Month: July 2012

15 Steps to Create Great Blog Videos

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Video is everywhere in blogs today. As many people predicted, when web surfers get broadband internet service, they want blog video and lots of it.

Let’s face it, we’ve all be raised on television in one way or another, and that’s got to be a powerful influence.

Lots of people enjoy learning through video lessons, and if it’s entertainment that drives your blog and your books, there’s no better way to deliver it than through video.

In order to deliver great content, it seems like you have to get your videos to look good, too. A year or two ago you could probably get away with bad-looking video if your content was good.

But the spread of video has also raised the bar as far as what looks “good” to the average viewer.

A few weeks ago a woman walked up to me at a publishing group meeting and introduced herself. “Actually,” she said, “I feel like I already know you since I’ve been watching your videos.”

Wow, that was great, because that’s just what I was aiming for. It’s also the way I feel about people I’ve watched on blog videos, and it’s a powerful testament to how we humans connect and how, if we invest ourselves in what we’re doing, it can really affect other people.

Which is Better, Video or Text?

Last week I posted a video instead of writing a post. At times I’ve wondered whether making a video takes more or less time than writing a typical 1,000-word article.

Over the past year I’ve acquired equipment for doing videos, gotten a ton of practice, and created hours of video for my online training course for authors, The Self-Publishing Roadmap.

So while I’m sitting at my desk pounding on my keyboard, right behind me are the lights, tripod, camera and a big whiteboard just waiting to be used.

The two processes—writing and making video—use completely different skills and equipment.

Writing a post is pretty straightforward:

  • outline
  • write
  • edit
  • format
  • add photo
  • post

With video, you get much more involved with technology and completely different kinds of processes. For short videos you might not need a script if you already know what you want to say, so at least you can avoid the writing part if you’re confident on your feet.

Of course, it’s far simpler to create screencasts where you make a movie of what’s happening on your screen, and you add your voiceover. I use a lot of these, too, but it’s the live action videos that I like the most.

With all that in mind, here’s my method of dealing with web video for blog posts, and for products and services that you might create from your blogging activity.

How to Create Blog Videos in 15 Steps

This is the basic process I go through—along with the tools I use—to make blog videos like the Book Marketing Continuum, a pretty simple whiteboard presentation that ran about 13 minutes:

  1. Outline content—there’s no way around this, and it’s very similar to outlining a written post. Regardless of how it looks, most people can’t just turn the camera on and start shooting impromptu and hope to get anything of quality out of it.
     
  2. Create a cheat sheet—I hang a single piece of paper on the front of the tripod so I can glance at it during filming. I do them with a Sharpie marker which makes creating diagrams very easy and quite visible from 4 feet away. I’ll use this as I work through the content. The illustration at the top of this article shows part of one of these sheets from a recent shoot.
     
  3. Adjust the lighting—On the recommendation of a cinematographer I bought a set of 2 “softboxes” on tripod stands. Unless you’re adept at shooting outdoors, you pretty much need to have lighting to get a good looking video.
     
  4. Check the microphone—You may have realized this, but while you can watch a video that’s not very well made and still get a lot from it, if the sound is bad, it’s likely you will stop watching. When I realized that microphones don’t have to cost that much, I got an Audio-Technica ATR-3350 microphone for less than $25, and it works great.
     
  5. Set the camera—Last year I made a bunch of videos using my iPhone. Although these came out better than expected, eventually I realized I needed a camcorder, and bought a Canon Vixia MF400. This allows me to zoom, adjust white balance and exposure, and generally takes great HD video.
     
  6. Shoot the video—Surprisingly, this part can be just a small part of the process. I know what I’m going to say, I’m all set up with equipment I’ve used a lot before, so I’m comfortable and just launch in. I was super pleased to find a tiny remote control that came with the camera, too. This allows me to flip the screen around so it’s facing front, which makes it easy to see if you’ve got the shot framed properly, then start filming with the remote. Love that.
     
  7. Transfer the video—My camera uses SD cards, so I’ve got a couple of those, and they are very cheap for mass storage. Not only that, I discovered the new Macintoshes now come standard with a slot for SD cards, making it very easy to get them onto my Mac.
     
  8. Convert the video—Unfortunately, I can’t use the videos in the format the camera uses (*.MTS) so the first thing I do is run them through a converter to get a .MOV file. I use Wondershare, a fast and capable program with lots of options.
     
  9. Edit the video—When I first got started with video I realized it would work for me if I could keep it simple. Like a lot of people I don’t have time to learn a ton of complicated new software. iMovie looked like what I wanted, but the interface was frustratingly hard to learn. Eventually I started using the editor in Screenflow, a fantastic screen recorder for Macintosh. I love this software for its simplicity, range of tools, and speed at getting video done without getting hung up in editing minutia. What a great program.
     
  10. Export the video—Once you’re finished adding titles and editing your video, you export it from Screenflow. You can send your videos straight to Youtube.com or Vimeo.com or just dump them to your drive in .MOV format. I’ve been hosting my videos on Amazon S3, a bulk hosting service. This means I’ve got another step to do.
     
  11. Convert the video again—The standard for web video is the MP4 format, and that’s the one that also plays on mobile devices like phones and tablets. So now I run the video through a great free product, Handbrake, to get them encoded properly for all kinds of uses.
     
