Every now and then, you have to keep the fires burning. Competing for writing contests is one of the best ways to get your creative juices flowing and expose your work to new audiences. They also can be cash cows.
Below, we list a few of our favorite recent writing contests. Good luck writers.
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books (fiction and nonfiction) below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg with Nell Scovell. (Knopf.) The chief operating officer of Facebook urges women to pursue their careers without ambivalence and to cultivate a will to lead.
2 BOSSYPANTS, by Tina Fey. (Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown.) A memoir from the former “Saturday Night Live” star and creator of “30 Rock.”
Photo by diego o saldiva
Self-publishing, it seems, has finally reached its tipping point. According to a 2011 Bowker study, the number of self-published books produced annually in the U.S. has tripled, growing a profound 287 percent since 2006, with 235,625 print and e-titles released in 2011. As self-publishing continues to climb in popularity, consumers are moving away from the cultural stigma that the only books worth reading are those that have been published and marketed by big New York City publishing houses.
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books (fiction and nonfiction) below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
Book clubs, start your engines—the Pulitzer Prize is back in the saddle! Despite last year’s disappointing announcement that the fiction prize would not be awarded, this year’s list includes a fiction awardee, as well as winners for the journalism, criticism, nonfiction and photography awards.
Photo by Sidduz
A new survey from the Book Industry Study Group and Bowker finds that tablet popularity has surpassed e-reader use among ebook readers. The study, titled “Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading,” shows readers prefer multi-function tablets over e-readers as the device of choice among consumers who read e-books. Read More
The ability to laugh an effective remedy for problems. Laughter helps the body release endorphins, which are hormones secreted that temporarily relieve stress and pain. While comedians are widely accepted as lighthearted, funny people, but there is much more to the art of comedy.
“Most people write their sets like weird, stilted monologues,” explained comedian Jacob McFadden when dissecting the art of writing jokes. “It needs to be written like a conversation. Leave room for people to people to be involved. You can never predict an audience’s reaction. Radio is actually perfect training. It teaches you to be personable, to leave room for the unexpected, and to always be in the moment.”
McFadden, a former disc jockey for Virginia Commonwealth University’s WVCW, originally wanted to work in radio. He eventually ended up leaving the field early because of rules and restrictions. Explicit and raw, McFadden’s sense of humor violated the decency standards of public airwaves. . Not long after, he found sanctuary in performing live at bars as a comedian.
Despite having the fun job of making crowds chuckle, there are numerous other aspects to the profession that aren’t often glorified.. One of the biggest issues that comics face is heckling. The wise-cracking audience members intent on giving a comedian a hard time are difficult for some to deal with but others have no qualms about controlling the room.
“I go hardcore right away,” he said. “I usually pull people around and they end up liking me but sometimes I demolish them,” he said. “I don’t enjoy hecklers but I can handle it. I may leave the stage a little too caustic for the guys after me, though. I’m sensitive.”
Another problem concerns writing material: The average Joe might be under the impression they have an infinite supply of jokes but this could not be further from the truth. McFadden, for one, has admitted to having trouble writing simple jokes.
Ghostwriting, the act of an individual writing something that will be accredited to another, is a prevalent occurrence in comedy. It goes hand-in-hand with McFadden’s belief that comedians have a certain voice.
“Everyone does it,” he said. “Sometimes, you think of a joke that doesn’t fit your voice but it works for someone else. Instead of wasting the joke or trying to force it into your set, give it to a friend. People are always offering tags and trying to improve their colleagues sets.”
A well-rounded writer, McFadden has dipped his hands in a slew of different genres. He has written and given away several small sketches for free. In addition to those, he also wrote a play that was later produced.
Fiction and poetry have also had the pleasure of his exploration. By taking a course in the reading and writing of fiction and poetry last year, he discovered the similarities and differences between prose and comedy.
“Poetry is interesting because the perception is that it requires you to give of yourself. Most people assume that it means sorrow, agony, and sensitivity. Comedy also requires you to give of yourself, so I wanted to move that forward. Poetry is inherently personal, unlike fiction, so whatever you write will be judged as ‘you.’ I reveal my own follies but without trying to force others to feel it,” he said.
The satisfaction McFadden receives from making others laugh is, in his words, “orgasmic.” According to him, laughter is a release and people laugh the hardest during moments where it is most uncomfortable. It is McFadden’s opinion the best laughs are at funerals because of suppressed emotions finally being expressed.
McFadden believes jokes that have bad delivery, no punchline, are too self-referential, and are too much like a monologue are poor. Furthermore, he claims everyone can be a comedian but not all will be good. Those interested in pursuing a career in comedy are given a word of advice.
“Get really drunk and argue with people. Before you do that, ask the manager of the bar if you can start an open-mic at his spot. Then, get really drunk, argue with people, and journal it when you get home. Seriously, that’s where you will find the bits.”
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books (fiction and nonfiction) below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 SIX YEARS, by Harlan Coben. (Penguin Group.) Six years after the woman he loved married another man, Jake Fisher discovers that neither she nor their life together were what theyseemed, and he sets out to uncover the truth.
2 WAIT FOR YOU, by J. Lynn. (J. Lynn.) Nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten hopes she can escape the tragedy in her past when she goes to college, but she begins to receive threats.
Read More
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books (fiction and nonfiction) below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 ALEX CROSS, RUN, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown & Company.) While Alex Cross pursues a Washington serial killer (or killers?), someone is after him.
2 WAIT FOR YOU, by J. Lynn. (J. Lynn.) Nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten hopes she can escape the tragedy in her past when she goes to college, but she begins to receive threats.
In this era, public libraries are working to draw new patrons into their buildings by providing new and innovative services to the public. You’ve heard of some of the upgrades found in libraries today–e-books, iPads and mobile applications (read the latest Pew study on libraries and technology).
But some library services now being offered lean a bit on the unconventional side, like the telescope library loan program at the Portland Public Library in Maine, or the musical instrument check-out program at the Lopez Island Library in Washington state. And don’t forget about the cake pan loan programs available at several Kansas libraries. Read More
New research from Bowker Market Research (United Kingdom) and Enders Analysis proves that physical bookstores are valuable to a healthy, sustainable publishing industry.
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 RECKLESS, by S. C. Stephens. (Simon & Schuster.) The success of Kellan’s band poses a challenge to his relationship with Kiera.
2 WAIT FOR YOU, by J. Lynn. (J. Lynn.) Nineteen-year-old Avery Morgansten hopes she can escape the tragedy in her past when she goes to college, but threats follow her.
Read More
According to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, national bookstore sales figures increased 5.5 percent in January to $2.13 billion. Sales for retail rose 6.1 percent during that month. Census Bureau bookstore data includes all sales from stores that generate at least 50 percent of their total book revenue.
