Libby Fischer Hellmann's Blog, page 49

HAVANA LOST Giveaway Starts Tomorrow

Hi, all. Just a reminder that I’ll be giving away 3 ARCs of HAVANA LOST starting Saturday, June 1 at Goodreads. Here’s more info:

 

Goodreads Book Giveaway


HAVANA LOST
by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Giveaway ends June 15, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

Hope you’ll sign up!

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Writing Lite #6: Authentic Characters

 

What happens when your characters act — well — out of character? I explain in this installment of Writing Lite.

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A Goodreads Giveaway is Coming

Just wanted you to know that I’m giving away 3 bound galleys of HAVANA LOST on Goodreads starting June 3 and going through June 6. If you’re interested, here’s more info:

Goodreads Book Giveaway


HAVANA LOST
by Libby Fischer Hellmann

Giveaway ends June 06, 2013.

See the giveaway details

at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 

If you’re not selected, don’t worry. There will be more chances to preview HL soon.

Thanks!

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Writing Lite #5 — Character Backstories

I’m baaack.. with another Writing Lite segment. This time I’m starting a series on character development and how to do it. Today I talk about my favorite technique — writing character backstories. They only have to be a couple of single spaced pages, but they accomplish so much. What do you think?

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Traditional vs Self-Publishing: An Update (Part Two)

COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL VS SELF PUBLISHING


TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING


Pros
Cons


Support

Distribution

Editing

Bookstores

Awards

Reviews

Agents
Ebook Rights and Royalties

 

Reporting and payments

Smaller advance/print runs

Limited time/shelf space

Hinky contracts

Possible Bankrupty

Accounting irregularities

Agents

 

Hi, again.

In part one we tackled the supposed “pros” of support and distribution that I thought were advantages three years ago. Not so much anymore.

Now let’s look at a few others.

Editing

This is a no brainer. There are many excellent free-lance developmental editors out there… some are former agents and/or editors at the Big Six. There are even more copy editors. I consider developmental more important—they can tell you if your writing is credible, authentic and consistent, and I wouldn’t publish a book without someone like that evaluating mine.

 

But copy editors are important too. They’re the ones who studied grammar in school and know the difference between its and it’s. (Do you? It’s one of my pet peeves and I’d wager two out of three people don’t know the difference anymore).

Ah, you can ask, but is that important? Yes… if you’re a detail-oriented person.

But I digress.

A word of caution. A lot of people call themselves editors or book doctors, and charge a lot. Check their references and CV carefully to see exactly what their background is before hiring.

 

Bookstores

There used to be a special relationship between  publishing companies and bookstores. Not because one romanced the other. The relationship was built on co-op and credit. Publishers would pay bookstores to place their books in prominent positions. In their hey-day the chains were getting over $20,000 a week PER title for best-seller placement.

In addition, publishers encourage bookstores to order twice as many books as they think they can sell (which, of course, inflated print runs quite a bit). The catch was that bookstores were allowed to return books they didn’t sell for credit. Kind of a professional form of check kiting. In fact, it’s almost possible to imagine a bookstore surviving on credit alone.

The disruption caused by digital books is changing all that. Not because they’re not returnable—actually most POD books are, contrary to what bookstores will tell you—but because they revealed the holes in the system. What other industries (besides credit card debt and mortgages and Ponzi schemes) survive on credit?

Bottom line, though, when the industry fell upon hard times, and bookstores couldn’t sell even 25% of the books they ordered, publishers demanded their money, and chains like Borders went out of business, and Barnes and Noble and indie bookstores faltered.

Still, and this is the biggest irony, the practice persists.

Awards

There are many literary awards that specifically exclude self-published titles. But there are emerging awards specifically FOR self-published novels, if you’re into that kind of thing. Plus the International Thriller Writers, the most progressive of the crime fiction associations, recognizes self published books along with traditionally published ones. I wonder what MWA is waiting for.

Reviews

The process of garnering reviews is undergoing a sea change. More and more, readers get recommendations from Amazon and Goodreads rather than traditional review sources, if those even exist anymore.  I’ve found most readers to be quite generous in doling out 4 and 5 star reviews (thank you readers), but even the less than spectacular 3 and 2 star reviews can give a reader valuable information.

