Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 189

“Birdbath”: Particles of Speech

Actor/Director Lila French speaking at the Prytania during the New Orleans Film Festival

Film Festivals should offer Lila French’s lovely adaption of “Birdbath” as a primer to filmmaking tyros.   “Birdbath” reminds me of a fine pen sketch by Sidney Paget or Edward Gorey.  You see the finished work and surprise yourself by realizing how few strokes went into such a deft creation.  It’s a short movie containing nothing but conversation enlivened with acting.  When the actors, director, DP, and rest of the crew are excellent, the result is better than most anything around. 

Ah, no, “Skook” had no business winning anything at NOFF.  “Birdbath” was, like, way better, Dude.  Fer sure! 


  At the time I caught the second screening of “Birdbath” at the New Orleans Film Festival, slacker films had swamped me.  Hours of flat characters with nothing to say to each other just drains the creative impulse.  I couldn’t think to review.  After seeing “Birdbath”, it occurred to me how crucial good dialogue is in any film.  Unfortunately, independent films shall remain saturated with too-cool losers who smoke, smoke weed, slouch, and detach themselves from everything, including those foolish enough to sit and watch all this.  

My next essay, “Speech Impediments”, will break that detachment with an overdue violent assault.  Now let’s focus on how Lila French uses dialogue to craft an excellent short film.

Craft shall be our operative word.  All dialogue is crafted conversation.  Remember that poetry and drama come from the same source: men (sorry ladies – but it’s true) standing alone reciting stories and histories in verse.  The dialogue in drama only became prose after the Restoration, after a period when Cromwell had banned plays and broken traditions.  While they work very differently, movies remain tied to plays in this regard.  You need poise and purpose in the fabric of every character’s speech, Bill and Ted included.   



In “Birdbath” we have the simplest of set-ups: two employees of a diner walk towards home after closing.  Unlike a play written by the horrid Neil Simon, we have conversation rather than one-liners.  Our characters are more realistic, but there’s a certain style in their speaking.  Some of this is time-sensitive.  Leonard Melfi wrote “Birdbath” in 1965, near the beginning of his career.  Some of this is conventional playwriting.  For those of us who have spent hundreds of hours watching drama, there’s an “Oh, Thank God!” sensation when we realize that there will be no “up-talk” cadence (say, “Dude, Totally!” to understand what I mean), and in fact we’ll spend time with serious people.  We hear the dialect of the footlights.

That dialect insists on backstory and scene setting in the early conversation.  Slacker films eschew this.  Those scripts need little mysteries to keep us from falling asleep.  The traditional pattern does require skill to keep the characters moving.  Here Melfi may have erred: Ms. French told me in an interview that she found things she could remove from the dialogue and incorporate into her acting.  A one-act should be all lean and no fat to cut.  Unlike Shakespeare, Melfi doesn’t trust his actors quite enough not to overegg his aural pudding.  Ms. French was quite right removing whatever passages she did.  “Birdbath” never lags . . . or, shall we say, slackens.

Velma Sparrow and her coworker Frankie, a better drinker than poet (a Melfi staple), are young people from the bottom of the social world.  In a play by a European or someone like Clifford Odets, we’d hear more about the societal injustices pushing these people downward.  Melfi worked more internally.  He deflected answers about his work using the term “encounter”, something of a marketing plug for two of his compilations.  The slant away from the external creates a more timeless intimacy, perhaps why this has been his most performed play.

What we see are actually two conversations: surface communication, often involving small talk or minor self-revelation, and the deeper conversation as a man and woman size each other up for a potential sexual liaison.  If you count the internal dialogue each actor skillfully displays, then we technically have four conversations going.  Instead of slacker detachment, we see the effort to sincerely bond and connect through the static.  Melfi’s later failures may have something to do with his continuing interest in sincerity and emotional exposure.  The post-70s world didn’t take kindly to such interest, a world following Nixon into covering-up.

