Interesting article on Publishers Weekly

Here are the opening two paragraphs from an article called: Will the Agency Model Survive?

For publishers, negotiating terms of sale with Amazon has always been difficult. But reports last week of Amazon’s hardball tactics with the Hachette Book Group suggest that this year’s negotiations could be among the most brutal yet.

One likely reason is that when the publishers' 2012 consent decrees in the e-book price-fixing case begin to expire this fall, so too will Amazon’s ability to discount e-books. The parties don't comment on specific negotiations (and neither Hachette or Amazon will comment directly on the current dispute or ongoing talks). But it is fair to say that Amazon officials likely see the current negotiations as their best chance to push for the end of agency pricing for e-books, and are apparently prepared to bring to bear all the pressure they can on publishers—whether on the Kindle side, or print. The question is, will the publishers stick together to keep agency pricing for e-books?

To read the full article, go here:  http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/62349-will-the-agency-model-survive.html 

PW Daily 1/15/14

Dara Hyde has joined the Hill Nadell Literary Agency as an agent, working out of the company's Los Angeles office. Hyde was an editor at Grove/Atlantic and then, later, the permissions and rights manager there.

Devon LaBerge has been promoted to associate agent at The Rights Factory.

Brianne Johnson has been promoted to senior agent at Writers House.

Shannon O'Neill has joined Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as agent. She was previously editorial director and agent at The Sagalyn Agency. O'Neill will remain based in Washington, DC, focusing on narrative nonfiction, popular science, current affairs, and the history of ideas, as well as literary and upmarket fiction.

Skyhorse's newest imprint is Yucca Publishing, which will publish authors "with intent, literary strength, and fresh, new visions" in partnership with literary agency and book packager International Transactions. Agency president Peter Riva will serve as Yucca's executive editor, and the imprint will launch its first list of 20 titles in fall 2014.

Publishing News 8/24/13

It's Saturday and time for updates on agents:

Amy Tannenbaum has joined the Jane Rotrosen Agency as a literary agent. She was previously an editor at Atria, and will represent new adult, romance, and commercial women's fiction authors.

Writers House announced that Geri Thoma and Lisa DiMona have joined the agency. We are delighted that Geri and Lisa are joining our growing team of agents. Their expertise in nonfiction will complement our list and enlarge the scope of the agency," said Writers House chairman Amy Berkower in a statement. In addition, Stephen Barr was recently promoted to senior agent, while Brianne Johnson moves up to agent.

Agent Laurie McLean has left Larsen Pomada after 8 years and formed Foreword Literary, in partnership with former Larsen Pomada colleague Pam van Hylckama Vlieg and Gordon Warnock, who was an agent at Andrea Hurst & Associates. They are joined by assistant agents Danielle Smith and Jen Karsbaek. Foreword Literary will be a "virtual agency," with professionals in the San Francisco Bay area, Sacramento, Chicago and the central coast of California to start.

Paul Bresnick reports that he has finalized terms for assuming control of the Wendy Weil Agency. He will now conduct all business under a new banner, the Bresnick Weil Literary Agency.

MacKenzie Fraser-Bub is joining Trident Media Group as a women's fiction agent.

(Excerpted from Publishers Lunch)

Publishing News 7/16/13

From PW Daily:

Ria Julien has joined the Frances Goldin Literary Agency as in-house counsel and will also acquire selected projects for representation. Before joining the agency and being admitted to the New York Bar, she was a nonfiction editor and foreign rights agent at Seven Stories Press.

From The Smithsonian via Salon.com: 

New research suggests the secret to preserving mental agility may lie in simply cracking open a book.

The findings, published online today in Neurology, suggest that reading books, writing and engaging in other similar brain-stimulating activities slows down cognitive decline in old age, independent of common age-related neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, people who participated in mentally stimulating activities over their lifetimes, both in young, middle and old age, had a slower rate of decline in memory and other mental capacities than those who did not.

From The Daily Beast on Five Ways to Fix Book Publishing Houses:

This model of literary production is doomed. The idea that there should be centralized, massively consolidated, bureaucratic organizations known as the major trade houses, with multiple layers of editors, vast publicity departments, and books fed to them by an entity known as literary agents, only to take repeated losses and rely on a few stars to help them break even, is bound for extinction....

In short, writing needs to be reader and community driven, hierarchies need to be radically flattened, creativity needs to be diffused at the local level, and globalization needs to reactivate literary worth everywhere....

