WHEN QUANTITY OVERWHELMS QUALITY 

Sunday’s New York Times Book Review carried an essay by Rachel Donadio, a writer and editor at Book Review, that should give any author (or publisher) pause for serious thought. It becomes particularly jolting when read alongside the recent NEA report on reading in the US. 

Despite the fact that NEA researchers discovered that 53% of Americans had not read a book in the past year, the number of published books grew from 300,000 in 2006 to 400,000 last year.

(As an aside, the growth occurred not just in books. According to Technorati records, blogs are growing at the rate of 175,000 per day world wide.) 

I think the proliferation of political books has bolstered the increase. Bookstore windows and shelves are jammed with the output of candidates, active politicos, CIA experts, Bush haters and retired government officials. 

Donadio attributes much of the increase to the burgeoning world of Publishing on Demand. She cites the 36,000 titles that iUniverse has in print and the 20,000 Xlibris boasts despite the fact that this segment of the publishing industry is still very young. 

The essay quotes an iUniverse VP as admitting that most of the books she publishes sell less than 200 copies. Unfortunately, that’s reflected in the totals for the overall book publishing industry where sales of 200 or less are altogether too common. 

Has production surpassed consumption? Increased publishing combined with decreased reading surely makes it look that way. How sad that is in this once-erudite nation.  With admissions by POD publishers like Xlibris that they are “nonselective” in choosing manuscripts, the book world has become glutted with mediocrity. That may well be a major contributor to the fall-off in readership, and has to have a negative impact on quality authors. It’s something like the second hand smoke syndrome. The mediocrity rubs off even on those who don’t deserve it. 

This has certainly made me do some soul searching. My latest book, The Writer Within You, was designed to help retirees take advantage of their free time to fulfill life-long dreams of writing. It was inspired in great part by the Gallup Poll’s discovery that 81% of mature American adults long to write a book. 

The success of the book, already in its second printing, confirms the apparent huge interest in writing. I recognize that the very favorable reviews it has received and its inclusion in four best books of the year listings have contributed greatly to sales. Still I wonder how beneficial my effort is, if no one is going to read the output of the retirees I urge to write.  

I share this with you as I ponder the real question: What does the future hold for the publishing industry?  
 

A REMINDER:

BLOCK OUT THE LAST WEEK OF MAY IN YOUR SCHEDULE BOOK

It’s getting pretty late to register for Book Expo. The event begins on May 29, and that’s only a few weeks away. The Expo is the second largest book fair in the world, and a vast source of contacts and information for authors and publishers. This year’s event is being held in Los Angeles. Click onto “Book Expo” in your favorite search engines for details and registration. 

Including a two-day visit to PMA’s outstanding “Publishing University” is a great way to amortize the cost of a trip to LA for East Coasters and those of you in the Heartland. The three-day PMA course starts on May 27, and leaves lots of time to visit Book Expo over the weekend. 

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the University that now is offering a total of 80 classes in a wide cross-section of topics that are essentials for authors and publishers. Click on

www.pma-online.org for info and registration. The deadline is just around the corner. 

Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write

Publish & Promote Your Work

April 30, 2008 
 

INTRODUCTION TO NONFICTION 

      Last week we finished up a series of columns on writing your novel. Today we begin a new series on crafting various categories of nonfiction, both books and articles. 

      Before we begin, let’s clarify one minor point that has long irritated me. There is only one correct way to spell nonfiction, although you will find “non fiction” and “non-fiction” in articles written by some who don’t bother to check their dictionaries.  

      The categories under the far-reaching umbrella of nonfiction include history, how-to, travel, politics, memoirs (although we will tackle these separately), text books and other educational titles. They are published as books or articles or e-books. 

      Nonfiction pieces are discrete in their subject matter. They tackle a specific topic in response to a reader’s desire to learn more. They provide information just as a novel is designed to provide entertainment.  

      Many believe it is easier to sell a nonfiction book than it is to sell a novel. That may be true because you market the nonfiction book specifically to potential readers interested in the subject your book discusses. Because of that, the market for a novel is far greater than for your nonfiction work. 

