So one of my fans just sent me an e-mail. It read: Go for it, Sue!
And then attached this:
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award
Now Accepting Submissions
You only have a few days left to enter the fourth annual Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. The Contest Entry period closes February 6, 2011 (or once 5,000 Entries are received within each category, whichever is earlier).
Don't miss your opportunity! Grand Prize winners will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance. Read more about the Contest and review the Official Rules.
LOL Y'all crack me up. I'm just loving the part that says you'll receive a publishing contract with Penguin (yet no details are given about it other than Penguin gets to decide the contract and you have to take it "as is" to get the advance) which includes a $15,000 advance should you "accept" your grand prize (based on whether it's worth it or not.) OMG!
Pinky: Do you really think they'll go for it Brain?
Brain: Of course they will! Who would turn down $15,000?
Pinky: Well it isn't exactly $15,000.
Brain: IT DOESN'T MATTER because soon, the world will be ours!!!!!
Pinky: Oh yes. I see. Can I have some cake now?
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
After Everything I've Written . . .
After everything I've written, folks still comment to me that they went to their bookstore and didn't find my books. Okay. One more time. The odds of finding a small press book in ANY bookstore are slim to nill. Large chain bookstores will NEVER place them though they do humor some small press publishers because they've made the mistake of making their books returnable, something that will sink a small press faster than they can say, "how many books were returned and how much money did I lose?!!!!"
Independent bookstores will put some on the shelf if you have the time to call each and everyone of them. I don't. But ALL bookstores, except targeted Christian ones, can order my book which is why I prefer you use the link to my publisher on the right over there ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
Besides Brick & Mortar stores, unless they make drastic changes to accommodate Small publishers are about to be a thing of the past anyway. E-books rule and they should. The technology is certainly coming around for this.
Independent bookstores will put some on the shelf if you have the time to call each and everyone of them. I don't. But ALL bookstores, except targeted Christian ones, can order my book which is why I prefer you use the link to my publisher on the right over there ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
Besides Brick & Mortar stores, unless they make drastic changes to accommodate Small publishers are about to be a thing of the past anyway. E-books rule and they should. The technology is certainly coming around for this.
Don Tumasonis - WHC 2011?
Sorry for this personnel message on my blogger, Don Tumasonis, BUT I'm finding it increasingly harder to stay in touch with you. In other words, I lost your phone number and can't find it. EGADS!
I see someone from hitting my blog from Oslo every now and then though and would love to know if you'll be attending the World Horror Convention in Austin, Texas this year, 2011. Do email me if you are!!!! Had a great time sight seeing and meeting you at the WHC in Toronto.
But yes, if that's you hitting my blog every now and then, do let me know. ;D
I see someone from hitting my blog from Oslo every now and then though and would love to know if you'll be attending the World Horror Convention in Austin, Texas this year, 2011. Do email me if you are!!!! Had a great time sight seeing and meeting you at the WHC in Toronto.
But yes, if that's you hitting my blog every now and then, do let me know. ;D
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Breakthrough Novel Contest - for aspiring writers.
Okay, here's a question put to me today. I'll answer based on what I've learned about this contest from exploring it myself. THEREFORE, if you're interested please do go on to explore more yourself because I DON'T KNOW EVERY DANG THING!
". . . what is your opinion of Amazon's Breakout Writer Contest? The deadline to enter is the 6th of Feb, and with some work, I think I could get my MS ready. But maybe the only ones that have a chance are authors prof edited? And maybe my concept isn't "breakout" enough.
Below is what I've come to learn about Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest and what I've learned through "googling" (my search engine of choice) and reading about the contest myself.
1. Create Space is Amazon's POD. Therefore once your book wins (should it win,) you'll be tied in to Create Space. Seems a bit silly when you can go through Lightning Source, Ingram's POD yourself which offers you a better opportunity at being seen and doesn't lock you in.
2.Amazon's motive is to take over the world. Though this is not a motive they have exclusive rights to it is worth considering as they staged a "coo" not that long ago to force all self-pubbed authors to use their Create Space to POD publish or not be listed on their site. Of course Lightning Source jumped all over that and rightly so as it was the one time they could really make their competition look very bad. For whatever reason, but probably for the same reason Amazon pulled "A Pedophiles Guide to Love and whatever" after stating they approved it, Amazon seemed to have dumped the whole "POD coo plan."
3. Worried about competing with writers who get professional edits and submit? Don't. I' know one particular author who has sold millions of books, literally, as a ghostwriter. Their first attempt at POD publishing resulted in an absolutely amazing read . . . and they didn't even make the first cut. Draw your own conclusions here. I wouldn't worry about editing myself nor would I be concerned about competing with those who had professional ones done. It's a POD folks. They don't care what your work looks like. They're just trying to get you to use their services.
4. Afraid of your work being "breakthrough" enough? Since no one can possibly know what Amazon means my "breakthrough" and because each person has their own interpretation, (after all it is a very broad term) I wouldn't worry about that either.
Conclusion: This is simply Amazon's attempt to get all self-pubbed authors to use their POD services as opposed to LSI or Iuniverse or so many others. Do your homework. What does Amazon's POD offer you and what do the others offer? I personally like LSI as it's tied to Ingram and ones books are automatically listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (on-line anyway) and so many other sites. Why lock yourself into a POD whose antics rival those of Pinky and the Brain.
Now off you go. Go do your own homework. Shoo!
I did dig a little further to find out about "what you stand to win!" A $15,000 dollar publishing contract with Penguin! Now this does sound to good to pass up if taken at face value but let's go ahead and read everything about the prize found at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000633821
Grand Prize Winner: If you are selected as the Winner in a category, you will receive one of two Grand Prizes each consisting of a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute your Manuscript as a published book.
And you'll see why having a large publisher isn't all it's cracked up to be.
One Grand Prize will be awarded in the young adult fiction category, and one Grand Prize will be awarded in the general fiction category. Upon the full execution of the publishing contract, Penguin will pay each Winner $15,000.00 USD.
Wait for it . . .
The $15,000.00 payment is
Wait for it . . .
. . . an advance against the royalties to be earned by the Winner under the publishing contract.
BAM! You don't get any royalty until you've earned $15,000 from the sales of your book. Let's see how gray your hair is before this happens if it isn't gray already. But hey, $15,000 is $15,000, right? Who cares what the ramifications are as far as your publishing career are concerned. Better have a literary lawyer check out that contract is all I'm saying. See, you don't get the $15,000 unless you sign a contract which sounds more like a deal with devil if you read the next paragraph.
The approximate retail value ("ARV") of the publishing contract is $15,000.00 USD for the advance. Penguin will determine the royalty rates to be paid under the publishing contract, which will depend on the format in which the book is published and the projected print run.
Translation as far as I'm concerned is that should you actually sell enough books to pay out your $15,000 advance, Penguin doesn't even have to pay you standard royalties. The choice is theirs AND they get to choose the format and the projected print run. AND you don't have ANY of this information up front. Sort of like waving that carrot in front your face and then lickety split, pulling it away.
You may not negotiate the publishing contract with Penguin, and you must sign it “as is” upon receipt of the executable contract (as described in Section 9 below) if you wish to enter into the publishing contract being awarded. The publishing contract will be governed by the laws of the State of New York.
EGADS! That's a PRIZE? Sounds more like a threat. Someone wins a publishing contract and they're not told everything about it up front so they can decide whether they want to win it or not? What's that about? And how about this wording: "if you wish to enter into the publishing contract being awarded." Last time I checked, when folks sign up for a contest, they know what the prize is going to be in advance and have ALL the details going into it. That way they don't find themselves winning and saying, "oh, golly gee-wiliakers that's a horrible prize. I don't want that." LOLROFL Oh please sign me up for that! But do read through the link yourself. You may interpret it completely different. I'm sure Amazon hopes so anyway.
". . . what is your opinion of Amazon's Breakout Writer Contest? The deadline to enter is the 6th of Feb, and with some work, I think I could get my MS ready. But maybe the only ones that have a chance are authors prof edited? And maybe my concept isn't "breakout" enough.
Below is what I've come to learn about Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest and what I've learned through "googling" (my search engine of choice) and reading about the contest myself.
1. Create Space is Amazon's POD. Therefore once your book wins (should it win,) you'll be tied in to Create Space. Seems a bit silly when you can go through Lightning Source, Ingram's POD yourself which offers you a better opportunity at being seen and doesn't lock you in.
2.Amazon's motive is to take over the world. Though this is not a motive they have exclusive rights to it is worth considering as they staged a "coo" not that long ago to force all self-pubbed authors to use their Create Space to POD publish or not be listed on their site. Of course Lightning Source jumped all over that and rightly so as it was the one time they could really make their competition look very bad. For whatever reason, but probably for the same reason Amazon pulled "A Pedophiles Guide to Love and whatever" after stating they approved it, Amazon seemed to have dumped the whole "POD coo plan."
3. Worried about competing with writers who get professional edits and submit? Don't. I' know one particular author who has sold millions of books, literally, as a ghostwriter. Their first attempt at POD publishing resulted in an absolutely amazing read . . . and they didn't even make the first cut. Draw your own conclusions here. I wouldn't worry about editing myself nor would I be concerned about competing with those who had professional ones done. It's a POD folks. They don't care what your work looks like. They're just trying to get you to use their services.
4. Afraid of your work being "breakthrough" enough? Since no one can possibly know what Amazon means my "breakthrough" and because each person has their own interpretation, (after all it is a very broad term) I wouldn't worry about that either.
Conclusion: This is simply Amazon's attempt to get all self-pubbed authors to use their POD services as opposed to LSI or Iuniverse or so many others. Do your homework. What does Amazon's POD offer you and what do the others offer? I personally like LSI as it's tied to Ingram and ones books are automatically listed on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (on-line anyway) and so many other sites. Why lock yourself into a POD whose antics rival those of Pinky and the Brain.
Now off you go. Go do your own homework. Shoo!
I did dig a little further to find out about "what you stand to win!" A $15,000 dollar publishing contract with Penguin! Now this does sound to good to pass up if taken at face value but let's go ahead and read everything about the prize found at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000633821
Grand Prize Winner: If you are selected as the Winner in a category, you will receive one of two Grand Prizes each consisting of a full publishing contract with Penguin to market and distribute your Manuscript as a published book.
And you'll see why having a large publisher isn't all it's cracked up to be.
One Grand Prize will be awarded in the young adult fiction category, and one Grand Prize will be awarded in the general fiction category. Upon the full execution of the publishing contract, Penguin will pay each Winner $15,000.00 USD.
Wait for it . . .
The $15,000.00 payment is
Wait for it . . .
. . . an advance against the royalties to be earned by the Winner under the publishing contract.
BAM! You don't get any royalty until you've earned $15,000 from the sales of your book. Let's see how gray your hair is before this happens if it isn't gray already. But hey, $15,000 is $15,000, right? Who cares what the ramifications are as far as your publishing career are concerned. Better have a literary lawyer check out that contract is all I'm saying. See, you don't get the $15,000 unless you sign a contract which sounds more like a deal with devil if you read the next paragraph.
The approximate retail value ("ARV") of the publishing contract is $15,000.00 USD for the advance. Penguin will determine the royalty rates to be paid under the publishing contract, which will depend on the format in which the book is published and the projected print run.
Translation as far as I'm concerned is that should you actually sell enough books to pay out your $15,000 advance, Penguin doesn't even have to pay you standard royalties. The choice is theirs AND they get to choose the format and the projected print run. AND you don't have ANY of this information up front. Sort of like waving that carrot in front your face and then lickety split, pulling it away.
You may not negotiate the publishing contract with Penguin, and you must sign it “as is” upon receipt of the executable contract (as described in Section 9 below) if you wish to enter into the publishing contract being awarded. The publishing contract will be governed by the laws of the State of New York.
EGADS! That's a PRIZE? Sounds more like a threat. Someone wins a publishing contract and they're not told everything about it up front so they can decide whether they want to win it or not? What's that about? And how about this wording: "if you wish to enter into the publishing contract being awarded." Last time I checked, when folks sign up for a contest, they know what the prize is going to be in advance and have ALL the details going into it. That way they don't find themselves winning and saying, "oh, golly gee-wiliakers that's a horrible prize. I don't want that." LOLROFL Oh please sign me up for that! But do read through the link yourself. You may interpret it completely different. I'm sure Amazon hopes so anyway.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Book club to read Never Ceese-maybe!
So all y'all click your heels together and chant three times. "There's no book like Sue's. There's no book like Sue's. There's no book like Sue's."
So several, (meaning about five or six) gals, from a local book club purchased Never Ceese tonight to see if they want to make it their book choice for the month. I have to say I was pretty excited about the chances until I heard these words, "we've got quite a few best-selling books on our list as well." All I can say to that is I hope it's understand that no matter how many of my books sell, so long as I'm not with a large publisher, my books will NEVER be on a best-seller's list.
Why?
Because all bestseller's list that mean anything are determined by how many books sell to a bookstore. Large chain bookstores only buy books from large publishers in mass which is why their books are always on best-sellers list. Small press can only survive by making their books non-returnable which means NO large chain bookstore will order even one or certainly not enough to compete with the number of books larger publishers flood to large bookstores.
So maybe this Book Club understands this and will judge a book on quality and not quantity. Hope so. As far as that goes I hope EVERY Book Club understands this otherwise it's just another outlet for large publishers to get sales and small publishers to sit back and wonder when this madness will all end. Hopefully the news I post next will be good. I did sell books though so I suppose that was good. ;D
So several, (meaning about five or six) gals, from a local book club purchased Never Ceese tonight to see if they want to make it their book choice for the month. I have to say I was pretty excited about the chances until I heard these words, "we've got quite a few best-selling books on our list as well." All I can say to that is I hope it's understand that no matter how many of my books sell, so long as I'm not with a large publisher, my books will NEVER be on a best-seller's list.
Why?
Because all bestseller's list that mean anything are determined by how many books sell to a bookstore. Large chain bookstores only buy books from large publishers in mass which is why their books are always on best-sellers list. Small press can only survive by making their books non-returnable which means NO large chain bookstore will order even one or certainly not enough to compete with the number of books larger publishers flood to large bookstores.
So maybe this Book Club understands this and will judge a book on quality and not quantity. Hope so. As far as that goes I hope EVERY Book Club understands this otherwise it's just another outlet for large publishers to get sales and small publishers to sit back and wonder when this madness will all end. Hopefully the news I post next will be good. I did sell books though so I suppose that was good. ;D
Yay! Another question from a writer. ;D
Sorry fans, another blog for aspiring and published authors. Booooring for you I know. Will get something exciting for you up soon. ;D
A question from an author.
I do have one question, right off the bat, pertaining to Lightning Source: I've noticed that when I receive shipments of my books, the box always says Lightning Source on the outer label, and yet I am currently through WestBow. What is the connection there? Can I go directly through Lightning Source? Is WestBow a "middle man?"
