Time to Write

Selling your self-published book: 7 tips

Here are a few bits of useful information I picked up from a webinar about self-publishing e-books. It featured an interview with Brad Costanzo, founder of Costanzo Marketing group:

• The "give a book away free in hopes they'll want to buy your other books" strategy doesn't work too well anymore. So many people are doing it that a freebie will get lost.
  
  
• Getting reviews is important; Amazon doesn't allow you to reward people for leaving just a favorable review, but you can and should encourage them to leave an honest review.
  
  
• When you publish another book, go back and promote it within the books you've already published--being able to do things like that is one of the advantages of digital publishing.
  
  
• If you have another product that you think will appeal to potential readers, you can tell them you'll give it to them if they send you a copy of the receipt they get when they buy the book.
  
  
• There have been cases where an author has given away the pdf version of a book and invited people to buy the paperback version...and many people did.
  
  
• You have to start building relationships a year before you launch your book. Get to know the influencers in your market. Think about how your book can help these people serve or entertain their followers not just how they can help you sell your book. Ask every contact for their suggestions regarding who else might be interested.
  
  
• If you can afford to put some money into promoting the book, consider buying an ad in a newsletter. 

 

This is why (some) publishers deserve to go out of business

In 2012, authors sued the largest publisher of romance novels, Harlequin. Here's a summary of the situation, as described at www.harlegquinlawsuit.com:

THE LEGAL ISSUES

"A class action lawsuit was filed today against Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd., the world’s leading publisher of romance fiction, as well as Harlequin Books S.A., a Swiss corporation, and Harlequin Enterprises B.V., a Dutch corporation, on behalf of authors who entered into contracts with the company.

This lawsuit results from Defendant Harlequin Enterprises Limited, the world’s leading publisher of romance fiction, depriving Plaintiffs and the other authors in the class, of e-book royalties due to them under publishing agreements entered into between 1990 and 2004.

Harlequin required the authors to enter into those agreements with a Swiss entity that it created for tax purposes, and that it dominates and controls. However, Harlequin, before and after the signing of these agreements, performed all the publishing functions related to the agreements, including exercising, selling, licensing, or sublicensing the e-book rights granted by the authors. Instead of paying the authors a royalty of 50% of its net receipts as required by the agreements, an intercompany license was created by Harlequin with its Swiss entity resulting in authors receiving 3% to 4% of the e-books’ cover price as their 50% share instead of 50% of Harlequin Enterprises’ receipts.

Instead of paying the authors a royalty of 50% of its net receipts as required by the agreements, an intercompany license was created by Harlequin with its Swiss entity resulting in authors receiving 3% to 4% of the e-books’ cover price as their 50% share instead of 50% of Harlequin Enterprises’ receipts.

What this means to the authors can be illustrated by an e-book with a hypothetical cover price of $8.00. The “net receipts” made by Harlequin Enterprises Limited from the exercise, sale or license of e-book rights would be at least $4.00, of which authors would be entitled to $2.00 based on their 50% royalty. Computing the “net receipts” based on the “license” between Harlequin’s Swiss entity and Harlequin Enterprises, Plaintiffs’ 50% royalty amounts to only 24 to 32 cents."

In April, 2013, the court dismissed the claim (it gets too technical to get into here, but basically the court found that Harlequin had covered their behind adequately in the wording of their contracts with the authors). The plaintiffs filed an appeal.

The plaintiffs filed an appeal.

In September, 2013, the Romance Writers of America and the Authors Guild filed a 'friend of the court' brief in support of the plaintiffs.

In May, 2014, the Second Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of one claim and sent the case to the district court for further proceedings.

THE BIGGER ISSUE: TRUST

Undoubtedly the case will continue to grind through the court system. In the end, it may be that Harlequin prevails on strictly legal grounds. To my mind, however, the bigger issue is one of trust. Authors and publishers are supposed to be on the same side, not figuring out legal loopholes that permit them to screw each other. I don't know the state of the finances of Harlequin. Maybe they, like many other publishers, are suffering financially. The best response cannot have been to poison the well that is the source of their income.

Authors and publishers are supposed to be on the same side, not figuring out legal loopholes that permit them to screw each other. I don't know the state of the finances of Harlequin. Maybe they, like many other publishers, are suffering financially. The best response cannot be to poison the well that is the source of their income.

