Month: January 2011

Merchants of Culture Revealed

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This post and podcast, about a book which analyzes the major disruptions at work in trade publishing, were produced by the Copyright Clearance Center’s (CCC) Chris Kenneally. They originally appeared on the CCC’s Beyond the Book site on 1/9/11, and are provided here in their entirety with the site’s permission. The CCC has also provided a link to the podcast transcript, just beneath the podcast player widget, after the jump.

“Books are not reading devices” warns John B. Thompson, a Sociology professor at the University of Cambridge and author of “Merchants of Culture” (Polity Press), the first major study of trade book publishing since the digital transformation began a generation ago. Thompson foresees a world of books AND reading devices (not books REPLACED BY reading devices) and advises calm amidst visions of apocalypse.

In its thorough examination of the book business, from manuscript acquisition to marketing and sales, “Merchants of Culture” captures an industry in search of dry land as it wrestles with the perfect storm of the digital revolution.

 BTB #206: Merchants of Culture Revealed [28:42m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Bushwhacker Museum, Nevada, Mo.

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With this post, I’m caught up.

I just finished reading The Saber and the Ring by Patrick Brophy (ISBN 1893046168). The proceeds of his books go to the Bushwhacker Museum in Nevada, Missouri to help with expenses. Mr. Brophy had a love for words and a pride in being able to put those words into articles and books about a subject he knew well which was his birthplace, Vernon County, and its history, the Civil War.

My father used to tell his children stories about the Civil War, but I must confess I paid very little attention. He got his interest from his father who heard the stories passed down from Dad’s Union soldier grandfather. My personal connection with Vernon County is I was born in the Nevada hospital and lived my first 14 years on a farm near Schell City.

Where is this leading you ask? What interests me is what I write about whether it be my blog post or writing a book. Now I have to confess I didn’t pay nearly enough attention to my father’s tales. It was later I developed an interest in the Civil War that lead to me write a Civil War book about a lady bushwhacker from Vernon County. Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia is about a woman who fought valiantly to protect her home along with other members of her family. If you want to get an idea about how hard it was to live in the area, not from a north or south version, but about citizens struggling to stay out of both armies way during the Civil War read my book. It is in paperback on Amazon and my bookstore site www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com and in ebook on Kindle and B&N nook.

The Bushwhacker Museum is a resource center to find out about family histories as well as being filled with exhibits. Some items somewhere in the museum belonged to some of my ancestors. I know, because I donated a few of them. The volunteers are helpful, knowledgeable about their county and friendly tour guides. If you want to learn about the Civil War in the Ozarks and the border war between Missouri and Kansas that started long before the war, take a look in the museum book store. Check out the website www.bushwhacker.org and go visit.

The tour includes the Civil War era jail that sits next door to the museum. Quite an interesting place with double decked cells and rooms for the lawmen and their families to live in. To think, the brick building was considered modern in the mid 1800’s. Just looking around the jail gave me an insight about where one of my great uncles spent some of his time, including extra time for his failed jail break, but that’s another story.

Patrick Brophy passed away last summer. The museum lost a colorful character as well as a talented writer. He dressed the part of a gent born in the 1800’s complete with black suit and string tie and wore the traditional beard. The one time I saw him, he glided from his office across the museum to the book counter, looking for references for his next book no doubt. I choose to think when I go back to visit, I’ll see him wondering around the museum, checking out the exhibits or the bookstore, because it would be hard to imagine the Bushwhacker Museum without him in it.

Students take field trips to the museum to learn about their county’s past. They were born in that area, and the exhibits and stories will undoubtedly contain names they know from their own family tree. What a great way to get them interested in history?

I’ve just about finished my mother-in-law’s story about her life. While doing research on the internet for the family trees, I found a story about a great uncle of hers that had been a Confederate soldier. I found the story interesting enough to include in her book with the hope that this might spark some interest with future generations of this family. What really thrilled me about this man from Summersville, Missouri was the fact that he walked across Missouri to join the Confederate Army and fought along side the men from Vernon County that I wrote about in my book. Goes to show you, it was a small world even back then.

　

　

　

 

Good Reads Challenge

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Jan. 4th post – Historical de Genre Tour on Good Reads sponsored by host site Bitsy Bling Books for the year 2011, and I signed up for the challenge. My reading time consists mostly of evenings during a television show I don’t like or during the commercials of a show I do like. I love to read. Historical fiction is one of my favorite genre so what few books I do get read in this year I will be more than happy to enter at Good Reads.

A good many of the historical books I read are westerns which might not be what the challenge was all about, but I may be able to add a few other books to the list. Good westerns are hard to find these days. Only one modern writer (Larry McMurty) can create a western like the authors Zane Gray and Louis Louis L’Amour including myself, and I have two western books to my credit – The Dark Wind Howls Over Mary and Small Feet’s Many Moon Journey which are part of my Stringbean Hooper series.

