Month: May 2009

How Giving Ebooks Away For Free Increases Print Book Sales

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This post, by Brad Vertrees, originally appeared on his Brad’s Reader blog on 5/31/09.

I’m always on the lookout for authors who not only embrace ebooks but use them to complement their print book sales. The most interesting way of doing this, I think, is by giving ebooks away for free. Science fiction writer Cory Doctorow does it and I’m sure a lot of other writers do too.

Last night I came across the blog of writer JA Konrath (who goes by the pen name Jack Kilborn) via this Enriched by Words blog post. As I side note, I’d like to mention that I had the pleasure of seeing Konrath in my local bookstore when he stopped by to sign a few copies of his book. He happens to also live in the Chicago area like I do. 

Anyway, in Konrath’s blog post Ebooks and Free Books and Amazon Kindle, Oh My he talks a lot about how distributing his ebooks for free has really helped his print book sales, not hurt them, as many publishers fear. He even lists out the reasons why he gives his ebooks away for free. Here are a few exampless:

2. Books Are Expensive. Many people don’t want to spend $24.99 or even $6.99 to take a chance on an unknown. And even fewer want to spend $14.99 on an ebook download. But people love a bargain, and free is the best bargain of all.

Let’s face it: There are many more unknown authors out there than famous ones. And people don’t like to shell out hard earned cash on someone who is unknown. When an author gives away an ebook for free, readers have nothing to lose. They are much more likely to give that author a chance. If they like the ebook, then they’ll probably buy the print book the author is selling. If they don’t like the ebook, they haven’t lost anything.

3. Free is Viral. If you Google Kilborn+Crouch+Serial, you currently get 6550 hits. Part of that is because of an orchestrated campaign done by Blake and I, in conjunction with my publisher, Grand Central. But part of it is because people are talking about it, picking up on it, repeating it, linking to it, etc. Publicity and promotion is free and easier to come by (if you’re a midlister) when you’re giving something away.

This reminds me of something Cory Doctorow said regarding book piracy (forgive me, I don’t have the exact quote). But he basically said he’s more worried about obscurity than someone pirating his books. I think Konrath has the same idea here too. Does Konrath worry about piracy? Probably not. In fact he appears to encourage people to link to his ebooks and some even offer Konrath’s work on their own websites.

Indeed, obscurity can ruin even the most talented writer. If no one knows about you and your books, no one will buy them. And with the sheer number of books being published and sold nowadays, getting noticed is harder than ever. I’ve always maintained that once an author gets a publishing contract and his/her book is on the way to bookstores, it is no guarantee of success. I’ve seen a lot of good books disappear from the shelves of my local bookstore, not because they are [not] selling well, but because they have been returned to the publisher for not selling at all.

Konrath understands this perfectly:

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in the print world is distribution. The number of print books I sell is limited by the number of books printed, and the places they are for sale. If no one is aware of my books, no one will buy them. I strive to make people aware I exist, so readers seek me out rather than accidentally run into me, but I can only reach so many people.

“Free” isn’t a replacement for traditonal print books at traditional price points. Instead, free complements those print books. Free is used to market those books. Free gives an unknown author a chance of being known, which is the key to selling books. This might seem counterintuitive – giving stuff away for free to sell more (and that’s probably why most publishers resist it so much). But it works. Authors like Doctorow and Konrath are proving it every day.

Read the rest of the post on Brad’s Reader.

Here's a Milestone

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Indie authors have many different milestones — the first book published, the first sale, a new review, a great response to a guest blog, an interview . . . but yesterday I sold my 1,000th book over all titles and it only took , , , 18 months. Still, despite the fact that Dan Brown does that in a day or many other Indie authors on this site have done that thrice over, it is a rather nice feeling to touch a thousand souls and still manage good reviews and accelerated sales. I even took the first day off in 18 months from writing yesterday. Had steak and onion soup with the remnants of my family. Anyhow, the sun came up on another era for this author. I shall sail the waters of my ten current projects and perhaps another thousnd sales will be out there. However, I do not think the second will be as satisfying as the first.

Edward C. Patterson
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BMI6X8
my new Amazon Author’s Page

Would you rather be a Best-Selling Author or a Best Writing Author?

