The Wages of Sloth

by Janis Patterson

I’ll admit I’ve never been much of a go-getter. There are so many more attractive things to do than work; I’d rather do what I want to do (and I’m the only one who feels like that, right?) Fortunately for me, most of the time I want to write; writing is what keeps me as sane as I am, whatever that is. And let’s face it, the insane covid idiocies haven’t helped anything at all!

However, even I was shocked last week when after vowing to get my act - and my desk - cleaned up I found eight (I think) finished manuscripts, needing only covers and ISBNs to release, plus half a dozen novellas which I had planned to make available in paper - not counting the six or seven (can you tell I’m hazy on numbers?) books I have had reverted from trad publishers.... all waiting to be covered and released.

Holy guacamole! I knew there were a couple of releases I should attend to, but I swear these have been multiplying on my hard drive like mushrooms in the dark! 

Not that I have been totally remiss - I just put up my very first Vella serial novel (GHOSTS OF BELLE FLEUR - 36 episodes, first three free and releasing today - hint, hint!) and am still hard at work on a non-fic history book to say nothing of having a life, but good grief! 

I can see a lot of publishing going on in my future, so be prepared for a release blitz that rivals my first foray into self-publishing in 2014. The Husband is not happy. In 2014 I had gotten back all the books I thought I would ever get returned, so knowing I don’t respond well unless I have a deadline I decided to give myself a strict release deadline. I come from a newspaper/advertising background where there is only one excuse for missing a deadline - death. Yours. 

In 2014 I released a book - freshly edited, formatted for ebook and paperback and with a brand new cover - to every major etailer every two weeks from 1 June to 31 October. It almost killed me, and The Husband got so tired of seeing nothing but the top of my head as I bent over the computer he literally kidnapped me for a weekend in Vegas to celebrate my birthday. That was fun, but it made one release day two days late, and my newspaper/advertising blood cringed. Thank Heaven the shade of my father didn’t rise up and haunt me for such egregious behavior! (Actually, that wouldn’t have been so bad - I still miss my dad even after forty plus years and would love to talk to him again, with or without him having a physical body.)

If there is one thing obvious from this little tale, it’s that I like writing. I don’t particularly like the work of self-publishing. But - I like the unholy circus of rewrites, more rewrites, waiting, and pittances for payments less. I do like the control and the money of self-publishing. True, I have never sold as much with selfing as with trad, but I’ve made equal or better money. Hey - I can be bought!

So... for far too long I have lounged around doing fun things like writing, cleaning the house, travel, excavating the library, in other words living a life, and must now buckle down to business. Those books are not going to publish themselves, and I (1) can’t afford to hire some company to do it for me and (2) wouldn’t even if I could because I have become accustomed to the bliss of pure control. Unfortunately, bliss comes at a price. I am prepared to pay it. 

After some foot surgery a couple of years ago I had to stay in bed for over a week. The first day was unbearable, but after that I came to like the enforced inactivity - I could feel all virtuous for doing basically what I liked to do - nothing. I even coined a word for it - slothing - and claimed the sloth as my spirit animal. Even though I’m now about to embark on this publishing marathon I’m not giving him up. Sloths are cute. Let’s see if I can teach mine to run.

Publishing - A Basic Primer - Part Three

by Janis Patterson

Hope you had a lovely and romantic Valentine’s Day! We didn’t do much - just exchanged cards and shared a bottle of our favorite Veuve Cliquot champagne while watching some unfortunately not very romantic movies on tv. (The Husband prefers action-adventure movies and I prefer having my romance in real life, so we’re both happy with the way the evening turned out!)

I hope all of you are warm and safe during this terrible weather. We were without power for 30+ hours and the low was -1F! Not fun...

As promised, here is the third part of my originally conceived of two part series on the varieties of publishing. Nothing every really goes exactly the way you want it to, does it?

In the first two installments I covered the basics of and differences between Traditional publishing and Self publishing. Now I’m going to talk about a fairly new version of publishing, the Hybrid. I do so with some trepidation, as while I have published many times in both Trad and Self, I have never done Hybrid. So - if I make any egregious mistakes and you know Hybrid, please elucidate in the comments.

As its name implies, Hybrid is a melding of both Trad and Self where - basically - the writer pays for most everything but the mechanics of production are done by the company. It sounds as if it were a panacea with everything perfectly set out, but if things sound too good to be true they usually are. Hybrid pubbing can run the gamut between wonderful and supportive and worth it to just about the worst scam that can be imagined, costing the writer many thousands of dollars and delivering little to extremely little to - in a few sad cases - nothing at all.

In an ideal scenario the writer produces a book and contracts with the Hybrid, who produces a good editing, a good cover, a flawless format and uploading to the chosen market)s) and decent publicity with the writer bearing the cost. It is a true collaboration in every way, with the writer involved in every step. The author benefits from the radiated glory of being published by an imprint of a well-known and respected house. (The reader rarely knows or cares that the MyNewBook imprint is a hybrid arm of BigPublishingHouse and not a regular imprint.) Like the Cinderella principle mentioned in the Trad pubbing blog, it does on occasion happen like this - but very very rarely.

In the worst case scenario the writer produces a book and contracts with the Hybrid, who gives a slap-dash editing if any at all, an execrable cover, a so-so formatting and the only publicity is a listing on their usually pathetic website. Sometimes this kind of Hybrid demands that you give them your email and sometimes snail mail contact lists so they can aggressively market to your friends, relatives and other contacts. Unfortunately, this is more often about soliciting new authors for their publishing services than about selling your book. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between these low-life Hybrid outfits and a pure scam dedicated to separating a writer from his money.

Yes, I am a cynic, but I’ve been in this crazy business a long time (since 1979) and know how bad it can get.