      Nonetheless, the statistics on readership by the American public show that nonfiction continually seems to beat fiction, according to reports by the entities that study sales trends. 

Nonfiction Is Easier

      I have always believed that writing nonfiction is easier than writing fiction. Perhaps that’s because most of my published work, both books and articles, has been nonfiction. But really, my reasoning extends much further than that.  

      Since the key to nonfiction is information, magazine editors demand content far more than writing ability. Book publishers too lean more heavily on content than they do on style. That doesn’t suggest you can publish a sloppily written but well researched piece. What it does mean is that your knowledge of the subject matter will impress an editor far more than your skill in crafting a sentence. 

      If you look into your satchel of experiences, it is relatively easy to find a worthy basis for a nonfiction piece. Your life at home can provide great insight for a nonfiction work. Perhaps a cook book, a treatise on home decorating or on parenting, caring for an aged parent, etc, etc. Outside of the house, the choice is endless. You can call upon the expertise you molded at the workplace. Maybe you have enjoyed a very special hobby. Backyard gardening, sports, wood working, hiking, canoeing…the choices are vast. 
 

      I don’t mean to suggest that you can tackle any of these subjects without first researching to bring yourself up to date on new trends or new methodologies. But it is easier to capitalize on your background, supplement a bit with some research, than to explore totally new areas.  

      Finding a publisher for your book or even for your articles will become far easier as you become known in the industry as an expert in your chosen subject. Indeed, in many cases, editors will seek you out. We will spend some time on ways to develop your reputation, on branding yourself as an expert, in a future column 
 

It’s a Specialized World

      Take the time to thumb through the racks of magazines in your local bookstore. It will make what I am saying dramatically evident to you. Note the difference in the titles that you used to see and those that dominate today. Many of the old large circulation standbys are gone, replaced by specialized publications that target specific interests or very special segments of society.  

      Like the corporate world, the medical world, the manufacturing world, the literary world has become more and more specialized. These smaller, targeted periodicals remain healthy. Many expand while the dinosaurs continue to slip in readership and even die. Just a week ago, Charlie’s Choice talked of the shocking decline in the advertising pages of leading news magazines, in some cases as high as 38%. 

      In an age of specialization growing numbers of people expand their knowledge by reading nonfiction. The trend has become so strong that journalism schools, like my own alma mater Columbia University, have added courses in specialty writing to their curriculums. 

      You are aware of the huge growth in book categories that help people cope with the changing nature of our age. How-to and self-help books take up large amounts of space on every bookstore shelf and in libraries. A librarian acquaintance of mine commented recently at a dinner party that these categories have overtaken the number of fictional books her patrons currently check out.  

Choosing the Topic

      Once you begin thinking objectively about the background you bring to the task, you can overcome many of the hang-ups that have kept you from writing. No longer will you offer the excuse “I don’t know what to write about” or “Even when I get an idea, it doesn’t seem to work when I sit down to write.”  

      Over the next several weeks, we’ll tackle different aspects of becoming a successful nonfiction author, writing either articles or books or both.  

      We’ll start with selecting a topic. You may be able to achieve a “double whammy” by writing about the business you run. You can publicize your company while enjoying the chance to fulfill that dream of authorship.  Or you may be able to boost your chances for advancement if you write about the career you are still pursuing.  

      There are so many opportunities that nonfiction offers, you can’t let meaningless hang-ups like those I mentioned stand in your way. Nor should you allow silly thoughts like “I just don’t have the time to write” or “The market is full of books on my topic” stop you from achieving your cherished dream of writing. 

      But one brief word of warning before we move on. You will be married to your project for a substantial length of time, so you have to love the topic you plan to write about. Don’t select a topic simply because you think it will sell well. Jack Heffron said it so well in his book The Writer’s Idea Book, “It’s good for any serious writer to understand the marketplace, but writing for the marketplace is usually a bad idea. If you don’t feel passionately about a subject, you won’t write well about it.”  

