(More to the point, do I?)
Frances Garrood raised this question over on the MNW blog. Frances has two fine novels to her credit, and, of course, "two" is the magic number for the Macmillan New Writing imprint, the number beyond which you must move to another imprint within the Pan Macmillan family. On the other hand, if you make that move, it's expected that your editor will go along with you, so the net change may not be all that great.
Back in the golden age of publishing (back when all editors were Maxwell Perkins and all authors were Hemingways, Wolfes, Fitzgeralds, or similar cultural icons; back when 'advances' were just that--a way to keep a writer fed and out of the rain while they finished their latest opus), an author's primary relationship was typically with their editor, and there were many cases of author's moving with their editors, not only between imprints, but from one publishing house to another. Editors nurtured their writers, acting as guide, confessor, friend, drinking buddy, banker, and, I gather, sometimes even doing a spot of editing on the side.
That's the legend (and, like the Arthurian legends, it's more fun to enjoy it without looking too closely into the specifics). Certainly editors dominated the literary landscape and agents played only a minor role. For those of us who have worked with a good editor, this would seem to be the logical state of affairs; after all, if an editor is doing their job, the editor has the most intimate relationship with a novel of anyone excepting the writer.
So, if you're lucky enough to be published at a house where you have an ongoing relationship with a good editor, do you really need an agent?
I'd answer with a definitive maybe yes, maybe no.
When do I think an agent would be useful to someone who has a good editor? Under any of the following circumstances, an agent might be in order even if you're already happily published:
1. You wear many writerly masks. Editors have many jobs beyond gently pointing out our more egregious blunders. One of them, crass as it may sound, is to develop writers as saleable commodities for their publishing houses. Sure, Iain Banks may be able to maintain an identity in two unrelated genres, but I'd bet no editor encouraged him to "branch out" into a wholly new identity. (Ken Follett has said that be received stiff resistance from everyone in publishing when he decided to switch away from his thrillers and write his first historical novel. Hardly surprising.) An editor needs to convince a house to publish a book in the first place, and then needs to cultivate that writer’s success (if any) by building their brand. Encouraging a writer of, say, military fiction to try their hand at a Harlequin romance doesn’t really make much sense for the house, the editor’s career, or most probably for the writer’s career.
Now, to be fair, no agent is likely to greet a writer’s desire to adopt a second genre with cheers of encouragement—unless the writer’s career in their first genre is flagging. But the agent is more likely to be able to go along (perhaps quite grudgingly) with the writer’s mulish, wrong-headed determination, because the agent is in a position to select from all the possible houses and imprints in the wide world to place the book (possibly under a pseudonym); the editor has no such luxury.
So, if you’re foolish enough to have novels in more than one genre, you most likely will need to seek an agent.
2. You have a novel you believe in that has been rejected. If your editor has said no to a book, that doesn’t necessarily mean it shouldn’t be published. It might mean that the editor can’t convince the house of its commercial prospects; it might mean that it doesn’t fit with the way they hope to build you as an author; it might mean that the editor is simply wrong about the book. The why of it doesn’t matter. You have three options open to you: a) Forget about it; b) Get an agent to shop it elsewhere; or, c) Send it over the transom to another publisher.
Forgetting about a book you think deserves a chance is an uncomfortable decision to live with. Tossing it over the transom is fine, but there aren’t many publishers who are open to unagented submissions. If you believe in the book, getting an agent is probably the best course.
3. You need more guidance. The MNW crowd is lucky in that Will Atkins is a flexible, generous editor who is willing to kick around ideas and even offer advice about what you might try next, but he still has to view matters from the perspective of what is possible within the (admittedly large) Pan Mac empire. An agent can take a broader view of your career…if you are so lucky as to acquire an agent whose perspective harmonizes with your own. (Good luck on that.)
4. You just want someone else to talk to. Hey, it’s a lonely business.
5. You want to be able to drop the phrase, “I was talking to my agent the other day…” into conversations. In Southern California, this hints at a connection to the movies and makes you seem more glamorous. In other parts of the country, however, people will probably assume you are talking about your insurance agent.
Note that I prefaced this with “even if you're already happily published.” If you aren’t happy with your publisher, or you feel you could get a far better deal that you are receiving, then you probably need an agent--if nothing else, as a reality check..
