So in 2 weeks our local theater is having a poetry slam. My daughter was invited by her teacher to perform (which I hope she will) and I think I'm going to do it also.
It's been a long, long time since I've read poetry aloud and I hate reading in front of people but I really like the idea of trying to do a performance piece. I'm thinking about what I' like to write/what I'd like to say.
In other news, an old friend has written a book and is asking me how to get published and all the ins and outs of the business. *sigh* How do you explain to someone that their chances of getting a New York publisher interested in a shot in the dark when blindfolded and deaf? There are so many people out there who deserve to be signed by NY houses and aren't.
I feel like an old curmudgeon with this. I want to say your chances of getting an agent are a million to one. Your chances of getting a publisher even smaller. And your chances of getting an audience...well... only apparently if it's Twilight fan fic.
But I get it. I had that same dream for most of my life and I'm still heartbroken that it'll never be realized.It's not that a person writes for fame. But you write and just wish it's good enough to stand with the writers you love.
It's heartbreaking when it isn't.
Other news: Carolyn's birthday is approaching. Feb 1. She's finally going to admit the red hair is Miss Clairol. I'm trying to arrange a male stripper for her birthday surprise but somehow all the exotic man dancers I've contacted hear Carolyn's name and slam down the phone on me. So what's that all about Carol? Huh?
And I just realized when writing that we can't slam down phones anymore with cell phones. So what does a writer do? She snapped her phone shut forcibly. She punched the end call button. She huffed and disconnected the call. Misses something, doesn't it?
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Friday, January 23, 2015
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Noble Romance Publishing... The End?
I'm certainly out of the loop and in general have tried to stay out of the Noble loop for ages but it looks as though the publisher has imploded and in a quick and messy way.
Jill Noble, the face of the house and editor in chief has quit. She apparently was working for her brother Jim and tried to buy him out and didn't, leading her to quit the house in one of the greatest flounces ever.
Of course the minute she sent that out then the authors started talking. Suddenly we learn that royalties haven't been paid, promises about books in print weren't followed through. Emails have gone unanswered.
Then Jill's daughter, apparently another Noble executive came into the author's loop and demanded that the authors show loyalty to her departing mother by not discussing royalties or issues. Good authors don't discuss such things, it seems. When she was shot down it got momentarily not prettier.
Noble's new "face" Jim, the owner we didn't know there was, is not taking calls at this time. The person left as a contact for the authors isn't contacting back. And the author's loop was shut down.
My experiences with Noble weren't good. I contracted Hot Hexed and Bothered with them. Far from my best book but definately my best title (hee hee). Anyway, the editor I was assigned never contacted me and we had a quick release date approaching so a new editor was assigned maybe two weeks before release.
That editor rewrote sections of my book (she just rewrote, no asking) and so I rewrote them back to what they were. I was assigned a new editor who sent me an email and said she didn't know anything about editing but she was there to be my publishing buddy and get me answers to any questions I had.
Then Jill wrote me a week before my release and said the book wasn't going to be released on time. I complained and she apologized and said they'd provide me some swag for giveaways to make up for it. Apparently she meant they'd provide pictures of swag because I never got a thing from them.
They released the book, it tanked, they released it as erotic romance even though there wasn't a single sex scene in it *scratching head*.
Being in the author's loop with Noble it was easy to see that the business was being run like a club. Jill was the most popular girl and she promoted hard the people she liked. It was a clique and not a business, or so it seemed to me. And later Jill was offering an online workshop which lasted one lesson and then she dropped it and never mentioned it again. Flaky.
Anyway, so that was my experiences with Noble. It'll be interesting to see what happens next. But I'm not going to hold my breath for them. Unless they hire someone whose last name isn't Noble to run the business. Then they might have a fighting chance.
Jill Noble, the face of the house and editor in chief has quit. She apparently was working for her brother Jim and tried to buy him out and didn't, leading her to quit the house in one of the greatest flounces ever.