Here Melfi gives his two actors a dynamic movement to build their performances around.  As gifted a director as she is an actor, Ms. French actually trusts us to watch carefully to see it all.    As Velma, she hesitates, obfuscates, and surrenders, only to reconsider.  Frankie stays interested, and goes from anticipation to frustration to resignation to acceptance.  Real traps exist for both actors: this could have easily been bad Tennessee Williams-lite (see: Jasmine, Blue). Ms. French and Chad McKnight create an illusion of genuinely repressed pain slowly revealed.  There are real chasms separating being on screen, acting, acting with finesse, and Al Pacino-scenery-gobbling.  Our two actors here work with finesse and in harmony with the rest of the production.  For a small, quiet movie, we have a lot going on if we know where to look.

The direction and shot selection really help point this out.  As opposed to European circles, where societal emphasis requires wider shots (Socialism poo-poos beauty shots), “Birdbath” focuses on the person.  We get a lot of close-ups. The historical setting is shown in small personal objects, like Frankie’s typewriter.  As the two characters become better acquainted, the shots change from lots of clean singles to “dirty singles” where the other character is in frame, but out of focus.  As “Birdbath” moves to denouement, you begin to really see the true beauty in each person.  Ms. French, the director, gives Ms. French, the actor, along with Mr. McKnight nowhere to hide.

As social apes, we respond to emotional intensity in others.  Again, the finesse comes into the play: we see emotion but not anger, which pushes the audience away.  As Velma dithers, the camera closes in.  We see her very blue eyes dart around trying to figure out what to do.  It’s a series of beautiful frames showing a character who is beautiful but clearly can’t relate to that concept.  She wants to be wanted, but finding herself wanted, finds herself frightened.  It’s a sequence someone should show to Olivia Wilde or Kate Beckinsale.  I’ve seen both sitting at tables in films talking and looking beautiful (Ms. Wilde shot just so in the awful “Rush”) but not having the scope to do this.  It’s the type of moment Cate Blanchett strived for just recently, but Woody got in her way (or whatever happened).  Mr. McKnight is a worthy counterbalance, matching Ms. French quite harmoniously.  It’s rare enough to really appreciate (see Jasmine, Blue. supra).

Proper dialogue gives actors a chance to build their characters.  Recall Shakespeare, an actor, offers his brethren almost solely dialogue. Actors need to trust that they can just flow out and the strength of the words will keep them from falling.  You can’t act if the dialogue makes you look ridiculous, no matter how great an actor you are (see the recent filmography of Hopkins, Sir Anthony).  But when the words on the page ring and sing, actors can find their personas in the smallest speech patterns or idiosyncrasies.  They sense little particles of movement (here hidden in  Melfi’s words) to add their voices to, which along with Lila French’s direction and the help of a talented crew have made 47 minutes of work worth seeing.


Reposted from Raymon on Film and Photography

Join Ken Atchity at the SoCal Writers Association, February 15 2014

“Pros & Cons of Direct vs, Legacy Publishing”
With more than forty years experience in the publishing world, and twenty years in entertainment, Dr. Ken Atchity is a self-defined “story merchant” – writer, producer, career coach, teacher, and literary manager, responsible for launching dozens of books and films. His life’s passion is finding great storytellers and turning them into bestselling authors and screenwriters.

Cost for the speaker and lunch:
$25 for SCWA Members who’ve paid their $30 annual dues and rsvp by February 12th.$30 for SCWA Members who’ve paid their $30 annual dues and don’t rsvp by February 12th, or for non-members who rsvp by February 12th.$35 for non-members who don’t rsvp by February 12th.For more information and registration information, go to the SCWA website.

Story Merchant Book's Robin John Grant's Summer's Winter Breaks into a top 100 list on Amazon!

   Summer's Winter surrounded by James Patterson and Agatha Christie books!

JANUARY BESTSELLERS

AVAILABLE AT STORY MERCHANT BOOKS

Guest Post: Ten Ways to Use Breaking News to Buzz Your Book, Product or Business

by  Penny C. Sansevieri
Author Marketing Experts 

In an age of the 24-hour news cycle, there is always breaking news. Hot headlines right now include the upcoming Sochi Olympic Games and the nearby terrorism in Russia, the polar vortex wreaking havoc over a good part of the U.S., the Target security breach (which continues to have long-term ramifications), the sudden death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, and of course the perennial favorite, pop-culture stuff like anything Kardashian.