Regardless of the result of the lawsuit, are authors going to want to work with Harlequin? Or will this drive more of them to self-publish and cut Harlequin out of the equation totally? 

Yes, publishing faces huge challenges now. I don't know whether working together more closely with authors will save traditional publishing (whether or not it deserves to be saved in its current form is another question) but surely turning on authors won't. 

 

Another way to be an "author" by writing "books" without actually writing

Is a story 7500 words long a book? No, I don't think so, either, but that's what an outfit called "Authors in a Flash" is offering as "sizzling hot fiction romance books" for you to buy and put your name on. They'll even write an "about the author" blurb for you.

The available titles include A Brother's Betrayal, Love's Castle, and Shadow of Romance. I was going to share a little sample of A Brother's Betrayal with you, but somebody has bought it for $397.

How about the somewhat confusingly titled Egypt and in Love? Here's the description:

True romance and love can be found anywhere and even more so can be found in the sands of time along the banks of the River Nile. When love sends a Prince to distant lands to save a Princess, he must survive a treacherous landscape, bow to the feet of Pharaohs and battle creatures that have cursed the very heart of Egypt to save his loved one. This gripping saga follows the courageous adventures of the Prince in this awesome historical romance thriller.

The quality of the blurb doesn't inspire too much confidence. Were the Pharoahs foot fetishists? You had to bow to their feet? 

NEXT PARAGRAPH BARELY SAFE FOR THE OFFICE

Here's a sample from Shadows of Romance:

He was looking at her with a kind of wild need. His jaw looked stiff, his lips were closed tight and his eyes mirrored the need of the quiet plea he had just made. 

"Angela, please don’t stop."

She braced her hands on the back of the bench and moved her body up and down. His hands over her hips, he used them to guide her body as she slid over him. With every rocking motion down, she felt an erotic pressure building that she desperately wanted to satisfy. (I thought purple was a good color for the text.)

I'm assuming they have a stable of people pounding away at typewriters somewhere in the third world. Either that or a computer that eats Barbara Cartland novels and remixes them 7500 words at a time.

WHAT YOU GET

For your $397 you get the the text in a variety of ebook formats, the cover image, five images that appear inside the book, and the copyright.

For an additional fee they will personalize the book for you. That means you can put your name on the cover, add an "about the (non) author" section and fool your friends into thinking you are capable of this kind of fine writing.

Then you can put the "book" up for sale on Amazon and other sites and wait for the money to roll in.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU MAKE?

According to their FAQ:

"Thre (sic) are several factors that will determine this. Using a Authors In A Flash Book will allow you to get a Head Start as all your Metadata is tailored to get your titles discovered by readers searching for a specific topic which gives you an edge in the game. Once your book is live it depends on the additional marketing that you do which will help with sales."

That metadata thing makes sure that if somebody is searching for erotic fiction set in Egypt, or "bowing to feet of Pharoahs," for instance, they will find Egypt and in Love.

NOT ONLY FICTION

If erotic fiction isn't your thing, you can get a non-fiction book to pretend you wrote.

Actually, the only one listed at the moment is Fruit Infused Water: 50+ Great Tasting Recipes? I'm guessing it's page one: add some strawberries to water, page two: add some kiwi fruit to water, etc. but maybe there's more to it. The blurb does suggest you get a fashionable water jug and stop listening to people trying to get you to go to the gym. This one is on sale for $317.

 

ALL OUT OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS?!

There's a category for children's books, too, but it's empty at the moment. In case you are desperate to write one without actually having to come up with the words, I'm going to get you started:

Puppy was looking at her with a kind of wild need. His jaw looked stiff, his lips were closed tight and his eyes mirrored the need of the quiet plea he had just made. 

"Angela, please give me a doggie biscuit."

If you use that, please deposit $3.97 in my Paypal account.

(Those who have no objection to actually writing their own book may find mine, Your Writing Coach, helpful. It's published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)

 

 

An author who got others to pay for his trip to Las Vegas

You may know of Kickstarter, the crowdfunding site where you can ask people to finance your invention or, in this case, postcards.

Julian Gough, past winner of the National Short Story Prize, set out to raise $1500 to pay for his trip to Las Vegas, where his next novel is set. He called the project a literary experiment. Forty-eight hours later 148 backers have brought his total to $5108. 