West Bow is Thomas Nelson's POD. This actually means nothing other than Thomas Nelson decided to attempt to make a little money off those authors they won't publish traditionally (which means anyone who doesn't write targeted Christian fiction.) As a side note, I find it humorous that they infer an authors work will show up in Christian Bookstores. I wonder if it's accidental that they don't mention West Bow books aren't anymore likely to show up in Brick & Mortar Christian bookstores than if the author would've chosen Iuniverse (B&N's POD) or Create Space (Amazon's POD) or have gone straight through LSI (Ingram's POD)
Oh, the question. If you are with West Bow and the box your books come to you in say LSI then there is only one conclusion to draw. West Bow, Thomas Nelson's POD is using LSI Ingram's POD to print and distribute their books. By doing this your book shows up in Ingram's catalog (as a POD of course) AND I'm assuming West Bow also has your book approved for distribution to the Christian market through Spring Arbor thus supporting the idea that your book will show up in Christian bookstores.
So yes, West Bow is a middle man. You could go to LSI yourself and do everything they can do and probably for a lot less. And if anyone from West Bow or Ingram or LSI wants to chime in, well, you can forget about it. The author asked me. ;D
A question from an author.
I do have one question, right off the bat, pertaining to Lightning Source: I've noticed that when I receive shipments of my books, the box always says Lightning Source on the outer label, and yet I am currently through WestBow. What is the connection there? Can I go directly through Lightning Source? Is WestBow a "middle man?"
West Bow is Thomas Nelson's POD. This actually means nothing other than Thomas Nelson decided to attempt to make a little money off those authors they won't publish traditionally (which means anyone who doesn't write targeted Christian fiction.) As a side note, I find it humorous that they infer an authors work will show up in Christian Bookstores. I wonder if it's accidental that they don't mention West Bow books aren't anymore likely to show up in Brick & Mortar Christian bookstores than if the author would've chosen Iuniverse (B&N's POD) or Create Space (Amazon's POD) or have gone straight through LSI (Ingram's POD)
Oh, the question. If you are with West Bow and the box your books come to you in say LSI then there is only one conclusion to draw. West Bow, Thomas Nelson's POD is using LSI Ingram's POD to print and distribute their books. By doing this your book shows up in Ingram's catalog (as a POD of course) AND I'm assuming West Bow also has your book approved for distribution to the Christian market through Spring Arbor thus supporting the idea that your book will show up in Christian bookstores.
So yes, West Bow is a middle man. You could go to LSI yourself and do everything they can do and probably for a lot less. And if anyone from West Bow or Ingram or LSI wants to chime in, well, you can forget about it. The author asked me. ;D
On-line Christian Stores - Clueless!
It would seem to me that if you're in business then you should know a little bit about the business you're in. I realize that in a perfect world . . .
So I'll lay the scenario out. Initially I wrote a book. Based on grand reviews and a few higher-than-low placements on particular lists that tout the best in horror and fantasy fiction, it has done fairly well and is still doing well. As a surprise to me, I garnished readers from a very unique group of Christian readers. As a result I sought to market to these readers as well once I learned they had their own bookstores it seemed, on-line and otherwise. The best way to do this, according to things I READ, was to have your book approved by Ingram's Spring Arbor. I actually talked to my publisher, Ingram's Lightning Source, to verify that what I learned was correct, that my books, if approved, would be available to the Christian market. "Oh yes," was their reply, though I'm certain now their fingers were crossed when they said this. They may have even smirked but it's hard to tell when on the phone.
You see, Ingram has one definition for Christian market and the Christian Booksellers Association who sold Spring Arbor to Ingram (see other post concerning dates) has a completely "nuther" definition. CBA defines the Christian market as those books that target their core market readers. Ingram's Spring Arbor defines Christian market as, well, any book that is about, has to deal with or otherwise sort of points to a religious theme for ANY faith that operates under the broader label Christian. Ironically however, Spring Arbor is a CBA member, a privately owned company is a fee-paying member. Okay. Whatever.
In spite of this, Brick & Mortar Christian bookstores or rather once-upon-a-time Baptist bookstores, still only place books in their store that are either from CBA affiliated publishers or publishers who proclaim they write for the same very targeted audience CBA pegs.
On-line Christian Bookstores are a leeeetle more forgiving and a leeeeetle more concerned with doing things right only they seem not to know what that is. To that I say, get a clue or drown in your ignorance.
When I found that my Spring Arbor approved book was showing up in on-line bookstores that clearly only pulled from Spring Arbor and not Ingram themselves, I rushed like crazy to have it unapproved. I was losing general market readers who thought I wrote targeted Christian fiction!!! YIKES!
Just yesterday I saw the once Spring Arbor approved edition of Never Ceese on an on-line Christian website. I called them to ask them what was up. Mock conversation follows:
Sue: Can you tell me how my book is showing up on your site please? In other words, are you showing it as available through Spring Arbor.
Guy: Yes. It's available through Ingram.
Sue: Yes, I realize that. But do you show it showing up in Spring Arbor.
Guy: Spring Arbor is Ingram.
Sue: Yes, Spring Arbor is Ingram's Christian arm but do you show my book as available through Spring Arbor as I had it unapproved so this wouldn't happen.
Guy: Well we pull books from many distributors.
Sue: None of whom should distribute my book as my distributor is Ingram. But just to clarify could you share who some of those other distributors are?
Guy: (rattles off a wide variety of distributors who only distribute targeted Christian fiction for that CBA market all of whom I know because I know all these distributors.) . . . and Ingram.
Sue: You said Ingram. Did you mean Spring Arbor?
Guy: (that classy line again) Ingram is Spring Arbor.
Sue: What I wanted to say--ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! What I said instead - "You're telling me you list books that are in Ingram's system that haven't been approved by Spring Arbor.
Guy: Yes. We automatically pull from Ingram.
Sue: Ah, but if that were true then you'd be showing the newer edition of Never Ceese as it too is with Ingram. So basically you only "automatically" list books from Spring Arbor which is fine but you should at least have a working knowledge of who Spring Arbor is. And by the way, my book is no longer approved by Spring Arbor and if someone called to order this book through you, you won't be able to get it for them EVEN though it is still in Ingram's system.
Guy: Well we could ban your book if you don't want it showing up on our book site.
*I'm not lying. This is what this guy said. LOLROFL*
Sue: I just don't want my book showing up on sites where ONLY targeted fiction is listed if not primarily and I've gone through the process of fixing this. It's clear the process isn't complete yet so I'll now call Lighting Source.
Conclusion: LSI did unapprove my book as asked and verified that I was correct in my thinking about Spring Arbor and Ingram, that they were separate. So if you don't want your work associated with that targeted market of Christendom who uses the broader label of "Christian" to define everything they put out then you best stay away from Spring Arbor. Otherwise your general market readers will avoid you like the plague. Fortunately I had my general market following first. *Sue wipes forehead with hand.* Whew!
So I'll lay the scenario out. Initially I wrote a book. Based on grand reviews and a few higher-than-low placements on particular lists that tout the best in horror and fantasy fiction, it has done fairly well and is still doing well. As a surprise to me, I garnished readers from a very unique group of Christian readers. As a result I sought to market to these readers as well once I learned they had their own bookstores it seemed, on-line and otherwise. The best way to do this, according to things I READ, was to have your book approved by Ingram's Spring Arbor. I actually talked to my publisher, Ingram's Lightning Source, to verify that what I learned was correct, that my books, if approved, would be available to the Christian market. "Oh yes," was their reply, though I'm certain now their fingers were crossed when they said this. They may have even smirked but it's hard to tell when on the phone.
You see, Ingram has one definition for Christian market and the Christian Booksellers Association who sold Spring Arbor to Ingram (see other post concerning dates) has a completely "nuther" definition. CBA defines the Christian market as those books that target their core market readers. Ingram's Spring Arbor defines Christian market as, well, any book that is about, has to deal with or otherwise sort of points to a religious theme for ANY faith that operates under the broader label Christian. Ironically however, Spring Arbor is a CBA member, a privately owned company is a fee-paying member. Okay. Whatever.
In spite of this, Brick & Mortar Christian bookstores or rather once-upon-a-time Baptist bookstores, still only place books in their store that are either from CBA affiliated publishers or publishers who proclaim they write for the same very targeted audience CBA pegs.
On-line Christian Bookstores are a leeeetle more forgiving and a leeeeetle more concerned with doing things right only they seem not to know what that is. To that I say, get a clue or drown in your ignorance.
When I found that my Spring Arbor approved book was showing up in on-line bookstores that clearly only pulled from Spring Arbor and not Ingram themselves, I rushed like crazy to have it unapproved. I was losing general market readers who thought I wrote targeted Christian fiction!!! YIKES!
Just yesterday I saw the once Spring Arbor approved edition of Never Ceese on an on-line Christian website. I called them to ask them what was up. Mock conversation follows:
Sue: Can you tell me how my book is showing up on your site please? In other words, are you showing it as available through Spring Arbor.
Guy: Yes. It's available through Ingram.
Sue: Yes, I realize that. But do you show it showing up in Spring Arbor.
Guy: Spring Arbor is Ingram.
Sue: Yes, Spring Arbor is Ingram's Christian arm but do you show my book as available through Spring Arbor as I had it unapproved so this wouldn't happen.
Guy: Well we pull books from many distributors.
Sue: None of whom should distribute my book as my distributor is Ingram. But just to clarify could you share who some of those other distributors are?
Guy: (rattles off a wide variety of distributors who only distribute targeted Christian fiction for that CBA market all of whom I know because I know all these distributors.) . . . and Ingram.
Sue: You said Ingram. Did you mean Spring Arbor?
Guy: (that classy line again) Ingram is Spring Arbor.
Sue: What I wanted to say--ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!! What I said instead - "You're telling me you list books that are in Ingram's system that haven't been approved by Spring Arbor.
Guy: Yes. We automatically pull from Ingram.
Sue: Ah, but if that were true then you'd be showing the newer edition of Never Ceese as it too is with Ingram. So basically you only "automatically" list books from Spring Arbor which is fine but you should at least have a working knowledge of who Spring Arbor is. And by the way, my book is no longer approved by Spring Arbor and if someone called to order this book through you, you won't be able to get it for them EVEN though it is still in Ingram's system.
Guy: Well we could ban your book if you don't want it showing up on our book site.
*I'm not lying. This is what this guy said. LOLROFL*
Sue: I just don't want my book showing up on sites where ONLY targeted fiction is listed if not primarily and I've gone through the process of fixing this. It's clear the process isn't complete yet so I'll now call Lighting Source.
Conclusion: LSI did unapprove my book as asked and verified that I was correct in my thinking about Spring Arbor and Ingram, that they were separate. So if you don't want your work associated with that targeted market of Christendom who uses the broader label of "Christian" to define everything they put out then you best stay away from Spring Arbor. Otherwise your general market readers will avoid you like the plague. Fortunately I had my general market following first. *Sue wipes forehead with hand.* Whew!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
A fan helps out with Nook! Aww, thanks!
See, I still won't buy a Nook myself due to the association with B&N (sorry they don't recognize small publishers for what they are so I'll not be responsible for funding their bullying ways) but I'll gladly post things like this. Fran Veal, a new fan, downloaded Never Ceese and posted instructions on how to do so for your Nook! How dang cool is that!!! (Fran also said she read Never Ceese in one sitting and that she loved it. Just thought I'd throw that out there too. ;D)
So if you have Nook, here's how to get the book!
Me again. I'm going to give an FYI instructional for your fans who want to read your books on the Nook (and I assume Kindle is similar).
1. Find the book and purchase it in the adobe format. (If you don't already have Adobe Digital Editions, there are steps to follow, but those instructions are clear on the purchase site.) Leave Adobe Digital Editions open.
2. Attach your Nook (or other ereader) to your computer.
3. Find the book file on your computer and send it to your ereader.
4. Go to Adobe Digital Editions. There will be a box that says "Authorize device". Click on it.
5. Go to your ereader.
6. Enjoy!
So if you have Nook, here's how to get the book!
Me again. I'm going to give an FYI instructional for your fans who want to read your books on the Nook (and I assume Kindle is similar).
1. Find the book and purchase it in the adobe format. (If you don't already have Adobe Digital Editions, there are steps to follow, but those instructions are clear on the purchase site.) Leave Adobe Digital Editions open.
2. Attach your Nook (or other ereader) to your computer.
3. Find the book file on your computer and send it to your ereader.
4. Go to Adobe Digital Editions. There will be a box that says "Authorize device". Click on it.
5. Go to your ereader.
6. Enjoy!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Forever Richard #54 in Vampire books on Amazon
Yep. Happy to see Forever Richard in the top 100 vampire books on Amazon. Sad to say I didn't make any money off the books that sold that put it there and neither did my publisher.
Happy to say that I now have the rights back and it is out of print. Sad to say that once the four left on Amazon sell no more NEW ones will be available as it is now out-of-print.
Happy to say that if you want a copy of Forever Richard you may contact me. Sad to say once they're gone though, they're gone!
Happy to say that Black Bed Sheet Books will be republishing Forever Richard, long-listed for a 2009 Pluto Award and long-listed for a 2010 British Fantasy Award, before the end of 2011!!!! So watch for it and make sure and read Never Ceese first and order it directly from Black Bed Sheet books at the Black Bed Sheet Store!
BTW I meant Amazon shouldn't be able to come up with an new copies to sell. There are quite a few copies of Forever Richard legitimately for sell by other vendors. If you buy the ones listed for $60 or more please at least give me the money instead. Good grief! Amazon won't be able to get any more copies until the book is republished through Black Bed Sheet Books. Or at least they shouldn't be able to.
Happy to say that I now have the rights back and it is out of print. Sad to say that once the four left on Amazon sell no more NEW ones will be available as it is now out-of-print.
Happy to say that if you want a copy of Forever Richard you may contact me. Sad to say once they're gone though, they're gone!
Happy to say that Black Bed Sheet Books will be republishing Forever Richard, long-listed for a 2009 Pluto Award and long-listed for a 2010 British Fantasy Award, before the end of 2011!!!! So watch for it and make sure and read Never Ceese first and order it directly from Black Bed Sheet books at the Black Bed Sheet Store!
BTW I meant Amazon shouldn't be able to come up with an new copies to sell. There are quite a few copies of Forever Richard legitimately for sell by other vendors. If you buy the ones listed for $60 or more please at least give me the money instead. Good grief! Amazon won't be able to get any more copies until the book is republished through Black Bed Sheet Books. Or at least they shouldn't be able to.
Kindle, Nook preference?
No. I'm not really asking. Just thought I'd share my views on both as far as having my work published on either one. I choose . . . NEITHER. ;D
Kindle is Amazon's e-book reader and therefore caters to and was basically designed for those books published through Create Space, Amazon's POD. From my personal experience with Kindle, they don't have a clue what they're doing and so I'll steer clear. I work very hard at marketing and making certain, as best I can, that my books don't show up in front of readers who'd rather NOT read the kind of story I've written. Amazon's thinking seems to be ask the publisher where they want the book to show up but then disregard the response for the sake of spamming anyone that looks at Kindle. The only one star review I've received so far has come from a reader from the Kindle version of my book and the simple explanation was that they couldn't believe the book was listed where it was listed. And it wasn't one of the places where I chose. Thanks Kindle. Thanks sooooo much.