Source: Publishers Weekly
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 CALCULATED IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb. (Penguin Group.) Lt. Eve Dallas must crunch the numbers as she investigates the death of a successful accountant; by Nora Roberts, writing pseudonymously.
2 THE STORYTELLERby Jodi Picoult. (Simon & Schuster.) A New Hampshire baker finds herself in the midst of two Holocaust stories: her grandmother’s story of survival, and the confessions of an elderly German man, an SS officer. Read More
From its inception in New York City in the 1970s, hip-hop has grown from its humble birthplace in the Bronx into a global phenomenon. The culture of the genre is defined by four elements: breaking, DJing, graffiti, and rapping (Lyrical content is often regarded as one of the most important aspects of a song, according to legendary rappers KRS-One and Ice-T).
This, folks, is the era of the self-made man. As the Internet continues to disrupt industry strongholds in everything from music sales to college classrooms to television programming, consumers are using their purchasing power to show businesses that they’re comfortable buying products and services online from independent sellers.
Nowhere is the change in status quo more evident than the publishing industry: less than five years ago, self-publishing was frowned upon, used only by lowly rejected authors. That’s not the case today. Now, large publishers scroll the Amazon bestseller lists looking to sign the next big self-published authors (see E.L. James’ $1.3 million a week success story). Since the attitude toward self-publishing has changed so drastically, now may be the best time to go rouge and publish your own book.
But which book printing service is the best? Which book printer is the best option for first-timers? Here, we tell you why Lulu book printing—a web-based self-publishing service—is the best book printer on the market.
Lulu provides online access to the tools authors need to design and publish books, brochures, reports, posters, music, videos and calendars. In addition to basic printing services, Lulu offers some services rarely found. For instance, users can now use Lulu to print vintage books, such as out-of-print books or personal artifacts.
This reason is probably most important to indie authors, since they have to cover the entire costs of designing, editing and publishing their own books. While the cost to print color books through Lulu is significantly more than black and white books, you still save overall. Here’s a breakdown of Lulu prices.
Printing:
Distribution:
Lulu offers guidance on printing ebooks and physical books for newbie authors.
Lulu recently dropped Digital Rights Management (DRM) from their ebook publishing options, much to the ire of many users. While some may protest the move, there are many benefits to ending DRM, since it means the ebooks can now be viewed on many different platforms (before DRM-protected ebooks had to be accessed using Adobe Digital Editions, a downloadable application different from the popular Adobe Reader).
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 SAFE HAVEN, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central Publishing.) The arrival of a mysterious young woman in a small North Carolina town raises questions about her past.
2 UNTIL THE END OF TIME, by Danielle Steel. (Random House Publishing.) The stories of two relationships, at different times, intersect unexpectedly.
3 GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn. (Crown Publishing.) A woman disappears on the day of her fifth anniversary; is her husband a killer?
4 PRIVATE BERLIN, by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan. (Little, Brown & Company.) A superstar agent at the German headquarters of a powerful investigation firm disappears.
5 FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) A college student falls in love with a tortured man with particular sexual tastes; the first of a trilogy.
6 COLLIDE, by Gail McHugh. (Gail McHugh.) A young woman who has just graduated from college and lost her mother gives up her thoughtful boyfriend for a rich playboy.
7 SUSPECT, by Robert Crais. (Penguin Group.) A Los Angeles policeman and a German shepherd, both suffering from PTSD, search for the killers of the cop’s partner.
Photo by Andrew Mason
Preparing an ebook is surprisingly similar to preparing a manuscript for print publication–simply remove all characters and formatting styles from a print manuscript before uploading a manuscript onto an ebook retail website, such as Lulu (the best option), Scribd or Smashwords. Here’s how to clean up a manuscript for ebook publishing in four easy steps:
Step One: It’s All About the Text
In print books, different fonts are typically used to separate chapter headings from book content. While this works in print books, the formatting changes, when used in ebooks, may not be compatible on all ereaders. If you use styles in your manuscript, ensure that all heading styles and font are consistent. As a rule, set all of your font text to 10-point or 11-point font.
Step Two: Hyperlink the Table of Contents
Hyperlinking the table of contents is now a must, given that ebook readers have come to expect it. To do this, make sure that all chapters have chapter numbers. Then, use your word processor to link (using the Index and Tables feature in Microsoft Word, for example) by clicking “Use Hyperlinks Instead of Page Numbers.”
Step Three: Remove All Characters
Next, remove all characters used in the print manuscript. If bullet points or numerals are necessary for the ebook, use HTML coding to add special characters into the ebook manuscript. If you don’t know HTML, find someone who does or leave it alone.
We do not recommend trying to do this yourself in your ebook as it could make your ebook look homemade and amateurish.
Step Four: Delete all Blank Pages and Margin Rules
When it comes to margins, line-spacing and font sizes, every publisher has their own set of rules. Always consult the ebook style manual set by the ebook publisher that you are going to use to publish your ebook.
In general, it is a good idea to get rid of all of the blank pages from your print manuscript. To keep your ebook compatible with most ereaders, set your margins to the standard 1″ (or 25mm). Be sure to change your line spacing to 1.5 line spacing.
All images (which includes sidebars, tables, graphs and figures) must be removed from an ebook manuscript because some ereaders will not support images at all. For some ebooks, images may be necessary (such as illustrated ebooks), so we recommend that independent writers reach out to freelance ebook developers or ebook publishers to help format the images.
Have an ebook tip? Leave comments below!
The massive influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants to the United States in recent years has birthed brighter futures for those who otherwise might not have had them. The possibilities of cultural diffusion, employment, and higher education are but a few of the elements that attract foreigners to the nation. The “American Dream,” a set of hopes ranging from equality to democracy to material prosperity, tends to be the main factor in the decision making of many when it comes to immigration. But for many, the language barrier—that is, the inability to speak English— is an obstacle standing in the way of progression for some.
“While our society is moving at an immeasurable rate towards text messaging in lieu of verbal communication and typing e-mails instead of letters, I cannot emphasize enough how important I personally think it is to be an adept writer,” said Jacqueline Rodriguez, a bilingual professor from Titusville, Fla. Read More
Last week, Barnes & Noble, Inc. announced the six finalists for its 2012 Discover Great New Writers Awards. The fiction and nonfiction winners receive $10,000 and a full year of additional promotion from Barnes & Noble. Second-place finalists receive $5,000, and third-place finalists, $2,500.
Fiction
Nonfiction
This year’s fiction judges are: Lan Samantha Chang, Alan Cheuse and Karl Marlantes. This year’s nonfiction judges include Susan Cheever, Wendy McClure and Touré.
Final winners will be announced March 6, 2013, at a private awards ceremony. Books by the finalists and judges can be purchased online at www.bn.com/discover.
Vancouver-based Heritage House Publishing has acquired all assets of the Greystone Books imprint from D&M. Last week, Heritage president Rodger Touchie and Greystone founding publisher Rob Sanders announced the purchase and plans to establish Greystone Books as a separate company.
