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Archive for January, 2010

Digital Values, Or Lack Of

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Not many publishers or agents accept email submissions, so it was refreshing to find an increasing number doing so when I began submitting Make a Move. Paper submissions take time to prepare and are relatively expensive to both produce and post (twice), so it was with some relief that I sent my first four or five email submissions out alongside a reduced number of paper-based queries. A lot of the publishers accepting submissions by email are independent, demonstrating their flexibility and willingness to stray from the traditional path when they see value in doing so, and the majority responded promptly with a stock rejection.

So far so good.

One indie publisher I queried seemed particularly well-thought-of, having won awards for their trade, and were advertising a willingness to view work of the type I was sending, so I had high hopes that this might be “The One”. I was reminded of that submission a couple of days ago when I received an email advertising their print-on-demand service, the second (or third?) I’ve received from them. Their service is actually a bit more than print on demand, as they’re offering to pick up top-selling POD titles with a “traditional” contract, so they’re effectively asking you to pay some money, do all of their marketing, promotion and market research for them, and they’ll step in at the last moment to pick up a sure-fire hit. Good business for them, but not for me, so I passed.

Thing is, this is the only communication I received following my submission about nine months ago. I didn’t even get a rejection letter.

If I was feeling charitable, I’d suggest a slip on their part that is not the normal way they treat people, but I’m not feeling charitable today, so I can only see it as a marketing ploy of questionable ethics. They offer a potential publishing opportunity, attract a market of writers keen to get published in an increasingly impenetrable industry, and make it as easy as possible for you to give them your email address for their direct marketing. That first advertising email from them shattered a few illusions I had, and I felt thoroughly let down, to the point that I’ve only now felt able to write about it dispassionately.

One other publisher failed to respond, but they’re much bigger and, to be honest, it’s easier to dismiss if you’re expecting it, but that’s kind of the point of this post. Email is easy and free, and that perceived lack of value impacts on how people behave in response to it. If you send a paper submission with return postage, the recipient is compelled to respond, but with email, it hasn’t cost you anything, so people find it easier to let their manners slip.

I wrote before about how the perception of poor quality in one self-published book affects all self-publishing writers negatively, and I don’t want to reinforce negative preconceptions about independent publishers and small presses by suggesting this behaviour is commonplace. It isn’t, and most indies are far more open and engaged than their larger, traditional counterparts, and should be a valid, if not preferred, target for your submissions. Just take care, do your research, and don’t be surprised if your eSubmission fails to find its way back to you.

And, no, I’m not naming names.

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Why Self-publish?

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Word of mouth has now carried Make a Move as far as friends-of-friends, and yesterday I heard that a friend recommended the book to someone, only to be told “not a self-published book; they’re just badly written ego-trips”. You could say the same thing about most celebrity autobiographies, and they’re selling okay… Fortunately, the person in question was open-minded enough to listen to a counter-argument, and not only did he accept that well-written work can be self-published, he also bought a copy. It’s something I’ve encountered before, and will again, but coupled with a number of blog posts I’ve read this week explaining why the authors self-published, it made me think it was time I justify my decision.

The Reasons

The following reasons are not stating why you should self-publish; they’re just why I did.

  • Make a Move is a VERY difficult pitch, which means it’s hard for an agent to work out how to sell it to publishers, and it’s hard for publishers to work out how to sell it to customers. Try this on for size: it’s a thriller populated by slackers, it’s about spies, but there’s little-to-no spycraft; it’s set in a porno cinema, but it’s not smutty, and the narrative structure is stolen from a sit-com. Would you pick it up for publication? Explaining the book takes time, and doesn’t fit into the paragraph or two available on a cover letter, so I decided to get the book out there, so it might find readers with the time to explore and understand it, who could then pass that knowledge on, and eventually word might reach an agent or editor looking for something different. Of course, editors aren’t looking for something different, they’re looking for something “original”, which I guess means different things to different people, but publishing is in flux right now, and who knows what opportunities that could create.
  • Even if I could get a book deal, it wouldn’t pay very much. I’ve read the figures and I know the chances of getting a bestseller and being able to write full-time. Looking at it pragmatically, it ain’t gonna happen. I enjoy my day-job and it pays well, so if I’m not trying to get the book published for money, why give up the rights and control when I can do this myself? A lot of the process of self-publishing is hard work, but there’s a lot of fun to be had too. And I don’t need a publisher to arrange the fun stuff, such as networking and promotion. I’ve met some cool people in Manchester since I started this process, and while I’m in control, there’s no reason that can’t continue. As long as I’m chasing fun and not money, I can’t go wrong.
  • Make a Move is the first in a series of 3-or-so books, and that series is dead while the first instalment is stagnating on my hard disk. I NEEDED to get the book out. I’ve nearly sold out the first print run, which means I’ll soon have 100 readers. Then I’ll have 200 (my target). Then I’ll have 1000 (my dream). That’s impetus enough to keep writing these characters, and that’s really all this is about. Me, Freddy, Jay and Holly, seeing how far we can take this.

