Location: Books & Such Nashville Office

Weather: Hot and chance of showers

One of the big assumptions we make in this new age of digital publishing is that we will have the power to make the technology work. I haven’t seen anybody addressing that issue, but it seems we should in this age of brown-outs and computer crashes and having to back up our writing “just in case.”  I am reminded of the saying about what assumptions do to all of us.

What is your principal concern as we head full-scale into the age of electronic publishing? Here are three that come to mind for me:

1. What will the traditional publisher do with and for my writing?

2. How will an author explain the publisher’s decision to produce her/his writing electronically to his or her long-term audience, some of whom use e-readers and some of whom don’t?

3. What kind of promotional support will the author need to give electronic publications, and how will that best be done?

I’ll be eager to read your thoughts. We’re all groping at this point. In the meantime, I want to read Lane Smith’s new children’s book due out in September, It’s a Book. The review says it’s an exchange between a jackass (the digital version) and a gorilla (the print version). Sounds interesting.

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Whenever I’m on the faculty of the Mount Hermon Writers Conference, I’m always on the lookout for a chance to chat with editors about how their publishing houses are doing. I’m usually surprised by a thing or two in these conversation.

Here’s what I heard at the conference that could be instructive for you. Most of these changes reflect the way the economic downturn has touched publishing. (I might add at this point that the downturn is past tense for publishers; they’ve made their adjustments.)

• Most publishers have lowered the amount of advances they can provide. Sales are down 30% post-economic downturn, and that means advance must be lowered as well.
• Smaller marketing budgets.
• Looking for authors who really understand how to use social networking to sell books and to build brand, not just to report what they ate for dinner.
• Opportunities for books that were unlikely to make money but seemed important to present to readers no longer exist in most publishing houses.
• “Risk averse” pretty much depicts every publisher’s stance.
• Looking for authors who put money and creativity into their marketing ideas.
• Publishing committees use the Internet during the meeting and are fact-checking what proposals state. So when you proclaim you have a certain number of Twitter followers and Facebook friends, those numbers are readily available. So be honest! Also, your web site needs to be in tiptop shape because it’s one of the first places the committee will go online.
• Most editors look at the writing first before they read the proposal–that’s for nonfiction as well as fiction. Yeah! Writing still bears a lot of weight on the decisions publisher’s make.
• Your marketing plan, which you included in your proposal, is considered part of your contract with the publisher; so you better be able to deliver what you promise.
• To be a success in the eyes of your publisher, all you need is an upward trajectory of sales, not a huge climb in sales with each release.
• Editors still love good writing and have a sense of sponsoring in-house each project they take on. They use words such as “It [a project] is my baby,” “I want to fall in love with a manuscript.”

So now, talk back to me. What’s your response to the info you’ve just read? What’s news to you? What’s old hat? What scares you? What challenges you?

Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Researching at a bookstore is fun and you can learn a lot, but you can find out about trends in other places as well.

Spend some time looking at books online (which will give a broader selection than a bookstore) to find out who’s publishing the type of material you’re interested in writing. This can help you to answer the question, is there a market for my work? If a number of books exist in your category, spend some time figuring out what makes your idea unique. For nonfiction, a competition section is an important part of a proposal, so you’ll need to do this anyway. If nothing exists like what you’re writing, you’ve either had a stroke of genius or your idea has been tried and has failed–several times; so publishers are no longer interested in producing books on that topic.

You can also find out a lot about new releases in magazines and publications like Publishers Weekly and Christian Retailing. These often contain articles about book trends and current acquisitions.

Publisher’s Marketplace, (www.publishersmarketplace.com) requires a subscription, but book deals are reported by agents and editors on the site usually the day they’re sold. Since it can take as long as two years for a book to be published, spending time looking at the deals reported that day gives you a peek into the future of those bookshelves.

Another way to stay on top of the market is to subscribe to publishing house e-newsletters. Take advantage of the marketing the publisher is doing and use it to learn of new releases and excitement in the industry.  Catalogs and advertisements from retailers can be insightful as well.