The New Publishing

How many of you are self-publishing your work? If so, are you only publishing the e-version of the book? Or are you also doing print copies?

Have you given up on getting an agent?

If you're getting it printed yourself, how are you doing it? Using a local printing company? Using Lightning Source? Going Print On Demand?

So much has changed, just in the years that I've been  writing. For example, I've been writing my newsletter, Doing It Write, for 14 years now. When I began, no one had heard of e-books. They hadn't come into being. If you wanted your book published, you queried agents and checked your mail constantly to see if any had responded. (A lot of us still do that today.)

But we're into a new era of publishing. More and more authors are "doing it themselves". This is especially true when it comes to e-books. A lot of authors do their own e-books because it's fairly easy to do.

Even putting your book into print is not all that difficult to do anymore. Admittedly, it takes time and the formatting can be a bit arduous.

If you do it yourself, either in e-form or print, then you also have to do the promoting. Writers who have agents and publishers also find that the bulk of the promoting is on their shoulders, too.

We're now in a new era of publishing. Some of us are adapting and participating. Some are kicking and screaming. Either way, we're now in a new world of publishing. 

Publishing is not static. It's a world that is still changing.

Welcome to a New Day

Well, actually, a new year.

 If you haven't already thought of what your plan is for 2013, now's a good time to do it.

 What do you hope/plan to accomplish over the next 12 months?

 Will you complete a new novel? Will you edit and perfect the book you've been working on?

 Is your manuscript ready, but you're not sure it's ready to let others see it? Is 2013 the time when you hand it off to a trusted editor or writer friend for their comments and notes?

 Have you been accumulating a list of agents who would be a fit for your book? If not, now's a good time to start that list. If you have a list, will you start querying in 2013?

 Or are you thinking of self-publishing? Have you researched how to do that? Will you go for an ebook first or print?

 If you don't know how to self-publish, have you looked for a class that will teach you or instructions online?

 Do you have a writing buddy who's open to your questions?
 Are you open to help that buddy with their questions?

 Have you already developed a plan for marketing your book?
 Do you have a Facebook page or an Author Facebook page?
 Are you on Twitter? Do you have a blog? A website?

 It's a new year. Now's the time to organize your future plans and start putting them into action.

I'm a Peep!

Today, I'm over on Wordpreneur. Turns out I'm a Peep!

It's a short post about how I got started publishing, as well as some of my observations and tips.

Link over and leave a message or question.

I'm a peep. You're a peep. So take a peep at the post!

Lightning Source

Lightening Source, part of Ingram, is an on-demand printing business. They work with publishers to get your book in print. Most bookstores order from LSI. Publishers can order boxes of their books.  

It is not the only on-demand printing business, of course. It does, however, have a lot of connections with those people and businesses where you want your book to be known.

Getting your book onto Lightning Source is not terribly complicated. Getting your book ready to upload can be complicated, however.

You'll need to create three documents: front matter, book, and back matter. There are requirements concerning margins, mirror pages, and page count. And you must format your book to the page size you've chosen for your book. Unless your book is going to be 8.5X11 inches, don't submit that size of a page, even though it is probably the usual size document you work in. If your book is, for example, 5.5" X 8.5", then the pages you submit must be set at that size.

Once the three sections are created, you need to combine them into one document then create a pdf. All fonts used in the combined file MUST embed in the pdf. By "must" I mean if a font does not embed, you must figure out why and repeat the process until the fonts embed.

If this is your first book, once you've uploaded both the book and the cover, you must order a proof to review.

When you get your proof, read it carefully. Look for any mistakes or goofs. If you find mistakes, correct them then go through the process of creating a pdf of the new version.

Then re-upload. But make sure you've caught and corrected everything. Otherwise, you'll have to go back and do it all again. Each time you re-upload your pdf files (whether it's the book files or the book cover file), you pay a fee for doing it and for receiving another proof.

That will change with the second book, though. But the first one is a learning experience - and learning costs.

Hopefully, there were no mistakes from the beginning and you only had to upload the files once.

But remember, Lightning Source works with publishers. Your publisher may do all the formatting for you. Or they may expect you to submit it to them ready to go to Lightning Source.

Updating on Amazon

A friend of mine, Tim Bruce, sent me a link to an article called, HowAmazon did everything wrong (but I still got to #1). 