Worst of all, these kind of Hybrids offer low royalties, some as low as the genuine Trad publishers - literally pennies on the cover price. Getting your money - whether much or little - is the next problem. Sometimes writers never see a cent or even get a statement of how many books have been sold. If any. The line between Vanity and these low-type Hybrids is sometimes very blurred.

Now before you inundate me with emails praising your Hybrid publisher, let me say that there are good ones out there. Some are very good. Some are honest but not very effectual. Sadly, many more are barely a hairsbreadth above the scam level. 

Personally, I cannot understand why anyone would risk such huge amounts of money and - on occasion - losing the copyright and ownership of their book by Hybrid publishing when they could hire out everything on their own and retain control. I just can’t. I have seen a bad Hybrid contract where the poor writer paid in the lowish five digits for basically nothing - a badly edited, badly covered book that got no publicity from the ‘publisher’ at all. The royalty scale was less than 5% of cover price - and I don’t think there was ever a copy sold except those the writer guilted friends/family into buying, and he didn’t even get royalties on those! However, I know there are many writers who prefer Hybrid pubbing and they deserve the respect due their freedom of choice. 

So how do you find a good Hybrid? First of all, read everything you can about any Hybrid house in which you are interested - and don’t assume that just because they are affiliated with a recognizable publisher they are aboveboard and honest. There have been a couple of real scandals through the years about semi-scams - at least from the writer’s point of view - in which exactly that and worse happened. Thankfully I haven’t heard of any concerning a big house recently, so maybe that sad time is over.

Which doesn’t mean that there aren’t ugly sharks out there just waiting to gobble up little wide-eyed writers’ money! You must do your research! Google the company and look at both good and bad comments. Best of all, ask your fellow writers. Most writers today are connected through at least one eloop, or know someone who is, and your fellow writers are the ones most likely to know if a Hybrid is good or bad. If they say it’s good, believe them - but verify! If you can get hold of their contract, go through it word by word - and you might be best served if you show it to an attorney. Who owns the copyright to your book? What input do you have in editing/cover/whatever? What are they offering - i.e., what are they guaranteeing in writing - for the money you are paying? Don’t be dazzled by smoke and mirrors and pie-in-the-sky promises. Publishing is contractual, and the contract should be equitable and airtight.

There are good Hybrid publishers out there - there are so many more bad ones. If this route is your choice, do your due diligence and be careful in your choice.

So - these last three blog posts have been nutshell descriptions of our publishing options. I believe there are so many variations and permutations of these three basic types that it would take a work bigger than War And Peace to cover them all, and by the time it was finished there would be new ways appearing.

Whichever you do, be careful, look out for yourself and your work, and choose wisely. And whichever way you decide to go, I do wish you the very best of good fortune.

Publishing - A Basic Primer

by Janis Patterson

I’ll admit it - 2020 really snarled up my life. I lost the best publishing opportunity of my career, missed a lot of really fun trips and fell victim to the endemic malaise that seems to be affecting everyone. Instead of doing my regular three to five books this  year, I barely finished two. What’s worse is that I have five full manuscripts, all professionally edited and lacking only formatting and covers, ready to publish. And yet they sit (metaphorically) on my desk gathering dust. The dust, by the way, is unfortunately all too real. I don’t need a pandemic to help me skimp on housekeeping!

However - things do seem to be a-changing! I’ve seen a definite uptick in professional talks among writers. I’ve seen more interest in marketing techniques and websites and craft than I’ve seen in months. It’s like after a long enchanted (cursed?) hiatus the industry is coming alive again, bringing with it a steady stream of newbies or close-to-newbies eager to be published.

Many of the questions they ask (and there are NO stupid questions, by the way) show their ignorance about the most basic part of getting a book published - publishing itself. What kind, what charges, what to expect. 

So, as a battle-scarred veteran of many decades of publishing, I’m going to give a nutshell course about the basic types of publishing. Unfortunately there are no clear-cut dividing lines between the major types of publishing today; every form is blurred slightly or complicatedly with the others. The main thing is, what kind of publishing do you want and what will you do to achieve it? Make money? Be famous? Print your family history for your relatives? Just have the ego stroke of being a ‘published author’? Whatever you want there’s an outlet for it. Just know what you are doing and why - and be prepared to pay for it in some kind of coin.

Traditional publishing - this is the Holy Grail for many authors. A big publishing house which gives you an advance, takes care of all the expenses such as editing and covers, gives you lots of publicity and sets up booksignings and tours, and helps you make best-seller lists is every writer’s dream. The house will take writers under their wing, manage, guide and promote their careers and allow the writer to concentrate on writing. Yeah. Sure. Indeed, that’s the dream of many authors and - except for a miniscule few - it’s pretty much just that... a dream. 

Trad publishers these days in general offer small if any advances, all too often have pathetic edits, uneven quality of covers and do little advertising support other than put out their new release list and maybe a couple of press releases, as they now expect you to do almost all your own publicity. All for low-single digits percentage royalties per copy. The dream scenario does happen, but so rarely a lot call it the Cinderella Syndrome. Still, there is a cachet to being published by one of the Big Five - or maybe now it’s the Big Four; the number changes with unsettling regularity as the large publishers buy, overtake and generally cannibalize each other.