Crowdfunding always involves giving your donors or sponsors a reward. In this case, that consists of a PDF version of a new short story, updates on his travels posted on his Kickstarter site, and (for everyone who kicks in more than $10) a postcard from Las Vegas. 

So far, 56 backers opted to pledge $25 or more, for which they get the story plus a coffee- or whiskey-stained postcard with "a couple of creative lines about my stay in Vegas." He says, "It may be truth or fiction. You'll never know."

For $40 your postcard will have coffee, beer or whiskey stains plus lipstick. You can also give him a key word to inspire his message on the postcard. 

If you want a bullet hole through the postcard, that will run you $100. Yes, eight people have opted for that so far.

Nice work if you can get it!

Related articles

Writing 12 novels in 12 months with Crowd Funding

A crowdfunding site and publisher - are they right for your book?

The Amazing Kickstarter result for this writer

Marketing Your Book: Prime the pump (7th of 10 things you must do)

Why "free" is on the way out for ebook authors

Marketing guru Ramit Sethi recently said that if you send people a link for something free they may find interesting, most of the time they won't click on it. This may not be true of your family and closest friends; then again, it may apply to them as well.

Why not, when it's free? For example an article, a report, a YouTube video.

People already have so many demands for their attention that it's easier not to click on yet another link, or to leave it for later (= never).

Sethi says these days you have to "sell free." You have to show people that it's something that will benefit them, just as you do when you're charging. In marketing terms that means there had better be a very good prospect that putting in the effort to sell free will result in income at some point down the line.

HOW THIS WORKS WITH EBOOKS

When there were not so many ebooks around, free worked well. If you had several books available, offering one free in hopes readers would like it and would pay for your other ebooks was an effective strategy.  

It does still work for some people, but I think it's on the way out.  I subscribe to two sites that send out daily emails listing free or highly-discounted ebooks. I very seldom download any of them. I already have enough to read and these books are by unknown authors. They may well be better writers than some of the well-known authors but I don't have time to download and sample these books. 

WHAT COMES AFTER FREE?

If I had sure-thing answer I'd be selling it instead of giving it away for free :). However, my guess is that a new author will have to work even harder to develop a platform--to get known by potential readers first, and then offer them the chance to buy his or her books for a reasonable fee. 

This will make things harder for authors who like to write in a variety of genres because each genre has a different target audience and they don't all hang out at the same places. 

IT'S TIME TO BE A CONTRARIAN

I believe that in this as in a lot of other things it will pay to be a contrarian. When everybody else is on Facebook and Twitter, those are not the places to be if you want to stand out. If others are still flooding the marketplace with free ebooks, you don't want yours to be considered part of that group. 

What are some places most people consider untrendy? Here are a few:

* Newspapers (yes, they're dying but they aren't dead yet). In this category I include feature stories, display ads, and classfied ads.

* Magazines - same as for newspapers

* Radio

*  Local television

 * Podcasts

Having a website will still be important, but not the typical site that has just the cover of your book, your bio, and maybe a blog about how you came to write the book. This may sound harsh, but nobody cares--that is, nobody who doesn't already have some kind of connection with you. 

In future posts I'll go more deeply into some ways that I'm starting to build a platform in Young Adult fiction, which is a new format and genre for me. I'm sure this will include things that don't work as well as things that do. I hope that will yield some information that will be useful to you as well. 

In the meantime you may also find it helpful to get a copy of my book, Do Something Different, published by Virgin Books; it contains 100 case studies of people who came up with creative, mostly very low cost, effective marketing strategies. It's not free.

 

 

Nine questions to get you writing more: 5 - More pain or more fear?

The Zen Habits blog listed ten questions that can help you take action. In this series of posts I suggest how to apply nine of those specifically to writing more. You can easily adapt them to drawing or whatever other creative activity you'd like to increase.

5. Does the pain of not doing it outweigh the fear of doing it?

This question gets to the heart of the issue: usually it's not really lack of time or any external obstacle that stops you from doing what you care about.

It's fear.

WHAT ARE WE SCARED OF?