If you publish via Amazon - or if you're thinking of updating something you already have in the Amazon Kindle bookstore - you might want to read this article. It could save you some time and frustration. On the other hand, just reading it might change your mind about trying to update your book.

After you read the article, come back and tell us what you think.

Going Solo But With Help

Last Thursday, I talked about hiring a publicist to help you do promotions for your book. This week, I thought I'd back up a bit and talk about actually getting your book into print, assuming you're going solo, without an agent.

If you don't have an agent or a publisher, then it'll be up to you to get your book into print. Getting it into an e-book is pretty easy. Amazon makes it pretty simple, so if you want to go the e-route first, then I would recommend you start there.

If you want to go first into print, it's not so easy, at least, I don't think so. But instead of just having your local printing shop print your books, I would recommend you look into Lightning Source.

There are tons of paperwork to fill out. And it can feel like a maze. But ... I recommend Lightning Source because they are the ones most bookstores order from. Whether you establish your own publishing company or sign on as an individual author, you will be included in their list of new books.

That, of course, doesn't mean bookstores will order your books. Most bookstores, let's face it, look for the "name" authors, not the unknowns.

But, let's say, you live in Texas and have a cousin in Oregon. The store there doesn't have your book on their shelves. Your cousin can request that they order your book for them. If more than just one person does that at that store, they might order a couple of extras to put on the shelf. You're now on their radar, even if it's just a small blip.

If you get your local bookstore to let you do a signing, they can order books from Lightning Source for the event.

Of course, I'm not saying you have to go with Lightning Source. But I think it has a lot of pluses.

Future of Publishing

I read a really interesting article in The Huffington Post. It was one person's (John B. Thompson) look into the future of publishing.

Here are his 7 trends in the future of publishing:

1. Amazon will continue to grow as a retail channel, while bricks-and-mortar booksellers (including the bookselling chains like Barnes and Noble) will find themselves squeezed further and further, leading to more bookstore closures and downsizing on the part of the chains.

2. … publishers with weak balance sheets and companies that are highly leveraged will face growing financial difficulties … leading to further consolidation in the hands of a small number of large corporations ….

3. … the decline of retail space in bookstores - the shop windows, front-of-store display tables and rows of bookshelves - and the decline of book review space in traditional print media … will make it harder for publishers to get their books noticed, … as publishers are forced to devote more and more of their marketing effort to the online environment ….

4. … income from e-books and other forms of electronic sale will become an increasingly significant part of publishers' revenues, though exactly how significant is, at this point in time, unknown - maybe 20 percent, maybe 30, maybe 50, maybe more, no one knows.

5.  … as more sales shift to digital and the sales of physical books decline, the large publishing houses will face growing downward pressure on their revenues ….

6. … the infrastructure supporting the traditional book supply chain - warehouses, sales forces, etc. - will come under increasing pressure, forcing publishers to scale back their operations ….

7. … small publishing operations and innovative start-ups will proliferate, as the costs and complexities associated with the book supply chain diminish ….

Tell us what you think. Then link over and read the full article.

Old News is Still New

Over three years ago, I did a post that, when I stumbled on it recently, I realized it is still relevant today.

I'm going to post it again and ask the same questions I did then:

For mid-list or new authors, an article in The New York Observer was sobering, or, to use another term, a real bummer.

Only the most established agents will be able to convince publishers to take a chance on an unknown novelist or a historian whose chosen topic does not have the backing of a news peg. The swollen advances that have come to represent all that is reckless and sinful about the way the business is run will grow, not shrink. Authors without “platforms” will have a more difficult time finding agents willing to represent them.

That’s not good news for new writers or those writers struggling to stay in print.

Mid-list projects, Mr. Abate said, the kind of books that have traditionally attracted advances in the $50,000 range, will suffer as a result: For little-known literary authors and journalists, “the advances are going to be lower and it will be that much harder to sell them.”

In fact, he said, these books “might not even get bought.

The author of the article, Leon Feyfakh, says this:

What lies ahead instead is a necessary scaling back of ambition: an age in which the gambling spirit that has kept book publishing exciting gives way to a shabby, predictable environment that cows its participants into avoiding all things adventurous and allowing only the proven few a seat at the table.

One thing all of this says to me is that if you’re lucky enough to get published this year or next, you’ve got to take advantage of the web 2.0 world. Get out there on the internet and promote yourself and your book.