  12. Upload the video—Since these files can get pretty big, you either have to use FTP software to transfer them to the server you’re using for hosting, or a special program. Right now I’m using a nifty free plugin for Firefox called S3 Organizer that does the job quickly and easily.
     
  13. Set permissions—By default all media files uploaded to the S3 servers are private, so you’ve got to go in and set the permissions through the ACL (access control list) because otherwise people will get an error when they press the “play” button.
     
  14. Create a player—If you use a host like Youtube.com you won’t have to worry about this, but for S3-hosted videos, you have to create the player that will actually show your video on your blog. I use the (paid) EzS3.com service to do this.
     
  15. Embed your video—Grab the code from your host (or EzS3.com player) and make sure it’s sized properly for your blog. The main content area on my blog is about 500 pixels wide, so I want to stay within those boundaries. Embedding is just a matter of putting the HTML code provided into your blog post.

Extra steps can include creating an MP3 audio file for those readers who would rather listen than watch, and that has its own conversion and uploading chores, too.

Is all that faster than writing a blog post? I don’t think so, but if you want to get the benefits of a great connection with your readers and the ability to explain complex or visual tasks, it’s really worth it. This whole process probably took me about 2 hours to produce that 13-minute video.

Have you thought of trying out video on your blog? Have you been able to streamline the process?

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

Of Sentences And Stories

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This post, by Craig Lancaster, originally appeared on New Wave Authors on 7/30/12.

Listen up, kids. If you want to make the writing life even more difficult than it already is sometimes, have this for an answer when someone asks you what kind of stories you write:

"Um … well, they’re sort of literary, but … you know, a bunch of stuff happens, but it’s, like … you know … I guess it’s sort of family drama stuff. Sort of. You know?"

That’s, like, a direct quote or whatever.

And if you want to stump even people who write for a living, ask them to define for you, in a single sentence, what constitutes "literary fiction." A few bright souls might have a simple answer, but for the most part, expect some stumbling around.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately–as I try to tame my current work in progress into what I think it wants to be, as I read Dwight Allen’s bizarre complaint about Stephen King (accurately subtitled "a snob’s notes") and then cheer Sarah Langan’s astute takedown of that same piece.

(Let me stop right here to posit that I consider Stephen King a literary writer. Yes, also a horror and fantasy writer, but his best work illuminates the human condition, bringing the things we fear the most and love the most together and telling us some fundamental truth about them. That, to me, is the very essence of literary writing. If we cannot agree on this point, we’re not likely to agree on much else, so perhaps it’s best to part ways. I’ve gotta finish writing this post. Maybe you could go over here.)

When we’re not careful about how we define our terms, we tend to get bifurcated into these extreme points of view: Literary writing is about the beauty of language and the depth of character. Genre writing is about the pace and plot of the story.

 

Read the rest of the post on New Wave Authors.

Curiosity Quills Press Hosts A Cover Art Giveaway

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We often post articles here that urge indie authors to seek out pro services, so we’re happy to highlight this contest from Bone Wires, which is awarding a professional cover design.

To show support for self-publishing and independent authors, Curiosity Quills Press is giving away free professional cover art design as part of a giveaway to promote their latest release – Bone Wires by Michael Shean.

If you win, your cover art designer will be Michael Shean. In addition to being an author, Michael Shean is a professional graphic designer and designed his own covers for Bone Wires and Shadow of a Dead Star. Even if you don’t win the free cover art for your novel, by entering you have a great chance of winning a free copy of Bone Wires.

If you win the grand prize of cover art and don’t need it at this time, Michael can assist you with a blog banner or similar graphic design project.

 

Enter the giveaway here: http://curiosityquills.com/bone-wires-cover-art-giveaway/

Living In The Past

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This post, by Liza Perrat, originally appeared on The Writer’s ABC Checklist on 7/30/12.

Some wonderful advice from historical novelist, Liza Perrat, on how to breathe life into your novels.

I was initially drawn to historical fiction because I love history, and historical novels bring it closer to us in an entertaining fashion. I have only just set out on my third historical fiction adventure, so I’m far from being an expert, but this is what I’ve gleaned about this fascinating genre so far.

It appears very few historical fiction writers have university degrees in history. Most authors of historical fiction are, first and foremost, novelists who must master the craft of good fiction in the same way as contemporary novelists. Knowing how to write a good story, which hooks readers and keeps them turning the pages, is as vital as getting the historical details right.

Yet we do have to get those period customs and technological details right. Our ancestors had very different attitudes about many aspects of life than people of today. What was your heroine’s relationship with her husband, her children, the people with whom she lived? Did she use cutlery and plates? What job might she have had? Would she have been literate? Historical fiction falls flat on its face when the characters jump off the page as modern-day people dressed up in period garb, and details like this can be frustrating to research. But these days, with all the historical resources available, and the internet, authors spending the time and effort can usually discover those golden nuggets that will bring their story to life.

Besides spending hours online and frowning over the barely legible print of yellowed letters, postcards, diaries and old books, there’s nothing like spending time in a place, trying to imagine how it might have looked, felt and smelled, in the past. Readers like to sense the spirit of place –– the vegetation, the seasonal light, the odours. It pulls them into the story, makes them empathize with the characters, and provides a stage on which they can visualize the story. But readers will quickly become bored with history lessons, so information should be integrated into the story, without it coming across as school textbook.

