A Writer’s Life…Revisions

I’m constantly revising something and today it’s the production files for the printer. I found two tiny issues that I feel compelled to resolve before releasing Sometimes That Happens With Chicken for sale. My graphic designers agree and the new files are in the works. The changes to the files and the production of the printer-ready PDFs will probably only take 30 mins but the whole thing will delay the pub date by a week. I considered letting these two tiny issues go, but I couldn’t live with it.

It’s actually a really good lesson. This really is a writer’s life and I am learning to embrace it.

I’ll keep you all posted re: when and where you can buy Sometimes That Happens With Chicken and in the meanwhile, there’s no shortage of things to do. I’m coordinating upcoming site changes and those three books on Kindle publishing are not reading themselves.

ttyl
Wanda

It’s A Book And It’s Coming Soon

I received the first printed paperback of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken yesterday. I have to approve the production files in order to starting selling books and now I’m very close. Yesterday was a very big day and the book looks great!

I do have to double check a few aspects of the proof but I should be approving it soon. That means you will be able to buy Sometimes That Happens With Chicken very soon.  You’ll be able to order it on Amazon and you will also be able to ask your local book store to order it for you. I have distribution lined up here and in Europe and I’ll be so happy when I’m not the only person in possession of Chicken.

Here are a few pics of the paperback. I’ve been trying to load them on facebook all day, but there’s a bug in my way. So I’ll post a few here now and I’ll post the rest on facebook later.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible; the list is long. I’ll keep you all posted when Chicken is available for sale.  

ttyl

Wanda

From Big Publishing To Self-Publishing

An award winning literary author recently chose self-publishing over another contract with a major publisher. This is fairly big news in the literary world and I think it’s a good sign that John Edgar Wideman is publishing his latest collection of short stories via Lulu.com.

I downloaded a free e-preview this morning of Wideman’s latest work which is described on the last page of the preview.

“BRIEFS is a groundbreaking new collection of ‘microstories’ from celebrated author John Edgar Wideman, previous winner of both the Rea and O. Henry awards saluting mastery of the short story form. Here he has assembled a masterful collage that explodes our assumptions about the genre.”

Wideman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Edgar_Wideman) has actually won a number of awards and he has published 12 novels since his first, A Glance Away, in 1967 which was published by Harcourt. His most recent novel, Fanon, was published in 2008 by Houghton Miflin and in addition to 12 novels, Wideman has published a number of short story collections and memoirs. I haven’t read any of his work, but after the preview I got this morning I have added many of his novels to my GoodReads and Shelfari to-read lists and I plan on purchasing Briefs soon.

Given my chosen path, it’s no surprise I’m dying to ask Mr. Wideman a few questions. Did he do it because no one would publish a collection of “microstories” or did he do it because he’s passionate about self-publishing? Would he self-publish his next novel? And why Lulu? I could go on and on though I’ll probably never get to ask him any of these questions.  

Now, I have to get back to work. Tonight I still have to email the printer and my website developer. This is a big week in my world and there’s no shortage of things to do with print debut of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken right around the corner.

ttyl
Wanda

Paperback Writer

I uploaded the book files to the printer yesterday. One step closer to seeing Sometimes That Happens With Chicken in paperback. The last two weeks have been particularly busy finalizing the files for both the cover and the interior of the book.  Endless hours went into the paperback edition of Chicken but in the end, it all boiled down two files and a few clicks to upload.

It was actually quite terrifying, having so many hours of work come down to one click at the laptop. I’m not sure how I’ll react when I get the proof in the mail, but that’s the last step before Chicken becomes available for sale. Holding in my hands the first printed copy of my first novel will presumably be a dramatic event. I’ll try to remember to take some pics and I believe a bottle of champagne will be in order.

Given the year of preparation and that went into the paperback edition of Chicken, yesterday was a very big day for me. I thought I might have nightmares about typographical errors or lost books in the mail, but I slept quite well having delivered a sound product to the printer, more or less on schedule.

