A Writer's Life

When a Wanna-Be Publisher Becomes a Scammer

Scam-busting author Victoria Strauss' post on Writer Beware about the fraud judgments levied against Linda Daly's Light Sword Publishing has provoked an interesting debate on her blog. Along the way, Strauss has made some important distinctions between a genuine "small press" and a pseudo-publisher:

There are many excellent small presses, which function entirely professionally and are taken seriously by readers, writers, and publishing professionals. Reputable small presses have always been an honorable alternative to large commercial houses, and there are more of them now than ever. These professional small presses, however, are NOT equivalent to the Light Swords of the world, which are run like pocket dictatorships by people who know absolutely nothing about editing, publishing, or book marketing--never mind running a business--and aren't interested in learning.

I want to take that a step further (as I did on her blog). I'm on the Mystery Writers of America's membership committee, which reviews applications from publishers who want to be on our Approved Publishers list. In that capacity, I've encountered an astonishing number of so-called "small publishers" who turned out to be nothing more than aspiring writers who bought some ISBN numbers and opened an account with a POD company.

These pseudo-publisher are a mix of true scammers (like PublishAmerica, Airleaf, etc.) and people who set out to do no harm but simply have no clue what being an "editor" and a "publisher" really involves.

To me, an inexperienced "publisher" becomes a scammer when they start touting marketing, editorial and publishing experience they don't actually have, when they make promises they know they can't keep, and when they begin charging authors to get into print (another sign is when a court declares them guilty of defrauding authors, as is the case with Light Sword).

The authors are inevitably tainted by their association with a scammer or an inept wanna-be publisher. As Victoria says:

This is not to say that good books can't be published by amateur micropresses. [...] The enormous number of unpublishable books with which society has been lumbered as a result of the proliferation of micropresses--not to mention the POD self-publishing services--is an annoyance and a nuisance, but the real tragedy of all these faux publishing options, in my opinion, is that they can entrap writers whose books deserved better.

That said, the aspiring writers entrap themselves with their desperation, impatience, gullibility, and their laziness.

The majority of writers who have been scammed by PublishAmerica, Authorhouse, Airleaf, Tate, Quiet Storm, Light Sword and countless other vanity presses and pseudo-publishers could have easily avoided their fate by using common sense, doing a tiny bit of research, and asking some basic questions about the professional qualifications and experience of the people they were getting into business with BEFORE signing a contract. Others were simply looking for a short cut and discovered the hard way that there aren't any. But I think Victoria said it best:

There are any number of reasons why writers ignore clear warning signals, including the frustration of a long and unfruitful publication search. Other writers, of course, don't take the time to learn about the field they're trying to break into, and don't know what the warning signs are. But whatever the reasons writers fall victim to schemes and scams and amateurs--and with every effort to maintain respect and compassion for those victims--writers need to understand that THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE for educating themselves, for researching their options, and for making informed (as opposed to wishful or ego-driven) decisions.We don't help them by pretending that this isn't so.

UPDATE: Blogger Michele Lee makes a strong case (with great links) that it's time that authors took more responsibility for their poor choices:

The blame lies with both parties of course. Much of the behavior of scammers and crappy publishers is reprehensible and inexcusable. But there is so much information available to writers these days. We don’t live in the world of ten years ago. There are so many places to research agencies and publishers these days (and for free!). I simply do not understand. There’s no excuse anymore, other than sheer newness, not to be a well researched. I suspect the professional publishing world is starting to view things this way as well and the tolerance for lazy writers is severely plummeting.

Reheating Leftovers

Author Frank Kane liked his writing so much, he reused the same lines over and over, as Marvin Lachman reveals over at Mystery File:

Poisons Unknown, page 63: “Gabby Benton was on her second cup of coffee, third cigarette, and fourth fingernail when Johnny Liddell stepped out of a cab. . . ”

Red Hot Ice, page 18: “Muggsy Kiely was on her third cup of coffee and her fourth fingernail when Johnny Liddlell walked into….”

Red Hot Ice, page 27: “Her legs were long, sensuously shaped. Full rounded thighs swelled into high-set hips, converged into a narrow waist. Her breasts were firm and full, their pink tips straining upward.”

