What the self-published can learn from the big boys

The Author Enablers blog has a good piece on what self-published authors can learn from big publishers. Click here to read more.

Klash With Kindle Update

No big post here--just a note that Hachette (formerly Time Warner Books) has sided with MacMillan and HarperCollins against Amazon and its $9.99 price for ebooks. People may bail, and people may rail, but if the price goes up everywhere except among the indies, people will pay $14.99 or abandon books altogether. Satellite radio is failing but cable TV took off. E-books, whether Kindle or iPad, but figure out what they're offering, what makes them unique, other than the price (given the price of the e-readers!), that makes people want to buy them. Could they go like videos -- unreleased chapters? An earlier draft? Backstory? Added character biographies? Most authors would scream at this. There's a reason such things get cut from novels, but added to videos--novels are meant to be complete, movies rarely. And I bet the "making of" would be really boring...

Well, welcome to the good fight Hachette. Hope this all works out for everyone, especially the authors and their readers.

Critiquing the Critique Process

This last meeting we shifted the critiques into a new (old) format where the author doesn't say anything in the critique unless being asked a direct question. (Even that should be kept to a minimum, really; try to phrase your questions into statements.) Also, I experimented with going around the table in order, rather in a random "jump right in" way. Sorry for the confusion, but I was checking to see how it would work.

Let me know, as we go on with these changes and tweaks, how you think it's working out.

It can feel awkward as a writer to not be an active participant in the discussion. Particularly when you've been used to it. Think of it this way: What's being said isn't aimed at you, it's about your writing. The writing that's on the page, via your mind. Your spoken words have nothing to do with it. Listen. Take Notes. Process what's being said. Later on, after reading the written critiques, you can find a way to translate what's been suggested to the page. Take what you can work with, set aside what you can't. The writer is always the final arbiter. But first you have to be open and listen to what's being said. It's a privilege, really, to be given a glimpse into the inner workings of a reader's mind. That's what you joined a critique-based group for. Get the most mileage from it.

The up side of going around the entire room is that everyone is heard, which gets harder in a larger group. The down side is that by the time it gets to you, many of the same comments have been heard. That's why I was changing directions. Also, predictable can become boring. So unless it distracts/detracts from the process, I'll continue to sometimes go left, sometimes go right. If I'm feeling mischievous or chaotic I may start randomly across the room. Or I may purposely first ask to hear from a person or people who may have more experience with a certain type of writing.

It's great to see the Group continually change and evolve. Hard to believe that in April we'll celebrate 12 years in existence. Maybe we should do something special for the 3rd Thursday. Send any suggestions my way.

See you all on 3/4.

Third Thursday Review

Another spirited meeting for the GFWG, perhaps more so after it was over than during, but nonetheless productive and informative. We went back to the one-at-a-time format to keep the critiques from becoming a free-for-all, and the editors did very well in not responding out of turn. All in all, controlled and detailed with plenty of constructive criticism to go around. A few of us even got to dip into our backgrounds, especially with Sandy's piece on the value of local farming, where Ann Marie, Kay and I put on our journalism caps, Michelle presented the finer points of the persuasive essay, and Brian expounded on editorial writing.

Kay also presented the findings of the pre-meeting regarding our upcoming publication. In short, pieces for publication must be submitted to the group by the first meeting in July, critiqued by the second meeting, and revisions handed in in one month later. We also went over plans banded about over a year ago in expanding this blog. Look for upcoming features on our members, complete with pictures, audio, and the like.

Next meeting we'll be critiquing poems from Montana and Michelle, novel selections from Zack, and Billy, and a short essay(?) from Alison.

See you all in two weeks, and thanks for critiquing my pieces. We should be proud of our production!

Third Thursday Preview

It's Third Thursday time again, as we continue to put our 2010 experiment to the test. We'll be busy at this meeting, covering two pieces from Sandy (one a comedic sci-fi piece and the other a persuasive essay on the farmer's role), a book start from Bill, a book continuation from Zack, a total of six poems from Michelle and Montana, and three flash fiction pieces from me. We also get our first glimpse from new member Jerri Lynn, who takes us through paradise lost.

We also might get to welcome yet another new member, Mary, a Spanish teacher from Argyle. Between Brian's fluent French and Mary's command of Spanish, well, I'm not learning another language to stay in the group. Still, I hope Mary makes the trek, joining our other teachers, Michelle and Allison.

A reminder that there will is an early meeting a 6pm in the Holden Room for anyone interested in helping with our forthcoming publication. It's the first full meeting on the subject, so bring your thinking caps. Anyway in which you can help, any talents you may have, will be greatly appreciated.

