I have started editing the next Derek Mason Mystery. It feel great to have the complete book printed out, in a notebook, and red pen in hand.
Now is the time I make sure all the clues work, that the murderer is fingered, that the innocent get away smelling... okay.
As I've said in past posts, Derek meets up with Topher and Myra from Devil's Bridge in this book. It's turned into a lot of fun for me, and hopefully, interesting for the readers.
Greg Lilly
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The new definition of "Traditional" Publisher
Publisher’s Weekly reported that in 2008 “On-Demand” books outpaced “Traditional” book production. 275,232 titles were produced and warehoused while 285,394 titles where produced and stored digitally.
A little history on book production technology: Print-On-Demand (POD) is a technology where a digital copy of the book is stored and used to print an original book when an order is placed. It’s like Wendy’s making your burger for you when you order it instead of m
aking them hours earlier and keeping them lined up and waiting for customers. And this weekend at BEA in New York, the "Espresso Book Machine" will show how these POD titles can be printed in a bookstore when a customer requests it.From the news release from Bowker, I’m guessing that they define "traditional publishers" as those that print and warehouse books. Now, I know that books keep longer than burgers, but the longer they’re warehoused, the more it costs the publisher, and eventually an author who doesn’t sell big in the first few months, has his books pulled from the distribution channels – the title is then out-of-print.
More publishers are seeing the benefit of POD technology and the savings in warehousing costs. Although the per book print costs are more, I'm surprised that "traditional publishers" haven't switched. The just-in-time model has been used in other industries for over 25 years. For authors, the books digital storage fees are small enough that the title can stay in print for years without having to achieve a profit in the first few months.
These statistics show that in order to survive, publishers are dropping the warehouse and moving to the technology of the 1990s -- finally. I know that both publishers of my books have used POD. They are "traditional publishers" that employee editors, graphic designers, marketers, pay royalties and pay advances, but they are also technology savvy.
A snide swipe at technology can be found in the reporting of POD produced books by the old guard of publishing since the innovators in most industries are the small and new players looking for ways to enter the market at a lower cost. Early POD publishing focused on short-run books, self-published books. That’s no longer the case with many small, independent, and boutique publishing houses using the technology.
As the report shows, POD publishing has become the popular majority in book production, so we need a new term for "Traditional Titles" -- how about "Warehoused Titles"??
POD titles are the new tradition.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Amazon De-Ranking, De-Spicable
This Amazon "glitch" that de-ranked and removed "adult" books from its lists and search engines will open doors to the other on-line retailers.
It has been noted all over the Internet that this selective removal focused on the GLBT category. My GLBT books were taken off the rankings, but my historical novel remains.
Amazon sells books and is able to keep titles for their entire lifespan, but the censorship cannot be tolerated. Authors are stuck in the middle: We want to sell books, but we don’t want to be set aside as second class, brown-wrapper authors just because our category isn’t liked by the Amazon policy makers.
Other retailers can’t compete with Amazon’s price points, but knowing that lists and search engines aren’t censored is worth a dollar or two more.
It has been noted all over the Internet that this selective removal focused on the GLBT category. My GLBT books were taken off the rankings, but my historical novel remains.
Amazon sells books and is able to keep titles for their entire lifespan, but the censorship cannot be tolerated. Authors are stuck in the middle: We want to sell books, but we don’t want to be set aside as second class, brown-wrapper authors just because our category isn’t liked by the Amazon policy makers.
Other retailers can’t compete with Amazon’s price points, but knowing that lists and search engines aren’t censored is worth a dollar or two more.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Historical Fiction Represents Culture?
One person said that historical fiction doesn’t represent the culture of a place.
Then what does?
Historical fiction is fiction, but the culture of the time and place the novel is set plays a huge role. The setting becomes a character. In Under a Copper Moon, I researched the people, the town’s history, the attitudes, the food, the fashion, and the laws that dictated how a character would live and work and love.
All the bigotry, prejudices, and narrow-mindedness revealed itself just as the kindness, justice, goodwill, and caring trumped those lower, petty attitudes. It reminded me a lot of current culture – good and bad are present and celebrated by different groups.
