Surviving the Rapid Changes in Publishing

With the demise of Borders, the growth in e-publishing and self-publishing, and the growing number of big name writers who are walking away from new contracts offers to take control of their work and incomes, there’s plenty to talk about these days. For every Amanda Hocking who sells a ton of books and lands a lucrative contract with a large publishing house, thousands are floundering, and a small number are resorting to unprofessional tactics to sell books. Some publishing houses may not survive the turbulence. Writers are beginning to question the relevancy of agents, and good editors are becoming worth their weight in gold, yet many writers refuse to pay even a fraction of that for their services. So, how does one stay afloat in this sea of change?

Author Dean Wesley Smith authors interesting advice in his blog. He suggests not pursuing traditional publishers or agents right now. Too many publishing houses are struggling to deal with dwindling sales and rapidly diminishing bookshelf space in the stores. You can read more of his thoughts at http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=5052

An increasing number of traditionally published authors are claiming that their e-book incomes are outstripping all of their print sales combined. So, do we all go the e-publishing route? Well, wait a sec, there are a lot of things to consider. Many of the writers who are doing well have already built a readership with numerous, traditionally published books. Aside from Amanda Hocking, who readily admits that she worked long and hard at social networking to promote her books, the vast majority of unknown writers aren’t going to make enough to live on unless they’ve written a good manuscript and are prepared to work their butts off promoting it. Even then there are no guarantees.

Some writers suggest that you write as much as you can (but not crap) and put it all out there, including short fiction to start building a brand name. Branding itself is a whole other topic for discussion, but many suggest it’s an essential marketing tool these days, just like book tours once were. Even blog tours these days don’t seem as popular for promoting a book as they once were.

I don’t have any clear answers to survival, but common sense tells me that working diligently at writing and improving your craft, networking (physically and virtually), promoting, and researching all the many aspects of the publishing scene, are as essential as ever. I will say, don’t be too quick to publish until your manuscript has been read by reliable critiquers and professionally edited. It will help make a big difference in your success. If you have any tips for survival, please share them. If we all help one another then we might do just fine.

THE OPPOSITE OF DARK, http://bit.ly/i983XE, Chapters/Indigo http://bit.ly/gtFSFw
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Summer Reviewer Giveaway - July 1-August 31

A special announcement from Imajin Books:

This July & August, we hope you'll join us for our Summer Reviewer Giveaway. No, we aren't giving away reviewers (though I'm sure some authors would LOVE to have their very own). We're rewarding reviewers!

We think reviewers are special. They take the time to read our books and then post their thoughts about our titles on blogs, websites, Facebook pages, Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari etc. And it's time they get some real appreciation. So we're giving away ebooks to reviewers.

And our reviewers will be entered in a draw for a Mystery Prize worth at least $120.

Here's how it works:

• Borrow an Imajin Books title (ebook or paperback) from a friend or lending site, or buy from your favourite retailer. 
• Then post a review on Amazon, B&N or Goodreads. Only reviews posted between July 1, 2011 and August 31, 2011 qualify.
• Email us with the links to your reviews.
• You'll receive 1 free ebook of your choice (from our titles). No obligation to review your ebook prize.
• 1 Mystery Prize valued at $120 (minimum) will be given away to one lucky winner.
• Anyone, anywhere, 18+, can enter this giveaway. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. No cash value.
  
• Imajin Books authors, their families and any subcontracted associates of Imajin Books are excluded from this contest.
• All prizes will be awarded after September 1st and before September 3rd. The Mystery Prize may take up to 4 weeks to be received.

Cheryl guests on Earth's Book Nook

Any good writer can plot a suspense novel, and take characters from danger to escape/happiness, but I like to dig a bit deeper with my characters. I like to delve into their deepest, darkest fears. Often, those fears mirror my own. For a mother, there is no worse fear than that something horrible will happen to your child...

Visit Earth's Book Nook to read how I was inspired by true events to delve deep into the characters in Children of the Fog.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Whose Story Is It?

Every story is someone’s story. Whether we are writing about war, child abuse, romance, murder, or any other topic, we must make readers care about a character. Readers want someone to root for, to bond with, to love. Once they have found that, they will be eager to read further.

One of the hardest things for some of us writers is to decide whose story we are writing. We create a lot of characters while writing our novels, and we fall in love with all of them, even the villains. We feel disloyal to our creations if we give one character more consideration than others, and we believe the story needs all those points of view. Perhaps it does. But the reader doesn’t know that. All the reader knows is what is on the page, not what is in our minds, and all those equally significant characters become confusing. Readers need to know whose story it is. Or whose story it mostly is.