But what can you do if you've got something to say about a breaking news story? You must take action. First, join the conversation if the issue is on your topic or within your area of expertise. You'll find discussion on social media, considerable television coverage and plenty of cable talk show debates. Here's how you can make sure you've got everything prepared when that big story breaks:

Publish a blog post: Your blog is the perfect place to offer your opinion on the subject or offer a solution. Think of your blog as your home base - make sure your opinion and expertise are front and center for anyone who visits your site, and this includes the media. Your blog post could be great background material if you're interviewed.Get on Twitter: If there's breaking news, you're going to find it on Twitter. Search for the hashtag (or hashtags) used for the topic (check trending topics on Twitter before you search) and jump right in. You can even offer a link to your blog post as part of the conversation. It's a great way to showcase your expertise and drive people - including the media - to your site. Remember that the media is on Twitter and they just might find you! Join the discussion on social media: Once you have identified the proper hashtag(s) for your topic, do a search on social media sites. Google Plus is a good one because the search function is pretty easy there. Search and comment/participate in the discussion. This will help you gain more visibility, too. Add your comments to other blogs: Whether you have a blog or not, you can also join the discussion on other, high-traffic blogs. Share your viewpoint. You just never know, your blog post could get picked up, and you also may send more traffic to your site. Make your blog post viral: After you blog about the topic be sure to share your blog post link on all of your social networks. To make sure it's seen, add the hashtag(s) associated with the issue to ensure that people following that topic can find your post. Contact your local media: Local media loves having a local angle to a national story. For example, can you offer tips for travelers afraid to attend the Winter Olympics, or offer strategies for consumers to protect themselves from identity theft? That kind of expertise is in great demand when big stories break and the media scramble for sources to interview. Pitch national media: Can you offer a unique spin on a national story? If so, don't hesitate to start pitching. Just understand that it's competitive out there so you'll need to offer a new angle along with a captivating subject line to make your pitch stand out. Subscribe to HARO, http://www.helpareporter.com/: HARO is a free e-newsletter full of leads from media seeking sources. When there's an important story, there will be a media person on HARO searching for an expert to quote. Think long-term: People love predictions so the more you can focus long-term on the issues, the better. How will this topic affect us or your target market a month or a year down the road? This could be another interesting spin on an existing story.Sign up for media alerts: Add your keywords to Talkwalker.com or Mention.net so you know who's saying what about your topic. This is also a good way to see who covers your topic so you can get to know them. Then, when there's breaking news, you'll already know who to contact, and better yet, they'll know you. Now you know how those "experts" show up in the media. It's about identifying your expertise, developing talking points, and being ready to get yourself out there when there's a big news story. The next time you see a hot news story, start pitching. You just might be the go-to source everyone quotes for that story!

Follow Penny C. Sansevieri on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bookgal


Reposted from Huffington Post 

Lila French's "Birdbath" NOFF in Review

Back in October, Lila French's "Birdbath" had its festival debut at the NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL . The film screened twice (at notable venues  The CAC nd The Prytania ), and each screening had a full, energetic audience who responded positively to the film. There was laughter during the screenings and great questions after.

Myth in Fiction Intertwined: How One Author Wove His Tape...

Myth in Fiction Intertwined: How One Author Wove His Tapestry by Birgitte Rasine 

In my holiday post, I discussed the power of myth in storytelling. Today, I’m taking you with me to see how it’s done in a published novel.


Roman Pantheon, photo by Birgitte Rasine
I recently spoke with Dr. Kenneth Atchity, the author of The Messiah Matrix . Classical scholar and Yale-educated professor of literature and classics as well as film producer, publisher, book reviewer, and literary agent, Dr. Atchity wears many hats—yet none perhaps as enthralling as that of author.