You can read historical accounts, old newspapers, diaries and journals of the people who lived during the time. I did. But to take it a step further, to parallel what our ancestors struggled with and how they coped in their lives, to parallel that with our own requires imagination and literary license that binds the storytelling of true non-fiction.
The fun part is to look back with 20/20 vision. I could visualize the culture of Jerome in the Arizona Territory in 1894 and I could experience it today. I pulled the types of events and characters that would have led the town to its current way of life.
The key is reading historical fiction with an adult view and bringing your own experiences to the story along with the recent history of the setting. From my past in corporate instructional design, I realize that adults bring experience with them to everything they do (unlike children who seem to need more details and repetitious, routine, rote learning) and this allows an author to use a phrase that brings more to the table than the mere words. For example: “those people.” An adult sees the words and knows it is something uttered by a person who sees himself as superior to another group of people, usually by race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical abilities, etc.
Novels embrace you and your willingness to ‘walk in the shoes’ of another. Some readers find this difficult and remain outside the characters and plot while others immerse themselves and their lives in the fiction with the added reward of seeing a different place and time in the context of their own lives.
Historical fiction gathers up the culture of a certain place and time and stirs it with our own. It represents the culture of a place more than facts and dates; it adds the spice of knowing the future and framing the past to help illustrate how we made it here in one piece.
Then what does?
Historical fiction is fiction, but the culture of the time and place the novel is set plays a huge role. The setting becomes a character. In Under a Copper Moon, I researched the people, the town’s history, the attitudes, the food, the fashion, and the laws that dictated how a character would live and work and love.
All the bigotry, prejudices, and narrow-mindedness revealed itself just as the kindness, justice, goodwill, and caring trumped those lower, petty attitudes. It reminded me a lot of current culture – good and bad are present and celebrated by different groups.
You can read historical accounts, old newspapers, diaries and journals of the people who lived during the time. I did. But to take it a step further, to parallel what our ancestors struggled with and how they coped in their lives, to parallel that with our own requires imagination and literary license that binds the storytelling of true non-fiction.
The fun part is to look back with 20/20 vision. I could visualize the culture of Jerome in the Arizona Territory in 1894 and I could experience it today. I pulled the types of events and characters that would have led the town to its current way of life.
The key is reading historical fiction with an adult view and bringing your own experiences to the story along with the recent history of the setting. From my past in corporate instructional design, I realize that adults bring experience with them to everything they do (unlike children who seem to need more details and repetitious, routine, rote learning) and this allows an author to use a phrase that brings more to the table than the mere words. For example: “those people.” An adult sees the words and knows it is something uttered by a person who sees himself as superior to another group of people, usually by race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical abilities, etc.
Novels embrace you and your willingness to ‘walk in the shoes’ of another. Some readers find this difficult and remain outside the characters and plot while others immerse themselves and their lives in the fiction with the added reward of seeing a different place and time in the context of their own lives.
Historical fiction gathers up the culture of a certain place and time and stirs it with our own. It represents the culture of a place more than facts and dates; it adds the spice of knowing the future and framing the past to help illustrate how we made it here in one piece.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
My/Derek's Dream
I wrote this in 2007 and added it to the file for the next Derek Mason Mystery. And forgot about it.
Today as I re-read what I wrote yesterday, I noticed this at the end of the document and it fit perfectly in what I wanted to work on today. Odd, since I hadn't looked at this in over a year.
It may end up in the final revision or it may not, but today it fit the plot. "He" made sure I saw it when I needed to.
----------------------------------
I woke from a dream, oddly calm since it had been a dream of my death.
In the house I grew up in, I had waited along with two other people—I think friends from elementary school, now grown. My mother paced the front yard, checking the road for someone, then stopping to tell me I didn't need to do it.
The sway of the thin branches of an elm ushered in a breeze and with it a scent of summer rain. Nervous glances to each other, the two people waiting with me began to walk toward the road then ran as they reached the pavement.
“It will do no good,” my mother said.
I knew they were scared and running would be their way of fighting back, futile or not, it was something for them to do.
