Candice Hughes

The agency model for e-books is out of the gates and off and running as of yesterday. As many expected, there have been some bumps in the road. Some publishers are still working with Amazon. This is all to be expected given how quickly deals had to be put together.

My main concern is communication with customers. This morning I checked the Amazon Kindle blog and noticed a number of customers complaining about the price changes. Some felt that publishers were price-gouging, getting more because they could, etc. To quote one customer “I’m really tired of these publishers jerking me around. Ebooks are almost pure profit since they don’t have to pay anyone to print or ship…”

Very few customers posting recognized or understood that authors need to be paid fairly for their work. The focus was heavily on publishers and lawyers writing up contracts as well as the low costs of producing an e-book versus printing. The truth is that without authors sitting in a chair, fingers to keyboard for months or even years, pouring their heart and imagination out onto their hard drives, there would be no e-books (or any other form of books). The truth is that like other products (cars, jewelry, clothing) some products may have a higher intrinsic value than others.

I believe most people are willing to pay fairly for what they buy when they understand the value of what they’re buying. Few expect to buy a shiny new BMW car for the same price as a Kia.

Of course, why should readers realize or understand the monumental effort that goes into writing a book unless authors, publishers, agents and others in the community engage them in conversation? We are not explaining our side of the story. We’re letting Amazon and others put their side of the story out leaving readers feeling confused.

Yes, e-books are cheaper to produce. But they are part of the set of products an authors produces. In fact, an ever greater part. The pay (or salary, if you will) that an author receives in exchange for sitting at their computer for months and years is based on what all these products (e-books, hardcover, paperback, etc) earn. Artificially lowering the price of e-books to “one low price fits all” means that no matter how hard an author works, no matter how good they are in crafting a story, they’ll earn the same base amount.

Naturally, Amazon and other companies that make the hardware needed to read e-books want low priced content. They want to sell their hardware (e-book readers) for as much as they can. In order to do that, they need to offer customers a carrot. The carrot is low cost content. Their pitch to customers is, “yes, you’ll pay hundreds of dollars for this reader but after that you’ll hardly pay anything at all for using the device.” Fair valued-content brings up the total cost proposition of owning the e-reader. Some customers may then want to pay less for the reader.

E-readers and e-books need each other. Like any relationship, there are ups and downs as well as power-struggles. I believe the agency model is basically fair to both sides. Readers also win because they will keep getting fantastic stories to read in any format they like (print books or e-books).

Recently I read the first two Stieg Larsson detective novels. I had to wait weeks for each one at my local library because the waiting list was pretty long.

I believe one reason these novels are so popular is the female protagonist. Mr. Larsson created a very engaging and unusual female character, Lisbeth. I admit I liked her much better than the male protagonist. What makes her so interesting? I feel the whole constellation of traits, particularly her intelligence combined with her anti-social behavior (bordering on Asperger’s syndrome). Some people debate whether a man can create an accurate female character or a woman an accurate male character. I feel Larsson has done an excellent job with Lisbeth. Lisbeth may not be a “girly girl”, but she is believable as a female character. One aspect Larsson gets right is Lisbeth’s emotional involvement with people in her life. In contrast, his male protagonist (Blomkvist) often seems disconnected with people around him.

I am still waiting for the third book (another long long list of readers). Interest in reading these books is still amazingly strong. I was motivated to read the first book after observing a woman buying five copies of the first book at a large  (to be unnamed) book store.

The saddest part of the story is that Stieg Larsson is no longer with us to keep the story going. I can only imagine what other fantastic books he’d had written if he’d had time.

The past week or two have been peak foliage colors here in New England. Fall is a magic time of year when tonal greens explode into gold, ruby and pumpkin. It always reminds me of Tolkein and the two trees of Valinor.

Although heavy rains have been washing away the leaves, leaving us to tidy up the faded brown husks that litter the lawn, some color remains.

So all my readers can get a taste of New England fall, I’ve attached a photo.

Frosts Turn New England Foliage to Gold

Bookmarked: The Naming of the Dead by Ian Rankin

Warning- This post has absolutely nothing to do with Michael Jackson (despite his having recorded an album called Thriller).

