Straight From Hel

Speaking on Crime

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:02:00 +0000

If you write crime novels or would like to, then you have to go read Jason Pinter’s November 4th post in The Huffington Post. It’s a long post full of information. Pinter asked six crime fiction critics to give their thoughts on the crime novel: Patrick Anderson, Oline H. Cogdill, Jon Jordan, David J. Montgomery, Kate Stine, and Sarah Weinman.

Here are the questions he asked them:
Do you feel like crime novels are adequately addressing issues in our culture? And do they even need to?

What do you feel is your individual mission statement when it comes to covering crime novels?

What does a crime imprint need to do to be successful?

Which small presses do you feel are doing the best job publishing crime novels? Which large houses?

With book reviews being slashed, and with crime fiction having so few homes for mainstream recognition, do you feel a certain responsibility to attract readers to the genre? Have problems within the newspaper industry affected your reviewing or career (and if so, how)?

How has the rise in crime fiction blogs and social networking impacted the crime novel?

How important is it for authors to "be visible"?

Do you feel like publishers are taking the same care to grow authors as they did 10, 15, 20 years ago, or is there more of a "swing for the fences" mentality?

How relevant is the crime novel today?

How important is it for a crime novelist to get reviewed, and reviewed favorably?

Who are three veteran crime writers you feel are still at the top of their game? Who are three writers flying under the radar you feel deserve to break out?

Even if you write some other genre, you will probably glean something from the answers of these six critics. Be sure to go over and read Jason Pinter’s The State of the Crime Novel.

The Tail

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:28:00 +0000

I’m supposed to be at a reunion today - a gathering of ex-employees of Aquarena Springs. But I’m not. I decided not to go, even though reporter Bob Phillips emailed to ask if I’d be there.

First of all, it’s a weekend-long event, with golfing, exhibits and dinner (and not free). Second of all, I swam there years ago, back in my college days. Seems a bit weird to go back.

Don’t get me wrong, swimming in the underwater show was a great job. Didn’t pay much, but it helped with expenses, kept me in shape, and every year I was tan (okay, that last one was not a plus, I now know). We mermaids would lay out on the training platform, rub on baby oil and bake our young bodies, day after day. Yikes!

I usually swam about four shows a day - underwater ballet and a picnic. It’s odd that four bananas and four Hawaiian punches would totally fill me up. It’s also odd that, back then, I could hold my breath for a loooong time. The idea behind the ballets was to take half a breath of air, hand off your hose to one of the guy swimmers, then perform your ballet moves as slooow as possible (keeping in sequence with the lead mermaid), then glide to a finish with your hand outstretched for the guy to snap the hose back in your hand.

Those of us who swam year round (most were just summer help) could go very slowly and hold our breaths a long time. You could spot the rookies because they would be through their routines and sucking on the hose before the rest of us had finished the first forward roll.

Maybe I’ll tell stories about my years as a mermaid every so often. Since I mentioned the ballet routines, I’ll tell a quick one now. One day, I swam the ballet as usual - slowly. We had different routines, but they included most of the basic moves: forward roll, reverse split, backward flamingo roll, etc. One time, after swimming the ballet, I hurried to the warm-up room inside the volcano to change into the mermaid tail … and discovered my swim suit stitching in the crotch was totally gone. It was a bit difficult to buck up and go back out, but I changed suits, put on the tail and went out for picnic.

So I offer you this piece of advice: If you’re ever a mermaid, always check your swim suit before you do a show. (That’s actually good advice, even if you’re not a mermaid.)

Avionics

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:25:00 +0000

Yesterday, I blogged about my surprise at having a photographer come up to me at the Texas Book Festival and thank me for blogging about his book - and how this reminded me that we bloggers are not alone.

Today, I’ll tell you about something else that happened at the Festival, although not at the Austin Museum of Art.

On Saturday, the first day of the Festival, I arrived about 8:30 a.m. The museum wasn’t expecting me until about 9:30, so I decided I had time to walk two blocks and grab a coffee from Starbucks. They weren’t open. So I thought I’d run to the Exhibitors’ tents and see if I could catch some friends to yell “hi” at them before I headed to AMOA (once I’m there, I’m there for the day). I headed that way, but didn’t get far before I got a call that my big posters showing the line-up at AMOA for the two days needed to be picked up since no one was available to get them at the museum. I u-turned, met the staff member trying to deliver them, carted them to my car and locked them in the trunk, then u-turned and headed back, fast-walking to the Exhibitors’ tents (stopping along the way at the Exhibitors’ hospitality tent to grab a cup of free coffee). Fast-walked through the first tent of publishers, stopping briefly to look at TSTC Publishing’s table. No one was there manning it yet, but it was all set up, including …. My book, Automotive Technicians, right up front. Yay!! Woo-woo.

Zipped through the next tent - more publishers - then in the third tent, I found the Sisters in Crime Heart of Texas booth. Dave Ciambrone and Sylvia Dickey Smith were both there. We yakked and I got to see their books on display, then I headed to the next tent and ran into Russ Hall at his publisher’s table (and his many, many books on display). We talked way too long, so I hugged good-bye, then began backtracking. Paused at the SinC HoT booth again. Joan Upton Hall was there and I gave her a running hug.