In my case, if I wrote only thrillers, I’d be only too happy to avoid the process of seeking representation; so far I’m an instance of Case #1, above—though, living here in the Belly of the Beast as I do, #5 has some appeal.
I’m sure I’ve overlooked some perfectly good reasons. Feel free to supply them.
Showing posts with label Macmillan New Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macmillan New Writing. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Borderlands Arrives in the US of A
Actually, the release date for the US edition of Brian McGilloway's Borderlands was the day before yesterday, September 2nd, but some of us (and by "some of us," I mean "me") are a little slow. But there it is, on the shelves of the Huntington Beach Barnes and Noble, sitting proudly in the New Mystery section. Somewhat surprisingly, St. Martin's Press decided to stick with the original cover, which shows an unusual attack of good sense and good taste; usually covers are changed just on the principle of the thing.I have discovered that unless you are JK Rowling, John Grisham, or someone else who has a large audience quivering with anticipation at the imminent arrival of your new novel, "publication date" is a pretty elastic concept. The stores may get the books out on the shelves even before they are "published," or they may find their way out of the back room a few days later when the stock clerk stops using that particular box of books as a lunch table. So far, of the five Barnes and Noble superstores within 10 miles of my house, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Orange all have Borderlands on display; Costa Mesa and Irvine's copies are still apparently in use by the stockboy. Borderlands is also on display at Borders in its Long Beach, Brea, and Yorba Linda stores, and I suspect it will soon be cropping up at others.
So, St. Martin's seems to be doing a good job of pushing the books out the door and onto the shelves, and I'm glad. This is more than a selfless interest in seeing Brian's book reach a wider audience; this is also an historic, but little-noted occasion. This is the first time a Macmillan New Writing book has jumped the Atlantic and been printed in an American edition. Many--probably all--of us would like to see our books do the same, but I suspect those of us residing in the US harbor special hopes in this area. (Though something tells me if my book hasn't made the jump by now...)
Irrespective of my vested interest in seeing Brian's book do well, I'd urge American readers to toddle on down to their local bookstore (or, okay, go online if you must) and pick up a copy of Borderlands. McGilloway's prose is flawless, his characters pop off the page, the plot is engrossing, and the setting unique. The book received deservedly great reviews in Ireland and the UK, and sold enough copies to turn most writers Elphaba-colored with envy.
In case you didn't get the message, My Fellow Americans, I'm suggesting you buy it. (And congrats, Brian!)
Saturday, April 26, 2008
MNW and McGilloway
This is old news to those who read the Macmillan New Writers blog, but since I know not all the visitors here frequent that site...
Publishing News UK has an excellent article on the Macmillan New Writing imprint in general and on Brian McGilloway in particular.
What the article fails to mention is that Brian's Borderlands is also the first MNW title to sell on to a US publisher: the hardback edition will be released by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press some time in the autumn. This is one my fellow Norte Americanos will want to buy, but you need not write it on your calendars--I promise to give a shout here when it appears.
Publishing News UK has an excellent article on the Macmillan New Writing imprint in general and on Brian McGilloway in particular.
What the article fails to mention is that Brian's Borderlands is also the first MNW title to sell on to a US publisher: the hardback edition will be released by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press some time in the autumn. This is one my fellow Norte Americanos will want to buy, but you need not write it on your calendars--I promise to give a shout here when it appears.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Genre. Branding. Pen Names. Oh, and World Peace.
Len Tyler is asking hard questions over on the Macmillan New Writers blog. Genre. Branding. Pen names.
“Genre” is one of those words with triple meanings. Even in literary criticism, it can be used as meaning Aristotle’s categories (Tragedy, Comedy), or the form and diction level of the story (fable, tale, epic, saga, realist, metafiction…). The latter usage is what John Gardner means when he says that “the writer’s primary unit of thought is genre…”. The third meaning, and, increasingly the dominant meaning, is the marketing sense, which ever gets sliced thinner, as in “Sensuous Time-Travel Romance” or “Christian Urban Dark Fantasy.”
I believe it was Lawrence Block who said that genre in the marketing sense was a concept that was useful to everyone except the writer.