I was sitting here typing my thriller when I suddenly wondered, just how popular are thrillers? I decided to conduct a completely unscientific review of thriller popularity. Logging into Amazon, I found some interesting information about thriller popularity.

Here it is:

The number 1 most popular book tonight in both the literature/fiction and the mystery/thriller categories is (unsurprisingly) The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. The number 6 position in literature/fiction is taken by Alex Cross’s Trial by James Patterson and Richard Diallo. This book is number 3 in mystery/thriller. Next at number 11 in literature/fiction and number 4 in mystery/thriller categories is The Shack by William Paul Young. After that comes the number 13 book in literature/fiction and number 5 in mystery/thriller categories is Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. (The number 2 thriller didn’t place in the overall bestseller list.)

These numbers suggest that mystery/thriller novel popularity compares well to that of other types of books. The overall best seller list has a good number of mystery/thrillers in it with the current number 1 book being a mystery/thriller. (Granted, it’s not every day that a new Dan Brown book comes out but he’s got plenty of colleagues on the overall bestseller list).

What beat out thrillers in the bestseller list? Several political nonfiction books (one a memoir of Ted Kennedy), a book on french cooking, and the manual of the American Psychological Association. Suggesting that if you want to write a book that really tops the charts you should write a thriller with a hero who is a liberal Senator and a heroine who is an insane french chef, both of whom should go on a religious quest.

Now that I’ve told everyone the best selling plot of the year, I’d better call it a night.

This summer has gone by at light speed. The past couple months have included frenzied activity editing and polishing novel 2. This week, I released novel 2, hoping that it is ready to take flight. Waiting to see how reviewers will react is always a nail biting moment.

In between bouts of  motherly concern for novel 2, I’ll take some time to decompress from the intense activity. Maybe even take some walks and start thinking about what a novel 3 might look like. I love this time. It’s a time of free fall when almost anything can happen. A time when there are many doors waiting to be opened and it’s so hard to decide which door should be opened because everything is interesting, fresh and exciting.

The end of summer is a perfect time for free fall. Life starts gathering inward to protect itself from the snow and ice of winter. But winter hasn’t come yet. For now, I can still walk outside without a coat and sit on my porch to read. But the days are numbered. That’s alright though because every ending is a beginning.

CraftFest and ThrillerFest is over for another year. This year’s meeting was as enjoyable as last year’s. I am continually astounded by how generous leading authors are with their time in teaching up and coming authors the tricks of the trade. Today I will highlight a few tidbits that stuck with me from the conference.

Andrew Gross gave tips for how to keep readers turning the page. One tip was to focus on the essentials of each scene. Don’t get bogged down in unnecessary description, explanation or character definition. Short focused chapters also help. With that said, there is also a spectrum of “pace focus” in thrillers. Some authors voice will call for more description/characterization/atmosphere than others. Writers through exploring their work will find their comfort level in the spectrum. But at the same time writers must realize that the more the book focuses on atmosphere, etc, the more the pace will be slowed down. Readers will gravitate toward authors whose pace is comfortable for them as well.

James Rollins advised writers to set a target number of pages to be completed each day and do it. I find myself that if you focus on a large project in it’s entirety, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So I agree with his focus on daily small goals to achieve a larger goal.

On marketing of thrillers, attendees heard from Robin Cook about his innovative “prequel” movie that was released in installments before his recent novel (Foreign Body). (Note, this is not an inexpensive undertaking so you may not want to try this at home!)

That’s the wrap up for ThrillerFest. I better get to work on my target pages!

Today, there was a strong focus on structure and plot. I’ll give a brief recap. Start your thriller with action, preferably involving the main character. Move quickly to the inciting incident (within at least the first 50 pages if not the first few pages). From the inciting incident, you need to move toward turning point 1. After the action of turning point 1, a brief respite is needed. Then build to your next turning point followed again by a release from the action. Continue this pattern with each turning point making the stakes higher and higher until you reach the climax of the story. There is generally a short release or denouement after the climax, which some authors may prefer to to be quite brief while others like it longer (several pages or a chapter).