Zipped into my publisher’s tent and found Mark there. Before I could get to the table, my phone was ringing again. Another delivery; told them I’d be walking down Congress headed their way. Hugged Mark. He asked if I noticed my book. I told him, yes, and picked it up. He said, not that one, and pointed to the book next to it.

There sat, propped up on display, the next one in the TechCareers series - Avionics. Bright blue cover, and I’d missed it! So, I hereby officially announce that Avionics is not only available but has an ISBN. Woo-woo.

Mark whipped out a copy and gave it to me, then I hurried off to meet the staff with more supplies, then raced off to the museum.

All that power walking started out as a trip to get a Starbucks. I ended up with about half of a small cup of coffee (I threw it away ‘cause I was spilling more of it than I was drinking), a chance to hug friends, and a copy of my latest book. Not a bad way to start the Festival.

And, what does this tell you, other than that I will dance around on a broken toe at the sight of my name on a book cover? If you’re an aspiring author, it tells you that the Texas Book Festival (and probably the Festival in your state), can be a good place to introduce yourself to small publishers. The TBF doesn’t have agents, that I know of, but there are small and regional publishers who set up their booths and stand around waiting for buyers …and aspiring authors to come talk to them. And it’s free. It costs you nothing to walk through the tents, buck up your nerve and introduce yourself.

We Are Not Alone

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:28:00 +0000

That sentence - we are not alone - is from some sci-fi movie, but I can’t remember which one. It has a rather ominous tone to it. I thought I’d use it as the title of the blog, but not in an ominous way.

Bloggers tend to post their thoughts or reviews or beliefs and wonder if anyone stops by. When comments start showing up, we think, wow, someone read what I wrote and added their thoughts to it. It begins to feel like an intimate conversation between yourself and the five or twenty people who show up on any given day.

I don’t think it matters whether you’re blogging for fun, or to promote your book or yourself, or to try to focus your thoughts and fears, you still are amazed or gladdened or wowed by those who comment. I am. I seem to have a core group who comment every day, and I am amazed by that. I now have close to 200 followers and that boggles my mind. Some days I check the blog and think, good gracious, 30 people have commented.

And still, it feels like a one-on-one conversation between myself and the commenters. I, and possibly others who blog, tend to forget that for every person who comments, there could be five or twenty who read and don’t comment.

What brought this into focus was something that happened this past weekend at the Texas Book Festival. Leading up to the Festival, I introduced, here on the blog, some of the authors and books who would be appearing at the Austin Museum of Art, the venue that I chair. They weren’t really reviews, but more of an enticement (I hoped) to get some of you to come hear the photographers and artists who were speaking.

In-between the speakers, we (myself and volunteers) go into re-set mode. We’re cleaning the room, straightening the chairs, whipping away opened water bottles and name plates from the speaker tables and putting out new stuff for the next speakers, etc. At one point, in the midst of doing all this, a photographer who had already finished his talk came up to me and thanked me for writing about his book on Straight From Hel.

Now, I know that people visit the blog and don’t leave a footprint that they’ve been there, but I was flabbergasted that he’d read the post. My guess is he or his publicist has a Google alert on his name or book title. Still, it totally surprised me.

It also reminded me that as bloggers, we are not alone.

Hidden Code

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:23:00 +0000

Today’s post is a bit off-topic, so I apologize up front. I’m posing a question for those of you who use Blogger (blogspot) or who know html code.

I noticed recently that blogspot was inserting code into my posts. When I checked the html, I found a piece of code at the end of the post. I have no clue exactly what it does and I can’t post the code here because it’s invisible. At first when I found it, I deleted it, slightly ticked that blogspot would insert it.

Then I wondered if perhaps it was something important, so I left it in.

Then I noticed that some words in the post were subtly underlined. If you clicked them, you’d be taken to some other site totally unrelated to my post. For example, in yesterday’s post about Rick Riordan, if I left in the code (which I didn’t), the word “contract” might have been underlined and when clicked you’d be taken to some site about contracts (I’m only guessing since I didn’t leave in the code).

Has anyone else noticed this? If you can read code and you use blogger, can you tell me what this piece of code is about? It seems to me that blogger/blogspot may be using all its bloggers to make money for them by using the posts as advertising methods. If you happen to use a keyword and a reader clicks it and gets taken to that advertiser’s site, then the advertiser pays blogger - again, that’s a guess on my part. (The piece of code contains words like "gwProxy" and "hidden" and "input onclick.")

I would like to know what the code is. If it’s an advertising revenue for blogger, I’ll keep deleting it. If it’s something else, say, a way for search engines to find the post, then I’ll probably go back to leaving it in, although I don’t like the idea that readers may think I put in the underlining and link, only to find themselves whisked away to some site with nothing to do with my post.