Historical monuments and structures evoke the past and I like to study them as closely as possible, and take lots of photographs (preferably minus any lurking tourists!). A walk around the rural French village in which I live gave me the idea for Spirit of Lost Angels, the first novel in my historical series, set during the French Revolution, and recently published under the Triskele Books label. On the banks of the Garon River, I came upon a cross named croix à gros ventre (cross with a big belly). Engraved with two entwined tibias and a heart shape, it is dated 1717 and commemorates two children who drowned in the river. Who were they? How did they drown, and where are they buried?

 

Read the rest of the post on The Writer’s ABC Checklist.

The Dark Knight Rises – Thoughts On A Trilogy

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[Publetariat Editor’s note: this post contains strong language]

There aren’t any spoilers in this post, but there are some spoilers at the places I link to at the end, so be warned.

It’s no secret that I’m a Batman fan. In fact, that’s an understatement – I fucking love Batman, in a totally platonic way. I’ve often said that Batman and the Joker are the two greatest fictional characters ever created and I stand by that. So when talk of a new Batman film started back in 2003 or 4 or whenever it was, I was dubious. But it was to be made by Christopher Nolan, a man whose talents I already admired. The result was Batman Begins, the first of a proposed trilogy. I was very pleasantly surprised.

The first thing to remember when films are made from established literary canon, be they novels, comic books, games or anything else, is that a film is a self-contained thing. It’s finite. Batman comics have been going since 1939 and there’s a metric fuckton of established canon and ongoing story with which a film can’t hope to compete. Nor should it try. So a film will always make changes to established canon and we fans can’t be precious about that. It’s how the film plays with that canon that matters.

In Batman Begins, Nolan turned the notion of Ras Al Ghul a little bit on its head. He made Ras and Henri Ducard the same character, which they absolutely aren’t in the comic canon. He also made Ras an Irishman. But the things he then did with those characters, with Ras’s mission as an idealistic eco-terrorist, were bang on the money. Nolan did a brilliant job of retelling the Batman genesis and origin, and adding in a well favoured supervillain. Within that, he kept the darkness essential to the Batman’s story. He kept the gothic, noir edge of the characters and setting. He made Gotham an integral character in the film. So while he played with some aspects of established canon to make a film-sized story, he did it well and kept enough of what we already know intact to make a very impressive, cohesive whole. I was very happy with the film.

But all along it was touted as a trilogy. And this is where we go back to the nature of film compared to an ongoing series. This film was to be finite in three instalments. The second film, The Dark Knight, stands tall for many reasons. Not least of these is that amazing performance from Heath Ledger as the Joker, which is still the highpoint of the trilogy for me. And again, Nolan took some liberties with established canon, but stayed true to so many parts that we love that we went with him for the ride. I did, anyway. And most importantly for me, he totally got what the Joker is all about. The Joker is the worst monster imaginable, because he’s the embodiment of absolute chaos. No rhyme, no reason, no appealing to any sense or intelligence. Just pure, insane chaos. Some men, after all, just want to watch the world burn.

So I’d been waiting patiently and slightly nervously for The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final instalment. So often a third film is where a series can jump the shark. It can be the step too far. But Nolan always said this was to be a trilogy and I trusted him as a storyteller enough to hope that he would see it through well. Again, liberties were took. The big bad this time is Bane, and he’s very different from the comic book character. In the comics, Bane is addicted to and fuelled by Venom. But in this film, Venom doesn’t even get a mention. Bane’s origin is also played with, as are the origins of other key players (who I won’t discuss for fear of spoilers). But that’s okay, because Nolan is using Bane in his own way, like he used Ras Al Ghul in the first one. And he does a good job of it.

Nolan also does a very good job of using the Selina Kyle character. She’s never called Catwoman in the film, her cat ears are just her night goggles, pushed up onto her head and so on. But the core of the character is there. She’s a tough, sassy, very capable cat burglar. She’s a real-world foil to the Batman’s black and white view of crime and culpability. She’s so much more than a sexy accoutrement and Anne Hathaway does a brilliant job with a character that is very hard to play well.

And using these characters and settings, Nolan brings threads from both previous films together in The Dark Knight Rises and ties them into a truly epic story, worthy of its comic book roots and also worthy of its cinematic grandeur. He does tell a complete story in three films and he does it bloody well.

Each of the films is successively darker, more epic and more daring than the last and by far the best thing about them is that Nolan has made an absolutely self-contained trilogy. It’s not the same as the comic books, because the comics are still going on, and will continue to do so. Nolan has taken the characters and spirit of those stories and turned them into one complete and very clever tale. We see the full life of the Batman, from genesis, through origin, through rise and fall and rise again, right out to final closure. And it’s very satisfying.

Sure, the films have flaws. With The Dark Knight Rises there are illogicalities, there are strange timing issues, there are simple nonsensical things (like the one I mentioned the other day – how the hell does Bane eat? And he’s a big boy, so he must eat a lot.) There’s actually not nearly enough Batman in the third and final Batman film. There are often certain events in the movies which are entirely too convenient and plot-driven. But, these things are relatively few and far between and largely eclipsed by all the good stuff.

