Book Title Formulas

i read the section on "titles" and you mentioned there is a "formula" for suspense, thrillers and the like. what is the formula?

I don't think there's a formula like in algebra, plug in this and you'll get this, but if you look at a shelf full of thrillers or suspense titles, I think you'll soon begin to see a pattern of titles like: Bad Blood, The Cold Room, Still Missing, Edge, Skin, Torn Apart....

In other words, simple, chilling, and kind of scary. There's nothing too descriptive in a thriller or suspense title (typically).

When you choose a title, choose one that represents the tone or voice of your book. In other words, does your title itself convey a mood, or tell a bit of a story to the reader?


Jessica

Shadow in Hawthorn Bay - Janet Lunn

Here is my 4th Canadian re-read for the Canadian Book Challenge over at The Book Mine Set. Is it cheating that I've picked a YA novel this time around and finished it in under 24 hours?

Book: Shadow in Hawthorn Bay by Janet Lunn. It is interesting to note that my copy is so old that the publisher has been out of business for 20 years, and forget trying to find a website for them advertised anywhere on the book. It is labeled as a First Edition from 1986. My physical copy of this book is beautiful - thick paper, and beautiful artw

ork on the first page of each chapter.

First Read: Probably not too long after it was published - I suspect that it was a birthday present from my parents either that year of the next. I read it in the summer time when I was probably 10 years old or so, and just truly falling in love with books and reading. I went camping for the week with one of my friends from Girl Guides and her family. I was the kid that always got homesick even if I was away for just one night, so I made sure that I packed books that I thought would keep me distracted. That week saw me read and fall in love not only with this book, but with another one of my life-long favourites, Emily of New Moon (by L. M. Montgomery).

Original Impression: I fell in love with this book the first time I read it, and continued to re-read it regularly through the years. It fell out of frequent rotation when I started university, but I still come back to it on occasion. It was written as a follow-up to her better-known book The Root Cellar. I have read her other historical YA novels and love to see how the same families that she created keep popping up through history, but this book has always been my favourite of hers.

Current Impression: I still love this book. The characters seem so real to me. The story is beautiful - a hit of mystery and the paranormal, a quiet romance, and very real human emotions throughout.

It is historical fiction, which I loved reading when I was growing up, and still enjoy reading. The story is of Mairi, a 15-year old girl in the Scottish Highlands in 1815 with the Second Sight (interesting to note that Emily, the other heroine from that camping trip also has the Second Sight...), who hears her cousin and best friend calling her from Upper Canada, the other side of the ocean. Mairi leaves her family, and the land she loves, and the only life she knows to travel across that ocean, only to discover that her cousin has died and the rest of her family has left to travel back to Scotland. She is then faced with the dilemma of what to do and how to survive.

What struck me this time was how descriptive this book is. I hadn't noticed before the contrasting descriptions of the Scottish Highlands with Upper Canada as it was 200 years ago. I was born and lived the first 18 years of my life just north of where this book is set, in what is now known as Prince

Edward County (or "The County" for those of us from the area!). It is hard to imagine the open farm lands of today described as being "dark with forest." Mairi's journey west from Montreal towards Kingston is described as "giant pines rising a hundred feet and more into the air, their trunks over six feet across, their branches starting only thirty or forty feet from the ground and meeting high above the rough road." I guess those early settlers did their work well clearing the land, because no hints of that forest remain today.

The emotions remain real throughout this book, and even though I have read it countless times before, I stil

l caught myself tearing up at the end. This book will definitely stay in my re-reading rotation, any time I need an easy yet engaging read.

When the Manuscript Differs from the Query

I just started a second wave of querying, after a year of revising both the book and, even more so, the query (thank you so much for your blog’s direction on this, you were truly my best resource). This morning, I received my first agent response on the revised query: A request for the full manuscript! As soon as I sent off the full, I realized that a character I had renamed in my manuscript revisions was referenced by the old name in the query. Total bonehead mistake, I know. My question is, do I email the agent and let her know so that she is not confused?

