The other day I received a ping on Facebook chat from one of my FB friends who wanted to ask me about how to go about getting published.
It is a common starting point question for those who have begun the process of writing a book. What do I do after I finish writing?
Well, before you finish your first draft, I recommend that you begin thinking of yourself as a writer. Start using that term when you refer to yourself. It is a psychological shift, but one you need to make in order to take yourself seriously as a writer.
You also need to work on your craft. That means you must write all the time. You must also read all the time.
Discover what you enjoy reading, and then write the kind of book that you would like to read.
Analyze your favorite books. Tear them apart. Dissect them. Take copious notes. Discover the plot points, the subplots, the plot twists. Think about the characterizations and settings. Could the story be set in another place and time? If so, how would it have changed the story?
Here are a few books on craft that will be thought provoking and help improve your storytelling ability:
Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass
Make a Scene by Jordan Rosenfeld
Here is another book that I adore for understanding drama:
Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part by Michael Shurtleff
Beyond working on your craft, you also need to start educating yourself about the business of publishing. I recommend that you subscribe to two different daily electronic newsletters.
Publishers Lunch and Publishers Weekly Daily
You should also read industry blogs. If you do not have a reader to help manage blog subscriptions, please remedy that today. I use Google Reader and I have far too many blogs to comfortably follow, but I do scan them. If you don't have a Google account, please get one. It's free and easy to obtain.
Here is one agent's blog that I think is helpful: Kristen Nelson.
Start there, check out her blogroll. Try a few others, subscribe to ones you like. Scour more blogrolls. Rinse, repeat.
You must also find a support network. Try and find a writers club near you. Check your Sunday newspaper to see if there are any listings for meetings in their author signings area. Look in the advertisements in your papers for meetings. Perhaps you have a writers club that meets that you've never heard of before.
Then again, maybe you'll have to dig a little deeper to find a writing community in your area.
You can also try and utilize a cyber community of writers. Absolute Writer Water Cooler is a great place to start.
Getting feedback from fellow writers is essential. Finding a good fit critique group is important in improving your writing skills. It is helpful to not only hearing from others about what works and what doesn't work in your drafts, but by reviewing others' work you begin to develop stronger editing muscles by identifying strengths and flaws in someone else's writing.
I feel it is more important to find someone you have good chemistry with in your critique group than it is to find a group of same genre writers.
Now onto a word of caution: there are many who will try and take advantage of writers. Please do not click on any links for "Publish your novel here" that you might see. It is doubtful that you will be happy with the result.
You should check out a website called Preditors and Editors and familiarize yourself with the various scams that are done to unsuspecting writers.
A companion blog that is entitled: Writer Beware Blogs!
Another tip is to find a good adhesive to secure your backside to your desk chair or as some of my friends call it: Butt Glue.
Any other suggestions from my writing friends for those just starting out?
http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2012/05/advice-for-newbie-writers.html
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Quest of the Warrior Maid is now an ebook
My blog followers are a diverse group. There are writers, medievalists, lovers of France, while others like my essays on Harry Potter or other musings. I hope that there is a cross section of interest by my readers in epic historic fantasy set in the Middle Ages.
The many blog posts I wrote about France was a result of the research trip I took to see the lands of my story. Now you can see the fruits of my labor.
Book Description:
Quest of the Warrior Maid brings the legends of Charlemagne to life with a retelling of the classic love story of Bradamante and Ruggiero.
A love foretold between sworn enemies will determine the fate of Christendom.
Bradamante, the niece of Charlemagne, and Ruggiero, a Saracen knight descended from Hector of Troy, are renowned warriors who meet and fall in love on a battlefield before being separated.
The tale of impossible love between Bradamante and Ruggiero is set against the backdrop of a holy war between Islamic and Christian armies shown in bloody sieges in Marseille and Paris. Other legendary heroes such as Orlando and Renaud de Montauban are featured in this retelling of a classic tale of chivalry, betrayal, revenge and magic.
Advance praise for Quest of the Warrior Maid:
“All great legends, whether of Britain's King Arthur, Greece's Trojan War or Europe's Charlemagne cycle contain stories of minor characters begging to be elaborated on. In Quest of the Warrior Maid Linda McCabe has picked up the lesser known tale of Ruggiero and Bradamante, this last being the warrior maid of the title. Classic in its theme of young, idealistic lovers from opposing camps, it sheds a bright light on the culture, history and legends of a time and place too little explored by most western readers.” – Persia Woolley, author of the acclaimed Guinevere series
“McCabe paints a vivid portrait of Medieval France whose vestiges can still be found in the streets of modern Paris.” – Cara Black, author of the Aimée Leduc mystery series and Murder in Passy
“A grand and engaging re-telling of the original ‘star crossed lovers’ epic with everything Orlando – chivalry, romance, fights to the death, hippogriffs, madness, and beauty! As engaging a story as I have read this year, I couldn’t put it down and I urge you to pick it up today.” – John Granger, author of Unlocking Harry Potter
“In many ways Quest of the Warrior Maid is a distant mirror of our present day passions: both political and personal.” – Rob Loughran, author of Tantric Zoo
“I read the story in one sitting and was devastated to find out what I had in my hands was only volume one! I look forward to volume two.” – Ibrahim Al-Marashi, professor of History at IE University in Spain
“This is an original approach to the story of Bradamante and Ruggiero. Historically accurate, with a clever sense of plot and with an incredible set of characters. Once you start you simply can’t stop!” – José Lúcio, professor of Economic Development at New University of Lisbon-Portugal
Quest of the Warrior Maid is volume one in the Bradamante and Ruggiero series and is available as an ebook from the following vendors:
Quest of the Warrior Maid can be purchased online at any of the following sites without global restrictions. In alphabetical order and not in any order of preference:
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.de
Apple iBookstore (there is no link because you have to go to their online store and enter search terms like my name or the title of the book.)
Barnes and Noble.com
Diesel
Smashwords
Smashwords has seven different formats available so that hopefully whatever reading device, smart phone or computer you wish to read an ebook on will be covered.
Sony
For those who prefer the smell and feel of a real book, a trade paperback edition will be available this summer. There are plans for global distribution of that version as well.
The ebook is at a low introductory price of $2.99, (less than what it costs for a cup of coffee) which I hope will help sway people to try a new author.
Linda
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
A varied topic mixture of writing opportunities, insights, and changes in publishing
There are a few things that have either come into my inbox or across my proverbial radar screen that I think others would benefit from and hence this post.
My friends Jordan Rosenfeld and Becca Lawton are sponsoring "playshops" to help inspire the creative spark in writers. It is a philosophy where enjoyment of the writing process with a sense of play is emphasized over the traditional terminology of "workshops." Plus you do not have to turn anything in, it is simply to help inspire your innate creative energy.
Here is their description:
My question is: How will this impact university libraries? Will they start purchasing PDF files of those academic monographs and will they be easily accessed by professors and students?
Or will the libraries wind up using the print-on-demand (POD) option?
These types of cost cutting changes can have far ranging consequences and I wonder if everything has been thought through prior to "going digital" and abandoning the printed page.
--
And that brings me to a recent blog post by Tess Gerritsen.
She wrote about what might be a similar trend by publishers in regard to galleys.
Tess is a New York Times bestselling author who will write blurbs to help up and coming writers. (Lee Lofland is one of her grateful recipients of her Karmic generosity.)
However, there is a limit to anyone's generosity. Recently she received an email from a publisher who announced they were no longer going to produce printed galleys.
She understands that it is cheaper and greener, but she doesn't want to read a novel at her computer nor does she want a handheld reader.
Tess loves being able to read galleys in bed, on a beach, on vacation, etc.
She feels so strongly about this that she wrote:
Wow.
And this email came after a novelist had approached Tess and she agreed she would consider giving him a blurb. No promises, but she would try. She never guarantees blurbs because she has a lot of demands on her time and has to find some kind of work/life balance.
Now because of the change of policy by the publisher, that author's forthcoming book will absolutely not have a blurb by Tess Gerritsen.
That makes me wonder how much discussion was generated in the board rooms as to what side-effects they would have by this change in their business practices. Did they think about how it might deter their ability to generate blurbs from established authors. And subsequently how that might impact future book sales?
Did those considerations of the "human element" even factor into their debates or was this a decision based solely on the bottom line of postage and printing costs?
What makes matters worse is that email message went on to suggest recipients of printed galleys attempt to profit by the sale of ARCs on Ebay and other such sites. As if recouping a few bucks on Ebay would be worth Tess Gerritsen's time.
They also wanted her guarantee she would read the PDF galley before they would send her the file.