Congrats to Rick Riordan

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:34:00 +0000

I remember - not that many years ago - when Rick Riordan published his first book. He lived in San Antonio and was a member of the Heart of Texas Sisters in Crime group. As a new member, I was in awe of him and some of the other authors, like Susan Rogers Cooper, Barbara Burnett Smith, Susan Wittig Albert, Nancy Bell, Jeff Abbott, and Mary Willis Walker, who would stand and announce their successes since the last meeting - they’d gotten an agent, or signed a book contract, or heard back from an agent asking for more pages. I kept thinking, these are ordinary people - if they can do it, so can I.

All of those authors have gone onto be successful -- perhaps none more so than Rick Riordan. In yesterday’s San Antonio Business Journal, there was an announcement that made me cheer.

First off, the release date for the first movie based on Riordan’s first book in his Percy Jackson and The Olympians series (The Lightning Thief) is set to premiere on February 12, 2010. It’s being directed by Chris Columbus (he directed the first two Harry Potter films). According to the SA Business Journal, Riordan’s Percy Jackson series “has sold more than 7 million copies to date in the United States and has been printed in 32 different languages.”

I knew about the movie, but didn’t know that Rick is writing a new series and the first in this series will be released through Disney Book Group’s Disney-Hyperion imprint.

The Kane Chronicles, Book One: The Red Pyramid is a new fantasy book that brings ancient Egyptian mythology to life in a modern-day setting. Disney-Hyperion has scheduled a release date for the book on May 4, 2010, in both print and audio editions.

This series is aimed at kids 10 and up.

So, I wanted to say congratulations to Rick Riordan. I also wanted to tell you about Rick because I still see him and other authors as inspirations. The news lately has been mostly how publishers are cutting back on picking up new authors and how mid-list authors are being dropped. Rick got his start back when publishers were more likely to sign new authors and nurture them. Even so, I still remember when he was just a neophyte like the rest of us, hoping to get published and so excited to be able to announce his good news. Most likely, he never even thought about what an inspiration he was to the rest in the group. Even now, in these hard times for writers, I still see him as an inspiration.

Blogging Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:35:00 +0000

Well, I survived NaBloWriMo - National Blog Writing Month. Those of us who participated by blogging every day can pat ourselves on the back. Yay! October turned out to be the month from Hades for me, but not because of NaBloWriMo. I fell, twisted my knee, sprained my ankle, went through two different sets of xrays - plus came down with the H1N1. I’m ready for November.

But! The good thing about October is that I received two awards. I’d dance around my desk, but … I can’t.

Stephanie Faris gave me an award. It doesn’t have a name, but it’s a beautiful mermaid brandishing a really wicked pitchfork, while little fish and a seahorse scamper by. Okay. I admit it. I see why Stephanie thought of me. (Not the beautiful mermaid part, but the scaring folks with the huge fork thing.) Seriously, though, thank you Stephanie. She put me in among a group of wonderful bloggers.

Karen McIntosh awarded me the One Lovely Blogger Award. I just hope I can live up to what she said about Straight From Hel: “…it's chock full of information on the publishing industry and writing, with book reviews and MORE. Helen's site is a fast way to stay up with changing industry trends…” Thank you Karen.

While Stephanie didn’t say the mermaid award had to be passed on, Karen did. So I hereby give the One Lovely Blogger Award to:

Tamika of The Write Worship
I’m just getting to know Tamika. She writes about her writing journey in a truly unique and thoughtful way.

The rules for accepting the One Lovely Blogger Award are:
1) Accept the award and don't forget to post a link back to the awarding person.
2) Pass the award on.
3) Notify the award winners.

Zip over to The Write Worship and tell Tamika hi and read some of her posts!

News Wrap-up

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Thought I’d do a wrap-up of a few news stories on books that didn’t make it into the weekly blog posts.

Here’s one from the New York Times:
Macmillan, the publishing company that owns Farrar Straus & Giroux and St. Martin’s Press, has a new standard royalty rate for ebook sales - 20 percent of net proceeds. (That’s 5 percent lower than other mainstream publishers.)

The Charlotte Florida Weekly interviews Carl Hiassen:
Apparently, if you write satire, you need to live in Florida. Hiassen just writes what he reads in the news, more or less.

Greg Bean in The Sentinel talks about the changing world of books and publishing, as well as the price war currently going on. He also talks about what he plans to do to save the hardback.

Have fun! Have a great Sunday!

Book Review: Memorial Day

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:22:00 +0000

Another Vince Flynn book! I know y’all are excited that I’m reviewing another in the Mitch Rapp series. This one is called Memorial Day.

Each book in this thriller series features superagent/assassin Mitch Rapp. He’s gone from being unknown and undercover, as he was in the first books, to being outed and semi-legit, as in, people know who he is and what he does. Some like him. Some hate him. Frankly, Rapp doesn’t care too much either way. He accepts what he is and sees himself as the good guy since he only kills those who deserve it.