I also encourage you to continue to read! It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the writing and researching that you forget to spend time reading books that have been published. Perhaps you’ll want to pick up the competition to see what made it shine. Not to mention that reading good books will help you to write a better book.

What book market research tips do you have to share?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

To recap, I have four wishes for the publishing industry in 2010. They include:

1. Reduce the stress and overwork.
2. Don’t overbuy titles, resulting in a lack of promotion for many projects.
3. Publishing associations need to work together rather than primarily as competitors.

And my fourth wish for the industry is that we recognize we’re applying old rules in a new world.Publishing is changing so fast that it’s hard to keep up with the roiling of the waters. So I understand why Romance Writers of America (RWA) and Mystery Writers of America both banned Harlequin and Thomas Nelson authors from receiving writing awards. The reason for the decision? Both of these publishers announced they are starting self-publishing divisions.

In the past, such a decision signaled that a publisher was concentrating on bringing in money from wannabe authors rather than on selecting material based on its quality and marketability. Since many aspiring authors are willing pay to have their work published, it was important and necessary to distinguish the two very different modus operandi  of self-publishing and royalty-paying publishers.

But in the 21st-century, in my opinion, both Thomas Nelson and Harlequin are bowing to the inevitable tide of self-publishing. Yes, the decisions most likely were made to bring in money, but those decisions also reflect the breaking down of the traditional  publishing walls that kept  self-publishing and royalty-paying publishing neatly where they each belonged.

The world isn’t so neat any more, and our tidy rules of the past no longer serve us as they once did. Surely writer associations can find ways to distinguish between a publisher’s self-publishing wing and royalty-paying wing. Yet writer associations, agent associations, and publishers themselves have been slow to recognize the  future belongs to the  fleet of foot.

I wish we all would take the time to ask ourselves if we’re blindly applying old rules in a brave new world.

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

If the publishing industry is shrinking, what is it doing to stay relevant–and alive? In talking to editors and publishers at the two major book trade shows, I noted that one of the strategies is to give books for free.

For example, a few weeks ago, Hachette, one of the world’s largest publishers, announced that it would offer 38 titles on its website for free. Now, these titles aren’t downloadable; you have to sit in front of a computer (or your iphone) to read the book on your screen. But take a look at Gossip Girl #1 here. While this book is part of a series and might get the reader hooked on reading the other books, some of the Hachette titles being offered (with the authors’ approval) are standalone.

When Hachette announced its plans, it asked for feedback on Twitter. Wendy Lawton looked at a Hachette novel online she had planned to buy when it was released. It was lovely. Wendy tweeted: “How does the publisher or author make a living when books are given for free?” Whoever at Hachette was assigned to respond to tweets, answered, “People will always buy books.” Oh, yeah? Why should they, if they don’t have to?

We’re being taught that we should expect free. We get “free” via Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, gmail, music downloads, Wikipedia, etc. So why shouldn’t books be free?

Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price, caused quite a buzz when it released in July. Andrerson believes free is the new way to do business digitally. (I can’t resist mentioning that the book isn’t free but sells for $26.)

Here’s a review of the book:

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. In the digital marketplace, the most effective price is no price at all, argues Anderson (The Long Tail). He illustrates how savvy businesses are raking it in with indirect routes from product to revenue with such models as cross-subsidies (giving away a DVR to sell cable service) and freemiums (offering Flickr for free while selling the superior FlickrPro to serious users). New media models have allowed successes like Obama’s campaign billboards on Xbox Live, Webkinz dolls and Radiohead’s name-your-own-price experiment with its latest album. A generational and global shift is at play—those below 30 won’t pay for information, knowing it will be available somewhere for free, and in China, piracy accounts for about 95% of music consumption—to the delight of artists and labels, who profit off free publicity through concerts and merchandising. Anderson provides a thorough overview of the history of pricing and commerce, the mental transaction costs that differentiate zero and any other price into two entirely different markets, the psychology of digital piracy and the open-source war between Microsoft and Linux. As in Anderson’s previous book, the thought-provoking material is matched by a delivery that is nothing short of scintillating. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What does that mean for books? Well, one thing it means is that libraries are jumpin’ joints. The American Library Association held its convention in July and experienced a record-breaking attendance of nearly 29,000.

