E-Books versus Print Books
July 23, 2010
For the past few years there has been a debate amongst authors, publishers and readers about e-books. There are people who say they would never read an e-book, they prefer print.
As a life long reader myself and now a writer I very much understand this. I too was in the “never” camp until I purchased a Sony e-reader.
What I’m finding is I like both my e-reader and print books as delivery systems to access great stories and neither is better than the other, they are just different vehicles for story.
Let’s compare publishing to the changes to the movie industry as they also deliver story to the public. In the early days of the twentieth century movies were silent and usually quite short. This was very cutting edge stuff, but the audience had to read the dialogue on cards on the screen between scenes after the actors would speak. Movies became longer and longer until they were spectacles with incredible sets and costumes, but still they remained silent and audiences still had to read cue cards. The sounds of explosions, galloping horses and gun fire had to all come from the audience’s imagination.
That was until 1929 when a popular singer of the day, Al Jolson sang on film for the first time and the world of movies changed forever. Naturally, at the time many people said sound was a fad and I imagine there were people who said they preferred their movies silent. Can you imagine a movie today without hearing the words, “I’ll be back.”?
After sound changed the film industry there were many technological innovations that followed. Color, Technicolor, cinemascope, surround sound, 3D, digital film, CGI. And no doubt holographic movies are right around the corner.
All of these technical innovations does not change the fact that the story is why the audience buys tickets and why we love movies.
So during all this radical change in the film industry what technological changes were occurring in publishing?
The technological changes in publishing were mostly behind the scenes, invisible to the consumer; improvements to web presses, paper manufacturing, distribution systems, until the internet and the World Wide Web really changed the game.
As we are well aware the internet now permeates our world. It is everywhere. This spurred development of e-readers and buying books on-line, both in print and electronic form.
Today some e-readers are wireless and you can download books from nearly anywhere. When was the last time you were in hotel or coffee shop in North America that didn’t have wireless internet capability?
The e-reader is revolutionizing publishing as sound did to movies in 1929. Where is it headed and what does this all mean for publishers and writers?
Publishers are expanding the electronic availability of their catalogues and a recent report in the New York Times stated that e-books are now outselling hard cover books. This stunning development clearly shows readers have made a choice. Now it’s up to the publishers and writers to adapt.
But what about the providers of the stories, the writers? This explosion of electronic publishing opens up a wide range of options for writers. Authors can now sell their backlist without a publisher themselves on the web. Amazon and others sites have this service available to authors now. In the future I expect this will explode since we are in the infancy of e-marketing. If you want to see an example of e-marketing in action check out mystery author JA Kornth and see what he’s done.
Many authors are selling fiction right off their websites. There are a number of web providers who make this easy and accessible for even the novice Luddite like me.
At some point I can imagine a blending of 3D technology and books. Several years ago on the television show Star Trek Voyager® they depicted the idea of a holographic novel and I believe holo-novels will become a reality.
I’m looking forward to these changes because even if the delivery system changes someone still has to write the story. This is good news for all of us who “scribble” for a living.
UPDATE: an interesting article related to this topic you should read.
How do manuscripts become books? Part 1
July 16, 2010
Let’s start with what is a manuscript and what is a book? Here’s the dictionary definitions:
Manuscript: the original text of an author’s work, handwritten or now usually typed, that is submitted to a publisher.
Book: a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.
Upon reading these definitions you soon realize the two are related, but significantly different. The truth is a manuscript is a living document, while a book is something fixed that can last for decades.
What do I mean by a living document?
When you as a writer write the first draft of a manuscript it is not usually ready to be submitted to a publisher. The manuscript may need to be scrapped and redrafted from page one or the manuscript may require polishing to get it ready for the publisher.
There is a huge myth in the writing community that re-writing and polishing are the same. They are not. Polishing is fixing typos, fixing awkward grammar, spell checking, POV shifts at the wrong place, and other minor fixes. Re-writing is reworking whole sentences or paragraphs changing the meaning the author intended.