First off, congratulations! A request for a full is cause for celebration. Great news. And lucky for you, there's a very simple answer to your question--the agent won't even notice. Don't worry about it.

Now celebrate.

Jessica

Reading the Bible Again for the First Time - Marcus Borg

This is the next book that I've read for the Lay Worship Leader course that I am taking.

The subtitle of this book indicates the audience that this book is written for - "Taking the Bible Seriously but not Literally". If you are a fundamentalist who reads the Bible literally, this book is not for you. (I should probably tread carefully here, since this is a major source of division amongst Christians, as I have experienced in my own life.)

The lens through which to read the Bible presented in this book is a metaphorical reading, which made perfect sense to me. After all, Jesus taught in parables, which are essentially metaphors. As the author states early in the book, "metaphors can be profoundly true, even through they are not literally true. Metaphor is poetry plus, not factuality minus. That is, metaphor is not less than fact, but more. Some things are best expressed in metaphorical language; others can be expressed only in metaphorical language."

I really appreciated the author's clarity of thought and language in this book. What disappointed me was that in trying to cover the whole Bible in 300 pages, some things were bound to get left behind (pun partially intended for anyone who gets it!). There is a whole chapter dedicated to the first 2 chapters of Genesis; and another chapter to Revelation. And yet the 4 gospels are crammed into one chapter; the prophets (another 21 books of the Bible) are given another chapter; and several books (e.g. Psalms, the non-Pauline epistles) are skipped over completely. I guess I have unrealistic expectations - if as much attention was given to the whole Bible as was given to the first 2 chapters of Genesis, the book would have been too long for all but the most dedicated readers! But still, I felt cheated.

But don't get me wrong - overall, I did like this book, and agreed with most of what was in it. There was particular attention paid to the themes of social justice that run through the Bible as a whole; and anyone who knows me (or is a regular reader of this blog) will know that social justice is something that I am passionate about. To quote the author in the epilogue of this book, "(t)he God of the Bible is full of compassion and passionate about justice."

I have always enjoyed reading the Prophets, and this book helped me realize why. It also made me long for prophets in our own time - people equally passionate for God and for social justice; and who are willing to break with convention to get their message across.

I figure that I'm on track with my required reading, with one book left to read before the next session at the end of March. I'm going to take another fiction break now, and get through some titles on my "for fun" TBR list. I've booked a week off work in February, and am planning a "stay-cation" with nothing but books, music, and the gym in my schedule!

Giving a Project Multiple Reads

I really have great admiration for critique partners and writers' groups. I honestly don't know how you do it. While I don't mind reading a client's work multiple times, I find that the more I read something the less perspective I have.

In other words, the first time I read a book I'm really able to come up with some great concrete tips and advice, some real revisions. The second time I read the same book I'm pickier. I'm looking for things I missed and of course to see if the changes the author made actually work, and after that I start to really lose perspective. I start to look for things that aren't there and I even question my own editorial advice. Are the things I'm pointing out really necessary changes, will an editor really not buy a book because of this, or am I just being hypersensitive at this point?

This is why, for me anyway, I always advise authors to submit to your agent and editor only when you feel you absolutely need to. I don't mind reading a book when you're only done with half if you need my perspective at that point, but I'd prefer you not use me as a critique partner, sending each chapter as you finish it or sending those first three chapters 15 different times just to see if you're getting closer. I want to be your freshest set of eyes, and yes, that might mean a whole heck of a lot of work for you, but hopefully when I give you those tips they'll be solid and full of great advice rather than wishy-washy.

And, before any of my clients panic thinking they shouldn't have sent those initial three chapters or partial or first 50% because you knew you were struggling or questioned the work and needed my advice, you're all fine. ;)


Jessica

Workshop Wednesday

Thanks to all of your contributions, Workshop Wednesday has been a success. We're going to continue on with it for as long as we have entries and the energy to comment on them. If you haven't yet submitted but are still interested, don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.

Dear Jessica,

After struggling with epilepsy since childhood, twenty five year old [redacted] hit rock bottom and decided to go forward with a major brain surgery that changed her life forever.

