Prithee, Inform Me: What Are You Reading?

We've only got a month left of summer, mes auteurs, so prithee, inform me: what are you reading?

Books I'm currently reading:

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Fall Higher by Dean Young

Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne

Books I've recently finished reading:

The Iliad by Homer

Sum by David Eagleman

No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

The Lifting Dress by Lauren Berry


Reviews of these books potentially to come in future posts!

Guest Post: Rotten Rejections

I stumbled upon the following gems while attempting to gather statistics (via the Internet) on what percentage of books get picked up by agents, but are never sold to publishers. I have a novel currently on submission (via my agent Weronika Janczuk), and I was (somewhat morbidly) curious about just how bad my odds of finding a publisher might be.

Guest Post: Writing Without a Net(Work)

by Lorna Graham, author of The Ghost of Greenwich Village (Ballantine/Random House, 6/28/11)

My debut novel is about to come out and, and, like so many writers before me, I’m uneasy. Okay, anxious. In just a few weeks, my work, for better or for worse, will be out there in the world to be enjoyed (hopefully) and judged (certainly).

The ironic thing is, I should be used to it.

I’ve been writing professionally for years and my work has always been for public consumption. You might even be familiar with some of it. Maybe you enjoyed an interview with Stephen King or Ellen Degeneres. Maybe you followed a “film noir” true crime story about cheating husbands and lethal wives through every delicious twist and turn. Or maybe you learned the dirty truth about the health code violations of a restaurant near you, or how a new kind of designer drug stays one step ahead of the law.

I've been a writer for both a morning news program and a primetime news magazine and have written for at least a dozen household name anchors.

But you’d never know it. Because in this kind of writing, the writer is for all intents and purposes, invisible. My name is well below the radar and I betray almost zero of my self, my sensibility, or my psyche in my work.

Why? Mainly because I make very few choices in the stories I help tell. And the ones I do make, which are creative ones that relate to style and rarely substance, are subject to extraordinary constraints.

In news, first of all, we start with the story. Facts. You do not get to mess with these; we play them as they lay. (Contrary to the low opinion some people have today of journalists, there is an extraordinary effort to discover the truth and tell it.)

All we can do is decide the way we’re going to tell it. As a writer, it’s my job to make you want to watch what we’re about to show you. I try to think about what makes each story unique, and how best to highlight that to intrigue you. But between my typing fingers and your ears is a long, bumpy road.

Before you hear anything I’ve written for a correspondent or anchor to say, I must obtain written approval of every syllable from at least five people: our executive producer, a lawyer with our legal department, a representative from standards & practices, the producer of the story, and the show’s anchor.

This chain of command is vitally important. It’s how we ensure what gets on the air is of the highest quality and accuracy. Each of these people is a seasoned professional who wants the best for the show, but they don’t always agree on how to get there. For my words to run the gauntlet from my computer to your television screen unscathed is pretty much unheard of.

I always start with my best shot, something I believe that’s going to grab the viewer while also being scrupulously fair. I spend the rest of the day accommodating the wishes of everyone else, hoping to preserve what I like best about my original version. Very often, because of time constraints – if my intro to a piece is supposed to run twenty seconds, that’s all I can write – the thing I like best, the little flourish that made it fresh and, well, mine, is what goes.

The best thing about writing for television is that it’s collaborative. You work with so many smart, caring, funny people. I adore my colleagues.

The worst thing about writing for television?

Same answer: it’s collaborative.

When I first started writing fiction, I felt like I was throwing off heavy chains. There were no facts to adhere to, no legal department fretting that anything I wrote was libelous. Within my novel, I could create my own world, my own rules, from the inside out.

I felt like writing about a ghost? I did. (Try that in TV news.) I wanted to write an extra chapter to fill out a character’s back story? Fine, we’re not cutting to commercial break. I wanted a rude character to say something off-color? Totally cool, there’s no F.C.C. to worry about.

Another thing about TV news? Credits rarely run; there usually just isn’t time. Executives, producers and editors may see their names on screen but writers, almost never.

Now my name is on the front of a book. It looks odd to me, and loud: like a trumpet’s blare, demanding everyone look in my direction.

This time, there’s no one to hide behind. Though I’ve had a dream team of fabulous people help me with this book, including my agent, editor and fiction workshop, the choices in my novel are all mine. For the first time in my professional life, I stand alone.

Thrilling.

Scary.


Lorna Graham was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from Barnard College. She has written for Good Morning America and currently writes for Dateline NBC. She also wrote a short film, “A Timeless Call,” honoring America’s military veterans, that was directed by Steven Spielberg. She lives in Greenwich Village. The Ghost of Greenwich Village is her first novel.

Prithee, Inform Me: Summer Releases

'Tis the season for new releases, mes auteurs, and I was curious as to which you're most excited about!

While there are a number of books I'm dying to read, I'm most looking forward to A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin (July 12th, fiction), Vertigo: The Living Dead Man Poems by Marvin Bell (July 1st, poetry), and In My Time by Dick Cheney (August 30th, memoir). That last one should be pretty interesting.

In music (in which I have really eclectic taste), I'm pretty excited for Alpocalypse by "Weird Al" Yankovic (June 21st). Why? Because it's his first studio release in five years and the album contains a track called "Polka Face." Done and done.

Finally, in movies, I am super amped for the Green Lantern film this week (June 17th)! I've been waiting for this movie since I was about six, folks. If it disappoints me, I may never recover.

What about you, cats & kittens? What are you looking forward to in books, music, movies, and more over the next three months?

Guest Post: Making A Commercial Novel More Upmarket Using Setting

by Stella Notecor

Upmarketing Your Novel!