Sanders will immediately resume his role as publisher, and Nancy Flight will return as an associate publisher. Greystone is known for its quality non-fiction books about nature and the environment.
“In the past 20 years Greystone Books built a significant legacy in Canadian publishing,” said Touchie. “I have long admired their program and have great respect for both Rob and Nancy. They will add immensely to our Heritage Group team, and together we will make sure Greystone is around for a long time to come.”
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 SAFE HAVEN, by Nicholas Sparks. (Grand Central Publishing.) The arrival of a mysterious young woman in a small North Carolina town raises questions about her past.
2 PRIVATE BERLIN, by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan. (Little, Brown & Company.) A superstar agent at the German headquarters of a powerful investigation firm disappears, and the resulting search reveals many secrets.
3 GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn. (Crown Publishing.) A woman disappears on the day of her fifth anniversary; is her husband a killer?
4 HOPELESS, by Colleen Hoover. (Colleen Hoover.) The man who has been relentlessly pursuing Sky Davis is not who he pretends to be.
5 FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) A college student falls in love with a tortured man with particular sexual tastes; the first of a trilogy.
6 SUSPECT, by Robert Crais. (Penguin Group.) A Los Angeles policeman and a German shepherd that has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan, both suffering from PTSD, search for the killers of the cop’s partner.
7 EVER AFTER, by Kim Harrison. (HarperCollins Publishers.) The witch Rachel Morgan and an unlikely ally battle a demon in order to prevent an apocalypse.
8 FIFTY SHADES DARKER, by E. L. James. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) Ana Steele learns more about Christian Grey’s troubled past; the second book in a trilogy.
9 FIFTY SHADES FREED, by E. L. James. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) The final book in an erotic trilogy.
10 THE FORGOTTEN, by David Baldacci. (Grand Central Publishing.) The military investigator John Puller probes his aunt’s mysterious death in Florida.
11 THE RACKETEER, by John Grisham. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) An imprisoned ex-lawyer schemes to exchange this information about who murdered a judge for his freedom.
12 SOMEONE TO LOVE, by Addison Moore. (Addison Moore.) A one-night stand turns into love for two college students.
13 THE COINCIDENCE OF CALLIE AND KAYDEN, by Jessica Sorensen. (Jessica Sorensen.) A boy and girl, both with tragedy in their past, come together after a chance encounter.
14 THE FIFTH ASSASSIN, by Brad Meltzer. (Grand Central Publishing.) Tracking an assassin who is recreating the crimes of the four men who murdered presidents, Beecher White discovers that they all were working together.
15 BARED TO YOU, by Sylvia Day. (Penguin Group.) Two troubled people develop an intense, obsessive relationship.
1 PROOF OF HEAVEN, by Eben Alexander. (Simon & Schuster.) A neurosurgeon recounts his near death experience during a coma from bacterial meningitis.
2 FRANCONA, by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing.) The manager’s Red Sox years.
3 MY BELOVED WORLD, by Sonia Sotomayor. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) The Supreme Court justice recalls growing up in the Bronx, attending Princeton, working for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office and becoming a federal judge.
4 KILLING KENNEDY, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Henry Holt & Company.) The host of “The O’Reilly Factor” recounts the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
5 GOING CLEAR, by Lawrence Wright. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) The Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines the world of Scientology.
6 NO EASY DAY, by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer. (Penguin Group.) An account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, by a former member of the Navy SEALs.
7 KILLING LINCOLN, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Henry Holt & Company.) The host of “The O’Reilly Factor” recounts the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
8 THOMAS JEFFERSON, by Jon Meacham. (Random House Publishing.) The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer celebrates Jefferson’s skills as a practical politician.
9 CRY SILENT TEARS, by Joe Peters. (HarperCollins Publishers.) The story of a boy subjected to violence and sexual abuse who became mute for several years but eventually escaped his family; originally published in 2008.
10 TEAM OF RIVALS, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Simon & Schuster.) The political genius of Abraham Lincoln, revealed in his relationship with his cabinet; originally published in 2005.
11 LADY ALMINA AND THE REAL DOWNTON ABBEY, by the Countess of Carnarvon. (Broadway Books.) The inspiration and setting for the show on PBS.
12 UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand. (Random House Publishing.) An Olympic runner’s story of survival as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.
13 THE POWER OF HABIT, by Charles Duhigg. (Random House Publishing.) A Times reporter’s account of the science behind how we form, and break, habits.
14 WILD, by Cheryl Strayed. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) A woman’s account of a life-changing 1,100-mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.
15 BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS, by Katherine Boo. (Random House Publishing.) A journalist reports on families striving for better lives in a Mumbai slum.
Photo by 55Laney69
The Publishing Industry, A History Lesson
The book market has not always been so dependent on the big publishers in New York City. In fact, academic and small commercial publishers dominated the American book market in the early 20th-century. In the early 1900s, only three major presses existed: small commercial publishers, large commercial publishers and university presses. During this time period, none of the publishing houses were interested in released original novels. University publishers provided the public with books on educational and academic topics, choosing to publish textbooks, classical literature reprints, Bibles reference books and encyclopedias.
Small commercial presses focused on profits—these publishing houses hired writers that created cheap, entertaining dime novels based on popular characters. But these presses were notorious for pushing out low-quality books. One of the reasons that the dime novels were so bad is because the publishers did not give their writers enough time to create well-written novels—writers had to produce new books at the rate of one nearly 30,000-word novel per week.
Out of all of the original publishers, only large presses cared about publishing true literary works of art. These presses were managed by wealthy philanthropists and art-lovers who enjoyed finding undiscovered creative writers. These publishers released poetry collections, biographies, literary fiction, as well as nonfiction books. The large presses, out of fear of losing their reputations as art leaders, would not publish entertainment for everyday readers.
All of this changed when Robert de Graff founded Pocket Books, and published a series of popular paperback books in 1939. The growth of the mainstream commercial novel reached new heights by 1945, when the format sold more than 40 million books. In the 1950s and 1960s, book publishing became the large business we think of today after many of the established presses took note of the format’s growth and potential.
As the book industry went into the 1970s, many of the small presses were bought out by larger presses in an attempt to snub the competition. By the 1980s, media conglomerates, such as Warner Communications and Time Inc., bought up many of the major book publishers (in addition to newspapers, film companies and recording businesses) to form profit-driven “mega media conglomerates.” To give you an idea of the amount of merging that happened in the past two decades: In 1983, 90 percent of American media was owned by 50 companies; by 2011, just six companies controlled the entire media market.
Current Market
Which leads us to today’s situation. Right now, the book market is led by a handful of major publishers, a group often referred to as the “Big Six.” The Big Six publishers include: Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin Group, HarperCollins, Random House and Simon & Schuster. Each of these publishing houses operates several small internal presses.