I’ve always liked Civil War books so I wrote one about the area where I was born – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia-Civil War Saga in Vernon County, Missouri. I should add the plug that all three books are sold in Amazon paperback and kindle, B&N nook or from my bookstore www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com for the folks who like westerns.

I’ve been a member of Good Read for awhile. At first, I added the books I wrote just to advertise. In the last year, I added books I read. So getting involved in the Historical Tour will help get me into the habit of reading and participating. No matter what genre I read, I always pay attention to the author’s writing style. It’s a good learning experience for me and no matter how much I write I feel I always want to strive to do a better job.

Reading is my winter stay in the house evening project. During the day, I’ve been working on my mother-in-law’s life story for the family since September which is her life story in her words, family pictures and family tree. In the last couple of weeks, I thought I was about done with setting the book up and unfortunately lost the whole project twice. The book set up I tried said temporary on it, and I guess the program meant it. In about 48 hours, I couldn’t find my book. Of course, I always assume I’m at fault where a computer is concerned so I tried again and lost the whole thing again. Thank goodness I held onto the original document to copy and paste in my own book set up. Now I am intent in the next few days on finishing this book and moving on to another.

Learning about my 90 year old mother-in-law has been a fun experience. This will be one family member we don’t have to wonder in the future why we didn’t ask questions. I’m proud of the fact that her legacy will be passed down through the family because of my ability to interview and write her story. How do I know the great grandchildren will be able to own a copy of this book? So far the total is six and each of them is going to receive a copy of Grandma’s book as a gift with my birthday card.

Reader, Writer, Publisher ~ Wearing Three Hats Can Be Dangerous

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This week, Publetariat member Sena Quaren‘s blog post is promoted to the front page.

Do I really mean that being a reader/writer/publisher is dangerous? Well, when I look at the word history of dangerous, I see that it comes from roots that mean the power of a lord…

And, “lord” comes from roots that mean “one who guards the bread”…

So, yes, if you’re contemplating using your experience as a reader to power your writing as you promote your way toward self-publishing, you’re becoming the lord of the process and guarding that bread can become dangerous.

Lest I overlook that word “bread”, let’s hope that this dangerous process leads to a very nourishing food for your readers…

I’ve explored reading in this blog when I wrote about re-writing as we read.

I looked into writing when I posted about the creative responsibilites of the author.

And, publishing got a nod with Self-Publishing Can Be Just As Creative As Writing.

Over the last two years, I came from the bare idea of a book, carried it through initial promotional-feedback activities, experimented with a form for it, wrote it, and sent it to my editor. The last few months have been full of study and practice of pre-publication promotion. The book, Notes from An Alien, should be coming out in April…

The most dangerous thing about being the lord of all these activities has been keeping my head on straight as I switched hats 🙂

Very soon, as I continue the promotion activities (and promotion is a critical part of the publishing process), I’ll be adding the reader and writer hats to my all-to-human head so I can get the final revisions accomplished and preen my baby for her social debut.

Have you experienced this dangerous process?

Are you contemplating braving the perils?

Have you done what I’m attempting and not felt imperiled at all?

Oh, please, share your thoughts and feelings in the comments…
 

10 Resources For Indie Novelists

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This post, by Beth Barany, originally appeared on the Writer’s Fun Zone site on 1/17/11. Note that while the title says this is a list for indie novelists, the resources provided are equally useful for all indie authors.

In no particular order, here are some resources I’ve come across recently that have helped inform my life as in indie novelist and my life as coach and consultant to authors.

Educate yourself. Get to know the lay of the land. Get informed! Being an indie author is a business folks, so let’s get writing and publishing.

  1. Author Virna DePaul offers useful Cheat Sheets, her latest on the pros and cons of self-publishing. Sign up for her newsletter to get it.
     
  2. Author Zoe Winters offer sage and witty advice  in her book, Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author
     
  3. Author and teacher Kristen Lamb writes a good book on social media for indie and traditional publishers alike: We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Guide to Social Media
     
  4. The Independent Authors Network is a great way to get some attention and connect with other indie authors. I’m there!
     
  5. A blog by multiple authors: The Self Publishing Revolution

Read the rest of the post, which includes five more resources, on the Writer’s Fun Zone site.

True or False? ~ If You Think You’re A Good Writer, You’re Not…

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I saw a tweet the other day that said something similar to the title of this post and I got a chuckle out of it.

But right on the heels of the chuckle came doubt…

I do feel some of my writing is good. I also feel some of my writing isn’t as good as I sometimes think it is.

There’s a fairly common cycle of feeling that infects authors’ minds–I’m Great/I Suck/I’m Great/I Suck…

I think the middle portions of the wave, not the peaks and troughs, are where some truth can be garnered.

My dear, departed father instilled in my tender nature a feature of character that I’ve spent many decades trying to root-out–Perfectionism.

To be fair, I also got a large portion of respect for discipline from him.

A perfectionist needs discipline if they want to continue on the road toward the impossible destination–Perfection.

I’m a firm believer that anything I write can be better, even if I reach a decision that it’s near enough to “perfection” to publish.

