The E-book Battle With A-holes

According to one Huffington Post writer, the battle between superagent Andrew Wylie and Random House is a battle between a**holes, and that Wylie's attacks are necessary to keep publishers in line. Here's the basis for this looming battle of publishing giants:

Big publishers claim they own the eb00k rights for all books published before 1994 since no publisher mentioned ebooks in their contracts before that. Their claim is they don't have to pay authors for those sales, which, of course, are largely literary classics or bestsellers. The Wylie Agency has decided to launch its own publishing company, Odyssey Editions (for ebooks only), to prevent Random House (and others) from getting their hands on them. Random House has said it will no longer do business with Wylie (who represents Salman Rushdie and Philip Roth, as well as the estates of John Updike and Norman Mailer). Wylie also plans to give its authors a bigger percentage of the profit, which the big houses have limited to 25%. This battle will likely end in court.


A lot of anger is being expressed in the blogosphere on this issue, about writers getting screwed by big business interested in the bottom line, etc. A lot of altruism seems to be suddenly emerging in the world of ebooks, as if writers weren't getting screwed before. Here are some random thoughts:

1. Random House is screwing authors. Electronic rights that covered audio books should be applied here.
2. Wylie is benefiting from Random House and other publishers' work. He's only publishing ebooks, but his company is benefiting from their copy editing and initial marketing. He's pushing a polished product rather than having to invest in polishing it himself. He's not really risking losing money on the unknown. He may have once upon a time, but not now, not repeatedly.
3. Amazon is thrilled to be entering this deal with Wylie because their ebook business is exploding. Of course, Amazon fought long and hard to keep ebook prices down and Random House was one of the companies that convinced them to raise prices so that they, and their authors, could make more. Amazon was keeping ebook prices below paperback prices. Amazon can be a**holes, too.
4. People are screaming that authors are getting screwed by big publishers, but some of them sided with Amazon on the price of ebooks, going so far as to give all ebooks priced above $9.99 a one-star review and then refusing to buy them. Readers can be a**holes, too.
5. Authors get 25% of the wholesale price of ebooks (only 10-15% of hardcover books), but still make an average of 75 cents less for an ebook sale. The one big advantage is that ebooks stay on the shelf longer, if being harder to find.
6. Publishers face lower costs with ebooks, but it's not as simple as some writers have suggested: it's not just format, upload, and sell. Publishers face copyediting, marketing, artwork, and tech-support issues, though storage and shipping are off the table. Writers who don't recognize this are being a**holes, too.

Ebooks are about to overturn, and perhaps even overwhelm, the publishing industry. There will be a long list of books to slog through, nothing leaping off a shelf to grab your attention. Writers Wylie represents will likely benefit, new writers will struggle as always to find an audience, (though without book signings to help), and publishers will look for new ways to promote their best works.

In short, authors will still make less money, because publishing is peppered with a**holes. But it turns out the publishing body as a whole needs all the pieces to together nicely: Wylie, Random House, Amazon, readers, and writers, if it is to function properly. I hope this gets worked out, civilly and in short order: RH pays for past work, Wylie recognizes what publishers have done for him and his clients, Amazon offers fair prices, readers pay fair prices, and writers stay prolific and inventive without being underpaid. Otherwise, ebooks won't be a new Gutenberg press spreading literature to the masses but a regurgitation of literary classics at bargain-basement prices -- and that comes out all wrong.

I know people like simple good guys and bad guys, for morality tales as black and white as the written page, but that's a boring story. Characters come in shades of gray. And that includes assholes. To grant less is to create underdeveloped characters. Any basic writer knows that, and I hope the people writing about and following this story see that, too.

To read more on this, visit Publishers Weekly.

Evaluating Your Conference Critique

We ended our last meeting with a 15-minute or so discussion on attending writers conferences: how to pick one that's right for you, what to look for, how to network, how to view the critiques you receive, etc.

Well, I had planned at some point, time permitting, to cover that in-depth at another meeting and here in the blog, but Putnam author Cynthea Lieu has done a better job than I ever could. While written to help children's and young adult authors, her post has relevance to all writers. It doesn't delve into some of what we discussed, but does a wonderful job explaining how to handle the suggestions of editors, agents, or other writers who critique your work at writers conferences.

Making the Most of Your Conference Critique

Sure, It's Kafkaesque, But Which One?

Seems a stack of Kafka's unpublished works is caught in a legal battle between the granddaughters of the one-time rightful owner and an Israeli museum. Lots of newspapers have called the struggle Kafkaesque, citing his more famous works The Penal Colony, The Trial, and The Judgment. I think it's right out of his really esoteric parable Before the Law, about how greed and power have greater access to the law and the poor struggle and whither before it. We'll see, I guess.

Check out the article here.

Writing press review

Some links to articles and essays that may be of interest to writers (and readers)...

-The NPR program On the Media recently ran a show primarily devoted to reading and the future of the publishing industry;

-Writers Digest blog offered tips for success in YA writing;

-The UK Guardian ran the response of the head of Chicago's public library system to a report by the local Fox TV affiliate questioning whether libraries are still necessary;

-The Guardian also reported on the Society of Authors claim that digital publishing deals are 'not remotely fair' which makes it not good news for writers that...

-... Amazon.com has announced that it now sells more e-books than hardcovers;

-As Kay announced, the Adirondack Center for Writing is doing a unique public writing project in which everyone is invited to participate. For more info, go to the Adirondack Summer Shorts website.

Composition 101 From Vassar

On WAMC this morning, Dr. Amitava Kumar of Vassar Collge presented the outline of his composition class for incoming freshmen. Some very good advice for those struggling to expand beyond the basic skills of good writing.

