Finishing a novel, I'm learning, is kind of like tending a garden. It's never really done until harvest. In the case of novels, "harvest" refers to seeing it on the bookshelves at Borders and Barnes & Noble. Or, in the case of Portland writers, Powell's.
Lying in Judgment, for good or for ill, is not yet at the point of harvest. Which means, there may be plenty of spade work left.
The story, for those of you who don't know, is about a Portland man (Peter Robertson) who serves on the jury of a murder trial - for, as it turns out, the murder that he committed.
After confirming that his wife was cheating on him, Peter followed and - in a moment of uncontrolled rage - killed the wrong man. Meanwhile his wife left him, his mom suffers a debilitating stroke, and his best friend and employee is accused of sexual harassment. The trial offers an opportunity to put at least the legal risk behind him by convicting the innocent defendant, who, it turns out, had plenty of motive to kill the actual victim.
Agents and readers alike have commented favorably on the compelling nature of the book's premise, the interesting twists and turns in the plot, and the tightness of the writing. But a few things have kept it from selling. Tops on that list is that it's hard to root for a main character who's a murderer - and who is trying to convict someone else of his crime. Those are, unfortunately, core drivers of the story.
However, recently a few kind readers - one an agent - provided some useful feedback, which has led to some ideas for revision of the story to help address those issues. I'm incubating a few of them. To wit:
- Length. Publishers, I am told, will not consider a book from a first-time author exceeding 90,000 words. After countless round of trimming, LiJ is at 93,500. Where to cut? The trial, I am told. Too much courtroom loses the reader.
- If Peter's problem is that he's rooting for conviction, maybe he should instead argue for acquittal. That makes him more likable, but would it take too much away from the narrative tension? Also this is more than a tweak - the entire second half of the novel would have to be rewritten.
- Maybe Peter needs a foil. There's nobody in the story who is a demonstrably worse character than him. His friend Frankie could serve that purpose. Perhaps he needs to be guilty - and obviously so - of that harassment? Peter's continued friendship of him would show loyalty, and hence greater likability, plus he'd seem more likable by comparison.
I continue to tighten the prose and work on sharpening Peter's voice, but those are easy chores compared to the changes that these very interesting suggestions would require.
What do you think? What would help improve the story AND help improve its chances of being published?
Friday, July 31, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Escaping the POD People
Lying in Judgment will not, at least for the time being, be self-published. Or hybrid-published.
The hybrid offer from Inkwater - a print-on-demand contract for the first 1,000 copies in which I spend $1,000 for design and layout, another $1,000 for proof-edits and probably another $1,000 for marketing and a customized cover - doesn't pencil out for me. One, it's too expensive. Two, I don't have it. Three, I think that I should be paid for selling my book to a publisher, not the other way around. And four, and perhaps most important, I believe that this book will earn a traditional publishing contract with a major house for commercial mass-marketing.
Even if I wanted to go with a POD-based self-publishing route, much more affordable options exist with better-known companies. CreateSpace, an Amazon.com company, and Lulu, who also distributes with Amazon, provide essentially the same services and opportunities for a much lower up-front investment ($50 - $200) and higher royalties. Both are more DIY-type outfits, but the difference between Inkwater's premium services and what Lulu and CreateSpace offer is kind of like the benefits you get from premium gas. The mileage obtained doesn't pay for the considerably higher price.
There is also the fact that the sample books Inkwater provided didn't exactly sell their editing services to me. I shouldn't cringe when reading, ever, and I did. I don't want my readers doing that about my writing.
There are certainly benefits to POD self-publishing - and products that are more appropriate for it than Lying in Judgment, such as niche books, vanities, experimental designs, etc. But LiJ isn't any of those. It's a legal thriller written for readers - people who buy and read dozens of books per year. For that I need the help of a big house with broad, deep distribution channels. POD firms don't have that.
Nor do they have established marketing platforms for beginning writers. I would have had to buy marketing services from Inkwater, for example - yet, they couldn't even give me an outline of a plan, nor point to a similar book in their catalog with the type of sales I'm looking for. I'd have been as responsible for marketing as they were.
Not a good plan. I'm a writer, not a marketer, or publisher. I'm willing to hustle to sell my books, but I need expert help on a marketing strategy.
So, I'll hold off. I have four appointments with industry book agents at the Willamette Writers Conference in two weeks. Wish me luck.