      Next week we’ll get into the nitty gritty of achieving success in nonfiction. We’ll begin by looking at the all-important content and relate that to researching effectively. See you then.

Keep writing!   
 

A MOURNFUL MORNING 

As I was researching the happenings of the week before sitting down to write my blog, I was deeply disturbed by Media Bistro’s “The Morning News Feed.” Sandwiched in between 16 briefs were three that I found terribly upsetting. 

“The Capital Times Stops Its Presses” was the first headline I spotted. The newspaper launched almost a century ago in Madison, WI, and was revered by the city’s residents. The presses ran for a final time last Saturday, ending the print version. From now on, the staff will concentrate solely on a daily digital report on the Web. 

That wasn’t bad enough. Next a tidbit popped up that read “The End of Network News As We Know It” The text states that the big three TV network newscasts lost about 1.23 million viewers last year. Ad revenue for the morning news took a severe bath as well. The average viewer of TV news is 60 years old, while advertisers are targeting a much younger demographic.  

The last blow this aging newsman suffered was the headline “The Newspaper Death Watch.” The excerpt from Ad Age starts by suggesting the decline of newspapers is terminal, and goes on to quote one expert who believes “traditional media in general must learn to shrink, but newspaper in particular are a special case.” 

In retrospect, I suspect I too have contributed to the trend, having retired from print journalism and begun this blog.  

SURVEY DISCOVERS THAT GAYS & LESBIANS

READ MORE BLOGS THAN HETEROSEXUALS 

Now here’s a remarkable bit of vital information for bloggers! Something none of you can ever afford to neglect.  

A survey by Harris Interactive and Witeck-Combs Communications found that adult gays and lesbians not only read more blogs than heterosexuals, they respond more to blog advertising. 

Could that be a cultural thing or genetic? Now there’s a research concern to be pursued. It is almost as earth shaking as the fact that 51% of gay & lesbians outpace the 36% of straights who read the results of our efforts.  

Even more compelling is the finding that 27% of gays and lesbians posted comments on blogs in the month prior to the survey compared to 13% of straights.  

If I sound a bit sarcastic, ask yourself why in the world anyone would take the time and the money to conduct a survey like this? Hopefully the majority of Americans believe as I do that we are all one people. We may vary a bit in our sexual proclivities as we do on so many other issues, but why should attitudes to blogs be worthy of such nonsensical segmentation? Such an unnecessary study. Such hogwash!

E-MAIL MARKETING IS HIGHLY EFFECTIVE

BUT THE MESSAGE BETTER BE RELEVANT 

Here are some valuable findings for authors marketing their books online:  

A study commissioned by Double Click Performics reports e-mails are surpassed only by customer reviews in building consumer confidence and influencing decisions to buy online. E-mails trumped ads that appear on web sites by two-to one, and surprisingly far outdistanced ads on social networking sites.  

Those results dovetail the results of a Merkle study that found that 50% of American e-mail users completed a purchase online last year. The combination of the two surveys indicates that permission-based marketing is still very much alive and healthy. 

An important caution was added by eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman, “Consumers welcome relevant, opt-in e-mails from companies they have a relationship with, but the broad spectrum of spam—any unsolicited message—continues to degrade the e-mail environment.”  

JUDGE SAYS HARRY POTTER LAWSUIT

“COULD AND SHOULD BE SETTLED” 

Calling it a “so-called three-day trial,” Judge Robert Patterson told lawyers for J.K. Rowling and defending attorneys for RDR Books that the case should be settled. He added that it would take just “a little imagination” for that to happen. 

As you probably know, Rowling has sued RDR Books for copy infringement.  Although Steven Vander Ark’s Harry Potter Lexicon has been appearing digitally for years and Rowling has praised it several times, she now claims that RDR’s decision to publish the Lexicon in book form infringes on her copyright. 

As the Judge himself admits there are some very hazy aspects of law involved in this unusual suit. He quipped, “I may need a reference guide to this case.”  Meanwhile, all parties agreed upon May 9 as the deadline for filing addition documentation.  

