This! Week!…… Publishing!
The saga that is the Google Books settlement looks like it’s going to take a bit longer to resolve as the Department of Justice urged some changes to the settlement, and the federal judge handling matters postponed a hearing on October 7 to give everyone some time for changes.
Meanwhile: new e-reader device! Verizon, Best Buy and B&N are teaming up to promote the iRex, a reader that will be stocked in Best Buy and will have 3G wireless. Very exciting.
Mike Shatzkin posted recently on an idea that has been percolating, well, a really long time: publishers need to be better at branding, and in particular knowing the difference between business-to-business branding vs. business-to-consumer branding. In other words: I know what the Knopf brand means because I’m a literary agent, but does anyone in a bookstore check the spine before they buy?
The Millions polled a wide range of bookish types on the best novels published so far in the aughts and counted down from twenty. I can’t quibble with the choice for number one.
Over at Slate they asked a very pressing question: when have vampires NOT been popular? The article includes a pretty spectacular graph charting the few times in the last 50 years that vampires haven’t been insanely popular.
The Washington Post recently featured a very good illustration of something you probably already know if you read publishing blogs: authors have to promote themselves. It’s nothing new to those plugged in, but it’s a good illustration of the way things often work these days nonetheless.
Over in the UK, a man sued Tesco for discriminating against his religious beliefs by forcing him to remove his hood while in the store. What makes the story ten shades of awesome is that the guy is the founder of the Jedi religion (yes, Star Wars as actual religion) and he believes being forced to remove his hood in public is humiliating and discriminatory. I can only conclude that his attempts at Jedi-mind tricks on store employees failed. Tesco released a statement noting that Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Luke Skywalker all appeared in public without hoods and only the Emperor always kept his hood on. Ouch. Looks like someone needs to go back to Dagobah to brush up on his Jedi history. (via Boing Boing)
In publishing advice news, the blog How Publishing Really Works has a succinct but incisive post on making the leap from self-published to published. Basically: you gotta have sales.
The Upstart Crow Agency has a bright and shiny new blog, and they ask a very good discussion question: what manuscripts are in your drawer?
Rachelle Gardner has some very good writerly advice: it’s important to have a proactive protagonist.
Almost finally, Margaret Yang was the first to point me to this poem by Jim C. Hines about reading slush……. in the form of a Dr. Seuss poem. Very cool.
And finally finally, this spectacular video combines two of my great loves: time-lapse photography and, well, the San Francisco Bay Area (via Andrew Sullivan). Enjoy!
Another Cloud Reel… from Delrious on Vimeo.
Have a great weekend!
Neat video! Have a great weekend.
Thanks for the links! Have a great weekend yourself.
Hehe. "I can only conclude that his attempts at Jedi-mind tricks on store employees failed." Hehe. You one funny dude, Nathan.
Oh, and Nathan, I wanted to thank you for last week's link to your travel buddy's blog. As a fledgling travel writer, I found her advice very helpful. Thanks again!
Thanks, fixed it.
Agree with The Millions' choice. I've learned so much about dialogue from The Corrections.
The cloud, fog images are beautiful, but I think that's the first time I've seen time lapse of planes landing at night. Neat. Thanks – a fine way to end the day over here in Europe.
re: Jedi – I'm relocating to the UK next month. I love Tesco. Note to self: wear appropriate clothing to supermarket. Leave lightsaber at home.
Whoa. That time-lapse video is made of ultra-magic and sheer awesomeness.
Love the Jedi story! Also made of awesomeness!
Nathan, how many copies of a self-published book are considered good sales numbers?
Hmmmm … I might post a summary of one of my "drawer novels" on the UpStart Crow Agency’s blog. Weird thing is: one of my drawer novels is a political novel set in the future but written years ago, and a whole lot of the things I wrote about came true. (I’m a news junkie and was trying to predict where patterns might lead.) My writing in that novel is not good, though – definitely one of my early practice novels.
Thanks for all the links! Have a great weekend!
Nathan, I'm guessing you didn't quibble with number 6 on the list, either. Happy Friday to all! 🙂
marilyn-
5k is the most common threshold I've seen/heard. At least a few thousand.
Thanks for the sales information, Nathan. Appreciate it!
That video really made me miss California.
I have to admit to being brand conscious of publishers at least in some areas. Computer books for example, tend to generate loyalty (you'll often see nice racks of matching spine designs on the shelves over programmers' desks). Different publishers have different emphases in their editorial processes so picking up an O'Reilly book on a subject is a guarantee of a certain approach to the material.
I'm also partial to Penguin for paperbacks of canon literature (their typography is superior to pretty much everyone else in the space). When I was a younger pup and buying 19th century novels by the pound, I would always pick a Penguin over another edition.
Great recap, Nathan. 🙂
I'm surprised you didn't have anything to say about Punctuation Day, though, considering PMN, HPRW, and a few others were all over it yesterday. There's always next year…
Have a great weekend!
Perhaps many entertainment consumers pass through a vampire-loving stage. I know I had mine… Someone please return my full set of Anne Rice! 🙂
Loved the video!