Birgitte Rasine: What was the initial inspiration for “The Messiah Matrix”?

Ken Atchity: I’d been thinking about the subject matter for a long time—since high school, when my Jesuit teacher drew a parallel between the two JC’s, Jesus Christ and Julius Caesar. Both were said to walk on water, both performed miracles, both gave their lives for their people. So over the years it kept me thinking. Then I met a woman doing research on the topic, and eventually we came to the conclusion I need to write a novel.

BR: What made you decide to write a novel as opposed to a book of non fiction?

KA: The more I researched, the more I realized this story really needs to be told. If I’d written a non fiction book, 56 people would read it during my lifetime. With fiction, thousands of people have read it and hundreds have submitted reader reviews—and hopefully that’s just the beginning.

BR: How long did it take to write, and how many drafts did you go through?

KA: It took a year to write the first draft. I revised, restructured, and reshaped for two years, and polished the writing and checked the research for another year. All told the book took about four years. I wrote at least 40 drafts of this book. The last 20 were either cutting research or figuring out how to dramatize it. My favorite chapter is “Birth of a God,” a spectacle that Augustus stages for the people to make his divinity real to them. I couldn’t imagine this Emperor not staging a show like this.

BR: How much research did you do and how did you go about it?

KA: It took many years of research. During that time, I came across a remarkable book published in 1898, “The Worship of Augustus Caesar,” written by Alexander Del Mar, a former postmaster general who happened to be a numismatist. He’d studied the coins minted during the reign of Augustus and showed how every element of Roman Catholic worship can be traced to Augustus: the title of Pontifex Maximums, the tiara the Pope wears, his titles “Savior,” “Messiah,” “Anointed One,” “Awaited One,” “Prince of Peace,” “King of Kings,” even the golden flail he carried to signify he was a good shepherd of his people.

The more I looked into it, the more I saw this was a remarkable historical explanation for the various symbols of the Catholic faith—that made more sense to me than the unproven stories of a “real Jesus” walking barefoot around Palestine. In fact, I went to the catacombs of Rome to see for myself. The symbols of early Christianity can be traced back to Roman origins. The image of Mary with the serpent at her feet, for example, goes back to Bona Dea, the “good goddess,” the first Roman goddess of abundance and birth. It was Augustus who had the depictions of Bona Dea redone with the likeness of his own mother, Maia. That’s how the iconography related with Mary started.

What Augustus did was both ingenious and profound. He rewrote the history of his time and resculpted myth in his image. He commissioned Virgil to write the Aeneid; he had the Sibylline books edited; he had the scribes from the various nations that formed a part of the Roman Empire rewrite the historical texts, inserting predictions of his coming, predictions of a golden age and a golden child, the lion lying down with the lamb. His coins were struck with the inscription, “God and Son of God.”

Why? It goes back to myth. Augustus knew the way to leave a lasting impression on the world is to create a new myth, or associate with an old one—in his case, that of the redeemer-god who gives his life for his people (following Dionysus, Osiris, and many others). The Romans had confusing and fragmented myths, so he streamlined and unify them. He was a brilliant emperor who copied the cultural icons and concepts of his own time and sought to turn them into a global religion. The Roman Empire never ended; it’s alive today in the Roman Catholic Church, headquartered in Vatican City in the heart of Rome, where even the ATM screens are in Latin.


BR: How did you handle this rather extraordinary proposition in your novel?
KA: I created a character who was skeptical about Catholicism like I was. Ryan McKeown is a young Jesuit who doesn’t understand why there are no provable contemporary references to Jesus Christ. His counter character, archaeologist Emily Scelba, discovers a legendary gold coin that becomes the “smoking gun” to the theory they discover about Christianity’s imperial origins.

BR: What was the most challenging aspect of writing a thriller like this?

KA: Dramatizing the research and trying to make it believable and not totally expository. You’re dealing with a lot of ancient history, and you have to find ways other than expository dialogue to make it come alive. For example, the cave at Cumae, which actually exists, I described it in the context of the narrative, not necessarily exactly the way it is.