In light of the diminished book trade shows I wrote about yesterday, at first blush this seems contradictory. On one hand, trade shows are mere shadows of their former selves, but libraries are experiencing a boon. Why? Two societal surges: the economic downturn and the expectation that what we want should be given to us.

Have you heard about cell-phone novels? They’re popular in Japan and generally are written by amateurs and posted on free community websites, by the hundreds of thousands (yes, hundreds of thousands), with no expectation of payment. For the first time in the history of novels, stories are being detached from dollars.

In addition to cell-phone novels, fan fiction is being produced online. You can read fan-written stories about Star Trek, Jane Austen, or Twilight. Fanfiction.net hosts 386,490 short stories, novels and novellas–in its Harry Potter section alone, according to a recent Time article.

What does this “free”fall away from money mean for those of us who are part of the book industry? Read my thoughts tomorrow.

Question: Have you ever offered anything for free? What was the response? What was the payoff for you?

Location: Enroute to Santa Rosa from BEA

Weather: Um, cloudy, looking at the view below the plane

A couple of you asked for trend info based on what Etta, Wendy, and I observed at BEA. I think the best way to respond is to give a brief report today on the CEO round table, which was held the day before the ribbon was cut to unleash everyone onto the convention floor.

Hearing the perspectives of the heads of publishing companies is a good way to put your finger on the pulse of the industry. This year’s round table was led by Tina Brown, founder and editor-in-chief of the Daily Beast. But she was losing her voice and didn’t make it through the hour-long discussion, turning to her hubby, journalist Harry Evans, to finish out the moderating duties.

The participants were: HarperCollins’s Brian Murray, Macmillan’s John Sargent, Simon & Schuster’s Carolyn Reidy, and Perseus’s David Steinberger. Tina started out the discussion by describing the media as being “in the middle of an industrial revolution,” with a reimagining of an industry taking place, with fewer and fewer places to talk about books (referring to the demise of magazines, newspapers, and book reviews).

One of the questions weighing on John Sargent’s mind was: “Amazon shows Kindle readers buy much more, but do Kindle reader continue to buy long-term?” (My personal experience is, oh, yes. I find I’ve increased my reading–and buying–threefold since purchasing my Kindle July 2008. Wendy would agree with that.)

David Steinberger said, “The danger is the development of monopolies because there’s someone who has come between the publisher and the reader.” (Referring to Amazon, Google, and Yahoo.)

Brian Murray’s concern was: “Consumers are used to paying for books. What are the ways to make the migration to electronic publishing profitable?”

Carolyn Reidy wanted “thinking electronically to be in everyone’s DNA at the publisher’s. The true explosion happens when people can read on devices they bought for other purposes. How do we step into this world and take control of it?”

The publishers talked about crashing books and how that will become the norm in the future. Carolyn Reidy observed that S&S crashed 150 books last year “and they did well.” Rapid response, David pointed out, is the future of publishing.

Each CEO also weighed in on thoughts regarding marketing, and while each gave a nod to viral marketing, they all agreed that, as Reidy said, “The Internet has not replaced ‘The Today Show’ yet.” In other words, national publicity still is the way, in the CEOs’ opinion, to generate word of mouth.

So, there you have it, straight from the CEO roundtable, the trends. You’ll note they’re all preoccupied with electronic publishing and technology and are thinking hard about how to wrestle that beast into submission. They’re determined, but I also suspect they’re very nervous. Who wouldn’t be when you’re in the midst of a revolution?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

For the tiny remainder of 2009, we’ve looked over our blog offerings from throughout the year and have chosen those that received the most responses. Those posts will comprise our Best of the Blog. (Can’t believe we’ve been writing this blog for almost a year!)