I think for this to be more powerful it would be helpful to know a few more details. What exactly was rock bottom? What happened that would make you want to undergo such a major surgery.


Independent to the point of stubbornness, [redacted]'s biggest challenge was admitting that she needed help. Over the course of a year, she learned to depend on her family, letting them hold her hand, spoon feed her in the hospital when she was too weak to move, a gauze turban covering her exposed brain, help her begin to walk again and finally figure out what it means to lead a genuinely full life.

I'm not sure this has the pull you intend it to. Unfortunately, a lot of people regularly experience major medical trauma and are forced to rely on others for help. What makes this different? What makes your experience stand out from all others?

[redacted] ’s memoir chronicles her painful journey from frustration, to fear, to ultimate acceptance. LIVING IN A BRAINSTORM is expected to be 100,000 words in journal entry format.

Memoir, like fiction, needs to be completed before querying. A memoir is written like fiction in the sense that you need to create "characters" that come to life for the reader. I'm concerned that the journal format will read like a journal and not a story, which is what a memoir should be. That being said, I know others might not have that same concern.


[redacted] ’s writing has been featured in publications by the Epilepsy Foundations of both Minnesota and Colorado. Through her blog, [redacted], she has been sought out for her help and advice by people with epilepsy and their families as well as non-epileptics who need someone in their corner as they face their own limitations.

This is good. If you're getting a large number of blog readers you should mention that as well.


Sincerely,

Overall I'm not completely wild about this query. It doesn't have that oomph for me that makes it stand out from the many other memoir submissions I get from people who have faced serious medical trauma. What about your story makes it different from someone else who has gone through something similar? Sometimes that can be your voice and writing, but I don't get that here.


Jessica

Not Right for My List

As an aspiring author, I will frequently hear "Not right for my list," or "the characters weren't compelling to me." What do you as an agent do if an author you've signed writes a second book that doesn't resonate with you? How do you pitch that book to publishers?


I think the important thing to remember is that these phrases you're hearing are form letter phrases. It's the wording agents have honed over the years because it's vague enough not to open ourselves to back-and-forth communication and yet truthful because there's something about this book that isn't right for our list. Maybe it was your voice, maybe it was the genre, maybe it was simply the story.

When an agent signs an author, usually there's a meeting of minds (doesn't that sound grand). In other words, usually the agent feels passionate enough about the author's voice and the general direction of the author's writing to want this author on her list and everything else this author might bring to the table. This is why it's so important that you sign with an agent who sees clients as a long-term endeavor and not just a book-by-book project.

I think the fear that authors have that an agent will love the first book but nothing after that is overblown. Sure it can happen, and I'm sure many have horror stories of it happening, but for the most part I think once an agent feels passion for an author's work, they feel passion about that author in general.


Jessica

Responses to Rejections

I'm pretty sure we've covered this before, but it's come up again so I don't feel it hurts discussing it again.

Should you respond to rejection letters, and, if so, what is the appropriate response?

I don't think there's any reason to ever respond to a rejection letter, and some agents will even tell you not to, ever, for any reason. That being said, for me personally, it never hurts to hear a polite "thank you" now and then. Most agents use form rejections of some sort or another, and for that reason I see no reason to send a response. In fact, one of the reasons form rejections are used is to help prevent responses to every email we receive.

If, however, you receive real feedback from an agent that actually sparks something in you or helps you "see the light," for lack of better phrasing, I think it's definitely nice for an agent to hear that her advice was helpful, and something simple is all you need.


Jessica

Seeking New Representation

After you have fired your agent (for not following through, etc), how do you address your previous representation in your query? If your work has not been submitted to publishers because agent not-following-through never even got you a first set of revision notes?

Do you say you're seeking new representation? Does that send up a red flag or make you stand out in the crowd?

Or, do you just query like you're any other writer and pray?


