Nathan Bransford, Author

Traditional vs. Self-publishing is a False Dichotomy

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:44:00 +0000

Us vs. them is fun. It gets people's blood boiling. It instills fear. It's thrilling to be on a team, especially when you feel like your team is winning.

These days it seems like traditional and self-publishing are increasingly pitted against each other on blogs and forums, as if one side or the other is the bastion of all that is good and pure in the world and the other side is the bastion of all that is horrible and evil.

This is insane.

There is no "us" vs. "them." Traditional vs. self-publishing is a false dichotomy. It's an illusion created by people who either have let their frustrations get the best of them or are trying to sell you something. We're all writers trying to figure out the best way to get our books to readers. We're all on the same team.

No, the traditional publishing industry is not a hive of retrograde monsters out to steal and eat your newborn children. No, self-publishing is not a gang of unwashed crap artists trying to poison the literary well forever.

Publishing is a spectrum of choice, from traditional publishers who pay you, will handle most things for you and assume all risk in exchange for certain rights to your book, to self-publishing where you handle everything yourself, pay your own way, and adopt your own risk. And there's a whole lot more choice in between those two poles.

What's the right way? There is no right way.

Some authors want to let the publishers handle things for them. Some authors want to go for print glory because that's where the bulk of readers are right now (yes, still). Some authors want the freedom of control of self-publishing. Some authors want to experiment with pricing.

And guess what: Some authors do both, and they always have. Even before e-publishing, many prominent authors got their start self-publishing. And many authors who used to be traditionally published moved to self-publishing. Some authors use hybrid models that combine elements of traditional and self-publishing.

There is no hundred foot wall between self-publishing and traditional publishing. Choosing one does not preclude the other, even if you feel like you're currently on the outs with traditional publishing. Or did you miss the recent seven figure book deal for the self-published nutritionist?

Sure. It's fun to join up sides and start flinging mud. It's exciting to think that your team alone has the holy grail.

But I see a lot of authors out there getting taken for a ride by both sides. People are preying on writers' fears and frustrations.

The only way you'll be able to decide what's best for you is if you ignore the pied pipers, set aside your emotions, and think only about what's the right for your book.

Art: La Riña - Francisco de Goya

Where Did You Hear About the Book You're Reading?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:13:00 +0000

The way we discover books is ever-changing. It sure seems like we're far more likely to discover books through a tweet, Goodreads recommendation, Facebook post, or online search than we are through methods that existed before the Internet.

Where did you hear about the book you're reading?

I'm reading A Wrinkle in Time at the moment, which I could have sworn I read growing up, but now realize I picked up and put down a million times when I was a kid. So, uh, I heard about it when I was a kid.

What about you?

Art: Conversation - Camille Pissarro

On Self-Publishing and Having a Chip on One's Shoulder

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:36:00 +0000

There is an affliction sweeping the nation that until recently has mainly only been whispered about in private quarters, but which agent Sarah LaPolla and author Chuck Wendig touched on this week:

Some (some!) vocal self-published authors have a rather substantial chip on their shoulders.

Before we start get into name calling, let me state the following:

I love self-publishing! I think it's fantastic. I wouldn't by any means rule out partaking in this wondrous process someday and have been pro-self-publishing since the beginning of time, or at least since the mid-2000s. I think it's awesome that authors can find their readers without needing a traditional publisher.

And I don't blame people for being frustrated with the traditional publishing process. Yes, some people in traditional publishing are jerks and treat people accordingly. Yes, traditional publishing may well have overlooked your book. Yes, the query process is used as a torture device in some countries.

It's frustrating. But frustration is to publishing what carbon dioxide is to breathing: a poisonous but inevitable byproduct. (What many self-published authors don't yet realize is that this is true of self-publishing too.)

Also, when I say some self-published authors have a chip on their shoulder, this isn't about me complaining. These chips implanted in those shoulders certainly make for entertaining if slightly horrifying flame wars. People are welcome to say whatever they want, which is why the Internet exists in the first place.

I just don't think the chippy authors are doing themselves any favors. Here's why:

1) Your attitude could alienate people you might want to work with in the future

Publishing, whether self- or traditional, is a means to an end. It's about getting your words to readers.

And guess what: love them or hate them, traditional publishers happen to be pretty awesome at getting books to readers, especially when they're very motivated. You may want to use one of them someday.

Now, the idea of a publishing industry blacklist is approximately 110% myth. You're not going to end your publishing career by shooting your mouth off. But all things being equal, people don't want to work with a jerk.

Rejection isn't personal. There's nothing to exact revenge over.

2) You're turning off potential readers

Most readers, by and large, don't care a whit who publishes you. They haven't heard of 90% of the imprints out there anyway. They're not going to read you because you wear your self-publishing badge with excessive pride. They just want to know if your book is good.

Most readers would also prefer that the authors they read are good humans too. So that helps.

3) Your attitude reinforces the idea that self-publishing equates authors who were rejected everywhere else

Chuck Wendig puts this one better than I could:

Every time you yell about traditional publishing it just looks like a dumptruck full of sour grapes. Which leads us all to what is likely the correct conclusion: you self-publish because you were rejected and your peen is in a twist about it, not because you have a great story you want people to read, not because you want the control that self-publishing affords you.

4) If you are self-publishing out of frustration with traditional publication you're doing it for the wrong reasons

You should be self-publishing because it is the best career move for you, not because you grew impatient with traditional publication or arrived at self-publishing with a desire to stick it to publishers.

Are you sure you want to self-publish? Check out this checklist.

By and large self-published authors are awesome, entrepreneurial, creative individuals. Some loud ones are not. It's temping to join the loud crowd, but better in the long run to let your work speak for you rather than your frustrations.

Art: The Torment of St. Anthony - Michelangelo

Social Media is an Imperfect Sales Tool. Use it Anyway.

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:36:00 +0000

I somehow missed this post the first time around, but Red Pen of Doom wrote a post at the end of last year that, while extremely complimentary of my physical appearance (blushing, RPofD!), pointed out that my social media following has not resulted in the same number book sales as, say, Snooki. Who, yes, has a book out.

The title of the blog post: The Twitter: it is NOT for selling books.

And you know what? I (mostly) agree with this post.

Social media is an imperfect sales tool. Even if you have a following of hundreds of thousands of people, a small percentage of those will see your posts about your work, a smaller percentage of those will click through, and a smaller percentage than those will actually buy.

Social media alone is not going to make a book a bestseller, which I hope is an eye-opener for publishers who are relying on an author's social media efforts alone to sell books. The list of megabestsellers who haven't so much as sniffed at Twitter are legion.

But that still doesn't mean you should abandon social media. Here are three main reasons why:

1) It's not perfect, but it works

Social media hasn't made my novel Jacob Wonderbar a bestseller, but I do know I've sold way more books than I would have without it. How do I know? I recognize the names of a lot of the people who are reviewing my books on Amazon and Goodreads.

I wasn't one of those authors who was the recipient of a major marketing campaign. Jacob Wonderbar was released relatively quietly. And I'm happy with the sales after a year, especially under those circumstances.

Social media sells books. It's likely an overrated sales tool, but it does work.

2) Social media is one of the only free marketing tools available to authors

One of the conclusions RPofD reaches is that in order to sell thousands you have to reach millions. Mass media is the only way to really propel something into the stratosphere. This is absolutely true. But most authors don't have access to mass media.

You do have access to social media. And what's more: it's free.

There's a reason social media has become overrated - it's the first time there has been an actual tool at authors' disposal that can help sell books. Now authors can actually try and move the needle themselves, without access to a media platform. That's very exciting, even if we need to keep expectations in line.

3) There are benefits to using social media beyond sales

If you're only using social media to sell books you are absolutely using it wrong.

Yes, it can sell books. But the sales benefits are far down on the list of benefits that you will accrue using social media the right way.