And, surprisingly, the conglomerate gets even bigger when you look at who owns each of the Big Six companies. (Fun fact: 26 percent of all content produced by the Big Six is German-owned: MacMillan is owned by German company Holtzbrinck, Random House and Penguin are divisions German conglomerate Bertelsmann, Hachette is owned by French company Hachette Livre, and HarperCollins is owned by Australian Media Corp owner Rupert Murdoch.
As you can see, American publishing has had a long history focused solely on earning money. We’ll be watching to see how some of the newer small independent presses and self-publishers are going to change the current profit-driven model in the next coming years.
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Don’t understand the publishing business? Below, Terence Kuch, author of The Seventh Effect and See/Saw, details how he broke into the industry. The article is the first part in a two-part series.
Although publisher “S” and I had made three rounds of content edits and copy edits, Melange needed their own, and a new contract. Fortunately these steps were brief, and I was soon dealing with their designer about a cover. The cover design process began with a 16-page questionnaire about each of my characters, and the setting(s), and et cetera cetera, to give the designer some ideas. Only two or three back-and-forths later I had a cover for The Seventh Effect. You can see it on Amazon. I think it does the job, but isn’t anything special. I had some ideas for the back cover, but they were politely ignored, which taught me…
If the publisher offers you more than 50% royalty (70% isn’t uncommon), try to talk that number down.
Lesson 4: The front and back covers, like the title, are the publisher’s domain, not yours. Although they will listen to your ideas, they know what will sell better than you do.
The Seventh Effect came out in paperback and Kindle editions, had a good review from Kirkus which I posted on Amazon, but with little promotion from the publisher. I found this surprising, given the amount of time and money they had invested in editing and preparing the book for publication. I can summarize this in…
Lesson 5: Unless you’ve already written a best-seller, the publisher is going to rely on you not only to be available for interviews and appearances, etc., but to seek out and make arrangements for these yourself. Most writers have no idea how to do this. (Use of websites and social media is essential, also.)
There were a few additional lessons I learned from my first novel-writing adventure:
Lesson 6: If the publisher offers you more than 50% royalty (70% isn’t uncommon), try to talk that number down. The more skin the publisher has in the game, the more attention they’ll pay to marketing your book. 15% is usually considered “professional.”
Lesson 7: No royalties are paid until some number of copies have been sold (more, if sold at a discount). The value of “some” can be large.
See/SawBy the time The Seventh Effect was published, I was already writing my second novel, See/Saw, a much more ambitious project.
See/Saw began with a line that popped into my head one day: “I dreamed I had sex with Truda Vallon.” Now, my dreams are never about sex even though I wish some were; and, “had sex with” is not my normal locution for that activity; and, I had never heard of a “Truda” or a “Vallon,” as names or otherwise. [It turns out that vallon is French for “small valley.” Berlioz set a scene for his opera Les Troyens, with a rousing chorus, in a vallon. Jean-Luc Picard is listening to the Vallon chorus when he’s interrupted by Commander William Riker, who thinks it’s Bizet – a clever “error” on the part of the Star Trek TNG writers.]
Following the muse of my unconscious, I wrote a novel to understand what my “popped” line meant. I resolved, this time, not to be limited by the conventions of genre: See/Saw uses multiple points of view, for example. Every character’s mind is probed, their selfish and trivial desires, their understandings and misunderstandings. I did observe ordinary time-sequence, with no premonitions or flashbacks except in “recovered memories” scenes.
I was resolved to write See/Saw to standard sci-fi novel length (90,000 to 120,000 words) without padding, and it did come in at 94,000 words.
Once finished, I wrote a query letter just as the books tell you to, and queried publishers once more. As I expected, I ran headlong into the Tyrant of Genre. Even though See/Saw was set in the year 2030 and involved memory-transplant technology, one publisher told me “See/Saw is not science fiction,” meaning that it didn’t fit the conventions of the sci-fi genre. But I was determined to have my way. If you’re just after dollars per hour, after all, remember…
Lesson 8: You can usually make more money doing the “Fries with that?” routine at McDonald’s than planning, writing, rewriting, and hawking a novel.
If you’re going to write novels, write them your way, or what’s the point?
You can find See/Saw on my author page at Amazon. If you’d care to write a review, I’ll be happy to send you a review copy. And yes – See/Saw would make a great gift for each of your 500 best friends, especially if they like sci-fi gender-benders about government mind-control (no, not the U.S. government – this time).
To keep up with Kuch, or to see how a good Amazon webpage is done, visit his website or his Amazon author page. Get regulary updates from Kuch on his blog www.terencekuch.com.
Industry update: Vantage Press, the vanity publisher, recently sent letters to their authors informing them that they have until January 31, 2013, to return an “Assignment & Release Agreement” if they want to get their rights back to their books. The press, which went out of business last December, is requiring authors to release Vantage from any claims and liabilities, including any royalties earned through the date of the returned agreement.
Wrightspeak readers, meet Cory Doctorow, author of Homeland, the sequel to the New York Times bestseller Little Brother. For the next few weeks, book lovers will have a chance to meet Doctorow while he’s out on his national book tour. See if he’ll be at your city below, or follow him at @doctorow.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013, 7:00 PM
Seattle Public Library Central Branch
Microsoft Auditorium
1000 Fourth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
Beaverton, OR
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
7:00 PM
Powell’s Books
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd
Beaverton, OR 97005
San Francisco, CA
Thursday, February 07, 2013
7:30 PM
Booksmith
1644 Haight Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
San Francisco, CA
Friday, February 08, 2013
7:00 PM
Borderlands Books
866 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Salt Lake City, UT
Saturday, February 09, 2013
2:00 PM
The Leonardo
208 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
Tempe, AZ
Sunday, February 10, 2013
2:00 PM
Changing Hands Bookstore
6428 South McClintock Drive
Tempe, AZ 85283
New York, NY
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
9:10 AM
Welcome to the (R)evolution
Times Square Marriott Marquis
1535 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
Crestview Hills, KY
Thursday, February 14, 2013
7:00 PM
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
2692 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45208
Coral Gables, FL
Friday, February 15, 2013
7:00 PM
Books & Books
265 Aragon Avenue
Coral Gables, FL 33134
Chapel Hill, NC
Saturday, February 16, 2013
2:00 PM
Flyleaf Books
752 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
Decatur, GA
Sunday, February 17, 2013
7:00 PM
Dekalb County Public Library
215 Sycamore Street
Decatur, GA 30030
Oxford, MS
Monday, February 18, 2013
5:00 PM
Square Books
160 Courthouse Square
Oxford, MS 38655
Memphis, TN
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
6:00 PM
Booksellers at Laurelwood
387 Perkins Extended
Memphis, TN 38117
New Orleans, LA
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
6:00 PM
Octavia Books
513 Octavia Street
New Orleans, LA 70115
Houston, TX
Thursday, February 21, 2013
7:00 PM
Brazos Bookstore
2421 Bissonnet Street
Houston, TX 77005
Austin, TX
Friday, February 22, 2013
7:00 PM
Book People
603 North Lamar Blvd
Austin, TX 78703
Nashua, NH
Saturday, February 23, 2013
3:30 PM
Schedule and more details TBA
Crowne Plaza Hotel
2 Somerset Pkwy
Nashua, NH 03063
Portsmouth, NH
Saturday, February 23, 2013
7:00 PM
RiverRun Bookstore
142 Fleet Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Concord, NH
Sunday, February 24, 2013
3:00 PM
Gibson’s Bookstore
27 South Main Street
Concord, NH 03301
Washington DC
Monday, February 25, 2013
6:30 PM
Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street NW
Washington DC, 20009
Cambridge, MA
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
7:00 PM
Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
Albuquerque, NM
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
6:00 PM
South Broadway Cultural Center
1025 Broadway Boulevard Southeast
Albuquerque, NM 87102
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books below. Use these books as starting points for your book club or personal reading lists.