However, Trads have always and still do have the magic ingredient - distribution. In the days of paper-only books whoever could get them to the book outlets (bookstores, drug stores, wherever) held the whip hand. Those who self/vanity published often ended up with a garage full of books which they could sell only by contacting each outlet individually. Trads still have the advantage here, but with Print On Demand and a more savvy buying public the balance of power/distribution is slowly shifting. As long as there are paper books, however, I believe that as long as they control the major distribution networks Trads will always have a place, albeit a small one.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Vanity publishers. These in the main are predators out to make money from wide-eyed writers with stars in their eyes. It sometimes takes a sharp eye to tell a Vanity from a Trad, as their appearance is carefully crafted to appear as legitimate as the Trads, like the innocent-looking camouflage of a lurking predator. They don’t offer advances (but so few legit publishers do these days, either) and their ‘editing services’ are either pathetic or non-existent. The biggest tell that they are a Vanity is that they ask for money, and lately the contacts for all your friends and relatives as well. Heaven only knows what they do with the contacts, for the full responsibility of selling your book falls directly on your shoulders. Basically, you are paying an astronomic amount (often in the double-digit thousands) for a couple of hundred mediocre physical books delivered to your house to take up residence in your garage until you sell them. In these days of electronic publishing, the Vanity house might throw up an ebook on one or two of the main retailers, often for an extra fee.

As sales depend on distribution, those who control the distribution networks control the industry - and the Vanities don't have any distribution facilities or networks.

One very important thing to remember is that in this industry whatever the publishing model the money should flow TO the author. These Vanity companies make their money FROM the author. If they have no investment of their own in your book they sure aren’t going to push it. They’re getting their money from you, not from sales of your book.

That said, I will add one caveat - there is a single small niche where Vanity is not only acceptable but often desirable. If someone writes a family history, for example, or a collection of Grandma’s recipes - something for family and friends only, something they are not interested in putting out on the open marketplace, Vanity publishing is a viable option. Just be very careful in choosing which company you decide to business with. A very few of the Vanity publishers are trustworthy and provide a good product. Do your due diligence. Then just to be sure, do it again.

Next month I will discuss the newer incarnations of the industry - Hybrid and the 800 pound gorilla that started the revolution in publishing, Self. We’re still in the Wild West in this area, though things have begun to settle down a little because of - or perhaps in spite of - the constantly changing landscape of technology.

Now I wish to give each of you a personal good wish for a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Yule, Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever else you celebrate, and a very Happy New Year. I think we all deserve them.

Letting Go

by Janis Patterson

It’s been said before, but writing and launching a book is uncomfortably like having a baby. There is a considerable gestational period, followed by a protracted and unexpectedly painful effort to bring it into being. Then there are the anxious checks to make sure it is perfect followed by the seemingly never-ending concentration and work to do your best to set it up right in the world.

About all the author misses is the diapers. I guess there are some things to be thankful for.

And it doesn’t get any easier with subsequent books. Each is an individual effort and each must be handled in the way best for them. One thing is true for all books - and babies, for that matter - each is a heck of a lot of work.

I know whereof I speak. In 2014 I released (all re-releases except for one) a book every two weeks from 1 June to 31 October. Madness. In 2015 I wrote four books, but only released two. (Hey, I had an excuse - due to various business reasons The Husband and I were gone for what seems like half the year.)

One of those trips was to Egypt, where we were invited to come stay at the excavation headquarters for an archaeological dig. The director – a dear personal friend - had long suggested that I might want to set a book in that fantastic house. And fantastic it was - terraced, domed, set high above the Nile – built in 1906 by an English Egyptologist named Somers Clarke. So, after our stay there and a lazy holiday in Luxor, we returned home and I started to work on A KILLING AT EL KAB.

They say you aren’t supposed to have favorites among your children, and I guess that’s true, but it’s not possible with books. This one is special to me - not just because it’s a cracking good story, which it is - but because it brings back so many special memories.

Now it’s just about time for it to go out in the world. I’ve agonized over the edits and rewrites, and driven my cover artist (the inimitable Dawn Charles of Bookgraphics) and formatter (the superb Rik Hall) half mad with my pickiness. I’ve sweated over the metadata and keywords, both of which I regard as toys of the devil. I’ve decided on 15 March as the formal release date - assuming that the proofs for the paperback edition arrive by that date - as that will make it a year since we departed for Egypt.

And so my book - this very special book - is waiting offstage to go out into the world and try its wings. Please be nice to A KILLING AT EL KAB. You see, it’s my baby.

Avoid the Mistakes I Made

That was the title of a presentation I made to the Public Safety Writers Association's recent conference. Here are some of them I told about.

I wrote at least three books, sent them out, they were rejected, and I threw the manuscripts away. No computers back then, so no way to even try to retrieve them. They probably weren't much good, but I could've made them better.  Never throw anything you've written away.

I should have learned more about the craft of writing. I didn't. Just because you can write, doesn't mean you can write book. Keep on learning. Read books and magazines on the writing craft, go to writing conferences, join a good critique group.

Don't let rejections discourage you. Learn from your rejections. Keep revising.

I had no clue about promotion when my first book came out and gave away my free copies to relatives and friends. No excuse nowadays not to know about promotion. If you expect your books to sell, you better learn about promotion and spend a lot of time on it no matter who your publisher is

Back when I began, there was little technology and no Interent. Use technology effectively. At the very least you should have a website and/or blog, use Facebook and Twitter and other such sites that you enjoy, do in-person events and have business cards with you book information on them to hand out to everyon.e

Never pay a publisher to do anything--in the beginning I paid for what was called co-publishing. Two crooks--first one gambled away all the money he made and ended up in jail. Second one published 50 copies of my book and then disappeared.

(Yes, you will have to pay to buy copies of your books for you to sell, but should be at a discount.)

I've had three publishers quit and two die. (Not much you can do about either.)

Another publisher had 3 of my books and never paid me a single royalty. When I finally got around to questioning him, he sent me $40. Said he hadn't kept track. Never wait as long as I did to find out what's going on.

And yes, before you ask, I did have several agents along the way. None ever connected me with a publisher.