So that’s honestly why I made this choice. You should make it for different reasons, as it’s your time and money you’re investing, and those reasons have to sustain you when times get hard. And they will get hard. But as long as you’re doing it for reasons that are right for you, there’ll be easy, fun, fulfilling, creative times too.

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Posted in Opinion, Publishing | 2 Comments »

#successFail

Monday, January 18th, 2010

I’ve been working to a detailed plan on where/how to push the books from the first print run of Make a Move, but one action – the ordering of the second print run – has always been fluid, as I was waiting to gauge response, and hence risk, before putting down another several hundred pounds. And I think I messed up.

It’s easy to tell yourself to remain detached, to not let emotion dictate your business decisions, but the cost of that second print run has been bothering me, and I’ve delayed and delayed as a result. The first print run broke even a while back, so all of my financial risk so far has been offset, but I still have a lot of books with retailers on sale-or-return terms. They’re selling, but I won’t see that money for another couple of months yet so, financially, I’m back to square one.

On Saturday, I spoke to a retailer who expressed an interest in placing an order this week, so after I left the shop on a high, I did a quick mental count, and if I place, say, ten books with the store, I have maybe ten or eleven copies left. Hang on… The print process takes three working weeks, and I wanted to keep five books for myself to put into storage as an investment for if/when my career takes off, so that leaves six copies available to last three weeks. The absolute minimum I’ve sold in a week is two copies, so the bottom line is, I’m out of stock.

The Moral of This Story

I’m an idiot.

Yes, I shouldn’t have been so cautious and should have ordered early. But I’m learning, and I’ve learned from this mistake, and it’s a mistake I can share as a lesson for others following the same path.

In summary: grow a pair and re-order early.

On the bright side, it does mean that the first printing has nearly sold out, so I can’t really complain, but it’s going to be a tense three weeks until the new stock arrives.

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Scrivener: The Only Writing Advice You Need

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Disclaimer: I’m in no way connected with the developer of Scrivener, and I don’t benefit financially from writing about it.

So why promote it?

Because it’s that good. Writing with Scrivener is the one piece of advice I’d give any writer looking to be more productive, experimental and successful. I wrote the first draft of Make a Move in Microsoft Word, which was fine, but Episode 6 came out all wrong and needed a thorough rewrite.  I’d seen Scrivener, and decided to try it out to see if it would make the rewrite easier. I imported my Word doc, sliced the scenes up into separate files, then moved them around to fix the structure, making notes on each scene that needed fixing in more detail. I was impressed with how easy editing was in the application, so I bought a license. As I used it more, the further the application faded into the background, just letting me research, plot, write and edit as I wanted without any intrusive, misjudged design decisions interrupting my flow.

There’s one problem with Scrivener: it’s Mac-only, which means I need to write the following section to clear a couple of things up.

MacTruths

Disclaimer number 2: I like Macs, and I’m writing this on one, but I don’t hate Windows, and only mildly dislike Linux. I installed Windows 7 on my Mac for some gaming, and I like it a lot. This part isn’t about why you should switch to Mac, it’s about the realities of switching to Mac for Scrivener.