More likely: You are making friends, you are learning about what else is out there, you are exchanging knowledge, you are discovering, you are communicating, and opportunities will come your way as a result.

So, yes. Social media does not a bestseller make. It's never going to match the effectiveness of a national media campaign. It's never going to match the efforts of a dedicated publisher's marketing efforts.

But publicity is all about giving a book a boost, and social media will help. And there's no better time to start than now.

Do We Have a Failure to Communicate?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:45:00 +0000

I've had several different conversations with friends lately wondering about whether our ability to communicate is being eroded in the texting/e-mail/Facebook messaging/G-chat/Skype/direct messages/can on a string era.

We have more tools for communication than ever. Social media makes it possible to instantly know what our friends are up to and even see when they're nearby. We share books and articles and TV shows and ideas faster than ever before.

But it's also just as easy to let the absence of communication take the place of an actual conversation. Instead of having to let someone down easy over the phone, now we just don't return their e-mail. Instead of having difficult conversations, we exchange some texts and leave it at that.

The idea that technology is eroding our communication skills isn't new, and the introduction of the telephone and television were accompanied by similar hand-wringing. But what are we losing?

One of my friends believes that social media strengthens weak connections but weakens strong connections. My mom believes social media insulates people from having difficult conversations and everyone is getting worse at them. I believe I may just be getting old.

What do you think? Is social media eroding or strengthening our ability to communicate?

Art: Junge Frau am Telefon - Max Schüler

The Last Few Weeks in Books 5/14/12

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 15 May 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Apologies for being inconsistent with the link roundups lately, I've been quite busy finishing up the last few changes for Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp.

The good news is that I've been saving links like a hyperactive squirrel stores acorns. Here we go! Rapid fire style.

First, I was recently interviewed for a San Jose Mercury News article on Facebook's cultural impact, in which I touch on the way social media enforces transparency and honesty, something The Next Web tackled recently as well.

Author Matt Myklusch is starting a new podcast, which I hope to guest appear on in the new few weeks.

Mathew Ingram wrote an interesting article for GigaOM in which he summarized Clay Shirky's argument that Publishing is No Longer a Job or an Industry, It's a Button. Like Ingram, I think Shirky was being a bit cheeky here -- distribution is becoming a button, but there's a lot more that goes into making a book than distribution. Someone's got to take care of those other pesky tasks, and publishers are still pretty good at most of them. Shirky argues that publishers have to find a way to add value to the equation.

And speaking of adding value, J.A. Konrath kicked off a good debate by featuring a post by a veteran Harlequin author, who opted to self-publish because of the paltry royalties Harlequin pays.

If you think your critique partner is rude, check out this letter Jack London wrote to an aspiring writer. London: "Honestly and frankly, I did not enjoy [your story] for its literary charm or value. In the first place, it has little literary value and practically no literary charm." (via JES)

Mike Shatzkin has a typically erudite and insidery take on where the publishing industry stands vis a vis Amazon, in an article called Amazon's Growth and Its Lengthening Shadow. Meanwhile, paidcontent.org summarized the juicy bits from an interview with the head of Amazon's publishing imprint, Larry Kirshbaum.

Oh, and Amazon will be publishing the James Bond backlist. Shaken, surely, not stirred.

In case you're curious about where we go from here in the wake of the DOJ lawsuit, my colleague and fellow author David Carnoy has an awesome article on the future of e-book pricing.

So the golden era of reading is in the past and no one reads anymore, right? Um. Not so fast. Seriously, check out this chart.

Children's and YA book sales are surging! They're up 72%. A quiet sleeper called The Hunger Games might have something to do with that.

Need to procrastinate? The Rejectionist has some ideas on things you can do instead of writing.

McSweeny's has a funny guide to writing better than you normally do. (via Holly Burns)

And my wonderful company CNET has an awesome ode to NASA's first astrochimp.

Comment! of! the! last! few! weeks! A few weeks back I had a post on what the book world would look like after the DOJ lawsuit, and Doug had some more specific details on where things could go:

The transition period could be a mess. E-book stores can't sell e-books without a contract. If those three publishers have to cancel their contracts with all of the e-book stores, it's going to be mid-2010 all over again, when only a few sellers had Agency titles, most of them didn't have all of the publishers, and it took even Amazon six months to get a Penguin contract in place.

Random House wasn't sued, and their Agency Model will continue on as before. The DoJ wasn't concerned about the Agency Model but rather how it came about.

The settling publishers are permitted to continue using Agency Model, but for two years they can't control retail prices other than having a contract clause forbidding sustained sales below cost. (And no Most Favored Nation clause for five years.)

The "no sustained sales below cost" clause could be bad news for mid-list authors. It says that the total discounts offered by the seller on the publisher's titles over the course of a year cannot exceed the seller's commissions on that publisher's titles over the course of the same year. So if Amazon chooses to lose $2 on each of the bazillion e-book copies of JK Rowling's The Casual Vacancy that they sell, they're going to have to make up that $2 bazillion with increased prices on Hachette's other e-book titles. And I can pretty much guarantee you that it won't be on other front-list titles.

And finally, my friend Rakesh Satyal, author of the fantastic novel Blue Boy, was one of the many illustrious contributors to the Scholastic anthology The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to Their Younger Selves. Here's the book trailer:

Have a great weekend!

The Biggest Challenges in the New Era of Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:31:00 +0000

As you may have noticed from my gazillions of posts about the wonders of e-books and the future of publishing, I'm a rather relentless techno-optimist. I think the future is going to be better than the past, and I believe having more books out there in the market is a decidedly good thing. I'm counting down the days until there's an invention that allows us to read five books at once.

At the same time, along with technological change comes major disruptions, and change is never even. There will inevitably be institutions and ways of life and old habits and jobs that will go by the wayside to make room for what's to come. Even if things are better on the whole (and I really do think they will be), there are going to be good things that are lost as well.

So I thought I'd devote a post to what I personally think are some of the biggest challenges for publishers, agents, authors, readers, and bookstores.

Publishers: Relevancy

In the old era, only major publishers had the infrastructure to get books to readers. You had to go through them to reach readers in large numbers.

In the e-book era, that necessity is no longer going to be there, and the distribution advantage that publishers have enjoyed for a couple of centuries will be severely, if not completely, eroded. All of a sudden authors, big and small, are going to have the option of going it alone if they want to, and the value proposition that publishers provide is not as clear-cut.

I don't think publishers are going to disappear entirely, and the package of services they bring to bear to produce a book is still unmatched. But if bestselling authors begin setting off on their own with regularity, it's going to have major ramifications for publishers' size and profitability.

Agents: Standardization

I don't think agents are going away. You know that phrase about how a combative person could start a fight in an empty room? Well, agents could start a negotiation in an empty room.

I personally think the biggest threat to agents isn't a decline of publishers - as I say whenever I'm asked, agents will negotiate with whomever is still around. As long as there are authors and readers, there will be someone getting the books to the readers, and authors will need agents to negotiate with those someones. And even in an era where agents aren't the gatekeepers to the literary world, they'll still have a role.

So what's the biggest threat to agents? I think it's standardization of terms.

Apple's iTunes and App stores have been revolutionary in many respects, but perhaps the most revolutionary is the one-size-fits all 70/30 revenue split for all apps. Big, small, it's 70/30. That 70/30 split is so powerful it even caused major publishers to adopt the model across the board for e-books.

If, hypothetically, advances largely go by the wayside and authors of the future are simply offered the same revenue split as everyone else and there's no room for negotiation, agents may be necessary for only the biggest authors.

Bookstores: Survival

When bookstores are already struggling and facing a looming mass conversion to e-books, it doesn't take a genius to see the challenges that bookstores will face. If you love bookstores: support them with your dollars please!

