Archive for August, 2009

Get on Board the Google Settlement

August 7th, 2009 | Current Affairs | 5 Comments

I've seen all sorts of angst over the Google settlement. The sheer complexity of the document (I've been told it runs 334 legal pages) has sent authors running for cover. Many find it too difficult to grasp, or are simply indifferent to the whole affair. But I'm telling you, we need to embrace the settlement. There's huge potential for authors, publishers, and readers. 

In case you're not aware, Google was getting ready to scan millions of copyrighted books and make them available to readers — without offering any compensation to authors (or publishers, for that matter). Think about that for a minute… A vast power grab for content, without any consideration for the creators or the owners of all that intellectual property. So the Author's Guild sued, and the plan had to change. I wasn't a fan of the settlement originally, figuring we've already got the best copyright laws in the history of the world. My first thought was that we should let individuals sue, but that would have taken years to sort out. So I've come to be a fan of the settlement. In fact, I think the whole thing offers enormous possibilities. In our digital age, we have to figure out who owns what, and how we're going to protect that ownership. The Google settlement does that. 

Here's why: The settlement (assuming it gets approved by the Department of Justice in October) vindicates our copyright laws. It tells everyone in an age of easy downloading and copying that a work can't be reproduced without the copyright holder's consent. That may seem obvious to you, but Google had already abrogated that basic premise by scanning thousands of books. In effect their actions were arguing that all our old copyright laws don't matter in this digital age. Authors would have lost control over any book that went out of print. That thinking got squashed by the courts. 

With the settlement comes a verification of our basic publishing system. Plus the bonus of the Book Rights Registry, which will offer authors a way to pump new life into old books by making them available to everyone in the world via the internet. A portion of each book will be displayed, the text can be searched, and the entire book can be purchased and downloaded. You'll have access to every book, not just the ones your library carries, or the titles for sale at your local Barnes & Noble or the old ones you can dig up at Powells. Frankly, this a book marketer's dream. Every out of print book has been given new life.

Compare what's happening in book publishing to what happened in the newspaper business. When the internet came along, people started getting their news online rather than on the driveway in the morning. In response, newspapers decided to GIVE AWAY THEIR CONTENT ONLINE. The problem was that they seemingly had no plan for how to get compensation for all that content. In essence they drove readers to the internet, and now those papers are all going out of business. Newspapers are in such terrible shape some large cities no longer have a daily paper — something that would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago. The music industry went through a terrible time when it saw Napster and other music-sharing sites giving away its valuable product. If you're going to be in business, at some point you have to make money on your core product. 

But book people (yes, even those hidebound publishers who you think never want to change) understood the importance of preserving the value of their product. Authors grasped the fact that protecting copyright holders meant there was a way to monetize content. So they came up with this plan, which is far better than the plan music people had, or the non-plan newspaper people had. The Google settlement gives authors and publishers a huge marketing boost by making all those out-of-print books available for sale, and offers a way to receive compensation for all that content. And, of course, the people who figure out how to market and use the new Book Rights Registry best will be making the most money. 

Get on board. This is a huge victory for authors and readers, so we should celebrate. 

More changes in the industry: We keep seeing changes in the world of agenting. A bunch of agents have left the business recently, and this week came the sad news that Beth Jusino was leaving Alive Communications in order to work for a non-profit organization. I mention this because Beth is a good friend and a fine agent, and she'll be missed in the industry. Stepping into her shoes is Andrea Christian, who used to be my assistant when I worked at Alive. (Welcome back!) Andrea has a great eye for writing, and will do well. At ICRS, I had a publisher say to me there were about 20 literary agents doing roughly 90% of the business. That's pretty much how I see things playing out in this lousy economy, and Andrea has the ability to be one of those 20. 

Questions about Fiction Proposals

August 5th, 2009 | Proposals | 6 Comments

Sorry to have been away from the blog for a while. I'll do better now that I'm home for the month of August. 


Jennifer wrote  and asked, "Where can I go for formatting and style guidelines? I'm writing my first novel, and I'd hate to write the whole thing, then go back to fix my stinky format."