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Dan Brown’s new book “The Lost Symbol” will be out in September and the publishing industry is looking forward to blockbuster sales. Last week at the Sydney Writers Festival, it was pointed out that literary fiction doesn’t sell and one of the panel asked authors to ‘please write more books that sell’. After all, it will help you as an author as well as the suffering publishing industry!

So what do we aim for as authors?

One the one hand we want to win prizes, be literary geniuses and praised for our glorious ability with words. On the other hand, we want to make money! (after all, most literary prizes are very small! )

Here are some examples of best-selling authors that cannot be considered “literature”, but are definitely books that are popular and have touched the hearts of millions (and made a lot of money for their authors and publishing houses). 

  • Dan Brown “The Da Vinci Code” has sold more than 80 million copies. The movie made more than $700 million at the box office. I have read “The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail”, the non-fiction book that the ideas came from, as well as perhaps the literary equivalent Umberto Eco’s “Foucault’s Pendulum”. I enjoyed both other books, but Dan’s comes out tops in terms of popular appeal! 
     
  • Robert Kiyosaki with The Rich Dad series of books, which have sold over 27 million copies in 109 countries. Robert is a multi-millionaire, and says himself “I am a bestselling author, not a best writing author”. 
     
  • JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame is constantly criticised by literature fans especially for her use of adverbs. But that hasn’t stopped her from becoming the first ever billionaire author and loved by millions around the world. 
     
  • The Chicken Soup for the Soul series by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen is just a bunch of stories told by real people in simple language. Those simple stories have touched hearts in 40 countries and sold over 112 million copies, as well as developing into aself-development franchise model. 
     
  • Stephenie Meyer with the Twilight series. Stephenie is even criticised by Stephen King on her writing ability, but that hasn’t stopped her books selling over 30 million copies, as well as the movie rights and associated merchandise. 

There are many literature prizes – the Man Booker is just one of them that I follow. I found this excerpt on the impact of winning the Booker Prize on Yann Martel, author of “The Life of Pi” (which is a great book!). 

“…after the announcement of the Booker win, Life of Pi sold 7,150 copies in the UK, making it the bestselling hardback fiction that week…. D.B.C Pierre “Vernon God Little” went from a sale of 373 copies to 7,977 in the week after” 

Clearly, literary fiction sells less than mass market popular fiction. 

 

Some of my groaning bookshelves

Some of my groaning bookshelves

Now, I love books of all kinds. I have a lot of literary fiction, stacks of non fiction and many popular fiction novels (although those often get recycled through second-hand bookshops!) 

I go to Writers Festivals, I have taken writing courses. I write journals and poetry and have 3 non-fiction books to my name. I have always wanted to win the Booker Prize because of the prestige! 

But I have decided that I want to be a best-selling author, NOT a best-writing author lauded by lit fic critics! I want to write well, but not be classed as literature. I want to be popular, not literary. 

How about you? Would you rather be a best-selling author or a best writing author?

This post appeared on The Creative Penn: Writing, self-publishing, print-on-demand, internet sales and promotion…for your book.   

The Literary Agent's Contradictory World

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This morning I was FeedBlitzed with "Four Tips for Submitting Nonfiction" by literary agent Ted Weinstein. I had to wonder why is Ted promoting himself as a literary agent. Very recently, Ted rejected me as a prospective author-client, stating, "We encounter many more talented writers and interesting projects than we can represent, so we carefully guard our time to serve most effectively our small number of clients." Suddenly, here’s Ted, out in public, leaving his clientele unguarded, as he trolls for new clientele and new projects.

Never before had it occurred to me that seeking an agent or publisher is no less demeaning than finding a girl friend during post puberty. Agents and publishers present authors with a strange and sometimes bizarre world, consumed in contradictions.

Take Ted’s "Four Tips," for example. They’re actually three.

First Ted says, if you’re writing nonfiction, assume you will be self publishing. OK…then no need to have an agent. Right?

Next, Ted advises, don’t submit the introduction, if you’re submitting a sample chapter, or two. Bravo! Such clarity. This makes sense.