We stood in my childhood bedroom and I picked through the suits I own today. Holding out the black one I had worn to Walterene’s funeral, I said “This will do, but I doubt I'll have an open casket, so I guess it really doesn’t matter.”
“They may be able to do something with the collar,” my mother said.
“Waiting is the hardest part.”
She nodded and lowered her thin body to the bed.
The sheers underneath the heavy drapes blew in the wind and I wondered if I’d feel the blade. Only for an instant, I thought, since the mind will be separated from the body or more realistically the head will be sliced from the torso. Beheaded…
Decapitated… The thought didn't bother me. I knew he was coming, and when he arrived, I’d die.
And waking up, I felt calm. As if I had accepted my death and only waited for it without fear or regret.
-----------------------------------
Today as I re-read what I wrote yesterday, I noticed this at the end of the document and it fit perfectly in what I wanted to work on today. Odd, since I hadn't looked at this in over a year.
It may end up in the final revision or it may not, but today it fit the plot. "He" made sure I saw it when I needed to.
----------------------------------
I woke from a dream, oddly calm since it had been a dream of my death.
In the house I grew up in, I had waited along with two other people—I think friends from elementary school, now grown. My mother paced the front yard, checking the road for someone, then stopping to tell me I didn't need to do it.
The sway of the thin branches of an elm ushered in a breeze and with it a scent of summer rain. Nervous glances to each other, the two people waiting with me began to walk toward the road then ran as they reached the pavement.
“It will do no good,” my mother said.
I knew they were scared and running would be their way of fighting back, futile or not, it was something for them to do.
We stood in my childhood bedroom and I picked through the suits I own today. Holding out the black one I had worn to Walterene’s funeral, I said “This will do, but I doubt I'll have an open casket, so I guess it really doesn’t matter.”
“They may be able to do something with the collar,” my mother said.
“Waiting is the hardest part.”
She nodded and lowered her thin body to the bed.
The sheers underneath the heavy drapes blew in the wind and I wondered if I’d feel the blade. Only for an instant, I thought, since the mind will be separated from the body or more realistically the head will be sliced from the torso. Beheaded…
Decapitated… The thought didn't bother me. I knew he was coming, and when he arrived, I’d die.
And waking up, I felt calm. As if I had accepted my death and only waited for it without fear or regret.
-----------------------------------
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Value of a Writer
The economy has had a chilling effect on businesses…and writers. At one time, a business valued its corporate identity and how its communications reflected the professionalism of the brand. But the economy seems to have cut corners in many company communications.
Yesterday, I received two e-mails from major magazines trying to drum up advertising dollars (I do some freelance marketing and receive e-mails from advertising reps). Here are examples of why writers (and basic writing skills) are important:
Yesterday, I received two e-mails from major magazines trying to drum up advertising dollars (I do some freelance marketing and receive e-mails from advertising reps). Here are examples of why writers (and basic writing skills) are important:
And another:“Being one of the most poplar annual sections, readers use this piece throughout
the year to find information on popular activities, restaurants and attractions…”
Misspellings & misplaced modifiers
"Moving outdoors, PUBLICATION NAME also looks at works by ARTIST NAMES, to see how the art effects the landscape, and whether outdoor art tranlates to increased museum attendance…"
"70% of PUBLICATION NAME readers colect art."
Misspellings & confused word: effects vs. affects (Even Microsoft Word could find these.)
I’m not trying to be the grammar police, and I do make mistakes, but come on people, don’t cut out editors and writers and think your sales staff can navigate the English language.
Hire a writer. We’re cheap!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Gifts for Readers & Writers
As the holidays approach, I have found some great gifts for readers and writers.
Well, the best gift for a reader would be one of my books.
But, if you've read the books or if you are a writer, I posted links to some fun t-shirts, mugs, accessories (and even boxers).
Yes, Fingering the Family Jewels boxers. Give them to someone you love.
A t-shirt to give everyone around you fair warning that you're a writer and their actions may end up in your book.
And the ultimate tote to warn people not to piss you off.
Fun Writer & Reader Merchandise
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