As far as Nook goes, well, that's Barnes & Noble's e-book reader. They don't support, care, help or give a rat's patoody about small pubbed authors so why in the world would I want to support them by placing my books on Nook. They'll be just fine publishing the large published authors they have access too until they most likely go the way of Borders and all the other chain bookstores for not acknowledging Small Press or self-pubbed authors.
All my books through Black Bed Sheet Books are on every legitimate format available through their distributor.
No, I've no preference whatsoever for Kindle or Nook but I as you can tell I do have an opinion on both. ;)
A POD is a POD. When it comes down to it none of them can offer anything that the other can't offer. I think Amazon and Barnes & Noble should stop trying to take over the world. That's how publishing got into this mess to begin with. You think they'd learn. Apparently not.
Kindle is Amazon's e-book reader and therefore caters to and was basically designed for those books published through Create Space, Amazon's POD. From my personal experience with Kindle, they don't have a clue what they're doing and so I'll steer clear. I work very hard at marketing and making certain, as best I can, that my books don't show up in front of readers who'd rather NOT read the kind of story I've written. Amazon's thinking seems to be ask the publisher where they want the book to show up but then disregard the response for the sake of spamming anyone that looks at Kindle. The only one star review I've received so far has come from a reader from the Kindle version of my book and the simple explanation was that they couldn't believe the book was listed where it was listed. And it wasn't one of the places where I chose. Thanks Kindle. Thanks sooooo much.
As far as Nook goes, well, that's Barnes & Noble's e-book reader. They don't support, care, help or give a rat's patoody about small pubbed authors so why in the world would I want to support them by placing my books on Nook. They'll be just fine publishing the large published authors they have access too until they most likely go the way of Borders and all the other chain bookstores for not acknowledging Small Press or self-pubbed authors.
All my books through Black Bed Sheet Books are on every legitimate format available through their distributor.
No, I've no preference whatsoever for Kindle or Nook but I as you can tell I do have an opinion on both. ;)
A POD is a POD. When it comes down to it none of them can offer anything that the other can't offer. I think Amazon and Barnes & Noble should stop trying to take over the world. That's how publishing got into this mess to begin with. You think they'd learn. Apparently not.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
My feelings on editors.
******
Do note that after this post Anne Rice in fact confirmed that the below excerpt did come from her. She did so in a comment to this post. Why she came to my tiny minuscule section of the massive blogosphere, (where I can only hope to be read,) I'll never know. But it is what it is so jump to the comments if you're interested. You certainly won't see someone along the lines of Anne Rice commenting on my blog very often . . . if ever again. But at least the ten or fifteen who follow my blog might be impressed. ;)
************
I've pretty strong feelings about having an MS edited and I've shared them before. I feel my opinions are dead on at least from what I've accomplished to date. But to better understand the different feelings some well-known authors have about editors one must truly understand the nature of publishing. Other wise the information put out will have one switching from one idea back to another based on who said what.
I recently read a "supposed" entry made by Anne Rice on Amazon. Do understand that I did NOT go beyond reading it to see if the post was legitimate. So while I say the post was from Anne Rice and thus most likely reflects her views, I'm not 100% certain. It did sound like something she would say but even if she wasn't the one who wrote it, I do know it is the way many long-time published authors feel. Here's the excerpt from what I read (again, maybe Anne Rice, maybe not.)
". . . and no, I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art. . . ."
After reading this one is tempted to walk away saying,"ha, see! I don't need an editor."
My response to that is this. ALL larger published authors are at the mercy of those editors who work for the publishers whose job it is to produce a book that they've decided will sell better than say some other book. More times than not, they will drastically cut, rework and otherwise revise an MS until it's virtually unrecognizable leaving enough of the authors voice in to make it distinguishable from all the other stuff they put out.
These editors are in no way reflective of the work a professional editor can do for you if you're self-published or with a small press who can't afford to hire an editor (beyond perhaps a line-editor.) An editor you hire yourself will ask you at every turn and only suggests things to make your work more readable. Acceptance is based on what you want, not what they want. Any contentions large published authors have with their editors stems from the fact that they have little control over what these editors want to do with their MS. The author above states they've fought long and hard to have it the way they want it. Seems like they could've saved themselves the trouble of a fight by going with a publisher that will give them the final say. Many have said for years that going with a large publisher means giving up everything, a sort of selling-your-soul-to-the-devil scenario. Perhaps back in the day larger publishers hid information from authors they signed. I don't know. But everyone knows today that large published authors have to "fight" to have their work not edited so much that it isn't even their story anymore. Even at that I wish large published authors would clarify when they speak so horrendously of being edited and editors in general.
Just keep in mind that the excerpt above, (no matter who said it as it's all been said before) means that most, if not every large published author, hates that they don't have the final say on their edits. Just keep in mind that it's a very different scenario when you're hiring your own editor. And if you feel that writing isn't a collaborative experience between writer and editor then it will be a very, very long journey for you indeed and you most likely won't make it to your destination at all. It IS a collaborative work and as many large published authors believe otherwise there are just as many who disagree. J K Rowling is one. At least she got something right. HA!
Do note that after this post Anne Rice in fact confirmed that the below excerpt did come from her. She did so in a comment to this post. Why she came to my tiny minuscule section of the massive blogosphere, (where I can only hope to be read,) I'll never know. But it is what it is so jump to the comments if you're interested. You certainly won't see someone along the lines of Anne Rice commenting on my blog very often . . . if ever again. But at least the ten or fifteen who follow my blog might be impressed. ;)
************
I've pretty strong feelings about having an MS edited and I've shared them before. I feel my opinions are dead on at least from what I've accomplished to date. But to better understand the different feelings some well-known authors have about editors one must truly understand the nature of publishing. Other wise the information put out will have one switching from one idea back to another based on who said what.
I recently read a "supposed" entry made by Anne Rice on Amazon. Do understand that I did NOT go beyond reading it to see if the post was legitimate. So while I say the post was from Anne Rice and thus most likely reflects her views, I'm not 100% certain. It did sound like something she would say but even if she wasn't the one who wrote it, I do know it is the way many long-time published authors feel. Here's the excerpt from what I read (again, maybe Anne Rice, maybe not.)
". . . and no, I have no intention of allowing any editor ever to distort, cut, or otherwise mutilate sentences that I have edited and re-edited, and organized and polished myself. I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status. For me, novel writing is a virtuoso performance. It is not a collaborative art. . . ."
After reading this one is tempted to walk away saying,"ha, see! I don't need an editor."
My response to that is this. ALL larger published authors are at the mercy of those editors who work for the publishers whose job it is to produce a book that they've decided will sell better than say some other book. More times than not, they will drastically cut, rework and otherwise revise an MS until it's virtually unrecognizable leaving enough of the authors voice in to make it distinguishable from all the other stuff they put out.
These editors are in no way reflective of the work a professional editor can do for you if you're self-published or with a small press who can't afford to hire an editor (beyond perhaps a line-editor.) An editor you hire yourself will ask you at every turn and only suggests things to make your work more readable. Acceptance is based on what you want, not what they want. Any contentions large published authors have with their editors stems from the fact that they have little control over what these editors want to do with their MS. The author above states they've fought long and hard to have it the way they want it. Seems like they could've saved themselves the trouble of a fight by going with a publisher that will give them the final say. Many have said for years that going with a large publisher means giving up everything, a sort of selling-your-soul-to-the-devil scenario. Perhaps back in the day larger publishers hid information from authors they signed. I don't know. But everyone knows today that large published authors have to "fight" to have their work not edited so much that it isn't even their story anymore. Even at that I wish large published authors would clarify when they speak so horrendously of being edited and editors in general.
Just keep in mind that the excerpt above, (no matter who said it as it's all been said before) means that most, if not every large published author, hates that they don't have the final say on their edits. Just keep in mind that it's a very different scenario when you're hiring your own editor. And if you feel that writing isn't a collaborative experience between writer and editor then it will be a very, very long journey for you indeed and you most likely won't make it to your destination at all. It IS a collaborative work and as many large published authors believe otherwise there are just as many who disagree. J K Rowling is one. At least she got something right. HA!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Sue Dent is unprofessional AND rude!
***update at end of blog. Apparently now I'm an idiot too. Read for yourself. It's the only conclusion I can come too.
That's a response I got from a Christian magazine I contacted concerning having my books listed. I actually contact many on-line magazines on a regular basis and always ask pertinent questions to see if my books are even a close fit as I don't want them showing up on web-sites and in places I'd prefer them not to be. However, nine times out of ten, when I contact Christian on-line magazines, using the same language by-the-way and the same tone, they immediately get defensive and usually end up calling me names (for the record, defensive is not a name. It's an attitude.)
I'm not sure what is it that triggers them (even though it may seem that I do since the response is so consistent) but I have learned this. Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER, EVER ask them why it is that they always start by listing books from publishers who serve that very targeted Christian market that CBA serves when they can pull books from Spring Arbor that has books that appeal to ALL Christian readers as is Spring Arbor's intent, or so it's supposed to be according to Spring Arbor.
Yeah, don't ask them that.
By the way, not only am I rude and unprofessional, I always portray myself as the victim too. So yes, I'm through asking Christian on-line magazines where they get their book list from. Actually I'm through contacting any of them. Like I need that kind of abuse. Sheesh!
If I were unprofessional I'd tell you which magazine. As it stands it doesn't matter. All Christian on-line magazines I've found admittedly pull books from the Christian Booksellers Association first and foremost instead of from Spring Arbor suggesting a targeted intent and begging that the question be asked. If you do ask though, just remember this: I WARNED YOU!!
** Actually I didn't expect to have an update to this story. I'd Pretty much decided I'd not hear back after I ended my last email with, "forget my request concerning how a general market Christian author gets listed in an on-line magazine that only list books from CBA's affiliated publishers."
Boy was I wrong. But then, from past dealings with such publications I do find they usually like to have the last word. But you simply must read what the last word was. It started with the sender quoting the last line from my e-mail which is the line concerning, forget my question. Beneath that was one sentence. It reads and I quote:
Why you would cling to an erroneous statement from a non-editor is simply mind-boggling. It’s like you asked a paperboy about the editorial policies of the local newspaper.
Ummm, because the "paperboy" is the one who answered the question I asked from the website contact page? He forgot to identify himself as such though, so what do you know, I believed him.
Wow!
So much for an apology.
Let's just twist that analogy around a little. I believe it's more like hiring the paperboy to answer questions about the editorial policies of the local newspaper and then blaming customers when they believe his "wrong" information because well, he just didn't know!!!!! Yeah, I know customers are so stupid!!!
Here's a shovel. You want to dig a little deeper.
For the record I've found no magazine on-line or otherwise that list fiction that most Christians would find readable an not offensive. If it's labeled Christian in any way it's primary, if not only purpose, is to promote fiction put out for that targeted market CBA has been serving since 1950.
The only real problem with that is they are now making broad claims they don't do this. Yet when asked where they get the titles listed each and everyone of them stick with targeted publishers and first and foremost affiliated ones acting as though none others exist. All while Spring Arbor sits there approves a wide variety everyday. Just market to your audience and find a descriptive name so folks like myself don't have to take your bitter tone when you tell us in your lovingly Christian manner that you don't want to list our books.
That's a response I got from a Christian magazine I contacted concerning having my books listed. I actually contact many on-line magazines on a regular basis and always ask pertinent questions to see if my books are even a close fit as I don't want them showing up on web-sites and in places I'd prefer them not to be. However, nine times out of ten, when I contact Christian on-line magazines, using the same language by-the-way and the same tone, they immediately get defensive and usually end up calling me names (for the record, defensive is not a name. It's an attitude.)
I'm not sure what is it that triggers them (even though it may seem that I do since the response is so consistent) but I have learned this. Whatever you do, NEVER, EVER, EVER ask them why it is that they always start by listing books from publishers who serve that very targeted Christian market that CBA serves when they can pull books from Spring Arbor that has books that appeal to ALL Christian readers as is Spring Arbor's intent, or so it's supposed to be according to Spring Arbor.
Yeah, don't ask them that.
By the way, not only am I rude and unprofessional, I always portray myself as the victim too. So yes, I'm through asking Christian on-line magazines where they get their book list from. Actually I'm through contacting any of them. Like I need that kind of abuse. Sheesh!
If I were unprofessional I'd tell you which magazine. As it stands it doesn't matter. All Christian on-line magazines I've found admittedly pull books from the Christian Booksellers Association first and foremost instead of from Spring Arbor suggesting a targeted intent and begging that the question be asked. If you do ask though, just remember this: I WARNED YOU!!
** Actually I didn't expect to have an update to this story. I'd Pretty much decided I'd not hear back after I ended my last email with, "forget my request concerning how a general market Christian author gets listed in an on-line magazine that only list books from CBA's affiliated publishers."
Boy was I wrong. But then, from past dealings with such publications I do find they usually like to have the last word. But you simply must read what the last word was. It started with the sender quoting the last line from my e-mail which is the line concerning, forget my question. Beneath that was one sentence. It reads and I quote:
Why you would cling to an erroneous statement from a non-editor is simply mind-boggling. It’s like you asked a paperboy about the editorial policies of the local newspaper.
Ummm, because the "paperboy" is the one who answered the question I asked from the website contact page? He forgot to identify himself as such though, so what do you know, I believed him.
Wow!
So much for an apology.
Let's just twist that analogy around a little. I believe it's more like hiring the paperboy to answer questions about the editorial policies of the local newspaper and then blaming customers when they believe his "wrong" information because well, he just didn't know!!!!! Yeah, I know customers are so stupid!!!
Here's a shovel. You want to dig a little deeper.
For the record I've found no magazine on-line or otherwise that list fiction that most Christians would find readable an not offensive. If it's labeled Christian in any way it's primary, if not only purpose, is to promote fiction put out for that targeted market CBA has been serving since 1950.
The only real problem with that is they are now making broad claims they don't do this. Yet when asked where they get the titles listed each and everyone of them stick with targeted publishers and first and foremost affiliated ones acting as though none others exist. All while Spring Arbor sits there approves a wide variety everyday. Just market to your audience and find a descriptive name so folks like myself don't have to take your bitter tone when you tell us in your lovingly Christian manner that you don't want to list our books.
Nice eye-opener for Small Publishers.
I just called a Barnes & Nobles in Georgia to see if they, because sometimes individuals stores do, allow for Small Press authors to come in on conssignment since B&N corporate discourages, frowns on and otherwise makes it impossible for Small Press publishers to come into the stores and was told this (I am paraphrasing as I don't remember word for word):
CRM: Since you're a local author--
Me: I'm not local.
CRM: Small publisher, (actually that was word for word so far) then we would have to call our district office (maybe home office. Basically "B&N are Us") and have you approved and they only approve large publishers.
Me: Actually I already know that but have run into a few B&N's who will still take books on consignment from a Small Publisher. Just calling around to see if I might stumble across one.