This time, the enemy has taken the fight to American soil. Mitch and his crew must stop an attack planned for Memorial Day. If he doesn’t, thousands will die. With his rapid-fire mind, he’s able to analyze the situation and knows he must take care of it. He’ll bring in others to help, but he’s the man on-scene who can sort through all the facets, devise the plan, and make sure it’s followed.

One thing interesting about this book is that we spend considerable time in the antagonist’s POV. He’s definitely a bad guy, but he’s fully developed. And he’s every bit as committed as Rapp.

This is another testosterone filled book. It races along at a fast clip. I’m not sure I always agree with Rapp’s reasoning, but if the situation were real, I’d want him leading the team.

~~~~~
FTC Disclaimer: I know bloggers are not required, yet, to post a disclaimer on book reviews, but I’m trying to get in the habit. I received no compensation for reviewing Memorial Day. My husband bought the book. When he was finished, he left it sitting on the coffee table. He wasn’t leaving the book for me. He just assumes that when he finishes a book and leaves it on the coffee table, the fairies come and magically transport it to the bookshelf. I would lie and say Vince Flynn offered me $500 to review it, but I don’t believe the FTC has a sense of humor. I got nothing for this review, except a good read. And that’s the truth, fairies as my witnesses.

P.S.: Happy Halloween!

Should Books Make Sense?

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:29:00 +0000

Does an author have the obligation to write in a way that readers can read and understand?

I thought so. But, then, I’m apparently wrong. Michael Turner’s latest book, “8 X 10,” is written in what is described as an “esoteric” style. That seems to be a euphemism for, I don’t get a rat’s behind if you understand me.

The National Post interviews him and then writes up the interview in the style of the book. Just reading the interview will raise your hackles. Here’s his explanation of why he wrote the book the way he did:

"You have to, I think, disrupt the reader somewhat to get them to think. It's a risk, but it's something I feel I just have to do. And it's not my own self-indulgence. It's a considered upset."

In other words, he’s not a bad writer. He did it on purpose. Here’s the interviewers take on the book:

It is a collection of fragments, echoes, whispers. We don't know the time or place, the year is a rumour heard then forgotten. Characters lack names, but are given professions: they are soldiers and stand-up comics and tailors and artists. They weave in and out of each others stories like spectres. Each chapter - or is it a scene? An event? - is prefaced by an 8 x 10 grid, with one cell shaded in, a map that guides us through the novel. There are eight characters and 10 events, or is it 10 characters and eight events?

Turner says he didn’t want to write a book with “proper noun-age.” He also seems to dismiss anyone who doesn’t “get it.”

"Certain readers don't want a lot determined for them, just as I as a writer don't want my reader to be ... fixed in what they bring to the reading of my work. If the first thing they bring is, ‘I don't want to read it because...' well, f--- them."

In case you’re wondering what press allowed him to publish with them…he’s published by Doubleday Canada.

I could be wrong. It may be a fascinating book. Based on this interview, though, I’ll pass.

Guest Blogger: Mike Cox

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:25:00 +0000

Today, author Mike Cox is visiting. In 1993, he was elected to membership in the Texas Institute of Letters. For 20 years Mike was a newspaper reporter, and he’s also the author of 13 nonfiction books including a study of Texas disasters, three books on the Texas Rangers, one collection historical stories, one true crime story, a biography, a memoir and three local histories, as well as numerous magazine articles, essays and introductions for other books. You’ll find his byline in both state and national magazines.

Today, he’s talking about what you can learn from research.

Welcome, Mike Cox.

When I do the research for my books, including the second of my two-volume history of the Texas Rangers, Time of the Rangers, I like to visit as many of the places I write about as I can.

I’ve been to the remote Coal Mine Ranch in Presidio County, where Mexican bandits killed a Ranger in 1915. I’ve spent hours walking around Camp Mabry in Austin, where the Rangers officed before the Texas Department of Public Safety built its current headquarters in the early 1950s. I’ve been to the Walls prison unit in Huntsville, where narco kingpin Fred Gomez Carrasco tried to escape in 1974 only to be thwarted by Rangers and other officers.

But until recently I’d never visited Snake-den Tank.

As I explain in Time of the Rangers, the men (and now women) who wear the distinctive silver Ranger badge have always been welcome guests on the ranches they helped bring law and order to. Since at least the 1950s, the famous 6666 Ranch near Guthrie has hosted an annual get together for the Rangers at a large stock tank on one of its sections.

Rangers gather to shoot, compare notes with colleagues, eat well and, at least at the Snake-den Tank, work in a little off-duty fishing. It’s even possible they will play a few hands of poker or sip something stronger than iced tea.

Snake-den Tank is aptly named, being a great place to run across a rattlesnake – or several. Retired Senior Ranger Captain Lefty Block, an old friend, tells me the only accommodation at Snake-den used to be a drafty plank shack. Often, when Rangers first arrived to set up camp, they found it full of snakes.

One time, Block says, he and several other Rangers had broken for lunch after finishing a round of target practice. As Block enjoyed his grub he spotted a coiled rattler under the chair of the Ranger next to him.

“Don’t move,” Block whispered.

The Ranger, a rookie, wrongly sensed a gag and laughed.

“I said don’t move,” Block ordered in a voice normally reserved for uncooperative suspects.

About the time the young Ranger finally realized his precarious situation, the diamondback unwound itself and calmly slithered right through the Ranger camp.