1 THE BLACK BOX, by Michael Connelly. (Little, Brown & Company.) In a case that spans 20 years, the Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch links the bullet from a recent crime to a 1992 file, the killing of a young female photographer during the race riots.
2 COLD DAYS, by Jim Butcher. (Penguin Group.) Harry Dresden lives, but he’s no longer Chicago’s professional wizard. Now he’s the Winter Knight, Queen Mab’s assassin, and she wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal.
3 NOTORIOUS NINETEEN, by Janet Evanovich. (Random House Publishing.) The New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum joins with Joe Morelli to track down a con man who disappeared from a hospital; meanwhile, she takes a second job guarding Ranger.
4 THE FORGOTTEN, by David Baldacci. (Grand Central Publishing.) The military investigator John Puller probes his aunt’s mysterious death in Florida.
5 THE RACKETEER, by John Grisham. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) An imprisoned ex-lawyer schemes to exchange this information about who murdered a judge for his freedom.
6 MERRY CHRISTMAS, ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson. (Little, Brown & Company.) Detective Alex Cross confronts both a hostage situation and a terrorist act at Christmas.
7 GONE GIRL, by Gillian Flynn. (Crown Publishing.) A woman disappears on the day of her fifth anniversary; is her husband a killer?
8 THE LAST MAN, by Vince Flynn. (Simon & Schuster.) The counterterrorism operative Mitch Rapp searches for a missing C.I.A. asset amid treachery in Afghanistan.
9 LIFE OF PI, by Yann Martel. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers.) A teenage boy and a 450-pound tiger are thrown together in a lifeboat after a shipwreck; originally published in 2002 and now a movie.
10 FIFTY SHADES OF GREY, by E. L. James. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) A college student falls in love with a tortured man with particular sexual tastes; the first of a trilogy.
11 SHADOW’S CLAIM, by Kresley Cole. (Pocket Books.) Prince Trehan, a master assassin, will do anything to possess the beautiful sorceress Bettina — even compete in a blood-sport tournament.
12 THE EDGE OF NEVER, by J.A. Redmerski. (J.A. Redmerski.) A woman impulsively boards a Greyhound bus to start everything afresh, and meets a man with a dark secret.
13 AGENDA 21, by Glenn Beck with Harriet Parke. (Simon & Schuster.) A girl begins to question the authorities who run the Republic, the totalitarian successor to the United States created by the U.N.
14 FIFTY SHADES DARKER, by E. L. James. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing.) Ana Steele learns more about Christian Grey’s troubled past; the second book in a trilogy.
15 THE PERFECT HOPE, by Nora Roberts. (Penguin Group.) The final volume of the Inn BoonsBoro trilogy sees sparks fly between Ryder Montgomery and the innkeeper.
1 KILLING KENNEDY, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Henry Holt & Company.) The host of “The O’Reilly Factor” recounts the events surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
2 PROOF OF HEAVEN, by Eben Alexander. (Simon & Schuster.) A neurosurgeon recounts his near death experience during a coma from bacterial meningitis.
3 THOMAS JEFFERSON, by Jon Meacham. (Random House Publishing.) The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist celebrates Jefferson’s skills as a practical politician.
4 KILLING LINCOLN, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Henry Holt & Company.) The host of “The O’Reilly Factor” recounts the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
5 TEAM OF RIVALS, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Simon & Schuster.) The political genius of Abraham Lincoln, revealed in his relationship with his cabinet; originally published in 2005.
6 NO EASY DAY, by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer. (Penguin Group.) An account of the mission that killed Osama bin Laden, by a former member of the Navy SEALs.
7 ANTIFRAGILE, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. (Random House Publishing.) The philosophical essayist and author of “The Black Swan” identifies things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish.
8 THE SIGNAL AND THE NOISE, by Nate Silver. (Penguin Group.) An examination of predictions, the ones that come true and the ones that don’t.
9 FATAL FRIENDS, DEADLY NEIGHBORS, by Ann Rule. (Simon & Schuster.) The 16th collection in the Crime Files true-crime series.
10 AMERICA AGAIN, by Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Barry Julien, Tom Purcell et al.. (Grand Central Publishing.) The mock pundit of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” tells how to bring America back from the brink.
11 THE LAST LION, by William Manchester and Paul Reid. (Little, Brown & Company.) A biography of Winston Churchill, reaching from World War II until his death in 1965.
12 UNBROKEN, by Laura Hillenbrand. (Random House Publishing.) An Olympic runner’s story of survival as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II.
13 FAR FROM THE TREE, by Andrew Solomon. (Scribner.) The difficulties and triumphs of families dealing with exceptional children.
14 ROLL ME UP AND SMOKE ME WHEN I DIE, by Willie Nelson. (HarperCollins Publishers.) The musician muses on family, friends, Texas and life on the road.
15 WAGING HEAVY PEACE, by Neil Young. (Penguin Group.) The rocker’s memoir ranges over his personal life and his music.
Photo by Ed Yourdon
Everyday, the self-publishing world gets bigger and better. But what does it mean exactly to “self-publish a book?” With options ranging from print-on-demand to subsidy publishing to single-print publishing, many authors can get confused by all of the publishing processes.
When most writers start off, they think that they can run their manuscript to Kinkos and print off a hardbound book. Not so fast. While office supply stores have many options for authors who wish to print brochures, pamphlets and flyers, most office stores do not offer book binding services. For book publishing services, writers must go to book publishing service providers, who have the tools necessary to print hardback- and paper-bound books.
Here, we define the options (and pitfalls) available to authors who wish to publish their own work.