The hybrid offer from Inkwater - a print-on-demand contract for the first 1,000 copies in which I spend $1,000 for design and layout, another $1,000 for proof-edits and probably another $1,000 for marketing and a customized cover - doesn't pencil out for me. One, it's too expensive. Two, I don't have it. Three, I think that I should be paid for selling my book to a publisher, not the other way around. And four, and perhaps most important, I believe that this book will earn a traditional publishing contract with a major house for commercial mass-marketing.
Even if I wanted to go with a POD-based self-publishing route, much more affordable options exist with better-known companies. CreateSpace, an Amazon.com company, and Lulu, who also distributes with Amazon, provide essentially the same services and opportunities for a much lower up-front investment ($50 - $200) and higher royalties. Both are more DIY-type outfits, but the difference between Inkwater's premium services and what Lulu and CreateSpace offer is kind of like the benefits you get from premium gas. The mileage obtained doesn't pay for the considerably higher price.
There is also the fact that the sample books Inkwater provided didn't exactly sell their editing services to me. I shouldn't cringe when reading, ever, and I did. I don't want my readers doing that about my writing.
There are certainly benefits to POD self-publishing - and products that are more appropriate for it than Lying in Judgment, such as niche books, vanities, experimental designs, etc. But LiJ isn't any of those. It's a legal thriller written for readers - people who buy and read dozens of books per year. For that I need the help of a big house with broad, deep distribution channels. POD firms don't have that.
Nor do they have established marketing platforms for beginning writers. I would have had to buy marketing services from Inkwater, for example - yet, they couldn't even give me an outline of a plan, nor point to a similar book in their catalog with the type of sales I'm looking for. I'd have been as responsible for marketing as they were.
Not a good plan. I'm a writer, not a marketer, or publisher. I'm willing to hustle to sell my books, but I need expert help on a marketing strategy.
So, I'll hold off. I have four appointments with industry book agents at the Willamette Writers Conference in two weeks. Wish me luck.
Monday, July 13, 2009
To POD or not to POD
To POD, or not to POD. That is the question.
Tomorrow morning I will meet with Portland-based Print-on-Demand publisher Inkwater Press to discuss their offer. For $999 they will "publish" my book, Lying in Judgment - whatever "publish" means, when the actual printing doesn't occur until and unless someone places an order for it. From what I can tell, it includes layout, design, ISBN registration, a bar code, and establishing a distribution channel through Ingram, Amazon.com, and other on-line sources. Editing and marketing would be my responsibility.
In effect, POD makes me a co-publisher of my own work.
For four years I've been pitching my book the old-fashioned way to traditional publishing houses, hoping for a commercial contract for what should be a book with broad audience appeal. For readers new to my story, Lying in Judgment tells the story of a man serving on the jury of a murder trial for the murder he committed. Pretty cool premise, no? However, I've had no success pitching it to agents and editors. Not doubt the issue preventing publication thus far has been, at least in part, the writing itself. Its somewhat distanced, over-the-shoulder point of view of the murderous main character trying to convict an innocent man of his crime made him even harder to root for.
A recent rewrite hopefully addressed that problem. The narrative centers much more on his state of mind and is expressed in his own voice - until the newly-added epilogue that provides an unexpected twist from the point of view of a surprise observer. The rewrite did snag the attention of Inkwater's editors as well as two agents (resulting in one rejection so far, and one still deciding).
However, I wonder if I'm too late with this rewrite. The publishing industry is reeling, and has been for several years. Several publishing houses have closed, have been swallowed up by larger companies, or have simply stopped buying new titles. Even the healthy ones have cut way back. Agents have used phrases like "horrible market" repeatedly in correspondence.
On the other hand, actual book sales, while down, have not contracted as deeply as the overall economy. People still buy books. It's relatively cheap entertainment, after all. At least one segment, electronic books, has expanded dramatically, with the rise of the Kindle, iPhone, and Sony Reader, among others. Opportunities to sell books still exist. The question is, what's the right way to do it? More to the point, what's the right way to sell my book?
POD advocates (particularly the publishers) often claim that their model is the way of the future, and that the traditional model is dying a painful death. There's no doubt that the market is shifting and, overall, contracting. The question is whether the POD way is the right response to the changing market - in general, and again, particularly for my novel.