At this moment, I do not know what the owner's plans are, as far as the company's immediate future is concerned. I'm pretty sure he'll keep it up and running, in some form, so he can earn back some of his initial investment. I, on the other hand, only invested years of my life, my talent, my expertise, and my hard labor, and so I don't imagine there is any way I'll recoup my contribution. ;-) I'm not concerned about that, though. For me, this has always been a labor of love. I've met a lot of really wonderful, talented people (and let's face it - a few crazy ones, too, lol), and up until this past year, I never looked on my position here as a "job." Jobs are never this fun. To say I've enjoyed working with you sounds like such a cliche, but I promise you, it's true. I'm hoping many of you will want to keep in touch and maintain a friendship on some other level. On the bright side, I can now review your books without being accused of practicing favoritism.She went on to say :
I sincerely apologize for the fact that my parting ways with NRP will no doubt disrupt some of your lives, to one degree or another. I hope you're treated fairly; I believe you will be. You all have contracts; follow them to the letter, and you'll be fine.I loved that. Follow your contracts to the letter... but the company doesn't have to?
Of course the minute she sent that out then the authors started talking. Suddenly we learn that royalties haven't been paid, promises about books in print weren't followed through. Emails have gone unanswered.
Then Jill's daughter, apparently another Noble executive came into the author's loop and demanded that the authors show loyalty to her departing mother by not discussing royalties or issues. Good authors don't discuss such things, it seems. When she was shot down it got momentarily not prettier.
Noble's new "face" Jim, the owner we didn't know there was, is not taking calls at this time. The person left as a contact for the authors isn't contacting back. And the author's loop was shut down.
My experiences with Noble weren't good. I contracted Hot Hexed and Bothered with them. Far from my best book but definately my best title (hee hee). Anyway, the editor I was assigned never contacted me and we had a quick release date approaching so a new editor was assigned maybe two weeks before release.
That editor rewrote sections of my book (she just rewrote, no asking) and so I rewrote them back to what they were. I was assigned a new editor who sent me an email and said she didn't know anything about editing but she was there to be my publishing buddy and get me answers to any questions I had.
Then Jill wrote me a week before my release and said the book wasn't going to be released on time. I complained and she apologized and said they'd provide me some swag for giveaways to make up for it. Apparently she meant they'd provide pictures of swag because I never got a thing from them.
They released the book, it tanked, they released it as erotic romance even though there wasn't a single sex scene in it *scratching head*.
Being in the author's loop with Noble it was easy to see that the business was being run like a club. Jill was the most popular girl and she promoted hard the people she liked. It was a clique and not a business, or so it seemed to me. And later Jill was offering an online workshop which lasted one lesson and then she dropped it and never mentioned it again. Flaky.
Anyway, so that was my experiences with Noble. It'll be interesting to see what happens next. But I'm not going to hold my breath for them. Unless they hire someone whose last name isn't Noble to run the business. Then they might have a fighting chance.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Interview with Renee Rocco of Lyrical Press
With all the conversation about publishing, I had a few questions I wanted to ask. I decided to start with Renee Rocco, owner of Lyrical Publishing.
Renee runs an amazing company and Lyrical has been a dream to work with.
In your opinion, do you think that e-publishing/e-publishers will become the new New York standard?
RR: Although I think in some ways we already do set the digital standard, it'll be a long time before the NY houses blow the dust off the way they're doing things. Small presses do digital in a more reader and author friendly way (higher royalty rates, lower ebook prices) and if the NY houses continue to fight change and don't rethink how they present digital reading to their audiences and authors, that's just bad business...in my opinion.
Do you think self-publishing will affect epublishers negatively?
RR: I think self-publishing will only hurt those epublishers who fail to provide a reliable and author-friendly house for their authors. Is it true that some epublishers have felt the sting of fewer submissions? Yes. I also think some houses may be reluctant to admit this fact publicly, maybe fearing it reflects poorly on them. That's simply not true. Most authors I've spoken with about self-publishing want to be the next Amanda Hocking. When they realize she is the exception and not the norm - which will take time as sales figures continue to come in - those authors will return to quality epublishers.
What do you think the the next few years in publishing will look like?
RR: You know, I was laughing about this very thing this morning. Here's an example of what was on my news feed today (these two headlines were back-to-back about ebook pricing): The $0.99 ebook will save publishing / $0.99 pricing will kill the value of ebooks. I think this goes to show no one knows what will be, but everyone has an opinion about what might happen. Me? I'm a wait-and-see person. I'm not going to speculate. If I've learned anything over the last few years it is, no one can predict what's going to happen with publishing. All I can do is be prepared for change and evolve Lyrical Press as it happens. Until then, I'll sit here, quietly reading how one person's prediction of what will save publishing is another's person's opinion of what will kill it.