CRM: Actually their phasing the in-store CRM's out. A lot of us have been laid off and the ones they've kept are for outside sales, like schools and businesses. They're working toward no more in-store events. Maybe you can find another store that does this.
Me: Based on what you just told me I'm sure I won't waste my time.
So there you have, B&N has regulated Small Publishers, not to the back burner, but out of the running altogether thus showing their true colors. Fine. The big publishers saved your butt once, let them go down with the ship.
CRM: Since you're a local author--
Me: I'm not local.
CRM: Small publisher, (actually that was word for word so far) then we would have to call our district office (maybe home office. Basically "B&N are Us") and have you approved and they only approve large publishers.
Me: Actually I already know that but have run into a few B&N's who will still take books on consignment from a Small Publisher. Just calling around to see if I might stumble across one.
CRM: Actually their phasing the in-store CRM's out. A lot of us have been laid off and the ones they've kept are for outside sales, like schools and businesses. They're working toward no more in-store events. Maybe you can find another store that does this.
Me: Based on what you just told me I'm sure I won't waste my time.
So there you have, B&N has regulated Small Publishers, not to the back burner, but out of the running altogether thus showing their true colors. Fine. The big publishers saved your butt once, let them go down with the ship.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Why are large chain bookstores going under?
*******
Note: facts suggest that Christian chain bookstores are going under for a completely different reason than the one given here since they weren't around during the depression. I may blog about that later.
*******
As with anything, there are many opinions out there but I tend to gravitate to finding the facts. Not that it will keep things from happening the way they're happening but at least, armed with the facts, I can help others understand should they want to.
Many businesses seem to be failing in light of the internet or the ability for others to provide something digitally and quicker than the brick-and-mortar store. And while I'll agree with this theory in part I do not feel it is the primary reason for the demise of larger bookstores.
Does it matter what I think? No, not really but if you read on you'll at least know why I feel the way I do and perhaps you'll sleep better tonight.
Here's an excerpt I've posted before from an article I link to quite frequently. Since it is in an on-line encyclopedia it is unbiased and can't readily be pulled or changed due to my linking to it. I only point this out because many articles I find on the internet now lead to dead links having been moved all together. While I say that I'm not worried about this link going anywhere, I've copied it none-the-less. It has valuable information in it. Here's the link and here's the excerpt:
"The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the book publishing industry as hard as it hit every other sector of the American economy. Booksellers at that time were mostly small local businesses, and to help them survive the economic hardships of the depression, Simon and Schuster invented a system allowing booksellers to return unsold copies of books for credit against future purchases."
(Warning long sentence coming up. Read with caution.) I typically use the above excerpt to point to the reason why once-smaller-now-larger bookstores don't give a poop about small pubbed authors while pointing out that it is this return policy that bites small press in the butt so that they have to make books non-returnable just to keep once-smaller-now-larger bookstores from taking them down which as a result keeps once-smaller-now-larger bookstores from ordering small press books because they can't return them whenever they darn well please causing small press to eat the print cost of their book because AS WE ALL KNOW, no POD publisher wants to pay for shipping of the returned-from-the-bookstore books to be sent back to them. (long sentence over.)
Today I will use the excerpt to point to a much different issue. If large publishers cared so much back in the depression that one of them, Simon & Schuster and subsequently the others for sheer survival--broke protocol and created a return policy that would help the bookstore more than the publisher, then why aren't they acting today? These are THEIR bookstores. The same ones from the depression.
Where is the call to arms? I don't see it? The larger chain bookstores of today are the once-small bookstores of yeasteryear. Where are these wonderfully gracious publishers?
Many still point to ebooks as being the demise of the brick-and-mortar bookstores. I say "nay-nay." I say that if larger chain bookstores embraced and worked with small press (afterall there are more of us than them) the same way they work with larger publishers or at least offer us something as lucrative, they most likely wouldn't be in the shape they're in today.
I'm certain that large publishers (starting with Simon & Shuster) meant well by offering the hang-by-the-neck-until-dead (for small press anyway) return policy but after reading the above excerpt, one has to wonder at their motive. Okay, maybe not everyone but I certainly do.
Small press publishers might help but it's difficult to do this when the door is shut and locked to their presence. I'll not mention the insults that are heaped upon small press when they actually attempt to ask for the type of agreement larger bookstores share with larger publishers. Ooops.
I hate to see this happen as I hate to see any large entity go down but it's their own fault . . . in my opinion.
Oh and since small press books are swatted down at every turn, here's the best place to go to find Black Bed Sheet Books recently published edition of Never Ceese
Buy Never Ceese here!
Hey, if I didn't tell you, how would you know?
Note: facts suggest that Christian chain bookstores are going under for a completely different reason than the one given here since they weren't around during the depression. I may blog about that later.
*******
As with anything, there are many opinions out there but I tend to gravitate to finding the facts. Not that it will keep things from happening the way they're happening but at least, armed with the facts, I can help others understand should they want to.
Many businesses seem to be failing in light of the internet or the ability for others to provide something digitally and quicker than the brick-and-mortar store. And while I'll agree with this theory in part I do not feel it is the primary reason for the demise of larger bookstores.
Does it matter what I think? No, not really but if you read on you'll at least know why I feel the way I do and perhaps you'll sleep better tonight.
Here's an excerpt I've posted before from an article I link to quite frequently. Since it is in an on-line encyclopedia it is unbiased and can't readily be pulled or changed due to my linking to it. I only point this out because many articles I find on the internet now lead to dead links having been moved all together. While I say that I'm not worried about this link going anywhere, I've copied it none-the-less. It has valuable information in it. Here's the link and here's the excerpt:
"The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the book publishing industry as hard as it hit every other sector of the American economy. Booksellers at that time were mostly small local businesses, and to help them survive the economic hardships of the depression, Simon and Schuster invented a system allowing booksellers to return unsold copies of books for credit against future purchases."
(Warning long sentence coming up. Read with caution.) I typically use the above excerpt to point to the reason why once-smaller-now-larger bookstores don't give a poop about small pubbed authors while pointing out that it is this return policy that bites small press in the butt so that they have to make books non-returnable just to keep once-smaller-now-larger bookstores from taking them down which as a result keeps once-smaller-now-larger bookstores from ordering small press books because they can't return them whenever they darn well please causing small press to eat the print cost of their book because AS WE ALL KNOW, no POD publisher wants to pay for shipping of the returned-from-the-bookstore books to be sent back to them. (long sentence over.)
Today I will use the excerpt to point to a much different issue. If large publishers cared so much back in the depression that one of them, Simon & Schuster and subsequently the others for sheer survival--broke protocol and created a return policy that would help the bookstore more than the publisher, then why aren't they acting today? These are THEIR bookstores. The same ones from the depression.
Where is the call to arms? I don't see it? The larger chain bookstores of today are the once-small bookstores of yeasteryear. Where are these wonderfully gracious publishers?
Many still point to ebooks as being the demise of the brick-and-mortar bookstores. I say "nay-nay." I say that if larger chain bookstores embraced and worked with small press (afterall there are more of us than them) the same way they work with larger publishers or at least offer us something as lucrative, they most likely wouldn't be in the shape they're in today.
I'm certain that large publishers (starting with Simon & Shuster) meant well by offering the hang-by-the-neck-until-dead (for small press anyway) return policy but after reading the above excerpt, one has to wonder at their motive. Okay, maybe not everyone but I certainly do.
Small press publishers might help but it's difficult to do this when the door is shut and locked to their presence. I'll not mention the insults that are heaped upon small press when they actually attempt to ask for the type of agreement larger bookstores share with larger publishers. Ooops.
I hate to see this happen as I hate to see any large entity go down but it's their own fault . . . in my opinion.
Oh and since small press books are swatted down at every turn, here's the best place to go to find Black Bed Sheet Books recently published edition of Never Ceese
Buy Never Ceese here!
Hey, if I didn't tell you, how would you know?
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
You'll just sound like you don't know what you're talking about.
To all my author friends out there who come to me for advice on occasion (don't understand it myself but okay) please keep this in mind. When you break the book market down into "Secular" and "Christian" you are showing your ignorance. That isn't meant to be mean even though I used the word ignorance. When you use these two labels to define the overall market you are telling any general market publisher you might be soliciting that you don't understand the industry at ALL!!!
Those general market publishers that are familiar with the two labels will write you off as someone who obviously writes for the targeted market that spawned the two labels and most general market publishers leave targeted markets alone.
The Christian Booksellers Association is most notable for using these to labels as they seem to believe that their targeted fiction is the only "Christian" fiction out there and any other fiction is "secular." If you're a Christian author seeking publication and your work has general market appeal it would be in your best interest when talking to publishers that you stay away from distinguishing the market as such.
There is general market fiction and non-fiction. Under this umbrella fall all the different genre's of the world. Just because some targeted market publishers say otherwise doesn't make it so. Good grief!
Those general market publishers that are familiar with the two labels will write you off as someone who obviously writes for the targeted market that spawned the two labels and most general market publishers leave targeted markets alone.
The Christian Booksellers Association is most notable for using these to labels as they seem to believe that their targeted fiction is the only "Christian" fiction out there and any other fiction is "secular." If you're a Christian author seeking publication and your work has general market appeal it would be in your best interest when talking to publishers that you stay away from distinguishing the market as such.
There is general market fiction and non-fiction. Under this umbrella fall all the different genre's of the world. Just because some targeted market publishers say otherwise doesn't make it so. Good grief!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Best-Sellers List
Found this at the bottom of a best-sellers list compiled for the week ending January 9, 2011 to "explain" a little about how the list was compiled? I'll not list the books as I don't feel the list is NOT representative of what's actually selling. No surprise there.
"Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending January 9, 2011, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighed to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores and newsstands."
I only post this to help substantiate the fact that the "sales" this list is talking about are the sales a publisher makes to a book store Independent or otherwise. The only publisher that large bookstores (the ones that make the difference in this matter) buy from are large publishers and they do so in mass quantities regardless of whether the author is a bestseller or not. This is actually how authors become best-sellers.
In the early years of publishing it was expensive to print books so publishers (only large publishers existed at the time. There were no little guys.) called upon the bookstores to help them store the large number of books they had to print as they had large print runs in order to save money. The bookstores and large publishers worked hand in hand. No surprise that things still work like this today but it is important to know otherwise you might think a best-seller is determined by how many individuals are buying it. Not so at all. There is absolutely no way to track how many books sell to individuals via bookstores or all the venues that sell books.
Ironically, all the books that bookstores buy from large publishers to secure that publishers hope of another author making it to the best-sellers list never sale at all!!! The bookstore usually returns them at some point because they can. No skin off their back. By the way, that's why you'll never see anything but larger publishers books on these list. Bookstores don't buy books from small publishers and they certainly don't when, in order to survive the insane return policy, the small publishers makes their books NON-RETURNABLE and prints through a POD.
Ahhhh, the publishing industry. Gotta love it.
I apologize if you thought I was going to post that I made the best-sellers list. I'll not make one any time soon with the requirements listed above and t hat's EVEN if I sell more books than some of those authors on the best-sellers list. Because if I sell more books it will be my small pub selling them directly to customers or me selling them myself and those sales are counted. So the real best-sellers will never be known because there's no way to accurately determine the number.
Oprah Winfrey Oprah read this Oprah Oprah Oprah
"Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending January 9, 2011, at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighed to represent all such outlets); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount department stores and newsstands."
I only post this to help substantiate the fact that the "sales" this list is talking about are the sales a publisher makes to a book store Independent or otherwise. The only publisher that large bookstores (the ones that make the difference in this matter) buy from are large publishers and they do so in mass quantities regardless of whether the author is a bestseller or not. This is actually how authors become best-sellers.
In the early years of publishing it was expensive to print books so publishers (only large publishers existed at the time. There were no little guys.) called upon the bookstores to help them store the large number of books they had to print as they had large print runs in order to save money. The bookstores and large publishers worked hand in hand. No surprise that things still work like this today but it is important to know otherwise you might think a best-seller is determined by how many individuals are buying it. Not so at all. There is absolutely no way to track how many books sell to individuals via bookstores or all the venues that sell books.
Ironically, all the books that bookstores buy from large publishers to secure that publishers hope of another author making it to the best-sellers list never sale at all!!! The bookstore usually returns them at some point because they can. No skin off their back. By the way, that's why you'll never see anything but larger publishers books on these list. Bookstores don't buy books from small publishers and they certainly don't when, in order to survive the insane return policy, the small publishers makes their books NON-RETURNABLE and prints through a POD.
Ahhhh, the publishing industry. Gotta love it.
I apologize if you thought I was going to post that I made the best-sellers list. I'll not make one any time soon with the requirements listed above and t hat's EVEN if I sell more books than some of those authors on the best-sellers list. Because if I sell more books it will be my small pub selling them directly to customers or me selling them myself and those sales are counted. So the real best-sellers will never be known because there's no way to accurately determine the number.
Oprah Winfrey Oprah read this Oprah Oprah Oprah
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Sue answers a question.
Do you have any problems marketing your books because of the CBA?
This was asked of me on a fellow author's thread on FB. Since I'm not in the habit of hi-jacking threads I've opted to answer the question here on my blog so that perhaps it will help other aspiring authors.
The simple answer is yes.
The more complex answer is that of course there are going to be problems when an association is assigns a broad label such as Christian to a product or business which is so very targeted. By virtue of the name itself one would assume that before CBA there was no fiction out there for Christians as a whole to enjoy. Nothing could be further from the truth. C. S. Lewis was there, Tolkien, Stoker, you name them and they were there.
At the time CBA formed, Baptist Bookstores didn't even dabble in fiction. They were more or less gift shops and suppliers of Sunday School Material. When they decided to branch off into fiction they also decided that regular Christians just couldn't write fiction that wouldn't offend their very targeted market. The work they produce is tailored to that audience. It's watered down for their taste and in no way appeals to general market Christian readers and never has.
Because my work has appealed to that audience many of those fans have called my work "Christian" fiction. I've had to scream at the top of my ever loving voice to proclaim otherwise and that's sad because I am a Christian and should be able to use the label without having my work thrown into a category with books such as The Left Behind Series that, as one reader put it, "has readers praying for the return of Jesus so the series can hopefully end and put us all out of our misery!"
So yes, CBA makes marketing my book, which isn't written specifically for that market, very difficult. Define your market and be done with it. I want the label Christian to mean what it's supposed to mean; a broad label that defines many walks of faith.
As an author who writes general market horror, I should've never had to know who CBA was or is. But if I didn't know and if I hadn't learned, I'd be dead in the water right now due to lack of sales or interest because readers would think I write for that targeted audience.
This was asked of me on a fellow author's thread on FB. Since I'm not in the habit of hi-jacking threads I've opted to answer the question here on my blog so that perhaps it will help other aspiring authors.
The simple answer is yes.
The more complex answer is that of course there are going to be problems when an association is assigns a broad label such as Christian to a product or business which is so very targeted. By virtue of the name itself one would assume that before CBA there was no fiction out there for Christians as a whole to enjoy. Nothing could be further from the truth. C. S. Lewis was there, Tolkien, Stoker, you name them and they were there.
