Comments on Nathan Bransford, Author: This Week in Publishing 3/5/10

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Thank you for the links, as always!

2010-03-07T07:45:10.724-08:00

Thank you for the links, as always!

Wow, this week's posting on the advances could...

2010-03-07T07:12:24.083-08:00

Wow, this week's posting on the advances couldn't be more timely. Some great information there. An executive editor from a publishing house recently expressed interest in my indie published novel and requested my two works in progress--which is of course exciting but I'm absolutely clueless about what to expect. At least this posts and the one author's blog posts have given me some idea as to how the deal might be structured. I'm crossing my finger and toes that she wants all three. :)

Echoing what Jenny said, I used to run a research ...

2010-03-07T00:06:26.257-08:00

Echoing what Jenny said, I used to run a research library that held a fair amount of "archival" material (original photographs for example). Digitizing is one of those issues that constantly came up, and while it's great to do (and very useful in many ways), in general you want to keep your originals. Because storage systems change, technology improves, and in many cases digital media do not last as long as the originals.

I think I will be one of those folks who does make the jump to eBooks for certain kinds of material, things I don't necessarily want to read a second time (I'm saving up my pennies for an iPhone). But for books I value, I'll take the hard copy.

Regarding the digital delivery system, the problem...

2010-03-06T22:19:27.253-08:00

Regarding the digital delivery system, the problem has more do with perception of value than longevity. As someone who works in the music industry, I've seen it firsthand. All the hours and collaboration put into creating a song and it sells for less than a candy bar (or is stolen). Albums are fading away, split into pieces. When the system of delivery gets more news than the art itself, something is wrong.

Jenny, I still have floppy disks! I don't thi...

2010-03-06T16:12:46.803-08:00

Jenny, I still have floppy disks!

I don't think my ebooks are going to disappear on me (unless I were to go with Amazon, wink-wink), but I do think the technology is going to go through many changes in the next few years. I'll evaluate the features again in a few years, but for now, it's too soon for me to buy a dedicated ereader.

My husband reads on his iPhone, though, and he just bought a new ebook to read on there. The DRM on the ebook required him to use the vendor's ereader software, but it kept shutting down on him.

I don't know if he ever got it to work. But he said to me -- we were just at the bookstore. For a dollar or two more, I could've just bought the paperback. And I could be reading it RIGHT NOW.

So Jason Epstein thinks 'Industrial Capitalism...

2010-03-06T11:38:31.156-08:00

So Jason Epstein thinks 'Industrial Capitalism a paradise for some, at the expense of others' but rails against 'the exorbitant demands of bestselling authors' and defines advances as 'nonrecoverable guarantees' by publishers who 'bear all the risks'!? Motoko Rich's NYT article seems more balanced, but is $3.25 really enough to print and store and ship a $26 hardcover book and also cover returns? Mass market paperback maybe, but hardcover?
I heartily agree with Susan Quinn and yourself, Nathan, regarding LEVIATHAN, though, ironically, the sheer physical excellence of its black and white illustrations and color covers is the main reason I bought the hardcover edition. Regarding Penguin's I-Pad demo, on Tuesday I bought eight small paperbacks of public domain classics such as TREASURE ISLAND, PETER PAN, CANDIDE and THE WIZARD OF OZ, though I already have free E-book versions of them. The eight cost me about $4 each. The publisher? Penguin Popular Classics!

chuck h- Pretty soon e-readers aren't going t...

2010-03-06T11:16:30.838-08:00

chuck h-

Pretty soon e-readers aren't going to cost hundreds of dollars and you won't be taking much of a risk if you take one with you.

M. Clement Hall- If there is an advance-to-market...

2010-03-06T11:14:51.290-08:00

M. Clement Hall-

If there is an advance-to-marketing ratio I don't know about it, nor do I think it's a zero sum game where Harper is not going to publish X number of books because they paid X advance.

On the third, I never said sequels are despised. I'm writing a sequel myself! All I was saying with that post was that it's not a good idea to write a sequel when the first book isn't published. That doesn't apply here.

So this morning I've been procrastinating up a...

2010-03-06T10:10:15.754-08:00

So this morning I've been procrastinating up a storm, trying to find the motivation to tackle that ending I'm trying to rewrite.

And then you post that PW link about the Harper Teen deal. Yeah, that lit a fire under my ass.

Then I'll curmudgeon in. Can you stuff that th...

2010-03-06T09:02:34.852-08:00

Then I'll curmudgeon in. Can you stuff that thing in a back pack, strap it to the back of a motorcycle and head for the woods? I can do all that with a bunch of paper backs and not worry once if I'm destroying hundreds of dollars worth of electronics. I'll take my books on paper, please, not plastic.

I just wish they would stop calling them "ebo...

2010-03-06T08:25:41.584-08:00

I just wish they would stop calling them "ebooks". They're electronic medium stories. Hell, I'd be okay with enovels (maybe). But ebooks? A book is a bound raft of papers. Always was and always will be. We don't call movies "eplays" or laptops "etypewriters".

Okay, I'm all curmudgeoned out.

There is one huge problem with electronic media th...

2010-03-06T05:36:33.502-08:00

There is one huge problem with electronic media that us old folks are very familiar with. As technology advances, media change, and eventually there is no device that can read your e-thing.