Listen here.

Writing Good Dialogue

Tips for writing good, compelling dialogue:

1. Listen to people talk. If your character is from a particular region, copy that. Has a particular job? Copy that. Based on a real person? Listen to her. Similar to someone you know? Listen to him.



2. Match dialogue to characters. Match dialogue by age, gender, occupation, education, time period, and anything else that makes them distinct. This will help you create an original voice for the character and make them believable to your reader. Write what you want them to say, then go back and tweak it. This might require research, but will be well worth it.



3. Don't be afraid of the vernacular. Formal English all but disappeared with 19th century literature. It has its place, but can easily be out of place. Use contractions, slang, idioms, phrases, and if necessary, curse words.



4. Show emotion in dialogue. Avoid explaining emotions in narration if you can show it in dialogue. This makes it more powerful, and is often how people detect or recognize someone's feelings.



5. Use action words and present tense when appropriate. Don't force the issue, but skipping forms of "to be" makes dialogue more powerful.



6. No appellations. Writers have characters address each other so the reader knows who's speaking, i.e., "Is that so, Bob?" It's a lazy habit. Develop other ways, including an original character's voice and actions while speaking, to let people know who's talking. People rarely address each other by name during a conversation.



7. Avoid dialects. Don't confuse this with numbers 1 and 2. Common phrases like "y'all" for Southerners and "yous" for Brooklynites are fine, but writing entire dialogue in that manner can seem strained. The reader needs to know what a character is saying, and too many imitations can prove distracting. Replace common words with "dem," "dese" "dose" and "boids" and see if you can understand your character.



8. Avoid monologues. People rarely speak in paragraphs let alone pages. Others interrupt, even in the course of telling a story. Have characters speak in short sentences. Dialogue is interactive, not individual.



9. Don't use big words when small words will do. People don't speak in essays, unless, of course, your is extremely educated, a boor, or a pedant. Even then, don't overdo it. Even academics save their most egregious sophistry for published periodicals.



10. Don't be afraid to let characters get distracted. Individuals don't always focus on the matter at hand. Let their minds wander; let them go off-track. Don't overdo it, and use only when appropriate, but this trick can make dialogue more interesting and real.



11. Add tension. Dialogue is a great way to add tension to a scene, whether overt or covert.



12. Develop a catch phrase. Sometimes cheesy and easily overdone, it can be effective in telling a reader who is speaking. Just be careful. It does not have to be overly original. Perhaps a character says, "Cool," or "Groovy," or "As the crow flies." You get the idea.



13. Don't explain things that should be familiar to the characters. This is little more than verbal exposition and is as bad as narrative exposition. If a character starts a sentence "Remember that time we..." very little will follow because they both remember the story. Don't explain events to people who were there. This is often done for the reader's edification, but will always seem awkward.



14. Watch rhymes, alliteration, and other devices. Sometimes people speak this way, but rarely. Rather, the author injects it in the course of writing.



15. Can you act our your dialogue? Try acting your dialogue as it if were a play. Does it seem natural? Record it and play it back. Does it sound like two people talking, or two people reading Emily Bronte?

Third Thursday Review

We had a very productive meeting last night. We opened and closed with discussions on writing and managed all our critiques in between.

1. We discussed how to write good dialogue. My notes on that will be posted in an upcoming blog.
2. We reviewed works by Bill, Billy, Crystal, and Zack. One poem, one satire, one fantasy, one sci-fi. We even used some of our opening discussion during this portion of the meeting.
3. Kay discussed our upcoming publication for The Chronicle Book Fair. It will be scaled back in scope, submissions are still limited to 10 pages, and may be from anytime in the last five years, but they must have been workshopped by the group at some point.
4. We finished up by discussing how to pick the right writers conference for you. I will also turn this impromptu topic into a future post.

All in all, I was impressed with last night's results. Let's keep up the good work! See you in three weeks...

Next meeting: August 5th, Holden Room, Crandall Library, Glens Falls

Third Thursday Preview

It's Third Thursday time again, when downtown Glens Falls gets a spritely commercial and artistic bump. Inside Crandall Library, the GFWG will be critiquing Zack's growing sci-fi thriller, a poem from Billy, Jerri Lynn's memoir, and revamped mythologies from Crystal and Bill.

Our discussion on the art of writing will focus on a true art: writing good dialogue. Not as easy as it sounds. Ask any screenwriter.

See many of you tonight.

Details: 7-9pm, Holden Room, Crandall Library, Glens Falls, with optional social afterwards.

First Thursday Review

Sorry this is late, but computer problems rule the roost at the moment.

Our First Thursday meeting saw a good turnout for summer month, and saw us welcome two new members, Amanda and Gino. We critiqued works from Zack, Bill, Sandy, and me, following a discussion on the writer's trick of Showing, Not Telling.

So how does a writer show, not tell? Kay read three sample paragraphs of poor to decent writing in which the writer relayed information rather than revealed it. The group then made suggestions on how the paragraphs in question could be improved. Suggestions included more action, active verbs, dialogue, present tense, setting up full-fledged scenes, adding emotions, proper foreshadowing, and avoiding flashbacks. Following these basic guidelines can help writers avoid telling their readers (or listeners) regardless of genre. Showing can be done not only in novels, but short stories, plays, screeplays, kidlit, and even, on occasion, poetry.

Next meeting we'll review work from Zack, Bill, Jerri Lynn, and Crystal, and our topic will likely be How to Write Good Dialogue. Hope to see you there!

Details: July 15, 7-9pm, Holden Room, Crandall Library, Glens Falls