And my unsolicited advice for bookstores: you have a brand that people trust, and people will always need recommendations. Move that brand online as soon as possible, don't hide from the e-book era and give people a reason to keep coming back.

Authors: Attention

I actually think authors have a good situation in the new era, because everyone will have a chance to be heard. But, unfortunately, not all chances are going to be created equal. There will still be a big difference between a book launched with a major publicity campaign and a book anonymously and quietly uploaded to Amazon.

In any situation where there is a great deal of choice people tend to retreat to trusted brands, and I think that's going to be true of the new era. Megabestsellers and celebrities will continue to sell more, and everyone else may find it difficult to stand out.

But as Double Rainbow guy goes to show, hits can come out of nowhere. All it takes is a few people raving for a book to go viral and start spreading. And in the new era, word spreads faster than ever.

Readers: Confusion

I think some of the fears about a deluge of poorly written books are overblown. No one is going to have to go sifting through a huge pile of bad self-published books to find the good stuff. Besides, the era of the deluge is already here. There are millions of books out there and we are still able to find the good ones.

But there are going to be some challenges for readers. While I think anyone who wants a print book will be able to buy one for the foreseeable future, as bookstores close readers are going to have to find new ways of locating books, there could be format confusion and DRM frustrations, and territorial issues and glitches.

But ultimately I think readers will benefit the most from the new era. The more books there are to choose from the more likely it will be that the perfect ones for you are out there.

What do you think the challenges will be? What's scariest about the new era?

Art: Illustration from "Bilderbuch für Kinder" (picture-book for children), edited by Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch

How to Keep Writing When the S*** Hits the Fan

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:24:00 +0000

I wrote the latter part of Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe and nearly all of Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp while going through one of the hardest stretches of my life, and I felt very acutely how writing during hard times can be both a great blessing as well as a serious stressor.

It can be cathartic to block out everything going on in your life and lose yourself in your fictional world for a while, but stress can also make it extremely hard to focus.

Having made it to the other side, here are some things I learned about how to keep writing when life throws you a major curveball.

Take care of yourself first - You first, writing second. Get the help you need, take the time off you need, and don't let your desire to write add to your stress. Life comes before writing every single time. Do what you need to do.

Don't keep your situation a secret - You may feel like you don't want to burden your writing/critique partners or your agent and editor with your personal life, but that's not the right instinct when things are serious. Keep them in the loop and don't be afraid to ask them for more time if you need it. Chances are they're going to be awesome and tell you to take care of yourself, which will give you the breathing room you need to focus. I did just that with my agent and editor, and they were wonderfully supportive, which relieved a huge amount of stress.

Force yourself to get going - That very normal hump that you have to get over to force yourself to sit down and start writing when you don't want to can feel like Mount Everest when you're stressed out. So start climbing. Open up the computer, make yourself get started. Follow the steps for getting back to writing after a break, and once you really get going you'll be amazed how nice it feels to lose yourself in your writing again.

Don't be afraid to cut back - Even if you do power through and keep writing during a stressful time, chances are you're not going to be as productive as you are normally. That's just the nature of being distracted. Plan ahead for this and don't put extra pressure on yourself to maintain the same pace.

Channel your emotion into your writing - Even though I was writing wacky children's books, I still found a way to channel the things I was feeling into the stories. In Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, Jacob starts wondering if he really even wants to win, and Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp hinges on whether Jacob should change the past. Now, Jacob doesn't get all cynical and depressed, but he does feel some of the things I was feeling in the past few years.

Let writing be a bright spot - At some point we're all confronted with difficult stretches in life. But let your writing remind you of how great your future can be. You're going to keep getting better, you're going to keep writing books, and no one can take writing away from you. Savor it and enjoy that it's yours.

Have you tried to write during a difficult time? How did you do it?

Art: Incendio de Troya - Francisco Collantes

Is it Ethical to Watch Football?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:27:00 +0000

Longtime blog readers know that I'm a big sports fan, and for most of my life that has heavily involved football. Some of my earliest memories are of rooting for Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and the 49ers dynasty of the 80s, which extended to Steve Young and Jerry Rice in the 90s and beyond.

When I was in college I went to Pasadena to watch Stanford's Rose Bowl appearance on January 1, 2000, and have since cheered on legends Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck. Now the 49ers have returned to excellence and I was as excited as anyone.

But over the years it's gotten a lot harder to watch.

It all started for me later in 2000 when I was standing on the field across from the line of scrimmage when Washington safety Curtis Williams was injured on a running play. I heard the incredible hit and watched the paramedics rush onto the field and then rush back to the ambulance in a panic, saying, "Holy s***, they're bagging him." Williams was revived on the field, left paralyzed from the neck down, and eventually died at age 24.

But while that may be chalked up to a freak accident, a huge amount of information has since come to light about the effects football has on players' brains. The first serious dawning came from Malcolm Gladwell's influential 2009 article that compared football to dogfighting, which shined a spotlight on the horrific effects football had on former players.

Since then I've been grappling with how ethical it really is to watch football. Yes, the players are there willingly. Yes, they're well-compensated (at least the pros). Yes, the NFL has taken steps to punish helmet to helmet hits, which mollified me some. But should we really be supporting a system that incentivizes people to destroy their brains for our pleasure?

Now comes news that one of the greatest linebackers in history, Junior Seau, was found dead due to an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.

While of course we shouldn't jump to conclusions until the facts are in and it's uncertain whether this has anything to do with football, it's impossible not to draw parallels to the circumstances of another troubled former player, star safety Dave Duerson, who also shot himself in the chest, leaving a note that he wanted his brain donated for study. It was later confirmed that Duerson suffered from a neurodegenerative disease linked to concussions.

Is it really ethical to watch a sport that by its very nature has such a horrific effect on its players? Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has blogged eloquently about this topic. He now says he's out.

This past season I cringed as Stanford's talented wide receiver Chris Owusu endured concussion after horrifying concussion, and now he's going to give it a go with the 49ers. It's admirable that he wants to keep playing the sport he loves, and of course these are my two favorite teams.

I just don't know if I can watch.

How Long Does it Take You to Edit a Novel?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:37:00 +0000

Last week people shared how long it takes you to write a draft. Today: How long does it take you to edit?

This is very much on my mind as I'm back in the editing weeds for Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp, which I've now been editing for over three months. That is typical for me. After doing my own editing after finishing a draft I then usually go through two major rounds with my editor (the fabulous Kate Harrison), and then there's further tinkering and tweaks from there.

All that adds up to three or four months (with another week or two left to go on this one).

What about you?

Art: Anonymous

How Long Does it Take You to Finish a Draft?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:33:00 +0000

This one is inspired by writersink in the Forums, who asks: How long does it take for you to finish a draft/WIP?

And if you haven't yet finished: How long have you been working on your work in progress?

For me personally, it usually takes me between 6-8 months to write a novel. I've written four now (the first is unpublished and the fourth comes out next year), which kind of blows my mind when I stop and think about how much time that represents.

What about you?

Art: Woman Writing a Letter - Gerard ter Borch the Younger

The Top 5 Social Media Blunders You Shouldn't Make

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:23:00 +0000

Social media is as much art as science, but there are some mistakes you just shouldn't make. Here are five.

5. Don't link your Facebook and Twitter accounts

Render unto Facebook that which is Facebook and render unto Twitter that which is Twitter. A good tweet is different than a good Facebook post, and vice versa. When you link your accounts and send tweets to Facebook, your Facebook friends will know you can't be bothered to post and won't interact with your posts.

4. Don't spam your followers

Kanye West can go on long stream of consciousness Twitter benders without losing followers. You cannot.

3. Don't include links in Facebook and Google+ captions

When you paste a link into a Facebook or Google+ status update you'll see a preview of what the link will look like when you post it. After you see that preview, delete the long link. You don't need it anymore. Write clean captions without the http://www.blahblahblah.com gibberish.

