Publishing’s electronic horizons: reality check for writers

2010 is definitely the year that electronic book readers force the questions, will books continue to exist, and if so, in what forms?

Writers have everything to gain by remaining on top of this debate and everything to lose if they deny the value of electronic publishing.

 So do readers, for that matter. What’s at stake for them is the future quality and diversity of all literature.

Here are a handful of links to get the earnest author-to-be  started.

Feb 8, 2010
from Joyful Thoughts
Ebooks and Ereaders
http://joycollins.blogspot.com/2010/02/ebooks-and-ereaders.html
by Joy Collins
Most notably, Collins writes:

…if you are an author, now is your time. EBook lines are usually more open to new authors, giving you a better than average chance of being published. Your readers can get your book in seconds which means the chances of them making their purchase increases since they don’t have to get in their car and go to your book signing, or go to a bookstore, or order online and then wait for the book to arrive in the mail.

Feb 8, 2010
from GalleyCat
Penguin CEO Compares eBooks and Paperbacks
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/ebooks/penguin_ceo_compares_ebooks_and_paperbacks_151376.asp
by Jason Boog
Most notably, Boog writes:

The op-ed makes no mention of the fact that the paperback evolved in the middle of the Great Depression. The model “collapsed” after the economic turmoil had passed. The eBook’s rapid growth came during another crippling recession, and $9.99 may reflect an economic reality until our own crisis has passed.

Feb 5, 2010
from Norwich Bulletin
On Writers & Writing: E-books devalue the difficult writing process of authors
by AS Maulucci
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/living/x644560909/On-Writers-Writing-E-books-devalue-the-difficult-writing-process-of-authors
Most notably, Maulucci writes:

…when authors start giving away e-book copies of their books just to get people to read them with the hope it will generate word-of-mouth promotion, I believe they are only hurting themselves in the long run.

Feb 3, 2010
from TidBITS
Zombie Authors Threaten Fiction Ebook Market, from the Grave!
http://db.tidbits.com/article/10979
by Chris Pepper
Most notably, Pepper writes:

…it’s clear to writers like science-fiction author Charlie Stross that the old model of delivering a large chunk of words to a publisher, and then moving on to the next book, is in trouble. Over the long term, we need to figure this out to keep people writing the books we want to read, but the answer might not be comfortable – or look much like today’s fiction marketplace. One way or another, change is coming, and without taking their fate into their own hands, writers might find themselves spending more time behind the counter at Starbucks than sipping lattes with their publishers.

Feb 2, 2010
from Publicola:  Seattle’s News Elixir
How Many E-Books, Ultimately?
http://www.publicola.net/2010/02/02/how-many-ebooks-ultimately/
by Glenn Fleishman:
Most notably, Fleishman writes:

Small press doesn’t mean small sales. The statistical design genius Edward Tufte’s Graphics Press, for instance, has produced exactly seven unique titles, but has sold many millions of copies. (Tufte started his own press when he couldn’t find a mainstream publisher that could produce his first book in the way he wanted. Good move.)

Jan 29, 2010
from BoingBoing
Amazon and Macmillan go to war: readers and writers are the civilian casualties
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/29/amazon-and-macmillan.html
by Cory Doctorow
Most notably, Doctorow writes:

…this is a case of two corporate giants illustrating neatly exactly why market concentration is bad for the arts.

Monthly Dispatch for February: Use it or lose it!

Public Domain Image: "Treasure Island" by Georges Roux (1885) for Robert Louis Stevenson's book of the same title

What is it about American culture that drives us to possess things and then not use them? We are living in belt-tightening times and yet, all around us we can find plenty of things to keep us feeling whole and complete. 

[more]

One response to the Author’s Guild regarding Macmillan v Amazon

from the Author’s Guild
The Right Battle at the Right Time
http://authorsguild.org/advocacy/articles/the-right-battle.html 
“Macmillan’s current fight with Amazon over e-book business models is a necessary one for the industry. The stakes are high, particularly for Macmillan authors. In a squabble over e-books, Amazon quickly and pre-emptively escalated matters by…” <more>

Writer’s Rainbow’s response:
This battle is necessary because paper publishers have to *prove* they’re in the service of authors and literature and, frankly, they *aren’t,* not in 2010. They’re in the service of bottom lines, from which they extract a lot of money and from which very few authors (especially new ones) can expect to make more than a pittance, if they can break into the pearly gates at all.

I take issue with this part of Macmillan’s statement:

“Without a healthy ecosystem in publishing, one in which authors and publishers are fairly compensated for their work, the quality and variety of books available to readers will inevitably suffer.”

Let’s get something straight… do the research and you’ll find that authors do NOT receive fair compensation for their work UNLESS they’re bestsellers. And who decides bestsellers? Not readers, but publishers. Books with bestseller status arrive that way not through genuine sales but through financial arrangements made before those books are even published.

Yes, it’s a scam and it’s been going on forever.

Bestselling authors comprise a very small percentage of the total authors being published, and yet the lion’s share of revenues for book authors go primarily to the bestsellers. This is because big house publishers bank of the bestsellers to keep them afloat (by investing in their shelf positioning and bestseller status). Newer authors can only get in through the gates of traditional publishing as long as their publishers have bestsellers to draw income from.