For all others, see you at the regular time, 7pm, upstairs in the Holden Room, at Crandall Library.

Let's keep writing!

The Kindle Clash Continues

And the ground forces of Kindle nation, Amazon warriors, I suppose, are wasting no time going straight for the jugular now that MacMillan and HarperCollins have expressed interest in raising e-book prices from $9.99 to $14.99, still roughly half what a new hardcover costs. Their tactics include boycotts, one-star ratings and email (and in some cases, NASTY email) campaigns against authors and publishers.

It's a two-part argument -- yes, e-books are cheaper to produce, but these readers don't seem to consider that books still have costs associated with them beyond paper, ink, transportation and storage. In short order, we have the author payments, agent's fees, editors' salaries, marketing, salesman, creating the book, and IT guys for support, etc. Cheaper overall, but not as much as e-book readers believe. And of course, author payments don't change -- they still get 10% of the wholesale book cost -- in other words, these readers, who have been attacking the authors as greedy, want them to make 1/3 the amount of money for the same amount of work. I doubt many of them will go into work Monday and tell the boss, "I'll give you a 40-hour week, but could I do it for a 1/3 of the pay? Oh, and I'll pay my own benefits, and could you throw 15% to my references as an agent's fee?" Anything less makes them hypocrites.

If Kindle means that authors are going to sell more books because the price is a penny under ten bucks, than it's a great deal. But it doesn't, and this Yahoo! approach to e-books, this Walmart approach to commercialization, isn't helping authors.

If iPad and Kindle, backed by all the publishers, agree to a price hike, then die-hard readers will have to follow. I just wonder how many casualties -- readers and authors alike -- there will be along the way. Some readers will find other entertainment avenues, and others will search for old books, cheap books, used books (yes, you can buy e-books used), and titles from small publishers, etc., who have yet to knuckle under the pressure.

Hey, maybe we can return to the days of the dime-store novel, which sucked as literature but kept the masses entertained. Even those people understood you had to pay just a wee bit more for Henry James and Stephen Crane. I just can't figure out why the authors -- like Jay Leno -- have become the bad guys in a battle happening three levels over their heads...

Author's Voice, Part I

Finally getting around to a request Kay made a month-and-a-half ago -- a discussion on author's voice. There's no way to condense this into one post, so, in a GFWG first, I'm going to explore this topic over the next month, interspersed with posts of general interest to our group. Thanks for the extra work, Kay!

Most everyone knows what voice is, or at least they recognize it when they read it. It's that style that makes an author's approach and writing unique. But it's so much more than that. Yes, some author's maintain the same consistent voice throughout their works. Their readers know what to expect, and they deliver. Or, in some cases, they're incapable of doing more.

Others let the story dictate their approach. What they want to say determines voice, rather than voice determining what they have to say. There are similarities between The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but could Twain have really used the same voice to tell both stories? Huck's vernacular made it far more powerful and insightful than Tom's tale of all-American boyhood. Now, setting those two aside, what of The Prince and the Pauper or The Gilded Age? Work, genre, message, etc., as much as author preference and ability, play a role in shaping voice.

Age and experience (particularly, it seems, tragedy) shape voice, too. Writers of 40 look back on their work of a generation ago and see how it has changed. Matured, perhaps, like a two-pack-a-day smoker. Generally, and with few exceptions (though they exist -- Rumi, anyone? Not to mention Shakespeare) voice grows thicker and coarser over time.

Well, now that we've seen some of what goes into shaping voice, what are its individual parts, and how can they be used to reflect the author's ideas?

Next post.

First Thursday Recap

Last night's meeting was a little more low key than the previous two, and perhaps as a result, a bit more productive. The quick rundown:

1. Kay announced the project for the GFWG this year -- a publication to debut at The Chronicle Book Fair in November! We last published a collection of our work in 2005, so as Kay said, "It's time." Basic rule is that a piece an author wants published must be workshopped through the GFWG in 2010 to be eligible, but everything else is wide open. We could get some big help in putting it all together form Sandy, who works at the CCE (the Cornell Coopertive Extension. Yes, I had to ask, too). Should look very professional. The as-yet-to-be-formed committee will meet at 6pm, or an hour before the next meeting, on Feb. 18
2. We reinstituted an old rule (and one I've been pushing for almost since my return last Nov.) -- authors don't get to talk during their critique. The work must stand on its own. Plenty of other groups use this rule, and if we allowed time for author rebuttal, we're going to have to add another hour to the meeting. And when I say rule, I mean more of a guideline because it's really hard to tstick to.
3. Instead of bringing 10 copies, writers will now need to make 12 to account for swelling membership.