2. Don't be a jerk.

A flashy argument is a great way to get some attention, but it never works in the long run. The same goes for rants, excessive snark, and bitter complaints about entities who have wronged you. People might tune in for the fireworks, but then they'll tune you out.

1. Don't misuse Twitter's @Reply

Every time someone starts a tweet with an @reply and doesn't understand that not everyone in their feed is going to see it, it makes a puppy cry.

Don't make a puppy cry. Understand the @Reply. Please. Puppies everywhere will thank you.

NYC!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:16:00 +0000

Blogging will be sporadic this week as I'm on a work trip to New York, New York!

I don't know if you've heard (and if you have, start spreading the news), but if you can make it here you can make it anywhere.

What Will the Book World Look Like After the DOJ Lawsuit?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 14:43:00 +0000

Whew! Thanks to everyone for all of your comments, Tweets, Pins, and for making Jacob Wonderbar week fun! If you're in San Francisco don't forget about the launch party tonight at Books Inc., hope to see you there! And there's still time to enter the Pinterest sweepstakes.

Meanwhile... I guess there was some teeny tiny publishing news this week.

Let's get the disclaimer out of the way first: I work for CNET, which is owned by CBS, which is the parent company of Simon & Schuster, one of the companies named in the lawsuit. All opinion here is entirely my own, does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CBS and/or Simon & Schuster and/or CNET, and is based mainly on my time in publishing as a literary agent where I was not privy to the inside discussions at publishers, and it doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of my old agency Curtis Brown Ltd. either. Cool?

So here's what: The Department of Justice sued five book publishers and Apple for allegedly colluding on e-book prices. Yeah, wow.

How we got here

Here's the elevator pitch summary of what happened:

In the beginning of the e-book era, publishers sold e-books according to the "wholesale" model. Every e-book had a retail price, publisher got roughly half the retail price, bookseller got half, bookseller could sell the e-book for whatever they want. Amazon discounted deeply, taking a loss on some titles, built early market share, made publishers nervous as they were running away with the e-book market.

Along came Apple and the "agency" model: They gave publishers the ability to set their own prices and receive 70%. Publishers jumped at this and raised prices, but actually received less money per copy sold than in the wholesale model. (The difference between agency and wholesale also is the reason behind why some e-books cost more than their print counterparts)

What the DOJ alleges is that some of the publishing executives met around this time and explicitly discussed moving to the agency model and raising prices. This, the DOJ says, amounted to illegal collusion.

Three of the publishers, HarperCollins, S&S, and Hachette, have already settled without admitting wrongdoing, and will allow variable pricing. Macmillan, Penguin Group, and Apple have not settled and apparently will fight the charges in court. The case against Apple in particular, my colleagues Declan McCullaugh and Greg Sandoval write, is unlikely to stick.

For a completely comprehensive look at everything, Shelf Awareness has a great summary (via Curtis Brown). I also summarized the issues in more detail a few weeks back in the post Why the DOJ's Potential Lawsuit Over the Agency Model is a Really Big Deal.

And if you're curious about why e-book prices are so high and why publishers would like to keep them that way, I wrote an article for CNET that goes a bit more in depth.

Were publishers right or wrong?

I blogged about the switch from wholesale to agency in real time in early 2010 and called it The Kindle Missile Crisis, and frankly I'm pretty darn proud of that post because I guessed at the issues that are still at stake now in 2012.

And to be totally honest now that I'm out of the business: I didn't agree with the publishers at the time. I didn't think the agency model was a good move.

But I don't (and didn't) think publishers were crazy either. As the iPad was just about to come out, publishers were fearing that Amazon would build a de facto monopoly in the e-book market. They were hearing from other companies that they couldn't get into the e-book game because they couldn't compete with Amazon on price, and Amazon was busy locking consumers into their proprietary e-book format. Publishers were likely worried Amazon would use their position to tighten the screws on terms and use the low e-book prices to hasten the demise of brick and mortar bookstores, which are hugely important to publishers.

And credit where due, the competition that publishers were seeking did end up taking place. B&N's Nook, Apple's iBooks, Sony, Kobo... there are viable alternatives to the Kindle. E-booksellers have up until now mainly been competing on consumer experience rather than price. High e-book prices have likely slowed the adoption of e-books and preserved the print world a bit longer.

But would that e-book competition have happened anyway without the agency model? Did publishers really have to switch to agency to open up the marketplace?

That is literally the billion dollar question because publishers left a huge amount of money on the table when they switched to the agency model. They actually gave up money to raise prices.

And that's what I always thought was misguided. I believe Apple and B&N would have found ways to viably compete with Amazon even with variable pricing. It's not as if Apple in particular doesn't have the resources to go toe-to-toe with Amazon.

It seemed to me that this had much more to do with trying to keep e-book prices high to hold onto a print world as long as possible. Publishers were compromising their future revenue stream and were risking alienating their most valuable customers and lending a huge opportunity to 99-cent e-book upstarts in order to preserve their diminishing stream as long as possible. Does that ever work?

I love bookstores. I want bookstores to survive and really think they will. But they need to adapt to compete in this world as well rather than relying on publishers to preserve high e-book prices. The future is like a giant perpetual wave. You can either surf it or get washed out to sea.

Though I also recognize that it's much easier said than done. And another thing I know for sure: I'm glad I wasn't the one making these decisions.

So where do things go from here?

The terms of the settlement are confusing. Essentially, publishers can still use the agency model, but they can no longer dictate prices and have to allow a variable pricing model and booksellers can discount, but not more than the 30% publishers are allowed to... yeah, you get the picture. There are actually things called discount pools. Whether publishers continue to stick to agency or try and re-summon the wholesale genie remains to be seen.

But regardless, we're about to enter a very chaotic phase in the e-book marketplace where suddenly price is going to be an important part of our e-book choices when it comes to which apps we use and which devices we buy.

And of course: e-book prices are coming down.

So here are some "ifs" about where things can go from here:

If publishers are able to recapture the revenue per copy that they had in the old e-book wholesale model they might have just bought themselves some valuable time in the past two years to soften the blow from the Borders bankruptcy, to help make Apple and B&N viable contenders in the e-book space, and they'll be happy they took the agency gamble while they could, DOJ lawsuit or no.

If, however, publishers find themselves stuck in a situation where they have the agency model but variable pricing, it could mean the worst of both worlds: less revenue per copy and little ability to hold the line on prices. In that case they may well regret letting Steve Jobs sweet talk them down the agency model rabbit hole.

We'll see. I do know one thing for sure: The e-book world is going to keep on changing fast.

Enter to Win a Nook! The Wonderbar Pinning Sweepstakes Spectacular!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 14:30:00 +0000

UPDATE: Contest has ended! Thanks, everyone!

It's publication week for my novel Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe! You still have time to win a Kindle with Special Offers, and now I'm giving away a Nook Simple Touch!

Also: Correction, it's publication day! Holy space monkeys!!

In case you haven't heard at some point this week, Jacob Wonderbar is the candidate you want to elect in 2012. He is fantastic at pranks, he can escape substitute teachers with the best of them, and he can usually fly around the universe without causing massive space explosions. Of course, he's running against Mick Cracken, the universe's greatest space buccaneer, and running from a rogue band of space monkeys.

He may also have to save the planet Earth from being blown to smithereens. It's a tough campaign.

Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe is for 8-years-old and up and is being published by Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Group USA, and is now available in bookstores!

Order today at:
Amazon (hardcover)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (hardcover)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

And if you missed the first installment in the series, Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, it's available in paperback and reasonably-priced-e-book:

Amazon (paperback)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (paperback)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

Here's how to enter to win the Nook:

Step #1: Follow my boards on Pinterest here (so you will see the winning announcement pin): http://pinterest.com/nathanbransford

Step #2: Repin the official contest Pin to one of your own boards: http://pinterest.com/pin/185210603395771587/

That's it!