I never really thought hard about the topic of genre when tackling a project. When I wrote Shock and Awe, I didn't plan to write a thriller, but it soon became apparent that's what I was writing. I'm not overly fond of the thriller genre, and, to tell the truth, don't read many thrillers, but it was the right form for the story I wanted to tell and the issues I wanted to wrestle with. And now--ka-zam!--I'm a thriller writer. Luckily, it turns out I enjoy writing in the genre, even if reading in it can get iffy.
Until my current work-in-progress, I had never set out to write something in particular. Now I find myself trying to write the kind of book the author of Shock and Awe might write. It's a bit odd, and poses new kinds of challenges for me.
A couple of my other books tend to be more humorous and a little goofily postmodern, and if you had to bin them, they'd probably end up in the "fantasy/sci-fi" bin, even though most fantasy/sci-fi fans would probably loathe them. (Most sci-fi fans also loathe it when you call it "sci-fi." I'm not sure why.) I think that a pen name will be important for those. I'd hate to have someone who bought Shock and Awe buy Tomorrowville expecting more of the same.
Now, under the MNW contract, Macmillan has the first option of publishing my next book. And I have the option, legally, of submitting whatever I like, and saying,“There it is—that’s David Isaak’s next book, this Time-Travel Romance.” And Macmillan would have the option of telling me to shove off and take it over to Boon and Mills (where, no doubt, they would find I was the author of Shock and Awe, and tell me they might have a few marketing problems with my image. And in case you’re wondering, no, I haven’t actually written a Time-Travel Romance.)
But I can’t see how this scenario benefits anyone. I’ve written a thriller. It's an extremely unusual thriller in terms of its approach and even some of its techniques, but I can't imagine anyone sorting it into another bin. Whatever small credibility my name carries with readers is as a thriller writer, and that credibility is less useful further afield—and indeed in some genres, is a definite liability. Therefore, I believe that both MNW and I agree that the next thing of mine they publish ought to be in at least the same general vein as Shock and Awe, and that when they pick up the next “David Isaak” book there can be surprises—but that the sort of book it is shouldn’t be one of those surprises.
Let me hasten to point out that this applies to me, but doesn't apply equally strongly to all MNW authors. It would have been very weird indeed if, say, Edward Charles hadn't followed up his first book with another historical novel. And Brian McGilloway would be tarred and feathered if he didn't follow Borderlands with another Devlin novel. But many of the other MNW books don't fit as neatly into slots as mine, or Edwards', or McGilloway's did. So some of you have more latitude.
But I have other books, none of which fit in the thriller box, and I’d rather not leave them buried forever, so the only rational thing to do in the long term, crass as it sounds, is give them their own brand. (MNW still gets right of first refusal, of course, but these are things they won’t want.) And the number-one branding of fiction is the name of the author. Pen name, here I come.
I know the Iain Banks/Iain M. Banks or Roger/RN Morris thing seems to work well enough, but "Isaak" sticks out a bit more than Banks or Morris, so I'm inclined to adopt something farther afield. Or maybe I just like the multiple identity/secret identity aspect of it. (WANTED: David Isaak, aka Joey “Bonkers” Bonello, aka Doctor "Dogz 'n Kidz" Roofieman aka The Scarlet Pimpernel…)
I mean, even Winnie the Pooh lived under the name of Sanders.
“Genre” is one of those words with triple meanings. Even in literary criticism, it can be used as meaning Aristotle’s categories (Tragedy, Comedy), or the form and diction level of the story (fable, tale, epic, saga, realist, metafiction…). The latter usage is what John Gardner means when he says that “the writer’s primary unit of thought is genre…”. The third meaning, and, increasingly the dominant meaning, is the marketing sense, which ever gets sliced thinner, as in “Sensuous Time-Travel Romance” or “Christian Urban Dark Fantasy.”
I believe it was Lawrence Block who said that genre in the marketing sense was a concept that was useful to everyone except the writer.
I never really thought hard about the topic of genre when tackling a project. When I wrote Shock and Awe, I didn't plan to write a thriller, but it soon became apparent that's what I was writing. I'm not overly fond of the thriller genre, and, to tell the truth, don't read many thrillers, but it was the right form for the story I wanted to tell and the issues I wanted to wrestle with. And now--ka-zam!--I'm a thriller writer. Luckily, it turns out I enjoy writing in the genre, even if reading in it can get iffy.