BR: What are the key differences between a typical historical fiction novel and a thriller that incorporates mythology?

KA: Some authors write historical thrillers—they only deal with history, not myth. I was dealing with how a myth is constructed. The basic structure of a myth is always the same, but the narrative elements vary. Even Dan Brown doesn’t deal with myth, he deals with artifacts and history.
A myth makes you think on a different level. Being conscious of storytelling is different than telling a story. Myth is about the power of storytelling. That’s the difference.

BR: What aspect of “The Messiah Matrix” has resonated most with your readers, and what aspect were they most critical of?

KA: I think every Catholic who is serious intellectually [about their faith] has had doubts about whether Jesus really lived or not. Writers always write for their ideal reader, not for “everyone.” So when your readers respond to your own doubts, you know you’ve reached them.
As far as criticism is concerned, some readers thought there was too much historical material to digest, but then many thought there should be more.

BR: Share your thoughts about the role myth plays in contemporary literature.

KA: Myth is in our DNA, and it’s at the heart of every piece of literature. What do writers do when they’re at a loss for a story? They consult myth. A writer should always ask, “what’s the myth beneath my story?” If something doesn’t feel right, then the myth has been betrayed or the storyteller wasn’t aware of the myth within the story. Fiction without myth is never going to be satisfying.

BR: What would your advice be to writers tackling myth in fiction for the first time?
 
KA: Read a book of mythology. Learn what the myths are. Get a dictionary of mythology. For example, “The Greek Myths” by Robert Graves, “Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend,” or “The Masks of God” series by Joseph Campbell.


Reposted from The Write Practice

Turning Writers into Filmmakers

Between The Pages Book Review - FOSSIL RIVER by Jock Miller

Book Title: Fossil River
Author: Jock Miller
Buy Now Link: 
Genre: SciFi-Thriller
Page Length: 298 pages
Book Video:

About The Book:
The perfect energy storm is sweeping over the United States: Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown has paralyzed nuclear expansion globally, BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill has stalled deep water drilling, Arab oil countries are in turmoil causing doubt about access to future oil, the intensity of hurricanes hitting the Gulf’s oil rigs and refineries has intensified due to global warming, and the nation’s Strategic Oil Supply is riding on empty.

As the energy storm intensifies, the nation’s access to Arab oil, once supplying over sixty percent of our fossil fuel, is being threatened causing people to panic for lack of gas at the pumps, stranding cars across the country and inciting riots.

The U.S. Military is forced to cut back air, land, and sea operations sucking up 58% of every barrel of oil to protect the nation; U.S. commercial airlines are forced to limit flights for lack of jet fuel; and businesses are challenged to power up their factories, and offices as the U.S. Department of Energy desperately tries to provide a balance of electric power from the network of aged power plants and transmission lines that power up the nation.The United States must find new sources of domestic fossil fuel urgently or face an energy crisis that will plunge the nation into a deep depression worse than 1929.

The energy storm is very real and happening this very moment. But, at the last moment of desperation, the United States discovers the world’s largest fossil fuel deposit found in a remote inaccessible mountain range within Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve surrounding six and a half million acres.Preventing access to the oil is a colony of living fossil dinosaurs that will protect its territory to the death.

Nobody gets out alive; nobody can identify the predator--until Dr. Kimberly Fulton, Curator of Paleontology at New York’s Museum of Natural History, is flown into the inaccessible area by Scott Chandler, the Marine veteran helicopter pilot who’s the Park’s Manager of Wildlife. All hell breaks loose when Fulton’s teenage son and his girlfriend vanish into the Park.

