SUCCESS SHOULDN'T BE A ONE-SIDED COIN

Status: On vacation till the end of the month due to a lot going on.

Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)

Watching: Nothing at the moment.

Listening to: Taped music from C-89.5 (Seattle): "Military Fashion Show"--by And One; "Dead Enough For Life"--by Icon of Coil; "Paper Angels"--by Punta Aga

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 404.

STAR TREK-THE NEXT GENERATION: WAR DRUMS. Page 78.

TOPIC: THE FEW THINGS NOT BEING TAUGHT BY THE MAINSTREAM

In a recent debate of minds with a fellow writera and author over the issue of NCP screwing its authors out of their livelihood--hook, line, and bad stinker!--I posted some things about the relationship between the publisher and the author; and what they should do to ensure that success befalls them both--and not become a one-sided love affair that enriches one lover while spurning the other.

True, I'm always preaching to the choir over matters when it comes to things like business, fame, money, and name-recognition.

But it's always good to try and keep engaging the internet community whenever I can. :0)

***

Sara:

I know that. All I’m saying, is I’m going to try something different with what I want to do. There’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer.

At least I can sit here and say: “I have a vision. I have a dream.”

Most people don’t have them anymore. Everybody is seen struggling to make ends meet–and it’s just…disheartening. To say the least. People have stopped dreaming--for the most part--because their lives have left them feeling empty and without a reason to keep reaching for something special.

Myself? I’ve never had a shortage of ideas, dreams, and what have you. But practicality-wise? Things are a bit more challenging in real life than they are on the surface.

But it doesn’t stop me from trying anyway. It’s what has made my endeavors so interesting.

I get a lot of people telling me: “It can’t be done.”

And I say: “Why not?” And that’s where I have them.

Because no one thinks outside the box. We are so consumed with our linear existances, we never stop to imagine if things can be done differently–apart from the conventional and traditional business models.

You know? Mix things up. Add a little spice to our lives. Shake the tree and see what falls.

But given the odds that very few authors make that establishment of money in the long-term, there’s no real harm in trying what I’ve just discussed and shared.

People tell me: “Sky: You’re nuts.”

And I’m like: “Yeah? So tell me something I don’t already know.”

In order to survive, we have to be a little crazy. I’m sure Nora Roberts and authors like her thought along the same way–once or twice–when they started out writing.

Everyone has to start somewhere. We can’t go on being afraid of our shadows or the unknown every time we come across something we know little about.

That’s what I keep trying to impress upon people.

We’re too terrified a nation to even embrace the possibilities–we are always going back to what’s already been a broken-down system which offers little in return.

But seeing how so many people are being taken advantage of by their publishers or agents (even editors), I’m just going to draw up a simple contract that addresses the rights of the author in regards to the company, and make it pointedly clear that if something were to happen to myself or the company falls on hard times–the rights revert back to the author and any royalties earned for that year shall be paid to that author without delay.

No questions asked. NOTHING to hinder or impede the author. I don’t like dealing with courts and I’m certain that the authors don’t either.

I look at what’s happening here and it just infuriates me that there are some publishers whom just don’t give one whit about author rights and contractual obligations.

I want to change that perception. That’s one of my goals as an aspiring publisher. I don’t think that’s so wrong, is it?

But I won’t sit there in my chair, and pull the same crap over and over again–that NCP and others have–because they can, because they have the money and the power, and because (like I’ve read from Ellen Ashe’s blog entries), these “fakes” think that authors don’t have any real authority to challenge them on the matter in question.

I believe that in order for a publisher to be successful, they have to work with their respective clients, address any problems forthwith, and have a good line of communication open.

I’ve seen how divided this nation has become. One side against the other. Neither one wanting to budge because either side stringently believes that they are in the right.

With this…? The publisher and the author each have their respective obligations. Their respective duties. One publishes the book, one writes the book.

But…

They can work together also, they can bridge the gap of any differences or any problems which often pop up–from time to time.

But it can’t be one-sided–as it has been: Where the publisher leaves the author hanging with little or no “tech support” to help them with getting onboard and going strong–once their book is published.

Nowadays, the top 1% of published (established) authors get most of the lion’s share of the help and the newbies just get screwed, blued, and tatooed.

How fair is that? Does that do anything for the author–let alone the publisher? We all know that advertising and publishing costs are going to infinity and beyond (to coin a phrase), but should that mean that the publisher deep-sixes their new acquisition because times may be tough; and they can only spare enough time, effort, and money for their more priviledged few clientele?

I don’t think so.

But that’s what is happening, Sara. How many of us first-time authors have made a healthy living from our books in recent years? I can’t remember a single one myself. Every new book comes and goes, and very few fresh faces are tagged for a follow up novel.

The success rates for first-time authors is horrendous. Which is why I’ve been pushing for more cooperation between the author and the publisher. Make it mutually beneficial for both parties, so that the pair can win in the end.

We have to get more involved if we are going to survive.

Both sides have to get creative and start thinking about what they want to do, what they want to accomplish, and find a way to get there together.

That’s what brings in the money! All this yo-yoing around from one author to the next is just creating unneccessary expenditures for the publisher in question.

And not so much profit towards the end. And while the publisher may--more or less--survive the experience, the majority of authors burned by such dealings (or relationships) do not.

Even in economic tough times such as this one, both parties can still find ways to work together–instead of being driven apart solely on one issue or the next.

This is a team effort after all. Or am I wrong on this?

What NCP is doing is taking a page from Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: “So long and thanks for all the fish.”

