Tag Archives: Books

The Next Big Book

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(Formerly posted as my website home page text)

The Saturday Evening Post recently picked up a pandemic-influenced story I wrote. It is about a chain of events that could happen to anyone, but are different because this is 2020.

Writers are wondering how the pandemic will impact what people want to read. Will novels written in 2018 remain relevant with the social changes experienced this year? As racial, economic, political, and geographical divides widen, can any one person truly write the American story? Can writers still tell the stories they want to tell or do changing cultural norms define what a writer is allowed to write?

This whole chain of questions sent me to Publishers Lunch to see what publishers were buying for their 2021 offerings. As the economy weakens, the first lesson is that publishers are buying fewer titles. The second observation is nonfiction titles are bubbling along at about the same clip. A third observation is the presence international and diversity in fiction and memoir.

Of course more titles will flood the market through indie presses and self-publishing than the traditional route so what 2021 will bring to book consumers is largely unknown. No one can predict whether new books released will match consumers’ pandemic-era interests. You can bring a book to market, but book readers chose what they want to read.

In 2010 Time magazine named Jonathan Franzen the great American novelist. That’s been a title bequeathed to mostly middle-class, middle-age, white men. Depending on your age and reading preferences, it can be difficult to find yourself in their work. As 2020 rolls toward 2021, Franzen’s work reflects an indulgent white upper middle class perspective that always felt odd, but now is purely outdated. Something is surely replacing that tradition. Which brings the original question back into play– how will the pandemic impact what people want to read. What will be relevant?

And how does a writer respond?

Ken Follett, Jodi Picoult and Phillipa Gregory

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Under my desk a hardbound copy of Ken Follett’s Edge of Eternity acts as the perfect footrest. The first two volumes of The Century Trilogy were placed in the hands of other readers, but the Edge of Eternity replaced Bill Clinton’s My Life when a friend asked for that biography.

Jodi Picoult dominated one of the seven shelves of books in my office until some of her titles were rotated to guest rooms or the basement bookcase. Phillipa Gregory had been sent to my mother-in-law to be shared among her Indiana reading group.

Some authors are like Facebook friends who post about a puppy, a grandchild, a new writing project, a spectacular vacation then disappear for months. I trust a short list of these writers with my time and attention without a lot more expectations. When they have a new release I’ll invest in the real thing, a hardcover or paperback, not an e-book. If I’m disappointed I’ll give them another chance to regain their favorite reads position. And if one of them passes, I feel sad that their voice is gone.

At this time of the year when purging season is high I admit that books by these three have been shuffled into a bag for recycling at The Peninsula Bookman. Peter Sloma has customers who look for these popular names. It’s a fair trade. I get store credit to shop and my books go home with happy readers.

Except for Edge of Eternity, which is just the right height for when I’m sitting up straight and working on my own writing. It might be time for Fall of Giants to give up its shelf space, but not its nice hardbound friend under my feet.

Local Author Fair 2017

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What could be more fun than holiday gift or winter reading shopping at event featuring 30 local authors chosen by librarians and readers? Please come join us at the Local Author Fair 2017 on Saturday, November 18, noon to 4 p.m. at the Galaxie Library in Apple Valley, MN.

Laurie Hertzel, book journalist and editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is the keynote speaker. The Loft Literary Center will conduct two free workshops.

Books, speakers, networking….a grand afternoon.

Kindle topping pile of books

Kindle topping pile of books

Mix and Match Social Media

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Kindle topping pile of books

Some writers spend half the year driving to bookstores, church fairs, and events to sell very few books at each. They don’t cover expenses; much less earn enough to give up their day jobs. Some are aggressive with their social media management. They’ve been told they need to be on all social media sites, that the more titles they publish the more people will recognize their brands, and the closer they will be to the tipping point of success. Published by small publishers, they have almost no marketing support and run on dreams and trust.

This is a turbulent time for creators of artistic content. Writers once made a living selling short stories to magazines. Now many markets charge submission fees. The number of self-published book titles in 2013 increased 17 percent over 2012 and 437 percent over 2008. Like the music industry, the large publishing houses assume less risk by signing fewer unknown authors. Those published have weeks for their books to meet ambitious sales targets or lose support.