One way for us to decide this is to figure out which character has the most at stake, which one will change the most. If we are lucky, the two will be the same, and we will know whose story it is. If not, we have to make the character who will change the most into the main story character while upping that character’s stakes.

A character with nothing to lose is not one people will care about. If someone in the story parachutes out of a plane for fun, readers might find it entertaining, but they won’t be concerned. But if someone wearing a faulty parachute jumps out of a plane into flames to save a child lost in the middle of a forest fire, everyone except the most curmudgeonly will care.

The same is true of character growth. A character who remains static, who learns nothing from experience, is not someone readers can love. A story is always about change, and since a story is also about a character, that character should grow. A timid character could learn to stand up for himself. An arrogant character could learn a touch of humility. The essence of the character does not need to change. A timid reporter who turns into superman is the stuff of comic books, not a realistic novel. But a character who grows, who learns, who comes back from his or her experiences with something to share, that is a character readers care about.

And that’s whose story it is.

***

Pat Bertram is the author of Light Bringer, More Deaths Than One, A Spark of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I.

What the Closing of Borders Means for Authors

As you probably know, Borders filed for bankruptcy-court protection in February. Since there were no buyers and they didn’t want a bankruptcy-court auction, Borders is now forced to liquidate. The U.S.’s second largest bookstore chain will close their 399 stores by the end of September. This not only means that 10,700 people will be out of work, but that literally miles of bookshelf space will be gone. This is bad news for authors on many levels. For instance, bookstore employees were often the ones who recommended books to customers, and if they’re no longer there to talk up your book who will?

Borders blames their troubles on the rising popularity of e-book sales, a turbulent economy, and on publishers who refused to allow them to pay their bills later. Whether this was a wise strategy on the publishers’ part is hard to say. Publishers need income to keep their companies going, but now there is one less chain to carry their books. With far fewer opportunities for readers to browse in a physical store, amazon.com and other online stores will likely see a boost in business. So, is this a sign of things to come for other chains? To read more in an article from The Wall Street Journal go to http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052702303661904576454353768550280-lMyQjAxMTAxMDEwODExNDgyWj.html

There’s also an article in The New York Times you can find at http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/borders-calls-off-auction-plans-to-liquidate/?ref=business

On a related note, author Kristine Kathryn Rusch posted news that Barnes & Noble plans to substantially cut the number of paperbacks they carry to add more games and toys to their stock. They are expected to start massive returns of books to publishers soon, which again is bad news for publishers and authors. Authors’ royalty checks will be smaller than normal for the third quarter of this year. As bookshelf space shrinks, print runs will be smaller in future; incomes and careers will suffer. Publishers might be less inclined to take on new writers than they were before. Some publishers won’t survive.

Hold onto your hat folks, the next few months are going to get pretty bumpy for some. We’ve all been through tough times before, but this doesn’t make the news any more welcome. You can find Rusch’s blog at http://kriswrites.com/2011/07/20/the-business-rusch-third-quarter-blues/

THE OPPOSITE OF DARK, http://bit.ly/i983XE, Chapters/Indigo http://bit.ly/gtFSFw
FATAL ENCRYPTION, http://tinyurl.com/ddzsxl
TAXED TO DEATH, http://tinyurl.com/czsy5n

Google+ For A Non-Joiner

I've been on Google+ for several days and my opinion of it at this point is: So far, so good. This, from a reluctant joiner.

It's like Twitter, in that you can view the public post stream or just those from people in your "circles" -- People you've chosen and sorted into as wide or restricted a grouping as you like. I have a big circle called Fellow Writers and a tiny one called For My Eyes Only, where I post links and reminders and direct them only to myself. I have small circles for writers' groups I'm in. If particular people from various circles were to be attending the same convention or working on the same project, we could each make a circle for that event or project with each other in it and use G+ as a glorified email program.

Google+ has "Hangouts", which are chatrooms--video and/or text. I like the possibility of having virtual writers' meetings or interviews or appearances. I know there are other places where these are possible, but what interests me about G+ right now is how many useful internet features are integrated into this one product. As one of my elementary school teachers might have said, "Someone had his thinking cap on."

There are a LOT of writers on Google+, with more joining every day. I think it's going to prove to be a useful professional tool, if nothing else. Want an invite? Leave your email address in the comments section or email me at marian.allen.author at gmail dot com and tell me why. I'm interested in knowing your thoughts about it.

Marian Allen
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