There are lots of fears, actually, but the biggest one is fear of failure. What if you try to write a novel and you fail? You have your choice of several failures to contemplate: what if your idea is no good, what if you run out of steam halfway through, what if you finish it but nobody wants to publish it, what if it gets published but gets humiliating reviews? What if people will think you're silly even to try?

The pain of not doing what you'd love to do is more subtle.

STAB OR ACHE?

Whereas fears are like stabs, the pain of not doing is an ache. But it's an ache that can go very deep, that can settle into your bones. I've met a few people like that. It made them bitter. They looked for excuses--they didn't have a good enough education, or the publishing world was stacked against them, or you had to be part of the Hollywood in-group. I have a feeling the nights they woke up at 4am they knew they had defeated themselves.

If you want to go for it but the fear is stronger than the pain you can address either side of the equation.

OPTION 1: INCREASE THE PAIN 

You can increase the pain. Think about what you're giving up. Think about how long you've made excuses. Think about how you feel when you look at the things you intend to do "soon" and realize it's the same list you had last year and the year before and the year before. 

OPTION 2: DECREASE THE FEAR

My preferred solution is to decrease the fear. Not by assuming failure is impossible but by looking realistically at the consequences of failing.

If you fail, will you die?

Will you go hungry?

Will a mob congregate outside your housewith pitchforks?

Will it make the six o'clock news?

Frankly, hardly anybody will notice. And who says not getting the result you want is failure? How often have you looked back at things that seemed like failures or catastrophes at the time and realized they weren't, or at least not totally. If you learn how to write a good screenplay by first writing a couple of bad ones, are those failures?

I believe if you you look at the fear of failure realistically you can knock it out in the first round. 

 

 

Naming your characters (or yourself)

 

A recent study shows that when people read something by a (made-up, not famous) writer who has a middle initial or two or three of them, they rate the author as being more intellectual than when it is represented as having been written by the same name minus the middle initials.

Here is part of the study's abstract: 

Middle name initials often appear in formal contexts, especially when people refer to intellectual achievements.

On the basis of this common link, the display of middle initials increases positive evaluations of people's intellectual capacities and achievements.

We document this effect in seven studies: Middle initials in authors' names increased the evaluation of their writing performance (Study 1), and middle initials increased perceptions of status (Studies 2 and 4).

Moreover, the middle initials effect was specific to intellectual performance (Studies 3 and 6), and it was mediated by perceived status (Studies 5–7). Besides supporting our hypotheses, the results of these studies yield important implication for everyday life. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Authors with two middle initials are rated even more highly, and those with three middle initials even more. 

If you are writing a work of fiction and want your reader to assume that a character is intelligent, give him or her a middle initial or two or three.

If you are writing a work of non-fiction it might be worth using your middle initial(s) if you have any, or inventing some if you don't. 

That's my advice - yours truly, Jurgen S. O. B. Wolff--wait, I think we might have to be careful which middle initials we choose...How about J. K. Wolff? Actually, I'm thinking of using a pen name on a children's book I'm writing, but I'm inclined to change my last name to one that starts with a letter in the middle of the alphabet. When your last name begins with W, your books tend to end up on the harder-to-see bottom shelf.

How you can tell your story...and why

At South by Southwest, Lena Dunham said:

"The best advice I can muster after exactly four years in this business [is]... don't wait around for someone else to tell your story. Do it yourself by whatever means necessary."

This was echoed by Jason Blum:

"The advice I give for filmmakers starting out is don't wait for me. Don't wait for the industry... It's a mistake to wait for Hollywood to tell you you have a good idea. If you have a good idea, try to make it on your own as cheaply as possible… on your phone." 

That goes equally for any of the creative arts. There are now so many avenues for creating something to share:

* A movie; as Blum suggests, you can do it on your phone. If you have more money, the new Black Magic camera, which comes in around $5000/ £3000 with a good lens, creates fantastic looking images.

* A book you self-publish as a regular book, an ebook, or even one told in Tweets.

* A story you tell via sending readers/viewers to a series of web sites

* A vdeo web series

* A graphic novel or comic book

* An audio book

* Live storytelling

* An audio serial you distribute as a podcast or an audio play

* A play you produce--if you can't find or afford a theater, you can have it take place outside in a public space for a small audience. Or it could be a play/movie hybrid, with parts of the story projected and parts playing live.