Have you ever heard of an upmarket novel? Many commercial books with literary elements are now being called "upmarket novels." Nowadays, commercial fiction tends to be a bit... commercialized. Adding touches of literary elements to your novel can help your fiction transcend genre, resonate with readers, and become timeless. (All of which translates to bigger sales and more money in your pocket!) That doesn't mean your fiction needs to be that dry and boring stuff your high school teachers made you read. Upmarket fiction can be as entertaining as commercial fiction!

Often the literary elements that suffer the most in a commercial novel are the setting details. We don't want to bog down our readers by providing too many setting details that pull them away from the plot. The following three tips will help you give your commercial fiction more oomph without detracting from the plot.

Tip #1 - Make the description relate to the character.

Descriptions should come from your character's point-of-view. Consider an old woman observing the house her granddaughter is begging her to sell so she can move into a retirement home.

"I stared up at the house that had been my life. The porch swing swayed in the breeze coming off the lake, much more gently than it ever had when my two sons were the ones swinging it. Wildflowers filled the window boxes. I always picked a plant or two when we went away on family vacations, bringing them back much as we brought back memories. The steps sagged a little, testament to the many little feet that ran up and down them over the years, but all in all, the house looked just as it had when Henry and I bought it fifty-five years ago."

Now, consider her granddaughter's point of view.

"This house would be the death of Gram. The old porch swing shuddered at the slightest breeze, threatening to fall from its rusty chain the next time Gram took a seat. Wildflowers in window boxes required Gram to water them every day. Elise had watched her totter around the house once, carrying a heavy watering can, as she attempted to water all the flowers. She'd nearly tripped coming down those old, rickety steps and the uneven walk had practically begged her to fall and break a bone or two. She had no idea why Gram wanted to stay in this death-trap."

Descriptions become more powerful when we see them through our characters' eyes.

Tip #2 - Use bits of culture to give your story realism.

Using small cultural references can help your readers identify a character's age, race, personality, and socioeconomic background while adding only a few words to your word count. Consider the following descriptions.

"Jane grabbed a soda from the fridge, then headed out the front door. Sliding into the car, she turned on the ignition and grinned as her favorite song came blasting out of the radio."

"Madison grabbed a strawberry Fanta from the fridge, then headed out the front door. Sliding into her Scion, she turned on the ignition and grinned as her favorite Katy Perry song came blasting out of the radio."

"Stacy grabbed a Pepsi from the fridge, then headed out the front door. Sliding into her Cadillac, she turned on the ignition and grinned as her favorite song by The Monkees came blasting out of the radio."

Which descriptions were more engaging? Madison and Stacy's, right? And I'm sure you can guess which girl was born in the fifties and which girl was born in the nineties!

(A caution... pop culture snippets can also date your story. If used in a modern book, editors may ask you to remove or limit them so that you don't render the book unsellable after a certain length of time. A teenager who mentions "Bennifer" isn't going work as well now as it did when Ben and Jennifer were still dating!)

Tip #3 - Make your setting a character.

By this, I mean that your setting should influence the story as much as a character does. Reading about the barren desert is all well and good, but the desert can become truly interesting if you make it out to be a savage beast, tearing your character's life away from them.

"The sand crept into everything. It got into our shoes and wore away at our socks, filling them with holes. Then it attacked our feet, wearing away the skin and leaving behind raw wounds that ached with every step we took.

The sun beat down on us, burning our skin and evaporating what little water we collected. If it weren't for the sun's heat, we could have walked twenty miles a day. Instead, we barely managed five."

Now, isn't that description a lot more interesting than "The hot and sandy desert made traveling difficult"?

Obviously, making your setting more interesting can make your novel a lot more interesting too. And there are ways to do it without adding to your word count. So, I have a question for you. Do you think you will use literary elements in your stories now? Which ones? Why? Why not?

Stella Notecor believes that love knows no boundaries. She writes erotic fiction that reflects that, choosing to focus on her characters' stories, not their genders. Her first self-pubbed novella, The Broken, was released May 29th in formats for all major e-readers. Visit her website at http://tiny.cc/stellanotecor for more information and to read an excerpt.

Prithee, Inform Me: Summer Reading

A reminder: don't forget to submit your guest posts before midnight on Monday, May 23rd!

I know it seems like spring has only just begun, but the fact is, mes auteurs, that in a month it will officially be summer. And you know what that means: summer reading!

What are you planning to read this summer? What have you recently read that you loved? Favorite/least favorite books of 2011? Books we might have missed in 2010? Go nuts in the comments, and as the summer unfolds I'll be posting short reviews of my own summer reading selections.

Six books I'm definitely going to be reading this summer:

A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. The hbo miniseries has me hooked. I've got to go back and read this.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. I'm a sucker for a Pulitzer Prize winner, especially since hbo has the rights to this, as well!

The Cloud Corporation by Timothy Donnelly. My list wouldn't be complete without some poetry. Speaking of:

The Odyssey and The Iliad by Homer. I re-read these every summer. If you haven't read 'em, you should. The Fitzgerald translations are the best.

Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne. I've had my eye on this one for awhile, actually, and I think a science title will round out my summer really well.

This isn't going to be enough to fill twelve+ weeks of summer, however, so be on the lookout for additions over the next several weeks. And don't be shy about sharing your favorites in the comments!

Better Know A Conference: BEA

Overview

This week in Better Know a Conference: BEA, or Book Expo America.

BEA is the premier American trade show for commercial book publishers. I've been to the last four conferences, and honestly, it's overwhelming: thousands of industry professionals, publishers, librarians, and members of the media congregate to network, meet authors, sign books/have books signed, attend panels, buy/trade finshed books/advance copies, and get a look at the forthcoming titles from trade publishers all across the spectrum (and country).

Everyone from the Big Six publishers to small literary houses to academic presses will be present, so there's quite literally something for everyone. This year's conference is taking place from Monday, May 23rd to Thursday, May 26th at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City.