The case involves two entities, each with years of accepted publication, and is complicated by Rowling’s earlier apparent support of the Lexicon project. It may take a Solomon to resolve this one. But whatever the decision, the ramifications on the publishing industry will be substantial.  

Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write

Publish & Promote Your Work 

April 23, 2008 
 

PUT WORDS INTO YOUR CHARACTERS’ MOUTHS

THAT BRING THEM TO LIFE 

      Few devices can reveal more about your characters or breath more life into them than dialogue. Their choice of words, accent, body talk as they speak, indeed every aspect of their speech offers the reader further insight into their persona. Unfortunately, many writers, particularly novices, find creating dialogue the most difficult aspect of writing fiction.    

      It doesn’t have to be that way. Writing dialogue can be your most enjoyable exercise when crafting your novel. Listen to what author Elizabeth Rose says in an article on the web site Scribes World: “My favorite part of writing, believe it or not, is the dialogue. While many authors may feel this is a challenging aspect in their novel, I instead look forward to the dialogue as I let my characters write the book themselves. Personally, I think dialogue can make or break a story.” 

Just Write It

      The first and most important piece of advice I can give you is to let it flow. More than any other part of a novel, dialogue must seem natural. It must, as the great Bard said, flow “trippingly off the tongue.” When you write initially, don’t try and control your dialogue. Let it control you. You can always go back and polish it. Letting it flow easily provides the spontaneity that quality speech demands. 

      Some authors like to speak the lines as they write them. Others prefer to voice them when they return to edit the conversation. Whichever your preference, the best way to test your dialogue is to speak the words out loud to determine whether the conversation flows naturally and reflects the essence of the person speaking. 

      Another invaluable exercise is to eliminate all attribution, and read the conversation. You should be able to tell just from the spoken words alone which character is talking. If they are not that distinctive, go back to the computer and redo them. 

Personalizing Your Dialogue

      There are many techniques to personalize your character’s words. The most basic may be his/her accent. This immediately tells us where he/she lives or lived in the past. The speech pattern you employ can reveal the economic or social status of the character. Is he/she vulgar? Does he/she use slang? Or speak with erudition using polysyllables and perhaps literary references?  

      One word of caution, however. Do not overuse any of these features. Overkill can turn off your reader. The proper balance is a very subjective decision that the writer can make instinctively if he/she knows the character thoroughly. (See the April 9 Charlie’s Choice two weeks ago on developing your characters.)   

      Another revealing technique is to have your character perform some task (I.E. doing something) while he/she is talking. This has a two-fold benefit. By selecting a task that represents your character’s interests you reveal additional information about him/her. The second benefit is making your character more real. Live people often speak while involved in an activity. How many times has your mother spoken to you while she cooks? We not only do this regularly, we also are quickly distracted by what we are doing. 

Mimicking Real Speech

      You have been in conversations when the other party is obviously distracted. Many times, eyes wander around the room while they talk with you. Frequently, one of the participants makes a comment totally detached from the subject you are discussing. Using the example of Mom’s conversation in the kitchen, you may suddenly interrupt, “Gosh, that smells so good. What are you making?” Or in a discussion of your progress in school, Mom may abruptly ask, “Did you clean your bedroom this morning?” 

      People also speak in fragmented sentences. Don’t feel compelled to complete every sentence or every phrase, particularly when your character is speaking excitedly. Conversely, a speaker often will pause, either collecting thoughts or reining in a wandering mind. 

      It is not necessary to have one person in a conversation always respond directly to the statements the other makes. How many times have you experienced a conversation in which the other party either doesn’t respond at all or abruptly blurts out, “I’m hungry” or some other irrelevant comment? 

      What all of this reminds you is that the thoughts of human beings do wander. They interrupt their conversation with sudden flashes of awareness. They may spot something that interests them. For example, you are walking along the path discussing politics when your companion suddenly remarks, “Did you see that red capped chickadee? 

      Or while walking, you unexpectedly remember that you were supposed to place a call to your friend John. You blurt out, “Oh shucks, I forgot to call John.” I know that when you reflect on conversations you have had or on times when you eavesdropped on someone else’s conversation, as so many good writers do, all of these techniques become realities.  