Be sure your contracts have a clause for getting your rights back in a reasonable amount of time.

One thing you should pay for if your publisher doesn't have an in-house editor, is editing.

Sometimes a small publisher might ask for authors to share in the cost of a booth at a big book fair--then it's up to your whether or not you choose to participate.

That's only a small sample of the mistakes I've made. Hope they'll help someone from not making the same one.

Marilyn

This was the conference room, long and narrow with about 4 seats at each table. Fifty people attended.

New Release, New Name, New Publisher

I’d like to tell you about where my journey has led me. I also want to tell you who I am now, so you’ll know it’s me.

This month I set out on a new path. Or maybe this month is the culmination of a path started last year. Previously, I’ve self-published a series (that started out at a small press), and have started two more with a couple of terrific small presses, Barking Rain Press and Untreed Reads.

I love working with both these presses. Their approaches are different, but both go all out for their authors. The people who run them are constantly thinking of ways to help us get ahead.

I guess that wasn’t enough, though, because a new series debuted this month. FAT CAT AT LARGE, by Janet Cantrell (that’s me), was released by Berkley Prime Crime. They’ve been extremely generous, too, furnishing books for review and giveaways. (B&N link and Amazon link)

My other series have all won awards, Agatha nominations and a Silver Falchion Finalist. This one, my FAT CAT book, though, debuted as a national bestseller on two different lists—Barnes & Noble and Bookscan. I’ve been to a couple of bookstores that were happy to have me sign the stock. And, let me tell you, that is a thrill and a half!

I consider myself one of the luckiest mystery writers alive, being able to work with such wonderful publishers and editors, and my agent, Kim Lionetti at BookEnds, too! Berkley Prime Crime, Untreed Reads, Barking Rain Press, and Me (Kaye George).

Spreadsheets, Schedules and Writers

by Janis Patterson

Okay, I’ll come clean. I’m a spreadsheet junkie. I use spreadsheets for everything – keeping track of chapter lengths/daily writing deadlines/publishing schedules/royalty payments – just about everything except what to have for dinner and when to do the laundry. While accurate and useful spreadsheets can be a pain to set up, once they’re in place they help my usually scattered mind keep at least a minimal grip on what’s done and what has to be done. Some of us need all the help we can get.

In my latest publishing blitz the spreadsheet has proved incredibly helpful. Nine books released one every two weeks over four months makes for one unbelievably complicated project. Every book is in a different place with editing, the formatter and the cover artist.

After almost being lost in an avalanche of sticky notes, scribbled-on napkins, various emails and an admittedly imperfect memory, I started a spreadsheet. One line per book, and – currently, which might change! – 34 columns of actions to be taken. Add a rainbow of color-coding, and I can almost see each book’s progress and current situation at a glance.

Of course, it would have been so much easier to start out with this system instead of having it grow organically. For one thing, I wouldn’t have to be digging around in a basketful of sticky notes, scribbled-on napkins, various emails and an even more than usual undependable memory in order to make an accurate history. On the other hand, though, there was no way that starting out I could have predicted half the things that happened and/or were necessary.

It has been an interesting journey.

I cannot recommend enough that anyone who wants to get organized in any field of writing think about spreadsheets. There are writers who keep track of the flow of their story – POV characters, turning points, various character traits – all kinds of things. I haven’t gone that far yet, mainly because my writing style is different. I just write with only the sketchiest idea of what is going to happen – a minimal skeleton of a story, if you will – and as for my characters…! Most of the time they simply walk in, announce their name and tell me to start writing. I could no more change them (major characters, that is – not one-line walk-ons) than I could learn to speed-type accurately with my toes. And – I say this from sad experience – Heaven help me if I try to change their name from the one they like. One time I tried that and the character simply shut up. Wouldn’t do or say anything and was unbelievably obstinate until I started calling him by the name he liked. Then the book went like cream and was one of my best sellers.

So – spreadsheets can definitely be a writer’s best friend. I would be terminally confused without them.

Now – an update on my publishing blitz. Yesterday was Release Day for THE FAIR AMAZON, a traditional Regency Romance. On July 30 my release will be THE JERUSALEM CONNECTION, a contemporary romantic suspense. Here’s a peek at the cover for THE FAIR AMAZON –

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

by Janis Patterson/Janis Susan May

But it shouldn’t be.

Like so many other writers I am in the process of trying to get my rights back. Why is it such a hassle?

Most new contracts are written where it seems the publisher controls all the rights forever, with little or no hope of reversion to the writer. Apparently many publishers feel that they own the book instead of just having the license to publish it, and that’s just wrong, especially if they do little or nothing to sell the book. Instead they just sit on it.

A friend of mine has had several books with a major publisher for years now and try though she will, she cannot get the rights back. There is a catch in her contract that she can expect her rights to be reverted only after her book has been on sale for a certain length of time. As her sales had been okay but not spectacular she wanted to try for the gold ring in self-publishing. Every time the magic reversion date comes close, though, the publisher brings out a new, cheapie edition in Rumania or Patagonia or somewhere. It’s a new edition, however potentially unprofitable, and that resets the reversion clock. I guess they don’t want the author to make any money that they don’t control or the ability to put the book on the market where it might be bought instead of one of theirs. Either way it’s a dishonorable practice, whether or not it’s contractually legal.

Even worse is the publisher who has a distinct reversion of rights protocol in their contract, but who simply refuses to acknowledge it. Certified letters are refused, takedown requests are ignored, sometimes even royalties are withheld, but like a dog in a manger they keep the books – usually without doing anything for them. The books are simply held hostage and the author is forced into getting a lawyer to regain her property. I believe that I am facing this prospect now.

