Amazon take on the publishers

Tell Me a Story - opinion

Amazon has already shown readers they do not actually need bookstores. The squeeze has put many brick and mortars out of business.

Now Amazon is inciting authors to cast aside their publishers. This is a significant step forward. To have the equivalent worldwide exposure in brick and mortar bookstores would require an enormous distribution network. Amazon, as a publisher, can put books virtually anywhere.

Amazon is about to publish 122 books this autumn in a range of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a conspicuous move by the retailer’s fledging publishing program, which will site Amazon in direct competition with New York publishers that are also its most important suppliers. 

It has established a flagship line run by publishing past master, Laurence Kirshbaum, to produce brand-name fiction and nonfiction. It signed its first deal with author Tim Ferriss. Last week it announced a memoir by the actress and director Penny Marshall, for which it paid $800,000. 

Publishers claim Amazon are aggressively pursuing their top authors. Amazon are also nibbling away at other services that publishers, critics and agents, used to provide. No wonder the whole of the publishing world is feeling dazed.

For authors it seems to be a good thing. For too long, large publishing houses have grasped the reins that held back promising authors. Publishers have had their heads in the sand, and only recently realised their power has diminished. Is it already too late? Amazon has put so much squeeze on them, the cries we hear from publishers, may be their death rattle.

I only hope that once Amazon controls the whole of the literary world, they don't turn on authors and put the squeeze on them too.

CS Forester Writes Steamy Book

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CS Forester's previously unknown talent as a steamy writer has been exposed. It seems he also writes with an inclination for racy scenes and thrilling plots, which is soon to be seen when an undiscovered book by the author is published for the first time. 

Written in 1935, The Pursued portrays slaughter, incest and forbidden love, in a plot far-removed from Horatio Hornblower's usual bravado escapades at sea.

Labelled a "dark, twisted tale of murder, lust and retribution," the recently unearthed book discloses the story of Marjorie, an unhappy London housewife who returns home one evening to find her younger sister dead in the kitchen, with her head in the oven. 

During her endeavours to expose the truth about her sister’s death, Marjorie begins an affair with the family's lodger. Secret liaisons and murder ensue.

Due to be released next month, The Pursued is keenly awaited by Forester fans and upheld as a "miraculous discovery" flaunting new light on an author customarily linked with the Napoleonic wars.

A Bad Review Doesn’t Have to Mean Your Book is Bad

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John Locke says something along the lines of – Write for people who love your book, not for ones who don’t.  Good counsel.

We all want good book reviews, but books are subjective. Like all art, books have separate meanings to separate people.

Some readers enjoy WITHOUT REPROACH by Ellie Jones while others don’t - it can't be helped. We can’t write to please everyone.  People might feel passion for your book, or they might not. Different things affect people in different ways – it makes us one-off. We are unique. Celebrate it. It would be a lacklustre place if we all enjoyed the same things.

What to do if you get a bad review… Check a popular writer on Amazon and read their bad reviews - it will make you feel better.  It highlights that occasionally even top writers receive bad reviews yet they remain successful.

Remember - you can discover more from an unpleasant but honest review than you can from an impressive but false one

A bad review doesn’t have to mean your book is bad, just the wrong person read it.

Building a Relationship with Potential Readers

Tell Me a Story - book promotion

In order to maximise book promotion, we are often told to foster a relationship with prospective readers. Fine words. Yet how do we go about it? A lot of writers, me included, are introverts. I could do shy for the Olympics. I’m not really a people person. Socialising is hard work, and to push myself or my work onto people is abhorrent. 

 

I hate book promotion and tend to shut my mind to it, so it’s good when a PR person spells out what I need to do. Here is a list of things to tackle in this extract from an article to build up relationships, by Phyllis Zimbler Miller - best selling author and book marketing guru


List of things to help in building a relationship with potential readers

• Videos – book trailers as well as videos of the author talking to her/his audience
• Blogs – on the subject of a book, on the subject of writing or publishing or whatever the author believes will interest her/his audience
• Articles – submitted to article directories – again on a variety of subjects connected to the target book audience
• BlogTalkRadio show – the subject of the book, other authors, fictional characters
• Social networks – Twitter, Facebook (including a page for the book), LinkedIn, etc.
• Book sites – places such as freado.com where a partial or the entire book can be uploaded
• Book author website – a major strategy in getting in front of an author's target markets
• Online press releases
• PR pitch sites such as PitchRate.com
• Audio recordings of a book
• Virtual book tours

A Tour of Rhodes Old Town - Greece

Tell Me A Story - Rhodes

I thought you might like to take a peep at this short video of Rhodes (Greece). It's mostly around the old town, with a quick trip to the temple of Athena.