Until my current work-in-progress, I had never set out to write something in particular. Now I find myself trying to write the kind of book the author of Shock and Awe might write. It's a bit odd, and poses new kinds of challenges for me.
A couple of my other books tend to be more humorous and a little goofily postmodern, and if you had to bin them, they'd probably end up in the "fantasy/sci-fi" bin, even though most fantasy/sci-fi fans would probably loathe them. (Most sci-fi fans also loathe it when you call it "sci-fi." I'm not sure why.) I think that a pen name will be important for those. I'd hate to have someone who bought Shock and Awe buy Tomorrowville expecting more of the same.
Now, under the MNW contract, Macmillan has the first option of publishing my next book. And I have the option, legally, of submitting whatever I like, and saying,“There it is—that’s David Isaak’s next book, this Time-Travel Romance.” And Macmillan would have the option of telling me to shove off and take it over to Boon and Mills (where, no doubt, they would find I was the author of Shock and Awe, and tell me they might have a few marketing problems with my image. And in case you’re wondering, no, I haven’t actually written a Time-Travel Romance.)
But I can’t see how this scenario benefits anyone. I’ve written a thriller. It's an extremely unusual thriller in terms of its approach and even some of its techniques, but I can't imagine anyone sorting it into another bin. Whatever small credibility my name carries with readers is as a thriller writer, and that credibility is less useful further afield—and indeed in some genres, is a definite liability. Therefore, I believe that both MNW and I agree that the next thing of mine they publish ought to be in at least the same general vein as Shock and Awe, and that when they pick up the next “David Isaak” book there can be surprises—but that the sort of book it is shouldn’t be one of those surprises.
Let me hasten to point out that this applies to me, but doesn't apply equally strongly to all MNW authors. It would have been very weird indeed if, say, Edward Charles hadn't followed up his first book with another historical novel. And Brian McGilloway would be tarred and feathered if he didn't follow Borderlands with another Devlin novel. But many of the other MNW books don't fit as neatly into slots as mine, or Edwards', or McGilloway's did. So some of you have more latitude.
But I have other books, none of which fit in the thriller box, and I’d rather not leave them buried forever, so the only rational thing to do in the long term, crass as it sounds, is give them their own brand. (MNW still gets right of first refusal, of course, but these are things they won’t want.) And the number-one branding of fiction is the name of the author. Pen name, here I come.
I know the Iain Banks/Iain M. Banks or Roger/RN Morris thing seems to work well enough, but "Isaak" sticks out a bit more than Banks or Morris, so I'm inclined to adopt something farther afield. Or maybe I just like the multiple identity/secret identity aspect of it. (WANTED: David Isaak, aka Joey “Bonkers” Bonello, aka Doctor "Dogz 'n Kidz" Roofieman aka The Scarlet Pimpernel…)
I mean, even Winnie the Pooh lived under the name of Sanders.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Shock in Stock...But Amazon US has something against MNW
Will Atkins informs me that when the Pan Macmillan web store shows a title as "out of stock," this means that the number of copies has shrunk below some threshold. He's had them reduce this threshold, and, poof! I'm back in stock. There's still about 50 copies somewhere in the Pan Mac warehouse.
Which brings me back to my original question: What is up with Amazon US? They let people buy copies for months (though as far as I know they never delivered any. And then they dropped the title from their "available" list. They still don't list my book as available for sale except as a used book. Yet their representative tells me the book "ought to be listed as available." Indeed it ought.
The most recent communication from Amazon US informed me that "We have received a few of these items from distributors, but have not yet received them from the publisher. We appreciate your patience with this issue."
Well, now at least I know the problem isn't that Macmillan is out of copies.
Meanwhile, Amazon Canada, bless them, still lists Shock and Awe as available, and what's more, available for CDN$15.72, which is a good price even with the US dollar somewhere underwater. At the moment they list it as "Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way). "
I'm wagering that Amazon Canada receives more copies before Amazon US manages to cover their orders from September. Does anybody have a phone number for Jeff Bezos?