Thirdly, Ted says, use the term "comparable titles," rather than "competitive titles." Oops! Ted must have grabbed this tidbit of advice from my recent submission to him. I used "competitive titles" in my proposal. My author’s logic tells me my book is special in the marketplace, and not "comparable." If, anything my book is incomparable. But I can’t see stating a list of other "incomparable titles" in a book proposal. This really would be tortured contradiction.

As for using "competitive titles," I live in the Kentucky Bluegrass. In my experience, a thoroughbred author runs against his or her own abilities only. A thoroughbred author doesn’t compete against the pack among which we can find ourselves. While we authors may be thoroughbreds, admittedly our product may not be. At least, not until proven. The proof comes in the actual competition against other titles in our genre. Hence, once more in my author’s logic, the term "competitive titles" seems to be the appropriate term.

But, as I’ve said, finding an agent is like finding a girl during post puberty. To your face, she says one thing. Elsewhere, she says the opposite. In Ted’s public forum, he advises, use "comparative titles." On the Submissions page of Ted’s web site, however, Ted advises in writing to use "competitive titles." As my aunt would say, "Oh, my."

Lastly, Ted’s fourth tip is no tip at all. If he requests a book proposal, Ted asks for no more than a week to review it, he says. Fair trade! I’ll forego an author tip any day for a prompt review of my submitted proposal that’s been requested. This must be the agent in Ted rising to the surface. He’s not Moses laying down the four commandments for nonfiction submissions. He’s Ted Weinstein, the literary agent. He’s a negotiator!

I wish I had met Ted Weinstein long before I met all those post puberty girls I once pursued.

Tension, Pacing and Speedboats

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This post, by Ben Whiting, originally appeared as a guest blog entry on Tricia Goyer’s My Writing Mentor blog on 4/20/09.

Every good story has some degree of underlying tension. Even in a character-driven novel like Pride and Prejudice, which is totally devoid of exploding helicopters and other modern action conventions, is full of internal and external conflict. The question is not if? but how much?

Think of your story as a speedboat. You, as the author, are the pilot of this speedboat, charged with controlling both the speed and direction of your story at all times. The reader is pulled along behind you as a water-skier and is free to let go of the rope at any point. Your job is to keep the ride interesting—by taking unexpected turns or traveling at break-neck speeds. Another method of maintain interest is alternating your speed, which is our focus here.

The first reason to vary the speed at which you pull your reader is simple: boredom. Going at the same pace through an entire novel, no matter how gripping that pace may be initially, will sooner or later grow tiresome to the reader. Clichés are avoided for the same reason. Variety is the spice of life. Familiarity breeds contempt. We’ve heard these self-condemning sayings so many times they have lost their impact, and a constant pace in your story will have the same affect.

Perception is the other reason speed variation is important. You need go no further than your local highway to test this theory. To the pedestrian standing on the side of the road, sixty miles and hour is very fast. To a passenger in a car going ninety-five, sixty seems as slow as dial-up Internet access. By taking advantage of this comparative aspect of pacing, an author can make an already tense portion of the story seem even more intense.

Ben Whiting is a full-time English student at the University of Texas at Arlington and co-general editor of the award-winning collegiate publication Marine Creek Reflections. His current writing project, Penumbra, is a contemporary suspense novel that he hopes to finish over the summer.

Read part two, ‘More Boating Techniques’, on Tricia Goyer’s My Writing Mentor blog.

The Future of Books and Electronic Reading

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This article, by Cliff Jones, originally appeared on the Times Online on 5/24/09.

Random House’s e-book list has authors for downloading with ‘rich media’ content to phones, computers, PDAs and e-readers

Random House has just launched the UK’s first “enhanced” electronic book list. The Book and Beyond project brings together 10 of its authors — with more to come soon — making their new books available, unabridged, for digital download to phones, computers, PDAs and e-book readers. This, in itself, is nothing remarkable. The e-book market has been with us for nearly a decade in one form or another. What is significant is that it is the first download list to feature books embedded with “rich media” content. (Video, pictures, music, games and computer apps to you and me.)