The Pros

· BEA is the event for trade publishers in the United States, so everyone who's anyone is usually there. (Think of it as our version of the London or Frankfurt Book Fairs.) Fancy publishers, famous authors, and members of the media (now including bloggers—see below!) will be milling about, so the opportunities to meet celebrities and/or network are pretty much endless.

· This year the BlogWorld and New Media Expo will be co-locating with BEA, so attendees will be able to learn about everything from monetization to social media marketing techniques. Welcome to the publishing world of tomorrow!

· A number of concurrent events—including a day-long "DIY" panel on publishing and self-publishing for aspiring authors on Saturday, May 21st and a book blogger convention on Friday, May 27th—will round out the Expo. Will I be at said book blogger convention? You'll have to go to find out!

· For those of you writing children's books, BEA will be featuring programming by children's book professionals, including the ABA's ABC Children's Book Group and the Children's Book Council.

The Cons

· The major con: you have to have some connection to the industry to attend. BEA uses a system of badge categories—ranging in price from $80 to $310 for three-day passes—for everyone from authors to retailers. If you don't have a direct connection to the industry, you can register as a friend or family member of an attendee, so long as they've already registered and you accompany them to the conference.

· Unlike other conferences I've profiled, BEA isn't focused on up-and-coming authors or the public, but is more centered around established authors and industry insiders. This means that there are no one-on-ones with agents, no conferences with editors, and virtually no chance of showcasing your work. You might get lucky and meet an agent or editor willing to look at your mss, but the chances are pretty much zero. Leave your most recent book at home.

· As is the case with all conferences (and New York City conferences in particular), BEA is expensive. Travel, lodging, conference fees, and souvenirs could easily set you back over $1,000, even if you only stick around for the three main days of the conference (Tuesday, May 24th; Wednesday, May 25th; and Thursday, May 26th).

· BEA is enormous, extraordinarily busy, and can easily overwhelm even the stoutest heart. This is definitely not a conference for rookies (as I quickly learned at my first BEA, which was also my first book conference ever).

Some DOs and DON'Ts

· DO wear comfortable clothes, including shoes. The Javits Center is enormous (which means a lot of walking) and is relatively far from subway stations (which means a lot of walking). For a break from walking, try the author signing pavilion for a lot of standing.

Also, the end of May in New York City is usually hot and humid. Pack accordingly!

· DON'T bring manuscripts to the conference. Don't even do this at conferences that are aimed at connecting writers with agents and editors. Which BEA is not. So don't do it.

PS: Really.

· DO bring a couple of canvas or collapsible nylon bags. They'll have them at the conference, but you're going to be taking home a lot of books (even as we progress further and further into the Digital Future of Publishing). Also buttons. Oh, and bookmarks. And pens. You get the idea.

· DON'T be intimidated. Sure, there are a lot of people. Sure, none of them are going to be interested in your writing right off the bat. So what? Chat up people manning the publisher booths, befriend librarians, make small talk with a couple of authors. I've said it before and I'll say it again: you never know when a connection might come in handy.

· Lastly, DO have a game plan. There's way too much to see and do for you to see and do it all, so make sure you review the schedule of events. You don't want to miss getting a book signed by Your Favorite Author or hearing a panel presentation on That Topic You've Had Questions About Forever.

That's it for this installment, folks. Questions and suggestions in the comments!

How to Book a Reading

A few of you have asked me about this, mes auteurs, and since I recognize many of you are working with reduced marketing dollars/publicity attention (or are perhaps even tackling the publication process solo), I thought I'd offer a few pointers.

First of all, make sure you're really ready to read your work in front of friends, family, and strangers, and be sure you've got something to offer that will encourage various venues to host you as a reader. I think it goes without saying, but the more of an "in" you have with the owner, staff, reading organizer, &c, the less well-published or well-known you really need to be.

If, on the other hand, you want to read at Fancy New York City Lounge and you don't know any of the staff there, you'll need an impressive publishing credit or two (or a well-connected friend) to help get your foot in the door.

Next, I'd make a list of the following three types of venues:

1. Places that host readers/reading series where you have a connection with the owner(s) or staff;
2. Places that don't necessarily host readers/reading series but where you have a connection with the owner(s) or staff;
3. Places that host readers/reading series that you admire (but you have no connection with the staff).

In that order! As I've said before: after a certain point, who you know becomes much more important than what you know.

Don't limit yourself to bookstores, either (though they're a great option); cafés, bars, and community centers (your local YMCA, synagogue, community college, library, school auditorium, you name it) are also excellent options.

Once you have your list of potential venues, get in touch with them about a possible reading. A few tips on this:

· If you know the person who runs the readings/venue, give them a call! No-brainer.

· If the venue has a dedicated person who arranges these kinds of events and you're not already best bros with them, call or send a Very Professional E-mail to that person. Call during business hours; shoot an e-mail if it's very early or very late.

· If there's no dedicated contact person, call or e-mail the venue's general number/e-mail address. If you call, be prepared to be handed off to a couple of different people, especially if the place you're calling doesn't usually do readings. Don't lose heart! Or your patience.

· Be professional! If you call, be prepared to talk a little bit about yourself (assuming they ask). If you e-mail, feel free to include a short bio or a link to your website. Remember: the less well you know the venue and its staff, the more established you'll need to be to get a positive response.

· I wouldn't include any kind of sample material with the initial e-mail; most places that are interested in hosting you will ask for it, either as an electronic file (poems, short stories) or in the form of your most recent book.

And that's pretty much it! Once you've cast your net, all you need to do is wait for a response. If you don't receive one, I think it's fair to follow up in a week or two to check in.

If they say no: try again elsewhere.

If they say yes: congratulations! You're doing a reading! Here are some tips for that, courtesy of Brad Phillips.

The New Bibliophiles

Many people describe themselves as bibliophiles—book lovers—and I think many of you would count yourselves among them. Why would you be here if you didn't love books? Books: the bomb diggity. I think we all agree.