In one impolitic email message they not only insulted her integrity and professionalism, but they made it unlikely that she would ever provide their authors blurbs in the future.
Nice job!
It would have been far better if they had asked her if she preferred a printed galley or a digital copy because there are many people who love their Kindles and Sony Readers. She doesn't happen to be one of them.
What does the future of publishing hold if choice is not an option?
My friends Jordan Rosenfeld and Becca Lawton are sponsoring "playshops" to help inspire the creative spark in writers. It is a philosophy where enjoyment of the writing process with a sense of play is emphasized over the traditional terminology of "workshops." Plus you do not have to turn anything in, it is simply to help inspire your innate creative energy.
Here is their description:
Month-Long Write Free Playshops: Playing toward Publication
Join us each month for Write Free Month-Long Playshops in which you exercise your creative chops and aim for your publishing dreams. These month-long, self-paced Write Free Playshops begin on the first Monday of every month. Every weekday for four weeks (20 days) the following activities will be sent to you in a daily e-mail (except for the Weekly Message, which will come once a week):
- Write Free Writing Prompt to jumpstart your own personal freewrite for the day
- Quote on Attraction to inspire and align you with your best creative life
- Word of the Day to spark your imagination
- Exercises to work new writing muscles
- Weekly Message from Jordan and Becca on writing craft, practice, and community.
All this for $19.95-less than $1/day for the whole month!
There was a nice write up about the program in a column recently in my local paper.
To sign up for the playshop, click here.
--
For those who live in Northern California, the San Francisco chapter of the Women's National Book Association is sponsoring a "Meet the Agents and Publishers" event this Saturday, March 28th. There are eight publishing professionals who are confirmed to be there ready to hear your pitches. Both fiction and nonfiction are covered.
--
My friend Lee Lofland has an incredibly useful blog for those who have any aspect of police procedurals in their writing. It is not my genre, but I still find the posts fascinating.
Yesterday, Lee's post showed that he can be just as nitpicky as I am. He dissected a television episode into ten separate segments for analysis. He judged the veracity of various details à la American Idol style. Simon Cowell features prominently.
I have never watched the show in question, but I found Lee's take (and/or spit take) on the show to be highly entertaining.
On the same day, Lee showed a different side when he did a guest post "It's Not All Donuts and Paperwork" on Terry Odell's blog. Lee starts out calmly describing how he started in law enforcement, but his story gets harrowing when he describes how he handled a crisis situation which could have easily gone horribly wrong.
I hadn't known that story before, and it increased my admiration of him.
--
I haven't seen much discussion about this recent publishing news and was wondering if any academics reading this blog might chime in with their thoughts.
According to the online Publisher's Weekly:
The University of Michigan Press sent shock waves through the academic publishing field Monday when it announced it is switching to a primarily digital format to publish scholarly monographs. The press expects that within two years, most of the 60 monographs it publishes each year out of a total 140 new releases will be published only in digital editions. A POD option, however, will be made available for all digital books, said University of Michigan Press director Phil Pochoda. He said the press’s regional titles and its ESL list will continue to be released primarily in print editions, though select frontlist, as well as backlist, will be made available in digital formats as well as print. Print runs consequently will be more conservative, to cut down on returns. “We’re going to try to keep [initial] print runs close to orders,” Pochoda said, with more of a reliance on offset printing for smaller print runs.
My question is: How will this impact university libraries? Will they start purchasing PDF files of those academic monographs and will they be easily accessed by professors and students?
Or will the libraries wind up using the print-on-demand (POD) option?
These types of cost cutting changes can have far ranging consequences and I wonder if everything has been thought through prior to "going digital" and abandoning the printed page.
--
And that brings me to a recent blog post by Tess Gerritsen.
She wrote about what might be a similar trend by publishers in regard to galleys.
Tess is a New York Times bestselling author who will write blurbs to help up and coming writers. (Lee Lofland is one of her grateful recipients of her Karmic generosity.)
However, there is a limit to anyone's generosity. Recently she received an email from a publisher who announced they were no longer going to produce printed galleys.
She understands that it is cheaper and greener, but she doesn't want to read a novel at her computer nor does she want a handheld reader.
Tess loves being able to read galleys in bed, on a beach, on vacation, etc.
She feels so strongly about this that she wrote:
I think that printed galleys are part of the cost of doing business as a publisher. If you don’t print galleys, you shouldn’t expect to get any cover blurbs.
Wow.
And this email came after a novelist had approached Tess and she agreed she would consider giving him a blurb. No promises, but she would try. She never guarantees blurbs because she has a lot of demands on her time and has to find some kind of work/life balance.
Now because of the change of policy by the publisher, that author's forthcoming book will absolutely not have a blurb by Tess Gerritsen.
That makes me wonder how much discussion was generated in the board rooms as to what side-effects they would have by this change in their business practices. Did they think about how it might deter their ability to generate blurbs from established authors. And subsequently how that might impact future book sales?
Did those considerations of the "human element" even factor into their debates or was this a decision based solely on the bottom line of postage and printing costs?
What makes matters worse is that email message went on to suggest recipients of printed galleys attempt to profit by the sale of ARCs on Ebay and other such sites. As if recouping a few bucks on Ebay would be worth Tess Gerritsen's time.
They also wanted her guarantee she would read the PDF galley before they would send her the file.
In one impolitic email message they not only insulted her integrity and professionalism, but they made it unlikely that she would ever provide their authors blurbs in the future.
Nice job!
It would have been far better if they had asked her if she preferred a printed galley or a digital copy because there are many people who love their Kindles and Sony Readers. She doesn't happen to be one of them.
What does the future of publishing hold if choice is not an option?
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
YouTube and Book Trailers: a Success Story
Yesterday, agent Lucienne Diver made a guest appearance on my friend Lee Lofland’s blog. Her topic was how writers can create buzz for their work and she brings up a lot of great ideas.
On the comment trail there was a question posed about book trailers and whether or not they were a valuable marketing tool for authors.I replied to him, but thought this was a topic I could expand upon and make my own blog entry.
This past Sunday my writers club meeting had Kemble Scott as our guest speaker. He has the distinction of being the first author to use YouTube to launch a novel.
His novel SoMa is about the South of Market neighborhood in
Scott has had a career as a television journalist for years, but he was initially stumped at the suggestion. She then challenged him that with all his TV experience, he should be able to come up with something.
He decided on a series of short promos showing some of the locations mentioned in his book. Along with showing the locales, he uses suggestive language to reference some of the unusual behavior in those places which are represented in his book.
At first he had a professional help him with the filming, but when he viewed it he thought it looked too slick for YouTube. So he bought a $600 video camera and handed it to someone with no experience. He also changed it to black and white to give those short videos a grittier feel to match the tone of the book.
The video clips preceded the publication of his book and his novel appeared on the
You can see him talking at Google’s corporate headquarters in the Authors@Google series. This video is about 42 minutes in total length, but he credits YouTube for the successful launch of his book at about 29:40 and he includes one of his videos as part of a demonstration.
Those video clips didn’t generate a million hits like the Drama Squirrel video, but they did help generate word of mouth which translated into sales.I finished reading his book, it is laugh out loud funny in parts, but it is blue. Very blue. It is not for those who are easily offended.
Please tell me if you know of other authors who have successfully used video clips to promote their books. I would love to see more of them to get ideas for my own future reference.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
The Vander Ark/Rowling Brouhaha
I feel as if I need to comment regarding the lawsuit filed by J.K. Rowling against Steve Vander Ark and RDR Books.
I feel obligated if for no other reason than I publicly lauded Mr. Vander Ark previously on this blog when I castigated the interview of Jo Rowling conducted in 2005 by Melissa Anelli and Emerson Spartz and suggested that Vander Ark would have been a better choice.
I think at this point I need to make a disclosure about my previous interactions with Steve.
I consider him to be an acquaintance, not a fandom friend. I doubt that he would disagree with that assessment.
I have fandom friends. Some I have met in person, others only via the warmth of email correspondence.
A few fandom friends I have met in person. I also have fandom acquaintances that I have met, but have not developed any sustained correspondences.
In all likelihood, Steve probably does not really know or care who I am.
My fandom credentials were based primarily in the shipping realm and that is a topic he did not care much about.
I've corresponded with him a few times over the past six years. It would have been intermittant and also not at any real length. I have also met him twice.
Once was at Nimbus when he gave a presentation with my friend Penny Linsenmayer on the Geography of Harry Potter and I introduced myself to him after the talk. The second was at Sonorus this past June when I introduced myself to him before the talk.