Subsidy Publishing
Subsidy book publishers accept and review book manuscript submissions from writers and choose which books they will publish. Similar to mainstream traditional publishers, subsidy publishers can be very selective about the books they publish. But unlike big-name publishers, authors who go with subsidy publishers must “subsidize” the publishing of their book by paying in advance for a minimum print run and related services (such as book design, ISBN registration, editing, etc.).
Oftentimes, writers who go this route must sign over some publication rights as part of the contract with subsidy publishers. Additionally, writers who elect to work with subsidy publishers must manage the distribution and selling of their own books themselves.
Pay on Demand? Yes, this type of publishing offers print on demand, which means that the publisher prints individual copies of books on demand each time an order of the book is received. This service allows publishers to take a share of the book’s cover price and pay authors the remaining profit amount.
Subsidy publishers include: Vantage Press, Dorrance Publishing, Author Solutions, Inc. (AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Xlibris and Trafford), Outskirts Press, Inc., Bookstand Publishing, Instantpublisher, Morris Publishing
Vanity Publishing
In this publishing process, writers pay a publisher to design, layout, print and bind a fixed number of books. In this scenario, the publisher will produce any book as long as the author is willing to pay the upfront fees (which is typically the cost to print 200 copies of their book). On average, authors will pay $6-10 per copy for trade paperback copies of their books and $12-16 for hardback versions. Like subsidy publishers, authors who opt for vanity publishing must manage the distribution and selling of their own books.
One of the biggest downfalls of vanity publishing is the low social standing of the process: Vanity publishers are famous for publishing all of the manuscripts that come their way without any vetting. Consequently, many physical bookstores will not carry books from vanity publishers. Finally, many vanity publishers are operating by using contracts that can be unfair to writers. As part of many vanity contracts, authors are required to sign contracts giving rights to the publisher.
For example, many contracts state that writers cannot publish the same book in different formats for a set number of years, which practically guarantees that the publishing contract will have to be bought out should the book become a bestseller or get the attention of a mainstream publisher.
Pay on Demand? Yes, this type of publishing offers print on demand.
Vanity publishers include: AuthorHouse, iUniverse, Ivy House, Tate Publishing & Enterprises, Vantage Press
Print Service Providers
Print service providers publish all manuscripts submitted to them for a set fee and allow writers to chose whether they want to order a minimum print run or have their book printed on demand as book orders are requested by customers. Many print providers do not charge a setup fee, unlike subsidy and vanity publishers. These publishers do not usually work on contracts that take rights from the author, and they make it clear that the writers own their own work.
And print service providers, often have partnerships with larger online retailers that vanity and subsidy publishers don’t have: many providers work with booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to sell books on their websites. Remember, if the company requires the production of a minimum number of books, the publisher is a subsidy publisher, not a print services provider.
Pay on Demand? Yes, this type of publishing offers print on demand.
Recommended: Lulu is by far the best print service provider in the market. The business offers excellent customer service services for first-time publishers. Others in the industry include Amazon CreateSpace, Lightning Source (though for this service, writers must establish their own publishing company).
As found by the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, many vanity and subsidy publishers have engaged unethical practices, including misrepresenting themselves as commercial publishers, grossly overcharging for their services, reneging on contract obligations, producing shoddy books, failing to print the number of books contracted for, and providing kickbacks to agents who refer manuscripts. Here are a few fraudulent cases:
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Don’t understand the publishing business? Below, Terence Kuch, author of The Seventh Effect and See/Saw, details how he broke into the industry. The article is the first part in a two-part series.
So you want to write a novel? Or you’ve written one and it’s gathering e-dust in a corner of your hard drive, having been dissed by one or two publishers and ignored by an agent? Even your friends – but I won’t go into that. “Please read my new novel and tell me what you think” is the severest test of friendship. It can get worse if they actually read it.
So let’s say you’ve written a few short stories, and believe you’re ready to tackle something bigger. You’ve got a hero/heroine (yourself, probably, under a thin disguise) that you’d like to follow from adventure to adventure at novel length. Piece of cake, right?
Or you think that a novel amounts to a string of short stories called “chapters” about the same characters, and you could do that pretty well. Ah – not quite.
Well, in my own case, my first three short submissions were to paying markets, and all were accepted. But as it turned out, that was a fluke. I now publish stories frequently (Google me to see some), but I average about eight submissions (five rejections and three no-responses) for each story before it’s accepted somewhere. About half of my acceptances have been for money, from e-zines and hard-copy publishers in the USA, Canada, UK, and Australia, with some “for the love” publications in those countries plus India and Thailand.
The Seventh EffectA few years ago I decided to write a novel, knowing little about it except that people like Patricia Cornwell wrote novels that made them rich and famous. I could do as well, I thought.
So I wrote a techno-thriller called Rondo in F, about a cyber-cop named Duane Rondo who discovers and thwarts a bio-terrorist plot. I kept it simple, with screen or TV adaptation in mind: One central character, all third person past tense, no going back and forth in time. I had a beautiful and sinister female terrorist, a corrupt senator, a clever way to kill millions of people before they knew what hit them, and of course car chases and sex and gunplay and suspicion and betrayal. At the end, a victorious Rondo was poised to star in several sequels, each titled Rondo in ___ (some letter from A to G).
I looked at books on how to sell novels (there are many of these, and they pretty much give the same advice), and wrote a synopsis, a pitch, a bio, and a query letter. Good to go.
Then I compiled a list of literary agents * and sent a query letter to some 50 of them ( Good places to start your agent search are the Wikipedia entries “Literary Agent” and “Guide to Literary Agents,” especially their external links. Do not, under any circumstances, front an agent money. Legitimate publishers know these agents, and reject their offerings sight unseen). A handful of the agents asked to see the first 30-50 pages, and one took me on.
The agent shopped my novel around the major New York publishers. I believe he tried (he would have made money), but after six months reported that he hadn’t found a publisher for me, and lots of luck. That taught me…
Lesson 1: Don’t make your novel too topical; the selling-printing-publishing-marketing cycle is lengthy, whether or not you make a quick sale, and you don’t want your book to remind the reader of last year’s headlines.
Then I searched the writer’s essential guide to publishers, Duotrope.com (Editor’s note: There are also listings on Wrightspeak), and came up with a list of some 30 book publishers who might be interested in a techno-thriller. But Rondo in F was only 64,000 words long, which was a black mark. This taught me…
Lesson 2: Your novel, if you want to see hardback or paperback trade publication, must be the right length for its genre: 90,000 – 120,000 for most genres including mainstream, shorter for romance and a few other specialized areas.
Then the publisher-hunt began. After a large number of submissions, I received an acceptance from “Publisher O.” This publisher gave me a sentence-by-sentence critique which was very useful – I accepted almost all his comments. One of the suggestions was to drop the title Rondo in F. I suggested The Seventh Effect, which he liked. (And that’s the title you’ll find on Amazon now.) But then, just as we were getting to the contract stage, the publisher dropped the project cold. Why? Typical reasons are being over-committed, or cash-strapped, or having too many of the same genre and not enough of another, or qualms about saleability of your novel, or your commitment to it or to the publisher.