However! I ask myself (and, by extension, you): will the meaning of the word change over the next couple of years? That is, I wonder whether bibliophiles will become analogous to and as niche as, say, audiophiles.

Everyone listens to music; not everyone is an audiophile. And not everyone who loves music is an audiophile! These are the people who invest a lot in speaker equipment, often prefer analog to digital music, and spend time in small communities of like-minded individuals. They own a lot of stuff on vinyl. They know a lot of jargon that no one outside their subculture understands.

Just as audiophiles comprise their own niche community/market, I wonder whether tomorrow's bibliophiles will read and buy books similarly, what with their "eccentric" attachment to print and the experience of reading a physical book, their willingness to spend a lot of disposable income on rare books, and their predisposition toward (irony of ironies!) spending time on-line talking to people who also prefer to read physical books rather than electronic ones.

Record companies recognize the existence of the audiophile/enthusiast market and continue to release a small number of vinyl albums, regardless of the fact that most people listen to music electronically. Which is exactly the point! Vinyl is not aimed at most people, while electronic music is. I think that over the next couple of years, we'll see the same change in the book market. Most people will read electronically, and bibliophiles will read and supply the niche market for paper books.

This isn't to say that bibliophiles won't read electronically—I expect many will. The distinction I'm trying to get at is that consumers will do what they do best—consume—in the least expensive and least inconvenient way possible, which is to say, electronically. Enthusiasts, aficionados, collectors, connoisseurs—bibliophiles—will buy and read physical books and will maintain physical libraries.

For this reason, mes auteurs, I think there will always be a market for physical books—particularly coffee table books or collector's editions, which don't translate as well to the electronic medium—but that market will surely become much smaller, while the overall market for books will increase. The e-book is the future of publishing; the book buff is the future of the physical book.

What do you think?

Better Know A Conference: SCBWI

Overview

This week in Better Know a Conference: the SCBWI (the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators).

The 2011 winter conference just occurred in New York City (January 28th through 30th), but never fear! There's a summer conference being held in Los Angeles August 5th through 8th of this year, and it's never too early to gear up for SCBWI Winter 2012 (to be held January 27th through 29th in New York City).

The Pros

· As mentioned above, there are two SCBWI national conferences per year, which means twice the number of opportunities to attend—regardless of your preferred season or coastal affiliation! (Unless you love fall and are from Kansas, in which case you can pick either one.)

While I think it's probably overkill to attend both conferences in a given year, I think it's a really good idea to switch up your choice from year to year (if you can). You'll likely meet different folks and form a more comprehensive view of the children's book market, which will help you both in terms of networking and developing new projects.

· This conference has an additional audience! Not only do you get to hang out with writers, authors, agents, editors, publishing professionals, &c, but you also get to meet and network with illustrators.

Now: I'm no expert on children's books, but from what I understand, it's the editor—not the author—who ultimately selects the illustrator(s) who will work on any given children's book project. Keep in mind, then, that you're not going to this conference to "pick" an illustrator, but it never hurts to network with them. Not only can you make some new friends, but it can help you immensely to have connections in your field (think recommendations, referrals, opportunities for collaboration, &c &c).

· There are a variety of regional events throughout the year in case you missed the last national conference or can't afford to go to the next one. With dozens of events being held in April alone and over 70 chapters in the United States (there are also international chapters!), there's bound to be something to interest you that's 1.) close to home and 2.) coming up soon.

The Cons

· As is virtually universally the case, national conferences cost a pretty penny. Registration for the winter 2011 conference ranged from $350 – $415 (depending on whether you were a member and whether you registered early), with optional pre-conference programming running an additional $200 – $225. Add to that the cost of travel and three nights' stay in New York City (over $200 per night, even with the SCBWI discounted room rate) and the whole shebang could easily set you back over $1,000.

· As mentioned above, the conference provides a great forum for authors and illustrators to meet and network. As also mentioned above, since editors generally pair authors and illustrators, it's unlikely you'll be able to use the conference as a way to find yourself an illustrator. By all means, if you really hit it off with an author/illustrator and want to pursue a side collaboration, go nuts, but don't expect to be able to sell the project to an agent or editor unless the two of you are already pretty well-known.

While I'm on the topic: for those of you who have experiences in this area, please post in the comments! I don't know as much about children's book publishing as I do about the adult side of the business.

· Because there are two conferences per year, most people will only attend one of them. Moreover, information about the subsequent conference (attending agents/editors, keynote speakers, and so on) probably won't be available while you're planning for the current one, so you'll invariably miss out on some events you'd like to attend/folks you'd like to meet. Again, switching up your venue (East Coast/West Coast) from year to year might be your best option (unless, of course, you've got the time and the cash to attend both each year).

Some DOs and DON'Ts

· DO network. It's why you're there! Don't be afraid to exchange contact information with other authors/illustrators, interested industry professionals, &c, &c.

· DON'T interrupt. Again, if you have a clear shot to briefly chat up an agent or editor, do go ahead, but don't interrupt them while they're engaged with someone else or while they're eating/otherwise occupied. It feels like a missed opportunity, I know, but trust me: it's much better to remain (temporarily) unknown than to make a bad impression.

· DO your homework. Read the SCBWI "Just Getting Started?" page, including their FAQ, as well as their official conference blog, which has invaluable information about past conferences. You can also look up the #NY11SCBWI hashtag on Twitter to review all the comments people made while they were actually in attendance.

· Finally, DON'T worry if you can't make/afford the national conference this year or next—as mentioned above, there are literally hundreds of regional events offered by the SCBWI year-round that you can take advantage of until you can go to nationals.

That's it for this installment, folks—questions and suggestions in the comments!