“We’d all taken our guns off,” Block says. “All we could do was just sit there and watch it until it crawled off.”

The Snake-den is still a good place to find a rattler, but the amenities have vastly improved. Now it’s a complex of attractive new ranch buildings complete with bunk beds, kitchen, bathrooms, flat-screen TV, computer with internet connection and the remodeled original camp house, now home to the owner’s trophy game mounts.

According to retired Company C Captain Carl Weathers, the 6666 Ranch sold a chunk of land to Amarillo wheeler-dealer T. Boone Pickens, who divided the acreage and in turn sold it to various others. Max Williams, a Dallas businessman and avid hunter, bought 2,500 acres including Snake-den Tank and named it the 2-4-6 Ranch.

I visited the ranch for the first time when the Former Texas Ranger Association’s board met there Oct. 21. Happily, I encountered no snakes.

Thank you, Mike.

What about all of you? Do you venture away from the libraries and computers to do research? Have you found first-hand stories that have given you ideas and visual pictures of settings and events?

Texas Book Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:25:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been introducing you to some of the artists and photographers who will be speaking at the Austin Museum of Art during the Texas Book Festival this weekend. I’d love to introduce you to all the authors coming to this year’s TBF, but there are about 200, so I’m sticking to the ones who will be appearing at the venue that I chair - the Austin Museum of Art. You can check out the website to see the entire list of authors and the schedule to see where and when they’ll be appearing.

Today, let me introduce two books:

First off, Collage by Lance Letscher. Letsher takes paper and transforms it into art. His art pieces vary from small pieces on paper to huge elaborate constructions. This book contains not only 118 examples of his pieces, but an introduction by Charles Dee Mitchell to Letshcer’s work and influences.

If you get a chance to look at Collage (or buy it and have him sign it), be sure you look at the inside of the cover. It’s a peek at how he works.

Lance Letscher will speak at the Austin Museum of Art on Sunday, November 1, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

Next, even if you’re not a Texan, you’ll like thumbing through Ranch Gates of the Southwest. Photographers Daniel M. Olsen and Henk Van Assen show off more than 225 color photographs of ranch gates. In case you’re wondering, ranch gates are just what you might have guessed - the gates leading into ranches. Some gates are interesting all by themselves. Some are included because of the amazing vistas they lead to. Some are old; some are modern. They’re all fascinating.

I checked to see if my uncle’s was included. It wasn’t. His would have fit in with the others, though. His ranch is called The Lazy TP - the gate features a teepee sitting in a rocking chair drinking a mug of beer. Maybe in the next book.

Daniel M. Olsen and Henk Van Assen will speak at the Austin Museum of Art on Sunday, November 1, from 3:30 to 4:40 p.m.

If you come, be sure to say “hi” to me. I’ll be there all weekend.

An Ode to the Expresso

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:21:00 +0000

As I sit at my desk, sipping coffee, I’m reading an ode to the Expresso. No, not that kind of expresso. This “ode” is to the Expresso Book Machine. We haven’t heard much about that Expresso in a while. All the talk has been about e-readers and pricing wars. But Richard Griffin waxes poetic in the Allston-Brighton about the machine that can turn out a book in less than five minutes. “Almost four feet wide, three feet deep, and four and a half feet high, this new contraption prints, binds and trims in remarkably short order.”

Griffiin loves the Expresso. He’s astonished others don’t gaze on it in wonder, as he does at The Harvard Book Store. In the article, he says the inventors cite five benefits of the Expresso:

1) books can be produced and distributed on site;
2) books can be chosen from an almost limitless digital list and delivered more efficiently;
3) the work of self-published authors can be distributed instantly;
4) literacy can flourish more easily in undeveloped areas; and
5) fewer materials will be wasted.

Others may cherish their e-readers, but Griffin laments:

Surprisingly, no stores in New York City or Los Angeles have it yet. Nor does Barnes and Noble or any other large chain of booksellers.

Sure, the machine costs $100,000, and to make it pay, it has to print at least 20 books a day, but he believes it can be viable. People can request out of print books, or rare scholarly books, or even have their own manuscripts printed.

Considering the Expresso is fast, “green” and makes affordable copies, Griffin is surprised others don’t visit The Harvard Book Store just to gaze on this invention of the future.

He’s writing a memoir. I see him one day sitting at a small table, no books laid out, just a pen in hand and a smile on his face. Customers will order his book from the Expresso then bring it to him to sign. No remainders, no relegation to the 50cent table, and it’s always “in print.”

Another Viewpoint

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:22:00 +0000

Okay, we talked last week about the book price war going on between Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target. This week we kick off with another viewpoint. This one from Marion Maneker, who writes for a website called The Big Money who provides articles for The Washington Post and other newspapers.

Maneker believes

Book people are easily spooked. And their first line of defense is to hyperventilate.

He then goes on to lay out a twisted tale of how publishers should be operating, something he calls “a Dutch auction on a distribution fee.” Then he concludes by asking himself if he thinks publishers will embrace this new business model. His answer is: “No. They're too greedy.”

Here’s his formula:

If the publisher is going to sell the book to Amazon for $9, it should offer to take $3 per book as a distribution and marketing fee. A fat hardcover book costs $2 in paper, printing and binding. The author would keep $4, which is basically what he would earn in royalties on a $27.95 book. But since this is a competitive situation, the publisher might bid lower -- say, $2 per book and a pass-through on the marketing costs.

