down the writer's path

New York loves the National Book Awards

Lit-lovers gather in New York next week as the city celebrates National Book Award Week with a series of events leading up to the National Book Foundation's 57th National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner. Under 35 and a budding novelist? You might enjoy the Under 35 event where the 2006 NBA finalists and winners attend celebrate the National Book Awards with the next generation of fiction writers. The following day young adult novel writers will gravitate to the National Book Awards Teen Press Conference and the NBA finalists will be at the New School for a Finalist Reading. The top-off to the week's activities happens Wednesday night with the National Book Awards Ceremony and Dinner.

Won't be in New York next week? Don't worry. CSPAN will once again be there recording the event for posterity. You--and I--can view and hear the acceptance speeches on CSPAN Sunday, November 20th at 8:00 PM (Eastern). If you're not sure whether it's worth watching, I can only tell you that I've always enjoyed listening to the winners speak. In 2003 the NBA decided to award Stephen King with the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters award--a highly controversial move. Then King, himself, caught everyone's attention when he "took the award to task." All is not peachy-keen in the literary world and this particular night, King had quite a few comments about the constant clash between the highbrow and the lowbrow literary divisions. I wonder why? (If you've noticed, King's newly released LISEY'S STORY has been called a genre-literary crossover.)

I watched King's speech on CSPAN and loved every minute. You can read the transcript of King's speech generously provided by the National Book Awards. You might also enjoy reading the introduction speech given by Walter Mosley.

Want to know who's up for the 2006 awards? Click on "Continue reading" for the list of finalists.

Book Standard highlights book videos and e-readers.

Today's Book Standard E-Blast featured a story about book videos. Book videos? Don't ask me. But if you want to know more, click here. I wonder if I should spend some time conjuring up a video for my teen books? And if you've heard a little buzz about a new e-book e-reader, read this piece, but first you might want to catch up on some background info. That should give you a few things to think about over the weekend; meanwhile, I need to go back to work.

DWP Guest Op-Ed: How Kaavya Viswanathan Got Rich, Got Set Up, and Got a Bloody Nose

(Today's post is the result of a friend's phone call, a friend who doesn't have a blog but one who wants the full context of her opinions laid out in cyberspace. She had been contacted by the media for her take on the most recent controversy of plagerism rumbling through Publisher's Row. The commentary below, How Kaavya Viswanathan Got Rich, Got Set Up, and Got a Bloody Nose, is written and copyrighted by Kimberly Morris, 2006.)

I have written many series novels for publishers and for book packagers. Because of the controversy over Kaavya Viswanathan’s novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life (published by Little Brown and packaged by Alloy), I have been asked for my views on this topic and about my experiences working with book packagers.

Many people are confused about what a book packager does. A book packager could be described as a subcontracted publishing house. Packagers are able to concentrate principally on the creative and editorial tasks relating to book production. Unlike publishers, they are not encumbered with marketing departments, sales departments, advertising departments, art departments, and distribution, warehousing, and fulfillment responsibilities. This makes them pretty nimble - able to reinvent themselves quickly in response to market trends. In short, book packagers are very efficient in their ability to produce large quantities of books that readers like, and get them on the shelves fast.

Personally, I’ve had good luck and good relationships with packagers. I like being employed. I like to write for different genres. And I work well under pressure. Working with packagers is a bit like being an actor in the old studio system. On Monday, you’re a pirate. On Tuesday, you’re a cowboy. On Wednesday, they tell you to bring your tap shoes. The old studio system made a lot of movies and produced an enormous pool of well-trained actors who learned their craft by doing it.

Some writers dislike working with book packagers. It is, admittedly, a tough business. But it’s an area of publishing that attracts talented and ambitious creative people. For writers and editors willing to work hard and pay dues, it’s an arena of opportunity

So knowing this, I was astounded to learn that a publisher and/or packager would give a $500,000 advance to a 17-year-old high school student with no track record, no training, and no book.

The general public, unfortunately, has a tendency to regard writing as the idiot savant branch of the arts. The general attitude seems to be that any dolt can write a book if they can just find the time.

I can understand why a layperson would think this. People who are good at what they do make it look easy. When you read well-written popular fiction, the writing seems effortless. In reality it’s damned hard work. Anybody who’s done it knows that. So what I cannot understand, is how so many people inside the publishing and packaging industry could have convinced themselves that it was a good idea to commission an inexperienced teenager - who was now a full-time college student under tremendous academic pressure – to write a novel that would be worth half a million dollars! What were they thinking? And why are they now surprised that the work is derivative and in many instances, outright plagiarized?