There are those who have suggested that this final instalment is a pro-fascist movie (although I disagree with most of that post and the author obviously doesn’t have any real understanding of the ideology of Ras Al Ghul). I mean, sure, all superhero stories are fundamentally fascist – the super power steps in with violence, operating outside the law, to battle the greater threat on behalf of the people. But that’s a whole other discussion and not one limited to Nolan’s interpretation of Batman.

There are those who have asked what the hell happened to the Joker after the second film. Although Ledger died and couldn’t reprise his role, it’s strange that there was never any mention. Though one possible answer lies here.

(Remember – spoilers at the above links!)

There are several other concerns raised in various reviews and posts I’ve read, some valid, some not so much. Regardless, Nolan has created in his Batman trilogy something rarely seen from Hollywood these days – an intelligent, complex, complete and satisfying story along with the incredible special effects and cinematic epicness we’ve come to expect. Effects are so often utilised at the expense of story, but not with these films. The Dark Knight Rises is possibly the best of the three when it comes to simply amazing set pieces of action and downright brilliant photography. But it’s the combined power of the three films together that really stands out as Nolan’s crowning achievement here.

Personally I can’t wait till The Dark Knight Rises is released on DVD so I can put aside a day to sit and watch all three films back to back in a beauteous Bat-filled marathon of cinematic awesomeness.

 

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

Fifty Shades of Hypocrisy

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When it comes to books like Fifty Shades of Grey, the Twilight series and The DaVinci Code (huge commercial successes that are pretty universally acknowledged as poorly written), outrage among authors who haven’t been as successful in finding a monster, dedicated fan base is generally off the scale.

I’m not going to reduce this to a simple case of jealousy, though jealousy is certainly a factor. It’s more like a sense of injustice, a feeling that authors who seem to be lacking in skill or talent haven’t truly earned the riches and fame being heaped upon them—particularly in the eyes of those who have labored long and hard on craft.

Anyone who aspires to authorship has been told her entire life that eventually, quality work rises to the top and finds the audience it deserves. Fifty Shades of Grey and Jersey Shore memoirs notwithstanding, I still believe this is absolutely true. The part that angry, hardworking authors seem to miss is that when "quality work rises to the top and finds the audience it deserves," that audience may not be large enough to crack the NYT Bestseller list, nor even necessarily the Amazon Top 100.

Why does this come as a surprise to anyone?

Look at the most popular television shows, musical acts and movies in the West. And by "popular", I mean the most commercially successful. With very, very few exceptions, it’s all lowest-common-denominator tripe, aimed at the 18-35 demographic, promoting the pursuit of youth, physical beauty, material gain and fame, above all else. If I wanted to put it more kindly, I might say it’s escapist wish-fulfillment material.

For many of us, life is already throwing enough physical, mental and emotional work our way that when we have a few minutes or hours to spare on entertainment, all we want is the cinematic, musical or literary equivalent of junk food. We want something shiny to distract us for a little while, that’s all. I’d have to count myself as part of that population most of the time, for the past few years.

Then there’s the (possibly larger) population of people who never seek out anything but the shallowist escapism in their entertainment. If a movie, song or book happens to make them think a little, fine. But they’re not looking for that, and if it requires them to think too much, they’re turned off because it starts to feel more like work than entertainment. It stops being fun, and nowadays, consumers expect everything from driving directions to language lessons to be fun.

Guess what? Quality prose is rarely described as "fun". It can actually be quite demanding. Clever turns of phrase often hinge on historical or literary references. Similes and metaphors are built on the foundation of a shared vocabulary between writer and reader. Intricate plots require the reader to keep track of multiple plot threads and character arcs. 

Writers who sweat these kinds of details in their manuscripts do so not only because they take personal pride in quality work, but because they want the reading experience to be the best it can possibly be for the eventual reader. But here’s the thing: if you’re preparing a seven-course, gourmet meal for dinner guests who only have the time or inclination (or both) to wolf down fast food, your eventual disappointment is both inevitable and predictable. Nobody who’s craving a Big Mac is inclined to seek out haute cuisine.

Here’s where the "Hypocrisy" from the title of this blog post comes in. As an author, you can strive to write prose your fellow authors and the literary establishment will admire, belittle the quality of a lowest-common-denominator bestseller, and mock the lowbrow tastes of the majority. But if you do all those things while simultaneously being angry that the majority isn’t buying and loving your book, you’re being a hypocrite. You’re not writing what they’re lining up to buy, and you don’t even want to write what they’re lining up to buy, so why begrudge them their choices and purchases?

In fairness, there’s definitely some skill and plenty of work involved in engineering entertainment so that it will appeal to the widest possible demographic. Nicholas Sparks is a master of this, and has the piles of cash to prove it. Adam Sandler isn’t likely to win an Academy Award in his lifetime, but he’s amassed as much wealth as a small island nation, and is beloved by millions the world over for bringing laughter into their lives.

None of which is to say that quality writing and commercial success are totally incompatible. When art and commerce meet and play nice together in the literary world, the result is a Neil Gaiman or Nora Ephron. Authors like these, who hit the magic trifecta of talent, skill and zeitgeist time and again are a rarity. They are the Bonos, Beatles and Bowies of the literary world: hugely popular, successful, admired, respected, and influential in their medium—all at the same time, both within their own profession and in the eyes of the general public. The most that the rest of us can hope for is to achieve maybe two of the things on that list, and not necessarily both at the same time or even in the same book. Anyone can hope to become a literary rockstar, but no one can plan for it the way one can plan for a successful career in medicine or teaching.