I think it's worth mentioning that you were previously represented, but parted ways before the project was ever submitted. Why? I think mentioning previous representation shows agents that there has been some interest in your project, that a colleague already showed interest in it, and it makes you stand out from every other query because you're rare and different. And let's face it, the goal of a query is definitely to stand out from the crowd. Explaining that it's before the project went on submission shows them that you aren't trying to shop around something that has already been shopped.


Jessica

Workshop Wednesday

Thanks to all of your contributions, Workshop Wednesday has been a success. We're going to continue on with it for as long as we have entries and the energy to comment on them. If you haven't yet submitted but are still interested, don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.


Dear Query Shark,

Well. It is certainly interesting to know who else you’re querying, but now I feel like you haven’t done enough research to know that I’m not her.


I am contacting you because I believe I cannot get enough help for my query, I will probably learn how to write better and someone might even fall over laughing at my mistakes while reading your blog. And now for the real query…

I feel sorry for you now.


Collin Wyle is seduced and carried into the depths of hell by a beautiful woman. Her horrific shriek awakens him in his bed in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat, his skin burning from the heat. Collin has been having what he calls ‘intense’ dreams for months now, with little help from doctors, pills and alcohol.

When he dreams of an acquaintance who is battling for her own life and her children from their abusive father, he decides to take matters into his own hands. The following day he sees the local news discussing the facts… from his dream. He then realizes, these are not dreams, but real life events. He has influence in the lives of others, the ability to help them or harm them. But at what cost?

This is a thriller. Tell me what is going to thrill me. The real gut of this story is Collin’s ability to receive premonitions in his sleep and then use them to help or harm others. But that is the very last sentence of the query, which makes me worry that you spend the majority of your manuscript on backstory and descriptions of dreams before finally getting to the point. I need to know what this is about before I’m nearly finished reading it. Then, so that I’m not left thinking, “So?” I need to know why this is a problem for Collin and what he does about it. Are there other threads? Friendships or romances, etc?


Sinners & Saints is a paranormal thriller about 85000 words.

The author has an active, vivid imagination. He has found that interacting with many different personalities helps create life-like characters.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,




Lauren

Approaching Agents with a Publishing Offer

The agency representing me abruptly closed its doors, two months before my debut novel releases (yeah, bad timing huh).

Then a few days ago I got a three book contract offer, and I have no agent. I was wondering how to word a "query" to a handful of agents I want to approach to represent my novels, along with the 3-book deal.

Might I just send a simple email explaining? Or do I send a query of the book that landed the 3-book offer?

I would put something like, "publishing contract offered, need representation" in your subject heading to grab the agents' attention and then I would start a simple email explaining, and finish the email with your query so that agents have all the information they need to know if this is a project that might be right for them.

Good luck and congratulations!

Jessica

Meeting an Agent at a Conference

This question came through on a blog post I did about preparing a nonfiction manuscript:

I have a meeting with a publisher at a conference at the end of the month. I will be presenting them several chapters and a proposal. Do you have any recommendations on how I should present it to them (bound, in a folder, loose, etc.)?

Please do NOT present a written proposal. I definitely recommend having your material with you, especially electronically, on the off chance an agent does want to see it while she's traveling, but I do not recommend showing up at a conference, proposal in hand, thinking you're simply going to hand it over to an agent. A pitch appointment is not an opportunity to hand-deliver your material. A pitch appointment is about verbally pitching your book and getting to know the agent and a little more about the industry. It's also the agent's chance to get to know you and to see if you're the kind of person she would like to work with. Honestly, I've had pitch appointments in which I've passed on material only because I found the author so abrasive I knew it wasn't someone I wanted to work with.

When you do prepare your proposal, never bind it. A folder is fine, but typically, if the agent is still accepting paper submissions, it's loose.

Jessica

Barbara Kingsolver - The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven

I first read The Bean Trees several years ago when I was living in Tanzania and would read any book that came my way if it was written in English. If it hadn't been for that, I probably wouldn't have picked it up, since I had previously read and strongly disliked Barbara Kingsolver's better-known book, The Poisonwood Bible. But I'm glad that I did pick up and read The Bean Trees because I absolutely loved it.