Poisons Unknown, page 182: “The whiteness of her body gleamed in the reflected light from the windows. Her legs were long, sensuously shaped. Full rounded thighs swelled into high-set hips, converged into the narrow waist he had admired earlier in the evening. Her breasts were full and high, their pink tips straining upward.”

This is just a small sampling of Kane's laziness. There's much, much more...

Mr. Monk and the Blog Reviews

MR. MONK GOES TO GERMANY is author/publisher/editor/reviewer/man-of-the-world Ed Gorman's favorite Monk book so far. He says, in part:

For me the only thing more fun than watching Monk is reading the adventures Lee Goldberg creates for him.

[...]As usual Mr. Goldberg not only keeps the story rolling, he also gives us a plenty of smiles and out-loud laughs along the way. This time he gives a sense of a foreign milieu as well, some very sly travel commentary from time to time. The Monk books take a series that is one of the best on TV and makes it even better. No small accomplishment. I can't wait for the next one

But if that wasn't flattering enough, Ed goes on to talk about my novel THE MAN WITH THE IRON-ON BADGE.

Whenever I review one of Lee's books I feel guilty if I don't mention his masterpiece, The Man With The Iron-On Badge. This is a novel that pays tribute to the classic private eyes by introducing a funny, cranky, sly and very bright guy named Harvey Mapes who between honoring his twin obsessions junk food and crime fiction on page and tv screen manages to become more than just a security guard--he becomes a private eye, kind of.

[...]The mystery here is cleverly drawn and not without grit and real suspense. The other aspect is the tour of LA that Lee/Harvey takes us on. Too much of LA fiction plays the usual songs. But the cunning detail in Iron-On Badge makes everything from gated communities to eating at Denny's seem brand new. This is because we're seeing it through the eyes of a burned-out working class guy who takes us inside his dotty but endearing fantasy life.

This is one of those novels that will be around for a long, long time. It's that good.

I hope he's right, though the book is hard-to-find. I still haven't managed to get a deal for a mass market paperback edition...but I'm working on it.

Thanks so much, Ed!

Inside THE MIDDLEMAN

Slice of SciFi has a lengthy and very entertaining Q&A interview with my friend Javier Grillo Marxuach about the development and production of his new ABC Family series THE MIDDLEMAN. Warning: his enthusiasm and glee for TV is infectious.

Actually, the best day was when they had the Harrier jet here. They had like half a jet in the stage and we were climbing in it and doing all that. Yes, it was good. I’m sure that there are other shows where people have a ton of fun and all that, but I’m sure that they don’t have this kind of fun on Law & Order, you know; I can tell you that right now.

Which WANTED Do You Want?

German screenwriter Torsten Dewi has posted two radically different trailers for the new movie Angelina Jolie WANTED on his blog. One trailer is from America, the other from Russia. Regardless of which trailer you think does a better sales job, they illustrate how you can take the same footage and edit it to convey whatever tone, point-of-view, or feeling that you want.

Never Sing Never Say Never Again

The Rap Sheet clued me into the recently "rediscovered," rejected theme for the 1983 Bond movie NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN sung by Phyllis Hymann and composed by Stephen Forsyth. To be honest, I don't think it's any better than the bland Lani Hall/Michel Legrand tune (performed in the video below) that the producers ended up using... but you can decide for yourself.

Writer Beware

Victoria Strauss has an excellent post up today on her Writer Beware blog with great advice for aspiring writers about what to look for before signing with a small press. It's a must-read for those considering signing with a POD press.

J.T Ellison also offers up some good advice today on How To Avoid Scams over on the Murderati blog:

The biggest problem new writers are faced with is desire. You've worked so damn hard, have slaved away writing your book, and you WANT to get it out to the reading public. We understand. We were there once too. But DO YOUR HOMEWORK! There are several easy steps you can take to ascertain whether the offer you've been approached with is legitimate. Because that's the problem with scams. The veneer of legitimacy can be shiny and obscuring.

They Never Learn

The Martinsville Reporter-Times reports that the FBI and the U.S. Postmaster have launched a joint investigation into the business practices of Airleaf Publishing/Bookman Publishing, a notorious vanity press scam that went bankrupt last year. Let's hope this is just the beginning of a national crackdown on the deceptive practices of the vanity press industry.