James Frey’s book – (Are they still calling it a “memoir?”) - wasn’t properly vetted and one of the reasons the publisher offered was that Frey’s book was just a mid-list memoir. A dark horse title that might or might not earn back its advance of $50,000. From their perspective, the earning potential of the book didn’t justify the time, trouble, and expense of checking out Fray’s story.

But if you’re spending half a million dollars on a manuscript going in, why wouldn’t you make sure it passed the sniff test? All I can figure is that they were so dazzled by the prospect of discovering a prodigy that it short-circuited their common sense.

So what do we learn from this?

Well, I, personally, learned why publishing margins are so thin. (Because they’re giving $500,000 advances to teenagers who can’t write.)

But what are the major media companies learning?

I hope they are learning that they need to do some serious thinking about their role in the content industry. The world is glutted with entertainment, news, and information “product.” Historically, readers and viewers have relied upon established and recognized media “brands” to vet content for merit, accuracy, and quality. If professionals abdicate that responsibility, or do not perform that value added service, they will cease to be relevant. There are too many of these incidents now to ignore. The industry needs to start taking this problem seriously and understand that consumers aren’t paying them for raw content. They are paying for an imprimatur that connotes legitimacy and credibility.

I feel sorry for Kaavya Viswanathan. She is a kid. She is an amateur. The people making the important decisions in this situation were adults. They were experienced professionals who should have known better.

Yes. Yes. I know Kaavya Viswanathan should have known better, too. Yes. Yes. I know she goes to Harvard. So what? Good grades are not the same thing as good judgment. And good judgment isn’t the inevitable by-product of an Ivy League education.

Bill Clinton went to Yale. Jeff Skilling went to Harvard. George Bush went to Yale. Donald Rumsfeld went to Princeton. None of them will be remembered by history for their good judgment.

--Kimberly Morris ([email protected])
Feel free to comment here or contact Kimberly directly. (Of course, I hope you'll comment here.) --vikk

Hating self-published authors, or why announcing yourself as a "published author" can work against you.

Think you want to self-publish? Think again. Or at least give some consideration to your behavior before you make the plunge. Why? Because so many others before you have rutted the road and made it a bumpy, difficult ride. Definitely read Slushpile's WHY PEOPLE HATE SELF-PUBLISHED AUTHORS and the ensuing dialogue. That way you'll save yourself some embarassing and highly negative moments. Is there truth to what they are saying? Oh, yeah. Having worked in a bookstore for a total of five years, I can tell my own self-pub auhor horror stories.

Are there self-pub authors who know how to conduct themselves, produce highly readable material in a good, quality product? Definitely. But I'm sad to say there are way too many self-published authors, and POD-published, and e-published authors who roar through Publisher's Row and mark bookstore owners, booksellers, and other potential readers and leave a wake of destruction for those who try to follow. If you want to self-publish, know what you are up against and do your best to counter the very clear and present bias that definitely exists in the industry.

I found this post thanks to Blog of a Bookslut. In the way of the blogosphere, this came via Powell's, a nice example of a bookstore's blog, and Bookninja, and they got it from SLUSHPILE, the originator of the piece.

Your book is out, now what?

Once again Georganna over at the Writer's-Edge culled a great site. Jack Yoest's short piece taken from Publish and Peddle . . . or Perish provides a simple road map to success for the academic author but any author can use it to navigate through those early days of a newly-released work. If you're not a professor, you'll have to adapt a few to suit your particular situation. Anyone traditionally published will be expected to sell more than 800 books, and getting to the publisher's sales force may be a bit of a trick, too; but the core ideas work. What you must do is avoid the expectation that the publisher will do it all--and you do nothing.

If you're working on a nonfiction book, Yoest's suggestions can provide a foundation for the proposal's marketing segment, but you will need to add more. Don't be lazy and leave it at that. Be creative. Add and enahnce. The more ways you can find to tap into multiple readerships the better off you'll be. One mantra of Yoest's had a particularly loud ring: "It's not what you know, it's not who you know...it's who knows you."