“A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”
Paul Valery

I’m also a firm believer that discipline can be used to punish yourself when you feel you’re not good enough–pushing your efforts past the point of rest and reflection…

So, if you think you’re a good writer but you don’t think your writing is perfect, you just might be a good writer…

If you think you’re a good writer and also that your writing is perfect, think again………

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I really don’t imagine you feel your writing is perfect but I do suspect you find the I’m Great/I Suck cycle a somewhat familiar visitor. Care to share 🙂
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Follow the “co-author” of Notes from An Alien, Sena Quaren:
On Facebook
On Twitter
AND, Get A Free Copy of Our Book

Words or Deeds ~ Which One Tells You More About A Person?

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Most writers have heard the maxim, “Show Don’t Tell”.  And, even though action in a book can keep most readers turning pages, I find it oh, so ironic that those actions are being conveyed with words 🙂

Language is strange! And strange means “foreign”. And, a blog written by someone who’s first language isn’t English prompted me to write this post.

Before I talk about that, I want to explore this Words/Deeds issue.

I’ll leave the strange situation of writing’s challenge of expressing deeds with words for a possible future post. Here, I’ll ask a number of questions:

Which do you feel more comfortable using to convey your heart-felt principles: words or deeds?

Even though many Holy Texts hold deeds above words, do you find certain situations demanding words more than deeds?

Can deeds “say” things better than words?

What do you do when you find a person’s deeds saying something different than their words?

Which can you trust more: deeds or words?

As I write this post, I’m performing a deed. I have to use words to create the result of the deed (this post). The affect of the result of my deed is different for different people. Some folks will respond to the result with other words in the comments. That’s the result of one of their deeds…

Are you starting to feel a bit of the bedeviling wonder I’m experiencing as I explore the interrelationship of words and deeds?

…

“But, he said he loves me!”

“Right, honey, but look at what he’s doing.”

“I know… But I love him…”

“Just watch yourself, baby.”

…

So, I started writing this post because someone started following me on Twitter and I checked the link they had in their profile and it led to their blog. It became obvious they weren’t very familiar with expressing themselves in English. I noticed they were from Indonesia but much of what they said let me know that, when it came to their daily deeds, they engaged in things nearly identical to people who grow up speaking English.

I have to say that a person “misusing” English is not reason enough for me to ignore what their trying to say. I have a friend from Lithuania. His art says way more than his words but even his words–crafted more from the structuring of his native language than from English–his words are deeply artistic and actually can say more to me than many who write “good” English…

One day, it’s likely our world will have one language that everyone learns, along with their native tongue, from their earliest years. [It won’t necessarily be English.] Everyone will be fluent in two languages–one that can create challenges of understanding for others and one that will unite our entire human family in the never-boring task of exploring the relative worth of Words and Deeds.
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Follow the “co-author” of Notes from An Alien, Sena Quaren:
On Facebook
On Twitter
AND, Get A Free Copy of Our Book

Investing in Your Own E-Book

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This post, by Publetariat Contributor L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing on 1/18/11 and is reprinted here in its entirety with the author’s permission.

After publishing six e-books in 2010 out of financial desperation, I’ve come to two conclusions:

1) Digital self-publishing is a straightforward process that isn’t particularly difficult or expensive.

2) There is nothing a small publisher can or will do for writers that they can’t do better for themselves. I don’t mean literally do everything yourself, but a writer can contract for production services as well as a publisher can.

Why? Small presses are often run by a few dedicated, but overworked individuals. They typically contract out most services, and they often pay bottom dollar. I know this because I’ve worked as freelance editor and turned down all of the work offered by small presses because they simply don’t pay enough. Small presses are trying to profit and survive like everyone else and they cut costs where they can.

A large publisher can offer distribution and promotional backing, but most small publishers don’t offer either, so what’s left for the author is the label of being traditionally published and the convenience of having someone else contract the production work. Giving up most of the profit for these small advantages is a hard bargain that I don’t recommend. As the author, you have to sell the book no matter who publishes it, so you might as well make the investment, publish it yourself, and reap the rewards.

The three main elements to producing a quality e-book are editing, cover design, and formatting. Many authors are tempted to do all three themselves to save money. But unless you’re incredibility talented and have all the time in the world, it’s probably not a cost-effective decision.

Editing can be expensive, especially if you contract for content evaluation, but you can keep the cost down by sending your manuscript to beta readers or working with a critique group to fine tune the plot and structure. You should, of course, print and read the manuscript out loud before paying anyone else to proof it. After carefully reading it yourself, send it to a professional editor for line editing and proofreading. Many editors charge $1500 and up, but you don’t have to pay that much. You can find someone to proofread your manuscript for $300–$800, depending on the length of the novel. If you pay less, your editor will be in a rush and probably won’t do a good job. If you pay more, it may take a long time to earn back your investment.