Getting Your Name Out There

As I've mentioned a few times, gentle readers, an author's name is a brand, a social currency, a form of capital: it can signal cultural awareness ("Have you read the new book by so-and-so?"), serves as synecdoche for a book's actual content ("Have you read the new Suzanne Collins? Well, she wrote it, it must be good,"), and even acts as a seal of approval (e.g. reviews and blurbs).

So how do you get yours out there?

Well, the most obvious answer is to write a fantastic book that people love. Until then, however, there are a few things you can do to get your name and your writing on readers' radars.

Attend events. There's no substitute for face time, mes auteurs. Attending readings, book signings, panel discussions, conferences, conventions, and other literary events in your genre of interest will not only help you fill out your mental Who's Who, but will help raise your profile among other readers and writers interested in the sorts of books you are.

Write reviews. Just behind talking about themselves, people love reading about themselves. Write reviews of books you love by authors you admire, link to them, and spread a little good karma. The worst that'll happen is your name will be in print or on-line in one more place than it was previously; the best that'll happen is that the author will repost, retweet, link to, or otherwise call out your stellar review, and that can help raise awareness of your name significantly.

Participate in social media. You won't have the time or money to attend every in-person event you'd like, but that doesn't mean you're in any way cut off from the writing community of your choice. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to communicate with people you might never otherwise meet, and maintaining a web presence (website and/or blog) provides you a sort of digital storefront for you and your work. Networking has never been easier than with the biggest network (of networks) on the planet: the Internet.

Publish your short fiction. If you write short stories, submit 'em for publication. A nice array of publication credits in print and/or on-line will not only help build awareness of your brand, but may attract attention from agents and editors. Should you decide to go it alone and self-publish your work electronically, you can sell your short stories on the cheap to attract consumers for your novel. Again: worst case scenario, your name comes up more often in print, in conversation, and/or on-line.

Ideas? Theories? Tried-and-true methods? To the comments with you!

Better Know A Conference: RWA National

I've been reading your comments on last Wednesday's post, mes auteurs, and I'd like to kick off Better Know a Conference with a discussion of the RWA (Romance Writers of America) National Conference. (Don't worry—future installments will cover other genres, conventions/conferences of different sizes, &c, &c.)

Overview

Every summer, the Romance Writers of America host a conference in a major city for authors, fans, and industry professionals to participate in workshops, attend panel discussions, and listen to featured speakers discuss everything from their most recent novels to the state of the romance novel in today's publishing environment. The last few conferences have been held in Orlando, Washington, D.C., and San Fransisco; this year's conference is June 28th – July 1st in New York City.

The Pros

· You don't have to be a romance writer to attend, or even be a member of the RWA! (Membership dues run around $110/year.) Anyone with the cash for the registration fee can attend the conference (see below).

· Writers (published and un-) can make appointments to meet with agents and editors whose bread and butter is buying and selling romance titles. How cool is that?

· There are special events for non-authors (read: book signings), librarians, industry professionals, and so on, so even if you don't write romance novels, there will be something interesting for you to do. If you do write romance novels: you're in luck! There are workshops, receptions, and awards ceremonies galore.

· The networking opportunities are virtually endless. You'll get to meet unpublished writers, début authors, established authors, agents, editors, publicists, and more. There's no reason you should go home without having made at least one new connection.

· The RWA National Conference is HUGE. Take the time to explore as much as possible.

The Cons

· You do have to pay registration fees to attend, and non-members pay higher fees (though if you only want to go to meet authors, and not to network as an author yourself, the "Readers for Life" Literacy Autographing is free and open to the public).

As for those fees: the early member fee is $525, and non-members will have to shell out $600. After the "early" period ends in mid-May, registration fees go up.

· As you might imagine, those one-on-one sessions are hard to come by (priority goes to Golden Heart and RITA finalists), so while the networking opportunites at the conference are significant, don't expect to hang out with your dream agent/editor. My advice? Network with your fellow writers. You never know when a recommendation from a new friend might land you a contract.

· The networking opportunities are enormous because the sheer volume of people there is enormous—that is, it can be overwhelming for first-time attendees. This may not be the best romance convention for rookies to attend, and I'd recommend cutting your teeth on smaller, regional conferences before attempting this one.

· The RWA National Conference is HUGE. You can't explore all of it, so you'll have to prioritize when it comes to attending the various sessions. You'll inevitably want to attend two events that occur simultaneously, so be prepared to make some tough decisions.

Some DOs and DON'Ts

· DO be professional. Wear business casual attire (except for appointments, which are business attire, and the awards night, which is formal). That old adage of "be friendly, but not familiar" is probably not a bad idea, especially when speaking with editors or agents. That said: don't be afraid to make friends, especially with other authors/attendees! Network, network, network.

· DON'T bring your manuscript to the conference. Do you hear me? DO NOT do this. There is no chance an editor or agent will accept it at this venue. Best case scenario: you'll exchange contact information and that agent/editor will follow up with you. Most likely scenario: you send them a query after the conference and mention how great it was meeting them.

· DO have a game plan. If you don't have a semblance of an itinerary when you arrive, you'll probably miss out on a bunch of stuff you would have liked to see. Figure out what kinds of workshops, readings, panel discussions, &c you want to attend ahead of time.

· DON'T be too aggressive. It's sometimes very hard not to jump on an opportunity to network when Fancy McDreamAgent or Awesome CoolAuthorson is standing ahead of you in line for the restroom or lunch, but remember: authors, agents, and industry insiders attend these conferences chiefly to interact with each other, and they will not take kindly to being harangued or interrupted. If they're not busy and you just want to chat them up, feel free, but don't take the opportunity to pitch your book.

· DO your homework. Take the time to learn a bit about the authors who are signing, the editors making keynote addresses, &c &c. After all, you want people at this conference to take an interest in you and your work, don't you?