Our talks were brief and well, perfunctory. I did not reference our intermittant email exchanges, nor try to engage him in speculations.
He may or may not have even recognized my name since I am sure he has corresponded with thousands of fandomers, whilst I could probably claim a tenth or less of that number.
Okay? I know him, but not well.
He came across as being the consummate fan. He was devoted to the Potterverse and spent countless hours obsessing over the minutest detail.
In fact it is due to his wildly popular website that I first realized some of the discrepancies in the books. Small, seemingly insignificant details such as dates of events not meshing with calendars. Or even the whole Marcus Flint being a burly 6th Year Slytherin in the first book, and that Flint should not still have been at Hogwarts during the third book.
Hence the term "Flint" to describe canon mistakes or "inconsistencies."
Steve is a powerful public speaker and his slide show presentation at Sonorus was fabulous.
I was not surprised to learn that he wanted to write a book chronicling all the work he did analyzing the series. I think there is a market for his book.
I was surprised to learn that Jo Rowling sought to stop the publication of his book.
First of all, I do not believe that it will compete at all with any future definitive encyclopedic book on the Harry Potter series that she will write.
It cannot.
She said that she would provide backstory for characters that due to space and other plot considerations did not appear in the books.
I for one would love to know more, much more about Sirius Black. Forget Dumbledore's sexuality, I want to know about Sirius's sex life. I want to know if he was straight, gay, bi-, tri- or a monk. If she does that, I will certainly buy one more of her books.
I expect that she will include things in her tome that have been cut from the books due to editorial decisions. She had an "Easter Egg" on her website of a song she wrote for Nearly-Headless Nick that was cut from the book. She also included sketches she made of characters. Those are cool extras. Things that Steve Vander Ark in a million years could not create, because he is not the author of the Harry Potter series.
He is merely someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time analyzing the series and categorizing it.
The two are not the same.
Anyone who is a fan of the series that is willing to plunk down $30 for Steve's book will certainly be willing to purchase Jo's book once it is available.
That said, I have read the lawsuit that was filed and am a bit dismayed at the response by RDR books.
It appears by the various press coverage that they have not provided Rowling or her legal representatives with a manuscript of the forthcoming book.
I do not understand why they were unwilling to do so.
If they were as careful to not infringe on her intellectual property rights as they claim, then they should have nothing to hide.
I do not know if they consulted with intellectual property attornies during the pre-production of the book or not, but they should have.
Just because J.K. Rowling's publishers have not sued the publishers of other Harry Potter companion books in the past is no guarantee that they would not in the future. If you were to have great chunks of text in the book, I would expect that she would want to be compensated.
They should have had an eye towards that possibility.
If they did not, then they were ill advised on the project.
According to The Leaky Cauldron's coverage, the initial correspondence by the lawyers representing Warner Brothers issuing cease and desist letters to RDR Books constituted:
"an attempt to open a dialogue. "
There is also this summation of the position from RDR:
RDR claims not to have given JKR’s people a copy of the book because “we don’t have a copy to give them…because the book hasn’t been published yet.” Asked why they didn’t hand over a manuscript, Mr. Harris said, “how would it benefit us in any way? This is the result of a barrage of letters from their lawyers in the last two months. Late i the game they came forward and wanted to see the manuscript, after they’ve been threatening to sue us and everything. How is it going to help us in any way to show them the manuscript except to provide them with more information. At this stage are they going to say, ‘Oh, we’re sorry?’ and go away? I don’t think so.”
Excuse me, but if you have garnered the interest of WB's lawyers they will want to make sure that their legal rights have not been infringed. Prior or post publication if they do not like your book, they will probably sue.
Warner Brothers is a huge company, RDR Books is a small publisher. I would bet that WB is can afford to incure massive legal bills more than RDR Books.
Even if the judgment goes RDR's way and they are allowed to publish the book as is and without giving any monetary compensation to WB, there is no guarantee that any judge will obligate WB to pay RDR's legal bills.
I think RDR should have shown their manuscript to Warner Brothers' legal counsel and then made any modifications if that would have resolved the issue.
None of the approximately 30 companion books on the market received any permission from Jo Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, or Warner Brothers as far as I am aware. This is the first time that I believe she has sued to stop a companion book.
One other interesting thing to note is that there is another Harry Potter themed book that might be released on the same date of November 28th, 2007 that Steve Vander Ark's book is due out. This book actually has the word "encyclopedic" in its title:
Mugglenet.com's Unofficial Harry Potter Companion: The Encyclopedic Guide to the Books, Movies and More by Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen.
However, then again that book might have been killed.
It is listed on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk. There are no cover images, but that is not an unusual thing for Amazon.com . I have seen forthcoming books that are due out in paperback that would have the same cover as the hardcover version not having an image shown on Amazon.
The Canadian site has a different availability date than the American or British websites. It says:
Availability: Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
More ominous is that the book is not mentioned anywhere on the publisher's website. One would think that since their best selling title was the previous Mugglenet.com's book that they would proudly be mentioning a follow up book by the same authors.
They aren't.
The only mention of an upcoming title for their teen category is Secret Book of Dragons due out in January 2008.
So it may be that Ulysses Press was contacted by JKR's lawyers and the project was scuttled.
If so, I'd like that to be part of the press coverage.
If on the other hand, the Mugglenet.com book comes out later this month and Ulysses Press worked with her lawyers to alleviate any concerns regarding her intellectual rights, then I think that should be discussed in the press coverage as well.
Moving on to a related topic:
The disputed timeline.
I remember after the DVD of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out that there was a bit of elation in the fandom. Because we thought it settled the question of Hermione's age.
People were wondering (and debating) whether or not she was born in 1980 or 1981. Was she eleven years old when she started at Hogwarts on September 1st, 1991 or only ten?
There were a few canon clues, but none definitively answered that question.
Steve Vander Ark took the position that canon suggested 1981, but that 1980 could not be ruled out.
He put 1981 on his timeline on the Harry Potter Lexicon.
On the DVD extras, they had a timeline of the Wizarding world. It also said 1981.
Then again, according to Steve it was his timeline verbatim.
Supposedly, JKR signed off on the timeline and the fandom started to think that the question of Hermione's age was resolved.
Of course we now know that she was born in 1980. Otherwise Hermione would still have been an "underage witch" at the beginning of Deathly Hallows and that would have seriously impacted the plot.
Steve Vander Ark has sued Warner Brothers for taking his timeline for their DVDs without his permission. He is seeking compensation.
I do not know the dollar amount he is seeking.
Warner Brothers disputes his claim.
Frankly, without having access to all the primary documents, I believe that the likely scenario is someone at Warner Brothers was assigned to come up with some elements for CD-Rom for the DVD extras. These are things that would insure that fans actually purchase the official studio DVDs and not just buy pirated copies of the feature length films.
I can envision a twenty-something assigned the task who found Steve's website and decided it was cool and snagged it. Without even sending him a notice or asking for permission or even offering some money to him.
They could have offered him a few hundred bucks for the privilege, which would have probably been less than Warner Brothers' snack budget for a single day of filming. More importantly, I think Vander Ark would have been elated to have his name and website URL appear on a Warner Brothers DVD.
Instead, I believe this proverbial twenty-something just put that timeline in the in-box of their boss and the executives at Warner Brothers never knew its origins.
I do not believe that Warner Brothers knowingly violated his copyright. However, if one of their employees did the deed, I believe they are still legally responsible.
(Note: I am not a lawyer. This is simply my personal opinion and how I would come down if I were a juror and if the facts of the case were as I hypothesized.)
I look at the cover of Steve's book and I concur with the lawyers from Warner Brothers. There is not a prominent disclaimer on the front cover stating that this book is not endorsed by J.K. Rowling like the one by George Beahm. It could be considered as misleading by consumers. Then again, other companion books have not included such disclaimers on their front covers and she has not sued them.
Oooooh, I discovered another ominous sign. Steve's book is no longer listed on Amazon.com. I was going to reference his cover from there and could not find it. Not under his name, nor under the title.
It is still listed on Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk - both have the publication date as November 5th. I wonder if it will actually ship or if the lawsuit will halt its distribution in other countries.
If anyone in Canada or in the U.K. has ordered the book and gets it, please let me know. I am curious as to whether or not it will be blocked.
Overall, I find this whole affair to be dismaying.
I think the marketplace is large enough to accomodate a hard copy version of the online Harry Potter Lexicon that J.K. Rowling praised and an encyclopedic book by the author herself.
I also wish that the publisher for Steve Vander Ark had shown more professionalism in this matter.
Time will tell what happens in court, but it is not a happy day for the Harry Potter fandom-at-large or the publishing world.