At the time CBA formed, Baptist Bookstores didn't even dabble in fiction. They were more or less gift shops and suppliers of Sunday School Material. When they decided to branch off into fiction they also decided that regular Christians just couldn't write fiction that wouldn't offend their very targeted market. The work they produce is tailored to that audience. It's watered down for their taste and in no way appeals to general market Christian readers and never has.
Because my work has appealed to that audience many of those fans have called my work "Christian" fiction. I've had to scream at the top of my ever loving voice to proclaim otherwise and that's sad because I am a Christian and should be able to use the label without having my work thrown into a category with books such as The Left Behind Series that, as one reader put it, "has readers praying for the return of Jesus so the series can hopefully end and put us all out of our misery!"
So yes, CBA makes marketing my book, which isn't written specifically for that market, very difficult. Define your market and be done with it. I want the label Christian to mean what it's supposed to mean; a broad label that defines many walks of faith.
As an author who writes general market horror, I should've never had to know who CBA was or is. But if I didn't know and if I hadn't learned, I'd be dead in the water right now due to lack of sales or interest because readers would think I write for that targeted audience.
Haystack gets bigger, deeper! Needle nowhere to be found.
So the supposed purpose of an agent initially was to take the slush pile from large publishers and weed through them. Not every agent has access to every large house and no agent will tell you who they do have access to should you be able to get one to consider representing you which is a joke in itself.
I posted the other day that I submitted to an agent that I could've met at a writer's conference. As an interesting twist, I didn't get the automated rejection but rather what seemed like a personal response which still said the standard, I wasn't a good fit (though I was a perfect one) and a suggestion to ANOTHER agent who this agent thought might represent me.
I also posted that I'd heard this before and wouldn't waste my time with this other agent. Well for the sake of reporting to you, I did waste my time. LOL This time I did get the automated, "you are not a good fit," with no recommendations on where I might fit. Bottom line, my query wasn't even looked at and no author's query ever is for the most part. The agent's excuse: "We're overwhelmed and have to do automated responses." Translated: we do fine by getting friends into the larger houses and don't need to bother with anyone else.
So y'all go ahead and waste your time submitting to agents. Pfft, it only takes two minutes really then a few weeks later they'll pop off the automated response to you. Sure beats wasting your money going to a writers conference to have them tell you to your face that they'll let you know in a couple of weeks, with an automated reply, that you're not a good fit. ;D
Here's what the response will look like, word for word:
Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I don't feel that we would be a good fit.
Best wishes for finding a good agent and publisher.
By the way, I queried my first traditional publisher myself and got signed on without the help of an agent. Others later used an agent to get to them. They lost out big time as the agent didn't know anything about the publisher. They just knew the publisher paid them a little "something, something," to send them prospective authors.
I posted the other day that I submitted to an agent that I could've met at a writer's conference. As an interesting twist, I didn't get the automated rejection but rather what seemed like a personal response which still said the standard, I wasn't a good fit (though I was a perfect one) and a suggestion to ANOTHER agent who this agent thought might represent me.
I also posted that I'd heard this before and wouldn't waste my time with this other agent. Well for the sake of reporting to you, I did waste my time. LOL This time I did get the automated, "you are not a good fit," with no recommendations on where I might fit. Bottom line, my query wasn't even looked at and no author's query ever is for the most part. The agent's excuse: "We're overwhelmed and have to do automated responses." Translated: we do fine by getting friends into the larger houses and don't need to bother with anyone else.
So y'all go ahead and waste your time submitting to agents. Pfft, it only takes two minutes really then a few weeks later they'll pop off the automated response to you. Sure beats wasting your money going to a writers conference to have them tell you to your face that they'll let you know in a couple of weeks, with an automated reply, that you're not a good fit. ;D
Here's what the response will look like, word for word:
Thank you for your query. Unfortunately, I don't feel that we would be a good fit.
Best wishes for finding a good agent and publisher.
By the way, I queried my first traditional publisher myself and got signed on without the help of an agent. Others later used an agent to get to them. They lost out big time as the agent didn't know anything about the publisher. They just knew the publisher paid them a little "something, something," to send them prospective authors.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Books Signings for Small Press Authors
Just in case it still isn't clear, Small Press Authors would love to come to your local chain bookstore to do signings but Chain Bookstores SUCH AS Barnes & Nobles and quite a few others won't purchase POD published books which is the publishing choice for most small presses due to the fact that it's the most economical choice. AND large chain bookstores won't allow ANY author to bring in books to sell on consignment which is the only way to get around the bookstore not ordering books ahead of time for a signing.
There's an even bigger trap waiting at Christian Bookstores. 99% of them are affiliated and will only bring your book in if it's published by an affiliated publisher who writes for a very restrictive denominational market. It's the first question I'm asked when I call these stores to see about a signing. And so much for explaining. As soon as they find out my publisher isn't a fee paying CBA member, they hang up.
So just know that for most small pubbed authors, book signings at chain bookstores aren't a thing of the past. They never were and never will be. *sigh*
There's an even bigger trap waiting at Christian Bookstores. 99% of them are affiliated and will only bring your book in if it's published by an affiliated publisher who writes for a very restrictive denominational market. It's the first question I'm asked when I call these stores to see about a signing. And so much for explaining. As soon as they find out my publisher isn't a fee paying CBA member, they hang up.
So just know that for most small pubbed authors, book signings at chain bookstores aren't a thing of the past. They never were and never will be. *sigh*
Continually baffled.
(revamped, reworked and reposted!)
Things that I've found to be particularly interesting whilst becoming a published author. Ordinarily I wouldn't have given a second thought to this one particular item but since I ended up appealing to an audience I never expected to appeal to, well, I became interested. ;) Especially since being associated with this particular market has a tendency to drive interest in ones book way down!!!
I suppose the one thing that struck me as very interesting is that the Christian Booksellers Association isn't THE Christian publishing industry as they insist and that CBA was set up in 1950 to ONLY appeal to publishers who wanted to provide targeted denominational fiction to Baptist Bookstore visitors. Let me stop to clarify here that I didn't make that last comment up. I read that word for word at cbaonline.org. I posted a link at one time to show how I'd not taken this comment out of context but shortly after I posted said link the wording had been "updated" to read quite a bit differently.
Just a Coincidence?
Perhaps but now the wording doesn't emphatically state the audience at the onset. It just sort of eludes to it. For this reason I no longer provide links to cbaonline.org. They still only serve a very targeted denominational audience and have no plans of abandoning that audience or growing past them for fear of losing them. The information they removed from their "about me" page or rather "reworded" was important. I'm sorry they found it necessary to remove it.
Bottom line is the Christian Booksellers Association was created in 1950 when affiliated bookstores were called Baptist Bookstores. A group of these Baptist Bookstores created CBA to provide targeted fiction. They charged publishers who wanted to write for this audience a fee and in turn for the money, placed affiliated publishers fiction in ALL of those Baptist bookstores that were affiliated. The work had to meet CBA's approval as well. Meaning it had to stick to rigid denominational standards. If I had to give the fiction a name I would call it, "preach to the choir," fiction.
At some point the name Baptist Bookstore was dropped and affiliated stores simply called themselves. "Christian" bookstores. Shortly after that in the seventies, a group of affiliated publishers pulled away and created the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association or ECPA. I often wondered if these were affiliated publishers who thought, "hey, you know, this is targeted fiction. I don't think using the broader label "Christian" to define our work is really all that prudent." Either way, ECPA makes no secret about who their target audience is which is a nice plus for them.
Here's how some distributors handle the confusion in the markets. Hatchette Books has two imprints for Christian fiction. Faithwords is one. Faithwords is an imprint that only handles work put out by CBA affiliated publishers. Work designed to appeal to that exclusive and targeted market of "evangelicals" and some Catholics? That's how it reads at CBA.org. Apparently there are "evangelical" Catholics or "Christian" Catholics. Does this means all Catholics don't fall under the broader label Christian. Hmmmm . . .
Center Street is Hatchette's other imprint. Center Street doesn't care if the publisher is affiliated with CBA. And the work doesn't have to be targeted for that market. BUT it's very interesting to watch all the "big" affiliated publishers slide into this imprint instead of staying with Faithwords. It would seem that their fiction no longer tows the evangelical line. Interestingly enough CBA affiliated publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Zondervan don't seem bothered that some of their bigger authors such as James Scott Bell and Ted Dekker are distributing through non-affiliated Center Street while they're still under contract with them.
Here's how Hatchette Book Group explains the two imprints on their site:
Does Hachette Book Group use a separate imprint for its Christian books?
Books that are specifically and exclusively written for Christian audiences are identified with the FaithWords imprint. However, many Christian authors today are writing for a broader audience and those books are published under the Center Street or Hachette Book Group imprints. The determination is based on the content and intended audience of the manuscript. In addition, Hachette Book Group has the Walk Worthy Press imprint for the Christian African American market.
Now I've not been in the business long but I have to say that I'm very disillusioned by the fact that active CBA affiliated publishers who've been excluding non-affiliated Christian authors from their bookstores since 1950 are allowed to publish under a non-affiliated imprint while still being affiliated. But that's just a personal pet peeve I have. To me it's truly a sad commentary on the publishing industry as a whole.
Having these two markets separated is great but not when one of those markets doesn't do enough to state who their target audience is and in fact states emphatically and at every turn that they don't have one.
But back to Hatchette books and the confusion of the markets there. Why wasn't self-published Christian author William P. Young, who is now with Hatchette Books, placed into one of the two Christian categories instead of given his own imprint named after his own publishing company? That has to be the most bizzare case of confusion I've seen to date.
And where is William P. Young's next book?
Just keep in mind that CBA is a trade organization and before they came around there was no such thing as a Christian market, only general market. Actually that's still the way it is. CBA serves a niche market of the general market. There are now many publishers who serve that "target" audience as well but aren't affiliated. Most of them don't use the label "Christian" fiction to define their work because of the stigma the label "Christian" fiction draws due to CBA not being more specific. They're using labels such as Edgy Christian Fiction, Family Fiction etc . . . and as of yet not one label to truly define their audience. But then no publisher really has to define their market do they. So go have fun figuring out what you want to read and what you don't want to read. ;)
Things that I've found to be particularly interesting whilst becoming a published author. Ordinarily I wouldn't have given a second thought to this one particular item but since I ended up appealing to an audience I never expected to appeal to, well, I became interested. ;) Especially since being associated with this particular market has a tendency to drive interest in ones book way down!!!
I suppose the one thing that struck me as very interesting is that the Christian Booksellers Association isn't THE Christian publishing industry as they insist and that CBA was set up in 1950 to ONLY appeal to publishers who wanted to provide targeted denominational fiction to Baptist Bookstore visitors. Let me stop to clarify here that I didn't make that last comment up. I read that word for word at cbaonline.org. I posted a link at one time to show how I'd not taken this comment out of context but shortly after I posted said link the wording had been "updated" to read quite a bit differently.
Just a Coincidence?
Perhaps but now the wording doesn't emphatically state the audience at the onset. It just sort of eludes to it. For this reason I no longer provide links to cbaonline.org. They still only serve a very targeted denominational audience and have no plans of abandoning that audience or growing past them for fear of losing them. The information they removed from their "about me" page or rather "reworded" was important. I'm sorry they found it necessary to remove it.
Bottom line is the Christian Booksellers Association was created in 1950 when affiliated bookstores were called Baptist Bookstores. A group of these Baptist Bookstores created CBA to provide targeted fiction. They charged publishers who wanted to write for this audience a fee and in turn for the money, placed affiliated publishers fiction in ALL of those Baptist bookstores that were affiliated. The work had to meet CBA's approval as well. Meaning it had to stick to rigid denominational standards. If I had to give the fiction a name I would call it, "preach to the choir," fiction.
At some point the name Baptist Bookstore was dropped and affiliated stores simply called themselves. "Christian" bookstores. Shortly after that in the seventies, a group of affiliated publishers pulled away and created the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association or ECPA. I often wondered if these were affiliated publishers who thought, "hey, you know, this is targeted fiction. I don't think using the broader label "Christian" to define our work is really all that prudent." Either way, ECPA makes no secret about who their target audience is which is a nice plus for them.
Here's how some distributors handle the confusion in the markets. Hatchette Books has two imprints for Christian fiction. Faithwords is one. Faithwords is an imprint that only handles work put out by CBA affiliated publishers. Work designed to appeal to that exclusive and targeted market of "evangelicals" and some Catholics? That's how it reads at CBA.org. Apparently there are "evangelical" Catholics or "Christian" Catholics. Does this means all Catholics don't fall under the broader label Christian. Hmmmm . . .
Center Street is Hatchette's other imprint. Center Street doesn't care if the publisher is affiliated with CBA. And the work doesn't have to be targeted for that market. BUT it's very interesting to watch all the "big" affiliated publishers slide into this imprint instead of staying with Faithwords. It would seem that their fiction no longer tows the evangelical line. Interestingly enough CBA affiliated publishers such as Thomas Nelson and Zondervan don't seem bothered that some of their bigger authors such as James Scott Bell and Ted Dekker are distributing through non-affiliated Center Street while they're still under contract with them.
Here's how Hatchette Book Group explains the two imprints on their site:
Does Hachette Book Group use a separate imprint for its Christian books?
Books that are specifically and exclusively written for Christian audiences are identified with the FaithWords imprint. However, many Christian authors today are writing for a broader audience and those books are published under the Center Street or Hachette Book Group imprints. The determination is based on the content and intended audience of the manuscript. In addition, Hachette Book Group has the Walk Worthy Press imprint for the Christian African American market.
Now I've not been in the business long but I have to say that I'm very disillusioned by the fact that active CBA affiliated publishers who've been excluding non-affiliated Christian authors from their bookstores since 1950 are allowed to publish under a non-affiliated imprint while still being affiliated. But that's just a personal pet peeve I have. To me it's truly a sad commentary on the publishing industry as a whole.
Having these two markets separated is great but not when one of those markets doesn't do enough to state who their target audience is and in fact states emphatically and at every turn that they don't have one.
But back to Hatchette books and the confusion of the markets there. Why wasn't self-published Christian author William P. Young, who is now with Hatchette Books, placed into one of the two Christian categories instead of given his own imprint named after his own publishing company? That has to be the most bizzare case of confusion I've seen to date.
And where is William P. Young's next book?
Just keep in mind that CBA is a trade organization and before they came around there was no such thing as a Christian market, only general market. Actually that's still the way it is. CBA serves a niche market of the general market. There are now many publishers who serve that "target" audience as well but aren't affiliated. Most of them don't use the label "Christian" fiction to define their work because of the stigma the label "Christian" fiction draws due to CBA not being more specific. They're using labels such as Edgy Christian Fiction, Family Fiction etc . . . and as of yet not one label to truly define their audience. But then no publisher really has to define their market do they. So go have fun figuring out what you want to read and what you don't want to read. ;)
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Writers Conferences for 2011!!!