This happened to much of the data collected by the moon missions of the 1970s. By the 1990s there was no device that could read it.

It happened to my electronic first edition of Outlander, sent to me by the author in 1991 on an 8" floppy disc.

It happened to the files from my first published book which were written using a long vanished word processor.

Unless you are vigilant about converting everything you own in one electronic format to the next format, it will eventually happen to your e-things too.

How many of you still have floppy drives? How many of you have old manuscripts you saved on floppies that you didn't bother to print out?

It is a real issue that those of us with IT backgrounds do not underestimate.

Always grateful to Nathan for his pot-pourri Frida...

2010-03-06T03:33:17.357-08:00

Always grateful to Nathan for his pot-pourri Friday selection of publishing news. My comment is really in the nature of questions on the YA.
First: if the author gets "seven figures," how much more does the publisher have to expend in publicity etc. to recover that? Presumably there's some kind of ratio known in the trade.
Second: How many authors, who would have been pleased with a small advance, will never see their book published because of this single huge payment?
Third: Is there a difference between a series and the despised sequel? This is called a "three book series," featuring Helen in each.
And no, I don't do YA, my eyes are not green!

Careful, people. The iPad demo is just that: a <...

2010-03-05T23:15:05.778-08:00

Careful, people. The iPad demo is just that: a DEMO.

Back in the early 1990s, I worked for a company that made the software for the Casio Z-PDA, the competitor to the first Apple Newton. At the time, I was a huge proponent of digital books, which at that time were largely published on CD-ROM. I led a project to create a digital book publishing tool for our Z-PDA and other mobile devices. This was before Adobe came out with PDF, before Amazon.com had been founded, and right around the time Netscape 1.0 arrived. Windows 95 was still to be released.

I remember making a demo that, given the available hardware and system technology, was not that different from the first several books shown in the iPad demo. We had hypertext and interactive content. We did not have a screen that auto-rotated, GPS, compass, or video in the device. We were working with about 1MB RAM, no SD cards or even USB ports (they hadn't been invented yet), and no wifi. In fact, the first smart phone was still a year or two away (we also provided the software for the first smart phone, the Nokia 9000). Those were the days in which terms like multimedia, PDA, and "content" were coined.

What I love about demos is that they show what is technically possible today but not necessarily what is commercially available today. All those features waiting to be implemented--they take work and time and money. They're wicked cool, but they take the full skill set of a multimedia design shop.

I am still a huge believer in electronic books and multimedia, and I too love the possibility shown in that demo. A world with that kind of toy is a world I want to live in.

Lots of interesting links! Loved the iPpad demo a...

2010-03-05T20:25:28.929-08:00

Lots of interesting links! Loved the iPpad demo and your digression. It is funny what people will worry about.

Also, laughed at books becoming fringe media - because only rich old folks read anymore. LOL!

I have not had any inclination to hop on the e-rea...

2010-03-05T19:07:54.266-08:00

I have not had any inclination to hop on the e-reader bandwagon until now. Where do I get in line for my iPad, please? Also I'd like one for each of my kids, and I'd like to give them as gifts . . . (I guess I'd better find a more profitable profession.)

I love the worrying part. I say (with Graham Green...

2010-03-05T18:00:15.661-08:00

I love the worrying part. I say (with Graham Greene), What about Strontium 90?

Somebody help me out. Why does printed books even...

2010-03-05T17:16:15.388-08:00

Somebody help me out. Why does printed books even come up in discussions about eBooks? They are two different mediums. When buying an eBook, I can care less if the book is out in hardcover or paperback. I just don't want to feel like I'm getting ripped off. If I do, then I just buy the book used.

Also: Your Huffington Post article was awesome!

Leviathan is awesome, I have it on my nook. My kid...

2010-03-05T16:12:35.900-08:00

Leviathan is awesome, I have it on my nook. My kid has already read it. On my nook.

Westerfeld is rockin' the MG+YA world. I want to be him when I grow up.

/fangirl rant

Uh, that doesn't mean I'm giving up my pap...

2010-03-05T16:08:38.122-08:00

Uh, that doesn't mean I'm giving up my paper books that I can color code and write on, though.....

Oh my freakin' heck. I'm buying myself an ...

2010-03-05T16:07:16.064-08:00

Oh my freakin' heck.
I'm buying myself an iPad, if THAT'S what reading will be like on one!

I have this delicious sense that my book library i...

2010-03-05T15:18:48.854-08:00

I have this delicious sense that my book library is going to be even more of a collection like no other and that my e-library is going to be those disposable books or all-text books I don't need as pieces of tactile art in my library.
There will be my "Books," like art, that I own. And e-books, good reads, or good reference, but not necessarily art,that I can access in air-form.
I will be freer and my actual book library will become more of a "collection" and even more-so something one wants to touch and hold.
And I have the sense that bookmakers will become more artful too. Books will become rare and collectible the minute they are released for sale.

Thanks for the shout out, Nathan! I'm honored....

2010-03-05T15:05:12.743-08:00

Thanks for the shout out, Nathan! I'm honored.

And as for helpful and awesome blogs, look who's talking! You do a terrific job. Can't wait to read your upcoming book!

Thanks to Kristi for the cheer, too!