· DON'T forget to go sight-seeing. Yes, the conference is about romance novels and the people who write them, but it's also about getting to experience a new city. If there's a night with fewer events or an afternoon when you're relatively free, take the time to be a tourist for awhile.

· Finally, DO follow up with people you meet/exchange contact information with. Again: you never know when a connection will come in handy.

That's all for now, folks. Questions, &c in the comments!

Panic! at the Library

As part of my ongoing coverage of the astounding (and often strange) turns the publishing industry is taking as it shifts from paper-based to electronic media, I bring you this, mes auteurs: The Consumerist's report that HarperCollins is capping e-book loans at 26 check-outs. If a library purchases a HarperCollins e-book, they can only lend it 26 times before it "expires" and the library must purchase a new license from the publisher.

This is, à mon avis, completely nuts for several reasons.

First, the idea of forced obsolescence is probably so repugnant to most librarians that, rather than buy and re-buy the same e-book over and over, they're probably just not going to purchase HarperCollins e-books.

The publisher seems to be betting on librarians' collective fear that if they don't stock their e-books, patrons will simply buy e-books on-line and the libraries won't be able to justify their continued existence. If there's a way to breed ill will among your customers (that is, the librarians actually purchasing books for their libraries), this is it.

Second, the number 26 seems completely arbitrary to me. I'm not privy to any of the logistical tinkering or number-crunching the folks at HarperCollins did in order to arrive at this figure, but it seems to me (and you can see from the video in the article) that physical books last much longer than 26 check-outs (and I can tell you from experience that they consistently survive many more).

It's possible that this is an average number that takes into account all the books that go on shelves and are never or rarely checked out, left to rot over a fifty-year period with only a couple of loans. If that's the case, though, libraries would chuck the book when it became unusable and would probably not buy a new one, since no one wanted the original to begin with.

If a publisher is going to enforce a loan cap, I think it 1.) needs to be much higher than 26 (based entirely on my uninformed opinion), and 2.) should vary depending on the work in question. Harry Potter and the Seven Figure Advance is going to be borrowed a lot more often than Actuarial Mathematics for Dummies, and the loan cap should reflect this.

Finally, the whole reason the loan cap exists is as an analogue to the wear and tear suffered by physical books that eventually need replacing. I think one of the most destructive tendencies inherent to the publishing industry is not its resistance to electronic media, but its slavish insistence on making them exactly like physical media.

Instead of panicking over a perceived loss in revenues caused by books that no longer need to be replaced, publishers should be touting the non-physical nature of e-books as a tremendous boon: "You'll never need to replace this e-book! That means that rather than buy a new copy of the same book, you can spend the money you'll save on more of our e-books."

E-books don't take up physical shelf space, so the limiting factor that once forced a librarian to choose between replacing a popular title that's worn out and purchasing a different title—that is, space—no longer exists. More titles sold is good for everyone.

My rant is over for today, meine Autoren, but what do you think? Should publishers be able to cap library loans, and if so, is 26 a reasonable number?

Tip o' the Week

I've been re-reading Emerson, cats & kittens, and this quote of his caught my attention over the weekend: "The way to write is to throw your body at the mark when your arrows are spent."

Writing is work, folks. More than that, writing is hard work, it's getting up early and staying up late, it's sacrificing doing other fun things to put another few hundred or thousand words to paper, it's spending money on printer ink and postage and conference fees when you'd rather spend it on mega sweet vacations, it's applying for fellowships and retreats when you'd rather be watching reality TV, it's spending time on your on-line platform or reviewing proofs or perfecting your backlist of e-titles on Amazon instead of hanging out with friends.

Writing requires commitment and discipline even more than it requires talent. The hungrier writer will outperform the more talented writer nine times out of ten. If you don't want to be a writer more than you want any other professional goal, odds are you aren't going to make it very far.

This isn't to say that writers don't have families or personal lives or other hobbies and interests; they have all these things. They simply want to be professional writers badly enough to put in the requisite time and effort to improve their craft and make the necessary connections. If you want to be a writer, you'd better be willing to put in all the work and jump through all the crazy hoops. If you want to be a writer, you have to be good enough and smart enough and dedicated enough. And you've got to be lucky as hell.

Nothing worth doing or learning comes easily, dear readers, but if that were the case, you wouldn't get any satisfaction from doing or learning those things. Keep working, keep reading, and keep writing, and your efforts are bound to pay off in some respect sooner or later.

Tomorrow: a lesson on special markets!

Let's Say I Wrote a Book

I've been reviewing your comments and e-mails regarding self-publishing, dear readers, and so far no one has reported making more than a couple hundred dollars. Which, granted, is money you didn't have before, so for those of you making money self-publishing: well done!

Do I think you could make more money publishing traditionally? That's a tricky question. If you're a good writer who's willing to self-promote: probably. If not: no, because no one will buy your work. Regardless, as most of you know by now: a get-rich-quick scheme, self-publishing ain't.

But! Please keep sending e-mails my way. I'm happy to post about anyone making a living via self-publication, so long as I can see the numbers.

Now then: let's say I wrote and published a book.

I'm not saying whether I did or didn't; I'm just saying: supposing I did. What would my process look like? My self-promotion? My "do"s and "don't"s? And in what order would I do (or not do) those things?

In brand-new for 2011 Top-Ten-O-Vision™:

1. I probably wouldn't self-publish. As I've mentioned before, self-publishing is fine for some endeavors, but generally not for those that aim toward fame, glory, and money. Insofar as those can be attained via writing books, that is.

2. I'd probably start with a smaller press. Not that I'm saying the Big Six would be knocking down my door for a publishing contract; rather, authors generally get more attention from smaller presses, and since the advance and co-op dollars available for a début author usually aren't phenomenal regardless of publisher, I don't see a real downside. I'm all about more one-on-one time and input on the details.