What do you think new authors should think about when they're considering their future in publishing?
RR: First and foremost, authors need to realize they are a business. Their books are not their babies. They are the tools of their trade. They must be willing to accept constructive criticism. They must learn the art of self-editing. Most importantly, they must leave their expectations at the door. Simply put, what *was* no longer *is*, and what *is* won't be for much longer (see above question about the future of publishing!). A large part of that means print can no longer be an author's ideal and the days of marketing packages are long gone (unless you're a Stephen King type). Yes, your publisher should offer some form of marketing, but unless you're a name (even with large houses, I've recently learned), it will be a more generalized promotion of the house, rather than individual authors. A major repercussion of that is, authors need to embrace social media. That means more than just Tweeting '1k more and it's lunch time!'. That's not being social, which is the main function of that media outlet (hence the name 'social media'). It's about interacting with your readers and not just posting word count updates or only writing-related news. It's about being real, being present with your readers. It's not longer only about writing - even though we all wish it was because let's be honest... that's the fun part!
Renee runs an amazing company and Lyrical has been a dream to work with.
In your opinion, do you think that e-publishing/e-publishers will become the new New York standard?
RR: Although I think in some ways we already do set the digital standard, it'll be a long time before the NY houses blow the dust off the way they're doing things. Small presses do digital in a more reader and author friendly way (higher royalty rates, lower ebook prices) and if the NY houses continue to fight change and don't rethink how they present digital reading to their audiences and authors, that's just bad business...in my opinion.
Do you think self-publishing will affect epublishers negatively?
RR: I think self-publishing will only hurt those epublishers who fail to provide a reliable and author-friendly house for their authors. Is it true that some epublishers have felt the sting of fewer submissions? Yes. I also think some houses may be reluctant to admit this fact publicly, maybe fearing it reflects poorly on them. That's simply not true. Most authors I've spoken with about self-publishing want to be the next Amanda Hocking. When they realize she is the exception and not the norm - which will take time as sales figures continue to come in - those authors will return to quality epublishers.
What do you think the the next few years in publishing will look like?
RR: You know, I was laughing about this very thing this morning. Here's an example of what was on my news feed today (these two headlines were back-to-back about ebook pricing): The $0.99 ebook will save publishing / $0.99 pricing will kill the value of ebooks. I think this goes to show no one knows what will be, but everyone has an opinion about what might happen. Me? I'm a wait-and-see person. I'm not going to speculate. If I've learned anything over the last few years it is, no one can predict what's going to happen with publishing. All I can do is be prepared for change and evolve Lyrical Press as it happens. Until then, I'll sit here, quietly reading how one person's prediction of what will save publishing is another's person's opinion of what will kill it.
What do you think new authors should think about when they're considering their future in publishing?
RR: First and foremost, authors need to realize they are a business. Their books are not their babies. They are the tools of their trade. They must be willing to accept constructive criticism. They must learn the art of self-editing. Most importantly, they must leave their expectations at the door. Simply put, what *was* no longer *is*, and what *is* won't be for much longer (see above question about the future of publishing!). A large part of that means print can no longer be an author's ideal and the days of marketing packages are long gone (unless you're a Stephen King type). Yes, your publisher should offer some form of marketing, but unless you're a name (even with large houses, I've recently learned), it will be a more generalized promotion of the house, rather than individual authors. A major repercussion of that is, authors need to embrace social media. That means more than just Tweeting '1k more and it's lunch time!'. That's not being social, which is the main function of that media outlet (hence the name 'social media'). It's about interacting with your readers and not just posting word count updates or only writing-related news. It's about being real, being present with your readers. It's not longer only about writing - even though we all wish it was because let's be honest... that's the fun part!
Friday, June 17, 2011
The View From Publishing
It's a fascinating world out there in Publishing Land. If you're not a writer or even interested in the industry then all that matters is the stories keep coming but the question of where those stories are coming from is on everybody's minds.
Traditional publishing (writer gets agent, agent shops book, publishing house buys book, gives advance, publishes book, author is traditionally published) versus epub (author writes book, sends book to epub who accepts publishes book, author gets 30 - 40% of cover price on books sold) to self pub (author writes book, formats book, puts book on amazon, b&n and others, gets 75% of cover price for each book sold)...