Doing nothing can kill your book's sales, so pull out a piece of paper and do a bit of brainstorming and clustering to find new ways to get the word out about that wonderful new book of yours.

TALK TO THE SNAIL and other publishing offerings make Publishers Lunch a valuable service for writers

If you're a writer and you haven't subscribed to the free Publishers Lunch (PL), you're missing out on an excellent resource. Delivered to mailboxes every day, twenty thousand "publishing people" already read these reports, and they are full of the info writers want. Learn who sold what manuscript to which editor and through which agent--even what year the book is scheduled for printing. Entries such as this one will fight for your attention:

Canadian rights to Stephen Clarke's TALK TO THE SNAIL, a short gift book offering humorous advice on dealing with the French, including dealing with the complexities of the many different forms of address, how to converse with a French waiter, days on which you can't expect the French to work, and of course, advice on love and sex, to Helen Reeves at Penguin Canada, in a nice deal, by Susanna Lea Associates. [email protected]

Anyone actively looking for agents will find Publishers Lunch a must resource. The truly serious might want to consider the website, Publisher's Marketplace, where professionals read the up-to-the-minute reporting on who, what, where, and when. Authors can even track certain sales of their books. There is a cost to the website service. At the very least, make sure you subscribe to the free Publishers Lunch service.

Spreading the good news about your new book

Have a book you want to promote? For a nice overview, check out expert Dave Pollard's article on viral marketing. At the core viral marketing is all about the talk, the buzz, but what mystifies everyone is how exactly do you work up that contagious word-of-mouth that is so necessary and that may very well have--dare I repeat Pollard?--replaced advertising. 

Viral marketing is not a new concept as testified to by the Phoenix Business Journal's 1999 article. Just last year Abram Sauer at BrandChannel.com asked the inevitable question: Are You Sick of Viral Marketing?

Feeling fine? Then you might want to do your own viral marketing test, Web Marketing Today has some interesting points for you to consider before you begin your marketing adventure.

And you thought all you had to do was sit down and write the book.

Let me know how your experiment works out.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out how to spread my own contagion. Will over at Youngest of One sent me an email the other day that surprised me. Apparently he took it upon himself to order my first teen novel, DIVIDED LOYALTIES, and said he'd finished the book, liked the story, and planned to mention it on his blog. Let me say how much I appreciate Will taking his time and his money to buy and read my book. I appreciate his wanting to spend an evening reading my work. (I'm glad he didn't tell me ahead of time, though, because I would have probably been on pins and needles, super-anxious, and wrought with writer's angst as I waited for his response.) So imagine my surprise the other day when an email from Will full of praise floated into my email box. While I have enjoyed a number of good reviews from adult readers and reviewers and am delighted to have learned that they enjoyed the story, I can't tell you how much pleasure I receive when someone in the target age range responds the way Will did: "There's nothing teens respond to more than inner turmoil, so you are quite fortunate that you write it SO well."

For any writer, knowing you've hit the appropriate market squarely on target adds so much to the writing experience after the work has gone public and begun to grow a life of its own. I also owe a debt to Will for having read the book because, while the story does involve the daily life and challenges experienced by the main character in the realm of family, school and friends, it also details the early moments of a relationship and all the angst it can cause. While I assumed the story would play well with the girls, I wasn't sure how the book would be received by the boys. And knowing he plans to read the newest book, VIDEO MAGIC, is very cool, indeed. (Of course, I do have to keep in mind that Will is a friend, still . . . . ) 

If you'd like to read what Will said on his blog, you'll find his comments at the end of this post. So, dear writers, if you wonder why you would want to try your hand at a blog, this may be one reason. If I had never started to blog, I would never have run across Will and his blog. We would never have become online friends, and he probably would never have become a reader of my work. And mention of my book would never have appeared on his blog--a blog, I might add, that is mainly targeted to other kids his age. If someone reads his comment or reads about my response to his comment and buys my book and then recommends it to someone else, well then, that's when the DIVIDED LOYALTIES viral marketing will begin.

Personally, I hope it's a Super Bug--thanks, Will.

Publishing tidbits

Seth Godin over at Seth's blog makes the case for Amazon's new foray into short stories. I don't know, do we really need Amazon to become a publisher, too? Or is the short story about to make a comeback? John Scalzi over at Whatever gives his perspective after going to Amazon and downloading a story.