3. I'd be social networking my tiny black publishing heart out. I'd be tweeting. And announcing things on Facebook. And keeping a personal blog. And setting up an author website. And guest-blogging. And doing podcasts. And making sure an e-book version's available. And and and. You get the idea, cats & kittens. I wouldn't want a digital footprint, I'd want a digital impact crater.

4. I'd be real-world networking my tiny black publishing heart out. Everything from getting in face time with the owners and salespeople at my local independent book stores to doing in-store author events & readings. You get a lot of breadth but little depth with social networking, so I think it's important to complement one's electronic self-promotion with a little old-fashioned legwork. I'd be getting out there and meeting people before you could say honey, come quick, that misanthropic publishing guy is actually leaving his apartment.

5. I'd be soliciting reviews. Editors of literary magazines, fellow authors/writers, bloggers, independent booksellers, and various friends, family members, and accomplices who frequent Amazon are all fair game. I imagine the publisher would help out with this, as most have a lot of industry connections and could do a review copy mailing pretty easily. Reviews are worth their Microsoft Word file size in gold, mes auteurs. People can't read what they don't know about.

6. One word: conferences. This sort of ties into #4 above, but I figure it deserves special attention. Readings and book signings expose you to one audience; hanging out with indie booksellers, another; and electronic media like Facebook and Twitter render you vaguely recognizable to a yet another (arguably larger) one. But there's nothing like a conference to get everyone—booksellers, writers, readers, librarians, publishers, editors, professors, salespeople, you name it—all in the same room. I'd go to any relevant conference I could afford.

7. I'd review the work of others. Whether via book reviews in fancy literary magazines or blog posts, writing book reviews garners you 1.) general good karma, 2.) goodwill from those you review (assuming you do so positively), and 3.) street cred as a serious reader and writer of literature. In terms of positive and negative reviewing, I draw the line as follows: if I'm reviewing books in my capacity as an editor or reviewer for a magazine, I'll feel free to review negatively that which I believe warrants a negative review. If I'm doing it to widen my own exposure and that of the author/text at hand, better only to review titles I know I can say something good about.

8. I'd invest in the work of others. This is a generalization of #7 above, and it won't always earn you direct attention/acclaim, but it's a necessary aspect of participating in a literary community: you've got to give as well as take. Attend readings, subscribe to magazines and buy books you like, &c &c. The more you support others, the more others will want to support you. Or, at the very least, they'll feel guilty if they don't.

9. I'd take regular breaks. I can't run at 100% power 100% of the time, bros and she-bros, and neither can you. Regular days off and vacations are part of the working life, and writing—as we all know—is work.

10. I'd keep on keepin' on. With all this self-promoting, you'd think I wouldn't have time for anything else. But you'd be wrong! There's always another story, another book, waiting in the wings. Some of us are slower or faster than others, more or less prolific, but the key is: so long as you're always writing/working on your next project, you're much less likely to lose momentum and stall out in the midst of your career. I'd be selling one project while writing the next and planning the one after that.

That's it for today, meine Autoren. Questions? Ideas? Theories? Schematics? To the comments!

Sing a Song of BISAC

Our discussion of genre sales over the past two weeks has brought something to my attention, mes auteurs: I've never properly explained to you exactly how genre classifications are established and handled.

The Book Industry Study Group (of which the vast majority of publishers, via the Association of American Publishers, are members) employs a system of BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) codes, which provide a framework (both conceptual and technological) for identifying a title's genre.

The most recent BISAC code list can be found here; keep in mind that whatever you're writing is going to have to be coded under at least one of these categories (many books have a secondary or even tertiary BISAC code), so try not to go too bananas with your proposed genre (e.g. "it's a literary romantic psycho-suspense thriller with elements of science fiction Western").

I suppose you could go in under NON-CLASSIFIABLE if you felt you had to, but 1.) that's not super helpful, 2.) it won't make your book even remotely easy to find in book stores, and 3.) your code will be "NON000000," which is one of the more depressing-looking ones. It's almost as if the book is crying out for a better BISAC code ("No! NOOOOOOOOO").

So, for example, if you're writing paranormal romance, your BISAC code will be FIC027120 (FICTION / Romance / Paranormal). If you're writing a book about stamp collecting, you'll get ANT044000 (ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES / Stamps). They get pretty specific, so it's unlikely you'll write something that can't easily be mapped to the system.

If you're writing something that could just as easily be one genre as another (say, science fiction or thriller), it's no big deal to have one as your primary BISAC and the other as your secondary (though the primary will pretty much determine who buys the book at the larger accounts like Barnes & Noble and where the book will eventually live in the store).

All the details of BISAC coding will be handled by your publishing house, but if for some reason you're concerned about it, you can always ask via your agent. (Remember, kids: always ask your agent first!)

And now you know!

The Other NBA

For those of you that missed it (either in person or via the #nba10 Twitter hashtag), the 61st annual National Book Awards were presented last night in New York City. While yours truly was neither a winner (they have yet to institute a blogging category) nor an in-person attendee, I had fun following via the Interwebz and am pleased to announce this year's winners:

Lifetime achievement award: Tom Wolfe (whose speech apparently went on forever).

Young people's literature: Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine (NOTE: while her writing may be superb, her website is an example of what yours should not look like). (Other finalists: Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker; Laura McNeal, Dark Water; Walter Dean Myers, Lockdown; Rita Williams-Garcia, One Crazy Summer.)

Poetry: Lighthead by Terrance Hayes. (Other finalists: Kathleen Graber, The Eternal City; James Richardson, By the Numbers; C.D. Wright, One with Others; Monica Youn, Ignatz.)

Nonfiction: Just Kids, Patti Smith. (Other finalists: Barbara Demick, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea; John W. Dower, Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq; Justin Spring, Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward; Megan K. Stack, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War.)

