Amazon's New Publishing Venture

Here's the headline:

Amazon Launches New Publishing Imprint, Montlake Romance
Debut title will be bestselling author Connie Brockway's "The Other Guy's Bride"

Here's the link to the press release:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?ID=1559716&p=irol-newsArticle&c=176060&highlight=

It's a must read, especially since Montlake Romance is pulling in some big names, and Amazon plans on expanding it' publishing imprint efforts into other genres including thrillers and mysteries.

It's worth keeping an eye on how this story goes!

The Tortoise and the Hare

I ran a race less than two weeks ago and it was one of our hottest days yet. The race was only a 5k (3.1 miles) and I have run this distance many times before, but I'm coming off physical therapy for an injury and my asthma has been acting up. So, my expectations for the race were to finish and finish alive. Actually, that's my expectation for all my races including the half-marathon.

I try to keep a consistent pace on my runs, adjusting for heat and asthma symptoms, but for the most part I'm a fairly steady runner, if a bit slow. Well, on the day of the race, there were a number of folks - old, young, in-between - who did the walk/run method. I've done this myself in the past but what caught my attention were the young women, much younger than me, who would sprint out then fizzle and walk and then would see me run past them so they'd sprint out again, fizzle and we would do this again and again. Guess they didn't want an old lady passing them. I did finish the race before several of them which probably surprised them. I usually do better or as well as the sprint/walk folks.

I also try not to compete with others while I'm running the race because as I push myself I don't listen to my body and my asthma tends to flare up and get the better of me. That's what happened at the end of the race. A woman about my age had passed me and then maintained a short distance in front of me for most of the race. Then just after mile 2 she stopped and then walked. about 1/2 mile from the finish line she caught up with me and paced herself off of me. Well, that's when I got a little competitive and picked up my pace. Not far from the finish line my asthma flared up and I reached for my inhaler while continuing to run, albeit at a slower pace. I fumbled with the darn thing, almost dropped it, finally took a whiff and resumed a faster pace. She came in seconds before me. I didn't see her bib number so I don't know if she was in my exact age group or not. Like most races, this one allowed for age group placing.

There was also a 10 mile race at the same time - yes 10 miles. I've run this distance before as well but I just knew I couldn't handle that yet. One of my VFW buddies ran that distance so I waited for him so I could cheer him on. While I was standing on the sidelines I heard the race officials annoucing the 5k results and low and behold I placed third for my age group. Understand that while I do okay given all my special circumstances, this is the first time I've actually placed in a race. I had mixed feelings because it was also one of my worst times ever.

So, what does this have to do with writing? Well, I've noticed over the years that there are lots of folks who think that writing a book is easy and that once they complete it, they will be able to sell it and make a whole bunch of money. They're like the sprint/walkers I saw on this race. My impression was that many of them didn't truly prepare for the race and thought just because they were young and slim, they would do great. The writing analogy is that just because you have a great idea or a cool visual image in your head, doesn't mean you're prepared for all the hard work and challenges of actually completing and selling a written product, especially fiction.

Well, writing like running, takes preparation, training, perseverance and so many other qualities that come with committment to the event. Back to the literary analogy above, sometimes slow and steady really is a better way to go.

The World of Publishing and Marketing

Another change in the world of ePublishing, and therefore eBook delivery and availability, is bringing ebooks closer to the masses.

Cost is often a reason for the success and/or failure of eBooks. Readers, distribution, readability are only a few of the issues affected by cost. Now an Australian software company is releasing a product that promises to streamline the cost and time of converting pdf to a common ePub standard.

For more details here’s the link:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6696787.html


And Dan Brown’s newest release - The Lost Symbol - is causing a price war among eBook releases as Amazon makes it available for a low price on the Kindle.

For more info go to:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125297229016310315.html?mod=rss_Books


And on the multimedia/marketing front, thriller novelist Clyde Ford has taken the audio/visual book trailer concept to a new level. Here’s the link for more information:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6601539.html?rssid=192


Move over Oprah? Well, maybe not. Bin Laden is now coming out with his own booklist and endorsements. Hummm! It will be interesting to see what affect this has.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/bin-ladens-reading-list-for-americans/?hp


And Google launches a new way to read the news - Fast Flip.

http://mashable.com/2009/09/14/google-fast-flip/

What I believe this is telling us as writers is that more and more consumers of the written word are wanting it faster, more entertaining on a multimedia level, and via more of the technological gadgets that are available. The printed version will always be in demand, but like the US Mail, publishers will have to adapt to a change in the level of demand for the analog version of the written word as digital versions become more prevalent.