If you can do this only if what you produce makes money, that can change the situation. Even then, does it have to make only enough money to pay for your out-of-pocket expenses or do you expect to be able to live off the proceeds? Those are two very differnt numbers.

If you remove the demand that your creative project pay all the bills, it frees you up enormously. Could the satisfaction of creating and sharing that creation with a modest number of people be enough?

That works for my friend Charles Dayton, who is semi-retired and has written three novels featuring the 72-year-old detective Lew Travis ("Come Hell or High Water," Hell Hath No Fury," and "Hell to Pay"). The books are available for the Kindle or as pubished-on-demand paperbacks. They haven't hit any best-seller lists but that was never his goal. 

 

He says, "After 40 years in academia, including the last 14 at Berkeley, I wanted to do something less academic. I also wanted to capture some of the history, landscape, and lifestyle here in the Sierra Nevada foothills, in a way that would hopefully be fun to read. Plus I've always loved mysteries. I think all good works of fiction are infused with a certain amount of mystery; it's what motivates the reader to keep going." 

He number his readers in the tends of thousands, and giving pleasure to that number of people is a nice accomplishment.

The word "hobby" is seen as negative in the context of the arts; it suggests you are not serious. However, the definition is "an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure." I can't see anything wrong with that.

(for friendly guidance in writing your novel or screenplay, see my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Should you create something revolutionary--or evolutionary?

Are most successes something totally different...or something a bit better than what existed already?

Marketing guru Michael Masterson says his experience shows that the real successes tend to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. As a mentor in the publishing industry he was directly involved in the development of at least 50 publications. He says, "In the beginning, I made an effort to create something new - something the market didn't have. In every case, I failed."

Instead he suggests a new application of the 80/20 principle:"Give them 80 percent of what they are already buying and only 20 percent of something new. The 20 percent matters. But the 80 percent keeps you in business."

If you already have a winning product or service, what's the 20% you can change or add to make it more exciting to clients or customers and stay ahead of the competition? If you don't, what's out there now that you can improve by 20% to come up with a winner?

For writers, what would make your novel or screenplay 20% different in a good way?

The same applies to marketing what you've written--how can you use existing marketing channels like Twitter and Facebook and Youtube in a somewhat different way?

(For inspiration for marketing your work in a creative and inexpensive way, see the 100 case studies of innovative marketing in my book, Do Something Different, published by Virgin Books. The examples come from people with all kinds of products and services, your task is to adapt them to what you are offering. The result is that yours will stand out.)

A quote for you if you're misunderstood

If you're a creative person and are actively expressing your creativity there's a very good chance that there are people in your life who Just Don't Get It.

Usually they are well-meaning when they give you annoying advice like, "Maybe you should pursue something more sensible." Or "I don't think there's really a market for what you're doing." Or even "I hate to see you wasting your time on this."

Usually it's a waste of breath to argue with them. The best answer may be, "You may be right, but this is my passion. I need to do it, if only for myself." They still won't get it, but they may stop imposing their viewpoint on you. Maybe.

What they say to you isn't as important as what you say to yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes their doubts are infectious. If you feel that starting to happen to you, this could be a good quote to remember:

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - T. S. Eliot

You may be risking going too far.

You may be exceeding what you can do.

You may be coming up with something that is ahead of its time. 

You may be creating something nobody wants.

On the other hand, you may be creating something people have been waiting for without knowing it.

The only way to find out is to risk it.

What if the outcome isn't what you hope for?

Will you enjoy the process, or at least a significant part of it?

Will you learn something valuable along the way?

Will you be stronger for having--and surviving--the experience?

If so, will it have been wasted?

Now...go for it! T. S. Eliot and I are on your side.

(For friendly guidance on taking your project from idea through to publication get my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Ncholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

 

 

 

 

 

The danger of misteaks, and the question you don't want readers to ask

Will little mistakes in your book turn people off? Is proofreading really that important?

I hesitated to write this post because I know there are typos in my blog posts. I do proofread them but I post just about every day, sometimes under time pressure, and things slip through. For that reason, when I read blogs I cut them some slack regarding typos and little errors. 

When I’m reading books, not so much. I’m sure many readers feel the same.

This came to mind earlier today when I was reading the “look inside” preview of a book about research into psychic phenomena. It said that many famous people followed this research, including "Rod Sterling".