But its hard to feel any sympathy for the Airleaf victims. Any reasonably intelligent person could have seen that Airleaf (and its previous incarnation Bookman Publishing) was a sham.  Even if the aspiring authors were too blind with desperation and naivete to see the scam for themselves, a simple Google search would have turned up plenty of resources (including my blog and others) that talked about the company's many deceptive practices and false promises.

They made a dumb, costly, and humiliating mistake.

So you'd think that now the Airleaf victims would know better than to ever get involved with a POD vanity press again.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Incredibly, many of them are once again writing checks to vanity presses, including Bonnie Kaye, who founded the Airleaf victims blog and whose relentless efforts are largely responsible for Airleaf's fall and the subsequent federal investigation.

She's now a customer of CCB Publishing, a print-on-demand vanity press that she calls her "new publisher."  CCB's former Airleaf clients include John Krismer, who has written a book that reveals this:

Few realize a New World Order plans to replace our constitution with a Single World Government, nor that our Federal Reserve Bank is privately owned and is not subject to oversight by Congress or the President.

[...]George H. W. Bush, the undisputed “Overlord” of the Shrub Dynasty, in his State of the Union Message in 1991 said: “What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea – a new world order.” Did We the People ever agree to this treasonous act of turning over our nation’s sovereignty to a Single World Government?

Uh-huh. This is the kind of unpublishable swill that the vanity press industry thrives on. Is it any wonder he has written a check to another POD printer?

I applaud Kaye for going after Airleaf and bringing the company down...but she's still foolishly writing checks to a POD vanity press and deluding herself into thinking that she's "published." By doing so, and praising the company to other Airleaf customers, she's perpetuating the myths that the vanity press industry thrives on. How sad.

But that's not the worst of it.

Some other former Airleaf clients have become customers of Jones Harvest, a vanity press that is run by former Airleaf employees!  Those  particular Airleaf customers aren't victims at all. They are brain-dead morons.

An End Run Around Public Domain

Richard Wheeler reports that some literary heirs have found a way to undermine public domain -- they trademark the name of the author, as Zane Grey's estate has done with his name.

What the trademark accomplishes is to make it impossible for anyone to publish a Grey novel that has fallen into the public domain unless the publisher licenses the name of the author from the heirs. Oh, you can print the public domain material, all right; just don’t put the author’s name on it.

I wonder if this has ever been tested in court? If not, it probably will be soon.

Don't Expect the "Truth" about Self-Publishing from Someone Who Runs a Vanity Press

Earlier this month, I told you about a scam called "Beneaththecover.com," which purports to offer authors inside news and expert advice about the publishing industry when, in fact, it's just a front for a bunch of vanity press and book promotion hucksters selling their wares.  This point was driven home the other day when one of their so-called "experts," vanity press publisher Yvonne DiVita, offered this outrageous lie in a post she had the chutzpah to title "POD Myths Dispelled - Get The Scoop Here":

In today’s emerging digital world, if you truly want to attract that big name publisher, use a professional POD firm to self-publish because the big name publishers are watching.

The best way to attract a publisher is to write a good book, not blow thousands of dollars having it printed in POD form by a vanity press. If anything, printing your book in POD is more likely to prevent a publisher from taking you or the book seriously.

DiVita is one of a pack of POD vanity press hucksters who prey on the gullibility, desperation, and ignorance of aspiring authors. She argues that vanity presses aren't merely printers but real publishers because they pay more attention to their authors than real publishers do.  What she neglects to mention is that vanity presses like hers make the vast majority of their money off their authors, not from booksales, and that all that attention they slather on their clients (not authors, ladies and gentlemen, clients)  is to convince them to spend even more on their worthless services.  She writes:

IF authors don’t sell enough books with their publisher, POD or otherwise, the author isn’t trying hard enough. I’ve worked with traditional publishers, and they require an extensive marketing plan from authors before they will consider publication. And research shows that books published by traditional publishers sell around 150-300, on average.

That's right, blame the author for the fact that their POD vanity press books aren't sold in stores and are unlikely to sell to anyone but the client... and then back it up with pointless "facts."

