Last week I looked at the complex set of spreadsheets I use to track my ebook sales and gave a whoop of delight: I had just sold my two-millionth book, something I would never in my wildest dreams have considered possible just over four years ago, particularly as the vast majority of those sales were achieved through self-publishing. Initially my most ambitious target had been to sell a thousand copies.
Links of the week March 28 2016 (13)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
4 April 2016
It's been quite a journey, and all the more exciting for being so totally unexpected. There is no point denying that I became self-published because I wasn't able to interest an agent in my first book. I had originally written Only the Innocent for my own benefit and pleasure, but I was encouraged by family to give publishing a go. I contacted 12 literary agents, and they weren't all negative. At least two said they enjoyed the book, but it wasn't the type of story publishers were looking for.
Never judge a book by its cover. So the saying goes, yet consumers do it all the time. Every publisher and bookseller knows that covers sell books. But do consumers also form expectations from looking at the cover? Well, based on the results of some of the initial reader analytics data at Jellybooks, we think they do.
i. when presented with a choice of 20 titles or more to choose from, test readers were often guided by the visual cues the cover provided and not the synopsis of the book, which requires more time to read and absorb, and ii. covers shape reader expectations about the content within the book that feeds through into completion rates. The book cover is not just packaging, but a visual summary of the book itself that needs to be accurate.
There's no question that Klaus Humann, Publisher of Aladin Verlag, is passionate about children's books and about illustration in particular. His innate curiosity has led him on a surprising and successful career path. Starting in nonfiction adult publishing, then riding high on global success of the Harry Potter and Twilight series, Humann is now on the lookout for unique children's books and surprising illustrators.
"If I publish books that could be number one in a lookalike contest for other successful illustrators, that would bore me," he said, in an interview with Publishing Perspectives.
During his 15-year tenure there, Carlsen grew from 35 people to over 130 people. "We were not a big publishing house [when I started], but we became the largest children'ss book publisher in Germany through buying the rights to Harry Potter and then the Twilight series as well.
The transition from small to large company wasn't always easy, but it was a lot of fun." The quick success of the Harry Potter books put the small team under a lot of pressure to handle the growing workload that the international hit series demanded. "All in all, we sold roughly 33 million Harry Potter books and 10 million Stephenie Meyer books in Germany, recalls Humann.
Jason Aaron Baca is good-looking, not handsome like the Ryans (Gosling and Reynolds) or rugged like Daniel Craig, who is fetching in a tailored Tom Ford suit. But when Mr. Baca, 42, slipped on a pair of dark aviator glasses recently, he looked remarkably like Tom Cruise in "Top Gun."
He was dressed for work in a khaki military jumpsuit. And even though it was barely noon, he had already stopped by the gym to make sure his biceps and legs looked combat-strong. His assignment: To be a military helicopter pilot saved in a crash by a female rescuer with whom he once had a torrid affair. Now that they're reunited, their passions have flared.
Despite the perception that blockbusters like Fifty Shades of Grey drive sales, self-publishing has proved a boon for this particular genre. E-books make up nearly 40 percent of all purchases, according to the writers group. And there are categories for every reader's taste, among them, adventure, Christian, multicultural, L.G.B.T. and paranormal.
With increased government investments in education, India's literary rate has risen sharply over the last ten years.
A 2009 National Youth Readership Survey shows that three out of four Indian youths are now literate, while 25 percent of that population (that's 83 million people) are self-identified book readers. And by the end of this decade, the literacy level is expected to be 90 percent.
And while the unique features of India's demographics in terms of a growing population, especially of young people who are literate and educated, "presents tremendous opportunities for the growth and expansion of the publishing industry in all sectors," these opportunities are not without their challenges. Consider for example: India has 22 official languages, a figure which, combined with regional languages and dialects, climbs to more than 1,600. Adding to that is the fact that brick-and-mortar bookstores are now facing increased competition from online retailers, which are often, "attractive on both range and price to an increasingly mobile population."
28 March 2016
A few days ago, I wrote a piece on my blog exploding the myth of the rich writer, and laying out (in terms the Royal Literary Fund Old-established British organisation which is using substantial new funds from writers' estates for excellent new scheme offering grants to published writers, who act as 'fellows' helping to improve students' writing in higher education institutions. The fellows each have a page and contact details on the website. www.rlf.org.uk
Now, I understand that "indie publishing" is all the rage, but you might as well be telling Luke Skywalker to go to the dark side. Despite royalty rates of 70%, I think self-publishing is a terrible idea for serious novelists (by which I mean, novelists who take writing seriously, and love to write). Here's why.