A good cover is also essential. Most cover artists charge a flat fee, and you can expect to pay between $150 and $500. Some charge a lot more than that, but why spend that much if you don’t have to? One way to save money is to find the right image yourself, so you’re not paying the artist for that time. One of the great things about self-publishing an e-book is that you can revise it as often as you want, including creating a new cover down the road when the book is making money. The best way to find a cover designer is to network with other writers, including joining listservs that focusing on marketing.

Formatting: I originally thought I would learn to format my own e-books to save money. Other authors make it sound easy. But I quickly decided that the time and frustration spent on the learning curve was not cost-effective. Time is money. For me, it made more sense to send my Word files and cover jpgs to a professional for formatting. The e-book I got back was gorgeous. In fact, I received two files: a mobi file to upload to Amazon and an epub to upload everywhere else. I strongly recommend working with a formatter who produces these two types of files.

Readers’ biggest complaint about e-books is the formatting. Getting it right is essential. Rates may vary, but if you’re starting with a Word document, it shouldn’t cost more than around $150. For authors who have a backlist and novels that are in book form instead of Word documents, those books will need to be scanned, and the cost of e-book production will be more expensive. The number of errors from the optical character recognition is also much higher. It might be cost-effective to pay a very fast typist to transcribe your published book into a Word document before sending it to a formatter. You’ll end up with fewer errors too.

Taking the lowest rates I’ve mentioned ($300, $150, and $150), you can conclude that it will cost at least $600 to produce a quality e-book. I raided my very small retirement account to publish my six books, and I considered it a small business loan to myself. I now treat my novel-writing career as a business instead of a hobby and it has paid off for me.

How long does it take to earn back a $600–$1000 investment? That depends on many things, including how many novels you have on the market. The more books you have, the more credibility you have, which is why I decided to do all mine back to back. Assuming you’ve written a terrific story and produced a quality product, the biggest factor is how much time you’re willing to spend promoting. I spent at least two hours a day for six months, plus one exclusive two-week period during which I promoted eight hours a day (blogs, press releases, reader forums, etc.). I continue to spend at least an hour every day on promotional activities. For the record, I made my money back by the end of the year, and going forward is all profit.

It’s your book and you’ve invested your money, you might as well invest your time too and make it pay off.

 

L.J. Sellers is an award-winning journalist and the author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mystery/suspense series: The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, Thrilled to Death, and Passions of the Dead. Her novels have been highly praised by Mystery Scene and Spinetingler magazines, and all four are on Amazon Kindle’s bestselling police procedural list. L.J. also has two standalone thrillers: The Baby Thief and The Suicide Effect. When not plotting murders, she enjoys performing standup comedy, cycling, social networking, and attending mystery conferences. She’s also been known to jump out of airplanes.

 

Q of the Week: How Do You Keep Your Plot From Feeling Contrived?

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This post, by Susan Dennard, Mandy Hubbard and Julie Eshbaugh, originally appeared on Let the Words Flow on 1/14/11.

This week’s QOTW comes from H. Holdsworth, who asks: How do you keep your plot from becoming contrived?

This is a tricky question since almost no plot can be completely “new”. Because of that, you can end up with that “contrived, ripped-off” feeling. I think the best way to avoid this is to give the story a unique aspect — maybe an ironic twist or a crazy-but-lovable character.

For example: wizarding schools? Done a thousand times. Boys who are the Only Ones to stop Evil Bad Guy? Also been done a thousand times. What makes Harry Potter special? The setting — Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, muggles, quidditch. It’s the world that made J.K. Rowling’s series really stand out and attract millions of readers.

Another example: vampire who loves a non-vampire? Done. An immortal who has waited forever to find his True Love? Done. What makes Twilight unique? That a vampire finds his true love, but he doesn’t just love her — he really wants to suck her blood and he’s not sure he can keep himself from doing it! That’s some situational irony. (Plus, it’s a great way to build tension! Whether or not this was intentional, it was a very clever plot device on Meyer’s part!)

One more example: noir detective stories? Definitely been done. Quest to solve best friend’s murder? Also been done. What makes Veronica Mars unique? The MC, Veronica — she’s a tough-as-nails teenager with sarcasm, sleuthing skills, and a softer side to boot. Viewers fell in love with her, and that kept us coming back each episode.

 

Read the rest of the post on Let the Words Flow.

Virtual Worlds ~ The Mind, The Book, & Second Life

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Your mind is a virtual world…

A book you read or write is a virtual world…

I’ll get to Second Life in a minute…

An off-the-cuff definition of “virtual” could be, “just about as good as the original” but, from my experience, I’d say that virtual’s meaning can be very strong on the root it came from: virtue.

All virtual worlds have virtues that make them valuable whether we’re talking about your mind, a book you read or wrote, or a computer-created world.

There is a World out there that our minds process. The debate about whether our minds can actually represent that World faithfully or not is still unsettled. But, even if our minds do represent the outside world with accuracy, it’s still a secondary creation that mimics the virtues of physical reality.

If our minds create a virtual copy of the physical world that strengthens or weakens certain virtues  we can become geniuses or mad folk.