Sky

BOOKSELLERS IN A PINCH.

Status: On vacation.

Doing: Writing on this blog; answering e-mails; working out, and well...you know the rest! :0)

Watching: TV still offline.

Listening to: Nothing at the moment.

Reading: Kushiel's Scion. Page 288.

STAR TREK: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD-BOOK 1. Page 206.


TOPIC: TANKING ECONOMY FORCES CHANGES IN BOOK INDUSTRY

Despite some reservations about e-books and independent book sellers, many publishers are now having to come to grips with not only a changing economy, but the changing face of book publishing.

***

Booksellers talk big, act quietly at convention

LOS ANGELES (AP) — They spoke of revolution this weekend at BookExpo America, of changing how we read and how we shop.

But the biggest noise happened miles away from the Los Angeles Convention Center, at the Beverly Hills mansion of Prince.

"It was quiet, very quiet," Simon & Schuster CEO and president Carolyn Reidy said of the industry's annual national gathering, which lacked a "buzz" book or spectacular speech, but did offer a rare private concert from the enigmatic rock star.

"I think when this is over, we're going to do some soul searching," said CEO David Shanks of Penguin Group (USA). "There are people in this hall who have spent way more than a million dollars at a time when we all should be pinching pennies."

The numbers were harsh at BookExpo. New annual releases keep increasing (more than 276,000, according to researchers R.R. Bowker), while the number of books purchased is expected to drop, according to a report by the Book Industry Study Group, an industry-supported organization.

But the visions were big. In simultaneous presentations over the weekend, held in nearby conference rooms, Amazon.com head Jeff Bezos and the American Booksellers Association, representatives of the country's independent stores, each talked of revolutionizing the business.

Bezos continued his advocacy of the Kindle e-book reader, billed as "revolutionary" by the retailer, although at this point more as a concept than as a way of life. His talk disappointed many attendees, who had hoped that he would announce some major news, but it did continue the ongoing discussion of the e-future. Reidy said Simon & Schuster would make thousands of additional titles available on the Kindle, even as one famous futurist, "Fahrenheit 451" novelist Ray Bradbury, envisioned only paper.

"There is no future for e-books because they are not books," said Bradbury, speaking to The Associated Press before a convention lunch Friday. "E-books smell like burned fuel."

While Bezos pushed the Kindle, officials at the ABA's annual "town hall" meeting rallied for their new marketing/branding campaign, IndieBound. Association president Russ Lawrence described it as, ideally, "a movement, a revolution, a force of nature" that would inspire the public not just to shop at independent bookstores, but at other kinds of locally-owned retailers. Booksellers, Lawrence announced, would soon be receiving "Literary Liberation" boxes that include cards, stickers and other materials meant to build communities nationwide.

The response was positive from a bookselling community that continues to shrink, nationwide, thanks in part to Amazon.com. Core membership dropped to 1,524 as of this spring, 56 fewer than the year before, and booksellers filled less than half of the roughly 500 chairs set up for their meeting. Still, said ABA vice president Gayle Shanks, noting that more new stores have opened in recent years, "We're on the way up, not on the way down."

Publishers wished success for IndieBound, but Reidy and Shanks questioned whether the public distinguishes between shopping at local stores and shopping at an independent, saying that a neighborhood bookshop could be a Barnes & Noble.

"I don't think people see it in terms of independents or chains. A bookstore is a bookstore," said Shanks, who doubted, with sadness, whether independents can regain their old power. "Real estate is major. It's not lost on people that the most successful independents often are in out of the way places. They have been ceded those areas."

The idea of "revolution" differed among attendees, like Deborah Shnookel of the Ocean Press, which publishes "radical books" about Latin America and will issue the tie-in to Steven Soderbergh's epic film about Che Guevara. "A lot of smaller stores and publishers have been wiped out by the so-called revolution in publishing," she said, referring to the industry's dramatic consolidation over the past two decades.

"When it comes to revolution in the business, I'm kind of a reactionary. I'm one of those people who'd like to see things go back to the good old days."

Guevara likely would have sympathized with the roughly 300 food workers at the convention center who staged a brief walkout Saturday, in protest over wages and benefits, according to union leaders. BookExpo staffers helped serve lunch in the main ballroom, where the news was taken far more lightly than if one scheduled speaker, filmmaker/activist Michael Moore, had not been forced to cancel because his plane was stuck in Chicago.

Few releases at BookExpo inspired widespread interest, although attendees spoke hopefully about such novels as Marilynne Robinson's "Home," Andrew Davidson's "The Gargoyle" and "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society," co-authored by Mary Ann Shaffer, who died recently, and her niece, Annie Barrows. The real buzz boomed from the amps of Prince, who kept his guests — and perhaps some neighbors — up late with a poolside, after-after hours concert, in promotion for a planned book in the fall.

Publishers are better at indulging rock stars than behaving like them, as noticed by guitarist Don Felder, the former Eagle whose memoir, "Heaven and Hell," was just released. "Publishing people seem very upfront, very decent and very honest," he told the AP, adding with a laugh, "I don't think they'd last long in the music business."

The past matters for book people, who regret the decline of independent stores and adore the paper text. Shanks complains that the convention is in a "time warp," yet speaks fondly of a simple, low-tech tradition: Walking the floor in search of new books, like when some 20 years ago he spotted a novel being released by The Naval Institute.

"I didn't even know the Navy published novels, but I thought this had potential. We bought it for $49,000," he says, smiling at the memory of how he acquired Tom Clancy's "The Hunt for Red October."