The late Rod Serling happens to be one of my heroes. I grew up loving the Twilight Zone series and later read a number of his plays. When I was a teen-ager I wrote him a letter and he was kind enough to reply. I guess that’s why seeing his name misspelled bothered me. More importantly, though, it provoked this question: 

“If the author got that wrong, what else did she get wrong?”

That’s the question you don’t want your readers to ask. It undermines their confidence in you and it may even make them put the book aside (or not buy it if they spot the error while browsing).

Here are some tips for proofreading a manuscript:

* Get at least one other person to proofread it

* Use a ruler or piece of paper and move it down one line at a time. That stops your eyes from moving ahead too far. Even better: in a piece of paper or light cardboard cut a horizontal slot the length of your lines, so anything above and below the line you are looking at is covered.

* Read backward. That makes you isolate each word and you’ll notice misspellings much more easily.

PS: I bought the book anyway…but I’ll be on the lookout for any other mistakes.

-----For friendly help with writing your book, get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and avaialable from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.

Is your book unique? Oh oh!

Is your book unique? That may not be such a great thing.

If we stick to the strict definition of unique, a book can't be "somewhat unique" or "very unique". Unique means one of a kind. 

Of course there are very few things that are unique. Most are variations of what already exists. However, from time to time I meet an author who says their book or screenplay really is unique--nothing like it has ever been done. 

If that's true of what you are writing, prepare for an uphill battle. 

One of the first things a publisher asks is "what are some comparable books?"

It may surprise you that if you say there aren't any, that's a negative as far as the publisher goes. They know that something really new will require too much work to explain to an audience. They prefer saying "This is just like (name of best-seller) but even better."

If you want to attract a publisher, put some comparables in your query letter or proposal and explain why yours is similar and also how it's (a bit) different. Naturally, choose books that have sold well. 

If you self-publish you'll have to make the same thing clear to readers.

If you do have something unique, congratulations. The odds are  it will be a huge success...or a huge flop. It's possilbe that there hasn't been anything like it because nobody actually wants anything like it...or because they didn't know they wanted something like it but now that it exists they can't wait.    

(Want to be even more creative? Get a copy of the colorful, fun to read, and highly useful book, CREATIVITY NOW, published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Related articles

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A reassuring fact about interactive storytelling: nobody wants it!

What's the latest thing in storytelling? It has to be interactivity, right? 

Well, maybe not. Professor of Literature Jonathan Gottschall wrote a three-part series about stories for fastcreate.com, and here's part of what he says about this in part 3:

"Here’s the problem with interactivity: There’s no evidence people actually want it in their stories. No one watches Mad Men or reads Gone Girl yearning for control of the story as it unfolds. Interaction is precisely what most of us don’t want during story time."

He supports this idea by referring to James Joyce's Finnegans Wake which is hailed as a masterpiece, a breakthrough in storytelling--which nobody actually reads. [Before I corrected this post, I mistakenly referred to him citing Ulysses, which is the book I think relatively few people read all the way through--but maybe that's true only of people like me, with short attention spans, as one commenter points out. How about you?]

I've always thought that having the audience vote on what turn a story should take or how it should end is doomed to disappoint about half the voters (assuming there's rougly a 50-50 split).

It can be interesting to explore characters more fully--for example, by going to the blog of a fictional character in something you're reading--but that's not really interactivity. 

Frankly, I'm glad to hear the professor's take on this. Games are games and stories are stories. While elements of each can enrich the other, to me a story is special because it takes me somewhere and when I'm the reader I don't want to drive the bus, I want to sit back and enjoy the journey.

ps: In the original post I also copied Gottschall's mistake of adding an apostrophe--it's actually Finnegans Wake, not Finnegan's Wake.  

If you think you might want to read Finnegans Wake, here's the first paragraph to get you started:

"riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Sir Tristram, violer d’amores, fr’over the short sea, had passen-core rearrived from North Armorica on this side the scraggy isthmus of Europe Minor to wielderfight his penisolate war: nor had topsawyer’s rocks by the stream Oconee exaggerated themselse to Laurens County’s gorgios while they went doublin their mumper all the time: nor avoice from afire bellowsed mishe mishe to tauftauf thuartpeatrick not yet, though venissoon after, had a kidscad buttended a bland old isaac: not yet, though all’s fair in vanessy, were sosie sesthers wroth with twone nathandjoe. Rot a peck of pa’s malt had Jhem or Shen brewed by arclight and rory end to the regginbrow was to be seen ringsome on the aquaface."