In some ways it appears to be. POD lowers the up-front cost -- and risk -- to the publisher, since they don't have thousands of units of unsold inventory (read: sunk costs) by unknown authors consuming valuable warehouse or bookstore shelf space. Also, the writer is expected to pony up for some share of those up-front costs - if not all.
But in other ways, POD goes against the grain. Printing one book at a time is much more expensive than printing 1000 at a time, so POD-published books are more expensive. Also, in tight times, careful shoppers want more information before buying, but POD books are rarely reviewed by independent professionals such as Literary Digest. Nor can the consumer see, or feel, the product in advance; they have to order it on-line, then wait for delivery. If it's not on the shelf, it can't scream "Buy me!" to the casual Barnes and Noble shopper.
Considerable argument persists about the benefits of a traditional publisher vs. print-on-demand when it comes to marketing and distribution. From what I have read, publishers do precious little in this area for first-time authors - and this was pretty much true even before the market tanked.
Thus, whichever path I take, it's clear that most of the work of selling my book will fall on my shoulders. What's not clear is whether, in addition to the role of Author and Marketer, I should also take on - and can succeed in - the role of co-publisher as well.
Tomorrow morning I will meet with Portland-based Print-on-Demand publisher Inkwater Press to discuss their offer. For $999 they will "publish" my book, Lying in Judgment - whatever "publish" means, when the actual printing doesn't occur until and unless someone places an order for it. From what I can tell, it includes layout, design, ISBN registration, a bar code, and establishing a distribution channel through Ingram, Amazon.com, and other on-line sources. Editing and marketing would be my responsibility.
In effect, POD makes me a co-publisher of my own work.
For four years I've been pitching my book the old-fashioned way to traditional publishing houses, hoping for a commercial contract for what should be a book with broad audience appeal. For readers new to my story, Lying in Judgment tells the story of a man serving on the jury of a murder trial for the murder he committed. Pretty cool premise, no? However, I've had no success pitching it to agents and editors. Not doubt the issue preventing publication thus far has been, at least in part, the writing itself. Its somewhat distanced, over-the-shoulder point of view of the murderous main character trying to convict an innocent man of his crime made him even harder to root for.
A recent rewrite hopefully addressed that problem. The narrative centers much more on his state of mind and is expressed in his own voice - until the newly-added epilogue that provides an unexpected twist from the point of view of a surprise observer. The rewrite did snag the attention of Inkwater's editors as well as two agents (resulting in one rejection so far, and one still deciding).
However, I wonder if I'm too late with this rewrite. The publishing industry is reeling, and has been for several years. Several publishing houses have closed, have been swallowed up by larger companies, or have simply stopped buying new titles. Even the healthy ones have cut way back. Agents have used phrases like "horrible market" repeatedly in correspondence.
On the other hand, actual book sales, while down, have not contracted as deeply as the overall economy. People still buy books. It's relatively cheap entertainment, after all. At least one segment, electronic books, has expanded dramatically, with the rise of the Kindle, iPhone, and Sony Reader, among others. Opportunities to sell books still exist. The question is, what's the right way to do it? More to the point, what's the right way to sell my book?
POD advocates (particularly the publishers) often claim that their model is the way of the future, and that the traditional model is dying a painful death. There's no doubt that the market is shifting and, overall, contracting. The question is whether the POD way is the right response to the changing market - in general, and again, particularly for my novel.
In some ways it appears to be. POD lowers the up-front cost -- and risk -- to the publisher, since they don't have thousands of units of unsold inventory (read: sunk costs) by unknown authors consuming valuable warehouse or bookstore shelf space. Also, the writer is expected to pony up for some share of those up-front costs - if not all.
But in other ways, POD goes against the grain. Printing one book at a time is much more expensive than printing 1000 at a time, so POD-published books are more expensive. Also, in tight times, careful shoppers want more information before buying, but POD books are rarely reviewed by independent professionals such as Literary Digest. Nor can the consumer see, or feel, the product in advance; they have to order it on-line, then wait for delivery. If it's not on the shelf, it can't scream "Buy me!" to the casual Barnes and Noble shopper.
Considerable argument persists about the benefits of a traditional publisher vs. print-on-demand when it comes to marketing and distribution. From what I have read, publishers do precious little in this area for first-time authors - and this was pretty much true even before the market tanked.
Thus, whichever path I take, it's clear that most of the work of selling my book will fall on my shoulders. What's not clear is whether, in addition to the role of Author and Marketer, I should also take on - and can succeed in - the role of co-publisher as well.
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