While we’re used to the idea of bonus content as a marketer’s siren call, that content is usually little more than the digital sweepings from the editing process and/or a hastily shot, behind-the-scenes short. With Book and Beyond, this content is designed to become part of the e-book reading experience itself. Download Jacqueline Wilson’s My Sister Jodie and you get a computer game, links to the Wilson community and a no-expense-spared, cinema-style trailer for the book. Irvine Welsh, when his content is added shortly, will offer a gritty video commentary on the characterisation of his book Crime and a taster of his prequel to Trainspotting. Danny Wallace and the mentalist Derren Brown get the enhanced treatment, too, with audio books and text being combined, so you can hear the book as well as reading it. It is Random House’s intention to lead high-profile authors confidently into the e-realm, blurring the margins between the written word and other forms of entertainment as they go. Indeed, just as television, cinema, gaming and radio coexist, the e-book is not intended to replace the traditional book, but to exist alongside it, as a new kind of reading experience.

“I’m not in the business of selling books. I sell writing,” says Welsh. “It doesn’t bother me how they want to read it as long as it’s true to the ideas I had. People criticise e-books for being nothing like the real thing. But they’re not trying to be. E-books are just a different way of getting writing and story­telling. Personally, I like a nice book. I need that private intellectual space that a real book gives me. But I don’t expect everyone to feel the same way.”

Last Christmas was the turning point for e-publishing. More Sony Readers, Kindles, iPods and iPhones were sold than even the optimists anticipated: sales of e-books rocketed on Boxing Day as a result. Up to 1,300 a day in the UK are being sold currently. In America, there were 2.5m such legal downloads last year and more than 500,000 e-book readers sold. And with electronic readers being enthusiastically taken up by Britain’s schools and FE colleges, the e-book experience may, at last, be about to have its moment.

The man who developed Book and Beyond for Random House is a former marketing executive for Sony BMG Records, Jonathan Davis. He wanted to ensure the giant publisher was ready for the digital tsunami. “I lived through it once, and I like to think we’ve learnt from the mistakes made by the record industry. It was freefall. Big mistakes were made early on. The download was demonised, and all they really succeeded in doing was to stifle a new market for a year or two. Publishers need to listen and look at what people are actually doing and respond with the kind of books and reading experience they want for the way they are living.”

Read the rest of the article on the Times Online.

The Goodness of Bad Reviews

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This post, by Justine Larbalestier, originally appeared on her site on 5/20/09.

Daphne over at the Longstocking blog was talking about the Worst Review Ever blog and mentioned her shock at the meanness of some of the reviews:

I’m actually a reviewer for Publishers Weekly and while I’ve read some things that were kind of poorly constructed, I’ve never had even an urge to be even half this harsh, not even secretly if I strongly disliked the book. Too much work goes into a book for anything to warrant this kind of nastiness and seriously nothing is so bad it deserves to be called “a candy-coated turd.”

I have condemned books in stronger language than that. When I hate a book, I really hate a book. I totally get writing such vicious reviews. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons I don’t write reviews and only discuss books on this blog if I love them: the knowledge that were I to write an honest review of a book I hate I would most definitely hurt other writers’ feelings, alienate their fans, and lose friends. Also the YA world is small and writing a bad review of another YA writer’s book leaves you open to charges of sour grapes. Life’s too short.

I say that as someone who has received very mean reviews. I know exactly how much it hurts. Reviews have made me cry and scream and kick my (thankfully imaginary) dog (poor Elvis, he knows I love him). But I believe people are moved to write such nasty reviews because of the intensity of their relationship with books. That’s awesome!

I feel that too. When I read a book I was expecting to love and it sucks I feel betrayed. When I read a book in a beloved series and the characters are suddenly transformed beyond recognition and there seems to have been no editing at all and the writing has gone to hell, I am OUTRAGED. I want to kick the editor and the author. On the scale of things, I think writing a mean review about the book is way better than assault.

Passionate reviews, good or bad, are fabulous. It’s great that people care enough to rant or rave about a book. I don’t think it’s unprofessional to vent your spleen at a book. Some eviscerations of books are wonderfully well written and a total pleasure to read. And some passionate raves about books are appallingly badly constructed. One of the reviews of my books that embarrasses me the most was a rave. An extraordinarily badly written rave in a professional location1 which so mischaracterised my book that it was unrecognisable. The reviewer clearly loved the book. They also clearly didn’t understand it. No review has annoyed me as much as that one.

