publishing

Don’t miss this one

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Andrew Wheeler went through Publishers Weekly’s list of best-selling books from 2009 and took out everything that wasn’t sf/f. The list of most popular sf/f books is here.

I don’t have a lot to say about the content of the books. You have to go pretty far down the list before you find science fiction. Fantasy and Horror dominate.

Another thing I notice at first glance is that there aren’t that many writers listed once on the list. Most of the slots are books from authors with at least one (usually more) other slot on the list. In Donald Maas’s The Career Novelist (there’s a free pdf of the book at the end of that link, btw) the agent took a look at which of his writers were earning six figures every year, and what they had in common.

He said the authors earning those big bucks weren’t getting it in advances. Most of it was coming from backlist sales, and they had to write about ten books before they reached that point. Interesting stuff.

And no, my book is not on the list. Yeah, I checked.

What happened to the day?

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Having gotten in way past bedtime last night (I didn’t get to sleep until almost 1 am) I naturally overslept this morning. By an hour and a half.

Now I keep finding myself looking down at the clock on my computer and thinking “break time already?” “How can it be lunch when I haven’t been uncomfortably hungry for the last 20 minutes?” In fact, I clock out in half an hour. Huh!

More Jim Butcher news. You know he cut off his long hair, right? It’s a big improvement, but I couldn’t find any pictures on flickr. Yet.

Now that his Codex Alera series is done, he’s planning to start a new project with a co-author–set in a world where the plucky band of heroes quested to overthrow a Dark Lord and failed.

Apparently, he pretty much planned out all 20 Dresden Files books when he wrote the first one. I can’t imagine doing that, or even wanting to do that.

Okay, back to me. I spent part of this morning going over the first chapter of Man Bites World for Betsy. Yeah, Game of Cages is going to have another teaser chapter in the back, and wow, I will never get over the fact that, no matter how vigorously I revise, I always miss the most bone-headed errors you can imagine. Jeez, but being edited is a humbling experience.

And now it’s snowing outside. WTH, day?

Bookstore appearance reminder

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This is just a reminder that I’ll be appearing at the Tukwila Barnes and Noble. 1:00 on Saturday, April 10th with authors Mark Henry (Battle of the Network Zombies), Gayle Ann Williams (Tsunami Blue), and Jessa Slade (Seducing the Shadows). We’ll be hanging out, chatting, and generally being an extrovert. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hello.

Randomness for 4/7

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1) The NYTimes (attempts to) compare the environmental impact of paper and electronic books.

2) Scrabble to allow proper nouns. Is this worse than the Designated Hitter rule? Save us Will Shorts!

3) How to write a stupid book review. “Once upon a time in a world far, far away, publishing was run by editors.” Also, it’s amazing how many people heap shit on urban fantasy because it’s perceived to be about women. I say this as an author who is uncomfortable when people praise my work as if it’s an antidote to UF about women and their sex lives.

4) Beautiful photos of the circus, circa 1910.

5) Picturesque old postcards with added alien invasion.

6) Spawn, GI Joe, Optimus Prime, and other figures done in Lego.

7) Forty-five My Little Pony mods.

Well, my day is already blown

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I overslept by two hours this morning, and those early morning hours are pretty much solid writing time. That makes me mutter curses and plan to abandon my kid to the Wii later today, but we’ll see.

So instead of posting something original, I’m going to cut and paste an email I sent to a friend. He asked (generally) for links to websites that would help an aspiring novelist FOAF. This is what I sent:

I’m only going to give four suggestions:

First, he should buy a copy of CHILD OF FIRE and study it closely. In fact, he should buy two in case the first copy disintegrates after multiple rereadings. And a third, to give away, I guess.

Second, he should read Slushkiller, along with *all* the comments:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html

It starts out as a discussion of rejections, and how professionals judge submitted work, but the conversation ranges over many topics (and even features a typically batty appearance by former WP-er Frank/Franchesca to defend self-publishing).

It’s long, though. Longer than many novels. He should stick with it and read the whole thing.

Third, check out the Learn Writing With Uncle Jim thread on Absolute Write:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710

The first volume of that thread is 251 pages long, with 25 comments on each page. It’s so long, though, that it was sealed off and a second volume started in the same novel forum. Again, it’s long, but it’s full of useful information.

It’s also been running for seven years. A little of the information is outdated, but it’s corrected in later parts of the conversation.

Fourth and finally, he should be reading agents’ and editors’ blogs. Start here:

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/

And look at the sidebar. First of all, her numerous posts about the way publishing works are fabulous and full of detail. Second, her list of other agent blogs is terrific. The budding novelist should go through those blog rolls and find a few informative blogs to add to his RSS feed. It’ll be trial and error, but it’s important. While he’s working on his craft, he should also be studying the industry.

And that’s a lot of reading, no kidding. That’s a double shitload. But it’ll be fun to read, because writers should be interested in the industry, and doing interesting things is awesome.

And now, and anti-rec: Here’s a list of people the budding writer should not waste their time on:

Anyone who says that NY publishers are closed to new writers.
Anyone who says that editors only want to publish their friends.
Anyone who says that they can’t get published because of their politics.
Anyone who says that you have to write short fiction to break in to novels.
Anyone who says that writers shouldn’t bother with small presses.
Anyone who says that most of what’s published today is crap.
Anyone who says that the big publishers are “dinosaurs”.

Good luck.

Frankly, I think those few links provide a buttload of reading, but if anyone wants to post a link or two of their own, I’ll drop him a note–since I don’t think he reads my blog (melodramatic sigh)–to check out the blog and LiveJournal comments for his FOAF.