Sure, there are trolls and sock puppets and just mean-spirited people out there, but over the long term, I don’t think they’ll have as much of an effect as we fear. If you read a review closely, you can tell whether it’s sincere or not. And when even best-selling authors get a few sour lemons on occasion, it tends to lessen my anxiety when I get one.

The growth of “customer reviews” is important in another way. It means people are READING. And commenting on their reads. If you total up the reviews available on Amazon, B&N, Goodreads, and Shelfari, I wager you will find more reviews than ever before. Book clubs are thriving, too. Bottom line, the activity of reading is going through a renaissance, and that is a good thing. No, it’s a great thing.

 Agents

Believe it or not, the “profession” of being an agent is relatively new. They began to appear in the 1940′s. Seventy-five years later, many are reinventing themselves. I’ve had four agents. Which might tell you a little about my ambivalent feelings about agents. Some were terrific. Some not so much.

I get that they know the publishing industry better than me. Or did. But that knowledge of the industry tends to put them in a weird position. Because they depend on the Big Six for their cut, they won’t push a book they know the Big Six won’t buy. Which have persuaded some that agents actually work for the publisher rather than their clients.

Their knowledge of contracts, born from years of negotiating with the Big Six, also make them less willing to fight clauses on which they know publishers won’t budge. I understand that. But then, why do I need an agent in the first place? And should they take 15% of my income for “going along to get along?”  Particularly when authors have other options, namely a contract or intellectual property lawyer.

Don’t get me wrong. I have a lovely relationship now with an agent I highly respect. In fact she was an informal advisor to me when I had issues with previous agents, (and she usually defended the agent.) But she is only representing me in tasks I can’t do for myself, chiefly foreign rights, which she is actively seeking.

But that relationship has to be one of mutual trust. For example, a foreign publisher came to me with a proposal which I promptly turned over to her. I could have made a few more dollars NOT giving it to her, but she’s doing work on my behalf, so I am showing her how much I value that work. At the same time I see that relationship more as a partnership than a traditional agent/author agreement.

However, there is another side to the issue. I’ve touched on it in Part One:  agents who are now “helping” their clients get self-published and taking 15% of the revenues. I don’t see that an agent can add anything that a motivated self-published author can’t do for him/herself.

Another thorny issue involves agents who tie the author to them in perpetuity. Should an agent get lifelong royalties on a relationship that ended years ago? It’s a fair question. And yet agents need to survive too. They see what’s going on in publishing, and some have even shuttered their business. It’s a tumultuous time.  That’s why I put them on both sides of the ledger.

 

OK. That’s enough for now. Our chart now looks like this.

COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL VS SELF PUBLISHING


TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING


Pros
Cons


Support

Distribution

Editing

Bookstores



Awards



Reviews



Agents

Ebook Rights and Royalties

 

Reporting and payments

Smaller advance/print runs

Limited time/shelf space

Hinky contracts

Possible Bankrupty

Accounting irregularities

Agents

 

Oops.

Next week I’ll finish up this opus.

 

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Which Cover?

Here are two cover versions for my upcoming thriller HAVANA LOST. On has pure white type; the other has blood on the word “Lost”…

Which do you like better? I’ll raffle off a PDF to everyone who weighs in… And thanks.

Oh… here’s the jacket copy, if it helps:

On the eve of the Cuban Revolution, headstrong 18-year-old Francesca Pacelli flees from her ruthless Mafia-boss father in Havana to the arms of her lover, a rebel fighting with Fidel Castro. Her father, desperate to send her to safety in the US, resorts to torture and blackmail as he searches the island for her.

 So begins the first part of a spellbinding saga that spans three generations of the same family. Decades later, the family is lured back to Cuba by the promise of untold riches. But pursuing those riches brings danger as well as opportunity, and ultimately, Francesca’s family must confront the lethal consequences of their choices. From the troubled streets of Havana to the mean streets of Chicago, HAVANA LOST reveals the true cost of chasing power instead of love.