It features a cast of very likeable characters; it touches on some serious topics (child abuse, human rights violation and so-called "illegal" immigration, human trafficking) while maintaining a light tone and a sense of humour. I found myself especially drawn to Taylor, the main character, for her spunk, her innocence, and her determination to do what she feels is right. And Turtle, the child that she adopts - who wouldn't love her?

I knew that there was a sequel, but had never read it; however on a trip down to the US back in December, I managed to pick up copies of both The Bean Trees and the sequel, Pigs in Heaven.

Re-reading The Bean Trees, it was just as good as I remembered it; though there were parts of the plot that I had forgotten, or remembered differently than they were.

Pigs in Heaven starts 2 years after the end of The Bean Trees; and it picks up on the one tread at the end of The Bean Trees that had disturbed me (SPOILER ALERT if you haven't read The Bean Trees) - the irregular nature of Turtle's legal adoption.

The conflict at the centre of Pigs in Heaven have to do with the adoption of a Cherokee child by a white mother. Who is the better person to raise a child - her tribe or the outsider with whom she has formed an attachment? There is lots of emotion in this book (as there was in The Bean Trees), and both books are so gripping that I had trouble putting them down. Along the way to the resolution of the primary conflict, other issues are addressed - the injustice of the cycle of poverty, racism, the history of the Cherokee people (of which I knew very little of before reading this book), and feminism, just to name a few. But the humour is always there, even when Taylor hits rock bottom and begins to question herself.

Taylor and Turtle are still the same likeable and engaging characters; Taylor's mother Alice has a bigger role in this book; some of the characters from The Bean Trees make an appearance (Lou Ann and Mattie - though I would have loved to have found out what happened to Estevan and Esperanza, the Guatemalan refugees); and there are a whole new cast of characters to get to know. Both of these books seem to have achieved the perfect balance of plot and characters.

I'm not going to spoil the ending by revealing it here; but I just want to say that it was satisfying. I would love to have another book featuring Taylor and Turtle, to find out what happens next; but I am also happy to leave it at that, knowing that things are going to work out for everyone.

I'm so glad that I discovered these books, because if it had been dependent on my reading of The Poisonwood Bible, I would have never picked up another book by Barbara Kingsolver. As it is, I read and loved her non-fiction book describing her family's effort to eat locally for a year - Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. And since Pigs in Heaven lived up to my memories of The Bean Trees, I will probably look up more of her fiction now.

Categorizing Your Book

My book is set twenty years in the future, but it's more of a YA paranormal romance. Does a storyline set in the future make it automatically science fiction? I'm just not sure how to word my query: A paranormal romance with a futuristic twist is what I have right now.


Almost every book could have separate categories, because truthfully, almost every book has elements of different genres in it. Who is the core audience for your book? It sounds like your book is truly YA with SF elements. I suppose you could say the same for Hunger Games, which, as a dystopian, would technically be called SF, but because the voice and the true audience is YA, it's YA.

If your book is a paranormal romance with a futuristic twist, it's a paranormal romance and that's where it would be shelved and that's the audience you would sell to.

The question you need to ask yourself is where in the bookstore would it be shelved, which genre? That's what you would call your book.

Jessica

Workshop Wednesday

Thanks to all of your contributions, Workshop Wednesday has been a success. We're going to continue on with it for as long as we have entries and the energy to comment on them. If you haven't yet submitted but are still interested, don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.

Dear Jessica Faust,

The day Claire has prayed for the last ten years has somehow become an inescapable nightmare. Her best friend Alice woke up from her coma but Claire's guilt did not lessen. Jackson returned home with Alice and Claire is still just as heartbroken. More than that, she's terrified of what happens next. Claire failed to realize what their return would really mean - her reprieve is over.

I'm definitely intrigued by this because I sense that there's something about the overall story that sounds interesting. I love the idea of praying for what might be considered a miracle and when it happens realizing the nightmare hasn't ended. That being said, I don't think this paragraph, or this query, is particularly well written, and for that reason I have major reservations about wanting to read more.