I immediately began querying other publishers, and, amazingly enough, received four acceptances within a few months. I picked the one with the most favorable terms, signed a contract with “Publisher S,” and sent polite “Thanks, but no thanks” notes to the other three.
Contract negotiations with “S” had been brief: their position was “take it or leave it.” The terms were passable, however, and I signed on. At 64,000 words I was lucky not to be restricted to e-publication only.
After several months, publisher “S” announced that it was going out of business and all contracts were cancelled. That taught me…
Lesson 3: A contract can be broken – but not by you.
But never fear, a new publisher called Melange would be interested in picking up all “publisher S’s” backlist (or, a publisher’s list of older titles kept in print) and titles awaiting publication. Would I agree? At this point, having no backup plan, I agreed. A new contract duly appeared, and I signed it.
Although publisher “S” and I had made three rounds of content edits and copy edits, Melange needed their own, and a new contract. Fortunately these steps were brief, and I was soon dealing with their designer about a cover. The cover design process began with a 16-page questionnaire about each of my characters, and the setting(s), and et cetera cetera, to give the designer some ideas. Only two or three back-and-forths later I had a cover for The Seventh Effect. You can see it on Amazon. I think it does the job, but isn’t anything special. I had some ideas for the back cover, but they were politely ignored, which taught me…
Stay tuned for part Part II of Terence Kuch’s publishing story. Keep up to date with Kuch by going to www.terencekuch.com.
How do you get your book the attention it deserves? If you want to get your book published by a mainstream publisher, you’re going to need a book agent, which means you’re going to have to write the query letter, a single page cover letter sent to magazine editors and literary agents that introduces you and your book (we’ll focus on book queries in this article). In all, the query letter serves three main functions:
One: To show off your superb writing skills to the agent
Two: To sell the concept behind your book
Three: To prove that you have the clout needed to get the job done and sell your work
If you’ll notice, the first function is based on the quality of your content, while the next two functions are all about the moolah—meaning, you need to prove to the agent that your book will be marketable. Here’s bestselling author Nicholas Sparks on selling yourself in the query letter:
Above all, a query letter is a sales pitch and it is the single most important page an unpublished writer will ever write. It’s the first impression and will either open the door or close it. It’s that important, so don’t mess it up. Mine took 17 drafts and two weeks to write.
Take note of his advice before your start writing your query letter: The query letter is more about marketing than art. The primary function of the letter is to sell both your work and your skillset.
Step One: Research, Research, Research!
Start this task knowing that this step is going to take lots of long man-hours to complete. The most important part of the query letter is the addressee line–find out which agents in your literary genre would be receptive to your work. To get a jumpstart on this task, I recommend looking for agents through the Association of Authors’ Representatives agent listing. You can also go straight to the source by making a list of your favorite books in your genre and checking which agents represented those authors. You can do this by skimming through the acknowledgment sections in the back of the books. The last option takes a lot of work, but it will help you to get to know some of the agent players in your genre.
Next, you want to take the time to research the submission requirements of each agent. If you don’t take the time to give agents the letter (or email) pitches in the way that they prefer, you ultimately end up getting your bestselling manuscript tossed in the trash.
While you look for the right agents, you want to take the time to make sure that your dream agent doesn’t also work as a scam artist. Many agents claim to help unknown authors by charging them fees upfront—do not fall for this. Agents only make money after you get paid, and do not believe an agent who says otherwise.
Step Two: Use the Query Template
Every query letter should follow the same standard one-page format because that is what agents are using to receiving. The standard format is so important because the entire query process can be sometimes overwhelming for agents: Top-tier agents receive so many query letters per year that it is more efficient for them to weed out writers by basing their rejections on small formatting and grammatical errors than it is to wade through the varying writing styles of every letter that they receive.
Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency has said that her agency receives more than 150 query letters each day, while agent and blogger Nathan Bransford claims to that he receives close to 230 queries per week. Since its not likely that all of those query letter writers got book deals by Nelson and Bransford, it sounds like a lot of those letters manuscripts and ended up in the trash. That’s a lot of recycling!
Know the standard query letter style to avoid (or delay) getting rejected:
If you are looking for more resources about letter formatting, Query Shark has great samples of query letters, while blogger JM Tohline offers a comprehensive list of rookie query letter mistakes.
Step Three: Find Your Voice
Show off your writing chops in your query letter by writing in the style of your work. For example, if your book is humorous, write an entertaining query letter. Let your writing voice come across in your letter and the agent will notice.
After you finish writing your letter, have at least two trusted friends review your query letter for grammatical spellings because a query letter riddled with spelling mistakes and formatting issues will promptly be tossed in the recycling.
Step Four: Send and Walk Away
Once you finish writing your letter, have friends review it. Next, mail it to the appropriate contact person, you’re going to have to walk away and hope that the agent contacts you if she’s interested. This step is often the hardest for budding writers because it involves completely walking from a project that they love so dearly. Here’s a sad tip: If you didn’t get a response, it is most likely because your work was rejected by the agent. When it comes to query letters, no response often means no, we’re not interested, and it is inappropriate in many agent circles for a writer to follow up on a query letter.
But don’t fret writers: Don’t focus too much on the rejection process. It may be helpful to hear rejection anecdotes from more established writers. William Saroyan received 7,000 rejection slips before selling his first short story. Alex Haley wrote every day for eight years before finding success. Remember that there are more agents out there who may be interested in your work, you just have to keep trying.
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Creepypasta, a sub-genre of copypasta (internet slang for a body of text constantly copied and pasted), has been popular amongst horror story fanatics since its inception in 2007.
Spread via frequently visited message forums such as 4Chan, the writing is aimed at disturbing or shocking the audience. Common elements include: demons, fictional mass murderers, ghosts, and monsters.
With the community of writers growing at a steady pace, it is quite the difficult task to create an original work.
The infographic below comes from 500friends.
View this week’s New York Times bestselling books below. Use these books as starting points for your book club.
#1 Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Synopsis: A woman disappears on the day of her fifth anniversary; is her husband a killer?
Crown Publishing
#2 The Racketeer by John Grisham
An imprisoned ex-lawyer schemes to exchange this information about who murdered a judge for his freedom.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Book production costs can be steep for first-time independent writers who want to publish their own books. In fact, book production can cost independent writers two to three times as much money as it would cost big-name publishing houses to print the same books.
Why? Due to economies of scale, big publishers pay significantly less for print runs because they publish so many books per year. Conversely, most authors rely on print on demand services, which print single books at a time. Read More
View this week’s bestseller list below (via Publishers Weekly). Use these books as starting points for your book club.