Read the rest of the post (and the footnote) on Justine Larbalestier’s site.

Publicity And Book Reviews

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This post, by Charles Atan, originally appeared on his Bibliophile Stalker LiveJournal on 5/27/09.

Over at Fantasy Book News & Reviews, Jeff swears off reviewing books before [the] release date. It’s a good guideline to live by but it’s by no means a universal rule. Jeff is also working on the belief that book reviews are in the service of the publisher/author–and that’s honestly not the case with every reviewer. But if we’re just talking about promoting a book and the corresponding book review, when to release a book review depends on the publisher’s marketing plan.

Pre-release hype is good but I’ll qualify that by mentioning only if it can be sustained. Theoretically, you want to build-up excitement for the book and reviews can help with that (it’s not the only method but for the sake of limiting the scope of this essay, I’ll just focus on the book reviews aspect). A lot of the blockbuster movies accomplish this through trailers and the occasional new media marketing ploy. An example of how early book reviews [are] leveraged by the publisher is when they use a line or two as a cover blurb for the book (or failing that, a blurb for their website, which was the scenario for my review of J.M. McDermott’s Last Dragon [as far as marketing is concerned though, you might want to read about McDermott’s experience with having a dedicated sales force working on his novel]).

I added the qualifier "if it can be sustained" because a poorly executed marketing plan can lead to a lot of wasted effort. Jeff tackles some of those points but I’ll talk about an issue closer to home. One of my local publishers is Philippine Genre Stories. One of [its] biggest mistakes is the timing of its online promotions (to their credit, they also have some great successes–they have more local readers on their blog compared to mine for example). The first mistake they make with each issue is posting the cover of the magazine months ahead of when it actually gets released. Case in point is the horror issue ([in] which I’m included) which went live at the blog last October 15, 2008. If the issue came out in October or November, the timing would have been right. The second time they failed to capitalize on the publicity was when the book was reviewed in a leading TV station’s site, last December 10, 2008. Again, if the book had come out in November or even December, the timing would have been great. But since the issue still hasn’t been released (I suspect it’ll be out in time for this year’s Halloween), whatever interest stirred up by the review has dissipated.

That’s just one perspective on the matter though. A publication with an efficient marketing team could have sustained reader interest until the issue’s release. This usually works well with either an established series or a really popular author. Look at J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter books. Mid-way through the series (which was when people started paying a lot of attention to her), it was a year or two between the release of each book. Yet fans were looking for news and snippets every single week which would culminate in large gatherings during the book’s release. In fantasy, this is also the case with the multi-volume epics such as The Wheel of Time or A Song of Ice and Fire. The scenario of epic fantasies is interesting because it’s an example of how negative publicity is still publicity: all those fanboys complaining that the books aren’t out yet are contributing to the hype surrounding the books.
 

Read the rest of the post on Charles Atan’s Bibliophile Stalker  LiveJournal.

Looking for book reviews

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If anyone is interested in reviewing Tribute Books’ titles on Amazon, please take a look at our list:

http://www.tribute-books.com/minicart/products.html

 

and contact us at:

 

info@tribute-books.com

The Pros And Cons Of Royalty-Paying Indie /e For Authors

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This article, by Brenna Lyons, originally appeared on EPIC (Electronically Published Internet Connection) on 5/21/09.

The Pros And Cons Of Royalty-Paying Indie Press

Why e-books? What are the pros and cons of royalty paying indie press, when compared with NY conglomerates? Basically, these pros apply to most indies, e-publishers included. Since POD print books and e-publishing have much in common, I’ll just use my standard answer for indie press, as a whole.

Pros for authors-

e-Books are a growth market. While NY conglomerates are just now experiencing the first, meteoric rise in sales indie did ten years ago (tripling or more of their sales every year in e-book formats), indie has settled into the second stable growth cycle, double-digit rises cumulatively every year.

Faster response time (on average) than NY conglomerates. Anyone who has spent 6-18 months or more waiting for answers from a NY agent will recognize why this is important, especially for prolific authors.

Usually allow electronic submission, which saves on paper, ink and postage.

Indie presses don’t pigeon-hole authors into a couple of core genres or subgenres. Many authors who move from NY to indie or branch out to include both, from a start in NY, state this as a main reason for the move.