So pick a goal, art or commerce, and devote yourself to it. Accept that while it’s possible you may achieve both, it’s not too likely. Accept that in fact, it’s not even truly "likely" that you’ll achieve either one. Accept that writers who are willing to pander have better odds of enjoying the kind of sudden, ‘overnight’ success enjoyed by E.L. James, the author of Fifty Shades of Grey, just as an Us Weekly with a picture of a Kardashian on it is the odds-on favorite to far outsell an issue of the Economist with a picture of a Prime Minister on it. But also know that the likelihood such books will become beloved classics that future generations of readers will reach for, and recommend, time and again is remote.

 

This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton’s Indie Author Blog.

Remember When Amazon Set the Pace for Ebook Pricing? It’s Back!

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This post, by , originally appeared on Digital Book World on 7/26/12.

 

Remember when Amazon set the pace for ebook pricing?

Remember when they set prices designed to build a market from scratch – and did just that – built a market from scratch?

If you don’t recall a time before Agency Pricing, a time when Amazon fully ruled the ebook roost, dust off your history books. That time is coming back, in very short order, and it’s going to completely redefine the publishing and ebook landscapes (again).

Once the DoJ case is officially adjudicated (with all signs pointing to the Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster deal being the final structure of the settlement) we’re going to see an unprecedented 30-70 days where the ebook market and competitive landscape will be complete re-written – literally in real-time.

Despite all of the upheaval that’s coming, what I’ll be watching most closely is discoverability – specifically the ability for authors to build audiences in light of massive price competition from retailers and publishers.

With prices crashing through the floor, upstart authors losing their ability to compete / differentiate / build an audience based on price and publishers frantically racing to develop direct to consumer (reader) relationships in a bid to re-establish themselves as the foundation of the ebook market, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for readers to keep finding new quality works.

When best sellers are priced at (or nearly at) the same level as unknowns, the decision to venture off the beaten path will become more difficult. This is the same concept as purchasing Kleenex vs. the store brand tissue. If the price is close enough (<10% variance), you’re buying Kleenex. It’s only when the price variance exceeds 25% that consumers begin to react negatively to a brand and seek information about alternative products.

 

Read the rest of the post on Digital Book World.

The Ebook Marketplace is About to Change…a Lot

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This post, by Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on The Shatzkin Files on 7/26/12.

Now that the DoJ’s response to the public comments has made it overwhelmingly likely that the settlement it negotiated with Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster will be accepted by the Court, it is time to contemplate the changes we’ll see in the ebook marketplace in the next couple of months.

The settlement requires the three affected publishers to inform retailers working under agency agreements that they can be released from them. Ten days is alloted from the time of the Court’s acceptance for that to take place. Then the retailers have 30 days to terminate their agreement and then the publishers have 30 days from receiving that notice to actually end it.

So the process could be almost instantaneous, if the publishers served notice immediately, the retailers responded immediately, and the publishers reacted to the response immediately. Or it could take as long as 70 days from the Court judgment, if everybody used the entire time alloted by the judgment.

Assuming that Amazon acts with competence and alacrity in its own interests (and I’d expect nothing less), the entire process could take no more than 40-45 days with them. (Each retailer can be on its own clock.) That should liberate Amazon from most pricing constraints on the three settling defendants’ books by the middle of September.

There’s a bit of confusion in the settlement language here. In the same paragraph, IV-B, that lays out the 10-day, 30-day, and 30-day requirements as described above, it also says that 30 days after “entry of the Final Judgment” (the starting gun for everything), the Settling Defendants take “each step” required to terminate or not renew or extend the agreement. Or maybe the language makes sense to a lawyer but I’m just confused. It seems like they’re asking for results before the first 30-day period would have expired.

The settlement, which ostensibly does not eliminate agency agreements (although it clearly eviscerates them), requires that any new agreements not allow publishers to dictate final sale prices by the retailers, except to cap them (in an unwieldly way we’ll consider below in more detail) and also disallows any “most favored nation” (MFN) clauses protecting any retailer from the impact of other retailers’ pricing decisions. These restrictions are specified to last for two years for each retailer, starting from the date the old agreement’s price-controlling clauses are mooted, whether by the agreement being terminated or by the publisher notifying the retailer, in writing, that the offending clauses will not be enforced.

It is back to the drawing board for new agreements. Ostensibly they can be “agency” agreements by which the publisher sets a price and pays a commission for sales based on that price. But since agency agreements were actually attractive because they achieved what is now deemed illegal price parity across the marketplace, these publishers must be rethinking the efficacy of the model. I would be.

So new contracts will be needed between the three settling publishers and all the retailers. And they’ll need to be crafted, negotiated, and signed within a maximum 70-day window.

Anybody responsible for this who remembers what a combination marathon-and-sprint these negotiations were in 2010 won’t be planning any 2-week vacations over the next few months.

There is one big fat joker in the settlement. The publishers are allowed to negotiate agreements limiting the retailers from discounting from the publishers’ (now) suggested prices. The settlement allows the publisher to prohibit discounts on their books which in the aggregate over one year exceed the margin the retailer has earned on those books.