Here be the rules:

Do not repin more than once.
The sweepstakes closes Friday at 7pm Pacific time
I'll randomly select a potential winner and notify that individual via a Pinterest pin.
You must be a resident of the United States, age 18 or older in order to enter (Sorry international readers! Sweepstakes rules!)
Please follow the full contest rules below

Have fun! Oh, and here's the trailer:

Terms and conditions!! That's how you know it's real!

The Wonderbar Pinterest Sweepstakes Spectacular:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT ENHANCE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia, ages 18 and older.
How to Enter:

To enter the Wonderbar Pinning Sweepstakes Spectacular ("Sweepstakes"), review these Official Rules and to enter the Sweepstakes you must have a valid Pinterest® account and be a follower of Nathan Bransford. You then must "repin" the official sweepstakes Pin: http://pinterest.com/xxxxxx. Please note that you must agree to comply with the Pinterest Terms of Service.
Entries must be received between 7:00 am (Pacific Time) on April 12, 2012 and 7:00 pm (Pacific Time) on April 13, 2012 ("Sweepstakes Period"). BN.com and Pinterest are not sponsors of this Sweepstakes and do not endorse or otherwise have anything to do with this Sweepstakes. Nathan Bransford shall select the Potential Prize Winner on or about April 13, 2011 by random drawing from among all eligible entries received.
Only (1) entry per person. In case of multiple entries, only the first entry will be considered. Any attempt by a participant to obtain more than the allowable entries by using multiple/different Pinterest accounts or e-mail addresses, identities or any other methods will void all of that participant’s entries.
Entries are void if they are in whole or in part illegible or incomplete. Sponsor assumes no responsibility for late, incomplete or illegible entries.
Nathan Bransford ("Sponsor") is not responsible for technical, hardware or software malfunctions of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, failed, incorrect, incomplete, inaccurate, garbled or delayed electronic communications caused by the sender, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this Sweepstakes which may limit the ability to play or participate, or by any human error which may occur in the processing of the entries in this Sweepstakes. If for any reason the Sweepstakes is not capable of being conducted as described in these rules, Sponsor shall have the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Sweepstakes.

Winners:

From all eligible entries received, one (1) winner will be chosen in a random drawing held on or about April 13, 2012 by Sponsor, whose decisions concerning all matters related to this Sweepstakes are final and binding.
Potential winners will be notified by a Pinterest Pin. Potential Prize Winner will be asked to provide their personal information such as their name, email address, physical address, date of birth and phone number in order to confirm eligibility and compliance with these official rules. If the Potential Prize Winner cannot be reached after a reasonable effort has been made during three (3) business days from the first notification attempt, such person may be disqualified, with an alternate Prize Winner selected in accordance with these Official Rules. Sponsor will only select up to three (3) alternates. If no contact has been made with the alternates after a reasonable effort has been made, the Prize shall not be awarded.
The odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received.

Prizes:

One (1) winner will receive a Nook Simple Touch (Approximate Retail Value $99.00)
In the event that there is an insufficient number of eligible entries, Sponsor reserves the right not to award the prizes.

Eligibility:
This Sweepstakes is open to residents of the fifty United States, age 18 or older. Employees of Sponsor and Dial Books for Young Readers, subsidiaries, affiliates or other parties in anyway involved in the development, production, or distribution of this Sweepstakes, as well as the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings, children) and household members of each such employee are not eligible to participate in the Sweepstakes. Void where prohibited by law. All state and local restrictions apply.
General:

No substitutions, transfers or assignments of prizes allowed. In the event of unavailability, Sponsor may substitute a prize of equal or greater value.
All expenses, including taxes (if any), related to receipt and use of prizes are the sole responsibility of the winners.
Winners may be required to execute an Affidavit of Eligibility and Release ("Affidavit") and if so, the Affidavit must be completed and returned within fourteen (14) days of notification or winner will forfeit their prize and another winner will be selected. Should the ARV of the prize equal or exceed $600.00, winners shall be required to provide a Social Security Number or a Taxpayer Identification Number to Sponsor for issuance of a 1099 Form.
By accepting a prize, winners grant to Sponsor the right to use their names, likenesses, hometowns and biographical information in advertising and promotional materials, including posting on the Sponsor's and author's website, without further compensation or permission, except where prohibited by law.
By competing in this Sweepstakes and/or accepting a prize, entrants release Sponsor, its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies, or the agencies of any of them and the authors and/or editors of any books promoted hereby from any and all liability for any loss, harm, injuries, damages, cost or expense arising out of or relating to participation in this Sweepstakes or the acceptance, use or misuse of the prize.
Any dispute arising from this Sweepstakes will be determined according to the laws of the State of California, without reference to its conflict of law principles, and the entrants consent to the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County and agree that such courts have exclusive jurisdiction over all such disputes.

Winners List:
To receive a copy of the winners list, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope by October 11, 2012 to Nathan Bransford, PO Box 809, Colusa, CA 95932
Sponsor:
Nathan Bransford
PO Box 809
Colusa, CA 95932

Enter to Win a Kindle! The 2nd Annual Wonderbar Twitter Sweepstakes Extravaganza!!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:17:00 +0000

UPDATE: Contest is finished! Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

It's publication week for my novel Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, and I'm giving away a Kindle with Special Offers!

In case you haven't heard, Jacob Wonderbar is the candidate you want to elect in 2012. He is fantastic at pranks, he can escape substitute teachers with the best of them, and he can usually fly around the universe without causing massive space explosions. Of course, he's running against Mick Cracken, the universe's greatest space buccaneer, and running from a rogue band of space monkeys.

He may also have to save the planet Earth from being blown to smithereens. It's a tough campaign.

Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe is for 8-years-old and up. It is being published by Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Group USA, and will be available in bookstores tomorrow!

Order today at:
Amazon (hardcover)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (hardcover)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

And if you missed the first installment, Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, it's available in paperback and reasonably-priced-e-book:

Amazon (paperback)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (paperback)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

Here's how to enter to win the Kindle:

Step #1: Follow me on Twitter (click this link! Also, I'm asking you to follow me so I can DM you if you win)

Step #2: Tweet the following:

Vote Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe!! Um. I may be tweeting this for a chance to win a Kindle http://bit.ly/Ikz1Ia #Wonderbar

Here be the rules:

Do not post the same Tweet more than once.
The sweepstakes closes Thursday at 7pm Pacific time
I'll randomly select a potential winner and notify that individual by Direct Message
You must be a resident of the United States, age 18 or older in order to enter (Sorry international readers! Sweepstakes rules!)
Please follow the full contest rules below

Have fun! Oh, and here's the trailer:

Terms and conditions!! That's how you know it's real!