We should all stay tuned to the wild and exciting world of publishing and marketing.

Not as easy as it looks

Given the high cost of fuel these days I'm lucky that I can take a commuter train into Chicago where I work. I'm also lucky because I write on my commute - something that would be quite challenging to do if I had to drive. BUT I have seen people do some crazy things while pretending to drive a car.

Anyway, it always amazes me when I tell people that I'm working on my first novel that their first response is, "I've always wanted to write a book." There's a mixture of dream like wishfullness and expectation that it would just pour out. I'm also often asked for the formula for writing a book the easy and quick way. Well, there isn't one - not really. If writing a book were easy to do everyone really would be be doing it.

The other thing that amazes me is that people really believe that once you're published you're instantly a millionaire. Ah, wouldn't that be nice!

A friend sent me a first person article from Senator Jim Webb on writing and I think he says it well. Here's the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070101831.html

Writing is often described as a passion. Depending on one's perspective it might be a disease. Whatever it is, hard work and dedication is required. Writing is not for whimps. Check out my Independence Day blog if you have any doubt. Here's the link:

http://sleepingwiththeauthor.blogspot.com/

I also believe that becoming a published author comes with a certain level of responsibility, not only to one's readers but to other writers, especially aspiring writers. Writers are many things - entertainers, truth seekers, mentors, and often the collective keepers of societies memories and secrets. Just think where we'd be without all of Shakespeare's plays!

We're also discovering more and more about the past through the letters written by our ancestors. So, it makes me wonder what future generations will think when they read our blogs. How much insight will our blogs give to historians in the future?

Well - at least we're keeping some kind of record. I do shudder to think how much the text messages with those special abbreviations will confuse people. I mean, how much can OMG repeated over and over again tell anyone?

Oh, well, @TEOTD IMHO TIAD.

Fictional Characters Face Inequality? By Robert W. Walker w/compliments to TK Kenyon

Fictional Characters Face Inequality? Suffer the Female Protagonist
With a sad set of statistics on inequality for female authors in publishing

by Robert W. Walker w/compliments to TK Kenyon


Come on, a book, any book ought to be as Ezra Pound once said “like holding a ball of light in one’s hands.” So no matter if your lead and secondary characters are male or female, they ought simply to be believable and memorable and a joy to spend time with in the case of the good guys and the ladies. Often it is a fine line a character walks between authentic and inauthentic, larger than life and comic book hero.

Often in my own work, it works out that there are two main characters, a strong male lead butting heads with an equally strong female lead. The bottom line in creating male or female characters ought to be the same—attention to detail, layering, providing each with a worldview, an interesting psychology, and often a psychosis or two – or an obsession. However, critics and readers often take us to task when we create a strong-willed, determined, or obsessive female character—obsessive say about getting at the truth like our lead lady in TV’s The Closer. When a male character is strong-willed, determined, or obsessive and dogged about clue-finding activities that pull him away from a personal life, he is applauded for being firm, courageous, bold, and all manner of positives. But when a female character exhibits these traits in fiction, whoa Nelly! So often she is hit up for being a bitch, for being strident in her speech, for being pushy, aggressive, overbearing, and a host of other negatives. Take a look at a single line of dialogue here:

Jack shouted, “Do what you g’damn hafta, Frank, and I’ll do my job!”

Jack’s stand is worthy of applause, no question. Compare it to the lady, Celine’s line.

Celine shouted, “Do what you g’damn hafta, Frank, and I’ll do my job!”

Same line, same words, same apostrophe and exclamation point, but just knowin’ she’s a lady…a lay-lay-lady, we get a whole ’nother take on the line, especially if we’re predisposed to believe a lady approaches things with more femininity and ahhh grace. She does not swear anymore than she snores.