Fiction: Lord of Misrule, Jaimy Gordon. (Other finalists: Peter Carey, Parrot and Olivier in America; Nicole Krauss, Great House; Lionel Shriver, So Much for That; Karen Tei Yamashita, I Hotel.)

Suffice it to say, I have four more books to add to the "to-read" pile, including the new Hayes (of whom I'm a big fan, & was rooting for to win—not that I didn't/don't love the other finalists). If anyone's interested, my picks were: Terrance Hayes (poetry), Barbara Demick (nonfiction), and Nicole Krauss (fiction). (I don't read enough children's literature/YA to have an informed opinion.) Congrats to all, however, winners and finalists alike!

What about you, meine Autoren? What do you think of the finalists/winners and their books?

The Un-E-Bookable

I know you occasionally grow weary of my e-scapades, meine Freunde, so I thought I'd break in a brand-new week with something unprecedented on PMN: a post on the un-e-bookable! Specifically, Jonathan Safran Foer's new novel, Tree of Codes.

The Vanity Fair article/interview (linked above) calls the book "a spare, haunting story that appears to hang in negative space" and "very, very cool." Safran Foer created the book by strategically cutting passages out of Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles, meaning the book is die-cut throughout. That also means that, at $40.00, it's probably the most expensive fiction trade paperback on the market now. While "very, very cool," is it forty dollars cool? Or even Amazon's $26.40 cool?

I've seen the book, mes auteurs (more via hook than by crook), and I must say: I'm actually not super impressed. It could be because I saw a much-handled galley whose pages no longer lined up properly, but the story seemed less to me spare and haunting than jumbled and contrived. Yes, I know it's cool to hate on JSF, but believe me, I'm not hating—I loved Everything is Illuminated and was charmed by Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I just think this book is less a testament to good writing (or, I suppose, editing) than it is to how confident publishers are in the JSF brand.

Then again, like I said, it's possible the copy I had wasn't in the best shape. I'll browse at a certain local indie and, if sufficiently impressed, will use my "one free paperback" coupon to the fullest.

To be clear: I'm glad to see a new book (by a major author) that takes full advantage of its physical existence, and un-e-bookable titles like this one help—at least, for the foreseeable future—to guarantee the relevance of the printed page for years to come. To quote the man himself:

I started thinking about what books look like, what they will look like, how the form of the book is changing very quickly. If we don’t give it a lot of thought, it won’t be for the better. There is an alternative to e-books. And I just love the physicality of books.

I do agree; there is an alternative to e-books, and this "book-as-sculptural objec[t]" (again quoting the article) is one of them. Whether it will be popular enough to maintain interest in physical books is debatable, and again quoting Safran Foer (in response to "In this increasingly digital age, do you see a project like this... as one way to preserve the printed page?"):

Not really. These decisions are going to be democratic. This book is simply not going to find a big audience. It’s naïve to think it would. I’m not really interested in resisting what’s going on, even though I have strong ideas about what a good book is. It’s possible to make things that aren’t just money-makers. Something wonderful for its own sake.

Safran Foer is right: this book won't find a big audience (relative to his usual crowd), and were it coming from any other author, it would be virtually unsalable (although some would argue it's virtually unsalable as-is! Get it? Oh man, I crack me up). Again, however, I agree that there are going to be alternatives to e-books in the future, and while the democratic force of the Reading Public will push the e-format more and more forcefully as time goes on, I'm convinced there will always be a place in the market for books as objets d'art.

The First Billion Is The Hardest

(With thanks to T. Boone Pickens, who is also on my List of Billionaires with the Coolest Names Ever.)

We've all known that e-books are kind of a big deal, meine Autoren, but the requisite benchmark facts & figures haven't been consistently available. Well, good news, everyone!

Forrester Research has found that e-book sales are closing in on one. Billion. Dollars. (For 2010.) And with sales up 176% year-on-year, they project that that billion-dollar figure will triple by 2015. Some of you might be thinking: "that is totally bananas." I'm thinking: "it's probably going to be even more than that."

As I've recently mentioned, I believe that parity between physical book sales and e-book sales (that is, the point at which electronic sales will comprise 50% of the market) will be in 2013 or 2014. Keep in mind that currently, only 7% of on-line adults who read books read e-books; as the price of devices comes down (I think the magic number is under $99) and the industry further adapts to the electronic format, I expect that number to spike. My guess (and this is just a guess!)? At least 30% over the next three years. If 7% of on-line reading adults are generating a billion dollars in e-sales this year, how much money will 30% of on-line reading adults generate three years from now?

It's hard to say. The industry made $35 billion in 2009, but that was almost exclusively physical media (e-books accounted for only $169.5 million, or 0.48%, dollar-wise). If the industry were to make another $35 billion in 2010 with $1 billion representing e-book sales, that percentage would jump to 2.9%. My guess is that the industry will make a little more money next year, but over $1 billion will be in electronic media sales. At that rate, it's not difficult to imagine double digits next year and parity two or three years after that.

It's true that e-book pricing will become an even bigger problem over the next few years, and I expect that, on average, e-books will become cheaper as more competitors enter the market and attempt to undercut each other. There's already some downward pressure on pricing from retailers like Amazon, so unless publishers withdraw from third-party retailers altogether and begin selling directly to consumers, there's no reason to assume e-books will stay at $14.99 (or $12.99, or even $9.99). But! Another topic for another day, mes auteurs.

Prithee, Inform Me: The Novel & The Short Story

I've oft wondered, mes auteurs, whether the majority of you write short stories in addition to novels, and if so, how similar you find the two media. Do certain ideas lend themselves much better to short stories than novels, and vice versa? Do you believe the two arts are so different that being good at one doesn't necessarily mean you'll be any good at the other? If you read and write short stories, which magazines/journals do you like to read/subscribe to? &c &c.

Responses & frivolity in the comments!