Linda
I feel obligated if for no other reason than I publicly lauded Mr. Vander Ark previously on this blog when I castigated the interview of Jo Rowling conducted in 2005 by Melissa Anelli and Emerson Spartz and suggested that Vander Ark would have been a better choice.
I think at this point I need to make a disclosure about my previous interactions with Steve.
I consider him to be an acquaintance, not a fandom friend. I doubt that he would disagree with that assessment.
I have fandom friends. Some I have met in person, others only via the warmth of email correspondence.
A few fandom friends I have met in person. I also have fandom acquaintances that I have met, but have not developed any sustained correspondences.
In all likelihood, Steve probably does not really know or care who I am.
My fandom credentials were based primarily in the shipping realm and that is a topic he did not care much about.
I've corresponded with him a few times over the past six years. It would have been intermittant and also not at any real length. I have also met him twice.
Once was at Nimbus when he gave a presentation with my friend Penny Linsenmayer on the Geography of Harry Potter and I introduced myself to him after the talk. The second was at Sonorus this past June when I introduced myself to him before the talk.
Our talks were brief and well, perfunctory. I did not reference our intermittant email exchanges, nor try to engage him in speculations.
He may or may not have even recognized my name since I am sure he has corresponded with thousands of fandomers, whilst I could probably claim a tenth or less of that number.
Okay? I know him, but not well.
He came across as being the consummate fan. He was devoted to the Potterverse and spent countless hours obsessing over the minutest detail.
In fact it is due to his wildly popular website that I first realized some of the discrepancies in the books. Small, seemingly insignificant details such as dates of events not meshing with calendars. Or even the whole Marcus Flint being a burly 6th Year Slytherin in the first book, and that Flint should not still have been at Hogwarts during the third book.
Hence the term "Flint" to describe canon mistakes or "inconsistencies."
Steve is a powerful public speaker and his slide show presentation at Sonorus was fabulous.
I was not surprised to learn that he wanted to write a book chronicling all the work he did analyzing the series. I think there is a market for his book.
I was surprised to learn that Jo Rowling sought to stop the publication of his book.
First of all, I do not believe that it will compete at all with any future definitive encyclopedic book on the Harry Potter series that she will write.
It cannot.
She said that she would provide backstory for characters that due to space and other plot considerations did not appear in the books.
I for one would love to know more, much more about Sirius Black. Forget Dumbledore's sexuality, I want to know about Sirius's sex life. I want to know if he was straight, gay, bi-, tri- or a monk. If she does that, I will certainly buy one more of her books.
I expect that she will include things in her tome that have been cut from the books due to editorial decisions. She had an "Easter Egg" on her website of a song she wrote for Nearly-Headless Nick that was cut from the book. She also included sketches she made of characters. Those are cool extras. Things that Steve Vander Ark in a million years could not create, because he is not the author of the Harry Potter series.
He is merely someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time analyzing the series and categorizing it.
The two are not the same.
Anyone who is a fan of the series that is willing to plunk down $30 for Steve's book will certainly be willing to purchase Jo's book once it is available.
That said, I have read the lawsuit that was filed and am a bit dismayed at the response by RDR books.
It appears by the various press coverage that they have not provided Rowling or her legal representatives with a manuscript of the forthcoming book.
I do not understand why they were unwilling to do so.
If they were as careful to not infringe on her intellectual property rights as they claim, then they should have nothing to hide.
I do not know if they consulted with intellectual property attornies during the pre-production of the book or not, but they should have.
Just because J.K. Rowling's publishers have not sued the publishers of other Harry Potter companion books in the past is no guarantee that they would not in the future. If you were to have great chunks of text in the book, I would expect that she would want to be compensated.
They should have had an eye towards that possibility.
If they did not, then they were ill advised on the project.
According to The Leaky Cauldron's coverage, the initial correspondence by the lawyers representing Warner Brothers issuing cease and desist letters to RDR Books constituted:
"an attempt to open a dialogue. "
There is also this summation of the position from RDR:
RDR claims not to have given JKR’s people a copy of the book because “we don’t have a copy to give them…because the book hasn’t been published yet.” Asked why they didn’t hand over a manuscript, Mr. Harris said, “how would it benefit us in any way? This is the result of a barrage of letters from their lawyers in the last two months. Late i the game they came forward and wanted to see the manuscript, after they’ve been threatening to sue us and everything. How is it going to help us in any way to show them the manuscript except to provide them with more information. At this stage are they going to say, ‘Oh, we’re sorry?’ and go away? I don’t think so.”
Excuse me, but if you have garnered the interest of WB's lawyers they will want to make sure that their legal rights have not been infringed. Prior or post publication if they do not like your book, they will probably sue.
Warner Brothers is a huge company, RDR Books is a small publisher. I would bet that WB is can afford to incure massive legal bills more than RDR Books.
Even if the judgment goes RDR's way and they are allowed to publish the book as is and without giving any monetary compensation to WB, there is no guarantee that any judge will obligate WB to pay RDR's legal bills.
I think RDR should have shown their manuscript to Warner Brothers' legal counsel and then made any modifications if that would have resolved the issue.
None of the approximately 30 companion books on the market received any permission from Jo Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, or Warner Brothers as far as I am aware. This is the first time that I believe she has sued to stop a companion book.
One other interesting thing to note is that there is another Harry Potter themed book that might be released on the same date of November 28th, 2007 that Steve Vander Ark's book is due out. This book actually has the word "encyclopedic" in its title:
Mugglenet.com's Unofficial Harry Potter Companion: The Encyclopedic Guide to the Books, Movies and More by Emerson Spartz and Ben Schoen.
However, then again that book might have been killed.
It is listed on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk. There are no cover images, but that is not an unusual thing for Amazon.com . I have seen forthcoming books that are due out in paperback that would have the same cover as the hardcover version not having an image shown on Amazon.
The Canadian site has a different availability date than the American or British websites. It says:
Availability: Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.
More ominous is that the book is not mentioned anywhere on the publisher's website. One would think that since their best selling title was the previous Mugglenet.com's book that they would proudly be mentioning a follow up book by the same authors.
They aren't.
The only mention of an upcoming title for their teen category is Secret Book of Dragons due out in January 2008.
So it may be that Ulysses Press was contacted by JKR's lawyers and the project was scuttled.
If so, I'd like that to be part of the press coverage.
If on the other hand, the Mugglenet.com book comes out later this month and Ulysses Press worked with her lawyers to alleviate any concerns regarding her intellectual rights, then I think that should be discussed in the press coverage as well.
Moving on to a related topic:
The disputed timeline.
I remember after the DVD of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out that there was a bit of elation in the fandom. Because we thought it settled the question of Hermione's age.
People were wondering (and debating) whether or not she was born in 1980 or 1981. Was she eleven years old when she started at Hogwarts on September 1st, 1991 or only ten?
There were a few canon clues, but none definitively answered that question.
Steve Vander Ark took the position that canon suggested 1981, but that 1980 could not be ruled out.
He put 1981 on his timeline on the Harry Potter Lexicon.
On the DVD extras, they had a timeline of the Wizarding world. It also said 1981.
Then again, according to Steve it was his timeline verbatim.
Supposedly, JKR signed off on the timeline and the fandom started to think that the question of Hermione's age was resolved.
Of course we now know that she was born in 1980. Otherwise Hermione would still have been an "underage witch" at the beginning of Deathly Hallows and that would have seriously impacted the plot.
Steve Vander Ark has sued Warner Brothers for taking his timeline for their DVDs without his permission. He is seeking compensation.
I do not know the dollar amount he is seeking.
Warner Brothers disputes his claim.
Frankly, without having access to all the primary documents, I believe that the likely scenario is someone at Warner Brothers was assigned to come up with some elements for CD-Rom for the DVD extras. These are things that would insure that fans actually purchase the official studio DVDs and not just buy pirated copies of the feature length films.
I can envision a twenty-something assigned the task who found Steve's website and decided it was cool and snagged it. Without even sending him a notice or asking for permission or even offering some money to him.
They could have offered him a few hundred bucks for the privilege, which would have probably been less than Warner Brothers' snack budget for a single day of filming. More importantly, I think Vander Ark would have been elated to have his name and website URL appear on a Warner Brothers DVD.
Instead, I believe this proverbial twenty-something just put that timeline in the in-box of their boss and the executives at Warner Brothers never knew its origins.
I do not believe that Warner Brothers knowingly violated his copyright. However, if one of their employees did the deed, I believe they are still legally responsible.