Playing “Tag”

      As we discuss the importance of making each character’s speech distinctive, let’s take a minute to look at the controversial question of “tags.” These are identifiers like “he said,” “he cried out,” “he whispered,” etc. Quality dialogue doesn’t require a tag on every statement to identify the speaker. The very nature of the speech pattern, all of the elements we spoke of above, should serve to tell the reader exactly who is speaking at any given moment. 

      But there are times, often in a group conversation when tags are very helpful to a reader trying to sort out the speakers. They also should be sprinkled through a two-person conversation to help with identification. Not every sentence can demonstrate the discrete nuances of a character’s speech. 

      Tags are also useful when the author wants to emphasize the emotion of a statement. When using a tag for this purpose, it is certainly preferable to try and select a verb that conveys the emotion you seek without relying on the assistance of an adjective or adverb. For example, “he exploded” portrays in a single word “he said angrily.” Even more important, using this action verb added a greater degree of excitement to the conversation.   
 

Talking without Words

      Never forget the useful tool of body language. You use it either consciously or inadvertently whenever you talk, and you learn much about the other party’s reaction to what you are saying by watching him/her. 

      Frankly, I personally dislike talking on the telephone. I can hear a person’s words, but I can’t really determine reactions without seeing that person. Body language is extremely revealing, and should be injected into your conversational patterns when you write. 

      You see from all of this that dialogue is an indispensable tool that has many functions in your fiction. It reveals a great deal about the person speaking. Used effectively, it can tell you much about the person being spoken to. It is also a useful tool for filling in background material that would be dull if presented in narrative form. You can use dialogue to describe the setting in which the conversation occurs very effectively without boring the reader. But do be cautious and use it judiciously whenever it is employed for descriptive purposes. Your dialogue must always move your story forward. 

      Practice these techniques I have given you and you will join the ranks of authors who write flawless dialogue and do it with ease. 

      Next week, we’ll move on from fiction and begin a series of columns on completing your nonfiction book. See you then. Keep writing! 

PMA’S PUBLISHING UNIVERSITY STARTS MAY 27

AN INCREDIBLE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR WRITERS & PUBLISHERS 

With a total of 80 classes available to attendees, the PMA Publishing University is not only the largest educational program targeted to independent publishers, it is also one of the most highly respected. It offers great value to authors as well. This year marks the 25^th anniversary of the program. 

The event usually attracts in the neighborhood of 600 attendees, most of whom praise the experience highly. Top pros in various aspects of the book world serve as instructors. A special advanced track of classes is available for returnees who have attended previous annual sessions. 

The three-day event will be held at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles immediately before Book Expo. So make a combined trip west, and experience these two “giants:” of the publishing industry with only one flight to LA. Info is available at www.pma-online.org. 

OUTLOOK FOR 2008 NOT VERY SANGUINE

FOR OFFLINE MEDIA BASED ON EARLY RESULTS 

Freelancers, pay attention. As ad revenues go, so goes the market for freelance.

Publishers Information Bureau reports that magazines have experienced a rather dismal first quarter, with the sole exception of food publications. 

Apparently benefiting from the “fattening of America” trend, Every Day with Rachel Ray posted an impressive gain for 38% in ad pages. Continuing her rebound after that farcical episode of trials and prison, Martha Stewart is bouncing back. The number of ad pages in her Everyday Food jumped by 11%.  

Industry-wide, ad page counts posted a drop of 6.4%. The most depressed category was news magazines. US News & World Report topped the slippage with a drop of 38% in ad pages. Newsweek fared the best, losing only 14%, while Time held the middle ground with an 18% loss, according to Wooden Horse, the always reliable weekly periodicals report. 

But the declines are not limited to magazines alone. BIA Financial Network predicts a loss of 3.1% of revenue for the radio industry in 2008, hopefully bouncing back to positive numbers the following year. 

The March slippage of 10% was the largest since November, 2001, according to Radio Online.

The heaviest losses were from national advertisers.