(Update: I've just learned that Amazon US is apparently doing the same thing with other MNW books. LC Tyler's The Herring-Seller's Apprentice is still listed as "available," those who pre-ordered it have been informed that it won't be shipped until mid-to-late January. Faye L. Booth's Cover the Mirrors can still be added to your shopping cart, but there is a note saying that the book is "Temporarily Unavailable".
Peter Anthony's A Town Called Immaculate is listed as though there's no issues, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if you ordered it from Amazon US, you might find that you'd wait a month and then receive a notice informing you that delivery would be delayed...If anyone has ordered Peter's book from Amazon US, let me know how it all progresses!)
(And furthermore: While you can pick up a copy of Cover the Mirrors from Amazon Canada for CDN$15.72, Amazon Canada lists The Herring Seller's Apprentice, which was published a month before Cover the Mirrors, as "not yet published."
Truly, the ways of Amazon surpasseth human understanding.)
Which brings me back to my original question: What is up with Amazon US? They let people buy copies for months (though as far as I know they never delivered any. And then they dropped the title from their "available" list. They still don't list my book as available for sale except as a used book. Yet their representative tells me the book "ought to be listed as available." Indeed it ought.
The most recent communication from Amazon US informed me that "We have received a few of these items from distributors, but have not yet received them from the publisher. We appreciate your patience with this issue."
Well, now at least I know the problem isn't that Macmillan is out of copies.
Meanwhile, Amazon Canada, bless them, still lists Shock and Awe as available, and what's more, available for CDN$15.72, which is a good price even with the US dollar somewhere underwater. At the moment they list it as "Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way). "
I'm wagering that Amazon Canada receives more copies before Amazon US manages to cover their orders from September. Does anybody have a phone number for Jeff Bezos?
(Update: I've just learned that Amazon US is apparently doing the same thing with other MNW books. LC Tyler's The Herring-Seller's Apprentice is still listed as "available," those who pre-ordered it have been informed that it won't be shipped until mid-to-late January. Faye L. Booth's Cover the Mirrors can still be added to your shopping cart, but there is a note saying that the book is "Temporarily Unavailable".
Peter Anthony's A Town Called Immaculate is listed as though there's no issues, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if you ordered it from Amazon US, you might find that you'd wait a month and then receive a notice informing you that delivery would be delayed...If anyone has ordered Peter's book from Amazon US, let me know how it all progresses!)
(And furthermore: While you can pick up a copy of Cover the Mirrors from Amazon Canada for CDN$15.72, Amazon Canada lists The Herring Seller's Apprentice, which was published a month before Cover the Mirrors, as "not yet published."
Truly, the ways of Amazon surpasseth human understanding.)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Out of Stock...and Awe
I find it necessary to interject a brief note into the middle of this ongoing discourse on the problems and joys of expositional prose. The newish Part III is below. Part IV is somewhere above this…or will be.
My MNW evil twin (and who is that, you ask?) pointed out to me that S&A is now “Out of Stock” according to the PanMacmillan website. Which I guess has an optimistic ring to it.
But I received an e-mail the other day from Andrea, a friend who said she knew Shock and Awe’s theme was controversial enough that US publishers said thanks but no thanks…but that she didn’t realize it was going to be made unavailable in the US, and that even Amazon wouldn’t sell it.
Huh? I said (or something equally witty. Hey, I was talking to an e-mail—how witty do you have to be?). Because I know a number of people who’d ordered it from Amazon US. Admittedly, their delivery dates had been pushed off from October to November to December to January, but it was still available for order…Or so I thought.
(I apologize for the preceding overdramatic paragraph break. That was really tacky. Us thriller writers can’t help ourselves.)
I hopped on to Amazon US and looked up the book. Sure enough—you can still buy used copies of Shock and Awe from third parties, but Amazon US no longer allows you to order it new from them.
So, I asked Amazon US about this. Which isn’t easy to do (and can only be done by e-mail) by the way: Amazon US has all of the transparency, accountability, and ease of access of truly scary entities, like the KGB, or the NSA, or British Telecom.
The first answer I was given is that they aren’t quite sure what the problem is, but the book should be listed as available for purchase from Amazon, because copies are on order…
Well, whether or not it “should be listed as available for purchase from Amazon,” it isn’t. So I asked again, and this time that part of the question was ignored. Though she did tell me that, “We have received a few of these items from distributors, but have not yet received them from the publisher.”