Now, on to the critiques. We got further into Zack's always twisted world, continuing with The Dead Machine. Interesting how diverse interpretations and impressions are of his work. Michelle continues to challenge the nonpoets, but hopefully gets some added insight from our two new poets (Alison and the long-lost Montana (welcome back!)). We gave Katie suggestions on how to expand her short story Avalanche! while helping Billy reconcile shifts in his Electra short. We laughed along with Sandy's continued family adventures, and welcomed back Jim, who finally received feedback on his intriguingly titled Godot Strikes Back. Jim gets bonus points for quoting one of my contentions that "all work is autobiographical" during the meeting.

Another interesting, fast-paced gathering. See you in two weeks when we critique works from Billy, Michelle, Zack, Sandy (2), Montana, Cynthia, me, and a first submission from Jerri Lynn. Our production remains strong.

First Thursday Preview

It's a day before meeting time, with a temporary new meeting place and some fresh business to discuss. Prior to the critiques, Kay will be discussing big GFWG business planned for this fall, I may be explaining an expansion to this blog, and Katie will be telling us about submitting to a writing contest. We'll also be critiquing pieces from Sandy, Zack, Michelle, and Katie, and hopefully Jim and Billy, both of whom had to miss our last get-together. Cynthia, who just introduced a major change in perspective to her memoir, will be unfortunately absent as she heads to Connecticut to visit her granddaughter. Some things just have to come first.

I think the group will be excited by Kay's idea. You can tell the group is full of energy, popping again, as we once more expand our efforts with a refreshing energy. More meetings, more diversity, more projects. One month in and 2010 is shaping up quite nicely.

Take Note: We will be meeting in the Crandall Room at 7pm rather than the Holden Room.
Holden should be empty after 7:30 if we need the bigger space to accommodate everyone. Otherwise, see you all at Crandall Library tomorrow night.

A Win for the... Big Guys?

I'm no legal scholar, and I'm not sure how I feel about this settlement. My gut tells me to root for the publisher, but my head, like much of the publishing world, is not so sure.

Amazon conceded to MacMillan's demand that it charge more for e-books on Kindle. Amazon has been charging a flat fee of $9.99 per book, with the publisher's getting half that. That's way less than the make for new books on shelves, but both Amazon and MacMillan have less overhead. Amazon kept the price low to sell more Kindles; MacMillan figures if people are willing to spend $25 for a new hardcover, they'll drop $12 or $15 for an e-book.

In a nutshell, Amazon blinked. They pulled MacMillan's books from Kindle, but one of the advantages to being one of the six biggest publishers in the world is that people start asking for your books. Amazon again made them available, with the new prices to go into effect March 1.

If you think the rest of the publishing world is jumping for joy at the prospect of earning an extra dollar or five per book, think again. Although they cut the same deal MacMillan cut with Amazon over at Mac and its iPad, they're not so sure this is a good deal for them. Like the music world suddenly enslaved by 99-cent iTunes, they think readers will eventually balk at the high prices and demand a flat $9.99 from everybody. Many of them think that MacMillan's short-term win is a long-term loss. A Pyrrhic victory perhaps.

The upside is that maybe they sell more books at $9.99 than they would at $29.99, even with the $259 Kindle price. Don't know. At some point, people are going to have to realize that things cost money. A book takes several years to write, publish, market, etc. and a $5-dollar cut to a publisher and 75 cents to an author isn't going to work. Amazon is consciously taking money out of their pockets to sell its big-ticket item. Now, if by miracle of miracles, Kindle helps authors sell a few thousand more books and reduces overhead (publishing costs, storage, etc.), and gives books a longer shelf life than they enjoy the hardcover world, more money could be made by all. But that's a lot of books to move when publishers are alreday complaining of a public that doesn't read (more on this in a future post). Will they be enticed by cost or are they generally lost forever to other opportunities, flash-in-the-pan fiction, and repetitive, unoriginal genres?

In the end, I somehow suspect it's the authors first , and then the publishers, who will get the short end of the Kindle-ing. But for now, congratulations MacMillan, on getting Amazon to bend, even if you did it for yourselves and not the authors. They will benefit, for a little while anyway, by your actions.

***Addendum*** Feb. 2nd -- Rupert Murdoch, who owns HarperCollins, also one of the big six, has criticized Amazon's $9.99 deal and wants to renegotiate. He wants to model a new agreement after their iPad contract. If HC goes the way of MacMillan, expect the rest to follow in short order. Now we know which way the publishing world is going, which is at least potentially good for authors.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have a ms sitting with Balzer+Bray, an imprint of HC.