I've had over two dozen books published by real publishers. No editor has ever asked me for an "extensive marketing plan" before considering my books.I've also asked a few published friends...and they have never been asked for marketing plans, either. But they are novelists, and perhaps they would be asked for one if they wrote non-fiction. So let's give DiVita the benefit of the doubt and say publishers want marketing plans along with non-fiction book proposals. To which I say... So what?  How is that a persuasive argument for going to vanity-press instead of a real publisher? You'll need a marketing plan either way. The key difference is that a real publisher will pay you and a vanity press will ask for your credit card number.

I've scoured the web and I can't find any "research" that backs up her outrageous claim that most books published by genuine publishers sell only 150-300 copies.

The closet statistic I could find to her numbers was a 2004 Bookscan study that tracked sales of 1.2 million books sold that year. According to their figures, the average book of any kind published in 2004 sold 500 copies. The study noted that only 25,000 titles sold more than 5,000 copies each, 500 sold more than 100,000 copies and only ten sold more than a million copies. But the figures are controversial, because the sales were not broken down by genre, like fiction or non-fiction, nor did they differentiate between titles from large publishers or small ones, traditional publishers or vanity presses.

But lets pretend her figures are right. How is that an argument for going to a vanity press? Authors published by real publishers whose books only sold 500 copies in 2004 were still paid to be published.  They earned money, though not as much as they'd hoped.

By comparison, most vanity press authors will lose money because they paid to be published. But don't take my word for it, let's look at the 2004 sales figures from iUniverse, the biggest name in self-publishing:

18,108: Total number of titles published

792,814: Number of copies printed

14: Number of titles sold through B&N's bricks-and-mortar stores (nationally)

83: Number of titles that sold at least 500 copies

Out of 18,000 titles and nearly 800,000 copies printed, only 83 authors sold more than 500 copies. Good God. Think of all the money that authors lost ...and how much iUniverse made. That's the business that DiVita is in...and it's a profitable one. For the printer, not the author. 

So what is the truth about POD self-publishing companies? It's obvious. Vanity presses are in the "author services business", not the publishing business which, in a rare bit of candor, even DiVita concedes on her vanity press website:

Windsor Media Enterprises specializes in author services. We  offer idea development, manuscript critiquing, editing, proofreading, formatting and cover design, for new and existing authors.

And for that, they charge you a price and that's how they make their money. That is their business. And if your book,  by some miracle, manages to sell a few copies, they make a little more. 

A vanity press will tell you any lie they can to convince you that they are real publishers (when they are merely selling editing and printing services), that self-publishing is the route most successful authors take (it's not), and that you have as much of a chance to sell books with them as you do going with a traditional publisher (you don't).

Is Yvonne DiVita really someone qualified to give writers sound advice? Or is she someone with a clear conflict-of-interest hoping to coerce naive authors into buying her product? The answer is obvious, and it came right from the founders of Beneaththecover.com  when they tried to solicit my brother Tod into being one of their experts:

Beneath the Cover is a cooperative venture for building marketing platforms of everyone involved.

That's what should be written on the masthead of their home page, not "Where book industry professionals who know almost everything go to discuss news, insights, and evolving industry issues." And it should be stated in big print on each and every piece of "advice" that they give.

Raiders of the Lost Movie Posters

Posterwire, one of my favorite blogs, led me to this excellent site dedicated to the amazing work of Richard Amsel, the artist behind the original INDIANA JONES posters, as well as memorable one-sheets for HELLO DOLLY, THE STING, THE SHOOTIST, MAD MAX: BEYOND THUNDERDOME and many other movies. 

A Partnership that's Plum Over

The Smart Bitches are reporting what I already knew -- the collaboration between my friends Janet Evanovich and Steve Cannell didn't work out. The way I heard it from Steve, their writing styles just didn't mesh but things ended amicably between them. I'm not surprised they have remained friends despite whatever creative tussles they may have had -- they are two of the nicest,  and most talented, people I know.

Welcome to My Life

Tess Gerritsen perfectly captures my life in her blog today:

Night before last, I woke up in a sweat.  I couldn’t get back to sleep because I was having an anxiety attack about my next book.  Oh, it’s nothing new — I have these from time to time, and sometimes I’ll lie awake for hours, mulling over what’s wrong with my plot, whether I’ll be able to fix it, whether I’ll meet my deadline.  When I finally do fall asleep, that anxiety follows me in the form of dreams.  Mine usually involve showing up at school for a test and suddenly realizing: I FORGOT TO ATTEND ANY CLASSES!  But I know what those dreams are really all about: how the writing is going.