Lee Goldberg over at The Writer's Life pointed me toward an area of publishing I hadn't heard much about: "Tie-in" writing. The International Association of Tie-In Writers answers the question of what is a tie-in writer.

And, oh my Lord, Sarah Weinman over at Confessions of a Idiosyncratic Mind tipped me off to the emergence of "Gray Lit."

But let me end with a nod to a regular reader of Down the Writer's Path and one of my favorite bloggers, David St. Lawrence of Ripples blog fame. I found an interview of David by Jane at Lip-Sticking earlier this year as part of the "smart man online" series. If you haven't stopped by David's blog, you might change your mind after reading this interview. Look for my review of David's new book, Danger Quicksand: Have a Nice Day, in a few weeks.

Lee Goldberg, MJ Rose, Maud Newton, Bob Bly, David St. Lawrence and John Patrick continue to blog away

Lee Goldberg, a writer-for-hire for DIAGNOSIS MURDER and for MONK, is at it again with a little bit of dish and a whole lot of other interesting tidbits. One tip led me to Lynn Viehl's blog, The Paperback Writer, for an interesting post on writing for hire.

MJ Rose reports that blogger Mad Max Perkins has left the blogosphere. Over at Maud Newton's I found an interesting quote from Flaubert on the structure of a novel. Guess I've been caught in a dead calm. Bob Bly is still blogging and recently blogged about the effects of the Internet on writing and reading. Over at Ripples, David St. Lawrence opines about the future of blogging. And finally, John Patrick offers up an assessment of his recent publishing experience with his new book NET ATTITUDE. Which, I confess, surprises me a little. Patrick's main focus is technology. His site is not only informative, but his eclectic interests make for fun reading. Spend time doing a little blog-browsing.

Dan Brown and J.K. Rowling's creations continue to generate new "firsts"

J.K. Rowling may have the books flying off the shelves, but even Harry hasn't been able to get the Catholic Church to institute a website for Potter fans. The Book Standard reports that the Catholic Church, in a bit of a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" spirit, has launched a new website dedicated to Mary Magdalene and for the Da Vinci fans. The website has the following disclaimer:

The Catholic Enquiry Office is an official agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Whilst we endeavour to ensure that all the Catholic sites and materials listed on this page are truthful, accurate and reflective of Catholic belief and teaching, we distance ourselves from any that are not.

Launched on the feast day of Mary Magdalene, July 22, the press release issued by the Catholic Church explains the idea behind the website created to answer questions raised by the popular novel.

". . . in light of the continuing interest in  Dan Brown's novel, the Office has taken the unprecendented step of creating a web resource for 'Da Vinci' enthusiasts. Mgr Keith Barltrop is Director of the Office and said: "What we wanted to dow as to use this wonderful feast day to give fans of the novel the chance to discover who St. Mary Magdalene really was and her role in the Catholic Church. Annually she is honored as an exemplary follower of Jesus Christ and as the first witness to the resurrection; Jesus' rising from the dead. We invite you to use this opportunity to find out more."

While Da Vinci fans may have suddenly found their topsy turvy world righted, the world of Potterdom has experienced a bit of a reversal. The Book Standard also reports the discovery of a few of the new Half Blood Prince novels containing upside-down print, blank pages and skewed lines. One can only imagine the magic that will be wrought on E-Bay with these new discoveries. Meanwhile Nielson's early scoring of 4.1 million sales of Half Blood Prince in the first 24 hours vied with Scholastic's tally of 6.9 million, but today Nielson provides a final accounting of 4 million copies through traditional outlets.

I wonder what a rush it would be to know that in some places your book, something you created, was being scanned at the registers at the phenomenal rate of 105 copies per second?

Okay, enough day dreaming, time to get on with the day, and if you're wondering how the notebook mess is doing. . . well, at one point yesterday while I had the dark safe mode screen staring at me I was suddenly offered the opportunity to take the settings back to the day before the terrible download happened--which I did--and the sun came out from behind the clouds and smiled on me and my laptop. We are managing just fine now.

Meanwhile, Georgia over at the Writer's-Edge asked me about my take on the success of the Potter books. I do have some ideas but I'm still working them out. I'll share them when my thoughts have a bit more shape. And Mark at Clear Lake Reflections let me know he's been experiencing pop-ups when visiting the website. I don't know why they're appearing, so I don't know how to get rid of them. Hints or tips are helpful and welcome.