Will the nation’s military be paralyzed for lack of mobility fuel, and will people across America run out of gas and be stranded, or will the U.S. Military succeed in penetrating this remote mountain range in northwestern Alaska to restore fossil fuel supplies in time to save the nation from the worst energy driven catastrophe in recorded history?
Lynda's Review:

~"They won't charge us, Scott. They're going to watch us first. Feel us out. They'll surround us, alright, but they'll stay at the edge of the clearing, waiting studying us. I know their habits, especially hunting and tracking."~ Page 164
I'm always ready to suspend reality in favor of a good story, especially one that keeps me on the razor-edge of terror. This is a science fiction/adventure story. I'm sure not all the science premise is bulletproof, but then, If I wanted science facts, I'd take a college course. There was just enough plausibility to tickle my curiosity and that's all it took to keep me reading. Nothing in this story went according to good reason but that actually made the suspense part better for me. The crazy characters didn't act or react in the most logical way, and well, aren't people somewhat like that in real life? 

Reposted from Between The Pages 

Genre versus Author Platform? Which Matters More?

by C.S. Lakin (@CSLakin)

When my friend and colleague Susanna Lakin told me about her experiment in trying to find out exactly how important an author platform is for genre novelists, I was fascinated. Now, she’s written up the story of what she did, and what she’s found out. This is crucial reading for any novelists who are having trouble getting traction with their sales. Susanna, who has written more than a dozen critically-acclaimed novels, was the ideal person to run this “experiment” and I think you’ll be as fascinated as I by her results. Here’s her report.

Is it enough for an author to write a terrific book, then market it wisely, devoting a lot of energy and time to building an author platform? Will that ensure great sales? Most authors have precious little time to spend on building their platforms, yet most experts in publishing will agree that author platform is crucial.

But how crucial? Even if an author spends hours a week trying to get known—via social networking, blogging, listing their books on paid and free promotions, joining in on forums, offering sales—often all that effort shows little return in the way of sales, new readers, and buzz. A million writers are vying for attention, and many are putting out similar effort to build their author platform.

Authors can certainly benefit from engaging in all of the above activities; surely those efforts must help to some degree to get their name “out there” and be recognized. The aim of most authors is to get discovered, and to have name recognition (along with a great reputation for being a solid writer).
We’ve heard how crucial it is, particularly for nonfiction writers, to build that platform, which is so much easier than trying to build a platform for fiction. However, fiction writers are highly encouraged to do similarly using many of the same methods as nonfiction writers, such as blogging on timely topics that can tie in with their novel’s themes or setting.

Where Does Genre Fit In?
Without going into the strategies and methods for either fiction or nonfiction platform-building, I’d like to take a step back and ask this question:

How much does genre [for the novelists] have a bearing on success?

This is a question I did not want to ask myself, but after writing more than a dozen novels in various genres and spending years trying to market them, promote them, grow sales and readers, I kept coming back to this question.

Why? Because although my books were getting terrific reviews and winning awards, they were not strict genre novels—in fact many of my books are a bit experimental and can’t be easily categorized. My books just weren’t selling much.

With indie publishing, authors like me have been able to publish our “unusual” or “different” novels and find readers. But after I’d put out five novels as ebooks (and some also in print), and did extensive marketing and promotion (spending an outrageous amount of money on publicity, for example)—following to the letter all the sage advice I’d garnered on how to sell for success, nothing worked. My author friends were making easily five figures each month, often off one title, or they would release a book and it would hit the best-seller lists off the bat.

Maybe It’s Just Luck
I thought they were just luckier than me. I thought perhaps they were doing something special with their marketing and author platform that I wasn’t. But when I interviewed them all, I found out the truth. They were not. Many had little author platform. Some (yikes!) had none. I mean—no website, no social media, no previous novels out, no name, nada. Huh?

What I did see was that these hugely successful authors were writing to a specific genre, and often a niche genre. What do I mean by that? I mean a subgenre that has a particular readership—one that is very large and one that has few (compared to other main genres) books available for sale. What I was seeing was a manifestation of the old economics “supply and demand” rule.

But could that really be true? Could an unknown author write a novel with no author platform for one of these subgenres and sell big, with no additional effort other than putting her book up on Amazon, carefully using the same kind of description, cover, etc.?

I was dying to find out.