 

Read the rest of the post on The Shatzkin Files.

Words I Never Want to See in Your Novel. Please.

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This post, by Jamie Chavez, originally appeared on her site on 5/17/12.

When I get to the end of an edit, I generally make a list of the author’s “favorite” words and phrases—words he or she used over and over without realizing it. It’s quite instructive.

Usually they are words like so and well used at the beginning of sentences of dialogue. Often it’s amazing (and you know how I feel about that!). Smirk shows up a lot too. Recently a manuscript I worked on had dialogue littered with you and I both know and listen as a way to begin a sentence (Listen, Sam, you and I both know the president will never approve that death squad).

You can’t hide much from your editor, my friends. We’re like hairdressers. 🙂

But in the spirit of self-improvement, let’s talk about some words and phrases I really wish you wouldn’t use, because I am, frankly, tired of reading them. It’s good for you to know these things now. Honest.

• I couldn’t help but … (notice, think, wonder)
This phrase shows up in many variations, and all of them are unoriginal and empty. Stop it. Just say, “I noticed …”

• Truth be known
Aside from the fact it’s way overused, it’s awkward. If you really must use it, it should properly be If the truth were known. Don’t tell me it’s your voice. Please.

• Suddenly
The hallmark of an inexperienced writer. Think about it: everything in fiction (in life!) happens suddenly. One second it wasn’t happening … and then it was. Suddenly.

• Blurt out
You remember my post on dialogue tags, right? I’m already not crazy about blurt for that reason, but when you write he blurted out, I cringe at the redundancy. 

• I thought to myself (or he thought to himself)
Of course you think to yourself! Who else is in there with you? Now, you can say things to yourself. That means you’re speaking out loud, but are not engaged in a dialogue with another character. And that’s fine. Although it is, they say, one of the first signs of insanity.

• Then, then, and then
It’s not necessary to keep reminding me that one action came after another.

 

Read the rest of the post on Jamie Chavez’ site.

How to Have a Great Social Media Presence and Still Have a Life

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This post, by , originally appeared on Ezine @rticles.

If the idea of Facebook, Squidoo, Twitter, and YouTube (not to mention your own site and blog) are inundating you. Take heart! You’re not the only person overwhelmed with choices. With more places to post and keep track of, our days seem to shrink . Here are some helpful, time-saving tips for making the most of your social networking without having it take over your life.

1) Blogging: first off, try and plan as many blogs as you can so you can preload them and forget about them. You can still post additional content but ideally you want to have at least one or two posts a week that are scheduled.

2) Social networking: sometimes an author will come to us with 35 social networking sites. Frankly that’s about 34 too many. With the popularity of social networking growing these niche social sites are popping up everywhere. I’m not telling you not to post something there but if you are stretched too thin and can’t keep them updated, what’s the point? Personally I recommend posting to two sites: Facebook and Squidoo. Start with one or the other and get your feet wet, then once you have an audience built and a social networking routine in place you can expand your networks.

If you’re unfamiliar with these sites (and many are unfamiliar with Squidoo, I’ll explain why in a minute) know that these are the two powerhouses when it comes to social networking. You can get on there and start a page, build a fan base and promote your book. It’s very easy to do and best of all, it’s entirely free. Squidoo.com is (like Facebook) very integrated in Google’s ranking system. Any Search Engine Marketing expert will tell you that you need three things: Facebook, Squidoo, and Twitter. Squidoo (again free) is very easy.

Also take advantage of time saving options on both of these sites. Both Facebook and Squidoo let you feed your blog and Twitter account through there which will help with keeping the page updated. You should plan to update each page once daily and here’s a quick Facebook tip for you and a great way to expand your network. Go in and wish folks a happy birthday. Birthdays are always posted on your page so go in and write on someone’s wall and wish them well, it’s a great way to network with your FB peeps and trust me, it will also help to expand your network!

 

Read the rest of the post on Ezine @rticles.

Using Engagement Analytics to Understand What Drives Customer Engagement

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This post originally appeared on My Business Marketer. While it is aimed at small business owners, the advice it contains is just as useful to indie authors, who are, in effect, running a small business.

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I came across an interesting report a few weeks ago that offers an in-depth exploration into how to use engagement analytics to better understand what drives customer engagement with your brand and how you can use this information to improve your company’s revenue stream.

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For the uninitiated, engagement analytics give online marketers the ability to more precisely define those advertising and marketing initiatives that are the most successful in driving targeted customer engagement and generating revenue for the company. These analytics are invaluable when it comes to measuring aggregate average quantities, such as number of visits, most visited pages, time spent on each page, among others.

Knowing what’s driving whom is crucial information in the world of online marketing. After all, you can attract tons of traffic to your site, but if the traffic you’re getting isn’t the kind that is interested in the products or services you have on offer, your efforts are ultimately an exercise in how to burn through time and money. 

To get there from here, you need to drill down deep and mine the information recovered  for clues that you can then use to build subsequent successful marketing campaigns. 

Effective engagement analytics measurement will help you do just that as you zero in on three key areas: 

1. Traffic Sources. 

Sophisticated engagement analytics don’t just attribute traffic sources to the major search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo! Instead, traffic is broken down into paid, organic search, and organic branded search engine traffic (that is, traffic from visitors who included your company name or brand in their search term). This level of detailed understanding enables you to monitor what quality and quantity of traffic to your site is coming from which marketing channels so that you’re ensured that your marketing dollars are well spent.