It seems a bit easier to see the virtuality of a book. Still, the effect of a book’s world can seem as real as the mind’s replication of the actual physical world…

So, since blog posts are not university dissertations, let’s move on to actual virtual worlds.

“Actual virtual worlds”? Actual implies the real-deal. Virtual implies mostly as good as the real deal.

Even language has qualities that sometimes make it hard to determine the Real reality of what we think we know.

So, if you’ve never been to an actual virtual world, you might want to read Wikipedia’s article or visit a list of various available VWs.

The main reason I’m going on about virtuality in a blog that claims it’s about reading, writing, and publishing has to do with some of the research I’ve done for my Work-In-Progress, Notes from An Alien.

I’ve been using a particular virtual world for nearly four years–Second Life.

When I was still a newbie, I mostly traveled to all the various venues–dance clubs, libraries, mountain retreats, undersea wonderlands, and other marvelous places.

Two years ago, my pregnancy with the book I’m working on began and I found myself renting space on Book Island–a space of writers, editors, and artists created by a former publisher. Not so long after, I created a special avatar for one of my main characters and let her roam the virtuality, talking with all manner of people about the book’s themes.

As you may well know, writers’ characters can be very real and giving my character the added reality of virtuality has been one of the most therapeutic things I’ve every done. In fact, my character, Sena, is the one who takes care of interacting on our Facebook and Twitter accounts (check out the links at the end of the post…).

Once the book is published, an important part of the promotion and sales activity will take place in Second Life…

Have you ever wondered if your mind is truly registering our physical world with fidelity?

How lost can you get in a good book?

Has a book you’ve written ever made you want to abandon our consensual reality?

Have you ever visited a virtual world?
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Follow the “co-author” of Notes from An Alien, Sena Quaren:
On Facebook
On Twitter
AND, Get A Free Copy of Our Book

20 Essential Works Of Latin-American Literature

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This post originally appeared on the Bachelors Degree Online site.

Latin-American literature, in spite of its prolificacy and influence, sadly enjoys less academic recognition than its European-American counterparts in the "Western" canon. Though authors hailing from a diverse selection of countries with a diverse selection of opinions, insights and experiences earn plenty of national and international awards, they remain largely overlooked when it comes to slapping together syllabi.

 

While familiar names such as Pablo Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez enjoy "household name" status amongst literary types, plenty of readers are missing out on lesser-known authors with some amazing things to say and share. Though not a comprehensive list, the following selections provide a decent introduction to the eclectic literature of Hispanic North, Central and South America. Use them as a starting point to explore a wide range of cultures, histories, politics and plenty more.

  1. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924) by Pablo Neruda: Pretty much any of Pablo Neruda’s poetry collections could have ended up on this list, but this one in particular stands out as the one that finally piqued critical attention. Considered one of the greatest poets in the Spanish language, his push into the literary consciousness was published when he was only 19. At the time, mainstream audiences considered the overt, unapologetic sexuality contained within the collection something scandalous.

  2. The Aleph and Other Stories (1949) by Jorge Luis Borges: This short story collection by one of Argentina’s literary gems takes readers on a fantastic voyage through space, time and some of the most hauntingly beautiful surrealist landscapes. Fantasy fans with a love of magic realism and mind-bending takes on parallel universes, the supernatural, immortality, theology, identity and other rich themes would do well to pick up Borges’ masterpiece. It will certainly stimulate the imagination in numerous exciting ways.

  3. The Burning Plain and Other Stories (1953) by Juan Rulfo: Fifteen short stories offer readers an incredibly human glimpse into the lives of rural Mexican families and individuals. Reviewers enjoy how the tales shift from traditional structures to something a little more anecdotal to the more experimental homages to pop art. No matter how he chooses to convey the message, though, all of Rulfo’s tales illustrate the harsh reality and extreme poverty that many of Mexico’s inhabitants face.

  4. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1958) by Jorge Amado: Sweet, poverty-stricken Gabriela falls for a Syrian barkeep named Nacib Saad while Brazil divides over its cacao exports. The nation’s tense struggle between tradition and modernization provide an interesting — if not outright satirical — backdrop for their odd little love story. For readers not terribly interest in matters of romance, the book provides an interesting insight into the social, political and economic history of a massive, sometimes volatile, region of the world.

  5. Hopscotch (1963) by Julio Cortazar: The title of the novel refers to Cortazar’s brilliant use of structure. It boasts 155 chapters, which readers can either take chronologically or skipping between them, resulting in a few different endings. Narrator Horacio Oliveiera meanders through Paris nightlife, engaging in philosophical, bohemian discussions with his lover and friends, contemplating the nature and value of existence itself.

  6. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Easily one of the most recognized, beloved and studied works of Latin-American literature, the lush One Hundred Years of Solitude blends the tenets of the modernist, magic realist and Vanguardia movements into one memorable novel. Drawing from Colombian history — especially as it pertains to the city of Macondo — he weaves the intricate tale of seven generations. All of them experience some form of bizarre hardship in a way that mirrors the city’s real-life struggles.