My Genre Experiment
So, here’s what I did, in a nutshell (I plan to write an entire ebook soon on this experiment/method called From Idea to Selling in Three Months, so others writers can do this too!):
I picked the subgenre I was told “sells itself” without any author platform.I came up with a pen name so I would be an unknown, unpublished author.I chose one novel to deconstruct. [NOTE PLEASE: I did not plagiarize or copy the plot, writing, or tried to mimic this author. I just deconstructed the structure. If you don’t know what that involves, buy my book when it comes out!]After deconstructing the novel, I plotted and constructed mine.I hired the same cover designer to brand my look for my series.While writing the novel, I copied and pasted 30 Amazon descriptions of books in this genre in order to create my own in the same style and fashion. [NOTE: This was a genre I had never even read, so had no clue how this differed from the genres I already wrote in.]I got a couple of well-known author friends and a reviewer for the Examiner to read in advance and write me reviews/endorsements, so I’d have something to put in the book and on the Amazon page.I did set up tweets (not as my pen name but via my real Twitter account) to get some exposure.I set up a Facebook page for the author, but did nothing to promote it. Even now it has maybe 25 likes. So no big influence there.I hired an assistant to find bloggers and reviewers, but only had three people blog about the novel when it was released. So, essentially, as far as author platform goes, I did almost nothing to build or prepare for this book release. I felt I should do a minimal amount of promoting, just as many of my successful author friends do when releasing a new book. And of course, their subsequent books sell very well too, since they have, inadvertently, build a bit of author platform just from the sales and buzz of the earlier novels released.

My Results
The novel has only been out a month. Within the first two weeks, the book jumped to paid #247 on Amazon, and hit the top ten genre lists: Historicals, Historical Westerns, Western Romance. My genre is Historical Western Romance (and more specifically sweet Western—meaning no sex or heat).

In those two weeks, the book sold more than 1,500 copies at full price ($3.99 US), while all the top twenty on the lists were sale priced. I wanted to start out the gate with the novel regularly priced and not discounted, based on Mark Coker’s research (Smashwords) that $3.99 sells better than any other price. I also wanted to imply “quality” because it is a long, rich, quality book.

My novel has been on the genre lists’ top 100 ever since, selling about 30-50 books a day. Way more than I ever made on any of my other dozen novels. Here’s the interesting thing. I made $3,600 or so in three weeks. I was told by writers of that specific subgenre that they make about $3k a month off each book. Which is what it looks like I’m making. Why? Supply and demand.

One author sold 80,000 copies of her first novel, with no Internet presence, website, or author platform. She still doesn’t have a website, and her books are all selling in the tens of thousands. Is she a terrific writer, better than anyone else out there? No. She writes good books for the genre, as do the others who are selling well.

Genre Isn’t the Only Factor
I can’t emphasize enough that first and foremost an author has to write a terrific book. And it now looks to me that a terrific book in one genre just may sell a whole lot more than a terrific book in another genre. Authors who lament that their “terrific” book (if it indeed is one) is not selling, may need to consider genre. Maybe they might even want to try their own genre experiment.

My novel has been getting mostly 5-star reviews, and what pleases me most is when reviewers say I wrote a book that perfectly reflects the genre. I did my homework and it paid off. The strict genres I’ve noted sell well in addition to romance, romance, and more romance are paranormal, thrillers, and mystery (and YA versions of all those).

I don’t read or particularly like romance, but the RWA (Romance Writers of America) recently noted that 40 percent of ALL ebooks sold are romance. And I actually had a blast writing this novel, with two more in the series slated to come out in 2014. I love Lonesome Dove and always wanted to try my hand at Westerns.


You Don’t Have to “Sell Out” to “Sell Big”
I don’t think writers should “sell out” and write something they don’t want to write just to make money, but hopefully I’ve given you food for thought. I find nothing wrong with writing to a specific audience for the sole reason of selling more books and making some money. It feels nice to pay the bills.

So, does it matter whether you have an author platform or not? I suppose it depends on what genre you want to write in. As my pen name identity grows an author platform, I’m assuming it will help my sales. But it didn’t hurt at all to not have one when I published this novel.


Reposted from The Book Designer