Among those posts that garnered a boatload of comments were two reports I wrote based on my observations of the Book Expo America Convention (BEA), which took place in New York in May. It’s instructive to read them and see how current they still are and to remind ourselves just how much flux exists in the publishing realm. Here goes…

At BEA, I attended a workshop entitled, “Product Centric Publishing in a Community Centric World,” which was presented by Mike Shatzkin. His self-appointed task was to lay out for the audience what publishing would look like in twenty years. Fasten your seatbelt and pull it snug! I’ll start out with a straightforward idea from Shatzkin and pick up speed from there.

• Be nimble but in a framework of understanding. In other words, you need to know something about what you’re attempting. So find out how Facebook works and what the etiquette of that community is before you try a creative way to connect with others through it. When you begin to use Twitter, do so with an eye to watching how others are effective in conveying their messages with it–then figure how to express yourself.
• Hard drives won’t be used any more. Material will be accessed through screens, not computers.
• Everything will be organized by nuggets and niche organization. For example, if you’re interested in Civil War uniforms, you’ll connect with material and community through such diverse areas as fabric, uniforms, and the Civil War.
• Format-specific publishing will give way to format-agnostic publishing (material can easily include pictures, games, video, etc.).
• Subscription models will be common whereas per-item sales will be unusual.
• More titles will be created by readers than by publishers.
• “Ownership” of eyeballs will be more important than ownership of content. i.e., the person who has access to the most people will be more powerful than the person who has access to content.
• For today, production and delivery costs will rise, but revenue will fall.
• Lines will blur between newspapers, magazines, books, and games.
• e-books will have more timely info than we’re used to seeing in books because the material can be updated more easily.
• Publishing widely to reach as broad an audience as possible will go away. In its place will be publishing “vertically”–reaching more deeply into a narrower audience.

What are the pros for publishers and writers in this scenario?

• Books are the ultimate niche product. A book you like might be one that doesn’t interest me in the least.
• Publishers and writers are trained to be niche marketers and are skilled at content development.

What are the cons for publishers and writers?

• Both are product centric rather than community centric.
• A book isn’t continuous like a newspaper or a newsfeed is.
• The publishing industry lacks the resources and the culture of technology to experiment.

The two key words to keep in mind as you eye the future are: “vertical” and “community.” You must understand yourself vertically and present yourself vertically (develop a web site designed to reach your community; collect emails from your community; create partnerships vertically).

So now, loosen your seatbelt a bit and talk to me. What are your responses to this “vision” of the future? What parts of it do you buy into? What are you skeptical about?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

Having attended the Book Expo of America (BEA) in New York in May and the International Christian Retailers Show (ICRS) in Denver in July, I’ve been assimilating what I took in as I walked the exhibit floors of these once-giant shows; sat down and talked “book industry” with editors and publishers; and attended workshops on the state of the industry. This week I’d like to unpack my suitcase of observations because it’s important for all of us to note where the industry is headed.

First, both shows were shadows of their former grand selves. While BEA is still quite large, the floor is walkable if you devote a few hours to the task. ICRS experienced smaller exhibits, and a few significant publishers chose not to participate (most notably Thomas Nelson and WaterBrook Multnomah). Fortunately the organizers pulled in the space allotted to the show, creating a smaller venue but one that had a buzz of busyness. Lines to receive autographed copies of books were consistently long. It didn’t seem to matter if the person signing was Karen Kingsbury or a debut novelist.

As a matter of fact, I was standing in the Zondervan booth waiting for Robin Jones Gunn to join me for a meeting, when I saw Joyce Ondersma, the head of Zondervan’s author relations, carry a box of Robin’s newest release, Coming Attractions, over to Robin. As Robin pulled out her pen to sign a few books for some fans who hadn’t gotten copies during Robin’s official signing, I watched a line spontaneously form. Not just a small line, but in the matter of seconds, about 20 people were standing there and more flocking in. No formal announcement was needed to bring in people, no billboards, no scheduling–just Robin with a pen and a box of her books. I’d never seen anything like it.