No matter where I am or what else I may be doing, this job is never far from my mind.

[...]I can be sitting on a beach on vacation, yet I’ll never really relax because I know that there’s a half-written novel waiting on my desk and I have only a few months to finish it.  I can’t remember the last time I really, truly let go of the job.

She's writing about herself, but she could just as easily be writing about me. I can't remember the last time I didn't feel the pressure of a book or script deadline or spent my "free time" thinking about a story I was working on or a plot I was supposed to come up with.  When I wake up at 3:30 am with jet-lag, the thoughts that keep me from getting back to sleep always involve a plot point or anxiety about meeting a deadline. I'm not complaining, far from it. It's just nice to know that I'm not alone.

Who Says There's Anything Wrong with a Network Affiliate Owning a City's Only Newspaper?

I liked Ken Levine's observation about the Los Angeles Times' coverage of the WGA Strike:

Good news! The LA TIMES has begun its Oscar coverage with a weekly special section called THE ENVELOPE. Meanwhile, strike coverage has been relegated to the Business Section. I somehow can’t see THE DETROIT FREE-PRESS not running stories about an auto strike on page one. But then again GM doesn’t own the DETROIT FREE-PRESS.

The Times is owned by Tribune, which also owns KTLA, one of the major affiliates of CW, one of the TV networks hit by the strike.

Seinfeld Makes Larry King Look Like a Schmuck

The TV Series Finale blog linked to this video clip from a recent Larry King interview with Jerry Seinfeld that hilariously illustrates just how out-of-touch the host is with American popular culture.

She-Wolf Memories

The Retropolitan fondly remembers SHE-WOLF OF LONDON, a little-seen syndicated horror/comedy/romance that Bill Rabkin & I wrote and produced years ago...

The show’s biggest asset was the likability of the two leads. Going back and watching the show years later, after most of my memories had faded, I sort of expected to see a prototype “Buffy and Giles” relationship between Randi and Ian; I thought I was in for forty-odd minutes of a stuffy Brit getting dragged into adventures by his feisty American student. Perhaps that was the way that it was originally envisioned (it certainly has the set-up for it), but the show turned into something closer in spirit to a screwball comedy, with Randi and Ian flirting and grinning through their mysteries. Hodge and Dickson had great chemistry, and it was as much fun to watch them get into trouble and bicker with one another as it was to watch the ghoul-of-the-week come to life.

Is That a Meathead in Your Pocket?

Nothing describes current state of network "comedies" better than Ken Levine's hilarious post today, his take on how different the great CBS Saturday sitcoms of the 70s would be if they were on now.

What Casting Directors Do

THE MIDDLEMAN pilot is a go, and my friend Javi is chronicling the experience of producing it on his blog. Today he begins with an excellent explanation of how the casting process begins for the key roles in the project.

the concept meeting is that moment when the show’s team decides on a common language for the types of actors who will play the roles. the sky is the limit: if saying that the perfect actor for a role is “a young rod steiger” gets everyone on the same page, then so be it -- if only because it provides a guideline, for the ensuing search for talent, and it ensures that there is consensus as to the kind of actors on which to focus (it also allows anyone at the studio and network who thinks -- hey, “young rod steiger” is wrong, how about a “young raymond burr” -- to voice their opinion, which, of course, leads to the inevitable consensus of “ok, how about a young william conrad?”).

the casting agents -- trained professionals that they are -- inform these conceptual discussions (and bring them down to earth) by offering their own lists of actors whom they believe are right, who are available, and who may be disposed to doing the project.

understanding and respecting the artistry of a good casting agent is crucial to producing a series -- their job is to not only find the agreed-upon type, but also to identify actors who are up to the challenges of the project, and to open up the producers’ eyes to talent that may not necessarily fit the concept but who bring other things to a role that are equally interesting.

There's a reason why they are called "Casting Directors," because they are actually bringing their taste, experience, and unique creative pov to the project, the same way a director does. You aren't hiring someone just to sift through pictures and resumes (I have worked with casting director like that...and it was hell). It also helps if you can establish a creative partnership with a casting director who understands how you think, how you view story, the acting styles you like, and your approach to character.