Let’s not forget: *publishers* are making a heap big more wampum on books than authors are. So really, Macmillan’s statement, in a more accurate sense, might be one that says:

“A healthy ecosystem in publishing fairly compensates publishers for their products irregardless of the quality and variety of books available.”

This is not to say that bestsellers are not diverse or of high quality; it’s to say that there are huge numbers of excellent new authors turned away from the gates because they simply aren’t a known quantity. They aren’t “branded.”

Even poorly done books, when branded effectively, can be bestsellers.

I’ve tired of publishers claiming they care about literature and books when that’s the last thing on their minds at the end of the day. Theirs is a crappy business model from the 20th century that they’re still trying to pass off as a legitimate strategy in this century. It’s been failing since the 1970s; this is not an issue of “the economy” in 2010. The industry will keep on spiraling downward until publishers start thinking of their authors as something more than toilet paper to be sold at Costco.

Though, to be honest, that scenario makes them sound shrewd… like Amazon. Which is to point out that they really aren’t all that different from Amazon, just a vulture with a different kind of pattern to their feathers.

Who’s the big loser here? Readers. They don’t even know what they’re missing.

New writers at least have a fighting alternative to this closed process with POD and Amazon etc. The stats are out there: self-publishing is actually a better money maker for new voices in 2010. You *will* make more money off your book if you go this route. And if new writers can do well in that way, using Amazon as a vehicle, then Macmillan & Co need to rethink their business model or they’ll be missing out on all that literary landscape they believe they’re somehow advocating for.

Muse on this: Gore Vidal and Eckhart Tolle

MEDITATION

“Many writers who choose to be active in the world lose not virtue but time, and that stillness without which literature cannot be made.”

–Realites, Gore Vidal, August 1966

Vidal is not saying choose one over the other; Vidal is simply observing the challenges that await any writer who needs both social and community activity as well as solitude to do their work. Now’s as good a time as any to think about ways to encourage stillness into your life. Not only as a means for writing, but as a means for thinking, creating, problem solving, and mining.

Yet, Tolle is also suggesting that time in all its constructs (stillness being one of them) is still not something we can make or own. It exists outside our human desire to quantify and possess it. How does that work inside Vidal’s message of stillness, then? How can a writer resolve the conundrum of gathering necessary stillness to write when it seems utterly beyond one’s grasp?

Try to remember: time is not a linear thing. Therein lies one way to resolve these two truths. Creatives need to find that junction between time and intent.

Creative Commons Image: "Stillness by Eckhart Tolle, on a
Park bench plaque, facing Sacramento River, Redding CA,"
February 2009, by http://www.flickr.com/photos/fishermansdaughter/.
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Generic license.

New for Seattle-area bloggers: let’s build us some content!

Blogging regularly can be difficult over the long-term because it demands that you generate fresh post material on a regular, deadline-oriented basis. For writers who lack self-motivation or butt up against writer’s block from time to time, this can spell doom for the blog. However, most bloggers don’t set out to fail and wish they had some options in their back pockets for keeping their content fresh and alive even when it’s not forthcoming or even possible in a certain time frame.

Enter Content Building for Bloggers! Content Builder for Bloggers is all about giving bloggers structural templates and themes for blogging.  Should a blogger run dry of fresh ideas, he or she can then turn to these templates and themes as prompts for inspiration.

Now’s the time to sign up for a fun and motivating class on generating new blog content!

Content Builder for Bloggers is a weekly meetup in which an assignment is detailed and given to each student/blogger. They each then spend the following week writing their own blog entries in answer to the assignment. In live or interactive workshops formats, students/bloggers also their peers’ blogs and leave comments, wherever possible, in reply. The following week, students gather live or interactively to discuss how the assignment went, and then a new assignment is detailed and given. 

Each series meets for 4 weeks, with each session offering a new strategy for content building. I have enough themes, ideas and templates for bloggers to fill a full year (52 weeks) of classes.

Currently, I offer this as a 1:1 mentorship service (available year-round) and NOW, for Seattle-area bloggers, as a live weekly workshop!

NEW! The Bainbridge Island Park District has opened up a new live series for this class! If interest is high, it could potentially continue weekly throughout the year. This is a fun, affordable and useful way to learn how to be more prolific with your blog without having to scrape out your brain every time you sit down to right a blog post. Plus, you’ll meet other area bloggers and develop a readership among you, as well as discover other great writing out in the blogosphere.

Let me help you generate fresh material for your blog in this affordably priced class. For details:

LIVE CLASS:
Bainbridge Island Metro Parks & Recreation District
Title: Blogging 103: Content Builder for Bloggers
Class Code: [BIMPRD #123312] REGISTRATION INFO HERE
Meets: Sundays from 12:30p-1:30p from February 7 through March 7. [No class 2/14]
Location: Strawberry Hill Center large room
Tuition: $40 (that’s $10 a session!)
Description:  Island blogger Tamara Sellman shares fresh ideas for developing content for bloggers who feel tapped out or challenged to keep up with their posting schedule.  Students write one new post weekly based on prompts delivered in class, then respond to their peers’ posts in class and online. Bringing a wireless enabled laptop and power supply is optional.

1:1 MENTORSHIP: Click here