There are a number of books you can research that will talk about formatting your novel proposal — Writers Digest has a couple, and the Dummies people cover this really well in their book on writing romance novels. Or you could simply Google the topic, and you'll discover thirty blogs and at least three You-Tube clips on how to format your novel. OR you could look at the sample novel proposals that are on agent websites (check www.MacGregorLiterary.com or www.Alivecommunications.com — there are others). But, in my view, you don't have to sweat the formatting of a novel very much. You're going to present it in a Word document, double-spaced, with good margins and a readable font like Courier. You'll let the system number the pages and indent each paragraph, you'll use a page break (not a series of returns) for the start of each chapter, and you'll use a # for a break in the middle of a chapter. Don't overthink the formatting, Jennifer. Make sure your manuscript is good — that's the part you should be sweating. 

Bob asked, "What's the number one reason you reject a novel proposal?"

The number one reason? Because it isn't very good. I don't see as much of the truly awful stuff I used to get when I was a beginner at Alive (proposals in crayon, proposals from correctional facilities, proposals about some strange guy's fantasies). Instead, I see a lot of proposals that are just okay. The writing is okay, but not great. The story is maybe okay, but not great. Everything feels about 60% done. Those usually get a rejection. If I see potential, I might tell the author to work hard and get it 100% done, but… that rarely happens. Good writing is hard work, and most people approach it as a fun thing they're going to dash off, then send to the agent so he can make a million bucks on their behalf. 

You want to stand out? Write something that's great. Write something that's so good I just can't say "no" to it. I'm always reminding authors at conferences that the BEST way to get published is to "become a great writer." All the great writers I know are published. (And if they aren't I want to meet them, because they soon will be published.)

Marilyn noted, "You've encouraged CBA novelists to join Chi Libris. How does one join Chi Libris?"

Chi Libris is an association for Christian novelists. The members get together to talk about writing and the industry, share wisdom, and (most likely) brag about the deals they're doing. It's a good group to be part of, and one of those "by invitation only" organizations. You must have published two novels in order to join [correction: you must have three published novels], and you have to be a Christian. They have an annual retreat, which for the past few years has taken place in the same city as the International Christian Retail Show, just prior to ICRS. [Kidding about the "bragging" part. I think Chi Libris is great. Take a look at Angie Hunt's note in the "comments" section.]

Nicole sent me this: "I just read an author's debut novel and loved it. I then read the second book in her trilogy and thought it was good. Then I found out the publisher was canceling her third book. Is that probably due to low sales? And is there a way to create a small print-run for something like this? Or can publishers do a POD on a book like that?"

If the publisher is canceling the third book in a trilogy, it's possibly because they didn't sell enough copies of the first two books. But this is a tough publishing economy, so the publisher could be facing struggles on any number of fronts — returns, cancellations, nonpayments, etc. But, yes, if the books were selling well, they'd most likely publish that third book. 

As for creating a small print run, you've got to view this from the publisher's side — they still have to invest in substantive editing, copy editing, interior design, cover design, et al. Then if they were to do a small print run, the cost of the books would go up. So it's cheaper for them to simply cancel the contract and back away. In such a case, the author might want to produce and sell a POD or digital version of that third book. If he or she can locate the readers, and sell them the book directly, that's the type of project an author can do well with. 

Mary asked this: "Is it okay to enter my novel into a contest while still waiting for an agent to respond? I wondered if this was a breach of author/agent protocol. And will winning a contest help me land an agent?"

I can't answer for all agents, but I don't find this to be any great breach of protocol. I think it's great when an author enters a contest, and even better if she wins. Being able to say something like, "I won the Daphne Du Maurier Contest" certainly can't hurt. 

Martha wants to know, "How can I convince someone my idea is sellable? What makes a great query?" 

A great query does six things: First, it tells me in one simple, non-technical sentence what the book is. Second, it tells me who the author is and why he or she is the correct person to write this book. Third, it tells me about the manuscript — the title, the word count, the genre, the fact that it's complete. Fourth, it reflects the author's writing. (Why do some authors spend five years writing a manuscript, then five minutes creating a query?) Fifth, it clearly presents the author name and contact info (since all agents have seen interesting query letters that had no contact info, and the return email didn't work). And sixth, if we've had some contact in the past, it offers me a bit of context — something along the line of "we met at the Harriette Austin conference in Atlanta, spoke over dinner, and you said you were interested in a novel that combined Amish people, vampires, and the recipes of Martha Stewart." 