Okay, starting again. So with ebooks taking a large share of the market thanks to the Kindle and the Nook and all the other ereaders out there traditional publishing houses lost their way. Ebooks are a huge seller and money isn't being made by traditionally publishing. But prestige and names are still made by trad. publishing not to mention it's every writer's dream to have that paper copy in their hands and to know they made it.
The epubs offer little chance of print books but they give you the editing process (Carolyn and I both have gone through editing with Lyrical and if they aren't as good or better than anyone out there I'll eat Carolyn's shorts). Epubs are great except that erotic sells best and if you don't have lots of tab a in slot b then you might not see great sales.
Self publishing is the exciting new landscape. The only problem is that a lot of people seem to be looking at it like a get rich quick scheme. Write a book, slap a cover on and price it to sell. The only problem is that the writing sucks the editing is non-existant and the covers are sub-par. How do I know this? I did it too.
I put 2 short stories out on amazon that were badly formatted and had lousy covers. And then I thought that wasn't how I wanted to represent myself. So the stories were taken down and are being offered for free on smashwords. (If you want just go to smashwords.com and search Lori Green. There are 3 free shorts. Feliz Navidad is the best of them.)
The fun thing is that with each arm of publishing there's cheerleaders and scoffers. JA Konrath, who has been the loudest cheerleader for self-pub just signed a contract with the new Amazon publishing arm. Courtney Milan self-pubbed a short and she's delighted with it but she had a readership in place and it looks and reads professional.
So what to do? That's like asking if you want a cone with chocolate or vanilla ice cream and do you want sprinkles? I say get a cup not a cone try all the flavors and sprinkles say it's a party.
In other words they're all good. Why does one have to be better than another? They all have benefits and drawbacks. For me, I want the elusive New York publication. I want to see my book on a bookstore shelf. I also want to have many ebooks with many epubs because I love my publishers and what they teach me about writing and promo. And I plan to self-pub but I'm doing that with an editor already signed up and a cover artists raring to go.
It's a world with no boundaries. Can you imagine what a great ride that's going to be for anyone willing to drive with the top down?
Traditional publishing (writer gets agent, agent shops book, publishing house buys book, gives advance, publishes book, author is traditionally published) versus epub (author writes book, sends book to epub who accepts publishes book, author gets 30 - 40% of cover price on books sold) to self pub (author writes book, formats book, puts book on amazon, b&n and others, gets 75% of cover price for each book sold)...
Okay, starting again. So with ebooks taking a large share of the market thanks to the Kindle and the Nook and all the other ereaders out there traditional publishing houses lost their way. Ebooks are a huge seller and money isn't being made by traditionally publishing. But prestige and names are still made by trad. publishing not to mention it's every writer's dream to have that paper copy in their hands and to know they made it.
The epubs offer little chance of print books but they give you the editing process (Carolyn and I both have gone through editing with Lyrical and if they aren't as good or better than anyone out there I'll eat Carolyn's shorts). Epubs are great except that erotic sells best and if you don't have lots of tab a in slot b then you might not see great sales.
Self publishing is the exciting new landscape. The only problem is that a lot of people seem to be looking at it like a get rich quick scheme. Write a book, slap a cover on and price it to sell. The only problem is that the writing sucks the editing is non-existant and the covers are sub-par. How do I know this? I did it too.
I put 2 short stories out on amazon that were badly formatted and had lousy covers. And then I thought that wasn't how I wanted to represent myself. So the stories were taken down and are being offered for free on smashwords. (If you want just go to smashwords.com and search Lori Green. There are 3 free shorts. Feliz Navidad is the best of them.)
The fun thing is that with each arm of publishing there's cheerleaders and scoffers. JA Konrath, who has been the loudest cheerleader for self-pub just signed a contract with the new Amazon publishing arm. Courtney Milan self-pubbed a short and she's delighted with it but she had a readership in place and it looks and reads professional.
So what to do? That's like asking if you want a cone with chocolate or vanilla ice cream and do you want sprinkles? I say get a cup not a cone try all the flavors and sprinkles say it's a party.
In other words they're all good. Why does one have to be better than another? They all have benefits and drawbacks. For me, I want the elusive New York publication. I want to see my book on a bookstore shelf. I also want to have many ebooks with many epubs because I love my publishers and what they teach me about writing and promo. And I plan to self-pub but I'm doing that with an editor already signed up and a cover artists raring to go.
It's a world with no boundaries. Can you imagine what a great ride that's going to be for anyone willing to drive with the top down?
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