litopiawriterscolony-blog

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traditional publishing and money

In my quest to determine how I plan on publishing one of the stories I’m slogging through, I’ve been doing research on which medium is the best to publish the work of a half-serious writer. The options:

Self-Publishing, in print and or e-book

Traditional publishing. in print and sometimes e-book

The research makes my head hurt but hopefully I can break it down so it’s slightly easier to understand. I’ll be covering how writers earn their money through traditional publishing in print and e-book form. Later I will be covering how writers earn money from self-publishing in print and e-book form. If I talked about both this post would be more than just a monster.

Read More

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“The Art of Fiction No. 60,” The Paris Review No. 64

Wodehouse himself had not found it necessary to carry money in twenty years, and though he had spent most of his adult life in America, he still reckoned such things as book prices in pounds and shillings. His accent, like his arithmetic, remained pure English. Aside from his writing, his two passions were the New York Mets and a soap opera called The Edge of Night.

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Twilight's topped the list, with 669 one-star reviews. And we all know how badly that book and series has done!

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Dealing with rejection

No one likes rejection.

It’s even worse when it’s something you’ve spent lots of time on, writing and re-writing until you think you’ve got it just right. Then the publisher, agent, editor, or competition judges say ‘no thanks’. What do you do?

First of all, it’s perfectly okay to be upset. Take some time to work through your feelings (and have a cup of tea, it works wonders) and they will diminish over time. Don’t take too long, though!

Once the initial hurt has passed, remember this: the rejection is not personal. They aren’t saying that you’renot good enough, but that particular piece of writing isn’t right for them. As Litopian Ruth2 says, “It’s just a business, after all.”

There are a few things you can do to move forward — read more at Litopia.

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Hey all! Here is a bit of information I’ve assembled to help you build a writing platform - or, if you’re so inclined, a mini-platform. I think most of us will be in a sort of mid-category. Hope this helps.

So You Want to Be Published …

No matter what anyone says, it is not enough to...

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Can we all agree to stop using the twin stand-in as a plotline now? On behalf of the 1.1 million lawyers who might read your book or watch your show, I thank you.

Donna Ballman, How the Old Twin Stand-In Stunt Plays Out In Real Life, The Write Report (via Litopia)

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The Agony of the Male Novelist

Teddy Wayne, The agony of the male novelist

By a wide margin, women also belong more frequently to book clubs — and these clubs skew toward female writers writing about female experiences. 

...

The publishing industry has noticed this trend in reading habits, and knows that word of mouth can spread much more easily through a dozen gregarious club members than through a solitary, likely introverted reader. And so the mainstream publishing paradigm has shifted from books the highbrow critics are buzzing about to books that these clubs will embrace. True, Franzen and a few other male authors make the cut, and sometimes challenging works by writers of either gender sneak in, especially among younger and more cosmopolitan groups. But by and large, book-club members are interested in feel-good fare like Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help.” The archetypal book-club novel is written by a woman, its characters are female-centric, and it contains a love story, sensitive coming-of-age tale, or mother-daughter narrative, perhaps set against a historical backdrop.

Yet the Franzen-Weiner-Picoult-Stockett universe is the literary 1 percent; they’re all doing just fine, male or female. If you’re upset that you’re deprived of two separate reviews and a profile in the Times, as Weiner evidently is, then, to quote Brad Pitt in “Moneyball,” you have “uptown problems, which aren’t really problems at all.”

...

In short, midlisters are middle-class professionals scraping out a living — and being a midlist male author who writes about males is a distinct financial disadvantage. Not only will you not get reviewed in the Times, but you won’t get reviewed in the women’s magazines that drive sales, like People and O, the Oprah Magazine. Book clubs will ignore you. Barnes & Noble will relegate you to the back shelves. Your publisher won’t give you much support — if it even publishes your book in the first place. As a book-editor friend once admitted to me, “When we buy a debut novel by a man, we view it as taking a real chance.”

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Erik Loehfelm is the executive director of user experience at Universal Mind, where he leads the design team in developing new, immersive app experiences for a variety of devices. He is also a leading voice in the digital publishing industry. Follow Erik @eloehfelm and read his blog. Digital p…

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What Editors Want 2012

Twenty three editors have kindly explained what they are looking for this year giving a fascinating insight into the commissioning mind.

What Editors Want 2012

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A blog post from Litopian RL Sutton.

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Just because there’s an end doesn’t mean existence has meaning. An end point is simply set up as a temporary market, or perhaps as an indirect metaphor for the fleeting nature of existence.

Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (via bookmania)

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Peter Englund: The Beauty and the Sorrow

Download the exclusive interview with Peter Englund, only on Radio Litopia:

His origins were humble; a working-class boy from a small military town in northern Sweden, not far from the Arctic Circle. Today, he is one of the most influential figures in the world of literature, because Peter Englund is Permanent Secretary to the Swedish Academy, the body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature.

For someone who has within his power the making or breaking of international writing careers, Peter, as you’ll hear, is remarkably unassuming. Perhaps one reason for this is that he’s still a writer himself; he understands the writing process profoundly, and his own books have been both bestsellers and widely acclaimed. His most recent, just launched in London, is a stunning new approach to the history of the First World War. Subtitled “an intimate history”, The Beauty and the Sorrow explores the personal aspects of war: not the grand strategies concocted in the cabinets of Europe, but the experiences of “ordinary” people from around the world, all now unknown – were it not for Peter’s deeply moving book.

This extended and intimate interview with Peter England reveals a wise and thoughtful author, unaffected by success, still driven to pursue his writing journey to its ultimate destination.

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An oldie but a goodie!

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The sender of a message can never fully know his recipient’s mental code book…. Every poem is a message, different for every reader.

James Gleick, The Information (via austinkleon)

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Define your characters well and your writing will be easier. Download the template and use it well. Thanks, R1X.