 

Read the rest of the article on My Business Marketer. Also see: Use Statistics Counters In Managing Your Author Website, by Savvy Book Marketer Dana Lynn Smith.

The Problem with Fantasy . . .

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This post, by Amy Rose Davis, originally appeared on her A Modicum of Talent With Occasional Flashes of Brilliance blog on 7/16/12.

After reading the two already-published installments of The Kingkiller Chronicles, I started to put into words some of the real criticism I have about my beloved genre. I think these thoughts are worth sharing in more general terms for a few reasons. First, I don’t want to rant about Rothfuss anymore. I don’t think his books are rant-worthy. I just think they’re overhyped and not nearly as brilliant as people think. Second, I want to go over these things because I think anyone who reads my blog and writes fantasy might find them useful. And third, I want you all to know what I’m trying to avoid in my own work!

As I see it, fantasy falls into three big traps:

The books exist to build bridges, set up conflicts, or establish scenarios for future plots. One could argue that most of The Wheel of Time exists purely to set up the next book, ad infinitum, until we hopefully get the big payoff in the last book. I wouldn’t know because I don’t plan to re-read the books. The problem of books existing only to bridge gaps is probably more of a problem with second books, I think. I suspect that authors work so hard on those first books in order to get an agent or publisher that the first book is usually polished to a fine sheen–plots are tight as they can be, characters as fleshed out as possible, worlds intricately built.

But the problem is that when we come to book two, authors have deadlines, expectations, and multi-book deals in hand. So maybe there’s a rush to write something to meet the deadline and expectations. Or even worse–book one was outrageously successful, so maybe in the haste to publish book two and book three, the author writes like a demon, the agent and publisher work more on marketing or publishing than on editing, and the result is a book that’s not nearly as tight as the first one.

Listen, authors. Every book in your series should potentially stand alone. There should be some kind of central conflict, some kind of goal for each book in the series. Do not expect your readers to go along with you for three or five or twelve books just hoping for the big payoff at the end. Give them a payoff in each book.

Too much backstory becomes frontstory.

Did I just make that word up–”frontstory?” Honestly, I think this is about 90% of the problem I had with Rothfuss’ books, and I think this is quite possibly why Kvothe comes off as such a special snowflake to me. If I just didn’t have to hear every flipping detail about his entire life, maybe he wouldn’t come across as so irritating. I think Rothfuss got caught up in writing backstory and history for Kvothe and never really distilled those stories into an actual plot.

 

Read the rest of the post on A Modicum of Talent With Occasional Flashes of Brilliance.

Copy-Editing And Beta Readers

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After some major rewrites based on my Editorial Review from the Steve Parolini, the Novel Doctor, I gave my thriller novel ‘Pentecost’ to seven beta readers and asked for their feedback.

This is one of my honest, personal posts! I hope it helps you on your writing journey.

Who are beta readers anyway?

 

Review copies printed locally for beta readers

Beta readers read your book prior to it going to the printer. You could also use them before submission to an agent or publisher. They read the manuscript for comment on the structure, characters, plot as well as grammar/spelling or anything else they notice that may need revision.Their comments will generally result in another rewrite although of course you don’t need to action everything. Beta readers should be people who like the genre you write in, and also need to be able to give honest feedback. There is no point in just hearing praise at this stage. Criticism only makes our work better!

The practicalities of working with beta readers

I selected five of my friends who read in similar genres as me i.e. fans of thrillers, crime, mystery and fast paced novels. I also asked a writer friend I respect, the lovely Alan Baxter and also my copy editor (who just happens to be my Mum – lucky me!)

I gave them a hard copy A5 version of the book I had printed locally (above) so it was easier to review and make comments on. I also included a letter indicating the comments required i.e. grammar and spelling would be done by my copy editor but I wanted feedback on character, plot, any parts they skipped over or found jarring as well as general comparative notes on other books vs mine.They had three weeks to read it and provide feedback.

I received feedback in the form of marked up A5 books, an interview style discussion and brainstorming as well as phone calls, during which I took copious notes with page references. The most heavily marked up version was from my copy-editor (to be expected).

For the next step, I took my own hard copy of the novel and added comments and notes from all the beta readers. Blue writing is for word changes, tense issues and grammar. Red is for more rewriting needed. Finally, I went through another full rewrite fixing everything from that master draft.

Feedback and lessons learned

Hard copy with edits

I had a few depressed days as I considered the extent of the feedback! I had thought I was 95% complete but it was actually more like 85%. Going through another full rewrite was not on my schedule and by this stage, I was pretty sick of the manuscript! BUT/ the whole point of the beta reader review and copy edit was to ensure that a quality product is released in Feb 2010.