I've been fortunate to have worked for years with two of the best casting directors in the business -- Victoria Burrows & Scot Boland (LORD OF THE RINGS, 21 JUMP STREET, CAST AWAY, the new RESIDENT EVIL movie) -- on two TV series, several pilots, and most recently on the U.S. casting for the FAST TRACK pilot. Having a creative short-hand together makes things a lot easier. I can always count on them to bring in just the right people...but they will also bring in some unexpected actors who offer a very different take on the character than I had in mind. Some times those actors are interesting misfires, but more often than not, it's those unexpected choices we end up going with.  It was Victoria and Scot who found Johnny Depp for 21 JUMP STREET, Kevin Spacey for WISE GUY, and Viggio Mortenson for LORD OF THE RINGS, so that should tell you something about their creative instincts.

For the lead in FAST TRACK, they brought in Erin Cahill. She was exactly the face, the voice, the attitude and the look I imagined when I was writing. Erin was so close to the picture in my head that it was a bit startling for me. I'm not surprised at all that Victoria and Scot found her. That's why they are so good at what they do.

But I also remember a time on DIAGNOSIS MURDER, when they brought in an actor for a spin-off pilot who's performance wasn't what Bill Rabkin and I had in mind at all...but he was so compelling, so interesting, so unique, that we had to cast him. It was Neil McDonough, and he was by far the best thing about the pilot. He later did a multi-episode arc for us on MARTIAL LAW, then immediately went on to BAND OF BROTHERS, MINORITY REPORT and BOOMTOWN.

Who you hire as a casting director is, next to the director himself, the most important choice you will make when you begin your production.  If you don't have the right actors, you don't have a show...

Reasoning with Reasoner

Today Saddlebums interviews author James Reasoner, one of the hardest-working writer I know with 200 books to his credit under various nom-de-plumes. In the time it has taken me to write this post, he's written half a western novel.

The actual writing process is pretty much the same for me regardless of what name is going on the book. I take a lot of pride in the work and I have to entertain myself as I’m writing, first and foremost. Everything else comes after that. There is a certain sense of freedom in writing a book when you know your name won’t be on it. You won’t get any of the blame if it’s terrible. But that’s balanced out by the fact that you don’t get any credit for the good ones, either. And I don’t want to write terrible books, anyway. I want them all to be as good as I can make them.

Middleman

My friend Javier Grillo-Marxuach has announced some very good news:  ABC Family has ordered the one-hour pilot that he wrote on spec based on his comic book THE MIDDLEMAN.

The project has now come full-circle. The comic book actually began as pilot script Javi wrote ten years ago and couldn't sell. Javi tells the whole story on his site...just click on the "TV Pilot!" tab.

The Emmys Were Dull

You'd think that a show celebrating excellence in television would at least be entertaining. Well, you'd be wrong. It was the worst show in years (even if you were fast-forwarding through the worst parts, like I was), and my friend Ken Levine does a great job today skewering it on his blog.

James Spader over James Gandolfini??? Sally Field over Edie Falco? Ricky Gervais over Alec Baldwin?? Thomas Hayden Church over anybody???

[...]You could tell Robert Duvall won for a cowboy movie.  Even while standing he looked like he was riding a horse.

The best acceptance speech wasn’t even aired.  It was Elaine Stritch’s from a week ago.  “I’m a recovering alcoholic, a riddled diabetic and I’ve got laryngitis – but I just won an Emmy!”

AMERICAN IDOL “Gives Back” resulted in AMERICAN IDOL “Gets Back”. They finally won an Emmy. Next year look for the very special TWO AND A HALF MEN “Gives Back” episode.

Blog Action

There's lots of good stuff on my favorite blogs lately...

Saddlebums, a blog dedicated to westerns, has more than lived up to its promise. It has quickly become the best, and most entertaining, resource anywhere about western literature in print and on film (far outshining the dull and irrelevant magazine published by the Western Writers of America). So far, Saddlebums has offered fascinating interviews with authors like Brian Garfield, Johnny D. Boggs, Jory Sherman, and Robert Randisi, as well as reviews of new novels and up-to-the-minute news about what's happening in the genre. If you love westerns, this blog is a "must-read!"