As for "what makes it salable," that best way to describe that is to picture a Venn Diagram — three circles that overlap. Those three circles represent a big idea, great writing, and a significant author platform. Publishers would like to see all three of those aspects in order to say "yes" to a deal. The book's story or main idea should be of interest to a specific audience, the writing should sing, and the author should be able to show the publisher that her platform will help sell a lot of books. 

George wrote to say, "I understand that fiction books are usually sold with the manuscript complete, and that nonfiction books often have the manuscript incomplete, so the editor can have some say in the process. Where do memoirs fit? Do I need to have a completed manuscript in order to sell my memoir?"

Most memoirs are treated like fiction, where the manuscript needs to be done (or largely done) in order to
get the publisher interested enough to make an offer. So treat it as such — complete it, then get some editorial help to make it as strong as possible. Don't rely on the bigness of the story alone — make sure the craft is great. 

Someone wrote to ask, "Have you heard of the Spacecoast Authors of Romance?"

Just a note: There are a bunch of these types of author organizations. Most are regional member groups of larger organizations. Spacecoast is the regional Florida group of the Romance Writers of America.  I happen to represent an author (Rachel Hauck) who is a member of this one. But there are dozens of others like this — groups that belong to RWA or to ACFW or to some other writers' organization. These are good places to meet local writers, talk books, and learn from those who are a bit farther down the path. 

Got a writing or publishing question? Send it along. 


When Things Settle Down … (a post by Sandra)

August 1st, 2009 | The Writing Craft | 19 Comments

It's a myth, you know. That idea that someday life will settle down.

After driving back and forth all week between home and the Oregon Christian Writers summer conference, I was very much looking forward to several uninterrupted hours in my home office yesterday to catch up on unreturned emails and phone calls and to submit several projects which had been requested recently.

That was my plan, anyway, so I settled in and got to work.

Then … the remodeler notified me he was going to need to spend the next hour or so turning the power on and off so he could figure out how the circuits in our house were configured before rerouting a power cable.

"That's fine," I told him, smiling on the outside while wondering on the inside if a few little jolts of 220 might not be actually be good for him. 

Since I prefer to work at my desktop computer, I attempted as long as possible to work in between the inconvenient "off power" periods, but it wasn't long before he came in scratching his head and notified me he'd have to shut it down for an undefined period of time.

I gave in and moved to using my laptop, which, twelve minutes later reminded me that my battery was low. I'd forgotten to plug it in after returning home from the conference the night before, and so now I had no reserve.

I couldn't leave the house because the remodeler was here, so the notion of running up to the coffee shop or library was out of the question. How much, I wondered, could I get done on my Blackberry?

My to do list narrowed quickly to those emails and calls which I knew would
keep me up all night if they'd not gotten handled, and I got them done.

My point is … Life Happens. Every season and stage of life presents its challenges and like one of my heroes, Roseanne Roseannadanna, liked to say … "It's always something."

Having
worked as a freelance writer for years, I know the challenge writers
face when life interrupts and forces us to engage. For most writers, we like chunks of uninterrupted time. Spans where
the mind knows it's not going to get derailed or redirected. Writers
like momentum. And yet it, often, is the hardest thing to find and to sustain.

So, what's a writer to do?

There are times when, for the sake of personal sanity, writers simply have to change their expectations.  For example, if you're a mother with kids at home during the summer, your former routine of writing in the mornings when the kids off to school may now present the risk of turning you into a raving witch. And no one wants to live with a raving witch. But, what are your choices? Quit writing? Wait til the little buggers go back to school? Some do. Others figure out how to create a new rhythm and keep it going.

At the conference this past week, Lisa Samson shared how she wrote her first novel (in a spiral notebook with a pen – no power needed) while her child napped. Two hours a day of consistent writing. She found a way to fit it in where she was in her stage of life. And guess what? Within a few months she had a finished first draft. It wasn't perfect. It wasn't edited. But it was finished. It worked because she wanted it badly enough to find a way.

If its important to you, you'll figure it out. You may have to get creative. You may have to fight for it. You may have to constantly change your approach when life refuses to settle down.

Remember, there will always be "something" threatening to stand between you and your keyboard (or pad and pen), but if it's important to you, you'll find a way.

Next Entries →