What do you think about this article? What should a writer or newly published author do? Will this raise the status and number of e-books?

The Agent’s Role

What does a literary agent do? What is their role in the publishing process?

I can only answer that from the writer’s POV since I’m not an agent. My list of what agents do would probably be similar to yours. They look for talent. They or their assistant culls through masses of query letters, looking for “saleable” book ideas. They look for manuscripts that are polished and ready or could be polished. They work to get a publisher to buy the book; they are the conduit that connects the writer to the publisher. They work with the writer on edits, covers, and anything that needs a go-between person. They negotiate advances and technical details in contracts. They work to get overseas deals. They help protect the author’s rights, whether it’s your rights to have your book published in Russia or your e-book rights. You could come up with even more things an agent does, but you get the idea.

The agent’s role is changing.

They’re still doing all that. After all, it’s how they make their money. None of them want to become dinosaurs without a means to feed their families. So, with more and more writers turning to self-publishing their own print and e-books, agents are adapting.

Oh, they’re still looking for those breakout, best-selling authors and books, but they’re also moving into the e-book era and helping authors do the work. They’re putting more into helping authors build their brand. Your success means they are successful.

I’m not saying that agents didn’t work to make their authors successful before now. I’m saying they are moving into areas that before were not their responsibility. Just as writers are taking over more of the publishing work and going it alone, some agents are seeing that change is inevitable and are adapting in ways that benefit the writer – and will keep agents in the equation.

What do you expect or hope for from an agent? Are you still hoping for an agent – or are you moving forward on your own? How can agents change to keep themselves relevant and necessary?

Publishing How-To Advice

If you’re considering publishing your own e-book, here’s another post that lays out a basic How-To. This one is from The Wall Street Journal/India. It seems to be pretty straight forward and thus would work for pretty much anyone.

I like that the author of the article, Amit Agarwal, keeps it simple and offers advice from his own experience.

He starts by telling you where he recommends you publish. Then he goes into the fonts he recommends you use, as well as what not to do, the size your cover pic should be and what tool to use to convert your document.

In Step 2, he tells you how to test your eBook. Then he explains what happens when you publish.

It gives some good advice, although the article is not a move-by-move how-to. So read it if you’re considering e-publishing. It should help you decide if it’s time to dive in.

Wanna Be in Print?

All the buzz is about e-books, but we can’t forget print. With that in mind, I came across a good article on self-pubbing your book in print form. It’s not too long, but the author, Kim Komando, offers tips on publishing your own book.

She list three print-on-demand sites: Lulu.com, Blurb.com and CreateSpace.com, then tells you the basics about each and their good and bad points, as she sees them. She also touches on the cost of using each. In her opinion, CreateSpace wins price-wise over the other two, but she warns that you also need to check other factors specific to your book.

She then goes into marketing and how each site rates on getting your book out to the public – and points out that once you self-publishing, you have to do the marketing and you’ll have little help, unless you’re willing to pay for that.

I think the article is a pretty straight-forward breakdown of the ins and outs. So, if you’re thinking of doing your own print book, give it a read. I’d love to hear what any of you would like to add.

Book Funding

You know publishing is in trouble when even publishers need help. I’ve written before about a new thing: authors publishing via financial support from future readers. I’ve also written about big publishers raising funds to help with the publishing. And here I am writing about it again. This one, though, hits close to home for me since it’s my publisher.
TSTC Publishing, for whom I’ve written three books in their TechCareer series, is publishing a book by Bradley T. Turner called Cotton Bales, Goatmen & Witches: Legends from the Heart of Texas, according to Digital Journal. TSTC is a university press and wanted to publish this book, but needed more funding in order to be able to do it. The book will include photos. The promotion will include a video of one of the stories included in the book.

Contributors to the project will receive a variety of Cotton Bales gift items, based on the amount of the pledge, such as commemorative postcards, calendars, autographed copies of the book and framed metal art of the donor’s choice of photographs from the book.

TSTC Publishing plans to do this with other projects and is calling the program “Kickstarter.” You can go to the article to learn what other ancillary products might be included in Kickstarter projects, as well as what happens with the funds.

Now that this type of publishing is coming even to small presses and, in this case, university presses, what do you think of the idea?

Disclaimer: TSTC Publishing did not notify me about this new program. I read about it online. Nor did they ask me to blog about it. I haven’t even talked to Publisher Mark Long.