Some of the good feedback included:

  • Great idea for the plot, believable and unsure what was real and what wasn’t
  • Fast paced with no time to rest for the reader (this was also given as a criticism but it’s how I like my thrillers to be)
  • Good settings, vivid descriptions made it cinematic in scope
  • Learned a lot about the Apostles and also Carl Jung which made it interesting
  • Good beginning and good ending (with obvious potential for a sequel)

In the spirit of full disclosure and learning for us all, here is some of the constructive criticism received:

  • Overuse of particular words e.g. now, just, was, then as well as using the same word in consecutive sentences
  • Wrong tense often used
  • Dialogue stilted in places
  • Point of view moves into third person omniscient when it shouldn’t, especially when settings are described as if from a travel book instead of character’s POV
  • Protagonist name change was needed. Morgan Stone as a character came to me when the book was called “Mandala” back in Nov last year. Then the plot morphed to be about the Pentecost stones and her name was too much repetition. I chose Morgan Sierra and rewrote some back story to explain the history of her family so it makes sense.

Not a page was untouched in the edit

One of my beta readers also came up with some brilliant additions to the plot which I’m adding in with his consent. It made me think that I need to give the book to readers earlier so I can expand on the plot at an earlier stage.

From this I learned a few very important points:

  • I need to study the craft in 2011 so I can fix all the basic stuff myself next time. I’m happy with the story but upset at how much blue is all over the book. Thankfully my copy-editor is brilliant and will go over it again now it has been rewritten so you can expect all this to be fixed in the finished product!
  • I understand why editors, agents and publishers hate to read the slush pile. If people don’t use editors, copy-editors and proof-readers before submission, the work could be definitely be improved.
  • To all indie and self-publishers, we MUST use editors, copy-editors and proof-readers. Quality in our publishing is especially important as the most annoying criticism of self-publishing is the lack of quality. Yes, it costs money but it definitely improves the finished product!

Have you used beta readers and copy editors? What have you learned from the process?

 


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

Justice Department slams Apple, Refuses to Modify E-book Settlement

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This post, by Jeff John Roberts, originally appeared on paidContent.org on 7/23/12.

The Justice Department released a document today that characterized criticism by Apple and publishers of a controversial price-fixing settlement as “self-serving” and ill-founded. The Department also pointed to recent ventures by Google and Microsoft as evidence that the e-book market is thriving and that Amazon’s dominant position has been overstated.

 

The arguments came as a reply to the 868 public comments that were filed in response to a settlement announced in April under which three publishers agreed they would change their pricing policy in accordance with Justice Department demands.

The settlement was imposed after the Justice Department sued Apple and five publishers for allegedly conspiring to wrest pricing power from Amazon. Apple and two of the publishers, Penguin and Macmillan, refused to settle and are fighting the case in court.

The Justice Department document is posted below with key passages underlined. The primary upshot is that the Department is refusing to modify any parts of the settlement agreement despite about 800 comments in opposition to the deal and new political opposition from people like Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY).

In its filing, Justice says it addresses Apple’s objections at length because of “[Apple’s] central role in the events leading to the underlying enforcement action.”  It also quotes an incident in which Steve Jobs reportedly told publishers, “the customer pays a little more, but that’s what you want anyway.”

The government goes on to refute Apple’s contention that it is imposing a business model on the industry:

 

Read the rest of the post on paidContent.org, which includes an embedded copy of the DoJ’s full response. Also see Consumers face long wait for $52 million tied to Apple e-book ‘conspiracy’, by the same author, on the same site.

Bloggers Beware: You CAN Get Sued For Using Pics on Your Blog – My Story

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This post, by Roni Loren, originally appeared on her blog on 7/20/12.

So today I’m forgoing the usual Fill-Me-In Friday post to talk about something that I’ve been wanting to blog about for a while but couldn’t until the situation was wrapped up.

For those of you who are super observant, you may have noticed some changes on my blog over the last few months. Tumblr posts went away. Fiction Groupie disappeared. I deleted most of my Pinterest boards. The Boyfriend of the Week has changed format. And all my previous posts from the past three years–all 700 of them–now have new photos on them.

Why is that? What happened?

Well, you’ve probably figured it out from the title, but it’s because I’ve been involved in a case regarding a photo I used on my blog. Like most of you, I’m a casual blogger and learned my way into blogging by watching others. And one of the things I learned early on was that a post with a photo always looked nicer than one with just text. So I looked at what other people were doing for pictures. And mostly it seemed that everyone was grabbing pics from Google Images and pasting them on their sites. Sometimes with attribution, most of the time without. And when I asked others (or looked at disclaimers on websites and Tumblrs), it seemed that everyone agreed using pics that way was okay under Fair Use standards. 

Here is an example of a disclaimer I found on a bigger site (name of blog removed):

THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

And site after site had the same kind of thing. Just look on Tumblr, that same type of disclaimer is on a ton of them. And I’m thinking–well, that must mean it’s okay because if that weren’t true, sites like Tumblr and Pinterest couldn’t even exist because reposting pics is the whole POINT of those sites. So off I went doing what everyone else does–using pics from Google Images, putting a disclaimer on my site, etc. 

Well on one random post, I grabbed one random picture off of google and then a few weeks later I got contacted by the photographer who owned that photo. He sent me a takedown notice, which I responded to immediately because I felt awful that I had unknowingly used a copyrighted pic. The pic was down within minutes. But that wasn’t going to cut it. He wanted compensation for the pic. A significant chunk of money that I couldn’t afford. I’m not going to go into the details but know that it was a lot of stress, lawyers had to get involved, and I had to pay money that I didn’t have for a use of a photo I didn’t need.

 

Read the rest of the post, which contains more information about limitations on using images on your blog and how to avoid getting into trouble, on Roni Loren’s blog.