Calumet Editions, my publisher, has built an e-world marketing strategy that includes a website and an aggressive Twitter presence. Through a traditional distributor, it uses a print on demand approach with minimal inventory. It is a new marketing model that has empty spaces that are different than those of the very traditional small press that published my first four books without social media or ebook strategies. Indie flowers-cover-200bookstores would like to have The High Cost of Flowers, a Midwest Book Awards winner, on their shelves, but don’t always have the hours needed to add another distributor to their business.

What makes sense for my work to be discovered by readers? Here’s what I discovered:

Women over 45 account for 58% of all books purchased. They rely on personal recommendations and like to visit bookstores. More Americans own tablets, but still almost 70 percent read traditional books. That distinction doesn’t vary much by demographic group. Young people are more likely to read ebooks than older people, but they’re also likely to read paperbacks.

As of 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites. Highest networking use is in the 18 and 49 age categories where over 82% use networking sites. At age 50 networking sites use drops to 65%. About 71% of online adults use Facebook. Only 28% use Twitter.

Doing fancy calculations that means about 15 out of every 100 online adults over 49, and 19 out of those between 19 and 49, might see a tweet. BI Intelligence found Twitter use leans toward males with 22% of online men tweeting and 15% of online women.

Follow me on FacebookWhere are the women I hope to reach? Some are not online. Those who are find their way to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Pinterest is leader in online shopping because of food sites. Facebook still claims top of the heap for other sales. The challenge for me is to pinpoint a social networking strategy to connect me with a primary demographic of women in their 30s through 60s.

I’ll share how I intend to augment my publisher’s strategy to connect with that group in my next blog.

 

 

Why Buy That Book?

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With hundreds of thousands of new book titles released every year, the possibility of making a good choice to read on that next plane ride is a crapshoot. Back cover blurbs can be asBookshelf transparent as real estate listings. Does a 1912 love story gone bad really deserve a historical novel classification? What are the risks of purchasing a debut mystery? What exactly does feminist mean in describing an author? How much subject information does a true biography require?

Our book club just finished a five hundred and eighty-six page novel that promised one thing and delivered a whole different story that none of us found enjoyable. After a brief discussion about why we were disappointed our talk turned to flawed character development, ponderous pacing and a weak ending. Finally we shared our experiences with making book choices. We’re all frugal individuals and avid readers, but all of us had set aside at least one title in the past two months, often on a pile of others that failed to deliver on their marketing buzz. Of course, some of those titles are in our cloud book piles eating up digital storage space instead of shelves and floors.

How to avoid that experience? Some book buyers rely on the recommendations of friends. Others go to social media for input. Independent booksellers know their stock and enjoy talking with buyers. Small publishers often have honest back blurbs known to those who favor certain niches. Reading reviews from more than one source can reveal delicious or unpleasant facts. With a smartphone, even airport buyers have access to information beyond the back cover.

You could choose to stick with a short list of favorite authors and selectively pick your way through similar writers. Even that approach will land a few stinkers. I know people who buy many 99-cent ebooks hoping at least one will be a find.

Busy lives, crowded airplanes, too few beach vacation days mean wrong choices waste something often more valuable than the book’s purchase price–time when we could have been enjoying a good read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Book Festivals

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Remember when the Scholastic Book Fair was set up in the hallways at your school? With clean order forms and a pencil in hand, you and your class got to walk through the stacks and pick out books that birthday money or your parents might buy. Then there were the cool stickers and trinkets that could only be bought during the event. It was hard to stretch your dollars during this once a year delight.

Zoom through a few decades to attending a regional book festival as an author. You do a short reading to a small audience then stand at your publisher’s booth to help sell books.  That’s called a signing, but is really a selling. It’s a heady experience to wear an author nametag and be a part of something so vibrant. There are hundreds, make that thousands, of new titles displayed across the publisher and book store booths. It’s hard to not be intimidated as lines of buyers snake around stanchions to wait for one of the national authors to sign his book. People pick up books to save for Christmas gifting. The book festival is the closest equivalent for an adult Scholastic Book Fair.

Zoom ahead a handful of years to the same book festival. National authors present on the hour in rooms around the display floor. There are a few panel presentations on publicity and regional writing for authors. Writers from other publishers wander while waiting for their scheduled signing time. In fact most of the people who stop by the booth are more interested in talking about how you found a publisher. They’re not buying books or magazines. Many are middle-age with hopes to publish a story they have always wanted to write about growing up on a farm or raising a special child or angels leading people out of an apocalyptic event. Everyone’s talking, but people are walking out with little more than business cards and book marks. Publishers hope there will be a bump in electronic sales.