Barring no problems with the files or the proof, you will soon be able to buy your own paperback copy of Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. And if you’re more of a Kindle kind of reader, no worries. The Kindle edition is my very next project. I have three books on kindle publishing sitting on my desk which I’m looking forward to digging into as soon as I approve the paperback proof.

For anyone interested in Kindle publishing, I’ll be posting reviews of the three sources I’m using. Hopefully at least one of them will be useful.

ttyl

Wanda

Interview With Electric Literature

I was honored when Andy Hunter, co-founder of Electric Literature agreed to an interview. I have been following Electric Literature since its launch in June 2009 and co-founders/co-editors Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum are two of my heroes.

 As they explain on their website (http://www.electricliterature.com/), “Electric Literature’s mission is to use new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture. [They] are a quarterly anthology of five top-notch short stories, delivered in every viable medium.”

 Andy and Scott are leveraging many of the same technologies I am, and they are equally passionate about literature.  I recently sent Andy some questions and here are his responses.

 Q: Tell me a little about yourself and what drove you to bring Electric Literature to life?

A: I think my penchant for day-dreaming is what drove me to bring Electric Literature to life. Most of my day-dreams seem unreasonable the following day, but the idea of starting a publishing company stuck with me. When I mentioned it to Scott Lindenbaum, who I had worked with at The Brooklyn Review, he was enthusiastic. We whiled away the hours discussing how a new press could use technology to distribute and promote itself, and the kind of material we’d love to publish. Eventually, we reached a tipping point and decided to go through with it. We’re both writers, and we didn’t take kindly to all the pundits and doomsayers predicting that new media and the internet were going to kill the written word. We thought we could use these same tools to ensure literature has a future. Also, I am a born procrastinator. The only thing I really care about is finishing the novel I’ve been writing for three years, and Electric Literature provides me with endless reasons to do things other than work on it.

Q: How long did it take from conception to launch of Electric Literature and during that time, did you ever get discouraged or doubt your plan?

A: We started talking about it in the spring of 2008, but didn’t actually do anything until early 2009. We wrote a business plan, pooled some of our own money, and tried to get investors. My brother declined to invest. He said, “I’m sorry, I believe in you, but I just don’t think you’re going to be the first person in history not to lose money by publishing a literary magazine.” At the time, that didn’t discourage me. But in various dark moments that followed, it came back. The truth is, anyone who doesn’t ever get discouraged or experience doubt is a moron. In late June, 2009, three days after we launched EL, I was up at 3 am googling “How to deal with failure.” Fortunately, we haven’t failed, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to. However, everything is generally more difficult than we thought. Which is true for every worthwhile endeavor. There are times when we are swimming with the currents of the universe and exciting things are happening daily, and times we are swimming against them and everything goes wrong. The crucial thing is to work incredibly hard and never give up.

Q: Your bio on Twitter (@ElectricLit) is, “Saving literature one reader at a time.” How do you think we got to a place where literature needs saving?

A: We are undergoing a cultural transformation. We have more media clamoring for our attention than ever before. Literature requires you to slow down and read closely. Not only do we have less time for it, but our brains are used to more rapid stimulation, so it is harder to settle into. It’s no surprise that people are reading fewer books. Advocates for literature have to keep it part of the dialog, keep it interesting, keep putting it in front of people, and keep persuading them of its worth.

I have a lot of opinions about the state of literature, but I don’t voice them too often because I’d like to stay out of trouble. Briefly: you can’t expect reading to be as big as it was before TV and the internet, but writers back then worked to engage the public, often without sacrificing depth. Dickens and Twain are good examples of popular authors who are still worth reading. Writing back then wasn’t a particularly glamorous job. In the 1900′s, it didn’t have the same snob appeal it does now. Reading novels was frowned upon; they were the soap-operas of their day. As writing increased in prestige, I’m afraid it grew insular and less engaged with popular culture. Those writers who did engage were considered hacks. The rise of MFA programs made it worse–writers now learn to write for their peers. If they write for a less sophisticated reader, they are seen as pandering, or unsophisticated themselves. MFA programs have grown at about the same rate as readership of the short story has declined over the past fifty years. The more these trends persist, the more true they become, to the point that it is very rare, now, for a popular author to also be an excellent writer with depth.