To add insult to injury, there are publishers who do not pay the proper amount of royalties earned and, as there is no law that sales figures (from their website or from third party retailers) have to be shown to the writer, the author must just take on good faith that the publisher is telling the truth. The author receives only dribs and drabs as royalties without having a way to check if this is right while the publisher keeps the money. In any other business this would be called theft; in publishing it is sometimes unfortunately business as usual. Sites like Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors are full of warnings about such publishers. And, sadly, it seems that these ‘publishers’ are the worst about reverting rights. Doubtless they feel they shouldn’t have to let loose of a cash cow, no matter what the law says.

Some publishers act as if a writer requesting reversion is a personal attack and respond in kind with rants, threats and tirades over the phone and through email. Sometimes they even go to the extremes of harassment through bad reviews on all the author’s books no matter where they are published or by whom. Such vicious attacks are designed not only to increase the publisher’s sense of power and personal vindictiveness, but to browbeat and punish the author for daring to want to recover her books.

Of course even the legitimate publishers are scared. After decades of being the omnipotent Grand High Pooh-Ba who must be placated and courted by the writer in order to be published, of doing as little as possible for the author while keeping as much as possible of the money (6% royalty, which some houses still offer? Of net and not even of cover? Really?) the specter of the independence of self-publishing must be terrifying. Books go directly from the author to the reader and the publisher is totally cut out of the equation. One of the downsides is the potential for a really big number of really bad books to flood the market, but there are no more gatekeepers. On the other hand, one of the upsides is that there is so much more variety and servicing of niche markets (markets too small to really interest a big publisher) because there are no more gatekeepers.

Publishing is changing, but that does not give the publishers the right to violate contracts and refuse to return authors their legitimate property – their books. The authors write the books and the publisher is only licensed to handle them for a proscribed amount of time. It’s time that all publishers – good and bad, honest and dishonest – realize that without authors there would be no publishing industry and they should be treated with honesty and respect. The author-genie is out of the bottle of traditional publishing and it will never go back to the old ways again. 

Signed a Contract – Again

For the second time this year, my mystery Murder a la Christie is under contract. The first time the book had been edited and ready for a cover when the publishing house closed its doors because one of the publishers had died. Changes happen often in the publishing world. Years ago, when the only game in town was traditional publishing, my head would spin with all of the changes taking place. Editors moved from one house to another. Editors became agents. Agents became editors. Agents and editors left publishing to work in other fields. There were many orphaned books, books bought and championed by one editor suddenly in the hands of an editor nowhere as enthusiastic about it.

Murder A La Christie, which was a Malice Domestic finalist, is my tribute to Agatha Christie. Dame Agatha and her books are a major reason why I became a mystery writer. My sleuth, Lexie Driscoll, is an English professor whose estranged second husband has burned down her house with himself inside. Needing funds, she agrees to lead a Golden Age of Mystery book club in wealthy Old Cadfield where her best friend Rosie resides. At the first meeting, Lexie is just getting into The Mysterious Affair at Styles, when she notices her old friend Sylvia is looking ill. Before the evening is over, Sylvia is dead and Lexie is certain she’s been murdered.

Lexie spends the summer house sitting Sylvia’s Old Cadfield home. Though she’s out of her element in this wealthy community, she welcomes the opportunity to get to know the book club members better. Every one of them has a secret that may or may not be the reason Sylvia was murdered. Lexie starts dating the world-renown architect who designed Sylvia’s home. Amid more book club meetings and discussions of more Christie novels, more members are killed. Lexie finds herself attracted to the sexy homicide detective in charge of the case. In the final scene when all the suspects are present, she employs Poirot’s cunning and Miss Marple’s means of deduction to reveal the murderer


The next book in the series is Murder the Tey Way. But that’s for another day.

Publishing and Other Perils - A Rant

             In the greatly lamented and only partially mythic ‘Golden Era’ of publishing printing books was a gentlemen’s game. The publishing houses were primarily large and privately owned by individual gentlemen rather than omnivorous multi-national corporations. These companies were actually interested in books and belles lettres. They read things submitted by writers as well as by agents and when they found a writer they liked, they worked to build his career, finding them editors who understood their voice, dealing with bookstores for good placement and arranging publicity. They took care of all the mechanical necessities and even sometimes – if they really liked the writer’s work – gave him a second chance if the current release didn’t reach their projected sales. Paying an advance was standard practice. In those warmly-thought-of days, a writer’s job was writing.

     Fast forward to today. Ah, how the business has changed. There are still a lot of different publishing line names on the spines of books, but most are controlled by the Big Five publishing houses, which just a short time ago was the Big Six. During the corporate feeding frenzy of the 80s nearly all the mid-sized independent publishing houses were absorbed – willingly or not – into the current monolithic, corporation-controlled houses, most of which go about selling books with the same techniques and artistic sensitivity as they use to sell widgets or shoes or hand tools.

     It is difficult if not impossible to approach any of the large paper publishing houses without an agent. As they are now the ‘first readers’ and arguably the arbiters for what will be seen, too many agents have begun to regard themselves as the center of the industry… and placing their bottom line over the needs of the writer, the publisher and the reading public. In a devil’s bargain with agents, publishers have been making their contracts more and more friendly to their own bottom line and to further this end making them less and less comprehensible. The writer, without whom there would not be an industry at all, always seems to come at the bottom of the pile.

     There are small and electronic publishers who do read unsolicited/unagented manuscripts, but in an alarming twist many of them are refusing even to look at a manuscript unless it is formatted to their own exacting specifications. Presumably this is so if they do contract the book, they can put it straight into production without having to bother with any typesetters or formatters. Since when did formatting become a writer’s responsibility? And most especially as a prerequisite for submission?