(Note: I am not a lawyer. This is simply my personal opinion and how I would come down if I were a juror and if the facts of the case were as I hypothesized.)
I look at the cover of Steve's book and I concur with the lawyers from Warner Brothers. There is not a prominent disclaimer on the front cover stating that this book is not endorsed by J.K. Rowling like the one by George Beahm. It could be considered as misleading by consumers. Then again, other companion books have not included such disclaimers on their front covers and she has not sued them.
Oooooh, I discovered another ominous sign. Steve's book is no longer listed on Amazon.com. I was going to reference his cover from there and could not find it. Not under his name, nor under the title.
It is still listed on Amazon.ca and Amazon.co.uk - both have the publication date as November 5th. I wonder if it will actually ship or if the lawsuit will halt its distribution in other countries.
If anyone in Canada or in the U.K. has ordered the book and gets it, please let me know. I am curious as to whether or not it will be blocked.
Overall, I find this whole affair to be dismaying.
I think the marketplace is large enough to accomodate a hard copy version of the online Harry Potter Lexicon that J.K. Rowling praised and an encyclopedic book by the author herself.
I also wish that the publisher for Steve Vander Ark had shown more professionalism in this matter.
Time will tell what happens in court, but it is not a happy day for the Harry Potter fandom-at-large or the publishing world.
Linda
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Good news from some of my writing friends
I've mentioned before that I love being in a community of writers, because it helps to inspire my own writing. So much has happened recently (or will be happening) for friends of mine that I thought I should take the time to recognize them in one post.
Starting with...Ms. Joan Price who spoke in January at a meeting of my writer's club. She was named "Best and Mightiest Aphrodite" AKA "mature and wrinkly sex kitten" by the Bohemian newspaper. Hopefully it'll help bring more people to read her blog and buy her lively and engaging book, Better than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty.
Ari Siletz, another guest who spoke at a meeting of our club, will be back in print soon. His wonderful book The Mullah with No Legs and Other Stories is being reprinted and should be available for purchase again soon. You should also check out his blog, he recently wrote a thoughtful review of the movie "300" and showed just how inaccurate it was from an historical perspective. I'll post again on this subject once the book is available.
My friend John Granger will be a featured presenter at a conference in June in Lancaster, California. I am hopeful that I will be able to attend, and be able to finally meet someone that I've corresponded with by email for the last four years. I recently received an autographed copy of his latest book which is Unlocking Harry Potter: Keys for the Serious Reader. I haven't had the chance to read it from cover to cover yet, but as always it is thought provoking because John provides insights regarding literary alchemy of which I am unfamiliar. Please check it out along with his other recent book, Who Killed Albus Dumbledore which is a collection of essays analyzing clues from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If nothing else, please stop by his blog, Hogwarts Professor and check out some of his entries which allow for reader interaction with your thoughts and theories about the series.
Erika Mailman has a novel that has launched named A Woman of Ill Fame. It is through the eyes of a prostitute in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. She talks about the difficulties of researching and writing historical fiction in this posting on her blog. She has one more reading scheduled for her book which is next Wednesday, April 4th at Black Oak Books in Berkeley. After that, I think she'll be just waiting for her latest addition: a baby!
Then next September Erika has another book coming out in September titled The Witch's Trinity by Crown/Random House. It is about a medieval German woman accused of witchcraft. Another historical novel about a strong woman. Huzzah!
Now I'd like to share a funny story about both my friend Erika and another friend Lee Lofland. Erika and I first met at a writers conference in 2000 when we shared a room, and had asked the conference organizers to find us a roommate. We got along wonderfully. So much so that in 2004 we decided to room again together at the East of Eden Writers Conference. We hadn't seen each other in a long time, and were enjoying our chat trying to catch up with each other. I had wanted to go to a "night owls" session on Friday night because one sounded interesting. It was a police procedural question and answers session given by a retired homicide detective. Neither Erika nor I wrote mysteries, but you never know when a piece of information gleaned might come in handy.
Erika and I arrived late to the session because of our gabfest. I thought we could just sneak into the back of the room and not disturb anyone. WRONG. The room was set up so that the door was at the front. We walked in and saw a crowded room with no chairs and everyone facing us.
We slunk onto the floor at the front and tried not to be too embarrassed for arriving late and disrupting the proceedings. There were many questions Lee fielded with aplomb and then he was asked what he thought of "reality shows" such as "Cops." Lee grew disgusted and said that it was all fake, a pack of lies, etc. I was feeling a bit facetious, raised my hand and tried to sound as innocent as possible and asked:
"What about Reno 911?" (For those unfamiliar with the show, it's a comedy that spoofs shows like "Cops.")
Lee looked me directly in the eye and said, "That one's true. It's just like my old squad back in Virginia."
Then he laughed and began regaling tales about some of their personalities.
The next night I ran into Lee again, we chatted and laughed, exchanged cards and have corresponded ever since.
Lee's first book Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers is due out in July from Writers Digest Books.
Another writer friend, and former guest speaker to my club is Jordan Rosenfeld also has a forthcoming book from Writers Digest. It is Make a Scene: Creating a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time, due out in November.
Jordan had created a radio show on KRCB our local public radio station entitled "Word by Word"where she interviewed authors. She moved away and there has not been a new show in quite a while. However, there will be a new host starting in April, and he is a member of my writers club the Redwood Writers Branch. As soon as more details are available to the general public, I will share them.
Shelley Singer, who will be our guest speaker in April, has a new novel Black Jack due out in June under the pseudonym of Lee Singer.
And last, but certainly not least, I stumbled across this the other day as I was surfing the internet. Donna Woolfolk Cross's novel Pope Joan had been selected as the Book of the Month for discussion by the Historical Fiction forums. I'll have to join that website, if for no other reason than to post my thoughts on her engaging and provocative historical novel.
I had the good fortune to meet Donna back in 1998 when she offered to do a reading and book signing. Due to her own tenacity for marketing her novel, her book is now in its seventeenth printing. Utterly amazing. I talked about the method she used in my first ever blog post which can be read here.
Once again, congrats to all my friends!
Linda
Starting with...Ms. Joan Price who spoke in January at a meeting of my writer's club. She was named "Best and Mightiest Aphrodite" AKA "mature and wrinkly sex kitten" by the Bohemian newspaper. Hopefully it'll help bring more people to read her blog and buy her lively and engaging book, Better than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk About Sex After Sixty.
Ari Siletz, another guest who spoke at a meeting of our club, will be back in print soon. His wonderful book The Mullah with No Legs and Other Stories is being reprinted and should be available for purchase again soon. You should also check out his blog, he recently wrote a thoughtful review of the movie "300" and showed just how inaccurate it was from an historical perspective. I'll post again on this subject once the book is available.
My friend John Granger will be a featured presenter at a conference in June in Lancaster, California. I am hopeful that I will be able to attend, and be able to finally meet someone that I've corresponded with by email for the last four years. I recently received an autographed copy of his latest book which is Unlocking Harry Potter: Keys for the Serious Reader. I haven't had the chance to read it from cover to cover yet, but as always it is thought provoking because John provides insights regarding literary alchemy of which I am unfamiliar. Please check it out along with his other recent book, Who Killed Albus Dumbledore which is a collection of essays analyzing clues from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If nothing else, please stop by his blog, Hogwarts Professor and check out some of his entries which allow for reader interaction with your thoughts and theories about the series.
Erika Mailman has a novel that has launched named A Woman of Ill Fame. It is through the eyes of a prostitute in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. She talks about the difficulties of researching and writing historical fiction in this posting on her blog. She has one more reading scheduled for her book which is next Wednesday, April 4th at Black Oak Books in Berkeley. After that, I think she'll be just waiting for her latest addition: a baby!
Then next September Erika has another book coming out in September titled The Witch's Trinity by Crown/Random House. It is about a medieval German woman accused of witchcraft. Another historical novel about a strong woman. Huzzah!
Now I'd like to share a funny story about both my friend Erika and another friend Lee Lofland. Erika and I first met at a writers conference in 2000 when we shared a room, and had asked the conference organizers to find us a roommate. We got along wonderfully. So much so that in 2004 we decided to room again together at the East of Eden Writers Conference. We hadn't seen each other in a long time, and were enjoying our chat trying to catch up with each other. I had wanted to go to a "night owls" session on Friday night because one sounded interesting. It was a police procedural question and answers session given by a retired homicide detective. Neither Erika nor I wrote mysteries, but you never know when a piece of information gleaned might come in handy.
Erika and I arrived late to the session because of our gabfest. I thought we could just sneak into the back of the room and not disturb anyone. WRONG. The room was set up so that the door was at the front. We walked in and saw a crowded room with no chairs and everyone facing us.