And that story about the Jedi…pure awesomeness 😛
Too funny about Tesco and the Jedi. And LOVED the Jim C. Hines Dr. Seussical Slush.
It'll be interesting to see how the iRex fares. I like the name, but only because I love dinosaurs the same way six-year-olds love dinosaurs, and thus the name strikes me.
I think publisher branding is more prominent in some genres. I know plenty of SF fans who will give a book more credit if they see it's been published by Tor, but these tend to be only the people who are really into the genre. Not casual fans. On the other hand, the publishers still aren't taking advantage. I've seen plenty of displays along the lines of "The newest book from Author X!" but never "The newest book from Publisher Y!"
Loved the vampire graph. I have a few friends who are sick of the whole craze and who refuse to believe me when I tell them that vampires have pretty much always been popular. Now I can show them proof!
Technically, the Emperor was a Sith. Looks like that guy needs to brush up on his SW religions if he thinks it's against Jedi-ism to remove one's hood.
And I think I've revealed enough of my nerdery for one post. Have a good weekend!
I read THE CORRECTIONS while trapped in a snow storm on Cape Cod one New Year's Eve. I didn't want that book to end.
Nathan: Wonder if you've heard about TriQuarterly's shut-down. Not that it's big news for major publishers, but sad news for folks who enjoy the stuff coming out in lit mags, and for young authors trying to build a track record.
https://tinyurl.com/lf95cy
Fantastic video! Gives you a whole new perspective on SFO. Thanks.
I just got back from San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. I miss it 🙁
I’ve never read The Corrections ,(#1) so I looked it up at Amazon. With over a thousand reviews it got three stars. I might like it since my favorites rarely match with five star Amazon reviews.
However,
“Our distinguished panel selected 20 incredible books as their Best of the Millennium (So Far).” –The Millions
their rating and Amazon’s seem to illustrate a disconnect between literary types and the general public.
By the way I've always loved vampires unitl Twilight.
Aren't we who live in, and around, San Francisco lucky!
Okay, that Jedi thing is the funniest thing I've read in a long time. Every time I think about it I start laughing.
Video = beautiful
I love lists… best books:
Books from top twenty I've read (in my personal order, just for fun)
1. The Road
2. Fortress of Solitude
3. Gilead
4. Mortals
5. Atonement
6. The Known World
7. Middlesex
8. The Corrections
9. Pastoralia
Books already on my To Be Read shelf and waiting eagerly for my greedy little fingers:
1. The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
2. Never Let Me Go
3. Austerlitz
4. 2666
5. Cloud Atlas
6. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
Books I must, apparently, pay closer attention to:
1. American Genius
2. Stranger Things Happen
3. Varieties of Disturbance
4. Twilight of the Superheroes
5. Out Stealing Horses
Anyone read the last five? Thoughts?
Out Stealing Horses is very good.
Vintage, the publisher, happens also to be good at branding. The old design of Vintage Contemporaries — white spine with the author's last name in a patch of colour — made their books stand out on the bookstore shelf, and they publish quality.
Thanks, Andrew.
I should mention I do pay some attention to publishers, too. Might be the day job, though… But, like Andrew, I do note Vintage books. I tend to notice Penguin, too, and perk up at the sign of a Dalkey Archive or Modern Library. And there's some smaller imprints that pique my interest. But some publishers put out a wide swath of things, and the very depth of their catalogue can make it more difficult to brand themselves, perhaps.
Ink,
CLOUD ATLAS = one of my favorite books ever!
I've spent nearly an hour visiting all your links and reading comments… and so on. Way to start the weekend right. Seuss and Jedi… nice.
I'm about to go out on a shopping spree and see how many of those best 20 books I can pick up with this months book budget (which I've doubled, just for fun!). Book shopping is the ONLY type of shopping that I love to death!
Word Veri: bedist. Prejudiced against beds? That's not cool…
wow! some amazing shots in that video. Thanks for the links.
Hmmm. I wonder what it says that three of the five I knew least about were the three short story collections on the list…
Marilyn,
I'm looking at my copy of Cloud Atlas right now…
"Soon, soon, my pretties!"
Great links – thanks Nathan. You really do a service to the writing community every Friday. I only went through a couple – the rest I'll save for the weekend.
I loved the video! I'm absolutely sure I'm in it too. That shot of the bay bridge – that's my car!! That red squiggle there. I wish I'd known – I'd have waved to everyone.
The millions list – well, I could not help but notice the complete lack of Harry Potter books on that list, so phooey on the list. That about covers it for the list.
Whenever I read something like: "you have to have a proactive protagonist," I immediately want to go out and write a story with a protagonist who sits around and stares at a wall until he dies. No offense to Rachelle Gardner, I'm sure she has a good point. I just get contrary that way.
Well, that's my valuable contribution to this Friday, so far. But it's not my fault. I just spent two full days in training learning really important things like: if you are a Social worker, don't sleep with your clients, that's a bad thing to do. Boy, that's good to know. So, like I said, it's not my fault.
Ink,
Curious to see what you think of CLOUD ATLAS. It's unusual.
Mira said:
Whenever I read something like: "you have to have a proactive protagonist," I immediately want to go out and write a story with a protagonist who sits around and stares at a wall until he dies.
