mention interesting backstory an imaginative writer can use to good advantage in shaping a page-turning middle. As an aside, did my example stretch credulity?
The True Antagonist
This one I had forgotten about and would have caused a restructuring to one novel I wrote had I remembered it.
We always default to conceptualizing our plots in terms of a single protagonist and a single antagonist. I have difficulty imagining a story with multiple protagonists, though I don't rule it out, but enter the True Antagonist.
Often stories open with a shocking crime or event that spurs an intrepid hero to action. He or she hunts down the perpetrator and delivers soul-satisfying justice. Then the same shocking crime or event occurs again. The first antagonist did commit the crime but on orders from someone higher up.
As you can see, the prospect of a successive line of antagonists creates wonderful opportunities for unpredictable twists and turns. Equally important, the setup and backstory needed for each makes for a middle that won't lose its punch or interest.
Betrayal
At first blush, this might seem a time-honored technique, and it is, but nothing adds drama and tension like betrayal. The appearance of a betrayer should always be a surprise and/or shock that demands proper setup. My take on it, however, is one of timing.
An alternative is the traitor who appears, only to the reader, as early as possible. It won't dilute the shock value and the opportunities for rich, delicious dialogue with the protagonist, and indeed all other characters, make for a middle that recalls the cliche, edge-of-your-seat writing.
If coupled to the True Antagonist technique, the betrayer can now become the instigator who places the protagonist on the trail of expendable underlings. It turns the concept of twists and turns on its head as the reader knows what's going on but it's the protagonist experiencing them. As a writer, the deep vein of protagonist despicableness opened can make for a fat middle that will have the reader cheering at the denouement.
Finally, though I do not consider Mr. Briggs on a par with Emma Darwin or Caro Clarke, he does have many insights on writing that some may find useful.
Writers Relief
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
I consider myself a suspense writer of mixed genre novels. Literary agents think that makes me confused.
The other day I came across a quote Fantasy writers might enjoy. "Never let reality get in the way of a good story".
I've yet to write a Fantasy novel but I did write about an urbane, sophisticated gentleman who has to deal with also being a werewolf. Deciding whether it's Horror or Supernatural confuses me. Maybe the agents have a point.
This week found me rummaging through my hard drive for a note filed-somewhere-on the ancient city of Ephesus, needed for my current project, Seraphim. I came across a folder of creative fiction links and advice used as I sat to write my first novel.
Since that time, the world of writing/publishing/marketing has made me wary of 'experts' and much of it, experience has reduced to drivel. But a few items caught my attention. So if you're having trouble filling the story's middle with prose that will hold attention and add richness and texture, here are three tips that might help. The first comes courtesy of Ian Briggs, another British blogger to the rescue. I took the liberty to amend and extend his example.
The Five Why's
So you're merrily writing along, adding one or two chapters a week, then, bonk. You know where you want to go but become stuck on how to get there and not stretch credulity by dropping a miracle from heaven.
Let's say a dastardly wife needs to shop without her husband finding out. Time for the first 'why'.
Because their finances can't justify another pair of shoes to fill the last remaining spot in her closet. Why? She has a taste for shoes made from the very expensive underbelly of Australian, two-year old, salt-water crocodiles. Why? She once, on an Australian holiday, seduced a young man whose left arm an Australian, two-year old, salt-water crocodile had made a stump. Why? Because their passionate love-making always ended with him fondling and suckling her feet and toes. Something her husband rarely does. Why? Because he's protective of the extra income her foot model moonlighting brings in.
Note that each response to why opens rich avenues for exploration and character development, not to mention interesting backstory an imaginative writer can use to good advantage in shaping a page-turning middle. As an aside, did my example stretch credulity?
The True Antagonist
This one I had forgotten about and would have caused a restructuring to one novel I wrote had I remembered it.
We always default to conceptualizing our plots in terms of a single protagonist and a single antagonist. I have difficulty imagining a story with multiple protagonists, though I don't rule it out, but enter the True Antagonist.
Often stories open with a shocking crime or event that spurs an intrepid hero to action. He or she hunts down the perpetrator and delivers soul-satisfying justice. Then the same shocking crime or event occurs again. The first antagonist did commit the crime but on orders from someone higher up.
As you can see, the prospect of a successive line of antagonists creates wonderful opportunities for unpredictable twists and turns. Equally important, the setup and backstory needed for each makes for a middle that won't lose its punch or interest.
Betrayal
At first blush, this might seem a time-honored technique, and it is, but nothing adds drama and tension like betrayal. The appearance of a betrayer should always be a surprise and/or shock that demands proper setup. My take on it, however, is one of timing.
An alternative is the traitor who appears, only to the reader, as early as possible. It won't dilute the shock value and the opportunities for rich, delicious dialogue with the protagonist, and indeed all other characters, make for a middle that recalls the cliche, edge-of-your-seat writing.
If coupled to the True Antagonist technique, the betrayer can now become the instigator who places the protagonist on the trail of expendable underlings. It turns the concept of twists and turns on its head as the reader knows what's going on but it's the protagonist experiencing them. As a writer, the deep vein of protagonist despicableness opened can make for a fat middle that will have the reader cheering at the denouement.
Finally, though I do not consider Mr. Briggs on a par with Emma Darwin or Caro Clarke, he does have many insights on writing that some may find useful.
Writers Relief
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S.
I consider myself a suspense writer of mixed genre novels. Literary agents think that makes me confused.
The other day I came across a quote Fantasy writers might enjoy. "Never let reality get in the way of a good story".
I've yet to write a Fantasy novel but I did write about an urbane, sophisticated gentleman who has to deal with also being a werewolf. Deciding whether it's Horror or Supernatural confuses me. Maybe the agents have a point.