We slunk onto the floor at the front and tried not to be too embarrassed for arriving late and disrupting the proceedings. There were many questions Lee fielded with aplomb and then he was asked what he thought of "reality shows" such as "Cops." Lee grew disgusted and said that it was all fake, a pack of lies, etc. I was feeling a bit facetious, raised my hand and tried to sound as innocent as possible and asked:
"What about Reno 911?" (For those unfamiliar with the show, it's a comedy that spoofs shows like "Cops.")
Lee looked me directly in the eye and said, "That one's true. It's just like my old squad back in Virginia."
Then he laughed and began regaling tales about some of their personalities.
The next night I ran into Lee again, we chatted and laughed, exchanged cards and have corresponded ever since.
Lee's first book Police Procedure and Investigation: A Guide for Writers is due out in July from Writers Digest Books.
Another writer friend, and former guest speaker to my club is Jordan Rosenfeld also has a forthcoming book from Writers Digest. It is Make a Scene: Creating a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time, due out in November.
Jordan had created a radio show on KRCB our local public radio station entitled "Word by Word"where she interviewed authors. She moved away and there has not been a new show in quite a while. However, there will be a new host starting in April, and he is a member of my writers club the Redwood Writers Branch. As soon as more details are available to the general public, I will share them.
Shelley Singer, who will be our guest speaker in April, has a new novel Black Jack due out in June under the pseudonym of Lee Singer.
And last, but certainly not least, I stumbled across this the other day as I was surfing the internet. Donna Woolfolk Cross's novel Pope Joan had been selected as the Book of the Month for discussion by the Historical Fiction forums. I'll have to join that website, if for no other reason than to post my thoughts on her engaging and provocative historical novel.
I had the good fortune to meet Donna back in 1998 when she offered to do a reading and book signing. Due to her own tenacity for marketing her novel, her book is now in its seventeenth printing. Utterly amazing. I talked about the method she used in my first ever blog post which can be read here.
Once again, congrats to all my friends!
Linda
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
San Francisco Writers Conference
I volunteered at the San Francisco Writers Conference this year. Kate Farrell,
This was the fourth annual San Francisco Writers Conference and it was sold out. Three hundred and fifty writers of varying levels of experience came from thirty one states and
I had several assigned tasks, but it was the impromptu interactions with attendees that I enjoyed the most. There were times when I felt like a roving ambassador, giving directions, answering questions and engaging people in conversation when people were waiting. I felt that my experience and knowledge gleaned from going to other conferences and being a CWC member bore fruit. I networked with writers, extolled the virtues of belonging to the nation’s oldest professional writers club and told them various places to find information they sought. I had printed up 20 business cards, but should have made more as I ran out before the conference was over giving them out to writers.
The conference had forty workshop sessions to attend and opportunities to talk with agents and editors. Part of the conference dealt with creating the perfect pitch. There was a morning session devoted to this subject as well as an after hours session where people were invited to practice their pitch and compete against one another. This led to a debate as to whether the ideal pitch should be 25 words or 25 seconds. I had not attended that competition, and I’m glad I hadn’t. That’s way too much pressure to put on people.
Yes, a pitch is important, but it is not the be-all-and-end-all of how to interest someone in your writing. I understand that by describing your project succinctly it might become the description an agent uses with an editor, which might later be used by the editor to sell the idea to the acquisitions team, then in a further incarnation it might wind up being used on a back cover to tempt the book buyer. So, while a pitch is important I don’t think you need to sweat the exact number of words nor the exact number of seconds it takes to say it. Egads, talk about performance anxiety.
I had read several agent blogs in the last few weeks discussing their viewpoint on the “speed date” sessions. Agents generally cringe at the mere thought of these events because they are bombarded by nervous writers desperate to make a good impression in less than three minutes. As if an entire life’s work and self-worth could be boiled down and encapsulated into three stress-filled minutes. Of course it can’t, and therein lies the rub.
The nervousness over meeting with agents and editors seemed pervasive and I did my part to try and alleviate some of the stress. I told people that they would be better served to relax, smile and show your human side first before launching into a spring loaded pitch that you’ve been obsessing over. Because not only are agents interested in your writing project, but they’re also interested in knowing whether or not you’ll be a client from hell. Being nervous or tetchy if you didn’t get your exact full three minutes will not play in your favor.
So I tried to be as relaxed as possible. Two of the three agents I met at the Speed Date session I had met several times over the weekend in my volunteer capacity, so when I sat down at their table I was a familiar friendly face. I exchanged some pleasantries before giving my pitch.
The third agent I had not met before. I had researched the different agents the weekend prior to the conference and saw a mention on her agency’s website that she liked damp castles. That description was not in the conference blurb about her, nor did she say anything about it when she introduced herself. So I started my time with her by saying that I was approaching her because of her stated fondness for damp castles.
Then I gave her my pitch.
As it turned out, I received three requests for partials. Three for three. That’s a lot better than my batting average at previous conferences.
By Sunday afternoon, I said goodbye to many of the writers that I had met and talked with over the weekend. They all said they felt it was worth their time, expense and travel to come to the conference. They were grateful for the advice and encouragement that they had gotten along the way.
And that, made me feel good.
Linda
Anyone who was interested but unable to attend the conference – you can listen to the various workshops either by CD or MP3 file. Each session was recorded and available on www.vwtapes.com That website also has recordings from other writers conferences as well.Monday, February 12, 2007
Writers Conferences - Why Should Anyone Go to Them?
Recently I've seen a couple agents blogs mention writers conferences and discuss from their perspectives whether or not it is worth their time attending. Most of them are already swamped with query letters, and so they are not waiting around feeling forlorn hoping for potential clients to contact them.
They have also said that it is doubtful that they will actually find new clients by meeting writers at a writers conference. The one area they felt that was worthwhile was in educating writers about the business of publishing.
With the idea that many agents or editors from publishing houses do not expect that they will actually meet writers that they'll develop a long term working relationship with, why should writers spend hundreds of dollars to attend writers conferences?
Because you'll learn about the business in ways that you simply can't from reading books, blogs or websites.
Because going to conferences will help you to meet others who share your same passion for the written word.
I belong to a writers club and so I meet with other writers at least once a month and can talk with others who share my obsession about writing. However, by going to writers conferences I meet writers from geographically distant areas and have developed friendships with them.
The first writers conference I attended was about fifteen years ago when I was still in my twenties and I wasn't sure exactly kind of writing I wanted to pursue. I had taken a course in screenwriting before moving to California, but I had gotten bitten by the political activism bug. I started spending more of my creative energy writing essays on political issues than thinking up screenplays. At the time I went to my first conference I had the credit of having had one op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times. It was beginner's luck where my first submission was accepted, but none of my follow up submissions were.
I contemplated working as a free lance writer on political topics I cared passionately about. So I attended sessions geared for free lance writing, but also others that piqued my interest. I also heard speeches from the keynote speakers which were informative and inspirational.
At the time, I felt embarrassed to be there as if I didn't belong because I had only one real credit to my name. I didn't realize that it was precisely because I was so new that attending a writers conference was the best thing for me. If nothing else, I realized from the sheer number of attendees that I was not alone and that I had colleagues who weren't superhuman individuals, they were just normal people.
I have since then attended six other writers conferences and at least three book festivals. Talking with other writers always inspires me, because I learn from other people. I also share with them my knowledge gleaned over the years.
Just the other day I was talking with Tom Kendrick who was a guest speaker for my writers club last December and we were discussing literary blogs. He is in the process of adapting his book Bluewater Goldrush into a screenplay and wanted to know if there were any blogs about screenwriting. I didn't know of any offhand, but the next day as I was looking for something else, I found an area on the wonderful Absolute Write Website for screenwriters. I sent Tom the link and he followed up. Within an hour he was corresponding with a successful screenwriter and learning a lot.
Sometimes I envision myself as a spider who is sending out silken strands in many directions and then joining them together. You never know when a piece of information that you hear will come in handy, and that is another benefit from writers conferences. You hear stories from industry professionals and you can hopefully use that information to help you avoid making similar mistakes that others made before.
You can also meet agents. Some of the settings to meet agents are stressful ordeals because they involve time limited "pitch sessions." It's like trying to convey to someone the essence of your book project in the time it would take to ride in an elevator.