The 2nd Annual Wonderbar Sweepstakes Extravaganza Rules:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT ENHANCE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia, ages 18 and older.
How to Enter:

To enter the 2nd Annual Wonderbar Twitter Sweepstakes Extravaganza ("Sweepstakes"), review these Official Rules and to enter the Sweepstakes you must have a valid Twitter® account and be a follower of @NathanBransford. You can obtain an account and become a follower during the Sweepstakes Period by going to www.twitter.com, and (1) if you already have a Twitter account, log on using your Twitter user name and password, then become a follower of NathanBransford by searching for "NathanBransford", clicking on the 'NathanBransford' icon and then clicking the "Follow" button or (2) if you do not already have a Twitter account, create a Twitter account according to the instructions on the Twitter website and follow NathanBransford as indicated in (1) above. You then must post Vote Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe!! Um. I may be tweeting this for a chance to win a Kindle http://bit.ly/Ikz1Ia #Wonderbar. Please note that you must agree to comply with the Twitter Terms of Service in order to create a Twitter account.
Entries must be received between 7:00 am (Pacific Time) on April 11, 2012 and 7:00 pm (Pacific Time) on April 12, 2012 ("Sweepstakes Period"). Amazon.com and Twitter, Inc. are not sponsors of this Sweepstakes and do not endorse or otherwise have anything to do with this Sweepstakes. Nathan Bransford shall select the Potential Prize Winner on or about April 12, 2011 by random drawing from among all eligible entries received.
Only (1) entry per person. In case of multiple entries, only the first entry will be considered. Any attempt by a participant to obtain more than the allowable entries by using multiple/different Twitter accounts or e-mail addresses, identities or any other methods will void all of that participant’s entries.
Entries are void if they are in whole or in part illegible or incomplete. Sponsor assumes no responsibility for late, incomplete or illegible entries. NOTE: Sponsor may not receive entries from Twitter users with "protected" updates (i.e., user has set their account so that only people the user has approved can view their updates) due to the way Twitter operates its service. Entrants must be a member of good standing of Twitter in order to participate in the Sweepstakes.
Nathan Bransford ("Sponsor") is not responsible for technical, hardware or software malfunctions of any kind, lost or unavailable network connections, failed, incorrect, incomplete, inaccurate, garbled or delayed electronic communications caused by the sender, or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this Sweepstakes which may limit the ability to play or participate, or by any human error which may occur in the processing of the entries in this Sweepstakes. If for any reason the Sweepstakes is not capable of being conducted as described in these rules, Sponsor shall have the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Sweepstakes.

Winners:

From all eligible entries received, one (1) winner will be chosen in a random drawing held on or about April 12, 2012 by Sponsor, whose decisions concerning all matters related to this Sweepstakes are final and binding.
Potential winners will be notified by Twitter direct message. Potential Prize Winner will be asked to provide their personal information such as their name, email address, physical address, date of birth and phone number in order to confirm eligibility and compliance with these official rules. If the Potential Prize Winner cannot be reached after a reasonable effort has been made during three (3) business days from the first notification attempt, such person may be disqualified, with an alternate Prize Winner selected in accordance with these Official Rules. Sponsor will only select up to three (3) alternates. If no contact has been made with the alternates after a reasonable effort has been made, the Prize shall not be awarded.
The odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received.

Prizes:

One (1) winner will receive a Kindle with Special Offers (Approximate Retail Value $79.00)
In the event that there is an insufficient number of eligible entries, Sponsor reserves the right not to award the prizes.

No substitutions, transfers or assignments of prizes allowed. In the event of unavailability, Sponsor may substitute a prize of equal or greater value.
All expenses, including taxes (if any), related to receipt and use of prizes are the sole responsibility of the winners.
Winners may be required to execute an Affidavit of Eligibility and Release ("Affidavit") and if so, the Affidavit must be completed and returned within fourteen (14) days of notification or winner will forfeit their prize and another winner will be selected. Should the ARV of the prize equal or exceed $600.00, winners shall be required to provide a Social Security Number or a Taxpayer Identification Number to Sponsor for issuance of a 1099 Form.
By accepting a prize, winners grant to Sponsor the right to use their names, likenesses, hometowns and biographical information in advertising and promotional materials, including posting on the Sponsor's and author's website, without further compensation or permission, except where prohibited by law.
By competing in this Sweepstakes and/or accepting a prize, entrants release Sponsor, its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies, or the agencies of any of them and the authors and/or editors of any books promoted hereby from any and all liability for any loss, harm, injuries, damages, cost or expense arising out of or relating to participation in this Sweepstakes or the acceptance, use or misuse of the prize.
Any dispute arising from this Sweepstakes will be determined according to the laws of the State of California, without reference to its conflict of law principles, and the entrants consent to the personal jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in San Francisco County and agree that such courts have exclusive jurisdiction over all such disputes.

Ten Commandments for Editing Someone's Work

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 14:23:00 +0000

It's Jacob Wonderbar week as I'm gearing up for the release of Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe! Stay tuned for prizes tomorrow and Thursday.

Whether you're a writer or not, there's a substantial likelihood that you will be called into service editing someone's book. It may be a loved one, it may be a writing partner, it may be a sworn enemy. It probably won't be a sworn enemy. (Though that would be the most fun, wouldn't it?).

Whomever you are editing, follow these ten rules of law to be the best editor you can be.

1. Remember that it's not your book - Your job as an editor is not to tell someone how you would have written their book. Your job is to help them write the book they want to write. This can't be emphasized enough: It's not your book. It's not. Defer to the writer. Try to help them do what they're trying to do. Work within the world they've constructed.

2. Find out what the author is looking for before you start editing - Are they wondering about a particular stretch? Are they hoping for a major edit? Are they not really looking for editing at all but for moral support? Make sure you have a sense of what the author wants and what their mindset is before you start editing and adjust your approach accordingly.

3. You're not doing anyone favors by being too nice. - Here's what a writer wants to hear when someone is editing their work: "OMG it's perfect I love it!!!" Resist the temptation to tell them just that. Your job is to help them make the work better, not to be a human rubber stamp. There is a Major Exception to this commandment: When the writer is looking for reassurance that they should keep going and is not really looking for editing. In which case the appropriate reaction is "OMG you're brilliant I love it you should keep going!!" (If you followed commandment #2 you will have sniffed this out ahead of time.)

4. You're not doing anyone favors by being a jerk either - When you are editing someone's work you have their fragile, mercurial, reptilian writer brain in your hands. Do not crush it. Be gentle. Be polite. Suggest, don't order. Ask questions, don't assume.

5. Pointing out problem areas is far more helpful than offering solutions - While editing, it is inevitable that you will be struck by ideas about how someone else's book could be better: What if he had feathers instead of hair?! What if this vampire twinkled rather than sparkled?! No. It's okay to offer up some illustrative directions the writer could go to fix something that isn't working, but ultimately the writer is the best equipped to come up with ideas for new directions. Your job is to spot what's not working, not to rewrite.

6. Try to figure out why something isn't working for you - There will be times where something about a scene just doesn't seem right. But rather than thinking about how you would make a weak stretch better, try to figure out instead why it isn't working for you. Is it implausible? Are the characters not being true to themselves? Does the scene lack space monkeys? Identifying the underlying issue can be invaluable for the author.

7. Just make it work - Throw out everything you learned in English classes. You're not looking for what the book means, you're not looking for symbolism, you're not looking for theme. You're looking for whether it works as a coherent story and whether the writer achieved what they were striving for. It's about making it a good story, not about writing a paper on it.

8. Don't overdo it - Tailor your edit notes to the amount of work that needs to be done. If you see major plot/structural issues, stick to detailing those, don't get caught up in copyediting and line edits. If the plot feels mainly okay, focus on chapter-level issues. If most everything is in place, feel free to pick nits. There are two reasons for this approach: 1) You don't want to overwhelm the author and 2) There's no reason for spending a lot of time on line edits that are changing in a major revision anyway.

9. Remember that personal taste is personal - We humans can be too sure of our own viewpoints. We may hate things other people love and love things other people hate. Never be too sure of your opinions when editing; you may be the only person who feels that way. Be cautious when making suggestions and frame your thoughts as your own personal reaction rather than as a pronouncement from the editing gods.

10. Be Positive - Your job as an editor is not to crush someone's spirit, even if you think their manuscript sucks. Your job is not to "tell them like it is" (telling them like it is is telling them how YOU see it). Your job is not to transform a mess into The Great Gatsby. Your job is to be helpful. Your job is to be supportive. Your job is to leave the manuscript and the writer in better shape than you found them. That is the essence of editing.

Jacob Wonderbar Week!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:20:00 +0000

Hold onto your space helmets, it's going to be a fun week!

I'm gearing up for the release of Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, the second book in the Jacob Wonderbar series. If you're in the San Francisco area I would love to see you at the release party at Books Inc. Opera Plaza this Friday!