I have no idea what you mean by "Jackson returned home with Alice and Claire...." Who is Jackson? Returned home from where? The hospital? Still heartbroken from what? And "just as" heartbroken as Claire, Alice or as he was earlier? None of this makes any sense here and I'm getting no sense of the story. I like the idea that Claire's guilt did not lessen, but lessen over what? I'm missing huge chunks of the story here.
I have no idea where these people are returning from or what sort of reprieve Claire had. Basically, I have far more questions than answers.


The happiness Claire has longed for is overshadowed by her fear. Alice's accident was not the only consequence of their last night together. Now, Claire has something more important than their friendship to lose - a daughter she would do anything to protect.

This feels a tad stronger, and only a tad. That doesn't mean I would recommend keeping it. I still don't understand the setup or how they got where they are or where this daughter comes in.


Claire knows in her heart that Jackson belongs with Alice. Resisting him will be easy. This time, Claire is older, smarter and she has a very good reason to stay as far away from Jackson Montgomery as possible. Besides, her love for him was replaced with hate the second he abandoned her. Or at least that's what she thinks until she takes one look into his eyes.

So in the opening I would have assumed this was women's fiction, but now I realize it's a romance, and that throws me.


Reawakened is a 70,000 word contemporary romance novel. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Overall I think you're going to have a hard time getting any traction with this query. It tells bits of what a story could be, but doesn't really tell me anything about your story. Most important, it doesn't give me the confidence that you could actually write an entire book.



Jessica

The Publishing House Procedure

I need some insider info. My (wonderful) agent hasn't really given me any details about the situation so I hope you might be able to.

Last year we went on submission. We came close once with a revise and resubmit but ultimately the editor didn't make an offer. One of the editors from the first round was very slow and when my agent called to follow up, he told her I was doing an R&R. The editor asked to see the revision.

A few weeks after she got the ms, she called me and asked for some changes. They were very minor and I ended the call feeling very good about her and the work she wanted me to do. So we sent the newly revised ms back to her and then we got a note a few weeks later that she loves it. Another note a few days later said she finished it and was sending it to her editorial director.

My question is: what does this mean? Do editors usually send it to their editorial directors before they can make an offer? Is she sending it to the editorial director because she has doubts about it or because she's excited about it? How does a decision about an offer actually get made?


This is fabulous news. There's nothing else to say. Nearly everyone at a publishing house needs to get what are often called "second reads" before even considering an offer. These second reads mean they go to their colleagues to get their opinion. Unlike most agencies, no decision is made at a publishing house without the consensus of a number of people. Who these people are will depend on the house, the genre, the editor, the book, etc. Often an editor will bring the book up at what's called an editorial meeting to get the opinion of a number of editors. In this case she presents the book one week, often using your agent's pitch letter as her guide, and listens to the feedback of others at next week's meeting. Sometimes the decision makers include not just editors, but the marketing and sales team as well, and sometimes the only second read you'll need is from the head of the genre's department or the editorial director, or maybe just the editor's immediate boss.

In this case it sounds like she's hoping to get the go-ahead from the editorial director to make the offer. If the editorial director agrees that it's something they would like to add to their list, they'll discuss where the book would fit on the list and what kind of offer they will be making.

Congratulations and good luck. This is exciting news.

By the way, it sounds like you have a great agent, someone who's really active and involved, so don't be afraid to ask her these questions. That's just part of what you pay her for.


Jessica

Main stream publishing catching up on ebooks

Contact me at:

I've said it many times before but ebook revolution really started in November 2010 but the principal players were indies. People like my husband Michael J. Sullivan, Ridan author's Nathan Lowell, Marshall S. Thomas, Leslie Ann Moore, and fellow indie authors like David Dalglish and H.P. Mallory really saw a jump in their sales that was down right mind blowing.

From trying to piece together information from articles and blogs it would have appeared that that big publishing houses weren't seeing the types of huge increases at that time - and in fact many of the top spots in the genre Amazon Bestseller lists were held by the indies attracting the ebook reading population with their free, $0.99 and $2.99 books.