Apple computers are expensive. If you don’t have the best part of a grand (sterling) to spend on a computer, you’re not going to be buying a new Mac. But this is the buy-in price, not the total cost of ownership (TCO), and that’s what matters to me. If you buy a £500 Windows laptop, after four years it will be completely outdated and be worth nothing on the second-hand market. If you buy a base-spec Macbook (just over £800 at time of writing) after four years it will be worth around £200-300 and will sell very easily, so at a push, the TCO of the Mac is £100 more than the Windows laptop, or the same if it’s in great condition and you have a keen buyer. I’m not going to talk about bundled software, pre-installed adware, viruses, build quality or image as, like Scrivener, this is just about writing.

Regardless of TCO, that buy-in price – even on the entry-level machines – is a lot of money, but that second-hand Mac market I mentioned works both ways. You could pick up an Intel-based Macbook for a couple of hundred pounds and it would run Scrivener, as well as Office for Mac, iTunes, an email client and a web browser with speed to spare. Go back further, and as Scrivener still runs on the old PowerPC-based systems (PowerBook/iBook), you can get even more of a bargain. As long as you can install Mac OS 10.4 Tiger on it, it’ll run Scrivener.

Back to the App

So what is it that makes Scrivener so good? In short, it’s everything you need to write.

  • Any research/bookmarking applications you use can go, as Scrivener lets you drag almost any digital content into the interface to file away for reference; videos, web pages, text snippets, images, music files – they’re all supported and can be viewed/played right in the application. And it doesn’t matter how much information you drag into the application, as Scrivener uses Mac OS’s Spotlight search to let you find anything within a couple of seconds. Imagine taking your cork board and filing systems with you wherever you go, but actually being able to find things too! This is actually my favourite thing about Scrivener: as all of your research is portable, you’re not tied to that restrictive concept of your “writing space”, so you’re free to write when and where the mood takes you.
  • Scrivener lets you outline in a number of ways, but regardless of your method, nothing you write is lost. Add notes to a scene in the inspector, separate from the body text of the scene file, and it can be used later to generate the skeleton of a synopsis, to mark up editing ideas, or to keep a to-do list for that section. And again, this meta-text is searchable.
  • Scrivener supports experimentation. If you want to rewrite a scene but don’t know exactly how to do it, just take a snapshot and go for it, knowing you can roll it back if it goes wrong. And if you’re not sure where a scene should sit in the narrative, just switch to the virtual cork board and play around. Drag scenes into whatever order your feel like trying. Go nuts.
  • Scrivener doesn’t dictate style or structure in any way. They’re your ideas and words, and Scrivener respects that.
  • Scrivener is tidy. Everything is stored in a single database file, so there are no folders full of drafts and ideas to keep track of. Okay, so I still have folders elsewhere, but it’s a habit I’m determined to kill off. That single database file is so easy to backup too – either copy it manually, or zip it up and backup to another location from within the application. I have a local backup running under Time Machine and I also backup a zip every couple of days to an online directory. Scrivener makes it easy to keep my work safe.
  • It’s cheap. Not as in rushed or basic, but as in around $40 (at time of writing).

So what else does it do?

  • Fullscreen Mode – black out the rest of your desktop, and the application, and just write in plain text without distractions
  • Google search within the editor, and Dictionary/Thesaurus and Spelling/Proofreading tools provided by Mac OS – with an internet connection, you have almost all of the research tools you need.
  • Cross-file linking – allows you to link to other scenes or research information using a hyperlink, building navigation into your manuscript to aid in cross-checking. All the links are removed when you export the final draft, of course.
  • Spotlight search EVERYWHERE – if you want to see every occurrence of a character’s name, or you know someone said something, but not when, you can search for it and see the results almost instantly. There’s no need to step through a document again and again using Find Next.
  • Scriptwriting support – full auto-formatting support for scriptwriters. I never thought I’d use it when I bought it, but it was in there for when I found I needed it. Like I said above, Scrivener just replaces the need for other applications.