Q: You wrote an editorial in Publishing Perspectives where you said, “With the right platform, ambition, programs, and marketing, the independent press can fill the vacuum left by the major publishers.” Can you talk a little about the vacuum you perceive is being left by major publishers?

A: Major publishers are still publishing some great literary novels, and the editors there generally love books. They aren’t in it for the money, otherwise they’d have chosen another profession. But their business model doesn’t allow them to promote a book unless it is already selling. In other words, if you book starts to take off because of word-of-mouth, they may start promoting you. Otherwise, your book goes out into the world to die. Then, when it’s time to sell your second book, they look at the sales figures for your first book, and they pass. There are a lot of brilliant literary writers having trouble selling second novels, or accepting paltry advances and then finding they aren’t supported by their publishers.

In this hard economic time, major publishers are less and less likely to pursue deals that might not be lucrative, or support an author through mediocre sales just because they believe in her. Smaller publishers, on the other hand, can nurture an author and a book, and can offer larger royalties instead of advances.

I believe publishers in the next century will need identities that readers can relate to and be loyal to. And readers, overwhelmed by the amount of self-published and independently published material, will need publishers they trust. This will evolve into a network of interrelated literary communities, based on tastes and interests. It’ll no longer be a one-way dialogue between publisher and reader, but publishers can still have an important role in bringing an audience to an author, and vice-versa.

Q: You have pursued some very creative marketing ideas, leveraging every media known to God and man. From your youtube videos to your Shadow Army, which of your out-side-of-the-box marketing techniques have been most successful?

A: The youtube videos have been great for a few reasons. People post them to their blogs, so they get Electric Literature‘s name out there, and get our writer’s names out there. They make the stories seem fun and exciting–which is important to us. We want literature to be less stuffy, and we think that’s key to getting younger readers, which in turn will insure it survives. Finally, they get literature out of the ivory tower. Writers collaborate with artists, animators, and musicians. Each is exposed to the other’s audience. This is what we mean when we say we want to keep literature a vital part of popular culture.

All that said, the most successful thing we’ve done is the Rick Moody Twitter story. Between the initial press, the backlash, and the backlash-to-the-backlash, the attention it has gotten has been great. Not many literary magazines get into the Wall St. Journal twice in one week, but we did due to that project.

Q: Your website discusses and you’re frequently quoted regarding how well suited the literary short story is to the hectic digital age. Do you think there’s still an audience for novel length literature?

A: There better be, because I’m writing one.

Q: Electric Literature launched in June 2009 and has been getting a lot of press including articles in the NY Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian. Now, it’s March 2010, only eight months later. If I may ask, how close are you to meeting your circulation goal of 20,000?

A: We’re still years away from that goal. But we are on track to break even this summer, and we hope to start publishing novels late this year.

*     *     *

Much thanks to Andy Hunter for the interview. I’m looking forward to everything Electric Literature has planned and I highly recommend subscribing to Electric Literature. Use the link below to subscribe or buy by the issue.

 http://www.electricliterature.com/electric-literature-store.html

 ttyl

Wanda

Free Really Does Sell

Some people think I’m crazy for giving away my novel, but free really does sell and here’s another example.

I talk a lot about indie musicians and indie film makers, but this example comes from the growing field of indie software developers who are putting out iphone apps, open source software, and video games from the comfort of their own homes, at an ever increasing frequency. And those indie software developers are no dummies. They too have figured out that giving away content translates into considerable sales on the other end.