Rest assured this is not going to be a week of Buy My Book Buy My Book Buy My Book. Here's what we have in store:

Tomorrow I'm going to have a post on the 10 Commandments of Editing, which I have chiseled into stone tablets and hidden around the country in difficult to reach top-secret locations! Or I've just typed them and they will only be available online. I'm not telling. Find out tomorrow.

Wednesday I will be giving away a Kindle for one lucky Tweeter. Isn't that twitterific?

Thursday I will be giving away a Nook for one lucky Pinterester. Isn't that pinteresting? Also Thursday is release day. Holy corndogs!

Friday is party day and we'll talk about what we've learned. Just kidding, we will have learned little.

Meanwhile! There are some new readers around these parts and let's recap why we're here. Jacob Wonderbar is a prank-loving kid who trades a corndog for a spaceship, blasts off into space, and has to find his way back home. He encounters a planet where days are thirty second long, the universe's most nefarious space buccaneer, and, horror of horrors, a planet of substitute teachers. He and his friends have to work together to make their way back home.

Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow, book #1 in the series, is ostensibly for children aged 8-12, but has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for consumption by adults. (Just don't eat it.)

And it's now out in paperback for just $7.99! The e-book too!

You can find it in your neighborhood bookstore or online:

Amazon (paperback)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (paperback)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

And if you don't believe me, believe the book trailer:

Coming later this week is Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe, which, as the title implies, is about Jacob Wonderbar's campaign for President of the Universe. High concept!!

Jacob encounters insult debates, rude talk show hosts, corndog eating contests, a not-very-bright kid soldier, and yes, of course, space monkeys. Will he win? Will he manage to save Planet Earth? Will he find his missing father? Will he ever grow fond of eating the space dust on Numonia? The answer lies with these vendors:

Amazon (hardcover)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (hardcover)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

Ye Olde Book Trailer:

Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp is being edited as we speak and thus is completely secret. But what the heck, I'll reveal this: it may have something to do with time travel. You heard it here first. Also it comes out in 2013.

Thanks, everyone!

Thank you!! Also: This Week in Books 4/6/12

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:35:00 +0000

My post on Wednesday about divorce in the Internet era detailed many of the ways that social media sucks when you're going through a hard time, but the outpouring that came my way in the last few days has been a really wonderful reminder of how great it can be too. Thank you so much to everyone who reached out via comments and/or e-mail, your kindness means so much to me. I'm sorry if I haven't responded to you yet - I shall!

Next week I'll be shifting gears into happier territory as it's launch week for Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe! Also known as the 2012 election that won't stress you out (unless you should somehow have a deep-seated fear of space monkeys).

Back to digest form for this roundup as I have seven million e-mails to answer, but stay tuned for next week! Prizes, for reals writing posts... good stuff coming! Stay tuned.

First up: My dear friend The Rejectionist has a name! And a face! And (drumroll) a book deal!!! So so excited.

Author Greg Leitich Smith on How to Plan a Book Launch (Part One)

Watch Arthur C. Clarke Predict the Internet and iPads Decades Before They Were Invented

Identify Your Novel's Genre

5 Things You Should Do on the First Page of Your YA Novel

A Feast of Data to Interpret in New Pew Survey of Book Readers About E-books

In lieu of Comment! of! the! Week! I would like to hereby institute a collective Internet group hug. Seriously, thank you everyone!

And finally, this is pretty amazing. What if Facebook were invented in the '90s? (via CNET)

Have a great weekend!

Divorce in the Internet Era

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:13:00 +0000

A year ago, as my first novel was being published and I was starting a new career, I was also dealing with one of the hardest stretches of my life due to an unexpected divorce.

The divorce particulars won't break new ground in the genre, and I don't pretend my experience is any more or less painful than what others have gone through.

But in the era of Facebook, Twitter, Google, e-mail, and blogs, this literally isn’t your parents' divorce anymore. Thanks to the Internet there are things we never before had to worry about confronting, and no roadmap on how to get through. The essentials of divorce may be the same, but the digital landscape new divorcees confront is new and deeply strange.

A Life Lived Online

Lest you think the peculiar challenges of getting divorced in the Internet era are limited solely to the highly connected, I should say I've never really lived my life in public. My Internet presence is devoted almost entirely to my professional life, and while I might peel back the curtain to flaunt my horrific taste in television shows, my day-to-day life has mostly been off-limits.

But my personal life inevitably crept onto the Internet, whether I wanted it to or not. I never even told the Internet I was getting married in 2008, but when I announced on my blog that I would be featuring guest posts for a few weeks, one anonymous commenter guessed that I was going on my honeymoon. Then another managed to find (and link to) my gift registry, which I hadn't even realized was online. I deleted those comments, but shortly thereafter "Nathan Bransford Wedding" became the second most-searched term involving my name, a position it has bizarrely occupied ever since. ("Nathan Bransford Divorce" has risen to #3 on Google, despite my never having mentioned the divorce online.)

Shortly after our marriage, my then-wife started a blog that chronicled and photographed our real life. Despite being uncomfortable blurring our public and private spheres, I linked to her and mentioned her by name.

My private life was creeping online anyway. It seemed futile to resist the semi-public nature of the Web, which was fine until my marriage unraveled.

That Awkward Moment When You Run Into Your Ex on Facebook...

Post-divorce, the Internet has become a personal minefield. There was the time shortly after the split when LinkedIn suggested I connect with my ex's new boyfriend. There was a time when Facebook kept surfacing "remember this moment?" photos of me and my ex from my mom's profile. I hid and changed my relationship status in the dead of night so as few people as possible would notice the change and ask me about it.

Worst of all is Gmail, which has one of the most maddening "features" to confront anyone going through a breakup. Nearly every time I wrote an e-mail to friends this past year, Gmail oh-so-helpfully suggested I include my ex-wife in the e-mail. And you can't turn this off. It still happens, despite my pleas to Google to make it optional. (Google obviously doesn't employ enough divorcees.)

That awkward moment of running into your ex can happen virtually at any time, even when you're comfortably sitting at home. Every mutual friend's Instagram feed is an encounter waiting to happen. Every search through e-mail to find an address or a phone number is a danger zone of old conversations and memories.

Blog readers and interviewers still ask after my wife, questions I have become increasingly skilled at dodging. Uncomfortable as it is, I can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

When my ex and I split, she adopted a scorched Earth approach to social media. She deleted her Facebook profile and blog entirely and started new ones. (Facebook dutifully suggested I befriend her new profile.)

I didn't have the luxury of starting over. I had four years of posts devoted to writing and publishing, and discarding all of that because of a few mentions of my ex wouldn't have made any sense. I could have gone back and scrubbed all mentions of her, but who has that kind of time?

It's all out there anyway. It's my life, I can't pretend it didn't happen. The Internet makes it impossible to cover your tracks.

The Web Doesn't Forget

To move on emotionally after a divorce or a breakup, you have to forget. You gradually move on from the pain, the particulars of fraught conversations fade, your memories of being together become hazy, and you reconstruct your life. The relationship eventually feels like a strange dream you once had, and you move on. That's how we heal.

But the Internet doesn't forget. It has a perfect memory. And, what’s more, it’s constructed to force memories on you with the assumption that the experience will be pleasant.

Most people don't have a photo album of themselves and their ex sitting on their coffee table, but Facebook Timeline shows your past to all your friends unless you go back and spend a lot of time revising your past. My ex's new life isn't entirely out of view -- it keeps popping into my social media feeds and Google Reader.

I've had to draw up new blueprints with mutual friends to figure out how to navigate parties I'm not at that will be mentioned online. I've had to get used to the weirdness of commenting on the same friends' Facebook photos as my ex and living a strangely distant parallel life that sometimes can also feel way too close.

Our natural coping strategies can’t compete with Facebook and Twitter.