———–
LOL. Love it! (And I bet someone, somewhere has written such a story already.) You are hilarious, Mira.
Oooh, a new iRex 🙂
I'm in the UK and have had my 2nd Edition iRex iLiad for about 18 months. I love it, not just for published ebooks, but for reading manuscripts from my writers' group – the built-in digitizer means I can scribble directly on the PDF and export the annotated file back to my laptop. It's not clear if the new iRex 3G digital reader does this…
I was at FantasyCon last weekend, and a couple of editors on a panel about ebooks said they now use ereaders for reading manuscripts, because of the weight factor. The times they are a-changing!
Mira, LMAO as usual!
Marilyn / Ink, I just picked up Cloud Atlas too, as well as the Corrections. There's some stupid football match on today and the whole city is overrun with packs of screaming, painted football zombies, so I think it will be a reading weekend!
Thanks Nathan.
I haven't been able to click on all the links, and haven't read all the comments, but I wanted to address the Vampire issue. And then I got distracted by the Clouds. Beautiful video; soothing music. Who did the music, BTW, if you know?
You see, I've always been a fan of vampires, and didn't need Twilight to jump start me. (Besides, the first I heard about Twilight was the movie, and I wasn't impressed, and haven't been inclined to purchase the novel(s) though many people tell me its a must read.)
I don't have HBO, so can't watch True Blood, though everyone has told me I'd really enjoy it. As for Interview With The Vampire – well, Lestat is my all time favorite. But I have to agree with Slates perception that there have been vampire droughts, but they have ALWAYS been popular characters in literature.
I believe the most current slump in the vampire popularity was the Zombie craze. First came Dawn of the Dead, then Resident Evil (and a video game to boost the popularity) and the comedy spoof Shaun of the Dean, and lets not forget Doom.
Nah; vampires don't die out, and neither do Werewolves. Even if sales fall off for a few years, all the world loves a vampire; right?
………dhole
Doing the backwards thing again!
Ink: I've never heard of the novels on your last five list.
But on your list of 9 from the top twenty you've read, I've been wanting to read all but the last two. Never heard of either.
The Road; ah . . . thats one that tops my to be read list. My birthday is coming up, and I'm sure no one will think to buy me that. I'll get a new set of pajamas instead I'm sure.
Oh, to be a book store owner! I'd never have time to talk with the customers; I'd be too busy reading.
……..dhole
Thanks for the links Nathan.
The name choice for the new e-reader (iRex) perplexes me. At first I thought it was the long awaited e-reader from Apple (but of course when that finally comes out I assume it will me more then just an e-reader.) I wonder how many people will think because of the (i) that it has something to do with Apple?
I'm embarrassed to say that I've read very few of those books, but I have read #1 (I have issues), and #15 was written by one of the few writing teachers I ever had, Lydia Davis – an amazing teacher. I learned a ton of stuff from her. Hard to believe that the class was only a quarter long.
The video makes the city not that foggy – genius!
Mira,
That was you? I thought you were more of a yellow squiggle, myself…
Marilyn & Jen,
Yeah, I'm looking forward to Cloud Atlas. And I'm much fond of unusual. So hopefully it's the right kind of unusual for me.
Donna,
Customers are pushy! Always coming up to me and saying "Here, take my money! Go on, take it! Take it!" Damn people.
Oh, and all nine of those books are really good. The Road and Fortress of Solitude are two of my all time favourite books, and Gilead is close behind. And the next three are brilliant, too. And the last three are very, very good. The Corrections is a family dysfunction sort of novel, of Oprah-spurning fame. Yes, the author told her to talk to the hand! Major outrage. And Pastoralia is an odd collection by an odd writer. I'm actually looking at another book by that author (George Saunders) right now, called The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip, which is an illustrated picture book for… ancient alien children? Surrealists doing past-life regression? I don't know. But it's interesting.
Anon 5:45,
Really well known books almost never have really high ratings. They draw out people who love to bash whatever's popular or good. You get a lot of reviews like "Everybody's totally wrong on this book because it sucks cigars. I gave it one star and that's only because I couldn't give it a zero."
They tend to bring down the rating a lot.
And a lot of great books also get a sort of polarized effect. Cormac McCarthy, for instance, tends to get a ton of 5 stars… and a lot of 1 star reviews. (Usually saying "What the hell?")
Amazone ratings are an interesting adventure.
Anon @5:45 said…
"I’ve never read The Corrections ,(#1) so I looked it up at Amazon. With over a thousand reviews it got three stars. I might like it since my favorites rarely match with five star Amazon reviews."
I know people who couldn't even look at the book after the first few pages. A friend of mine who is an agent couldn't stand it. I think this is one of those books you either love or hate. I loved it.
Awesome video 🙂 The scenery makes me want to visit your area of the world. The traffic – not so much!
Love the dingbat jedi-wannabe. Too funny 🙂
Ink,
I also love GILEAD – so beautifully written.
Marilyn,
Yeah, it is. Gorgeous prose, but so subtly and carefully woven out of the voice of the character. Virtuoso, I thought.