Candice Hughes

Spring has been here for several weeks now, with the usual crazy New England weather- shorts and tee-shirts one week then back to sweaters and coats the next.

Besides the changing but consistently wacky weather, the publishing industry continues as well, changing but expectedly so.  Publisher’s Weekly reported that e-books were up 177% for 2009 while sales of most other books were flat or slightly lower than the year before. All forms of entertainment have been moving digital for a number of years. Yet things rarely move entirely digital or, if they do, convert in their original form. I still listen to the radio periodically. I often listen to the radio online. It’s still the radio, just a different delivery system. I envision paper-based books sharing the world with digital books- reaching an even larger audience.

Spring is a great time for writing- full of energy and bursting with ideas! So now it’s back to a writer’s main job…writing.

A good marketer always wants to know the competition. For aspiring authors, how much competition is there? The numbers are closely held and hard to pin down. However, I decided to take a stab at it.

In 2004, one source gives the number of books published in the U.S. as 190,000. For 2006, another source (citing BEA statistics) gives the number of books published in the U.S. as 172,000. Sounds like stiff competition so far, right? In fact, out of the 172,000 books, 93% sell fewer than 1,000 copies. A successful book should sell at least 5,000 copies to earn out a modest advance.

More recently another source indicates that in 2007, about 62,000 fiction books were published. This seems to suggest that more than half the earlier totals were mostly nonfiction with some other categories.

The numbers suggest that the number of books published by traditional publishers probably hasn’t changed much or has even declined in the past 6 years.

Self-published books count for a large number of total books published. They haven’t been included in the above numbers, but offer some competition. Lulu claims it publishes 4,000 books a week, which comes to an astounding 208,000 books a year! That’s just for one self-publisher. The vast majority of self-published books only sell a hundred or two hundred copies to the author’s friends and family. For fiction, self-publishing is useful if all you want to do is see your name in print. Most people shouldn’t consider it a money making venture since self-publishing costs anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000 and up.

For more on self-publishing challenges, see http://reviews.cnet.com/self-publishing/

For new authors, these are sobering facts. I have seen estimates that between 700 and 1,000 people in the U.S. make their living as novelists. Some will write more than one novel per year. Let’s assume that 1,500 novels each year come from full-time novelists. That leaves 60,500 novels to be written by those not making their living as novelists. This is good news in that it means there’s some chance to break into the field. But not so good in terms of earnings or a long term career.

So where to go from here? I highly recommend any aspiring novelist join a writer’s association to learn about the industry. Also, think deeply on your writing goals.

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.

Bookmarked: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and Exit Music by Ian Rankin

Over the past few weeks I’ve conducting a self-guided tutorial on villains. The first villain that came immediately to mind to be included in my tutorial was Hannibal Lecter. The first response I got when I asked people what they thought of Dr. Lecter was that he was “fascinating.” Even though he is a serial killer who has committed numerous heinous crimes, he is still likeable because of his intelligence and dry wit. Both of these are characteristics thought of as making any character likable. I believe people also enjoy reading about him because he is unpredictable, which makes him interesting. Also, he has his own (albeit twisted) code of honor or if not honor at least a highly developed sense of politeness- a characteristic one wouldn’t expect in a killer.

The other villain in the novel, Buffalo Bill, is kind to animals. This is also a characteristic that according to literary experts makes a character likable. There’s not a lot else likable about him, which probably explains why the ending of the book (won’t spoil it) is satisfactory.

It’s interesting to compare Silence of the Lambs to Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot. In ‘Salem’s Lot, the main villain, Kurt Barlow, is in only a few scenes in the book. We learn what he is, but don’t learn a lot about him. He is not a sympathetic character. He has none of the sympathetic character traits (no little dogs, no jokes, no limp, etc). So, why is this novel so successful? My theory is that King developed so many other characters so well, with some being “good” people and others being, well let’s be generous and say not so good, that it doesn’t matter that the villian is not sympathetic. There are plenty of other characters to cheer for or boo.

Back to my study of villians….

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.

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!

On Wednesday, Time Inc posted an article on their web site about the evolution of the publishing industry. The article divides publishing into the “old” world where books are printed on paper and professional writers are paid for their work and the “new world” where fiction written by amateurs appears digitally on blogs, cell phones, ipods, podcasts and other avenues. The premise is that the proliferation of amateur fiction is caused by the explosion in digital technology.