If the book succeeds, the author makes a boatload of money: $5 million on a million copies sold. If it fails, the publisher isn't crushed by the unearned advance.

To do that, he recommends publishers drastically cut their overhead and develop new authors via e-books.

I don’t see anything offered to those in-between the mega sellers and new e-authors. New authors apparently will work, as always, to establish themselves, although they’ll be rowing in e-form rather than the print book boat, and the mega authors will sail away on their boatload of money.

Some Fun News

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:33:00 +0000

All the business news lately has been about price wars and e-readers. So I decided that today I’d link you up to some fun news. Here are four that you might find interesting:

1. Over on GalleyCat - How to Break Up with an Agent
Just in case you were wondering the right way to do it!

2. In the Philadelphia Business Today - an article on video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk who blogs about wine and as a result welcomes his first book in a 10-book deal.

3. Another success story - Lisa Genova sent queries to 100 agents. Four asked for the manuscript. Three rejected. The fourth never got back to her. She self-published. She's also now on the NY Times Best Sellers list.

4. And, finally, The Wall Street Journal touts a new author from Australia and asks, Is she the next J.K. Rowling? She's got a background similar to Rowling. And, get this, her manuscript was pulled from the slush pile.

Have Fun and Have a Great Sunday.

Book Review: The Lost Symbol

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:27:00 +0000

What’s that I hear? Cheering? Hmm. Lots of you out there apparently are happy to hear I’m not reviewing the next in the Vince Flynn series. I could have. I’ve got the next one read, but I decided to take a break and, instead, review The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown.

The Lost Symbol is a thriller. Like most thrillers, it has a lot of information in it. This book isn’t about guns and assassins. It’s more of a puzzle or scavenger hunt. Most of you have probably either read the book or seen the movie of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. If you have, then you know what to expect of this book. Same protagonist, different story, different city, really tight timeframe (509 pages to tell what happens in one evening), overwhelming amount of information. Certainly worth reading, especially if you want to learn about the Freemasons.

As with The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Symbol is presented with such authority, you can’t figure out what is real and what is fiction. With so much focus on the puzzle, the science, the information, the Freemasons, it was, for me, difficult to really care about the characters. But that could be because I tend to like character driven books. The Lost Symbol is more of a race against time, with an historical textbook added in.

I enjoyed the book and it was a fast read, primarily because I didn’t take time to ponder the theories put forth. I’ll definitely be going to the movie when it comes out.

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To comply with the new FTC rules on bloggers who review books, I must tell you that I received no compensation for this review. I had to buy the book, at full price, mind you, then I had to wait for my husband to read it (it was his birthday present, after all) before I could start. Then I used my own business card as a bookmark, burned electricity, which I paid for, in the wee hours of the morning to read it, and then spent time out of my work day when I should have been working on the next book I’ve been assigned to write to instead write this review and this disclaimer or whatever it’s called. Sheesh.

A Big Name Speaks Up

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:12:00 +0000

Today, we continue the talk about the price slashing by the big block stores, Wal-Mart, Target and the online store Amazon. Only this time, a big name author weighs in. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Stephen King’s publisher is holding the release of the e-book edition of King’s novel, Under the Dome, until the day before Christmas, six weeks after the $35 hardcover hits the bookstores.

In an interview, Mr. King said that he wanted to delay the e-book edition in hopes of helping independent bookstores and the national bookstore chains sell the hardcover edition.

Well, it didn’t work. Wal-Mart, Target and Amazon are still going to slash the hardcover price, using it, along with the other best-sellers they’ve targeted, to act as loss leaders to get shoppers to buy online.

Walmart.com, for example, is taking preorders for "Under the Dome" for $8.98, a 74% discount off the cover price, while Target.com is charging $8.99 and Amazon.com has priced the hardcover at $9.

These prices even beat what will probably be the e-book price.

The e-book edition of "Under the Dome," which has a list price of $35, will probably retail for $9.99. Mr. King said that those who receive e-book readers for Christmas gifts will be able to download the book on Christmas day.

While King admits that the price cuts will probably sell more books, there is this:

[King] expressed concern for the impact the sharp discounting may have on other writers--established authors as well as up-and-comers--saying, "Who is going to buy a book for $25 when you can preorder a best seller for $9?" He noted that at $9, a new hardcover will be cheaper than the later fancy paperback edition.

"All the guys in ties want to talk about is whether a new delivery system is going to work," he added. "Nobody seems to care about the book.

Here Comes Another E-Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:22:00 +0000

Can’t these guys just get together and make all their e-readers compatible? Is that too much for the reading public to ask?

Barnes & Noble is now unveiling their own electronic reader, the Nook, according to the New York Times.