#1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel
by Jeff Kinney
Amulet Books
Buy now for $1.00
#2 Elf on the Shelf
by Carol V Aebersold
CCA
Buy now
#3 Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot
by Bill O’Reilly, Meg O’Reilly, Martin Dugard
Henry Holt & Company
#4 Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust
by Ina Garten
Clarkson N Potter Publishers
#5 Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition [With Light Girl Doll]
by Carol V Aebersold
CCA
Buy now
#6 Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey Into the Afterlife
Eben Alexander, Author
Simon & Schuster
#7 Threat Vector
by Tom Clancy and Mark Greaney
Putnam Adult
#8 Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever
by Bill O’Reilly and Martin D
Holt
#9 Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
by Jon Meacham
Random House
#10 Racketeer
by John Grisham
Doubleday Books
An “ISBN” refers to the Internal Standard Book Number, a unique identifier made up of a ten-to thirteen-digit number and barcode. The code numbers are used to simplify distribution and purchase of books throughout the global supply chain. Commercially sold physical books have unique book numbers, including hardcover, softcover, paperback, or audiobook.
As it’s often said, “every market has a market.” Thanks to new book, even anarchists can buy books for the children in their lives. Manic D Press, a San Francisco-based anarchist literary publisher, released its first children’s book, A Rule Is to Break: A Child’s Guide to Anarchy.
The picture book, which was written by Seven and Jana Christy, tells kids to “Think for Yourself”, “Give Away Stuff for Free” and “Do What You Want.” Immediately following the public release of the book, the picture book was denounced by the Liberty News Network, a Tea Party publication. Liberty managing director Eric Odom published a report condemning A Rule Is to Break.
“The book alone is horrendous enough,” wrote Odom. “But it gets even worse when we realize Bill Ayers, radical terrorist leftist and friend of Obama, not only endorsed it through his Twitter account, his comments in support of the book are listed on the actual Amazon.com book page.”
Thoughts on the book? Think you’ll buy it? Share comments below.
Millionaire J.K. Rowling.
It is often said that very few writers have the talent and marketability factor necessary to make a decent living on their writing careers. There is some truth to that claim as the average annual earnings of published writers tend to fall on the low end of the pay scale. And digital publishing isn’t changing the arena much in the salary realm, even as the digital age ushers in new ways for authors to earn income directly from their book sales (rather than shell out payments to their handlers).
Has much has J.K. Rowling earned? $910 million. Ernest Hemingway before he died? $1.4 million. That teacher who publishes knitting books on the side? Probably not nearly as much money as Hemingway or Rowling. In fact, a recent study found that half of all self-published authors earned less than $500.00. Here, we explain the factors that impact author earnings.
The amount of money that an author who has signed with a major publishing company can make depends on their book royalties, which are based on the publication rights that they have given publishers as part of their book contracts. Here’s the breakdown: When newbie authors sign with major publishing companies, they give publishers the rights to their manuscripts in various formats, including paperback, audio CD, digital download, hardcover and softcover.
Contract rights give the publisher rights to distribute the book for promotional purposes, to reprint the work, and to publish excerpts of the work. Finally, the rights include screenplay rights and merchandising rights (i.e. selling Harry Potter coffee mugs). While smaller publishing houses contract just for the publication rights, larger publishers tend to negotiate for most of the reprinting and merchandising rights for a set number of years by offering authors certain percentages of profits from sales or flat-fee payments.
Additionally, mainstream publishers offer advances for writers, which can be tricky—if the author’s book does not sell more books than the value of the advance, the publisher will not want to work with the author in the future, which can be damaging to a budding writer’s career.
Once the rights have been decided by the publisher and the author, they move on to author royalties. Royalties are the percentage of profits from book sales that are paid to authors. Typically, more established author get higher royalties. As of this writing, royalties for paperbacks can either be approximately 8 to 10 percent of the list price or 15 to 25 percent of the net sales amount (net sales is the list price minus the production costs, which tend to be $2-4 per paperback copy).
So, if a book is $18, an author using the royalty method can expect to receive between $1.44 or $1.80, while an author using the net sales method (if the production costs are $5.00, for example) can expect to receive between $1.95 or $3.25.
Authors who go with print service providers or print-on-demand services (often call “PODs”) do not receive royalties or advances from printers. Instead, writers are expected to pay for the production of their books upfront (along with any fees added on the printing costs, such as layout design costs, ISBN registrations, for example).
Self-published authors pay more for printing costs, on average, than mainstream publishers due to economies of scale. Larger publishers print thousands of books per year, while self-published authors who use print service providers may only print a few hundred books per year. The production costs for POD services are even higher than print services providers because PODs print one only copy of a book at a time.
While the self-published author has to pay out-of-pocket for upfront costs, there are opportunities for those authors to make more long-term. Many print service providers offer authors reduced production costs in exchange for flat feeds or annual dues. Authors who sign for reduced costs have the option to price their books at similar rates of mainstream publishers and still earn royalties three to five times higher than the authors of mainstream books.
Additionally, it is up to self-published authors to market and sell copies of their own books, so their earnings are a reflection of their marketing and pricing strategies. Authors can market their books online or work with booksellers to get their books into bookstores. Once in bookstores, all books sold will be charged a 40 percent bookseller fee, much like big-name publishers. There are a few marketing success stories floating around the literary world, the most popular being E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. James, who was last reported to have been making $1.3 million per week, self-published her book on Amazon’s ebook business Kindle Direct Publishing.
Did anyone make less than $500 on their books? If so, what would you do differently to sell more books?
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View this week’s bestseller list below (via Publishers Weekly). Use these books as starting points for your book club.
#1 Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel
by Jeff Kinney
Amulet Books
Buy now for $1.00
#2 Elf on the Shelf
by Carol V Aebersold
CCA
Buy now
#3 Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot
by Bill O’Reilly, Meg O’Reilly, Martin Dugard
Henry Holt & Company
#4 Black Box
by Michael Connelly
Little Brown and Company
#5 Notorious Nineteen
by Janet Evanovich
Bantam
#6 Cold Days: A Novel of the Dresden Files
by Jim Butcher
Roc
#7 Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust
by Ina Garten
Clarkson N Potter Publishers
#8 Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
by Jon Meacham
Random House
#9 Forgotten
by David Baldacci
Grand Central Publishing
#10 Racketeer
by John Grisham
Doubleday Books
Writers can publish their own work, but first they need to do research on their options (and the cost to print copies of their books). Here, we define the options available to authors who want to publish their work.
Subsidy Publishing
Subsidy book publishers accept and review book manuscript submissions from writers and choose which books they will publish. Similar to mainstream traditional publishers, subsidy publishers can be very selective about the books they publish. But unlike big-name publishers, authors who go with subsidy publishers must “subsidize” the publishing of their book by paying in advance for a minimum print run and related services (such as book design, ISBN registration, editing, etc.). Read More