A little something that every aspiring author is looking for a nice list of Writers Conferences for the year. And a grand list at that. Do check these out.
Found at Jodi Renner Editing!
Now go look!!!!
Found at Jodi Renner Editing!
Now go look!!!!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Richard the Vampire Makes the Big Time!
Yes, I just learned that along with Never Ceese being mentioned on the TV Tropes site, my vampire Richard is mentioned as well. The only disappointing part of it all is that due to readers of targeted "Christian" fiction labeling my work Christian at every turn those on the this site assume my stories are targeted Christian fiction as well. So very sad. But nevertheless, Richard is mentioned in the same breath with Anne Rices' Lestat and ummm . . . Bunicula!!! LOL
Here's the Link.
But if you don't want to dig to find it, here's the excerpt.
Richard, a vampire in Sue Dent's Christian werewolves-and-vampires novel Never Ceese needs blood to survive, but copes with it in a novel way — he tells a sob story to people on the Internet about his mother needing blood transfusions and gets donations to live on. He still occasionally craves blood from a living animal, but can cool his urges by draining blood from livestock. One of the biggest weaknesses of vampires focused on in the book is that vampirism is a "curse" that prevents a vampire from interacting with, speaking of, or even thinking of anything holy — not just crosses, but Bible verses, God himself, churches, etc. Richard, with help of a mentor, can fight against it enough that he can manage to quote John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world..."), but still has to go through quite a bit of pain to do it.
Awww, they know who I am. How sweet! But for the record this is not a Christian werewolf-vampire novel. The lable "Christian" anything in fiction points to a targeted market that I don't write for. It's general market horror with a underlying Christian theme. Please do not apply any success it has to those who claim the broader label "Christian" to identify their targeted work. They won't allow their authors to write about vampires or werewolves of lore and in fact turned my books down because I wrote about them. Gotta love it.
Here's the Link.
But if you don't want to dig to find it, here's the excerpt.
Richard, a vampire in Sue Dent's Christian werewolves-and-vampires novel Never Ceese needs blood to survive, but copes with it in a novel way — he tells a sob story to people on the Internet about his mother needing blood transfusions and gets donations to live on. He still occasionally craves blood from a living animal, but can cool his urges by draining blood from livestock. One of the biggest weaknesses of vampires focused on in the book is that vampirism is a "curse" that prevents a vampire from interacting with, speaking of, or even thinking of anything holy — not just crosses, but Bible verses, God himself, churches, etc. Richard, with help of a mentor, can fight against it enough that he can manage to quote John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world..."), but still has to go through quite a bit of pain to do it.
Awww, they know who I am. How sweet! But for the record this is not a Christian werewolf-vampire novel. The lable "Christian" anything in fiction points to a targeted market that I don't write for. It's general market horror with a underlying Christian theme. Please do not apply any success it has to those who claim the broader label "Christian" to identify their targeted work. They won't allow their authors to write about vampires or werewolves of lore and in fact turned my books down because I wrote about them. Gotta love it.
Forever Richard Out-Of-Print
Very happy to report that Forever Richard is officially out-of-print and the rights have been returned to me. So sad for my publisher who had to go another route to survive but LOVE them to death. While with them Forever Richard made the long list for a 2010 British Fantasy Award and the long-list for a Pluto Award. Fantastic.
Now the story is all mine once again. Good luck TWCP! I wish you well. Couldn't have done it without y'all!
Now the story is all mine once again. Good luck TWCP! I wish you well. Couldn't have done it without y'all!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
When Will Reign of Terror End
I was emailing another Christian book site that just went up, attempting to determine if this site would be any different than the other 50 million "Christian" book sites that are out there. The response I got in return was this: ". . .we're just working as hard as possible to get as much book and author content on the site as possible. To this end, we've started with CBA authors . . . "
Guess the answer to my question is "yes, it will be JUST like the other 50 million "Christian" book sites out there." Which means seeing more heavily targeted fiction advertised as appealing to all Christians and not just denominationally targeted readers. And to the exclusion of any publisher who doesn't write for that targeted, exclusive market. These sites don't even make an effort to find fiction that appeals to more than just the targeted, exclusive audience CBA and ECPA serve.
Why?
Because one actually has to read the book to find these. They're broken up into genre and are mixed in with all the other general market books. You know, like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien etc . . . Actually these sites could automatically list books that have been approved by Ingram/Spring Arbor for distribution to the Christian market but they don't even do that. Won't even try. They simply go straight for CBA and ECPA affiliation and list those books straight away and usually ONLY. Most are getting a little wiser and throwing in a few books from targeted publishers who aren't affiliated which is ridiculous when all they have to do as a start is to list the books Spring Arbor approves.
When will this reign of terror end indeed?
The above response I received was from Family Fiction when I queried them wondering why they went straight to affiliated publishers for their Christian books. *Sue shakes head disappointed.*
Guess the answer to my question is "yes, it will be JUST like the other 50 million "Christian" book sites out there." Which means seeing more heavily targeted fiction advertised as appealing to all Christians and not just denominationally targeted readers. And to the exclusion of any publisher who doesn't write for that targeted, exclusive market. These sites don't even make an effort to find fiction that appeals to more than just the targeted, exclusive audience CBA and ECPA serve.
Why?
Because one actually has to read the book to find these. They're broken up into genre and are mixed in with all the other general market books. You know, like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien etc . . . Actually these sites could automatically list books that have been approved by Ingram/Spring Arbor for distribution to the Christian market but they don't even do that. Won't even try. They simply go straight for CBA and ECPA affiliation and list those books straight away and usually ONLY. Most are getting a little wiser and throwing in a few books from targeted publishers who aren't affiliated which is ridiculous when all they have to do as a start is to list the books Spring Arbor approves.
When will this reign of terror end indeed?
The above response I received was from Family Fiction when I queried them wondering why they went straight to affiliated publishers for their Christian books. *Sue shakes head disappointed.*
I suppose I should feel honored?
Well it seems that when you become a grand author such as myself, meaning that if your name shows up on the internet more than a few times, before long you MIGHT be asked to give a book endorsement. I must say that I've had a few ask already but so far only from authors who are writing for the targeted market of Christians that CBA (a trade association who charge publishers a fee to belong and writes exclusive "Christian" fiction) serves.
WHY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do these authors NOT read my blogs? Do they NOT read anything about me. Why would I ever endorse a book written for a targeted market I've NO interest in reading?????? Do you think I'm going to suddenly LIKE the agenda based, restrictive and awkward writing styles?
No! I won't! EVER!!!!!! I don't write for that market and while I see nothing wrong with creating stories for targeted markets, I DO see very much wrong with NOT sharing who your target market is and claiming a broad label to identify your work with thus making things so very confusing.
EGADS!!!!!
Do your homework!!!! My stories often have the label Christian attached to them because my stories boast a theme that appeals to CBA readers. That certainly doesn't mean I write the kind of fiction those publishers put out.
Furthermore, if you knew anything about me you'd know not to ask for an endorsement if you're writing for that targeted market. So maybe you're new to all this and don't know this about me. Fair enough. But a little googling will set you straight right away.
Really! I promise you it will.
I am NOT the one to ask for endorsements if you write for an affiliated publisher or a publisher who targets that CBA or ECPA audience. I can assure you of this!
WHY?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do these authors NOT read my blogs? Do they NOT read anything about me. Why would I ever endorse a book written for a targeted market I've NO interest in reading?????? Do you think I'm going to suddenly LIKE the agenda based, restrictive and awkward writing styles?
No! I won't! EVER!!!!!! I don't write for that market and while I see nothing wrong with creating stories for targeted markets, I DO see very much wrong with NOT sharing who your target market is and claiming a broad label to identify your work with thus making things so very confusing.
EGADS!!!!!
Do your homework!!!! My stories often have the label Christian attached to them because my stories boast a theme that appeals to CBA readers. That certainly doesn't mean I write the kind of fiction those publishers put out.
Furthermore, if you knew anything about me you'd know not to ask for an endorsement if you're writing for that targeted market. So maybe you're new to all this and don't know this about me. Fair enough. But a little googling will set you straight right away.
Really! I promise you it will.
I am NOT the one to ask for endorsements if you write for an affiliated publisher or a publisher who targets that CBA or ECPA audience. I can assure you of this!
Reposted for Francy and Friends Blogtalk Radio Show
So here's Nicholas Grabowsky's short recap of HorrorFind 12including but not limited to an excerpt of an interview with Jake Busey *What? I didn't hear you!* Oh, the Bee Gee's. LOL
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Agents: What Rachael, The Author, Should Do Next
Now that my friend Rachael has found a printer for her book, had a compelling cover done and has assigned ONE of her ten ISBN's that she bought from Bowker, she's ready for the next step.
As it stands right now, she can sell her book and it is hers. Because she bought her ISBN's from Bowker, (the only place one can get ISBN's. Lulu, Create Space and anyone else gets their ISBN's from Bowker) her book will AUTOMATICALLY show up on Amazon on-line and at Barnes & Noble on-line available through the publisher she set herself up as. That's what having an ISBN does for you so don't think it's really all that impressive. It isn't. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can achieve this level of being published without an edit and with very little effort or money. A BIG difference from what it took to get PUBLISHED many moons ago.
Now Rachael needs distribution to be the type of published author she wants to become. This is where being self-published or traditionally published comes in and this is where Literary Agents come in.
Agents started popping up when larger publishing houses became inundated with MS's and didn't want to go through all of them. They closed their doors to submissions and told authors they only took submission from agents. Guess what? Each house only takes submission from certain agents and the larger publishing houses NEVER tell you who those agents are so now you get to search. And let me tell you, if you think looking for a needle in a haystack was fun, trying looking for an agent to submit your MS to your larger house of choice. IT AIN'T NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. But you can go that route if you want to. I made a couple of attempts myself just to say I did it. I even sent one off a couple of weeks ago. I decided when I got a lead on an agent that represented authors who wrote YA horror. I laid out to the agent what my stories had already done as far as awards etc . . . explained that I'd already been published, pointed them to places where they could see the impact of my stories . . . honestly, I just figured I wouldn't hear back but true to form I got a response. Here's what they said:
Dear Ms. Dent:
All in all not a bad response. In fact, it's a very typical response. This agent claims to represent YA authors though with a slant toward horror. They're not a good fit for my work? My type of material? Oh do tell what type of material that would be. LOL Now you see what I mean by finding that needle in a haystack. An agent isn't a publisher and you'll waste a lot of energy trying to find one and bottom line is they'll NEVER get you to a larger publisher. Most larger houses actually only get their authors from friends of other authors they already have etc . . . (Yes, that's just my opinion and of course anyone can challenge it but it is what it is.) I've enough responses from agents I've queried in my inbox to substantiate my opinion. Agents, like large publishers and the bookstores that support them, are a dying breed due to the way publishing has changed. An author doesn't need an agent anymore and that's all there is to that. And that's a very good thing since none of them will represent anyone anyway. Gee whiz, you'd think they'd want someone with a proven track record or any track record for that matter.
Put your energy somewhere else. I almost went to a writer's conference to speak with this agent. Can you imagine the money I would've put out just to hear the above response. And I won't bother submitting to the other agent they suggested either. Energy expansion complete on this small effort.
If you understand why Literary Agents came into being in the first place then you'll understand why you don't need one now. It's not a money waster because an author doesn't pay a legitimate agent to represent them, at least not up front. The agent will take part of the money the large publisher pays for your MS should the agent find a large publisher who is interested (which they most likely won't.)
So that's my take on agents and writer's conferences as well if you go there looking for an agent. Waste of energy and waste of money. Just send up an email query at least that rejection is free. ;D
As it stands right now, she can sell her book and it is hers. Because she bought her ISBN's from Bowker, (the only place one can get ISBN's. Lulu, Create Space and anyone else gets their ISBN's from Bowker) her book will AUTOMATICALLY show up on Amazon on-line and at Barnes & Noble on-line available through the publisher she set herself up as. That's what having an ISBN does for you so don't think it's really all that impressive. It isn't. Anyone, and I do mean anyone, can achieve this level of being published without an edit and with very little effort or money. A BIG difference from what it took to get PUBLISHED many moons ago.
Now Rachael needs distribution to be the type of published author she wants to become. This is where being self-published or traditionally published comes in and this is where Literary Agents come in.
Agents started popping up when larger publishing houses became inundated with MS's and didn't want to go through all of them. They closed their doors to submissions and told authors they only took submission from agents. Guess what? Each house only takes submission from certain agents and the larger publishing houses NEVER tell you who those agents are so now you get to search. And let me tell you, if you think looking for a needle in a haystack was fun, trying looking for an agent to submit your MS to your larger house of choice. IT AIN'T NEVER GONNA HAPPEN. But you can go that route if you want to. I made a couple of attempts myself just to say I did it. I even sent one off a couple of weeks ago. I decided when I got a lead on an agent that represented authors who wrote YA horror. I laid out to the agent what my stories had already done as far as awards etc . . . explained that I'd already been published, pointed them to places where they could see the impact of my stories . . . honestly, I just figured I wouldn't hear back but true to form I got a response. Here's what they said:
Dear Ms. Dent:
I'm not a good fit for your work. would suggest you try Lucienne Diver, at The Knight Agency. She has a good background in your type of material.
Cordially,
Barry Goldblatt Literary LLC
Put your energy somewhere else. I almost went to a writer's conference to speak with this agent. Can you imagine the money I would've put out just to hear the above response. And I won't bother submitting to the other agent they suggested either. Energy expansion complete on this small effort.
If you understand why Literary Agents came into being in the first place then you'll understand why you don't need one now. It's not a money waster because an author doesn't pay a legitimate agent to represent them, at least not up front. The agent will take part of the money the large publisher pays for your MS should the agent find a large publisher who is interested (which they most likely won't.)
So that's my take on agents and writer's conferences as well if you go there looking for an agent. Waste of energy and waste of money. Just send up an email query at least that rejection is free. ;D
Sunday, January 09, 2011
What Rachael, the author, should do next.
This is what I've decided to call my little series to help my friend Rachael. So get used to seeing this title. ;D Rachael has already, or is almost done, with the first step of becoming a successfully published author. She's considered what being a published author means to her and she's asked someone whose achieved the published status how they got where they are. She also sees that where I am, though not monetarily the nicest place to be, is in fact ahead of many others in the "game." Sadly, it is quite the game.
For the type of published author she wants to be she has made a very good first step as well. She's ignored those who said, "save money and join a writer's group to help critique your work and help you edit your work." Bravo Rachael because editing is a profession and very few will succeed at the level you want to be published without the kind of an edit a professional editor can give you. And be fore-warned that if you throw J. K. Rowling in my face, I will throw her right back in yours. Everyone is capable of winning the lottery and that's all I'll say about that.
The reason it's so important for a new author to get a professional edit is because it will drastically increase the chances of being picked up by a small press who can SOMETIMES offer you a better line of distribution than you can get yourself as a self-publisher. More on that later.