But I knew that would not always be the case the big-six would eventually see a large percentage of their sales moving digitally. I was astonished that each time I saw an industry report with findings from "the big boys" that their numbers were in the 10% - 25% range with regards to percentage of ebook sales.

But I think we are finally starting to see a major shift in this regard. A good way to gauge what is going on at the big houses is to watch the bestseller's lists. After all the vast majority of the titles on lists such as NYT and USA Today are generally published by the large houses although an incredible breakout indie will show up from time to time.

So to me this graph really tells the full story. USA Today aggregates sales of all formats when determining their best sellers. So they'll lump together ebook, paperback, and hardcover sales...but...they also report of those three formats, which sold the most copies. Well below is some fascinating data about the number of titles where the ebooks are outselling print.


If you find this graph hard to read let's give you a blow-up of the important part 2011 - 2012. So what can we see. About 20% of the USA Today Titles were selling more ebooks for most of 2011 and in some cases that raised to as high as 40%. As the Christmas buying season started, paper came back in a big way as physical books were bought for presents. But there was more under the tree then just book. eReaders were also given and the people receiving them flocked to the "big names."


So what does this mean for indie authors? Well I think it's safe to say that your exclusive hold on that portion of the market is getting encroached upon by the big boys. I also noticed that Orbit, Harper Voyager and Angry Robot all offered $0.99 - $2.99 pricing of popular titles over the holidays. More on this particular environment over the next few days.

Contact me at:

So, You've Got an Offer . . .

So, you've got an offer . . . but what if you've already been rejected by agents all over town?

I was going to leave this as a comment on your post "You Have an Offer" but decided to email you instead...

What if you've been rejected (or just not heard back from... no answer means no) by pretty much every agent on your list and THEN get an offer from a publisher? It feels kind of silly to email all the agents who've just told you no thanks and say "I know you didn't want this, but hey! Certain Publisher does, can someone represent me please?"

I'm facing this situation myself at the moment. I spent all last year querying a sci-fi with romantic elements, Atrophy. I got some great rejections, agents who said "I can't take this because it falls right between sci-fi and romance, so don't know what to do with it, but write something else and send me that!"

After I'd pretty much exhausted my list of potential agents, I was given the email address of an editor at HarperVoyager Australia from one of their authors I know and sent a query. The editor got straight back to me and said she wanted to see the first 10 chaps. A few weeks after that, the editor emailed again to say she was enjoying it immensly, there was so many things about it that were great and wanted to see the entire manuscript, plus was going to get another editor to read it as well.

Now, I know this isn't an offer and there's still every chance they could say "thanks, but no." Excpet taking into account how enthusiastic she seemed about it, I've got to consider what I'll do if they offer a contract. Some other published authors have advised me to forget about an agent since I got rejected by so many. If HV offer a contract I should just get a lawyer familiar with this sort of thing and go it without an agent. I now have several books published with Noble Romance Publishing and doing that without an agent it one thing, they're a small press, the contract was pretty straight forward and I was confident having a lawyer look over it and then going ahead on my own. But obviously HarperVoyager are a whole different ball game and honostly, I know that to make the kind of career I want, I need an agent.

So, on the chance HV do offer me a contract, what does an author do who has already been rejected by agents all over town do?

Would really appreciate an answer to this question that has really been stressing me out.


Well, what's interesting is it sounds like you have great feedback from agents who just didn't know where they could take the book, or they didn't feel they had the contacts, or could do you justice because they felt the risk was too big, and, sometimes, agents don't want to get an author's hopes up when they know something is a long shot. What I'd suggest is wait until you have the offer, and when you do, let the editor know that you'd prefer to work with an agent so will need two weeks before you can get back to her. Then I would immediately follow up with those agents you felt you got a good response from. Those agents who sounded very interested in you and your work and, if they asked to see other things, clearly your voice. Let them know you have an offer on that book and ask if they would consider offering representation.