You can read or download the entire book at http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/j8f/index.html

Can design save newspapers, books...and writers?

In the 2009 six-minute TED talk below a Polish newspaper designer named Janek Utko discussed how changing the design of newspapers might help save them--at least for now. Of course it's not design alone, as he acknowledges, but it can make an important contribution.  

Maybe it can give us some ideas for how to make sure that traditional (paper-based) books and other creative products also continue to be popular. 

 

Related articles

Self-publish or go with an ebook publisher? (And an uncomfortable truth)

Austin Macauley Publishers : update

Austen Macauley is a publisher that advertises for manuscripts. They describe their set-up this way: 

 "Initially, our editors look at every new manuscript with a view to offer a Traditional Mainstream publishing deal. Once our editors have reviewed the work thoroughly, only then will we be able to decide which avenue would be more suitable for each individual book. A traditional partnership agreement entails the same benefits as a mainstream agreement. However, as the writer you may be asked to cover part of the cost of publishing the book. We follow all traditional mainstream etiquettes with regards to the promotion and marketing as well as all other avenues involved in the process."

 Austin Macauley is only one of many publishers who have this two-mode system; there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Since I haven't had any personal experience with Austen Macauley, I decided to check with an expert who keeps tabs on writers' experiences with publishers.

WHAT DOES WRITER BEWARE SAY ABOUT AUSTIN MACAULEY?

I contacted Victoria Strauss, who runs the excellent "Writer Beware" blog to find out whether she knew anything about this operation. She told me, "I've gotten scores of complaints about Austin Macauley." 

The Writer Beware "thumbs down" list has now added Ashwell Publishing, doing business as Olympia Publishing (has shared staff with Austin Macauley) (London UK).

AUSTIN MACAULEY'S LEGAL THREATS AND MONEY OFFER

 I've had several letters from Austin Macauley threatening legal action over the previous version of this post.

First they accused me of being "a professional provider of self-publishing services" who therefore would benefit from making "disparaging references to publisher's work" (sic).  

I don't provide any such services. 

AUSTIN MACAULEY'S INTERESTING OFFER

Next, I had an email from an Austin Macauley consultant asking me "amicably" to remove this post. Here's what he wrote, using his spelling and punctuation: 

This is Patrick who currently is working for austinmacauley.com

Buy this time you should be knowing the reason for why I'm here. As,I would like to get an review removed from your site. Good reviews comes and goes, but a small, single negative review doesnt disappears.

 

I'm happy to discuss about this even if money is involved.

 

Let me know if we can discuss about the same.

 

Thanks,

Patrick

No, Patrick and Austin Macauley, I don't post reviews for money, and I don't take them down for money.

 THE LATEST LEGAL NOTICE

The most recent notice (September 9, 2015) accuses me of publishing defamatory material--namely, a fuller quote by Victoria Strauss, and the permalink for this post, which includes the words "how to avoid scams." So let me be clear:

Victoria's thoughts and experiences are her own. I've shortened her quote and invite you to make up your own mind about the Thumbs Down list at Writer Beware.

Secondly, the simple presence of the words "how to avoid scams" does not mean that any publisher mentioned in the article is being accused of scams.

Actually, my advice is to treat ALL publishers with caution, including Penguin, Hachette, HarperCollins, Pearson, Simon & Shuster, and all others, including Austen Macauley.

Many publishers are totally aboveboard, with contracts that are fair to authors. Some have contracts with provisions you may not find acceptable (and in some cases you may be able to negotiate changes). A small minority are scamming people. 

When I use the phrase "how to avoid scams" I am advising you to do your own research, take a close look at the contract any publisher offers you, use the internet to check what other people's experiences have been, and only then make up your own mind before you sign up.

Just in case that's not clear enough for the solicitors that Austen Macauley is keeping busy: nothing in this post should be interpreted as an accusation that Austen Macauley is scamming people; instead, it suggests that those who read this post gather their own facts and come to their own conclusions, just as you would with any company before you sign a contract. 

 

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