The Closer, Saving Grace, CSI, Law & Order, and a number of other current TV dramas about women in law enforcement are making waves and changing some preconceived notions about women in dramatic roles, in film and on the book page. Still when a woman sleeps around as Grace does to “excess” on Amazing Grace, we don’t shrug it off as we have been doing for years for Bond, James Bond. Grace is seen as a slut, while Bond is viewed a lady-killer, a real stud. My own Dr. Jessica Coran had a new man in her life often with the opening of a new book in the Instinct series--as few men could keep up, and I got complaints that she was too promiscuous from some readers. Jessica had a total of four men over eleven books, and the last one she married, and she had long-lasting relationships compared to TV’s Grace. Trendy or a sign of the times? Another big no-no a mere few years ago was that you don’t have little children murdered or maimed in your story, but every cop show drama on TV has tossed that notion, often displaying the small body on a slab or in an alleyway. Amazing Grace is being ballyhooed as ground breaking, and perhaps it is in some respects, but the condemnation of women acting like a James Bond character does seem to still have its hold on viewers and readers.

In other words, we want our tough, firm, determined female cops to also be vulnerable and sensitive; we certainly don’t want them pulling out their hair or baying at the moon or up-chucking in the car, or losing their maternal instincts, or losing all respect for themselves, or becoming Lindsey Lohan or lushes. Let a jaded, disillusioned male cop drink himself to sleep at night but God forbid a female on the force with the same level of jaded disillusionment become a sickening lush and watch out—particularly in book form. Perhaps seeing someone on a screen literally fall apart before our eyes is a kind of voyeurism we can take, but careful of the same in a novel.

So here is the crux of the matter for a novelist working with a strong female character, as I have often done. Be certain, as with any character that you don’t allow her to become a poster-girl for some message; nor a caricature for feminism; nor an exaggeration of a bias; and for God’s sake try not to allow her to cross over or fall into a comic book version of who you want her to be. Rewrite those last two sentences and insert he/him for she/her. Male or female, you don’t want your strong, determined, willful, firm characters to become comic book heroes or heroines.

Now how is this all relevant to the real world of publishing and the number of books done by men as opposed to women writers? How do the statistics in the real world of the publishing industry inform us that women are still, after all these years and all that has been said and done about equality in this world (as opposed to fictional worlds) –how do the stats stack up? Thanks to a recent posting by TK Kenyon (www.tkKenyon.com) on DorothyL (where you can often find me), here are some sobering facts about the industry we all know and love with respect to such things as how many female authors get reviewed as opposed to male authors. Again while the number of books published by male and female authors is very close, the numbers below tell a sad story in a time of shrinking newspaper, magazine, and other review outlets. Perhaps the internet is the only place women might find, in time, equality.

Percentage of book reviews for male authors vs. female authors for 2006 in major review publications: 56%:44%
http://www.sistersincrime.org/monitor/2006.html

Percentage of book reviews for male authors vs. female authors for Jan-June 2007 in major review publications: 63%:37%
http://www.sistersincrime.org/monitor/2007.html

Percentage of book reviews for male authors vs. female authors for at the New York Times Review of Books (very influential): 72%:28%
http://www.booksquare.com/see-its-because-women-cant-review-military-history/

Ratio of male book reviewers to female reviewers at the New York Times Review of Books: 2:1
http://www.booksquare.com/see-its-because-women-cant-review-military-history/

Percentage of articles written by men to those written by women in the five “thought leader” magazines: 3:1
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/09/21/womentk/index.html

Worse yet, as I read most of those magazines, I can tell you with a quick glace at my stock, that the few women writers write about women, home life, babies, diapers, poems, and very light culture. The heavy stuff like economics is reserved for the boys.

Percentage of male book buyers to female: 45%:55%
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2006/09/21/womentk/index.html

Women constitute only 17 percent of opinion writers at The New York Times ,10 percent at The Washington Post ,28 percent at U.S. News & World Report ,23 percent at Newsweek and 13 percent at Time . Overall, only 24 percent of nationally syndicated columnists are women.
http://msmagazine.com/summer2005/opinion.asp

The only place where a woman really kicked butt was in the Alien
movies. "Ripley" (Sigourney Weaver) was originally supposed to be
a male character. The studio wanted the main character to be
female for some business reason, and Ridley Scott went through
the script and changed the pronouns, and that's all. Didn't even
change the character's name. I thought it was brilliant, and
Ripley will live forever as one of the few women characters who
doesn't pander."

-- Author of Callous and Rabid, TK Kenyon