Change comes slowly or plows through like an uncontrollable circular wind. Maybe regional book festivals will go virtual in the future with authors doing Skype readings and publications offering reading samples and who knows what else. Cool idea, but I’ll miss the excitement of meeting authors and touching so many, many books.

 

Did I Tell You about Getting Sick?

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So I spent a week in sick bay. Got some good fiction writing done between coughing attacks. Maybe traveling country roads with a fictional father and son was easier than dealing with a very real temperature and aching body. Maybe I’ll read those pages in a few weeks and ask “what was I thinking” then remember that I wasn’t really thinking very much.

Fortunately I don’t get hauled under by wandering viral sicknesses very often because I am a restless patient. With three unread books waiting for quiet time, I paged through magazines and played computer games and listened to music. Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich was carried from room to room then in the car to and from Door County.  I reread the first twenty pages a few times and look forward to starting over soon and losing myself to her storytelling.

The news of Helen Gurley Brown’s passing almost made me purchase the latest Cosmopolitan, but I’m of a different generation than its readers. My magazine shopping as a young woman was an odd collection of Cosmo, Ms., Good Housekeeping, Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune. You could say I was not defined by gender. You could think I was unfocused. In reality I like good writing and interesting editors. It is a good thing today that magazines are so expensive or we would be filling our recycling bin at an alarming rate with the number of newspapers and magazines that could be coming to our house.

No excuses this week. After I clear another layer of stuff off my desk, make sure my calendar is up to date and the bills are paid, I will get back to my daily routine.

 

Risk Sharing

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A key member of a small press asked why a publisher should accept financial risk for bringing a writer’s work to the market.  His company expected writers to share in the cost of producing books and marketing, usually thousands of dollars. They are not unique.

I can’t totally agree. As a freelance writer producing work for Fortune 500 companies, I’m not asked to assume financial risk for the success of a website or video. The corporation’s investment in the content I create is a relatively small portion of the total project cost. The creative agency and production company charge major dollars for their work. They aren’t placed at financial risk either. The corporation knows what it wants to achieve and invests appropriately. If the message doesn’t resonate with consumers, the corporation assumes responsibility for making a bad decision.

Applying that business model to publishing, the responsibility remains with a publisher to make well-researched decisions about content they want to bring to market and make appropriate investments. In an ideal world, if a publisher asks for a writer to share financial risk, they should first make the business case—what is the market, how will this book compete, what are the costs, what are the opportunities.

Again in an ideal world, I would push this same concept into businesses marketing self-publishing services. Self-publishing companies need  the integrity to tell a writer if a manuscript isn’t ready for release or doesn’t have a natural market. If that company can’t help the writer develop a viable marketing plan, then the writer should know they are contracting with  a printer of books. Maybe that printing company offers an imprint, but in today’s world that may not have a whole lot of value to a writer looking for a partner in selling books. Publishers understand how to be successful in the publishing marketplace. Printers know how to design and print books.

Perhaps the search for approval (aka an agent and/or a contract) makes us gullible and thankful when a self-publishing company responds to a query. Instead of thinking as creators of valuable content, we might be relieved that somebody wants to help publish our manuscript. We write checks, follow directions and wait for something great to happen. Well, maybe not great, but at least something more significant than having boxes of your book dropped on the driveway.

I want my publisher to know more about the market than I do and to share business data if they propose risk sharing. If I assume all the risk and self-publish, I hope to spend wisely by building a team of the best pros I can afford to bring a polished work to the market.

Now, back to working on the new novella. As always, the writing might be easier than the selling.

 

Common Good Books

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We visit a bookstore about once a week. Until Common Good Books moved to its new location, our default selection was a big box bookseller because that is what exists in our part of the Twin Cities. We always enjoyed the cozy basement quarters of the old Common Good Books, but getting there wasn’t easy.