     Also many publishing companies ask in their submission requirements “What platform do you have for publicity? What kind of a marketing plan do you intend to implement?” Apparently it’s not enough for the writer to have written the book, and formatted it, now they are expected to handle nearly all the publicity for it. This is a plan that benefits only the publisher, who does not have to spend money for publicity. Let the writer do it! 

     The logic for this is particularly flawed; not only does publicity take precious time that should be spent in writing the next book, but as most writers are not publicists, it also forces the writer to re-invent the wheel. How much more logical it would be for publishers – who take the lion’s share of the money anyway – to have a well-oiled publicity machine with contacts made and slots ready and waiting instead of having each writer individually either contact every outlet or pay big bucks for a publicist of their own.

      There is a truism in publishing that ‘money flows to the author’ but in this current world it is becoming commonplace for an author to pay to have his manuscript edited before submission, where it will then be re-edited by the publishing house (or not!) upon acceptance. I must admit this leaves me speechless. Do writers think that sending in a pre-edited manuscript guarantees acceptance? Or are they such bad writers that they know without a pre-submission professional edit they would have no chance at all? Neither prospect is particularly alluring.

     And all these responsibilities and all these expenses paid by the writer come at a time where advances are shrinking or are non-existent.

     Some houses ask for a writer’s standardized input on the cover artwork, and with that it ends there for most. No matter if the cover is ugly, inaccurate or stupid, it stays that way because the marketing department says so. This, however, is a fading practice, especially with good small and electronic publishers.

     To make things even worse, after the book is sold and the writer has waited out whatever time the publisher decrees proper, he receives a royalty statement of books sold. Most are near indecipherable, and short of an audit (for which the writer pays, of course) the writer must trust the publisher that the figures shown are accurate. May I amend that? If the writer is lucky he receives a royalty statement; there are several publishers who have to be badgered and kept after (which again steals away time which should be spent writing) to send a statement, a process which is not guaranteed to have any success.

     Kind of makes one wonder why anyone would ever want to be part of a profession that depends on one kind of skilled artist to exist at all but treats those artists so badly. Of course, no one house does all of these things, but so many do enough of them that it does give one pause.

     I would sincerely like to hear a publishing house representative give a cogent and logical explanation of why the writer, who creates the product and without whom there would be no publishing industry, is treated like a red-haired stepchild and always comes at the end of the line. And the money trail.

     Perhaps the most astonishing thing is that publishing houses – especially the Big Five – profess amazement that so many writers are now beginning to self publish. If writers had received the kind of treatment – and the share of royalties – that they deserve, I wonder if self-publishing would ever have taken off.

Janis Patterson

The Difference

by Kaye George

A lot has been said about the difference between a published and an unpublished writer. I’ve come up with a list of things that can be different. These pertain to writers who are published by a publishing house, since anyone can self-publish. Nothing against self-publishing--I’ve done it myself and intend to continue to do so. But some people want the extra boost of a publisher behind them. I’m also one of those.

TIME

It takes time to learn the craft. Sometimes the difference can merely be that the published writer has been writing longer and has learned how to polish up the prose. Where to insert hooks, how to pace the action, how to work descriptions and explanations into the text with dialogue or actions.

LUCK

I’m convinced that there’s a certain amount of luck involved. You have to connect your work with a publisher or agent who is receptive, on that day, at that very time, to what you’re offering. And the publisher or agent hasn’t just accepted a project so similar to yours that he has to turn yours down. But if you keep showing up, you have a better chance at hitting it lucky.

NETWORKING

This is so important. You don’t even know that it’s normal to take 10 years of writing before you’re published unless someone tells you. You also don’t know how to fix the glitches in your writing--sometimes don’t even notice they’re there--unless you find a good critique group, or critique partner. You also don’t know who is looking for what kinds of projects unless you buddy up with people who know these things. My solution is to buddy up with everyone in the writing business that I can. You never know who will have good info.

PERSISTENCE

This is the most important. The main difference between a published and an unpublished writer is that the published writer didn’t quit. Here’s a self-serving illustration. I wrote a novel I called SONG OF DEATH. I wrote it and wrote it, then queried the heck out of it. Finally, after many agent rejections, I shelved it and went on to write other novels. A few months ago, I dusted it off and decided that it still sounded pretty good to me. I did another rewrite and submitted it to Barking Rain Press. After about 10 years, that novel was published this week! It’s now called EINE KLEIN MURDER and has been through extensive editing at BRP. If you’d like to check it out, here’s more information on my newest release: http://travelswithkaye.blogspot.com/p/eine-kleine-murder.html. 

I’d love to know what’s made the difference for you, if you’ve made it to published author.

Killer Nashville

Killer Nashville was held at the Hutton Hotel in Nashville, TN, August 25 - 27. It's an annual conference for mystery and thriller writers to pick up tips on the craft, on the world of publishing, to meet with agents and editors, and to network with other writers. Besides myself, the other members of the Make Mine Mystery blog in attendance were Chester Campbell and Marilyn Meredith. Here are some observations from the conference.

Nashville:

            • Cooler than Texas. A lot cooler.

            • The Broadway Brewhouse at 19th and Broadway looks kind of grungy but has a great brisket sandwich and dozens of beers on tap.

            • Nashville is hilly. Especially if you are a runner

            • Great rock and blues at B.B. King's

            • Tootsie's Orchid Lounge is crowded. Buy the tee shirt and go to B.B. King's

Investigations. We heard police, ex-police, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agents, and private investigators talk about their profession and their cases. Some of them, such as Michael Black were published fiction writers. Here are a few tidbits from some of their sessions.

            • Don't bring a gun to a knife fight. An opponent with a knife who is twenty-feet or closer, has the advantage over a gunman.