Jin Kim and Ken Chung launched their iphone app Flashcard Touch on January 30th for $2.99. With Flashcard Touch, users have instant access to millions of pre-made flashcards from the Quizlet.com community, the largest online flashcard sharing community with 800,000 registered users. Users can easily create their own flashcards using a built-in online definition feature or simply create them in Quizlet and download them onto their device.

Here’s link to a blog post about Flashcard Touch on The Quizlet Blog – http://quizlet.com/blog/archives/772

And here’s a link to download Flashcard Touch for FREE – http://itunes.com/apps/flashcardtouch

Facing a ballooning pool of iphone apps to compete with, Jin and Ken decided to offer Flashcard Touch free for the month of March. It’s only March 3rd and I heard today they hit 30,000 downloads.

That’s 30,000 people who can now tell their friends about Flashcard Touch, the most amazing education app available. 30,000!

You can imagine how heartening this news was considering people have actually called me crazy for giving away Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. One guy actually said, “How the heck are you ever gonna sell yer book if yer givin’ it away fer free?” And strangely, he did use the word heck; I was not trying to be polite. 

I’m particulary excited about this example of free sells because I have been rooting for this iphone app since it’s conception. I was sworn to secrecy for a long time, but I happen to know this indie iphone app developer and I was privy to some of the early iterations. I work with Jin at my day job and we’ve been asking each other for months and months, “How’s the app going/How’s the book going?”

And even though I know Jin, please trust me that Flashcard Touch is fabulous. I’m not just saying that because I know him. Honestly, Flashcard touch is the only iphone app I’ve ever paid for and it seriously makes me want to take a class in something so I can make some flashcards and study for a test. Since that’s not happening, I downloaded some French vocabularly flash cards and got rid of the free French tutor app that sucked.

Way to go Jin and Ken! And thanks for making my point that free does sell.

Now, go download Flashcard Touch and Sometimes That Happens With Chicken. They’re only a click away. They’re both awesome and if you download either in March, it won’t cost you a single penny. And then, you get to be the really cool friend who turned someone to a great app and a great book. 

ttyl
Wanda

Books & Indies In The News

Today was a big news day – 2 articles re: the book industry and 1 re: independent entrepreneurship.

Motoko Rich wrote a great article in the NY Times chiming in on the e-book price debate that has been raging. Since I’m working on a Kindle version of Chicken, I’ve been following this debate and Motoko Rich gives a good overview of the issue in “Math of Publishing Meets the E-Book.” Read the full article using the link below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/business/media/01ebooks.html

Coincidentally, it was a tweet from Motoko Rich that lead me to the second book industry article of my day. This one is a bit less serious but it makes a good point on the same topic. Michael Kinsley wrote an article in The Atlantic titled, “Book Publishing in the Digital Age: A Reality Check.” He referred to the NY Times article above and proceeded to write a very funny satire of publishing economics. Read the full article using the link below.

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/03/book-publishing-in-the-digital-age-a-reality-check/36831/

Personally, I have a hard time listening to publishers bemoan overhead and shrinking profits and the dreaded e-book. I am intimately acquainted with the economics of publishing and I was shocked to learn how inexpenisive it can actually be to print a book, let alone an e-book. And from what I’ve learned, discouraging e-books is not the best business strategy, at least not this year.

Thankfully, industries don’t change industries, people change industries. And the next article I read today is timely evidence. In the same way music lovers and musicians, and film goers and film makers changed their respective markets, consumers and handcrafters are changing the consumer landscape. Checkout this article in the LA Times by Cyndia Zwahlen for some heartening news for any independent entrepreur. It’s called “Independent artisans are crowding onto the Web” and once again technology is empowering the little guy. Read the full article using the link below.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-smallbiz-crafts1-2010mar01,0,7104482.story

As a writer, reading articles about the publishing industry used to infuriate me. In fact, they used to terrify me. But now, they don’t even phase me. I’m proud to call myself an indie author and I think indie everything is the wave of the future.

 ttyl

Wanda