Of course there are some weaknesses in the application. I understand that Final Draft is more full-featured as a scriptwriting tool, and Scrivener lacks the formatting options of a standalone word-processor such as Microsoft Word or even Apple’s Pages, but this is about writing and story and ideas and pure, uninhibited creativity, not about industry standards and anchored frames. It’s easy to get caught up in the hunt for new software that will make you write better/faster/stronger – I’ve seen it happen and felt the pull of new software demos, but there really is only one 30-day trial I’d recommend, and it’s at www.literatureandlatte.com, along with an active forum and lots of tips, tricks and tutorials.

So, in summary, if you want writing advice, get Scrivener.

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Posted in Software, Writing | 3 Comments »

The Road to eQuilibrium

Friday, January 8th, 2010

eBooks are an interesting concept for me, as they potentially solve a problem I have: the only way to ship books to international markets (such as the US) economically, is in bulk, and I’m not dealing in bulk, so those markets are closed to me. I’ve been looking into eBook platforms as a way into those markets, but the eBook market is barely more than nascent. If anything, it’s childlike. Any effort I put into ePublishing will yield a fraction of the return I could get by marketing my printed book in the UK. There might be a time when the market is mature enough to allow a self-publishing writer to receive a good return on their efforts, but it’s a long way off. I can see a point where eBooks and printed books will coexist, satisfying the needs of a varied readership, but I don’t think it’s as imminent as some others appear to.

The Hurdles

Before the eBook market becomes a serious contender, I can see a series of hurdles holding back mass acceptance:

  • FreeBooks. The race to the bottom has seen most books by independent or minor authors on sale for jack – $0. Trading financial remuneration for exposure, these authors/publishers have driven the market into the ground, to the point where the content has been so devalued, even if people do start charging again, it’s going to take a long time before customers are prepared to pay.
  • Loss-leading. At the other end of the scale, blockbuster titles are selling at heavily discounted prices; for example, at time of writing, the Twilight novels are selling on the Kindle store for just north of $5. This means that even if customers are prepared to pay more than nothing for a book, you’re very soon going to hit a ceiling beyond which you can’t charge. There’s no market in that gap.
  • Format Wars. A slew of new eBook readers arrived at the CES show this week, and with them comes an increasing number of conflicting eBook formats and DRM systems. I don’t know exactly how many formats, as I don’t care, which is my point. Customers don’t want to be restricted in what they can and can’t do with their content, and don’t want to be stuck with hundreds of pounds-worth of eBooks that only work on a dying platform. There has to be consolidation, and it has to happen quickly, otherwise the market will be dead before it’s started (look at what happened to HD DVD: people waited and waited to see which format would become the standard, to the point where they gave up waiting, and now the winner also the loser).
  • Publisher Acceptance. The book publishing industry is chasing its tail trying to work out how to survive in the digital real, and they’re not, in my opinion, playing it smart. When Apple launched the iTunes Music Store, they became the gatekeepers to a way around the music piracy problem; the record companies needed Apple, and as a result they got reamed on the deal. The book industry doesn’t have a problem – at least, not to the same extent – yet they seem to be elevating Amazon to a position of power. It’s not like book pirates are scanning books in their bedrooms and uploading the pdfs to torrent sites. So why are the publishing companies letting Amazon lead them in this dance? They need to work out a deal in which everyone, and not just the technology manufacturers, benefits and books, and good writing, don’t become the innocent casualties. Then they could focus on how to market and manage this new product. Of course, if the publishers realised that by joining together for a common good, they could kill off eBooks within a month by refusing to move to a digital platform. But that would be naughty.

I’m not anti-eBooks. Not really. I think eBook textbooks for students are an amazing concept, and newspapers/magazines could flourish in the digital space. And I do know a few people who read a lot and don’t want to own the paper books, and they could be a good niche market for eBook publishers. Whatever happens, I just want it to be over. All of this wrestling to establish the market, it only really harms consumers, and it seems that, as always, the media companies are fine with that.

But this is books, not pop music, and not Hollywood movies. There’s always been a certain legitimacy associated with the book industry – an element of class. How about we keep that traditional image intact, and just get this done as quickly, and as painlessly as possible?