To what do I attribute this book eagerness? Publishers were giving out fewer galleys (bound, unedited versions of books soon to be published), fewer free trinkets (e.g., bags with a book’s cover imprinted on it to hold the stash of free goodies you collect as you walk the floor), and even catalogs. Yes, publishers had limited numbers of their catalogs to hand out. That added up to books being the main giveaway of the show, which is a good thing since a free book is the best (and least expensive) publicity a publisher can offer. Time after time, during the show, authors told me they signed as fast as they could until the books ran out.

The lack of free items reflects the sober mindset among publishers. General market publishers especially have felt the economic downturn, having to release hundreds of staff, often including the most difficult to replace–editors. Everything about publishing is scaled back–the number of titles being printed (and therefore manuscripts being bought), the size of advances ($50,000 is the new $75,000 in the general market), and marketing dollars.

The first two meetings I had with editors at ICRS were daunting. These were the words spoken: “I’ve overbought for the next few years and don’t know when I’ll buy again”; “We’re cutting back on the number of titles we’re buying”; “Great presentation, but I’ll have to take these book ideas back to the office to see if I can generate any enthusiasm.” If I had gone home after those meetings, I would have sat in a funk for the next year.

Fortunately, all my meetings after that were upbeat, with lots of interest in the projects I was offering and good discussions about what publishers are doing to find their way in our economically challenging times.

What does that mean for a writer/author? We’ll unpack those thoughts in the next few days.

Question: What are your observations from your corner of the world regarding book publishing’s current state?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the technology gizmos and gadgets at BEA because they are the rock stars of publishing. If publishing is a room, technology is the elephant.

What did I learn at BEA? One item exhibited at the convention was the Espresso Book Machine. As the name suggests, “its something made to order, one at a time, at point of sale, quickly.” That’s the way the machine’s brochure defines espresso. You put in a few “ingredients” (content with four-color book design on software created for the machine), and with much grinding, out of its other end, pops a book–yes, a physical book, in the matter of four minutes. Essentially, it’s an ATM machine that delivers a book rather than cash. The size of a large copier (think Kinkos’ fancy copiers), it prints, binds, and trims a book on demand at the point of sale.

If that doesn’t  blow your mind,  Cool-er is an e-reader that works in eight languages and can fit in your jacket pocket. (And had cool Samba dancers sashaying to the loud beat of drums on the convention floor as the fancy-stepping and colorfully-costumed women handed out brochures announcing the new reader.) And, by the way, Cool-er was developed in Britain, hence the variety of languages.

Stanza, which is an e-reader available only on iPhones, has 21 fonts the reader can choose from as well as a variety of backgrounds. The makers of the reader found that reading at night is easier on the eyes if you have white print on a black background, but black print on a white background is better during daylight. If you want to create a “mood” background for a book, you can have a wavy black background or something in red for a really hot read. Stanza released in July 2008, and has 1.8 million users and 8 million downloads. Who knew? It was news to me.

What does this mean for the physical book? Books are alive and well, thank you.

The one item I’ve danced around in these reports from BEA is that which brought more than 12,000 people to the show–books. A couple of my observations during the convention were:

• the surprising number of children’s picture books. After years of everyone in the industry proclaiming this a dead zone, I was stunned by the number of releases on display in the booths. I  don’t even know what to think about that.
• strong titles on display for the fall season, including plenty of huge banners proclaiming new releases from Debbie Macomber. As a matter of fact, Debbie seemed to have the biggest presence as an author, with lots of ads in the daily paper, lighted posters with her new books, and several signings by her. Dan Brown has a new thriller releasing, and a posthumously published thriller by Michael Crichton is scheduled. Add to that new books by Pat Conroy, Audrey Niffenegger, Patricia Cornwell, John Grisham, Stephen King, and Ted Kennedy. ‘Twill be a very big fall for publishing.
• the migration to publishers’ using e-catalogs and e-galleys. Moody scores as the most innovative deliverer of a catalog. A bookmark with the details of how to access their catalog was all they handed out–and the bookmark was so green, if you planted it in soil, the flower seeds embedded in it would sprout and blossom.
• fewer advance reader copies being handed out from the publishers’ booths. I only had a few books to bring back to the office, and most of those were given out after the editor buzz panel. Although, when I stopped by the Moody booth, I was told that they quickly gave away 300 copies of Latayne Scott’s novel, Latter-Day Cipher, which, as her agent, made me very happy. Fewer ARCs seemed to be a cost-cutting measure by many publishers. HarperCollins decided to give out gift cards that were redeemable for electronic galleys of two titles.
• many publishers had small booths and therefore a small presence on the exhibit floor.
• while the economy clearly dampened enthusiasm among publishers to participate in such an expensive convention, the aisles were crowded and hard to make one’s way down.
• long lines formed quickly to meet authors and receive autographed copies.