Usually this rewriting occurs because the writer is insecure about the story, or they belong to a writer critique group that offers well-intentioned advice and the writer takes all the feedback literally and tries to incorporate all of this feedback into their manuscript. Some people swear this works for them. If it does, and you’re selling your work on a regular basis then hey, why not?
For most of us though this rewriting will result in the destruction of the authors intended story and take the heart out of the story. As an example, I recently read a manuscript where it was very obvious this is exactly what happened in the first chapter. It was a mess. Too bad, the rest of the story after all this rewriting was great. Unfortunately, no busy editor will ever read beyond the first few pages.
I know many of you reading this disagree and that’s okay. The myth of re-writing is very deeply ingrained, but you need to examine what you’re doing then assess what works best for you, and what results you’re achieving, then make an informed decision.
I’m going to end Part 1 with an example. A very well known New York Times bestselling thriller writer writes what he calls three “drafts” of a manuscript before he sends it to the publisher. He writes the first draft. The second draft is a run through for missing words and other minor stuff. The third draft he spell-check’s the document. Then he mails it and within a short time receives his acceptance check from the publisher.
Is this the same for everyone on the Times list? No, absolutely not but I imagine it is for many.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where I’ll talk about the editorial process after you sell, and we’ll talk about more about books and what they are opposed to manuscripts.
The Fear of Submission
July 6, 2010
Most new writers (me included) have at one time or another suffered from submission-itis. What is submission-itis, and how is it treated?
Submission-itis is simply the fear to submit that comes over you as a writer because you think whomever receives your work will hate you, or think you’re stupid, or they’ll laugh at you. (This last one I’ve actually happen to me at a workshop so I know first hand it’s not fun.)
This fear paralyizes you and stops you not only from submitting but will overwhelm you and stop you from writing. Anyone reading this blog is a writer so to stop writing is like stopping breathing, then we die. Maybe not physical death but our spirit will be broken.
To find the cure for submission-itis we must discuss the root cause.
My fellow writers the root cause is FEAR.
Franklin D. Roosevelt summed up how crippling fear can be when he said; “the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself”. Though he didn’t realize it, he was talking about writers who do not submit their work. How did he know?
Roosevelt knew that fear is a crippling affliction which paralyizes us into inaction in order to protect ourselves from percieved or real dangers. Sounds strange you say? How does this relate to writers? Humans are fragile beings and over coming rejection after rejection can be daunting and, if we let it, fear will take over and stop us from being emotionally hurt. Too often we have an emotional connection to our work that we very naturally want to protect.
Think of your submissions in terms of job applications (which in a sense they are) to prospective employers. Imagine how you would feel if you sent out a hundred job applications and all were rejected?
How do you overcome this fear? It’s really rather simple actually. Write the best story you can and mail it. Then write the next story and mail it. And so on and so on.
Now am I saying this work has to be prefect before you mail it? No, not at all.
Each story you submit will be the best you can do today. The next story will be better, and the ones after that will be better. Look at every story as practice.
Look at it this way, a gold medal winning Olympic athlete didn’t decide one day to ski downhill as fast as they could to win a gold medal. What athletes do is practice for years, and they have many failures before they win gold. Why would we suddenly assume we can write a saleable story the first time?
Yes, there are people who say this happens, but if you dig deeper I expect you’ll find there are reasons a writers “first book” was a bestseller. You will very likely find out various forms of practice were involved before the “first book”.
So were they luckier than you?
My view is there is no such thing as luck. To me a more valid interpretation of events sometimes explained as luck is when preparation meets opportunity. In other words you practice, study, and work hard first then when opportunity happens you are prepared to take advantage.
So what is the bottom-line for the new writer? Practice, mail, practice some more, and mail that. Keep all stories in the mail until they sell.
How do I know these things? Because this is exactly what I did and I’m selling some of my work. (Not all.)
Keep writing and stay positive.
If you have any comments or have stories to share on this topic I’d be pleased to hear from you.