            • The kill shot: Imagine a sweat band circling the bad guy's head at eye level. If you can't hit the sweat band, go for center mass.

            • Most police are killed with their own gun. Protecting your gun is important in a fight.

            • Most fights go to the ground and clothes get torn up and ruined

            • Private eyes use databases such as TLO.com, Aristotle.com, Ancestry.com

Publishing. Agents Jill Marr, Jeff Kleinman, and Kathleen Ortiz and editors/publishers Deni Dietz and Martin Shepard took pitches and discussed the state of publishing. Everybody wanted to know about the impact of ebooks. Is the book dead? There was also a lot of interest in self-publishing versus traditional publishing.

             • The book is not dead. More importantly, the story is not dead, but the form of delivery is changing.

             • Hardcover and trade paperback sales are not likely to be affected by ebooks.

            • Ebooks will likely cannibalize sales from mass-market paperbacks.

            • Barnes and Noble is seeing more total sales. Ebooks allow them to reduce the number of copies of each title shelved and shelve more titles.

            • Pricing is important in sales. Most consumers look at the price, not the publisher.

            • Some publishers are betting that a glut of cheap inferior ebooks will move consumers to higher priced ebooks.

            • Changing book prices willy-nilly can cause a backlash among consumers.

            • Ebooks are often an impulse buy.

             • Literary Agencies such as Folio are helping their clients self-publish.

It takes a team. Authors are solitary creatures by inclination, but success in the book business is elusive and hard to achieve alone. Besides the agents and editors Killer Nashville featured some publicists. Here's what I heard.

            • Ultimately books are sold by word-of-mouth. The danger of self-publishing is inadequate word-of-mouth.

            • Publishers are cutting back on publicity departments so both self-published and traditionally published authors need publicists

            • Publicists can help to get the word out, but success is limited by distribution. Make sure your publisher is connected to the major distributors.

            • Publicists work closely with the publisher, not in competition, to create a brand for the author.

            • Authors need a website, facebook and twitter.

            • Every book is expected to have a book trailer although there is no data to show if book trailers drive sales.

Networking. Killer Nashville is large enough to present great networking opportunities but small enough to make it feasible.

• I was able to pitch formally and informally to all of the agents and editors. Now they are expecting the manuscripts, so I consider it a success, or at least a decent return-on-investment, as the publicist says.
• I sat down with a publicist to review my marketing plan. Even without a publication date, it's not too early to start.
• I could tell you about drinking wine at the MWA reception with a romance novelist wearing an all-white suit, an Appalachian preacher, a Memphis SWAT team sniper, and a Mennonite woman who told dirty jokes, but I'll save it for another blog post.

Nashville was a Killer.

Mark Troy

Hawaiian Eye Blog

The 80-20 Rule

The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle or the law of the vital few, goes back to Vilfredo Pareto who, in 1906, observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.  He also observed that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.  The so-called law has become a common rule of thumb in business and management. E.g., "80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers;" "80% of your productivity come from 20% of your staff;" or "80% of your problems come from 20% of your personnel."

The rule, as it were, has applications in a many other areas. The United Nations, in 1992, produced a report, which showed that the richest 20% of the world's population controls 82% of the world's income. There's nothing magical about the 80%. It's simply the case that, where there are a large number of resources, events, products, or whatever, they will be shared unequally and that inequality can be represented by a number between 50 and 100. If 50% of the land is owned by 50% of the population, the land can be said to be equally distributed. If 99% of the land is owned by 1% of the population, the land is unequally distributed. Most systems are characterized by an intermediate imbalance around 80%.

The 80-20 rule came to mind because of some comments about ebooks and the state of publishing.  A contributor to an online discussion group asked if there was any advantage to an author in getting an agent and getting published by a traditional publishing house now that any author could publish his or her book on Kindle or iPad. The questioner implied that the book publishing industry is dead or nearly so.

On Monday, Helen Ginger, in her Straight from Hel blog referenced an interview with the CEO of Penguin who made exactly the opposite claim, He said the direct-to-consumer model does not work; that authors still need publishers.

So which is it? Have ebooks spawned an era in which every author's work will share the marketplace with every other book, or will authors continue to need agents and publishers to be successful?

Some people who comment on the current state of publishing compare the industry to the state of the recording industry. The arguments go as follows: The book publishing business better wake up or it will go the way of the recording industry. In some people's minds the big record labels are all but dead and music distribution is in the hands of indie publishers and artists.  The reality is different. According to figures from the Recording Industry of America, a handful of music producers account for 80 to 85% of music sales with the indies fighting for the remaining 15 to 20%. In other words, the disparity between the vital few and the rest of the players is still great.

But could ebooks be pushing the publishing industry towards more equitable distribution? That remains to be seen. Dan Poynter gives a few telling statistics on the Para-Publishing website.  According to Poynter, small presses and self publishers produce 78% of all book titles, and, therefore, big publishers produce 22%. When it comes to sales, industry watcher Andre Schiffrin, says that six publishing conglomerates control 80% of all book sales.  In other words, 22% of titles are getting 80% of sales and 78% of titles are fighting over the remaining 20%.  The large publishers are getting the largest piece of the pie.

Industry figures are hard to come by and often contradictory. Schiffrin's figures are from 2007. A lot has happened since then. Ebook sales have increased exponentially, The iPad and Kindle have made it easier for authors and independent publishers to sell directly to consumers. Is it working? I just went to the iBook store and pulled up the top ten best sellers. Nine of them were published by big publishing companies. Four of the top ten were published by, you guessed it, Penguin--the company that says the direct-to-consumer model doesn't work. Apparently, it works great for the big publishers, not so great for the indies.