Over at Murderati, my friend Paul Guyot is talking about How Television Series Are Created, from idea to pitch to sale (or no sale, which is usually the case). It's very entertaining, informative, and frighteningly accurate. He should really write a book about this stuff. Between this essay, and the posts on his old (and dearly missed) blog, he certainly has the material.

Ken Levine compares the promos for the 1976 BIONIC WOMAN and the new one premiering this fall. I'm actually looking forward to the new BIONIC WOMAN...the promo I saw in the movie theatre a few weeks back was pretty good (as opposed to the one on Ken's blog, which isn't).

And author  Sandra Scoppettone pointed me to this interesting essay by bookseller Jim Huang about -- what else? -- bookselling.

Saddlebums

Saddlebums is a new blog dedicated to westerns and it kicks off splendidly with a great interview with novelist Brian Garfield and a review of James Reasoner's new book.

A Writer in Retreat

Author Sandra Scoppettone is having a dry spell or, worse,  is going through a bitter, creative depression. Either way, she's candidly chronicling it on her blog. On June 20th, she wrote, in part:

How long has it been? I don’t know. It seems like months. It is months? Huh. Actually it seems more like a day. That’s how much I’m enjoying it. It being not writing.

On June 23rd, she wrote, in part:

I hear about the new upcoming writers and I read them.  Some are damn good.  I wish I could be part of them, in their grade, their class, so to speak.  But it’s no longer my time. That’s okay.  I had my chance.  Now, despite my wishes, which, by the way, are for the forty year old me, I don’t have any idea if I’ll publish again.  Or write again.  I’m inclined to think I’ll write, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be published. That’s not okay.  But there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

On July 21st, she wrote, in part:

I’ve been reading a lot and I have thoughts about the books I read, but this blog was meant to be about writing thoughts, as it says above.  The problem is I have no writing thoughts. [...]Here’s the thing: I don’t miss writing at all.  I have no idea how long that will last.  Maybe forever.  Maybe until Labor Day. [...] I know I’ve posted about publishing before.  So what more is there to say?  We all know it’s only going to get worse.

On August 3rd, she had a one-line post:

The title for the book I might write just came to me.

And then, four days later,  another one-line post:

I now hate the title.

On August 12th, she wrote:

Why am thinking about writing this book that I’ve had in the back of my mind for a few months?  What do I know about the things I’d have to include?  Who would be interested in this? 

I’ve said to myself and maybe here that I would probably start after Labor Day.  That’s 21 days away.  On Labor Day I’d be facing writing the next day. When I think of that it makes me sick.

If I start in September and don’t have interuptions (this has never happened) it’ll take me four to six months to complete a first draft.  And another one or two to rewrite.

And then what?  Give it to my agent?  She’ll hate it.  So maybe I’ll have to find another agent.  Not easy.  Or maybe my agent will decide to try and sell it.

Nobody will buy it.  Or even if somebody does it will fall through the cracks and three people will read it.

Why bother?

I’m going back to bed.

I find her posts disturbing and sad...especially since her blog used to be filled with such enthusiasm for writing. It's unpleasant to see her in such a self-defeating, bitter retreat. And I'm not so sure it's healthy for her career to be posting about it on her blog...then again, that's probably exactly why she's doing it. I hope she snaps out of her writing funk soon.

UPDATE: In addition to commenting here to this post, Sandra has also blogged about it.

The Numbers Game

I've been doing some catching up on my favorite blogs today. There have been some fascinating posts on author blogs over the last few weeks about the writing life.  For example, Tess Gerritsen talks from experience about the pros and cons of big print runs...

The larger the print run, the better the chance the book will hit national bestseller lists.  Part of it is just the visual impact of seeing huge stacks of BIG GAMBLE in  a bookstore — customers see those stacks, assume the book must be important, and are inclined to check it out.  (Seeing only one or two copies of a new novel, conversely, may make the customer think it must not be a very popular book.)  To sell a lot of books, you have to display a lot of books, just to catch the customers’ attention.  Also, if Borders has taken delivery of 30,000 copies, then their sales force will have an incentive to push that title even harder and will offer deeper discounts to move the copies. 

If the simple secret to hitting the bestseller list is just to print a ton of copies, why doesn’t a publisher do it with every book?