Hope you enjoy the visit. Rhodes old town is a unique living monument. Incredibly, most of the ancient buildings are still occupied.

In my opinion, its just the sort of place to get the old brain-juices flowing to stimulate your writing.. ah well. Dream on...

End of Rhodes Old Town

How Do YOU Find New Authors?

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According to a survey instigated by Mark Coker of Smashwords, the most popular way for readers to find eBooks and new authors is through recommendations from fellow readers via online forums, blogs, and message boards.

29% of those who took part in his survey chose authors this way. In contrast, only 4% selected, "Personal friend/family member recommendations." This is interesting, because it infers readers might have more confidence in the collective wisdom of strangers and online contacts than of friends and family. I wonder why this should be?

The second most common answer, "I look first for my favourite authors," came in at 18%. This makes sense. Looking for a favourite author is traditionally the way people choose deadwood books, and probably the way I choose.

For new authors, this is surely useful information; we all want to be discovered. Yet if recommendation from forum members is the best way to be noticed, how do new authors jump on the bandwagon?

It seems to be yet another ‘Catch 22’ situation. Established authors who are popular are recommended most, thus becoming more popular. New authors who have yet to be discovered are not talked about, so remain undiscovered.

How the hell do we break into this world? The only way forward that I see, is to write dozens of books in the hope of chance discovery - and/or offer free books on forums, keeping fingers crossed for a positive response.

Any ideas anyone?

Clarify Those Words

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I don't know about you, but if I read a story where the author uses an incorrect word, it makes me want to toss the book aside. Why don't writers make sure what they say is what they mean - and why, for heaven's sake hasn't an editor picked up the error?

These seemingly comparable words have different meanings. Be sure you’re using the correct one in each pair.

• To appraise is to gauge; to apprise is to let know.
• To be amused is to be entertained; to be bemused is to be puzzled.
• To attain is to achieve; to obtain is to acquire.
• To ascribe is to attach an idea to a source; to subscribe is to hold belief in an idea.
• To be born is to be brought forth; to be borne is to be carried along.
• To barter is to trade; to haggle is to negotiate.
• To borrow is to receive something for temporary use; to loan is to provide something on those terms.
• To careen is to sway; to career is to hurry carelessly.
• To censor is to ban; to censure is to reprimand.
• To criticize is to judge harshly or in a negative manner; to critique is to evaluate.
• To denigrate is to demean; to deprecate is to disapprove.
• To differ is to be distinct from; to vary is to change.
• To espouse is to support; to expound means enlighten.
• To rebut is to argue in reply to another argument; to refute is to reject an argument.
• To wangle is to acquire by devious means; to wrangle is to wrestle.

Publishers Join the Ebook Revolution

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With all of the hype, both optimistic and deleterious, the sheer number of literary agents now delving into eBook-only titles for clients, has brought a new level of credibility to the medium. Respectability has also come in the form of at least one important publishing house releasing the digital rights to out-of-print and author-held rights’ books.

Bloomsbury Publishing, publishers of fiction for children and adults, announced they will begin releasing digital titles of out-of-print works whose rights have reverted to the author or the author’s estate. Bloomsbury Reader debuted this month with an astounding 500 titles in its current list.

Controversy regarding the print publishers climbing into bed with digital publishers originates from agents taking responsibility for converting books and releasing them through eBook distribution platforms.

One thing that agents have insisted again and again in the debates is that industry professionals with any kind of credible reputation for a high standard of ethics will always make the best decisions for their clients.

Whether consumers think publishers are keeping up with the times or selling out remains to be seen. For now, Bloomsbury is resurrecting some out-of-print titles and making them available to a new audience in both digital and print-on-demand formats. That can’t be all bad.

Attitude

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