Super Thursday

You may not know this, but today is “Super Thursday” in Great Britain, according to The Independent paper. This is the day publishers “release hundreds of titles in a bid to win a place on customers' Christmas shopping lists.” In one day, over 200 titles will be released.

As a result of last year’s one-day release, ten hardbacks went on to earn more than one million pounds over the Christmas holidays.

Century publishing director Ben Dunn said a "significant number" of releases would be non-fiction, reflecting wider trends within the industry. "Now more than ever, selling non-fiction outside the Christmas window is becoming impossible," he said.

Graeme Neill, news editor of The Bookseller, said: "Publishers see it as critical as a means of establishing their book in the public eye as early as possible.

Over in the UK, book sales are down overall, just like they are here in the states. Even so, I’m thinking, man, the push to buy for Christmas just keeps coming earlier and earlier. Here in central Texas, we’re still reaching in the 100+ degrees, so buying for Christmas is far from my mind.

How about you?

E-Books Growing

The Decatur Book Festival took place over the Labor Day weekend. Part of the focus on the festival was on self-publishing, although that was primarily by the vendors and attendees. The featured authors were primarily representing print books.

Alison Reeger Cook, who wrote an article for the Gainesville Times, attended a workshop on “How to Make Self-Publishing Work for You.” Here are some nuggets she shared about what she learned at that workshop and the festival as a whole:

While the upside to self-publishing is that the author has complete control over the presentation and sales of their book and can make more money per unit sold (if the book sells well), the downside is that the author is the one who must pay for the publishing package and arrange all the marketing for his work.

This requires an excellent savvy in networking and advertising. …

As of today, e-books cover 16 percent of the book market, while 84 percent is still traditional printed books.

Within the next 20 years, this will almost be a complete reversal: it is projected that e-books will have 89 percent of the market, and printed books will only have 11 percent.

Cook noted that what readers will always look for is a good story, no matter the means of publishing.

What do you think about her prediction that within 20 years there will be an great upheaval in the way we read?

Author Andy Straka

I belong to an online list (and Facebook group) called Murder Must Advertise. Recently, author Andy Straka sent a message about his experience with moving his traditionally published books into the e-world. He not only has his books in e-form, he’s been experimenting with the sales price of those books.

It was an interesting post, so I emailed and asked if I could re-post it here on Straight From Hel for those of you who aren’t on the MMA group. He said yes …

So, please welcome Andy Straka.

Experimenting with E-Sales

Like many previously published authors (traditional--or are we supposed to call it "legacy" now?) I've been somewhat slow to move into ebooks. I control the rights to my backlist of five titles. My books have been formatted and available on just the Amazon and the Nook since last November, but I've been busy writing, not paid much attention to them, and done no promotion whatsoever. I haven't even had time to deal with Smashwords, or whatever. I've been selling an average of twenty ebooks a month until the beginning of this month. (Pretty pitiful, I know, but hey, they're all found sales, as far as I'm concerned, requiring very little, if any effort.)

Since I have three new books coming soon--one novella, a new standalone thriller, and a new "Adult Fiction for Teens" edition of my first book--I decided three and a half weeks ago to try lowering the price of my five ebook titles to .99 each, just to see what happened as I begin some promotion work this summer. In looking at the numbers, I figured I had to increase my sales to 120 copies per month to match the small income I was receiving from the same books at $2.99. (Remember, these are all backlist titles. The latest book came out in Sept 2009.)

The experiment has been a success. I've sold over 400 copies in the last three weeks, and if current trends continue will easily eclipse 500 copies for the month. A number of these titles sold in excess of 10,000 copies when they were first released years ago, but to have them find new life as ebooks is especially gratifying. I can't wait to see how things develop as my new books are released over the course of the next few months. Not sure if I'll keep these backlist books at .99 or not. (I'd appreciate opinions on that.)

 Thank you Andy.

Publisher's Weekly has featured Andy Straka as one of a new crop of "rising stars in crime fiction." His books include A WITNESS ABOVE (Anthony, Agatha, and Shamus Award finalist), A KILLING SKY (Anthony Award Finalist), COLD QUARRY (Shamus Award Winner), KITTY HITTER (called a "great read" by Library Journal), and RECORD OF WRONGS, hailed by Mystery Scene magazine as "a first-rate thriller.