 HAVANA LOST is award-winning author Libby Fischer Hellmann’s tenth novel and third thriller that explores how strife and revolution affect the human spirit. HAVANA LOST is a testament to Hellmann’s gift for authentic historical detail as well as her talent for writing compulsively readable thrillers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, what do you think?

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Traditional vs Self-Publishing: An Update (Part One)

This is an update of a presentation and blog I put together three years ago and have revised once since then.

But, as Bob Mayor says, we have cycled through the first three years in digital publishing, and lots of things have changed, so I think it’s time for a new update.

This is going to be long, so I’ll put it up in several parts. Welcome to Part One.

First off, here is part of a comparison chart I created 3 years ago —I’ll use it as a general outline.

COMPARISON OF TRADITIONAL VS SELF PUBLISHING


TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING


Pros
Cons


SupportDistribution

Editing

Bookstores

Awards

Reviews

Agents
Ebook Rights and PricingDelay in reporting and payments

Smaller advance/print runs

Limited time/shelf space

Hinky contracts

Possible Bankrupty

Accounting irregularities

Agents

Publishing today is all about control. Increasingly, authors have it, chiefly those who have chosen to self-publish. But traditional publishing is trying to hold on to as much of it as possible, and it’s had a huge effect over the past three years.

For example. the support I mentioned three years ago, primarily in marketing, has all but disappeared. Authors understand that, with a few exceptions—those being best-selling authors—they are responsible for most of their promotion.

VISIBILITY

More important than support, however, is a new issue: visibility (sometimes called “Discoverability.”) And, with the glut of books on the market, it is the key issue today, for both traditional AND indie authors. How do authors reach readers and get a book in their hands? Traditional publishing is finding the old methods still work, up to a point—again for best-selling authors. But mid-list authors who are traditionally published have to slog through a difficult, time-consuming, social media black hole themselves. Traditional publishing doesn’t offer a lot of support for them. And the problem is that if you don’t make a splash in traditional publishing right out of the gate, you may not have another chance.

Recently, (over the past few months) traditional publishers have been using the same promotion sites that indie authors have used for years. I also see traditional publishers taking the co-op money that once went to the chain stores, and making deals with Amazon and the other e-tailers for pre-orders, online promotions, and discounts on sales. And, of course, because their coffers are deeper than indie authors’, they have a broader reach.

At the same time, though, the number of ARCs being distributed by traditional authors is down, and the number of traditional review sources dwindles daily. And indie authors are becoming more sophisticated at distributing ARCs and seeking reviews. So I think the jury is still out on Visibility/Discoverability. I’ll have more to say about this later.

Like Discoverability, other issues have emerged over the past three years that some feel are not in authors’ best interests. Interestingly, those issues weren’t even on the charts then.

RIGHTS

Bob Mayer (Cool Gus) says he is contacted by bestselling authors all the time. They pick his brain about self-publishing, but they can’t do much more than complain, because their digital rights are tethered to their publishers. Which means that, except for a couple of authors like Hugh Howey and John Locke who did manage to keep their digital rights, most authors are trapped.

It’s a huge issue, and Mayor theorizes it was the motivation behind Scott Turow’s, the Authors Guild President, defense of traditional publishing. And why James Patterson resorted to a full page ad in the New York Times Sunday book review to  “maintain the status quo!”  The “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” tactic. (Btw, make sure to read Kris Rusch’s blog on what Patterson got wrong. Apparently, a lot.)

Curiously, Patterson is essentially his own publisher anyway, and Scott Turow makes good money from his writing. Which makes me wonder what would happen if these two decided they didn’t want to be locked into past and future contracts, especially where their backlists are concerned. They certainly could make a lot of noise.  I‘m waiting.

ADVANCES AND ROYALTIES

We know advances have dropped, some by more than 50%. Part of this is due to belt-tightening by the big publishers. But print runs are down and ebook sales, which are capturing more of the market than ever before, aren’t compensating authors for the downswing.

Another problem, although it’s not a new one, is that ebook royalties are around 25% of the 70% publishers earn from most e-tailers. Smaller publishers (like mine) tend to give their authors a better deal—some actually split the royalties 50-50. But it’s got to be incredibly frustrating for authors whose work is published traditionally to see their self-publishing counterparts getting the entire 70% royalty.