Indie press allows reprints, if there seems to still be an audience and viable life left in the project. For anyone released from a NY house, this allows the books to keep selling in indie.

Indie press allows authors to write untried markets that have a crossover with what the publishers already do. In fact, some NY presses, like Kensington, have openly admitted that they use indie as their test market for new subgenres. Dark romance, erotic romance and paranormal romance all got their big push from indie then were adopted by NY conglomerates.

Indie presses allow authors to write outside the box, outside the accepted “genre lines” in the NY conglomerates. At the same time, indies aren’t afraid to state precisely what new markets are, without trying to redefine existing markets with expectations. NY is working on that one.

Indie presses allow authors to write in markets that are not giving the return NY demands of their markets and NY has therefore discontinued…but that still have an audience. For years, NY has said that Regency is dead. It’s not dead. It’s alive and living large at publishers like Awe-Struck, recently acquired by Mundania Press, LLC.

Indie press encourages representative art and blurbs, not copycats, that authors have input on. If you’ve ever been given a cover that doesn’t match your book at all, you’ll understand this. If you’ve ever read a copycat blurb that sounds like ten other books released that month, you will too.

Indie press gives individual attention to authors and encourages mentoring in learning to market, etc.

Indie contracts are written in plain English and easy to understand. EPIC offers a sample contract and contract red flags to watch for in indie contracts.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered an indie/e that said “agented submissions only,” though there are indies that are “by invitation only.”

Read the rest of the post on EPIC.

I'm Sorry, My Book Isn't Right For You

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This post, from Zoe Winters, originally appeared on Publishing Renaissance on 5/21/09.

Every book has a specific audience. As an indie, I want to find that audience. Along the way I know I’ll run into people who are not a part of my audience, who will read my work, not like it, and feel compelled to share exactly why.

I’d like to talk about editing and how it relates to the indie author.

There are different kinds of editing:

1. copyediting: typos/grammatical/punctuation errors
2. fact checking
3. issues of story continuity
4. issues of style/polishing

The first three are fairly empirical. Either it’s a typo or it isn’t. There are a few grammar and punctuation rules where the rule is unclear and you can go either way as long as you apply it across the boards, but grammar and punctuation are pretty straightforward as well, as is fact checking and story continuity. (i.e. you wrote something in chapter 1 that doesn’t mesh logic-wise with what happens in chapter 30.)

Then we get to the “controversial” type of editing. Matters of style and polishing. There are some rules in this category that are pretty universal, like removing repetitive words and phrasing or “extra words” you don’t need in order to tighten up the prose. But beyond that point, the editing of style issues gets pretty damn subjective.

One thing that I love about being indie is that at the end of the day what I want my work to be, is what it is. I don’t have to write to any given editor’s tastes on any given part of my work. I can and will take suggestions and criticism under advisement, but in the end, if that goes against what *I* want my work to be, then I will continue on my path. Because the work is mine, and I get final say. That is both the price and benefit of taking all the risk for your own work.

How a writer writes sex, dialogue, characters, even their entire story arc is highly personal. But upon traditional publication, many authors have to set aside their personal wants and needs for the stylistic tastes of the editor put in charge of their work. Normally what results is a compromise, in which the author’s style is retained as much as possible, but some changes are made in order to accommodate what the editor feels will sell.

There is no question that editorial input improves a piece of writing to a huge degree, but there are many perceived flaws in books that are matters of editorial opinion. The saying “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is never more true than in fiction.

So while changing the book to go along with that opinion will improve the work for a certain subset of people, it won’t improve it for others. And for some it will make the work worse, because fiction is subjective and the reading experience is different for each person. We aren’t mass producing widgets here.

Read the rest of the post at Publishing Renaissance.

Editing services Fiction/Non-Fiction

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Editing has been part of my "day job" for more than 20 years and I understand all the usual standards — Chicago Manual of Style and AP. I do recognize style as opposed to rigidly adhering to the rules, too.

Please let me know if you’re interested in a copyedit (spelling, grammar, syntax) for a self-publishing effort. I can make more in-depth recommendations or critique, too, if you wish. 