  7. Conversation in the Cathedral (1969) by Mario Vargas Llosa: As Odria’s dictatorship plagues Peru, characters hailing from vastly different sociopolitical backgrounds intertwine. Through discussions at a bar known as the Cathedral, two men express their own experiences and opinions regarding the volatile political climate. Along the way, they also attempt to untangle the complex issues surrounding the role one’s father played in the death of a major underworld instigator.

  8. The Obscene Bird of Night (1970) by Jose Donoso: Slowly, deftly, this novel explores questions of time and its intimate, essential relationship with life. Magic realism, a staple component of many notable Latin-American works, relays the traditional Chilote tale of the Imbunche — driving home its eerily supernatural theme. Existential crises, it seems, can bring out the ravaging monster in many people.

  9. I, the Supreme (1974) by Augusto Roa Bastos: Like many highly regarded Latin-American authors, Paraguayan Augusto Roa Bastos found narrative inspiration in his nation’s tempestuous history and layered culture. His exceptionally experimental, frequently lauded novel questions the validity and stability of a dictatorship, pulling elements directly from then-current politics. Although he understandably took some liberties with reality, the result eventually defined an entire genre.

  10. Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976) by Manuel Puig: This tense stream-of-consciousness novel is also an essential read for those who enjoy or want to learn more about LGBTQIA literature as well. Taking place almost completely in dialogue, the narrative focuses on a gay window-dresser and a political revolutionary sharing a Buenos Aires prison cell. Deep philosophical discussions help the pair pass the time and learn more about the world around them, which eventually leads to both romance and tragedy.

 

Read the rest of the post on the Bachelors Degree Online site.

A Riff On The Harper Contract

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This post, by Ursula K. LeGuin, originally appeared on the Book View Cafe Blog on 1/18/11. The fact that Harper has added a ‘morals clause’ to its contracts with authors is kind of shocking, and is perhaps yet another factor that will drive more authors toward the indie path. From the Book View Cafe Blog:

 

New language in the termination provision of the Harper’s boilerplate gives them the right to cancel a contract if “Author’s conduct evidences a lack of due regard for public conventions and morals, or if Author commits a crime or any other act that will tend to bring Author into serious contempt, and such behavior would materially damage the Work’s reputation or sales.” The consequences? Harper can terminate your book deal. Not only that, you’ll have to repay your advance. Harper may also avail itself of “other legal remedies” against you.

From a blog by Richard Curtis.

* * *

Dear Mr Rupert Murdoch,

Forgive me, for I have sinned.

Because I did not read my contract with your wonderful publishing house HarperCollins carefully, I did not realise my moral obligations.

 

There is nothing for it now but to confess everything. Before I wrote my book Emily Brontë and the Vampires of Lustbaden, which you published this fall and which has been on the Times Best Seller List for five straight months, I committed bad behavior and said bad words in public that brought me into serious contempt in my home town of Blitzen, Oregon. In fact the people there found me so seriously contemptible that I am now living in Maine under the name of Trespassers W.

 

Read the rest of the post on the Book View Cafe Blog, and please add your remarks on this surprising development in the comments area there.

Self-Publishing Success? Yes! Self-Publishing Exception: No!

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Why The Charges Of Exceptionalism Are Just Part Of The Old Debate

In April 2009, after my historical mystery, The Maids of Misfortune, had been out for 4 months and I had sold 158 books, I asked on this blog whether I could call myself a “real author.” This was in response to the frequently stated opinion of those against self-publishing that people who took that route were only going to sell to family and friends and weren’t real authors. In fact, a year ago almost all of the blog posts on self-publishing revolved around the debate (and they were definitely heated debates) about whether or not self-publishing was good (because the traditional industry sucked) or was bad (because all self-published books sucked).

However, as the year progressed, I began to notice a shift in the tenor of the debate, as the majority of blog posts about self-publishing began to be devoted to what authors should do if they wanted to successfully self-publish. This was a healthy shift, not only for champions of the indie movement (since indie authors like Zoe Winters could get back to writing) but for authors who were contemplating self-publishing as an option (either as newbie’s or traditionally published authors) because they were getting concrete information that would 1) help them make the decision about which route to follow and 2) be successful if they decided to self-publish. The sharing of actual sales numbers has been part of that shift, and I particularly appreciated a recent post by Ian Edward where he pointed out how extensive this willingness to share information about self-publishing has been.

Yet, I was disappointed recently to see a version of the old self-publishing debate rear its head in response to recent posts by Konrath about the healthy sales numbers he and other self-published authors have been getting. See for example, the post by Richard Curtis and some of the comments to Konrath’s reply to that post.

What I saw happening is now that there is irrefutable evidence that self-published books actually sell, the anti-self-publishing argument has shifted from “all self-publishing books are badly written and none of them will make a dime” to “those successful self-published authors are an exception” and they are only successful because 1) they were already successful through the traditional route and therefore have a fan base in place or 2) they sell their books at such a low price (99 cents or less) they are really just giving them away or 3) they are genre writers and their readers have never been very discriminating and therefore will buy any old trash.