This view skews the truth a bit. Amateur writing has always been available. I bet nearly every person reading this blog has a draft of a novel, poem or short story hidden away in a drawer. You may have read some of it to friends or in bars at college before putting it away. In school, kids write stories and poems all year long (once they pass the learning the alphabet stage). So I don’t buy the statement that the digital revolution has caused people to create more fiction. It HAS made it possible to pull those hidden flights of fantasy out of drawers and show them to the world.

What is great about this proliferation of words is that it gets people thinking and talking about fiction and writing. Maybe it will even veer off into excitement and passion for words!

But to say that this “new” writing world will replace the “old” writing world is like saying that the Red Socks will hang up their hats and go home because the office baseball team now has their games posted on You-Tube.

To say that the blog ramblings of your next door neighbor (which may or may not be amusing) are equivalent to Harry Potter and, therefore, J.K. Rowling should make all her books available for free just doesn’t compute.

In my opinion, there will always be room for professional writers who spend countless hours practicing their craft, attending conferences to learn from other professionals, and participating  in industry associations to keep up with events. I believe most people understand that writing is like any other job and that if writers aren’t paid for it, they’re not likely to do it- at least not with the skill and effort most people expect when they pick up a published novel. It takes most writers months to years to write and polish a manuscript for a publishable novel. Would anyone go to that effort if they anticipated no financial benefit? I would have to say very few would closet themselves away giving up salary and forsaking friends and family for the necessary hundreds of hours. Even those people who give away a first novel or sections of a novel only do so expecting to sell the next one based on buzz from the first.

Viva word diversity! Let everyone write! But let those who write well be paid.

It might seem that it would be hard to be thankful right now with the economy struggling. It might seem that new writers should feel particularly uncheerful given the retrenching that is going on in publishing- illustrated by Houghton Mifflin declaring that it won’t accept any more new books for the foreseeable future.

But I for one refuse to be uncheerful. First of all, it could deepen my frown lines. Secondly, reading is cheap entertainment. And there is certainly not a lot of entertainment in the daily news (I just looove to watch those stocks drop!). No, thank you! I’d rather become immersed in an alternate world- fantasy, thriller, or mystery. I bet many other people will want to do this as well.

Not only will I remain cheerful and passionate about books, I will be thankful that people are out there writing and publishing them. I will also be thankful that I can continue putting my own words down on the page. Because building my own worlds is even better than joining into someone else’s world for the span of a few hundred pages.

As a troubled year draws to a close, be thankful for words that dazzle us, teach us and join us together.

One question writers are asked over and over is how they come up with ideas for their novels. For me, ideas pop up nonstop. I read the newspaper and there are plot ideas on every page. I walk down the street and look at an old building or a person who seems a bit out of the ordinary and more ideas bubble up. Conversations with friends or family spark ideas as well. In short, ideas seem to be almost every where.

A much more difficult question for me would be, “How could you stop coming up with ideas for novels?” Hmmm. That would be a tough one. Amnesia?

Recently, I saw a t-shirt for sale that said, “Watch what you say or I’ll put you in my next novel.” What a terrible idea for writer’s attire! That’s like emblazoning our foreheads with the proverbial scarlet A or like a black box warning on a medication. I can’t imagine any writer who would want to scare off every potential partner for a fascinating conversation. On the other hand, maybe some people would be attracted to the idea of being worked into someone’s novel. As a writer, I need to maintain the choice of what to put in my novel, particularly without the distractions of explaining the warning on my shirt.

The bottom-line is if you’re wondering how writers figure out what to write or you want to write a novel yourself and are at loss for ideas, just take a careful look and listen around you. Just don’t put a giant scarlet W on your chest or you may see the most interesting people veering away from you.

Fall implies change and loss of control- whether it’s falling in love, falling on hard times or falling out of favor.  To fall is to transition from one state to another- an abrupt change in status and a loss of control.

The leaves in New England are at peak- copper, fire red and gold.  The air is chill and the wind hits you when you open the door.

The idea of fall made me think how writing and reading what’s been created are a fall. A writer starts off maybe with an idea or a phrase intending to go in one direction then the words and characters take over.  There is the same loss of control. The story moves along until it reaches a natural conclusion. The writer moves from sanguine to desperate as the words squirm or refuse to come to relieved that the pages filled up.

Readers go through a similar change. Falling into the book and the words. Surroundings slip away, replaced by the setting and characters. Writers hope at the end, the readers is at least the tinest bit changed.