That’s the report from the show, folks. All in all, it had plenty of spark and plenty to talk about.

What are your thoughts?

Location: Books & Such Main Office, Santa Rosa, Calif.

In my continuing report to you on BEA, next up is Editor Buzz, which like the CEO round table, occurs before the convention officially opens. Each of six editors is asked to create “buzz” for a book he or she has been working on and is especially excited about. This panel might not be the penultimate for us in figuring out trends, but we can learn at least what gets editors’ juices flowing.

Paul Elie from FSG chose a nonfiction title to boost, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do, by Harvard professor Michael Sandel. Calling the book “wisdom literature for the age of Obama,” Elie describes it as a book that asks the hard questions of our day, questions that encompass how we frame our world views. No easy answers are offered, of course, for what would be the fun in reading such a book? I thought of the book as a reflection of the moral ambiguity our society struggles with and suspect it would stimulate plenty of good discussion. In terms of trends, this selection tells us there’s still plenty of room to think “aloud” in our writing about where society is heading and why it’s going in that direction.

Two memoirs were selected; so chalk up “memoir” as still being a trend. Alexis Gargagliano at Scribner talked up Alex Lemon’s Happy, which follows Lemon’s struggles with addiction and a stroke he suffered when in college at age 19. “His sentences are visceral and gripping,” she told the audience. “It’s like gauze being unfurled to reveal a maze of transformed scars.”

Norton’s Bob Weil selected Stitches as the book to present. A memoir by Caldecott winner David Small,
Stitches is a “groundbreaking work that has brought the graphic novel to new heights,” according to the editor. The memoir recounts, mostly in pictures with sparse usage of words, Small’s life after his father, a radiologist, gave Small massive doses of radiation to cure unknown ailments when Small was a young teen. Cancer developed as a result, and it appeared Small would die. Weil found the work to be “a silent movie masquerading as a book.” So score another one for memoirs and add a point for graphic novels.

Deb Futter at Grand Central wanted to talk about a debut novel, Roses, which she found was “a throwback to the old-fashioned good read…, a dynastic saga set in Texas.” So score one for sagas. (I have an advanced copy and have dipped into the first paragraph. So far I’m not wowwed, but I’m withholding judgment.)

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper was the pick of Ben Sevier at Dutton.  The story follows a guy who learns his wife is having an affair and is pregnant; on that same day he finds out his father has died, and the family gathers together to grieve–and to renew their dysfunctional ways. “Funny, emotionally raw” and “walks the line between heavy and light” were descriptors the editor used.

The final editor to present was Harriet Popham Rigney of Tor, who talked only in veiled terms about Brandon Sanderson’s Memory of Light, which is a continuation of Robert Jordan’s fantasy epic, Wheel of Time. Jordan died in 2007, and Rigney chose Sanderson to carry on with the series, signing him to write three books. So give fantasy a score, although, with a Tor editor as a presenter, that’s not a surprising genre for her to select.

What do we learn from this session with the editors? I came away with the thought that a provocative book about the state of our societal mind and soul can garner an editor’s attention; that memoir continues to be very big in the general market; that a complex novel about a dysfunctional family still has a home in the general market; and, most suprising to me, that a rangeing saga, which according to the editor, would appeal to young readers and older readers because it’s more about the reader wanting to stop the characters from ruining their lives than following story threads of violence or sex. A clean read; what a novel idea!