This irritated me. It irritated me because this argument seems to be designed to discourage writers from considering the path of self-publishing (based on inaccurate information) and it demeans writers who have been successful by suggesting that their success doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of their work.
Yet, based on my own experience, self-publishing is a viable route to success, and you don’t have to be exceptional to achieve that success.

First to the question of success. When I consider that April post and those 158 books sold, I have to marvel at how low my expectations were. I would have been delighted at that point if I had continued to average 1-2 books a day for the rest of the year, reaching perhaps a total of 500 books sold in 12 months. According to “accepted wisdom” at that time, this is what the average title sold in America in a year. But at the end of 12 months (November 30, 2009) I had sold 2693 books and made over $5,000 (which meant that I had averaged over 7 copies of my book a day-a tremendous increase.) As I have previously posted, this success was enough to convince me to retire completely from my teaching job to devote myself to writing. But I had no idea of how much the next two months would be a game changer, for me and many other self-published authors. Here the fact that 80% of that first year’s sales were on Kindle becomes important, because one of the key strategies of this generation of indie authors like myself has been to focus on ebook sales, where there is the greatest rate of growth and the highest rate of profit. I hoped that the rumors of Kindle sales would result in increased sales of my book, but I had absolutely no idea of how true this would be.

From what I have read, my experience was rather typical, in that sales began to rise over the Thanksgiving holiday and continued to rise throughout December, peaking in the week after Christmas. But while my day-to-day sales have varied, what has not changed is the overall trend. In December alone I sold 1932 copies of Maids of Misfortune, 94% on Kindle, and as of January 16, my average sales per day for January is 106 books a day. I have no doubt I will sell over 3000 books in January alone.

The point isn’t the numbers, but that in anybody’s estimation, Maids of Misfortune, a self-published book, has been a success. But I am not an exception and my success can be duplicated.

First, I have never published through the traditional route, and I have only one book out (and a short story), so my success cannot be explained by my publishing world contacts, extensive back-list, or already established fan base.
Second, I sell my ebook for $2.99, which seems a perfectly reasonable price for a book that is by a complete unknown and cost me only $250 to get a cover designed. (I did not pay a professional editor, interior designer, formatter, marketing publicist—so why should I charge the reader as if I was a big publisher who paid people to do this?) I do give my short story away through Smashwords (or charge 99 cents on Kindle)-but hey, it’s a short story!
Third, it is true that my book is a genre book, a historical mystery. But as a person with a PhD and a 35 year career as a history professor, whose favorite books to read are mystery and science fiction genre books, I resent the idea that I and the other people who read genre fiction are not discriminating readers.

One of the complaints lodged against Konrath and others has been on their focus on the number of sales. Yet it was Konrath’s honest discussion of those numbers over a year ago that helped me decide to take the self-published route, and every time I have reported my numbers, I have that in mind. I see it as paying forward the gift Konrath gave me.

Like Edward, I have felt that one of the great things about being an indie author has been being part of a community of people who are extremely willing to help each other, rather than being a competitor for the few precious agents, publishing contracts, or marketing dollars that are available to the author who goes the traditional route. Sharing numbers-good or bad-is one of the ways I help that community.

It is time for everyone to accept that self-publishing does offer a viable option for authors (not the only one, just a viable one), and to concentrate on making sure that those books that are self-published are the best they can be, and have the greatest chance of success they deserve. And I hope that sharing my unexceptional success will help that happen.

 

How To Create A Podcast

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Podcasting is a brilliant way to reach people with your brand, whether it’s through interviewing experts in your niche or podcasting your novel. Multi-media posts also enable people to get to know you in a more personal way. People need to know, like and trust you in order to buy your books so it’s critical to find some way to be more personal on your blog. Not many authors are doing podcasts either so it can be a way to stand out plus you can build some brilliant relationships within your genre/niche.

The Creative Penn podcast now has 80+ episodes, that’s over 40 hours of free audio on writing, publishing and book marketing based on interviews with experts from all over the world. I can truly say that podcasting has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. You have also sent me some brilliant feedback and the podcast now receives around 2000 downloads per month.

I’ve had a number of emails recently asking me how to create a podcast so here is how I do it. There are heaps of different ways but this is my process. You can use BlogTalkRadio or other free hosted solutions but I don’t think the quality is very good and iTunes is a great stand-alone market so it’s worth having your own feed. This post gets quite technical with the different software so please leave questions in the comments if you need further info.

What is a podcast anyway?

A podcast is just an audio file that you can stream and distribute over the internet. Podcasts can be talk shows or radio shows, interviews, university lectures, novels/audiobooks or anything else you fancy. The advantage of podcasts is that you can download the audio anytime instead of radio which is played at a specific time of day. You can also subscribe and have episodes download automatically to your player. The most common is iTunes but there are lots of different ways to listen. I love podcasts and listen to them in the gym, doing chores, commuting etc. There are millions of free podcasts out there, many of them amazing quality so I urge you to visit the Podcast area on iTunes as an introduction.