The device features color touch-screen controls and a gray-and-white reading display. It will cost $259…

According to an advertisement in the New York Times, “the Nook will permit readers to lend their digital books to friends and download books wirelessly.”

The Nook will join other e-Readers, like the Kindle, one from Sony, the IRex and Plastic Logic, then, of course, there’s also the app so books can be read on the iPhone.

The advertisement for the Nook says that consumers will be able to “access over one million e-books, newspapers and magazines.” About 500,000 of the books available at BN.com can be downloaded free, through an agreement with Google to provide electronic versions of public domain books that Google has scanned from university libraries.

And, lastly, I found this piece of information in the New York Times article interesting:

According to the Codex Group, a consultant to the publishing industry, the number of people who own e-readers is expected to roughly double to about 3.8 million by the end of this year, from about 1.6 million in August.

Another Combatant

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:26:00 +0000

Day before yesterday (Monday), I blogged about the book price war going on between Amazon and Wal-Mart. Another party has entered into the fight. Target is now offering “seven highly anticipated hardcover books available for pre-order on its Web site” for $8.99, matching Wal-Mart’s Monday’s price. (On Tuesday, Wal-Mart dropped another penny to $8.98, but Target did not follow.) According to the New York Times, a spokesperson for Target said, “Right now, we’re sticking with $8.99.”

The Wall Street Journal seems to feel that the price war now dropping by pennies, instead of dollars indicates “no further cuts.” The Journal also said:

The publishing industry is also watching warily to see if the price war will have lasting impact on book pricing and the contracts that publisher sign with authors. What is still unclear is whether this is a short-term promotion on Walmart's part, or whether Walmart.com intends to use cheap books to challenge Amazon as the Web's leading retailer.

In case you’re wondering why publishers and booksellers don’t just lower their prices and go head to head with Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target, Michael Norris, a consultant with Simba Information, which provides research and advice to publishers, noted, (according to the New York Times)

the price war could be particularly damaging to the publishing industry and booksellers because the retailers who were currently slashing prices “don’t need to sell books in order to stay in business” and therefore can sell the books at a loss.

Browsing Online

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:12:00 +0000

According to LibreDigital and Internet News, “Online previews of e-books and digital texts lead to more sales -- with romance novels topping the list of the genres most perused online…. After romance comes books for tweens and teenagers, followed by business books.”

What the figures seem to indicate is that allowing online previews increases sales.

“As a result, leading publishers are increasing their use of online previews when planning promotional campaigns for both new and existing book titles." [LibreDigital CEO Russell Reeder]

Data indicates that women are spending 70 percent more time than men browsing books online.

LibreDigital has some very detailed statistics:

The average reader spends more than 15 minutes browsing a book, and previews an average of 46 pages of each book they browse …

For romance titles, [the most popular online browsing time] is 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., while teens do so mostly from 4 to 11 p.m. and business books follow the work schedule clocking in primarily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Adults are more likely to share links to content via e-mail, while younger readers prefer to share within social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.

What does this tell writers? Think about who your target reader is and then ask yourself, do I need to make sure online browsers can read sample pages or chapters? Where should I be promoting my book? Is my reader at the age where s/he’s likely to have an e-reader? Should I be in both digital and print?

At War

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:07:00 +0000

Did you know there’s a war going on in the publishing industry? No, it’s not between print book and e-books. (Finally! A bit of news not about e-books or e-readers!)

According to the Wall Street Journal, the war is between Amazon and Wal-Mart. It started last Thursday when Wal-Mart started selling its 10 most anticipated hardcovers for $10 each when pre-ordered online. Amazon promptly matched the offer. So Wal-Mart countered by slicing its price to $9. Amazon followed suit. Then Wal-Mart, determined to have the lowest online price, dropped theirs to $8.99.

David Young, chief executive of Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, said he and other publishers “feared the online pricing could hurt small independent book sellers and big retail chains.”

How could it do that?

If the industry's top books continue to be sold for $9 online in the future, Mr. Young said, it will be increasingly difficult for publishers to launch what he described as "the writers of tomorrow," because the book market may have narrowed significantly.

The veteran publisher said when major retailers are allowed to sell below cost, it represents an aggressive form of price deflation that creates "all sorts of disturbances in the market." He noted that in France it is illegal to sell a book below cost, adding, "I would welcome similar legislation here."

Barnes & Noble and Borders are not matching these online prices. For the most part, the big bookstore chains are not talking.

Most U.S. executives at the fair declined to speak publicly about the price war, for fear of offending either of the retailers.

My Maximous is Awesomous

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:27:00 +0000