And I’m always respectful of how much work an author has put into their manuscript… only look for ways to improve, not destroy or control.

Reasonable rates!!

Chicago freelancer/self-pub author

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Hi. I’ve been to this site often, but just joined the forum.

I’ve posted a question under "Selling" and hope to get some replies. Please check it out.

I’ve self-published two novels; neither doing especially well, but I haven’t done too much marketing. (Life Without Music and All Out of Heart, both at Amazon if anyone’s interested.)

I also write for a living — marketing, p.r., journalistm, and do some editing.

My personal opinion is traditional publishing is on its last leg… But what do we have to replace it? New models — paying models!! — have to evolve somehow.

 

Offer free downloads of your book?

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Saw a guy on BookTV last night talking about CC licensing. You can license any copyrighted work for free downloads, licenses can/cannot allow changes, CC licenses allow free downloads only for non-commercial uses; CC-licensed matl can be passed along to others. It’s Creative Copyright, but don’t the URL at hand.

Has anyone ever used something like CC licensing to offer free downloads of your book for publicity purposes? This strategy is being used by some bands. And Nine Inch Nails did something like this for promo — and results were huge sales of CDs, etc.

Any comments? Suggestions?

Is The Internet Killing Culture?

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This essay, by Lethe Bashar, originally appeared on his The Blog of Innocence on 5/18/09.

I have a confession to make.

I haven’t been able to finish reading an entire book in over three months.

My compulsive and ardent participation on the Internet, writing blogs, commenting, publishing poems, and reading others’ work, seems to have something to do with this.

Mostly my reading these days is confined to the well-written columns of The New York Times. I am a New York Times enthusiast and reading the newspaper coincides perfectly with my short span of attention.

A couple weeks ago, I grew interested in the phenomenon of "mass amateurism" on the Web and I wanted to investigate it. I asked a couple prominent literary bloggers, Nigel Beale from Nota Bene Books and Andrew Seal, from Blographia Literaria, to write essays for the Arts and Culture Webzine I edit, called "Escape into Life."

In Nigel’s essay, he quotes the author Andrew Keen from "The Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture". And while I won’t re-quote Keen here because the message is in the title, I would like to respond based on my own experience of the last couple years, and how my behavior has changed in regards to the medium of the Internet.

From college onward, I delved into literature as if it were a contact sport, devouring the classics with fervor and intensity. I majored in English, which gave me somewhat of a background in reading these authors, but I went beyond my studies to read European classics most of which weren’t taught in my classes.

I loved French and Russian realism. I relished the imaginative powers, the ability of these great writers to create worlds inside their fiction. My favorite authors were Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola in the French tradition; and Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Chekhov in the Russian.

Literary realism became my opium; I seemed to be able to live off of it forever; indulging in these beautiful and convincing worlds. Intoxicated I would spend days in the library reading, losing track of time and forgetting everything that pained me in my trivial life.

The days of literary intoxication may be over, however. I recall them with a sort of nostalgia but I can no longer enter those worlds. I refuse to abandon myself to them; I don’t have the patience to read Zola’s meticulous story-telling or Tolstoy’s epic handling of characters and events.

What has happened since? Have I changed? Have I lost my ability to engage in culture and art?

The Internet has definitely changed the way I read and what I read. But it has also changed my view of myself from a passive receiver of "culture" to an active participant and creator of it.

In many ways, I’ve become the epitome of the amateur artist on the Web. I publish everything; poetry, essays, novels, even some sketches. And like many bloggers, I bask in the freedom to express my thoughts, my impressions, my art.

I poignantly remember a creative writing college professor once telling me–after I announced my desire to become a professional writer–"You won’t publish for another ten years. I’ve seen the corpses."

And so, now it is with a certain exuberance and defiance that I publish freely on the Web, all with the click of a button.

To me, the proliferation of artistic expression, the videos on YouTube, the online novels, the loads of bad poetry, cannot be equated with a loss or diminishment of culture but instead a replenishment of it. "More artists, more culture," I say–even if the great majority of those artists are naive and unskilled. The individual acts of creativity, that’s what’s important, and with more people creating, I see the phenomenon of mass amateurism as a boon.
 

Read the rest of the essay on The Blog of Innocence.