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Paris Stories

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

I need cheering up, and this is one Paris story that focusses on being happy. I’d been to the Pompidou Centre for an exhibition on surrealist photography and films, and was in a contemplative (mildly bored) mood when I emerged into the sunshine. This crowd of people had gathered in the square outside the gallery, so I sat down to watch:

As far as I could tell from my vantage point, the group of people in the white shirts and pink-orange trousers were there to make everyone as happy as possible, getting them to bounce around, form a circle and run at each other. I was too far away to get the gist of what they were saying, and my French isn’t good enough to make out the words unless I can hear someone clearly, but everyone seemed to be having a good time. People tend to view Parisians as remote and aloof, but there was no shortage of people ready to join in and be happy. Try that in London and you’ll probably get spat on.

So, I thought I’d share this picture because a) it cheers me up, and b) it gave me an excuse to play with some new Adobe Lightroom presets I found.

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Street Photography 1889

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

I saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie last week and it was ok for the start of a franchise, but what was more interesting to me was the number of locations used in Manchester and Liverpool. The Stanley Dock in Liverpool was used almost as-is, but the Manchester locations were hard to spot (apart from the shooting they did inside the town hall, which was given away by the complete blacking out of the windows using a variety of cranes and high-lifts as I passed by one day). I think most of the Manchester locations were used just for background texture – mostly the old, dark lanes in the Northern Quarter – but regardless, it was enough to pique my interest. I find I look a lot harder at things through a camera, so I decided to go for a short photo tour of the area.

I just like this building. It’s right at the top (south) end of Hilton Street, overlooking the gravel car park at Piccadilly Basin.

This is Back China Street, which is now closed off. I had to shoot through the railings, which were fricking cold on my ears.

This is Lizard Street, which is also closed to the public as it’s now one (or more?) textile/clothing factories. I got some grief taking this shot from some guy who (along with an alarming number of people) think it’s illegal to photograph private buildings, but when I explained I was taking pictures as I thought the architecture was cool, he thought I was crazy and left me to it. I pumped the reds a bit to create some structure in the shot.

Mangle Street, which was specifically cited as a location for the film on IMDB. The greens were already strong, but I pushed them a bit further for fun.

More of Mangle Street. Between the broken gutters and the missing handrail, I think I’d be better off taking my chances with the fire… Ok – I increased the blues a smidge…

This is a building site on the corner of Dale Street and Little Lever Street. This building was knocked down after a fire a couple of years back, and they don’t seem to be in a rush to use the space. It’s an ugly scar – not least because some poor homeless guy died in that fire – but I like the way the low light was hitting the scaffolding.

One of two bridges connecting the old town hall with the new wing. The town hall was closed today so I couldn’t take photos inside (they used the building as a replica for Westminster Palace in the film) but I’ll head back at some point. Last time I was there was for some Geology Society Ball and I had a mildly inebriated nose around. It’s a fascinating building.

This is a private building on Mount Street, and I’ve no idea what it’s used for. The sun was hitting the fascia perfectly though, so I grabbed it.

The town hall clock tower from Albert Square, minus the big-ass Santa. By this point, my hands were so cold I could barely adjust my camera, so this is where the tour ends for now.

 

UPDATE: I set up a Picasa account and linked to the photos there so you can see them in a higher resolution. The previous versions were a bit small on larger displays.

 

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New Year Inspirations

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

I try not to get too introspective at this time of year, as I think that it can reinforce the notion that the turn of the year is an ending/beginning, and that can become an excuse to postpone ideas and projects. I prefer to just eat some turkey and power through as if the calendar doesn’t exist. Yesterday, however, I caught up with some friends I’ve not seen for a year, and they were asking what I’d been up to, which triggered an involuntary look back. So rather than spend time reminiscing and berating myself for time that could have been more profitably spent, I thought I’d identify, and share, some things from 2009 that served as inspiration, both in writing, in business and in general.