About two weeks ago, the wonderful Stephen Tremp of Breakthrough Blogs for the Aspiring Author gave me the Awesomous Maximous Award. He not only passed on the award, he created the award “for those bloggers who not only post awesome content that help other writers, but also to those bloggers who significantly contribute to promoting aspiring authors.”

One wonderful thing about this award (other than that he deems Straight From Hel worthy [me blushing]) is that Stephen will be the one passing it on to those he feels deserve the Awesomous Maximous Award. If you keep up with his blog, you’ll get to link over and meet a lot of bloggers you may not have be familiar with.

So, to Stephen, I say, Thank You. Thank you for including me in your first group of awardees and thank you for thinking my maximous is awesomous.

Book Review: Executive Power

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 10:29:00 +0000

I believe Executive Power is the fifth in Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp thriller series. Like the others in the series, this one is set primarily in the back-stabbing, too many chiefs, political world of Washington D.C. Rapp, “America’s Assassin,” is the odd man out in this world. He’s smart, committed, and what he wants is to kill the bad guys behind the scene before they kill Americans. Unfortunately for him, he’s been outed. Now, instead of dealing only with either the President or his handler at the CIA, he comes out of the cold and has to deal with politicians, most of whom wouldn’t mind seeing him put out of commission.

Lots of people are in danger in this book, from an American family kidnapped by terrorists in the Philippines to all the UN representatives in New York. They may not know it, but their lives are in Rapp’s hands as much as they are in the terrorists’. It seems like no matter where Rapp turns, somebody’s out to stop him. He can’t let that happen, though, or a lot of people will die. Plus, he has to deal with his new wife, a television reporter, who wants him out of the “business” and also wants to know the details of what he’s doing.

Like the others in this series, Executive Power is fast-paced and chock full of details and info on weaponry, helicopters, and Washington politics. If you like thrillers, want to feel like you know about the maneuverings that go on in DC, and like to read an author who knows all the details, then you’ll most likely like Executive Power by Vince Flynn.

Surviving Books

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:22:00 +0000

One of the big topics at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany this week is online writing and the effect it has on the book publishing industry. According to EarthTimes,

The spectre haunting the industry is the discovery that today, everybody is a writer.

There are a lot of good writers out on the Internet and they’re putting their words online for free.

"Digital content is completely altering the publishing industry," said Eoin Purcell, a consultant and writer, warning that even the most respected names in publishing will not be able to claim any "right to survive" in the new book economy.

Not everyone believes free online content will destroy print publishing.

The other camp argues that publishers should stop whining, devise new and irresistible ways of selling information, and roll out digital books faster and better than the so-called pirates. …

Kassia Krozser, a respected New York blogger, urged the book industry to no longer regard paper books as their prime product. Her slogan is: "Digital first, print maybe."

Edward Nash, a consultant, perhaps summed it up best:

"We as publishers have to abandon the notion that our previous business model is permanent."

There are still plenty of readers out there. Some now do the majority of their reading online, but even the most avid bloggers or FridayFiction writers are also book readers. The industry can survive with both.

Two Fabulous Books

noreply@blogger.com (Helen Ginger) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:32:00 +0000

My goal is to let you all know about the great authors, photographers, and books coming to the Austin Museum of Art during the Texas Book Festival October 31 - November 1 this year. My ulterior motive is to get you all, at least those of you within driving distance of Austin, to come to AMOA to hear these writers and photographers speak and to say “hi” to me.

This past Saturday, I introduced you to Texas’ Big Bend: A Photographic Adventure from the Pecos to the Rio Grande by Michael H. Marvins. Today, I’ll tell you about two more books.

Calvin Littlejohn: Portrait of a Community in Black and White by Bob Ray Sanders.

Calvin Littlejohn was, at heart, a photographer. On his way to becoming one of the best, he worked in domestic service, taught industrial art, and eventually became the official photographer at the only black high school in Ft. Worth. He went on to take more than just pictures at the high school. He became the documentarian of Ft. Worth’s black community.

This book chronicles his work, from 1934 to 1991. The pictures are amazing. Everyday people doing everyday things. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. People who lived their lives and became a part of history on the pages of Calvin Littlejohn’s book.

Bob Ray Sanders will be at the Austin Museum of Art to speak on Saturday, October 31, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Texas BBQ, photographs by Wyatt McSpadden

I had to wait to get to look at this book. As soon as it arrived, my husband grabbed it up. It’s not a listing of all the fabulous BBQ joints in Texas and it doesn’t rate the places from best to worst. What it does is make your mouth water with some extraordinary pictures. You’ll also be astounded by what the professional BBQ cooks do to created the melt-in-your-mouth sausage, beef, pork and ribs.

McSpadden has photos of more than just the meat. In fact, there aren't that many picture of meat. He artistically captures the fires, the signs, torn stools, chopping blocks, menu signs, and the people. The faces, the cookers, the tools. Smokers taller than the man doing the cooking.

My husband suggested we go to each BBQ place, do a taste test and get autographs. Sounds like a mighty fine vacation to me.

Wyatt McSpadden will be at the Austin Museum of Art to speak on Saturday, October 31, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.