Sure, you could definitely hire a lawyer (make sure it's a literary lawyer, someone who understands the publishing contract), but if you already have agents who are enthusiastic about your voice, this is a good opportunity to start building a relationship. When you interview those agents, really talk to them about their vision for your career, not just their strategy for selling this particular book, although that should be part of the conversation as well.

I hope this helps. It sounds like you've gotten some good news lately so congratulations!

Jessica

Remedial Christianity - Paul Alan Laughlin

This is the second "required reading" for the Lay Worship Leader course that I am currently taking. I have already submitted my formal response; but thought that I would just jot down a few of my thoughts on this book in a more informal format here.

This book was written as a textbook for a college religion course, and it reads very much like a textbook. There are chapters on the bible, the historical Jesus, the Christ of faith, sin, salvation, and the history of the church. As the cover implies, there is some humour inserted throughout, in the form of cartoons, some sarcasm, and by the pointing out of irony. It was well written, and over all is much more approachable than many textbooks that I read in my university years.

There wasn't much new for me in this book. I self-identify as a Liberal Christian, and this book is written from that perspective. I can see, however, that a person with Fundamentalist beliefs might be very upset at some of the things written in this book.

My biggest complaint with this book is actually expressed in the subtitle. The full name of this book is Remedial Christianity: What Every Believer Should Know about the Faith, but Probably Doesn't. There was actually not much in this book that I didn't already know, and I found that the author's tone was quite condescending at times.

But overall, it was an enjoyable read; though I'm glad that I was reading it over the holidays when I had more time to concentrate on it. It wouldn't make good bedtime reading! A more enjoyable read for sure, than the last book I read for this course. I'm taking a bit of a fiction break now before tackling the next required reading - watch for another post later this week!

Quick Take on B&N News

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Saw that Barnes and Noble is thinking of spinning off the Nook Unit from this article. I've been waiting for such an announcement as a possible Harbinger that B&N will head the way of Borders. Borders and Kobo were separate such that it remained even after Border's demise. It later was bought for a very tidy sum by a huge Japanese eCommerce company.

Despite the fact that the nook side of the house is losing rather than making money, it is the only thing that has potential as print sales continue to decline. I think it is a smart move to have a valuable asset protected as the future continues to unfold. Interesting times indeed.

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A New Year and Some New Changes

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Hello all,
I'm sure there are some who are wondering...what the hell has happened to Robin. Has she dropped off the face of the planet? Well sort of.
In November through mid-December I was hard at work getting some releases out for Ridan and I didn't want my blogging to distract from that focus. I was literally working around the clock and sleeping very few hours a day and I did manage to get a lot accomplished...but not all that I wanted as tragedy stuck.
I don't want to go into all the details but the long and the short of it is my dad passed away. He has had problems with his heart over the past few years and has had angioplasty and an imbedded defibrillator for some time now. His health started to deteriorate at Thanksgiving which made us wonder if his time was getting short. But then he rebounded and it looked like a bullet was dodged. We were wrong.
Dad passed between Christmas and New Years and I’ve been working on final arrangements, complicated by the fact that he lived alone and 3,000 miles away. This of course has made it difficult to anything and once again puts me behind on the Ridan projects I had ongoing.
So, I may continue to be scarce for awhile yet. But I will try to bop in at least once in a while with some helpful marketing tips or my opinions on the constantly changing publishing landscape. There is much I want to share with you all over the next few weeks.

• My opinions on Amazon Select and what it means to indies and publishing as a whole.
• The fact that 42 of the top 50 USA Today titles now sell more in ebook then print
• How Michael’s release with Orbit has gone

I also want to start doing podcasting and even some video posts as I can get more content out there in a short period of time. Santa brought me some nice equipment for just this purpose and hopefully I shall be integrating that soon.
I hope I still have a few fans that are still interested in what I have to say. I’m sure many of you have gone on to other blogs to get your “fix” but hopefully I’ll still be able to contribute something meaningful to this whole wacky world that writing and publishing has become.

Here's hoping that I'll be back with you soon.

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