In no particular order…

  • Adventureland – Greg Mottola’s film about a summer spent working in a theme park to earn money for college is a perfect example of someone pouring their soul into a creative endeavour. Film-making is a team discipline, but this is one of those films with such a clear voice, you know that just one person is calling the shots and the studio is leaving them to it. It didn’t do too well on theatrical release, but I know this is going to live on as a cult DVD.
  • Grandville – Bryan Talbot’s latest graphic novel is a beautiful book, and another example of a creator in complete control of their vision.
  • Jousting – I don’t know if it was the experience of hammering along a tilt, lance in hand, on a horse that was trying its best to unseat me, or just the act of fulfilling an ambition, but something changed in me that day. It was soon afterwards that I decided to publish Make a Move; I think my risk framework was re-calibrated.
  • Backspacer – Pearl Jam’s latest album came out a month after I saw them live for the first time, and it’s such a good record. Aside from the quality they’re still achieving so far into their career, they included a couple of live album downloads into the package, offsetting any quibbles people might have with the short runtime and demonstrating a commitment to value and fairness I can appreciate. It was also the soundtrack to:
  • Paris – I’ve already written about my muse city, but the inspiration this time came from travelling alone for the first time. When I travel with business, there’s always a contact or pickup in the target country, but this time it was just me, my camera, and a vague plan. The plan went out of the window about an hour after I landed, and that sense of complete disconnection, coupled with three days of speaking nothing but French, just reset my brain in a very creative way.
  • Wing Chun – I’ve always lacked the discipline to see projects through to the end, and I figured some kung fu training would help me focus. It’s worked so far: training is hard, and you have to clear your mind and focus on what you’re doing to get through it, and the exercise is good for my creative mind. Wing Chun is a form of kung fu in which you inflict maximum damage with minimum effort, and it’s a principle I’m working into the rest of my life – how to achieve goals efficiently, without wasting time, money or effort. I left it late to start learning a martial art, but I don’t regret it, although I do get punched in the throat more than I was expecting…
  • Social Media – between Facebook and Twitter, I’ve reconnected with old friends and made some new ones. It’s hard to pin down why social media inspires me, but I do feel as though there are fewer barriers to the communication of ideas than ever before.

Of course there are more, but those are the ones on my mind right now – the ones that are inspiring my work at this moment, and will continue to do so in the future.

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The Business of Creativity

Friday, January 1st, 2010

After a long Christmas break, I’m starting to think about my next steps in marketing the book. A large order from one of my retailers has forced me to look at my supplies and printing plans earlier than I’d intended, and that situation has a number of side-issues tied to it:

  • I need to maintain a stock of books for the fulfilment of web and direct sales.
  • I need to maintain a separate stock of books for potential retailers, as the last thing I want to happen is for a new retailer to place an order and not be able to satisfy it.
  • One goal for the next few weeks is to submit review copies to local publications; I wouldn’t do that if I didn’t think I was going to generate sales off the back of the reviews (thinking positive…) so I have to keep a stock of books for any sales spikes reviews cause.
  • I’m going to contact a larger retailer who may require ISBN barcodes printing on the books. A block of ISBNs takes at least two weeks to order, then I need to amend the artwork before resubmitting to the printers. I really want to avoid using ISBNs, but this is potentially a big retailer.

It all comes down to timing – making decisions and taking steps in the right order to make sure new print runs arrive just in time to avoid both running out of stock and having to sit on a new shipment (and invoice) for longer than necessary.

That second part is the main problem I’m facing as try to plan this out; even though the first print run has broken even, I’m not significantly into profit yet, certainly not to the extent that I can fund a second printing from the profits from the first. On paper, I’m in the same position I was when I started: I have to pay for the books up front. The issue this time is I don’t have a large number of pre-orders to satisfy, so I’m ordering the full print run with no guaranteed sales. It’s more risk this time, but I knew this point would come, and I’m committed to seeing it through.

So that’s where I am, and the tasks ahead of me. I know I can work through this transition by focussing on one thing at a time within the framework of the broader plan, and by working efficiently, but that doesn’t solve the other problem I’m facing: I need to start the next book.

I know that by deciding to self-publish, I’d always be fighting to balance the business with the creative process of writing, and I hope that the successes (or failures) of one endeavour will inspire the other, but it could go horribly wrong. I guess that’s why, traditionally, authors have a marketing team working for them while they write. Whether I ever land a book deal or not, it seems those days are over, so my only choice is keep working, keep generating ideas in both areas, and keep having fun.

2010 is going to be a busy year.

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Posted in Printing, Publishing, Retail, Writing | No Comments »