Lisa Gardner also gave a wonderful presentation on how to edit your first draft. She recommends a note card method of laying out scenes on note cards to visualize what happens in your novel. This facilitates seeing what needs to be cut or changed.

Another bonus, I now have a nice sized stack of books from ThrillerFest to add to my “to read” pile so I can see I’ll be kept busy this summer!

Happy writing and reading!

For anyone who has missed it, Elisabeth Sifton has an essay in The Nation this week (The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes). Her experience in the industry spans decades giving her a rare perspective. She expresses frustration and sadness at the many changes in the industry, particularly the consolidation and transformation to what she describes as a poorly functioning profit-focused model. She declaims the lack of interest of those running publishing companies in their products and product generators (books and writers). Her essay is well worth reading.

I know so many people who are passionate about books. A good number of these people are young- just the sort of readers the industry needs because they have many years of book buying ahead of them. I’ve seen tweens drooling over catalogues of books at libraries. They aren’t shy about putting in requests for book orders with their librarians. Recently when I commented on how teens/children may soon be reading text books on the Kindle, one groaned and told me he certainly didn’t want his books on one.

Books as objects have a special power. Think of magic books like in Harry Potter. Would it work to have a magician’s blog? How about books so controversial they’re banned. I have an early edition Orlando by Virginia Woolf. The cover is stamped, “Not to be introduced into the British Empire.” Woolf’s book provoked thought and discussion. It served it’s purpose. How does one ban a web site or a blog for offending sensibilities? Except for the most egregious offenders, few web sites or blogs are removed. Electronic words are more accessible and more pervasive yet Web sites and blogs simply have less psychological power than books in my opinion- even though all are based on words and all attract readers and discussion. Somehow being intangible dilutes the power of the words. Imagine holding up a print out of a blog as one shouts about its seditiousness. Or maybe one would bring a laptop on the podium and (shudder) display it with PowerPoint?

While I welcome and embrace electronic media (I am a true techie at heart), I think books retain their magic. Why, I wonder, can’t electronic media and books continue to live in harmony? Each will serve it’s purpose.

Bookmarked: Dust by Martha Grimes

This month our fantastic CoLoNY Chapter hosted Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks. While the industry as a whole is in a rough patch, Sourcebooks is thriving. They publish 300 new titles per year with a third of them being fiction.

Deb affirmed that it’s harder than ever for new authors or even mid-list authors to gain traction with their manuscripts/new novels. She noted that 93% of books sell 1,000 copies or less. Only 5% of the general public even goes to a bookstore each year and that doesn’t factor in whether or not they actually buy a book.

Sourcebooks focuses on romance, historicals, and women’s fiction (sadly they don’t acquire thrillers or mysteries currently). When acquiring novels, Deb follows Philip Larkin’s rules that a book should be readable, believable and (should I? Oh, why not.) careable. By the last, I mean that the reader should care about the characters and what happens to them.

It was clear from listening to and speaking with Deb that she has a great passion for books and is supportive of her authors. She cited the strong marketing focus at Sourcebooks as an advantage and benefit for their authors.

By the end of the talk, I was certainly sold on the fact that Sourcebooks is a great place for writers to be. Now if only they would change their mind about thrillers….

Bookmarked: Even Buffett Isn’t Perfect by Vahan Janjigian

After many months (a year or so) of writing, I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for novel 2. I’m in the closing scene, which is one of my favorite parts to write. For me the closing scene is the final confrontation where all the action is. There is more after that, I consider the rest the calm after the storm. That is where the sub-plot and loose ends are tied up. My other favorite part to write is the opening scene where everything is fresh and there are so many possibilities.

Perhaps I turned to a nonfiction book last week though because writing, especially the intense closing scene is draining. I also was attracted to the book because the financial world is so much on everyone’s mind now. But, it’s looking like we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel here as well. I hope so! I’m hoping the turnaround will lift the publishing industry as well. Then my manuscript will be well timed. Although everyone will tell you, you can’t time the market. So, I’ll keep my fingers crossed!