This week Faith Sullivan and I did readings at Common Good Books featuring women leading their families out of bad economic times. St. Paul was having one of those grand June evenings and people drifted in from neighboring areas. We were at home as surely as if we were gathering in Faith’s backyard or my living room. Folks making their way to the reading area greeted each other by name and shared stories. Other writers took seats to show their support. There was Carol Connolly, St. Paul’s Poet Laureate, Roger Barr known for his Christmas stories in the Villager, Paul Zerby whose Korean era book was on a table beyond the audience, Charles Locks searching the shelves for his book about life in the Virgin Islands.

Some of the other two dozen people recognized a writer they knew and a grand June night became more special. While grateful for the remaining national booksellers, readings in Garrison Keillor‘s bookstore have panache because the person in the chair next to you might have their name on the spine of a book in a shelf right behind the podium. Or maybe they live next door to your kid’s soccer coach or bring their dog to the same groomer. At the very least, they might live in the neighborhood known as St. Paul.

 

 

Your First Book Reading

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You’ve been asked to do a reading. Start your thinking with these realities:

  • Some writers would rather paint walls than read their work out loud to an audience.  Some authors are so enamored with their own words that they tend to forget an audience exists.
  • Some adults love to close their eyes and sink into the sound of another person reading out loud.
  • Some adults close their eyes while another adult reads out loud because the whole experience is a bit uncomfortable.

Even the most polished reader performer needs to think carefully about the opportunity and ask a few questions:

  • Who will be in the audience?
  • What is the occasion?
  • What are the facilities like?
  • How many minutes have been designated?
  • Are there any special requests?

The occasion, audience, and setting really define the structure of a reading. Asking questions helps build a relationship with your host. A bookstore owner might like you to sit on a chair on a platform, to stand without a stand for your book, to use a microphone or not use a microphone, to keep the presentation to twenty minutes or to use a half hour followed by an open discussion. You’ll feel more comfortable and do better if you’re not surprised by the requirements of the store’s space.

An invitation can be ambiguous. For example, I was invited to present to a group of retired school teachers. The program committee debated whether their group would be more interested in the writing and publishing process with a short reading or would the speculative genre be a topic that intrigued the luncheon group with time for questions? Their final decision was delightful—as a group of teachers they had spent years reading to others and wanted to be entertained by a half hour reading with a short question and answer period.

Once you know the facts, you can better prepare your materials. Doing a reading is a great opportunity to market your book. It is an even better opportunity to market yourself as a writer. Adults who might squirm while you read will engage if you talk about your writing—why you wrote this book, what you learned while writing it, humorous stories about your characters or your family’s response to the story. They want to hear more about you and why they should consider spending the time and money to read your book.

This is about entertainment.  People could be doing other activities if they weren’t in a chair facing you. If you have a half hour, divide the time into talking and reading. Maybe you spend time setting up the book. You could talk about the main characters and a few quirky details about each then follow that up with reading an excerpt to support what you shared. You might talk about your experience biking to work in the city then read an interesting or humorous segment.  If you have the right audience, you might read a tender-hearted segment that touches their emotions.  Just remember: balance talking and reading.

Practice, both your comments and your book segment:

  • Be sure you have control of your timing. The audience is trusting you will respect their time and keep them engaged.  A reading that ends five minutes early is far better than extending ten minutes long.  If they want an encore, be prepared.
  • Control your voice. Mix up your volume and tempo. Listeners should be able to tell there are two characters speaking in a segment. Read out to the audience, not to your book.  Tape your practices and have a good friend give you constructive feedback. No mumbling, droning or yelling allowed. Think about listening to drive time radio or play by play commentators or a newscast. An audience needs your verbal clues to know how to respond to the material. You can be dramatic when you read. Surprise your readers.
  • Relax your body and look at the friendly people who have gathered. Small groups allow for individual eye contact and interesting two way conversations. Be personable. Just as in public speaking, keep your hands out of your pockets and avoid any annoying habits like pushing that one strand of hair behind your ear over and over.
  • While many writers prefer to read from manuscripts because they can increase font size and insert prompts or pauses, others have strong feelings that you lose a valuable marketing opportunity by not holding the actual book. If you use a printed manuscript, you might insert it in a binder and paste a copy of the book cover on the side facing the audience. You could also bring along a book holder and stand one on the podium or table.

Enjoy the discussion time. There are few better ways to collect readers’ reactions than to hear from them.  In fact, enjoy the entire opportunity. Take a bow. You’re a writer that people want to meet. If you want a different perspective, read the Toastmasters International advice on book reading.