Also your work will "shine" superior over ALL the other self-published authors out there who either a) think they can scrimp and forego a professional edit and do just fine or b) think a small press will love their work as it is soooooo much that they'll edit it for them which is of course bullhockey but let them figure that out for themselves.
Larger houses are the only houses that have in-house editors and you won't be seeing them anytime soon if ever and that's even if you get the all-powerful-agent which is another big waste of time to pursue.
Egads! So what do you do. Okay. Here's your next step. It's professionally edited with a 2% error rate. Go out straight away and buyth up a block of ten ISBN's from the Bowker-god-of-publishing and assign one of them puppies to your book. I know another expense but well worth it. It's quite simple to get a block of ISBN's from Bowker. Go here and apply for an EIN number and create yourself a little publishing company. Mine is S D Enterprises. It's just that simple. Then go to Bowker.org I think it is (google it. It's simple to find) and get your block. Sure, LuLu and Create Space offer you a free ISBN should you choose to use their services but their ISBN will always tie YOUR book back with them as the publisher. NOT GOOD!!!! Buying your own block of ten is a small price to pay and the book is your forever more.
Once you've done that you can price shop around to see what printer offers you the best price on printing your book. I used Fidler Doubleday for my first book Never Ceese before I was picked up by a publisher (more on that later.) It was easy to submit the doc file and cover file which I designed myself. If you don't want to or don't know how to design your own cover they'll even do one for you but I'd suggest hiring someone to do you a cover and someone who is familiar with the submitting process. But honestly, it's not that difficult. And no, those who do book covers aren't hard to find.
Once you have a submittable book cover and your ISBN you can go to places like Lightning Source and check them out. Or even Create Space or Iuniverse B&N's POD (please no!!!! LOL) But yes, you're good to go. And you can even start submitting to small presses too with the absolute certainty that they can't take your work.
Next blog will be about the pros and cons of seeking a small press over just sticking with a POD and doing it all on your own.
For the type of published author she wants to be she has made a very good first step as well. She's ignored those who said, "save money and join a writer's group to help critique your work and help you edit your work." Bravo Rachael because editing is a profession and very few will succeed at the level you want to be published without the kind of an edit a professional editor can give you. And be fore-warned that if you throw J. K. Rowling in my face, I will throw her right back in yours. Everyone is capable of winning the lottery and that's all I'll say about that.
The reason it's so important for a new author to get a professional edit is because it will drastically increase the chances of being picked up by a small press who can SOMETIMES offer you a better line of distribution than you can get yourself as a self-publisher. More on that later.
Also your work will "shine" superior over ALL the other self-published authors out there who either a) think they can scrimp and forego a professional edit and do just fine or b) think a small press will love their work as it is soooooo much that they'll edit it for them which is of course bullhockey but let them figure that out for themselves.
Larger houses are the only houses that have in-house editors and you won't be seeing them anytime soon if ever and that's even if you get the all-powerful-agent which is another big waste of time to pursue.
Egads! So what do you do. Okay. Here's your next step. It's professionally edited with a 2% error rate. Go out straight away and buyth up a block of ten ISBN's from the Bowker-god-of-publishing and assign one of them puppies to your book. I know another expense but well worth it. It's quite simple to get a block of ISBN's from Bowker. Go here and apply for an EIN number and create yourself a little publishing company. Mine is S D Enterprises. It's just that simple. Then go to Bowker.org I think it is (google it. It's simple to find) and get your block. Sure, LuLu and Create Space offer you a free ISBN should you choose to use their services but their ISBN will always tie YOUR book back with them as the publisher. NOT GOOD!!!! Buying your own block of ten is a small price to pay and the book is your forever more.
Once you've done that you can price shop around to see what printer offers you the best price on printing your book. I used Fidler Doubleday for my first book Never Ceese before I was picked up by a publisher (more on that later.) It was easy to submit the doc file and cover file which I designed myself. If you don't want to or don't know how to design your own cover they'll even do one for you but I'd suggest hiring someone to do you a cover and someone who is familiar with the submitting process. But honestly, it's not that difficult. And no, those who do book covers aren't hard to find.
Once you have a submittable book cover and your ISBN you can go to places like Lightning Source and check them out. Or even Create Space or Iuniverse B&N's POD (please no!!!! LOL) But yes, you're good to go. And you can even start submitting to small presses too with the absolute certainty that they can't take your work.
Next blog will be about the pros and cons of seeking a small press over just sticking with a POD and doing it all on your own.
Author Sue Dent, HELP!
Well for some reason I can NOT figure out some do come to me to ask, "How do I get where you are in publishing?"
Why anyone would WANT to be where I am in publishing, flat broke with no hope of making any money at all off my writring (zero sells for the past hmmm, oh I stopped counting) except for the books I sell myself which are few and far between, is BEYOND ME! But hey, misery loves company and the more the merrier. If you choose my lifestyle I'd be more than happy to tell you how to get here. Oh, it will all come out good in the end. ;D
Okay so here's the premise for a series of blogs, (I know I just won't shut up) about the BEST way to proceed if what you want is to be like me. And who wouldn't want that!
Here's the skinny:
Sue,
Because I know this is a LOADED question, not to mention you dedicate so much of your blog to it . . . but any thoughts on how to go about actually choosing a "good" way to self publish, such as who to choose to print the work, etc.?
Since my work is definitely not "christian" fiction in any way, I won't need to worry about all of the CBA nonsense, thankfully. But I obviously still want to choose a venue that will allow me to have some (if any) say over where my books can be shelved, although I don't have a particular aversion to trying out the "traditional" publishing route, I want to have a solid self publishing path in mind since it's so damn hard to get published in the first place!
I'm trying to do all of my research now so that when the edit is finished, I have some direction as to where to head next. ;) So any thoughts are welcome.
So there you have it. There is a LOT on my blog already but sometimes it helps to follow an author along. And since this author has listened and followed the first step, seeking and finding an excellent PROFESSIONAL editor and understanding that this is the biggest investment an author should make and not PAYING for advertising, then I think it would only be nice of me to tell her where I went next etc . . .
So follow Rachel and I along on Rachel's publishing journey and you will see that I do indeed know what I'm talking about whether anybody wants to HEAR it or not. ;D
Why anyone would WANT to be where I am in publishing, flat broke with no hope of making any money at all off my writring (zero sells for the past hmmm, oh I stopped counting) except for the books I sell myself which are few and far between, is BEYOND ME! But hey, misery loves company and the more the merrier. If you choose my lifestyle I'd be more than happy to tell you how to get here. Oh, it will all come out good in the end. ;D
Okay so here's the premise for a series of blogs, (I know I just won't shut up) about the BEST way to proceed if what you want is to be like me. And who wouldn't want that!
Here's the skinny:
Sue,
Because I know this is a LOADED question, not to mention you dedicate so much of your blog to it . . . but any thoughts on how to go about actually choosing a "good" way to self publish, such as who to choose to print the work, etc.?
Since my work is definitely not "christian" fiction in any way, I won't need to worry about all of the CBA nonsense, thankfully. But I obviously still want to choose a venue that will allow me to have some (if any) say over where my books can be shelved, although I don't have a particular aversion to trying out the "traditional" publishing route, I want to have a solid self publishing path in mind since it's so damn hard to get published in the first place!
I'm trying to do all of my research now so that when the edit is finished, I have some direction as to where to head next. ;) So any thoughts are welcome.
So there you have it. There is a LOT on my blog already but sometimes it helps to follow an author along. And since this author has listened and followed the first step, seeking and finding an excellent PROFESSIONAL editor and understanding that this is the biggest investment an author should make and not PAYING for advertising, then I think it would only be nice of me to tell her where I went next etc . . .
So follow Rachel and I along on Rachel's publishing journey and you will see that I do indeed know what I'm talking about whether anybody wants to HEAR it or not. ;D
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Blog Tour Reviews!
****Note***
There are quite a few of these reviews out there so it will take me a while to chase them all down. So keep checking back. Also, along with the CFBA, Never Ceese toured several other blogs tailored for fiction with a Christian slant. One is an off-shoot of CFBA called CFRB. They split from CFBA because they didn't agree with judging Christian fiction against a specific affiliations targeted guidelines. Yet with anything that splits, the one who keeps the most members wins. CFRB was a much smaller tour. Then there is the FIRST Blog Tour that also split from CFBA because they didn't believe in charging publishers to tour, stating that this sort of negated the whole ministry feel of the blog tour. FIRST managed to take a LOT of CFBA members is is a much larger blog tour. Much more open to non-affiliated Christian work as well. Both Never Ceese and Forever Richard toured CFRB and FIRST with wonderful responses. I'll be adding some of those links as well.
Ironically, neither Never Ceese or Forever Richard toured CSFF which is the Science Fiction/Fantasy side of CFBA. They don't charge the $500 dollars that CFBA now charges but they'll take the few CBA member books that come reeeeeal close to looking like they appeal to general market Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Only sad thing is this tour is probably more bias than CFBA when it comes to the books it will take. Any book that doesn't come from a CBA member publisher gets the ax or undergoes such horrific scrutiny that an author will wonder why they even wrote the book. EGADS!!!
So anyway, YES! There will be more reviews added so keep checking back! ;D
**********
In December of 2006 Never Ceese toured the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance Tour (CFBA) BEFORE it became exclusive to CBA member published books. Meaning if the publisher of the book submitted wasn't a fee-paying CBA (trade association) member they couldn't tour unless the book was held up and proven against CBA restrictive standards. At the time I toured it was also free for the publisher except for the books one had to give out. The fee is now $500 dollars the last time I checked and one still has to undergo scrutiny and meet CBA trade association standards if the publisher isn't affiliated. For the record I was told via email that because of the success of Never Ceese, a lot of request weren't sent by small non-affiliated Christian publishers to tour. I was also told that Forever Richard would not be allowed to tour when it came out. And it wasn't.
But I did get a grand reception from the wonderful bloggers and tons of reviews that many of you probably would never see if I didn't point you to them and so I will start linking now.
This is the standard review each blogger had to post if they didn't want to review it themselves but just wanted to read the book for free:
takes religious fantasy to a new level, bringing an entirely new Light to a very dark side of fiction, doing a very admirable job to prove that vampire/werewolf fantasy does not have to be evil to be enjoyed.
Never Ceese
David Meig's review was one of my favorite's and make sure you read the comments too. I met a LOT of wonderful readers through this tour. It's sad small pubbed authors can no longer tour without meeting strict CBA standards (you know, the ones that don't exist according to Eric Grimm. Sorry Eric but you need to do your homework.) Okay, here's David's wonderful review. By the way, love you David!!! Hope you're doing well.
http://dameigs.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-ceese-by-sue-dent.html
Absolutely loved this one by fellow writer Kris St. James:
http://thebookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-ceese-by-sue-dent_7096.html
As well as this one by good friend Lauren Bombardier.
http://thebookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-cees-by-sue-dent.html
Kevin Lucia did quite a few reviews and an interview or two:
http://thebookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-ceese-by-sue-dent.html
Okay I'm going to cheat a little. This is from another Christian Blog Tour done Friday the 13th 2008 but I'm sliding it in here none the less because this blogger is also a blogger at CFBA:
http://deenasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/01/never-ceese-by-sue-dent.html
A review by Melissa Meeks:
http://bibliophilesretreat.com/2008/04/08/never-ceese-by-sue-dent-my-review/
Sean Slagle's review for CFBA:
Never Ceese by Sue Dent
There are quite a few of these reviews out there so it will take me a while to chase them all down. So keep checking back. Also, along with the CFBA, Never Ceese toured several other blogs tailored for fiction with a Christian slant. One is an off-shoot of CFBA called CFRB. They split from CFBA because they didn't agree with judging Christian fiction against a specific affiliations targeted guidelines. Yet with anything that splits, the one who keeps the most members wins. CFRB was a much smaller tour. Then there is the FIRST Blog Tour that also split from CFBA because they didn't believe in charging publishers to tour, stating that this sort of negated the whole ministry feel of the blog tour. FIRST managed to take a LOT of CFBA members is is a much larger blog tour. Much more open to non-affiliated Christian work as well. Both Never Ceese and Forever Richard toured CFRB and FIRST with wonderful responses. I'll be adding some of those links as well.
Ironically, neither Never Ceese or Forever Richard toured CSFF which is the Science Fiction/Fantasy side of CFBA. They don't charge the $500 dollars that CFBA now charges but they'll take the few CBA member books that come reeeeeal close to looking like they appeal to general market Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Only sad thing is this tour is probably more bias than CFBA when it comes to the books it will take. Any book that doesn't come from a CBA member publisher gets the ax or undergoes such horrific scrutiny that an author will wonder why they even wrote the book. EGADS!!!
So anyway, YES! There will be more reviews added so keep checking back! ;D
**********
In December of 2006 Never Ceese toured the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance Tour (CFBA) BEFORE it became exclusive to CBA member published books. Meaning if the publisher of the book submitted wasn't a fee-paying CBA (trade association) member they couldn't tour unless the book was held up and proven against CBA restrictive standards. At the time I toured it was also free for the publisher except for the books one had to give out. The fee is now $500 dollars the last time I checked and one still has to undergo scrutiny and meet CBA trade association standards if the publisher isn't affiliated. For the record I was told via email that because of the success of Never Ceese, a lot of request weren't sent by small non-affiliated Christian publishers to tour. I was also told that Forever Richard would not be allowed to tour when it came out. And it wasn't.
But I did get a grand reception from the wonderful bloggers and tons of reviews that many of you probably would never see if I didn't point you to them and so I will start linking now.
This is the standard review each blogger had to post if they didn't want to review it themselves but just wanted to read the book for free:
takes religious fantasy to a new level, bringing an entirely new Light to a very dark side of fiction, doing a very admirable job to prove that vampire/werewolf fantasy does not have to be evil to be enjoyed.
Never Ceese
The story starts with the classic tale of an English manor owned by Richard, the vampire who righteously is the bain of his neighbor's existence, what with the missing goats and all!
Then enters Cecelia, better known as Ceese, the young werewolf maiden who's arrived via invitation by Richard's aging companion, Penelope.Ceese and Richard would prefer to tear each other apart, literally, but they are drawn together by their mutual love for Penelope. She is dying and has one request...that the two of them love one another.
This is the overall theme throughout Dent's interesting tale of two who were wronged but learn to work together. Meanwhile they are threatened by an evil stem cell researcher who wants the immortality and power that he thinks their blood will bring him!Dent's characters do differ from the stock one's we're all accustomed to in a very important way. They are not mindless, brutal killers. Bloodthirsty, yes, but they are constantly resisting the urge to kill, and, thus, curse another human. Feeding on rodents, goats, virtually any warm-blooded animal helps to satiate the never ending thirst for blood, but how long will they be able to resist that most delicious morsel man?
There is a chance that their curses can actually be lifted if they can find the strength within to resist their selfish natures and act selflessly toward another. Will they succeed? That same basic choice lies before us all every day...A vampire and a werewolf, one determined to, once again, be able to acknowledge what will get her to heaven, the other no so sure he can. A spiritual fantasy designed to spark the imagination, to speak to the heart as well as entertain.