Because they’d go out of business fast.  That way lies disaster.

Meanwhile, Sandra Scoppettone talks about how good novels aren't getting published because of the obsession with those numbers and the evaporation of the mid-list. Her musings were  prompted by a rejection letter that an author-friend of hers got:

“This is a fine piece of work, as you no doubt are painfully aware, but I’m not sure that we could convince the big stores to buy thousands and thousands of copies.  And that is my mandate these days.”

It just makes me feel all warm and cozy.  And it definitely makes me want to sit down in front of my computer and hit those keys.  Not that I intend to write a book that will make those big fat stores buy thousands and thousands of copies.  And that’s just the point.

Who is going to publish the books I write…the books that you write?  I know the mid-list category for fiction is nonexistent but I didn’t think it was happening in the crime genre.

The editor’s mandate. Discouraging and depressing.  I’ve never sold thousands and thousands of copies to the chains.  Most of us don’t.  We all know who does. Ten, twenty at most.  And they’re the people who get major reviews and big time ads.  Over and over again.

And Sandra has had it with the Numbers Game...she's not going to play anymore. She's just going to write. Or not.

I know the breakthrough book isn’t going to happen for me.  That’s okay.  I had my chance.  Now, despite my wishes, which, by the way, are for the forty year old me, I don’t have any idea if I’ll publish again.  Or write again.  I’m inclined to think I’ll write, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be published. That’s not okay.  But there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

I hope the next book I write is good.  Still, it won’t be the kind of book that’ll make me a household name or bring in loads of money.  That’s okay, too.  I want whatever I write to see the light of day and make back the money I was paid. At this point in my writing life that’s all that’s important.

On the other side of the coin, John Connolly seems to be one of those  authors on the verge of his big breakthrough. He is half-way through his international book tour and it's catching up with him.

This week marked the halfway point on the tour - 29 days down, 29 more to go - and the shift from the US to Australia. The first half has been an interesting experiment in how much travel, etc. a body can take before it begins to exhibit signs of distress. The answer, it appears, is roughly 28 days, because meltdown has begun.

[...]Too many flights, and too many 16- and 17-hour days. My body is starting to rebel. I have managed to tear something in my neck hauling my bags from hotel room to car to check in desk, and from baggage claim to car to hotel room. I felt it rip the way paper rips. At the moment, I'm freezing it with spray, but the spray wears off, and at night I don't sleep as well as I'd like. I'm not much good for anything after about nine o'clock, and this weekend had to bow out of meeting some nice people for a bite to eat in Melbourne. I went to bed instead. I feel like an old person.

 

What If JFK Lived?

My friend Bryce Zabel has launched a new blog that features the first three chapters of "alternative history" novel he's co-written with Harry Turtledove that asks this question: What if JFK survived the assassination attempt?

Am I Satan...

...or just a sad little man with serious self-esteem issues who longs to write fanfiction? You tell me. I am too distracted to decide...I'm very busy working on my FARSCAPE/BATTLESTAR/HARRY POTTER crossover slash epic.

Call'em as you See'em

Karen Scott talks on her blog about how much she likes sex scenes that tell it like it is:

I love good sex scenes in my books. I love books that call a cock, a cock, and a pussy, a pussy...

That's certainly what I try to do in all my DIAGNOSIS MURDER books. Karen believes that sex scenes are required in a good romance novel. 

If the love scenes are well written, then I’m likely to buy, if not, I’ll probably leave it on the shelf. Does that confirm every stereo-type out there about romance readers? Probably, but I’m not here to promote respect for the genre, so I couldn’t really care less.

[...]It bemuses me to think that there are hundreds of thousands of romance readers out there who pretend that sex in books don’t matter to them, when in reality, it’s probably what they’re secretly looking for.

Secretly? All you have to do is look at the covers to know what the books are selling and what the readers are buying.

As The Crow Flies

My friend Bryce Zabel talks about the development of his TV series version of THE CROW, which is about to be released on DVD. It's fascinating stuff (what's even more fascinating is that he saved his business card):

What do you do when the incredibly violent film you are asked to adapt to a TV audience is based on cruelty, and the main character is driven by a thirst for revenge?

My answer? You expand the premise t