Have a productive day.

Bookstore appearance

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I’ll be appearing at the Tukwila Barnes and Noble. 1:00 on Saturday, April 10th with Mark Henry (Battle of the Network Zombies), Gayle Ann Williams (Tsunami Blue), and Jessa Slade (Seducing the Shadows). There isn’t going to be a reading, but I’ll be signing books and we’ll be giving a talk.

I think. I’m not sure exactly how it will all shape up, but I know I’ll be out talking to readers. If you’re in the area, drop by and say hello.

Yesterday was supposed to be a day off.

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I was supposed to take all of your advice and spend the day hanging out with my son, playing the new used Wii games I bought (verdict: De Blob=awesome. The Incredible Hulk=WTF were they thinking?) and general relaxing fun.

Instead I received my second round of notes from my agent on Man Bites World and spent about an hour and 15 reviewing the galleys for the last corrections to Game of Cages.

As I mentioned in my picture post yesterday, All the notes (there are only eight) are tweaks to bring out the stakes, fix pacing, or establish context. No prob. The plot and characters are solid (afaict). There’s still one important scene that isn’t quite pulling its weight, but it’s meant to be an oddball. If I can finesse it, I will. Otherwise I’ll just do what my agent suggests and shorten it.

And the Game of Cages galleys just needed straightforward correcting. After the copyedits are entered, a pair of proofreaders will read it, and I’ll have additional fixes to go over. I should have taken some notes about some of the errors they caught; I could have done another self-Thogging post. (For instance, trucks do not “skid on their brakes” omg no, not unless the brakes drop out of the bottom of the vehicle and get wedged beneath the tires.)

Anyway, my agent takes a little vacay starting tomorrow. I have a week to finish the revisions and prep the pages for Key/Egg/Remark. I suspect K/E/R has stalled out because I went off the rails. I’ll need to come up with a way to skim over the unpleasant scenes I’ve been trying to write to get to the fun stuff.

In unrelated news, my wife brought home her CPAP machine last night. I fully expect her to say it was too uncomfortable to sleep in, but I hold out hope that she had a good night.

Off to start the day.

Two things for today

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First, if you run an independent book store, please, take five minutes every week to look over the new movie releases coming in, say, a month from now, and find out if it was adapted from a book. A new movie release is fantastic publicity for the book version, and you wouldn’t have to do more than stock a few by the counter to make a few impulse buys.

Second, I’m about to log off and work on Key/Egg/Remark. This being spring break for schoolkids, I find myself in the strange position of not having my homeschooled child in the apartment. His best bud from across the alley is off school this week and attending a week-long day camp–therefore, my son wants to be there with him. It’s like a week-long day play date!

So dinner is simmering in the oven, coffee is ready to brew, and I’m going to try for another 1500 words on the WIP. If I make 2000, maybe I’ll play a Wii game or something as a reward.

Have a great day, everyone.

Randomness for 3/27

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1) The fully compiled results of Jim Hines’s First Novel Survey.

2) Marriage vs. PhD. via @ccfinlay.

3) I’m sure this guy can get a divorce at the same court appearance when his wife gets her conviction.

4) President Obama’s Facebook page, HCR edition. “I smell Democrat.”

5) Literary troll is trollish.

6) What can surprise Werner Herzog? “It’s not a serious wound.”

7) The future of text?. They’d like you to think so.

5 Things Make A Friday Post

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1) I finished up chapter one of Key/Egg/Remark this morning. Actually, I was slightly late to day job because of it. But doesn’t it feel good to start a new project? Hell yes. I’ve been writing Ray Lilly stories for years (and I hope to write more of them–buy my book) but it’s such a relief to go into another voice, another setting, another tone.

2) And yeah, as the previous point demonstrates, I have a working title for the next project. The plan is for it to be lighter in tone, much less violent, much more conversational, and slightly closer to the urban fantasy mainstream (although tweaked in the ways I like to tweak things–most of the characters, and especially the villains, will be human beings). I hope the working title does what it’s supposed to do, which is keep the tone light and the story clever; it’s too easy for me to go dark.

3) A few weeks ago, someone pointed out that Kindle owners were putting one-star reviews on books that didn’t have a Kindle edition, or that were priced above ten bucks. The reviewers even said, in the review, that they hadn’t read the book and weren’t going to until the price and format were to their liking. I clicked the “report this” button and within a few days the review was gone.

Well, Amazon.com has stopped taking those reviews down. I guess it’s because they think those angry Kindlegarteners are doing something useful for them. They could, if they wanted to, limit reviews to people who have bought the book from them. They could, if they wanted to, post a request in the forums asking people to stop, and to use the link under “Tell the Publisher!” But they won’t.

Because they’re dicks.

4) Back to items one and two: Key/Egg/Remark is totally on spec right now. I haven’t even run the idea by my agent yet. In truth, I suspect it has some… let’s call them “non commericial elements”

Am I a fucking moron? You bet! But it’s what I want to do. And rather than talk about the idea with my agent, I’d like to try to win her over with the story.

God, I’m an idiot. I should just write a steampunk YA about a teenage inventor and track star who teams up with his roboticized girlfriend to steal a military dirigible and raids an arctic lab to recover her human body. And the villain would have an implanted monocle-like eye piece and a hyper-intelligent talking cat who switches sides at the last minute.

5) I forgot to mail my taxes today. Duh. I’ll do it tomorrow.