Step 1: Plan your podcast

I plan my interviews months in advance by contacting people with interesting stories and proposing an interview. I usually create a relationship on Twitter first and read their blog for a while, or I find an interesting interview with them on another site and contact them directly.

After arranging a time and date to call (across multiple time-zones), I email a week prior to the interview with the intro and questions for them based around the topic of the interview. I may veer off into other topics but it allows them time to prepare and gives me focus. I usually do interviews with Americans at 6am Australian time so advance planning helps!

Podcasting is an indirect form of marketing, it is more about awareness and I make sure my podcast is always focused on giving you actionable tips and information. However, I realize that people want to promote something at the same time, so I always ask the interviewee for their website address and to share more about what their books or products.

If you want to podcast your novel, check out Podiobooks.com which has some great resources (and lots of audiobooks).

Step 2: Create audio

I primarily use interviews for my podcasts and Skype is invaluable. If you don’t know already, Skype is free worldwide to other users and very cheap for calling phones with. I only use Skype for international calling and it has significantly reduced phone bills. You need an add-on piece of software/plug-in for recording.
For PC: Use Pamela.biz
For Mac: Use eCamm Recorder

You can also get the video recording version of either software, which is how I now do video interviews. It’s dead easy! You can also record your own audio in the editing software below. I use the computer’s internal mic as I am doing videos but also have a middle priced Logitech headset for audio interviews.

Podcasts usually have an intro and outro with some music and introduction, at least with the name of the podcast or the host saying hi. You must use royalty free music or creative commons licensed. I used Soundsnap to find my intro music. You just need a ‘loop’, a very short piece. Then record audio as above and save these mini-files to add into each podcast beginning and end.

Step 3: Edit audio

Firstly, podcasts are understood to be amateur i.e. you don’t need effects and fancy stuff unless you want to get that technical. You can just record with a good microphone and then edit the bad bits out. I leave umms, ahs, and little mistakes in as this humanizes people but I remove what I don’t want you to hear or if there are any technical problems (like lawnmowing noise!)

 

Editing software for PC or Mac: Audacity – free software and excellent to use
For Mac: Amadeus Pro

Both of these are easy enough to use. You just need to highlight and cut segments, drag and drop files. Then save as .wav or .mp3.

I usually save as .wav and then convert it to .mp3 in iTunes where I also add the meta-data (right click Info) which means you see “The Creative Penn podcast” on your iPod instead of just a file-name.

Now you have a finished .mp3 file.

Step 4: Publish podcast

I use Amazon S3 (with Bucket Explorer) to host my finished files so I upload the file there first. This gives me good download speed as my number of listeners increases as well as backing up the files on a secure environment. I also back up video and important files this way. It’s incredibly cheap cloud hosting.

I use the Blubrry plugin for WordPress blogs (free) to create the play button and also the download link. You just paste in the URL from Amazon S3 and it does the rest. Easy! Blubrry has its own feed service to iTunes and you can easily follow the steps in the plugin or Blubrry has great help. You get the initial iTunes feed by submitting to iTunes directly.

Then I listen to the final file and create the show notes in a blog post. I do this because transcription was too expensive to have done weekly, some people like to read it first to see if they want to listen and I like to get the extra SEO from having text in the podcast. That’s pretty much it.

It takes me around 30 mins to prepare, 45 mins to do the interview and around 1 hour to edit and do the post. This is quite a bit of work on a weekly basis but podcasting it’s definitely been worth it for me.

Do you have any other questions re podcasting or feedback on The Creative Penn podcast? I’m considering spinning off a new product teaching people how to do it with videos etc. Let me know if you’re interested.

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Lightning Source Waives Setup Fees For Current Promotion

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Printer Lightning Source (LSI 284.40 – Index Rating, January 2011 ) is running a promotion at the moment for publishers and authors. All set-up fees will be waived if 50+ books are ordered. This offer is being run for a limited period and includes a discount code to be used against the offer. Further details at the Ingram link [after the jump]…

 
Here is the full Ingram marketing blurb

Enter FREESETUP (all caps – code is case sensitive) in the promotion field when you submit your new title.

  • All Lightning Source manufactured book types are eligible for this promotion – Color, Black & White, Hardcover and Paperback.
     
  • All orders must be sent to one ship-to location to be eligible for the promotion.
     
  • The free title setup promotion can be combined with automatic volume discounts offered on the LSI website.
     
  • Other discounts cannot be combined with this offer.
  • All books submitted using the FREESETUP promotion must ship no later than March 17.
     
  • When you place an order for 50 or more books, while you will receive a title set up invoice, your title set up fee will be automatically credited.
     
  • The 50 book order must be for the newly set up title.
     
  • Both scan and digital set up of books are eligible for this promotion.

 

This is a reprint from Mick Rooney’s POD, Self-Publishing and Independent Publishing.