There is an opportunity here, though. Seems to me an astute agent could make a difference by negotiating better a royalty rate for their clients’ ebooks. I hope they do.

DISTRIBUTION

It used to be that traditional publishing had it all over self-publishing when it came to distribution. Ingram, Baker and Taylor, and others made it possible for a book to be widely available in a variety of venues. That’s still the case, except that the pool of venues is shrinking. Borders is gone, B&N is a shadow of what they used to be, and indie bookstores are both closing and seeing a renaissance, depending on their niche.

This isn’t the case online, where everyone is on a level playing field, more or less, although the Big Six are now setting up book curating sites where readers can read or purchase books directly from them. Not to mention the self-publishing companies like Author Solutions, which Penguin gobbled up, and about which David Gaughran has some things to say.

But Jeremy Greenfield, who writes for Digital Book World, just recently conjured up a nightmare scenario that bears repeating.  After taking a tour of Ingram, with all its incredible facilities and equipment, he posed a question: What If Barnes & Noble stores disappeared tomorrow? Would Ingram and similar large publishers still need such high tech facilities to pack and distribute books? What if Books-a-Million went under? Or a few hundred indie bookstores bit the dust?

His point is this: if 5% of bookstore shelf space disappears next year, it will probably affect the bookselling business by around 5%. But if 50% of it goes and companies like Ingram and Baker & Taylor decide it doesn’t make commercial sense to offer the same level of distribution to the remaining 50%, what happens to retail shelf space?

On the bright side, forward-thinking publishers who have migrated to ebooks and digital publishing will be more insulated than those who have not.

Ok, folks. This is already too long… there’s a lot to say! So come back next week when I tackle more pros and cons of traditional publishing.

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Writing Lite #4 — Suspense: Endings

Writing Lite #4 — Suspense: Endings

Hi, everyone.

A new edition of Writing Lite is below. In it I wrap up our discussion of suspense with “The End” — the last sentence(s)

in a chapter. Hope you’ll take a look. It’s only two minutes long.

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Women’s Voices Magazine is Here!

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, FB, and Google+, you know I’ve been talking about a new online magazine that debuts — today!

Starting with the 2012 election, American women have emerged as a new high-target demographic powerbase for media.  But the media’s approach has not necessarily changed much from continuing an emphasis on celebrity, lifestyle and politics that—let’s face it—doesn’t reflect the real life experiences of most American women.  

Women’s Voices Magazine is a new digital monthly magazine that hopes to change all that.  WVM features 40+ female columnists (including me) on topics ranging from home and family to politics and economy to the many aspects of a woman’s life that shape and inspire their voices.

The woman who put this all together is Brenda Krueger Huffman, our Executive Editor, who says, “The WVM vision is to showcase the voices of women including those not normal­ly heard in a women’s magazine.  The idea is to present content that is “Insightful … Informative … Inspirational … Inclusive.”

To that end, I’m writing a column called “Backstories” –  because everyone loves a story. I’ll take a look at  the power of stories and how they affect us individually, jointly, and as a society.  I’ll focus on books and films that bring enjoyment to a women’s life.  Some will be stories you might have come across recently; some will be classics from years ago that are still relevant.

The first issue is here. I really hope you’ll join me and the 40 other accomplished women who are forging new territory with this magazine. At $17.99 for an annual subscription, it is affordable for everyone. Visit our website at http://www.womensvoicesmagazine.com and check us out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Btw, every month there are questions that anyone can respond to, assuming you have a subscription (which is less than $2.00 per month). June’s are already up, and I’d love to know what’s on your mind. And even if you don’t get a subscription, I’d love you to tell me about the stories that have shaped your life.

I’m excited about my new adventure, and I hope you’ll consider a subscription. Thanks!

 

 

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Einstein in the pool

While my daughter and I were in Lake Geneva at a spa last weekend, Einstein was at his spa at the kennel. Here he is enjoying a dip in the pool.

Before you start, we have an excuse… he’s 10 years old and he has pretty bad arthritis. 

Really.

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