A concerted campaign against writers being asked to work without payment is gathering pace on a number of fronts. We take the temperature of the current debate.
Two years ago in ALCS News, we ran a feature entitled The Price Ain't Right by freelance journalist and publishing analyst Danuta Kean, in which she cited numerous examples of professional writers being asked to work without payment. She concluded: "There is a danger that movements against the devaluation of our labour become little more than moaning clubs in which we berate the situation without challenging it at its roots."
In January, Philip Pullman, President of the Society of Authors, issued such a challenge. He resigned as a Patron of the Oxford Literary Festival because they do not pay authors, explaining his actions thus: The principle is very simple: a festival pays the people who supply the marquees, it pays the printers who print the brochure, it pays the rent for the lecture halls and other places, it pays the people who run the administration and the publicity, it pays for the electricity it uses, it pays for the drinks and dinners it lays on: why is it that the authors, the very people at the centre of the whole thing, the only reason customers come along and buy their tickets in the first place, are the only ones who are expected to work for nothing?
There isn't a company that more directly affects book publishing than Amazon. The e-commerce giant's tentacles are firmly wrapped around all publishers, just waiting to tighten when its terms are deemed a speck below satisfactory. And in recent years it has taken a further jab at publishers by being largely responsible for the self-publishing boom that allows many authors to circumvent the traditional publishing system.
Not a week goes by on this website or similar ones in which we don't discuss one of Amazon's latest moves. But rarely, if ever, do we ask a very basic question: Why is Amazon so weird?
It's an unusual question, I know. But I think it's appropriate to ask.
Educational exceptions to copyright introduced in Canada four years ago have had a devastating effect on writers' incomes, with similar consequences reported in Ireland and Australia. Writers in the UK must remain on high alert to this threat, argues John Degen.
Canada is now in the humiliating position of being the world%u2019s best example of how not to reform copyright. Having experienced the relentless pressure for new exceptions and exemptions, and the frustration of seeing government consider proposed exceptions as though they are somehow progressive and reforming, I want to encourage my overseas colleagues to stand strong for your creators%u2019 rights. There is, in my opinion, nothing progressive about broad exceptions to copyright, even those proposed for motherhood concerns like education and library collection. Instead, they represent a regressive deregulation designed to do little more than transform earned income for writers into cost-savings for financial administrators and extra profit for free-culture digital businesses.
Twelve years ago, Ned Rust was the lone employee on James Patterson's team at Hachette Book Group (then Time Warner Book Group), working as what was then "radically" (as he put it) called a brand manager. At the time, Patterson was publishing two adult titles a year. "People were worried it was just too fast a clip," Rust said, and that "readers wouldn't be able to keep up."
As Patterson became much more prolific-he is expected to publish eight adult titles in 2016-his team at HBG's Little, Brown division has grown as well. Rust, who was recently promoted to v-p and James Patterson publishing director, heads a group of 16 employees dedicated to Patterson's publishing efforts, which includes the staff working on Patterson's new children's imprint, Jimmy Patterson Books.
Among Patterson's donations that have gone to book-related causes are more than $1.5 million to fund reading, education, and professional development programs; $1.75 million to school libraries in 2015; more than $1.5 million to independent bookstores and indie booksellers; and $250,000 for young children and teens to spend at indie bookstores.
People already read James Patterson's books - and in staggering numbers. Last year, he and his team of writers had 36 books land on the New York Times best-seller list. To date, he has published 156 books that have sold more than 325 million copies worldwide.
But Mr. Patterson is after an even bigger audience. He wants to sell books to people who have abandoned reading for television, video games, movies and social media.
So how do you sell books to somebody who doesn't normally read?
Mr. Patterson's plan: make them shorter, cheaper, more plot-driven and more widely available.
Your chance to become a novelist! The winner gets a book deal with £20k advance! | Daily Mail Online
Most literary agents receive around 5,000 manuscripts a year from aspiring authors, and each year probably end up taking on only around five or six.
So how do we decide what to take on and what to reject? It all hangs on that first page.
If the first page is well written, captivating, intriguing, with promise of a great plot to come, then the agent will continue reading. After just a few pages, they will get a sense of whether this is a story for them.
Luigi Bonomi
There are fewer fairy tales in publishing these days, but there's still some magic left and dreams can come true. Don't write for the publishers and don't try to second guess the market; it's elusive and impossible to pin down. Just write what's in your head and what's in your heart and give the reader a reason to keep turning the pages, whether it's love for your characters or a need to find out what happened ten years ago or what happens next.
Lisa Jewell