And now for some links to some of those classic reviews:David Meig's review was one of my favorite's and make sure you read the comments too. I met a LOT of wonderful readers through this tour. It's sad small pubbed authors can no longer tour without meeting strict CBA standards (you know, the ones that don't exist according to Eric Grimm. Sorry Eric but you need to do your homework.) Okay, here's David's wonderful review. By the way, love you David!!! Hope you're doing well.
http://dameigs.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-ceese-by-sue-dent.html
Absolutely loved this one by fellow writer Kris St. James:
http://thebookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-ceese-by-sue-dent_7096.html
As well as this one by good friend Lauren Bombardier.
http://thebookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-cees-by-sue-dent.html
Kevin Lucia did quite a few reviews and an interview or two:
http://thebookshelfreviews.blogspot.com/2006/12/never-ceese-by-sue-dent.html
Okay I'm going to cheat a little. This is from another Christian Blog Tour done Friday the 13th 2008 but I'm sliding it in here none the less because this blogger is also a blogger at CFBA:
http://deenasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/01/never-ceese-by-sue-dent.html
A review by Melissa Meeks:
http://bibliophilesretreat.com/2008/04/08/never-ceese-by-sue-dent-my-review/
Sean Slagle's review for CFBA:
Never Ceese by Sue Dent
Never Ceese is a wonderful story about a cursed vampire and werewolf. The werewolf is determined to once again acknowledge what will get her to heaven. The vampire is not so sure he can. The central characters of the story are intriguing and the story line pulled me in from the beginning. Even late at night, when I was ready for bed, I had a hard time putting in down. I love stories that pull me into their world and suspend time and reality while I walk with the characters. Sue Dent is an excellent writer that creates a world that is terrifying and believable at the same time.
The werewolf has always been symbolic. In this case, it’s the fallen state of humanity and how we are all born under a curse. We have to find our way out of the curse and into the loving arms of Christ. That’s why this story works so well on more than one level. I’m glad someone has come along to show that even a dark story with typically evil characters can be Christ centered.
The sequel to Never Ceese is called Forever Richard. It will be coming out soon and continues the story of the vampire as he seeks redemption. Can a person who has cursed so many others still make it to heaven? I know he can, but will Richard find his way?
A Book That One Must Never Ceese To Read.
Here's a five-star review for Never Ceese I found on Buzzillion.com posted on September 25th, 2010. Thank-you Bookworm from Maine!
Books ordered!
So I ordered a box of books of Never Ceese from Black Bed Sheet Books and am ready to sell! The books should be here in about a week or two so get your order in now. I would be more than happy to come to your area to sign books but can only do so if I don't lose money (because how fair is that?) That means you can have an Independent bookstore get in touch with me or give me information about an Independent bookstore in your area so I can see how they work with small pubbed authors. Libraries are nice too. Some of those allow signings and who doesn't like to support libraries.
Do keep in mind that all chain-bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders or whoever can order Never Ceese, the newest Black Bed Sheet Edition but they won't order POD published books or rather small press books unless someone is buying them. And as an added rub, they won't let small publishers sell on commission either. It's always lovely when a bookstore operates under the guise that they're out to support all publishers yet they keep over 75% of the publishers off their shelves because they were never set up to make money off of them. And chain bookstores wonder why they're all going under. Their wonderful distributors Ingam *cough, cough* and Baker & Taylor *cough, cough* aren't any more accommodating either asking small publishers to play the large publishers game as if they can. Ah, but that's okay they're just doing their job, right?
Sooooo, don't look for my books in chain bookstores and don't look for them on best-sellers list because as you should know all the official best-sellers list are determined by how many books chain bookstores (and actually Indy bookstores too) buy from the large publishers. It isn't based on how many sell to customers. That's why you rarely see small press authors on these lists. Chain bookstores don't order these books in mass. They ignore small pub authors.
But yes, let's get us a tour going, shall we. Let me know and we'll see what happens.
Love y'all!
Oops! Almost forget. "Christian" bookstores are out of the question too because though both of my books have been approved by Spring Arbor for distribution to the Christian market, 99.9% of all Christian bookstores are actually "Christian" or rather CBA member bookstores and they don't allow any book in unless it's published by a fee-paying member publisher. That's so they can be assured the content is censored so that it only appeals to their core market readers. There are few Christian bookstores that aren't member bookstores. But that's because all general market bookstores carry and have carried Christian books forever and there was no need. It's actually still that way. So no, I can't get into a Mardel's or a Lifeway or any other member bookstore despite many of my readers looking for my books there and in spite of going through the trouble of having them approved. Sorry. I tried. It ain't happening. Ironically, I had the edition of Never Ceese that I published through S D Enterprises "unapproved" after I learned it actually served no real purpose to be "approved" and it's still showing up for sell on some sites that can't sell books unless they are approved which basically means Ingram/Spring Arbor doesn't operate the way they state they do which is no real surprise. Never Ceese should not show up as available to any Christian bookstore. I had it pulled months ago.
Do keep in mind that all chain-bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders or whoever can order Never Ceese, the newest Black Bed Sheet Edition but they won't order POD published books or rather small press books unless someone is buying them. And as an added rub, they won't let small publishers sell on commission either. It's always lovely when a bookstore operates under the guise that they're out to support all publishers yet they keep over 75% of the publishers off their shelves because they were never set up to make money off of them. And chain bookstores wonder why they're all going under. Their wonderful distributors Ingam *cough, cough* and Baker & Taylor *cough, cough* aren't any more accommodating either asking small publishers to play the large publishers game as if they can. Ah, but that's okay they're just doing their job, right?
Sooooo, don't look for my books in chain bookstores and don't look for them on best-sellers list because as you should know all the official best-sellers list are determined by how many books chain bookstores (and actually Indy bookstores too) buy from the large publishers. It isn't based on how many sell to customers. That's why you rarely see small press authors on these lists. Chain bookstores don't order these books in mass. They ignore small pub authors.
But yes, let's get us a tour going, shall we. Let me know and we'll see what happens.
Love y'all!
Oops! Almost forget. "Christian" bookstores are out of the question too because though both of my books have been approved by Spring Arbor for distribution to the Christian market, 99.9% of all Christian bookstores are actually "Christian" or rather CBA member bookstores and they don't allow any book in unless it's published by a fee-paying member publisher. That's so they can be assured the content is censored so that it only appeals to their core market readers. There are few Christian bookstores that aren't member bookstores. But that's because all general market bookstores carry and have carried Christian books forever and there was no need. It's actually still that way. So no, I can't get into a Mardel's or a Lifeway or any other member bookstore despite many of my readers looking for my books there and in spite of going through the trouble of having them approved. Sorry. I tried. It ain't happening. Ironically, I had the edition of Never Ceese that I published through S D Enterprises "unapproved" after I learned it actually served no real purpose to be "approved" and it's still showing up for sell on some sites that can't sell books unless they are approved which basically means Ingram/Spring Arbor doesn't operate the way they state they do which is no real surprise. Never Ceese should not show up as available to any Christian bookstore. I had it pulled months ago.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Distribution through Baker & Taylor.
Distribution is the key if you want bookstores to order your books to have on hand to do booksignings or to simply put them on the shelf but the kind of distribution required only works for large publishers as they were they only kind of publishers around for a VERY, VERY, LONG time.
Here's an example of how ridiculous it all is. My first publisher got set up with distribution through Baker & Taylor. My new publisher has republished the same book, EXACTLY the same book through Lightning Source, a POD publisher. When I called Barnes & Noble to verify that Baker & Taylor was the distributor, they said yes and could therefore order the book for me to have at a book signing should I want to do one. When I told her to check on Never Ceese, ISBN 9780976994749 from Black Bed Sheet Books the B&N rep IMMEDIATELY said, "oh, that's through Lighting Source. That's a POD. We won't order those for a signing." That's interesting because it basically the same book!
Now back to Baker & Taylor. Hey, if I qualify as a publisher why don't I see how much they charge for distribution. Got the pdf yesterday. IF I qualify, it's $125.00 one time fee. Wow! Really. Oh, wait! They get to choose the package. There are two other packages one is a $350 one time fee and the other a $450 one time fee. The difference in price is they provide you with a little advertising. The catch as I see it, I'll bet NO ONE qualifies for the $125 package.
But lets say they do. Seems a small price to pay to be able to go into a chain bookstore and say, "hey order my book," and they do it. Okay. Here's what the publisher as to swear in blood that they'll do. Offer book sellers 55% off retail. Check. Pay inbound freight to Baker & Taylor. Check. Make books returnable . . . . make books returnable . . . hmmm . . . okay I asked about this. You do have to make books returnable BUT you don't have to pay for the books to be returned from the store (according to the person I talked to) UNLESS the book is damaged. Yep. I asked what constitutes damage and it was VERY elusive. Anything from a bent page to a scratched cover. Okay so if the book comes back "damaged" you have to pay the postage to have it returned. Okay still not a bad deal if Baker & Taylor are honest (sure they are.)
So unlike with POD publishers you will get a book back, maybe damaged, maybe not. POD publishers never return the book the bookstores return and never tell you for sure what happens to them. Well, most say they destroy them but since they themselves never get the books back because they don't want to pay postage, I'm sure this probably never happens. Most likely the "destroyed" books are resold to second hand sellers. And yes, that's my opinion.
So aside from losing money on postage and possibly paying money for "damaged" books to be returned there's the 90 payment deal MEANING that if a bookstore purchases your books then returns them before they have to pay for them, which they can do and doo-doo all day long, you'll be out the money until they pay in 90 days.
So all in all, distribution through Baker & Taylor sucks for a small publisher. And you don't even get to pick the package if you qualify. Baker & Taylor chooses for you. That's what they told me. Yeah, right? Like they know what's best for me or any small publisher. Good grief!
Here's an example of how ridiculous it all is. My first publisher got set up with distribution through Baker & Taylor. My new publisher has republished the same book, EXACTLY the same book through Lightning Source, a POD publisher. When I called Barnes & Noble to verify that Baker & Taylor was the distributor, they said yes and could therefore order the book for me to have at a book signing should I want to do one. When I told her to check on Never Ceese, ISBN 9780976994749 from Black Bed Sheet Books the B&N rep IMMEDIATELY said, "oh, that's through Lighting Source. That's a POD. We won't order those for a signing." That's interesting because it basically the same book!
Now back to Baker & Taylor. Hey, if I qualify as a publisher why don't I see how much they charge for distribution. Got the pdf yesterday. IF I qualify, it's $125.00 one time fee. Wow! Really. Oh, wait! They get to choose the package. There are two other packages one is a $350 one time fee and the other a $450 one time fee. The difference in price is they provide you with a little advertising. The catch as I see it, I'll bet NO ONE qualifies for the $125 package.
But lets say they do. Seems a small price to pay to be able to go into a chain bookstore and say, "hey order my book," and they do it. Okay. Here's what the publisher as to swear in blood that they'll do. Offer book sellers 55% off retail. Check. Pay inbound freight to Baker & Taylor. Check. Make books returnable . . . . make books returnable . . . hmmm . . . okay I asked about this. You do have to make books returnable BUT you don't have to pay for the books to be returned from the store (according to the person I talked to) UNLESS the book is damaged. Yep. I asked what constitutes damage and it was VERY elusive. Anything from a bent page to a scratched cover. Okay so if the book comes back "damaged" you have to pay the postage to have it returned. Okay still not a bad deal if Baker & Taylor are honest (sure they are.)
So unlike with POD publishers you will get a book back, maybe damaged, maybe not. POD publishers never return the book the bookstores return and never tell you for sure what happens to them. Well, most say they destroy them but since they themselves never get the books back because they don't want to pay postage, I'm sure this probably never happens. Most likely the "destroyed" books are resold to second hand sellers. And yes, that's my opinion.
So aside from losing money on postage and possibly paying money for "damaged" books to be returned there's the 90 payment deal MEANING that if a bookstore purchases your books then returns them before they have to pay for them, which they can do and doo-doo all day long, you'll be out the money until they pay in 90 days.
So all in all, distribution through Baker & Taylor sucks for a small publisher. And you don't even get to pick the package if you qualify. Baker & Taylor chooses for you. That's what they told me. Yeah, right? Like they know what's best for me or any small publisher. Good grief!
Gothic.net Interview with Sue Dent
Got a request today to respond to some interview questions sent from www.gothic.net! They've been answered and sent back! Do make sure and check that site to see when the interview goes live. Of course I'll let you know when I know. ;D
So yes, the site is www.gothic.net!!
So yes, the site is www.gothic.net!!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Barnes & Noble Corporate called back.
Yes, you guessed it they had nothing to share except their usual "we could care less attitude" for anyone not published by a large house. Notable exchanges.
Sue - "So do you have a list of the B&N's that actually let authors bring their books in to sell on consignment since most won't order books for a booksigning if the book is POD?"
Snappish response: "No B&N store does this."
Sue - "Well some certainly do. I've done several signings like this."
Snappish response (maybe they just had sinus problems) : "Well Corporate doesn't want them to."
Sue - "Obviously because a POD published book is a clear indication of a small press book and no chain-bookstore was set up to help small press authors. I just thought having a list of the stores that do--"
Snappish response: "There is no such list. I don't know of any B&N store that does this. They're going against policy if they do this."
Sue - "Well that could explain why my local B&N who DID do this never paid me. Corporate never came through with the money. Thanks for stealing from me." ;D
Please small pubbed authors, do not humor folks who spit in your face and could care less about whether you live or die. Chain bookstores were never set up for small press publishers and they could care less. One nice employee who smiles and says otherwise isn't going to change that. B&N Corporate sat there and told me to my face that my book was through Lightning Source and they were POD and so of course they wouldn't order any for me to do a signing.
"And my books are non-returnable" I say proudly to Miss. Snobbyhead. "Because it's one thing for you to shoot me. It's another for you to hand me the gun and tell me to shoot myself."
Sue - "So do you have a list of the B&N's that actually let authors bring their books in to sell on consignment since most won't order books for a booksigning if the book is POD?"
Snappish response: "No B&N store does this."
Sue - "Well some certainly do. I've done several signings like this."
Snappish response (maybe they just had sinus problems) : "Well Corporate doesn't want them to."
Sue - "Obviously because a POD published book is a clear indication of a small press book and no chain-bookstore was set up to help small press authors. I just thought having a list of the stores that do--"
Snappish response: "There is no such list. I don't know of any B&N store that does this. They're going against policy if they do this."
Sue - "Well that could explain why my local B&N who DID do this never paid me. Corporate never came through with the money. Thanks for stealing from me." ;D
Please small pubbed authors, do not humor folks who spit in your face and could care less about whether you live or die. Chain bookstores were never set up for small press publishers and they could care less. One nice employee who smiles and says otherwise isn't going to change that. B&N Corporate sat there and told me to my face that my book was through Lightning Source and they were POD and so of course they wouldn't order any for me to do a signing.
"And my books are non-returnable" I say proudly to Miss. Snobbyhead. "Because it's one thing for you to shoot me. It's another for you to hand me the gun and tell me to shoot myself."
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