One conference I went to seven years ago had agent and editor round tables, which in retrospect was an incredibly cruel method to perform these agent-author interactions. At each table sat an agent or an editor and writers filled in the rest of the chairs. The agent could have at any one time probably seven pairs of eyes staring at them, while one person nervously tried selling them on their book in about two minutes time. The agent would make a snap decision of "that's not the type of book that I'm currently looking for" or "here's my card, please send me a query letter about your project." Meanwhile the other writers were jockeying for position to be the next to get their turn. As soon as one writer completed their pitch, they'd vacate their seat to find an open seat at another agent's table and wait their turn to repeat the process.
Rinse, pitch, repeat.
It was stressful for me, but I believe it was far more stressful for the agents and editors to have to endure two hours of hungry looking eyes staring at them desperately seeking validation. In retrospect, I feel sorry that they were even put in such a format.
It is far more humane to have only one writer at a time sit at a table talking to an agent. Even if they are bored stiff by the individuals stammering about their Great American Novel, there would only be one pair of eyes at a time staring at them as opposed to multiple sets.
Beth Proudfoot the chair of the East of Eden Writers Conference spoke to my writers club three years ago about what writers can expect from attending writers conferences, and she has a summation of that available online here.
Due to her insistence that writers embrace lines at writers conferences as a means to schmooze, I look at them in a different light. They are a chance to network with people. Be as outgoing as possible and listen more than you speak.
One thing to note there is one line in which you absolutely should not pitch.
It is a Cardinal Sin to pitch in the bathroom line.
Don't do it.
It's tacky, and well, no one wants you to continue telling them about your book when they've closed the door or are standing at the urinal.
Talking about your novel near the shrimp cocktail is one thing - doing it in a bathroom is another.
Just don't. If you feel you must say something to an agent who is standing next to you while you're waiting in line, say "isn't this a great conference?" or "I really liked your talk at the last session." Something light and polite that does not beg for a long conversation, especially when you are liable to be interrupted by the lyrical sound of flushing at any time.
There have been anecdotes of writers handing samples of their work under the stalls to agents. Unless you wish to be the butt of cruel jokes bandied about for years by agents when they gather together at a bar.
That's about all for now. This weekend I'm volunteering for the San Francisco Writers Conference and am looking forward to having a great time.
Look for me if you're attending as well.
Linda
For the most humorous take of what attending a writers conference from an agent's perspective, here's what Miss Snark had to say.
They have also said that it is doubtful that they will actually find new clients by meeting writers at a writers conference. The one area they felt that was worthwhile was in educating writers about the business of publishing.
With the idea that many agents or editors from publishing houses do not expect that they will actually meet writers that they'll develop a long term working relationship with, why should writers spend hundreds of dollars to attend writers conferences?
Because you'll learn about the business in ways that you simply can't from reading books, blogs or websites.
Because going to conferences will help you to meet others who share your same passion for the written word.
I belong to a writers club and so I meet with other writers at least once a month and can talk with others who share my obsession about writing. However, by going to writers conferences I meet writers from geographically distant areas and have developed friendships with them.
The first writers conference I attended was about fifteen years ago when I was still in my twenties and I wasn't sure exactly kind of writing I wanted to pursue. I had taken a course in screenwriting before moving to California, but I had gotten bitten by the political activism bug. I started spending more of my creative energy writing essays on political issues than thinking up screenplays. At the time I went to my first conference I had the credit of having had one op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times. It was beginner's luck where my first submission was accepted, but none of my follow up submissions were.
I contemplated working as a free lance writer on political topics I cared passionately about. So I attended sessions geared for free lance writing, but also others that piqued my interest. I also heard speeches from the keynote speakers which were informative and inspirational.
At the time, I felt embarrassed to be there as if I didn't belong because I had only one real credit to my name. I didn't realize that it was precisely because I was so new that attending a writers conference was the best thing for me. If nothing else, I realized from the sheer number of attendees that I was not alone and that I had colleagues who weren't superhuman individuals, they were just normal people.
I have since then attended six other writers conferences and at least three book festivals. Talking with other writers always inspires me, because I learn from other people. I also share with them my knowledge gleaned over the years.
Just the other day I was talking with Tom Kendrick who was a guest speaker for my writers club last December and we were discussing literary blogs. He is in the process of adapting his book Bluewater Goldrush into a screenplay and wanted to know if there were any blogs about screenwriting. I didn't know of any offhand, but the next day as I was looking for something else, I found an area on the wonderful Absolute Write Website for screenwriters. I sent Tom the link and he followed up. Within an hour he was corresponding with a successful screenwriter and learning a lot.
Sometimes I envision myself as a spider who is sending out silken strands in many directions and then joining them together. You never know when a piece of information that you hear will come in handy, and that is another benefit from writers conferences. You hear stories from industry professionals and you can hopefully use that information to help you avoid making similar mistakes that others made before.
You can also meet agents. Some of the settings to meet agents are stressful ordeals because they involve time limited "pitch sessions." It's like trying to convey to someone the essence of your book project in the time it would take to ride in an elevator.
One conference I went to seven years ago had agent and editor round tables, which in retrospect was an incredibly cruel method to perform these agent-author interactions. At each table sat an agent or an editor and writers filled in the rest of the chairs. The agent could have at any one time probably seven pairs of eyes staring at them, while one person nervously tried selling them on their book in about two minutes time. The agent would make a snap decision of "that's not the type of book that I'm currently looking for" or "here's my card, please send me a query letter about your project." Meanwhile the other writers were jockeying for position to be the next to get their turn. As soon as one writer completed their pitch, they'd vacate their seat to find an open seat at another agent's table and wait their turn to repeat the process.
Rinse, pitch, repeat.
It was stressful for me, but I believe it was far more stressful for the agents and editors to have to endure two hours of hungry looking eyes staring at them desperately seeking validation. In retrospect, I feel sorry that they were even put in such a format.
It is far more humane to have only one writer at a time sit at a table talking to an agent. Even if they are bored stiff by the individuals stammering about their Great American Novel, there would only be one pair of eyes at a time staring at them as opposed to multiple sets.
Beth Proudfoot the chair of the East of Eden Writers Conference spoke to my writers club three years ago about what writers can expect from attending writers conferences, and she has a summation of that available online here.
Due to her insistence that writers embrace lines at writers conferences as a means to schmooze, I look at them in a different light. They are a chance to network with people. Be as outgoing as possible and listen more than you speak.
One thing to note there is one line in which you absolutely should not pitch.
It is a Cardinal Sin to pitch in the bathroom line.
Don't do it.
It's tacky, and well, no one wants you to continue telling them about your book when they've closed the door or are standing at the urinal.
Talking about your novel near the shrimp cocktail is one thing - doing it in a bathroom is another.
Just don't. If you feel you must say something to an agent who is standing next to you while you're waiting in line, say "isn't this a great conference?" or "I really liked your talk at the last session." Something light and polite that does not beg for a long conversation, especially when you are liable to be interrupted by the lyrical sound of flushing at any time.
There have been anecdotes of writers handing samples of their work under the stalls to agents. Unless you wish to be the butt of cruel jokes bandied about for years by agents when they gather together at a bar.
That's about all for now. This weekend I'm volunteering for the San Francisco Writers Conference and am looking forward to having a great time.
Look for me if you're attending as well.
Linda
For the most humorous take of what attending a writers conference from an agent's perspective, here's what Miss Snark had to say.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Confessions of a Former Bookseller, Part III
My intentions with this blog is to put forth my thoughts about writing/publishing and my love of drama. My goal is to update it at least weekly in the new year.
There are still some gems of knowledge that I gleaned from working at a bookstore that I feel I should share. So until I exhaust that theme, here's part III in my series of Confessions of a Former Book Seller:
In defense of a good spine
I believe a book's spine is more important than its cover.
I don't want to diminish the power of good cover art, or wonderful hooks and blurbs on back covers that entice readers to crack open books to read the contents. Nope. I'm saying that if the spine is lousy, the cover art won't have a chance to work its magic.
That's because most books are not placed "face out" on book shelves. They are instead placed with their spines out. If your book has a bad spine, it'll never get picked off the shelf.
You not only have to have a compelling title that will intrigue someone who is browsing the book shelves, you also need to make sure they can read the title.
When I worked as a bookseller, I saw a lot of bad examples of how not to create a book. The worst I remember was a book that had a white cover with pink italic script. I remember picking up that book and laughing with other booksellers in the back room about it. We weren't laughing at the book's content, but rather the fact that no one would be able see the name of the book on its spine or its cover.
I mean, what where they thinking when they picked that combination? Did the author want the book to match her favorite dress? And on a field of white? Then there was the italics. That font should only be used on front covers and only in subtitles. It should never be on a spine, because the reader is trying to read titles sideways, please don't make it any harder on them than it already is. The longer the book length, the wider your spine will be and you should try to make the font of the title as big and as bold as possible. You want your book to stand out from all of the competing titles on the shelf and scream, "LOOK AT ME! PICK ME!"