I am not anti-ebooks or self-publishing. My first book was published in 2001 as an ebook by a small publisher and is still available in the Kindle store. I'm planning to self-publish a short story collection soon. But my latest work is represented by an agent who is trying to get it published by a big publisher because I want it to be one of the 20% of titles that are dividing up 80% of the sales.

So in answer to the question about whether or not an author needs an agent, I say it depends on how much of the sales pie you want to share and how many you are willing to share it with. Keep the 80-20 rule in mind. Eighty percent of book sales are controlled by twenty percent of the titles which are published by large publishers.  I don't foresee that changing anytime soon. Do you?

Mark Troy

http://www.marktroy.net

Hawaiian Eye

The Waiting Game by Dana Fredsti

As writers we are all familiar with the Waiting Game (and the crying game as well although probably sans 'she is really a he!' at the end of it).

We wait for inspiration while sitting in front of our computers.

We wait for that SASE (self addressed stamped envelope for those who have only queried via email) or email response to come back, hopefully with a request for a partial or full read.

We wait for the phone call telling us yes, we want to publish your book/story/article.

We wait for editorial feedback to let us know how much of our beloved masterpiece needs to be rewritten.

We wait to hold that magical ARC in our hands for the first time.

We wait, sometimes over a year, for actual publication.

We wait for reviews.

Yup, lots of waiting.

In between all of the waiting, we work on our next project(s) or work on promotion for the current one. But no matter how busy we are, at no matter what stage of the writing career, we always are waiting for something. At least I am.

I'm currently waiting to hear back from two editors at a large publishing house. I spoke with them in early November about an outline/first fifty pages pitched to them by an editor/agent I work with at another publication. They loved my writing, loved the concept, would I be willing to change A, B and C? Could I sent them an updated outline and the rest of what I'd completed on the book? I could and I did. They hoped to push the project through the rest of the editorial staff/board (whatever it's called) at the publishing house. It would be for a three book contract. They hoped to have the answer by Thanksgiving. I'm still waiting.

I've been very zen about it for the most part. Things always take longer than expected in the world of publishing and film-making, at least in my experience, and getting frustrated and stressed over something I had no control over didn't make any sense. No, I'd just forge ahead on the first book and wait patiently (lak a black widow spidah! Points for anyone who can tell me where that quote comes from). It wasn't until about two weeks ago that I had a mini temper tantrum (you know, the inner child doesn't WANNA wait! She wants her toy NOW!) and lost said zen. Stressed out, sure the answer was 'no' and they just hadn't bothered to tell me. It was pointless, life sucks, blah blah blah.

I'm better now. Talked to the editor/agent, who is also waiting to hear back from them about a few things. They're busy, we just have to wait it out. The answer could still be 'no.' On the other hand, considering their enthusiasm, it could certainly be 'yes.' I just have to wait to find out.

How about you? What aspect of the waiting game do you hate the most? Or have you mastered the art of always living in the moment, never worrying about the outcome of any particular project? And if the latter, is there a prescription for this? :-)

Dana Fredsti

Alternatives to Major Publishers by Vivian Zabel

First, I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. A Christmas story written by me to share with you can be found on Brain Cells & Bubble Wrap.



I usually write about tips that tie directly to writing or reading mysteries. This time I want to talk about getting a book published, no matter what the genre.

Many authors dream, as well as work very hard, to get a book published. The problem is there are many more hopeful writers than available slots in the few major publishing firms. The number of major firms has shrunk over the years as one merges with another. Finally major publishers prefer going with authors whose names already trigger the attention of the public. What then should a writer do who wants to be published and have a book to market? Various alternatives exist to trying to go through a major publishing company: small-press companies; DIY, do it yourself; or independent publishers. The first step in marketing a book is for it to be published.

According to various sources on the Internet, only six to eight major large publishing corporations now exist, if their subsidiaries are not counted separately. However, Publishers Weekly estimates that more than 7,000 new publishers form each year, giving writers options for seeing their books in print.

Small-press companies don’t have the funding to pay large, or sometimes any, advances, but according to Judith Rosen in September 2006 The Writer, they can deliver big books. A small-press can be an alternative to the frustrations of a major company or can be a stepping stone to a large corporate house.

Independent presses don’t accept everything from fiction to non-fiction, from science fiction to science, from mystery to romance. They usually specialize in rather narrow areas. But one publisher or more covers every genre and area of publishing. One place to find small presses is through the membership of The Small Press Center for Independent Publishing. Another is page 52 of The Writer, September 2006.

Robert S. Nahas, in his book How to Get a Book Published states that a decade ago, self-publishing (or DIY) was viewed as a joke, and many people considered self-published authors were not really published authors. He goes on to write, “... but today there is a much different climate ... As more and more self-published authors have begun to reap impressive, and sometimes staggering, sales over the past seven or eight years, the world has begun to take notice of the amazing successes.” Note that he is not speaking of “Vanity Publishing,” but of works that have been professionally prepared with thorough editing and formatting.

Another type of publishing is electronic publishing, whether as DIY or through an electronic publishing company. Although books on line didn’t become the replacement for hard copy books as predicted in the past, they are starting to become more popular as time passes.

As with any business venture, a writer needs to research any company he or she considers working with. All should be careful of scams, but anyone willing to write and prepare a well-written manuscript has more opportunities than ever to take the first step toward marketing a book by being able to have it published.

Sources:

1. Robert S. Nahas, How to Get a Book Published, pages 33 - 54.

2. Robin Nobles, Publishing companies on the Internet, http://www.robinsnest.com

3. Judith Rosen, “Small-press success,” The Writer, September 2006

4. “Publishing,” Wikipedia wikipedia.org

5. “Publisher,” Wikipedia wikipedia.org


Vivian Zabel
Brain Cells & Bubble Wrap