There is one big benefit to divorce in 2012, though. Now when I date new people, I don't have to have a painfully awkward conversation where I break the news that I'm divorced. Anyone who is a halfway-decent Google stalker has already figured it out.

This is My Life

I debated whether to write this post for a very long time. Telling everyone I'm divorced on the Internet isn't really my style. I'm a naturally private person, and a children's book author at that.

But there's barely such a thing left as a personal life anymore. Your life is preserved in Facebook status updates, Google searches, public records, and it's impossible to erase the past. Whether that's a good or terrifying thing is beside the point. It just is.

I could keep it ambiguous online, or just clear up the mystery. I could continue to dodge questions about my wife, or I could just come out and say I'm divorced.

I'm divorced. There's no hiding from it in the social media era.

The Last Few Week in Books 4/2/12

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:02:00 +0000

I've been very hard at work finishing up the edits for Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp, though some of that hard work happened in quite an idyllic spot.

Thank you Moss Beach Distillery!

Posts should hopefully get a bit more frequent now that I have more time, but due to writing fatigue I'm reverting to digest form to give you some of the top links from the past few weeks.

Infographic: Dystopian Fiction on Goodreads

Feds grab 11 pounds of marijuana headed for St. Martin's Press (seriously)

Scarcity and Abundance (via Mira)

Author Turow fears DOJ Apple Suit Would Empower Amazon (disclosure: link is to CNET, where I work)

A writing blog sampler

Don't Blame Publishers - You're a Commodity (via Livia Blackburne)

The Trend Games

Does Agency Pricing Mean Higher E-book Prices? That Depends

This week in the Forums: the Blog Bracket Challenge is nearing an end, the A to Z Blog Challenge 2012, Dos and Donts for Writer Websites, and Fifty Shades of Gray: What do you think?

Comment! of! the! Week! There were many great comments on what the Harry Potter e-books mean for the world of authors - here's a great counterpoint by Anonymous about why it really is a big deal:

I think the big deal is when all the best selling authors walk away from their publishers and do this.

What will publishers think if James Patterson does this next? Stephen King has already played in this pool. Will he go back and try again?

If the big publishers bread and butter authors walk out the door because they have name recognition, what will the big publishers do? Will they start appreciating their mid-list authors? Oh, wait, they have moved onto self-publishing.

The dominoes can topple pretty fast.

And finally, this is totally mesmerizing. The ocean currents illustrated, Van Gogh style (via io9)

Have a great week!

Why the Harry Potter E-books Are and Aren't a Really Big Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:12:00 +0000

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the last tome of a hardcover that I lugged around on vacation. It took up seemingly half my suitcase and weighed a ton, but because it wasn't available in e-book form and because I don't believe in piracy, I carried that thing across the country.

Now I'm thrilled to have the entire Harry Potter series resting weightlessly within my iPad.

As you have likely heard, Harry Potter is available in e-book form. And not just in e-book form, but available only through Pottermore, the digital extension of the Harry Potter brand. No other e-book vendor has it for sale, including the e-book behemoths like Amazon, B&N and iBooks. And the e-books are published by Rowling herself.

Yeah, wow.

Why This is a Big Deal

J.K. Rowling just did an entire end-around on the entire publishing world in many, many ways.

Most of the focus has been on how these are for sale only from the author, and rightly so. Even Amazon is playing ball, listing the books for sale but referring people to Pottermore to make the purchase.

And the manner in which these e-books are being distributed is revolutionary. They're being sold without DRM but with digital watermarks to guard against piracy. Each purchaser has 8 digital copies they can download in various formats, and it's very easy to convert to the most popular devices. I had the e-books on my iPad within minutes.

The approach to DRM is, ironically enough, extremely similar to my earlier post on what good a good approach to DRM would look like - you can convert the files to any device and you have a sufficient number of copies for yourself and others... Only there's no DRM. Ha! 10 points for Gryffindor.

So let's talk about this. No publisher. The author as e-distributor. No DRM.

Should the e-book big boys be shaking in their boots? Could authors and publishers play on their own in a world where they don't actually have to sell through Amazon?

Rowling has certainly woken people up to this possibility. After all, in a Google world do you really have to have a central vendor? If people go looking for a book can't they get it just as easily from going to the author's site as they do from Amazon or iBooks?

Did the game just change for everyone?

Why This Isn't a Big Deal

My opinion? Yeah... not so much.

There is basically one author in the world who can pull this off. And she's the one who is doing it.

Okay, there may be a few more. But in order for this to work in 2012, an author has to build an entire distribution platform themselves that is compatible with different e-book formats. They have to draw people to that site and handle financial transactions and customer service and all the other million things that go along with selling stuff. It takes massive scale.

If I were to try to pull this off as a self-publisher, even on a smaller scale, I'd still miss out on being discovered by people who hadn't heard of me but were recommended within the e-book stores, where the majority of people will be looking for their books for the foreseeable future. Would the extra 30% of selling the e-books myself and getting 100% of the revenue be worth the hassle and potential lost sales and the cost/pain of maintaining some sort of sales infrastructure? I'm not so sure. Even if a cheap and easy sales distribution platform emerges there are still headaches involved in being a vendor.

There is certainly a possibility of fragmentation in the e-book marketplace if, say, a major publisher or two or three decided they only wanted to sell e-books directly to consumers in Pottermore-esque fashion and withdrew from Amazon and B&N and iBooks. That could really shake up the book world.

But as revolutionary as Pottermore is, I still have a hard time seeing the utopia of an author doing everything themselves from writing to selling ever being the norm.

At least, not until I get my hands on a time-turner.

Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe: The Book Trailer!

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:43:00 +0000

Huge thanks to Brent Peterson for his fantastic work. Check him out at http://www.page2screen.net/

Illustrations by Christopher S. Jennings

Order Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe today at your local bookstore or:
Amazon (hardcover)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (hardcover)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

Be Wary of Anyone Who Tries To Tell You There's Only One Way to Find Successful Publication

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:12:00 +0000

I have tweeted this before, but it's worth saying this in a blog post and reiterating it once again for good measure:

Be wary of anyone who tells you there's only one way to go about the publishing process.

There are as many ways to find success writing books as there are books. Anyone who tells you that the only right way is traditional publishing or self-publishing or with an agent or without an agent is probably simply telling you what has worked for them and projecting that experience onto you. Either that or they're trying to sell you something.

There's only one person who knows what's best for your manuscript: You.

Do your research, follow your gut, figure out what works best for you. And if the first thing doesn't work try something else. And if that doesn't work try a third way.

There's no map to finding success with books. There's just a constant journey.

Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:29:00 +0000

Coming on April 12th... JACOB WONDERBAR FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSE!!

(And yes, that's a space monkey in the top right corner)

Presidential campaigns are all fun and games until someone threatens to blow up your home planet

When Jacob Wonderbar receives a message that he's been nominated for President of the Universe, he, Sarah Daisy, and Dexter immediately return to space. But Jacob's archnemesis, Prince Mick Cracken, is running as well, and his campaign tactics involve kidnappings and rogue space monkeys.

After surviving corndog-eating contests and insult debates, Jacob discovers the stakes for this election are even higher than he imagined: A military group wants to destroy Planet Earth, and the President of the Universe is the only person who can stop them. Hold on to your space helmet!

I'm so grateful to Christopher S. Jennings for his amazing illustrations and Greg Stadnyk for the cover design.

Available for sale in a bookstore near you and online at:

Amazon (hardcover)!
Amazon (Kindle)!
Barnes & Noble (hardcover)!
Barnes & Noble (Nook)!
Books-a-Million!
Books Inc!
iBooks!
Indiebound!
Powell's!

Add JACOB WONDERBAR to your favorite books on Facebook by clicking this Like button, or visit the JACOB WONDERBAR FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSE Facebook page:

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