Part of what makes a good spine is contrast in color. You need to have the text stand out from the background color of the cover. A friend of mine has a book that graces my shelf which unfortunatetly does not follow that simple rule. The background color is blue and the text is black. If I didn't know what to look for, I would have a hard time finding it on my shelf. That's because it is almost camouflaged and my eye automatically jumps to spines that are easier to read.
Try your own experiment and look at the books on your shelf. See which ones you can read with ease and from the average distance you would stand away from a shelf at a bookstore. Find out what you think works best and what is difficult to read. Also remember that as people age, their eyesight isn't what it used to be and the larger the font the easier it is to read.
And please, do not go for saddle stitching. Unless your book is for arts and crafts and destined to be sold in risers or spinners in specialty markets, it is the death knell to go for a staple to be your spine. The same goes for spiral binding. Just don't.
If you can't read the book's title when it's on the shelf then it is doomed to gather dust there. No one will pick it off the shelf either to buy it, or a bookseller to return it. Instead, your pride and joy will be destined to remain unloved on the shelf like a forgotten toy.
I would have thought that these concepts about having a spine with a good contrast would be common sense. However, I have brought this subject up at writers conferences and most recently at a meeting of my writers club and you'd have thought that I had just given them a revelation from on high from the reactions I got from people.
So please while obsessing about what images you want to have gracing your cover, I humbly implore you to spend a little time thinking about your spine as well.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Confessions of a Former Bookseller, Part II
If you haven’t read part I, please scroll down and read that entry first.
Our store was one of twelve alpha sites for the program. When our doors opened in November 1994, we were one of the first to see how it would work. I helped develop the manual that was used to train all the other superstores when the program went nationwide.
Essentially when a book wasn’t in our store that a customer wanted, a bookseller would order it for them. Our computerized ordering system would connect at the end of each day to a series of book distributors such as: Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Book People and Pacific Pipeline. Included in the day's orders were replacement copies for the store for those books which were “modeled,” specific requests by managers for hot trends and customer orders.
(Side bar about book which were “modeled.” Those books are backlist titles which have a proven sales record. That could be anything from “Huckleberry Finn” and “What Color is Your Parachute?” to “Calvin and Hobbes.” The home office determined how many copies of a specific title a store should have on hand. For example, we had probably about 10 copies of “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron on our shelf. Whenever we sold a copy, the computer automatically ordered a replacement copy so we would maintain a stock of ten copies of that title.
New books are not modeled. So you can have a new celebrity kiss-and-tell book released with great fanfare and three months later it is returned to the publisher and on the bargain table in six months and never makes it as a coveted backlist title.
In the publishing business there’s a phrase known as “gone today, here tomorrow” referring to books being returned from the bookstores. The goal for authors should be not only great initial sales at time of publication, but long-term interest from the book buying public to make your revenue stream come years after you finished writing your masterpiece.)
How the process workedI would get a list generated each day of titles that failed in the ordering process. That none of the book distributors were able to fulfill our request. My job was to see if those books were available directly from the publisher.
I took that sheet of paper which sometimes had 80 or so books on it and go up to a terminal with Bowker’s Book in Print and find out who was the publisher for each individual book. Then I’d write down their contact information.
Once I had my list then I’d try to see if there were any publishers who had more than one book that I needed to call about. I mean, why call Little, Brown and Co. three times when you could call them once and ask about three titles?
I learned a lot about publishers in this process. I hear people at writers conferences and at meetings complaining that there are only five or six major publishing houses who make all the decisions about what to publish.
Nonsense. There are a lot more publishers than that.
I worked at that job for a little over two years and I had filled two entire rolodexes with cards and contact information of publishers. Some were behemoths with multiple imprints, and others were “mom and pop” operations. There were also many medium sized publishers including university presses who produced wonderful books. One of my favorite smaller publishers is Ten Speed Press.
The one publisher that I developed an intense dislike for was AMS Press. That was because they were just incredibly and intolerably rude to me. I could never figure that out. Here I was calling them because someone wanted to buy one of their books and they were always be snide and rude.
It was an interesting job because many of my preconceived assumptions simply did not hold up. I had expected that any title from the bigger publishers that weren’t available from the distributors and still in print would not be available from the publisher directly. Not so. I ordered books all the time from Random House, Harper Collins,
The Process of going “Out of Print”
I had been told by my manager to expect that mass market paperbacks if they weren’t available from our distributors were most likely out of print. That’s because her thought was that many titles have a short shelf life. If they don’t sell, they become strip returns and then go “out of print.”
I found her perception to be inadequate to describe the process. An unavailable mass market title from a major publisher would go through the following steps:
1. Out of stock. (It might be pending a reprint or not. That information was not known. Although sometimes they would give a date and that generally meant that there was a pending reprint although the order was always subject to cancellation.)
2. Out of stock – no date. Similar to #1 but given a different status.
3. Out of stock indefinitely.
4. Out of print.
It didn’t matter whether or not the status was due to reason 1-4, the end result was that I could not get them their book. I would make my publisher calls up until
Hot titles being out of stock
I remember several hot titles where it would be literally over a month before our backorders got filled. So trying to order them directly from the publisher didn’t work either. And unfortunately some customers would get really snitty when we couldn’t get them their books in those cases. I remember a few of them saying that B. Dalton had copies, why didn’t we? They didn’t want to buy it at B. Dalton because they wanted our discount, but we didn’t have a copy so what good did it do to complain to us? Honestly, we weren’t trying to withhold any titles from people due to a political conspiracy.
Eeeeeegads. Sometimes dealing with the public can be a challenge.
Now, with all the online book dealers who are vendors for Barnes and Noble.com I pretty certain they have disbanded the publisher order program. Because it was a lot of work and now people can go online themselves try to find titles themselves and purchase used or out of print books online.Sunday, December 10, 2006
Confessions of a Former Bookseller, Part I
I used to work as a bookseller for Barnes and Noble.
Get it out of your system.
I admit that I worked for one of the Eeeevil national chains parodied in the movie You’ve Got Mail as Fox and Sons.
Some of the observations that I made as a bookseller at a major national chain might not hold true if I had worked at a local indy, therefore as budding novelist, I’m glad I worked at B&N. I think some of the observations may also prove helpful to other writers who would like to see their work carried in major chains across the country as well as indies.
How the stores are structured
I was one of the original store hires and so I was there when the store was still devoid of inventory. We had to start from nothing to over 100,000 books on the shelves categorized and alphabetized in about four weeks time. It seemed like a task worthy of Hercules.
Green: Bestsellers and bargain books
Pink: Self-help books, (popular psychology, as well as psychology text books), motivational titles, health, games and puzzles, humor, field guides, travel and cook books
Yellow: business titles, legal reference, history, religion, philosophy
Blue: fiction, reference books, foreign language, drama, poetry, anthologies, art books, How-to manuals for car repair, gardening, woodworking, needlepoint
I remember exactly the floor plan of how the store looked when we opened, and they’ve changed things since then a few times over. I don’t know if any of those color designations still hold or if the home office had decided to tinker with what was in pink vs. blue departments.
The important part of the color designation was when the books were delivered. We had several days when entire UPS trucks delivered their contents to us and we would be like the proverbial fire brigade chain setting the boxes of books in the middle of the store. All the boxes came from Ingram, and it was considered to be the Superstore start up kit.
One of the assistant managers would open a box and yell out the various colors and people would then take the box and move it to a pile. Later we would be opening the boxes and separating them for their various appropriate shelves.
After the segregation and categorizing came the alphabetizing. All with the opening date looming.
The night before we opened to the general public we had a fête for the employees and guests. Several people wore tuxedoes, and we had food and wine. It was a glorious night. I was showing my husband around and took him to the receiving room and I saw one of the supervisors doing something that I will never forget.
She was stripping the covers off of paperbacks for the first strip return.
We had not even opened our doors to the public, but we were obligated by the home office to strip the covers off books and destroy the printed content. Because the strip returns were generated on a nation wide computer system and they did not distinguish between existing stores and new ones.
Our store was opening a week before the Thanksgiving holidays and the beginning of the Christmas book buying season, and yet we still had to destroy books that we worked to get in the store and alphabetize. Books that no consumer ever had the opportunity to purchase.
I thought of it as being sacrilegious. That was just my first observation of how corporate mentality is not necessarily predicated on logic or common sense.
There are more similar observations to follow.
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