Seeing as Amazon Canada has already sold a big stack of copies (they only have one left, but they claim they will have more soon), and even Amazon Japan has the book on hand (with free shipping on orders of over 1,500 yen!), I find this very strange indeed. Help me out with this. I see only three possibilities:
1) Amazon US actually had no intention of procuring the book until they had some critical mass of orders, and by the time they asked for it, Macmillan was out of stock; or,
2) Amazon US fully planned on getting the book, but now that the dollar has collapsed they plan on stalling on any book published in the UK, hoping people will cancel orders based on old exchange rates; or,
3) Andrea is right, and someone in a position of authority has decided this book isn’t fit reading for the tender eyes of my fellow citizens.
Meanwhile, though, you ought to be wary about ordering Shock and Awe from Amazon US, as it may never arrive. As to Andrea's theory, that's just silly.
I could go on, but I’m going to have to cut this short, because there’s a funny noise in the bushes beneath my office window…
My MNW evil twin (and who is that, you ask?) pointed out to me that S&A is now “Out of Stock” according to the PanMacmillan website. Which I guess has an optimistic ring to it.
But I received an e-mail the other day from Andrea, a friend who said she knew Shock and Awe’s theme was controversial enough that US publishers said thanks but no thanks…but that she didn’t realize it was going to be made unavailable in the US, and that even Amazon wouldn’t sell it.
Huh? I said (or something equally witty. Hey, I was talking to an e-mail—how witty do you have to be?). Because I know a number of people who’d ordered it from Amazon US. Admittedly, their delivery dates had been pushed off from October to November to December to January, but it was still available for order…Or so I thought.
(I apologize for the preceding overdramatic paragraph break. That was really tacky. Us thriller writers can’t help ourselves.)
I hopped on to Amazon US and looked up the book. Sure enough—you can still buy used copies of Shock and Awe from third parties, but Amazon US no longer allows you to order it new from them.
So, I asked Amazon US about this. Which isn’t easy to do (and can only be done by e-mail) by the way: Amazon US has all of the transparency, accountability, and ease of access of truly scary entities, like the KGB, or the NSA, or British Telecom.
The first answer I was given is that they aren’t quite sure what the problem is, but the book should be listed as available for purchase from Amazon, because copies are on order…
Well, whether or not it “should be listed as available for purchase from Amazon,” it isn’t. So I asked again, and this time that part of the question was ignored. Though she did tell me that, “We have received a few of these items from distributors, but have not yet received them from the publisher.”
Seeing as Amazon Canada has already sold a big stack of copies (they only have one left, but they claim they will have more soon), and even Amazon Japan has the book on hand (with free shipping on orders of over 1,500 yen!), I find this very strange indeed. Help me out with this. I see only three possibilities:
1) Amazon US actually had no intention of procuring the book until they had some critical mass of orders, and by the time they asked for it, Macmillan was out of stock; or,
2) Amazon US fully planned on getting the book, but now that the dollar has collapsed they plan on stalling on any book published in the UK, hoping people will cancel orders based on old exchange rates; or,
3) Andrea is right, and someone in a position of authority has decided this book isn’t fit reading for the tender eyes of my fellow citizens.
Meanwhile, though, you ought to be wary about ordering Shock and Awe from Amazon US, as it may never arrive. As to Andrea's theory, that's just silly.
I could go on, but I’m going to have to cut this short, because there’s a funny noise in the bushes beneath my office window…
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Grumpy Old Bookman Reviews Me
Or rather he reviews Shock and Awe. Not that any of us writers would take reviews of our books personally, right? We've got good distance between ourselves and our books, don't we?
Grumpy's original article on Macmillan New Writing --one of the most-cited articles in the history of the blogosphere (naturally excluding anything about Princess Di or Britney Spears)--was a critical factor in deciding me to submit my manuscript to the imprint in the first place, so I'm jazzed that he understands my disillusioned book. Getting Michael Allen to describe my book as "deeply cynical" is a bit like getting the Pope to describe me as "deeply Catholic." At the moment I'm a pretty happy fella.
Grumpy's original article on Macmillan New Writing --one of the most-cited articles in the history of the blogosphere (naturally excluding anything about Princess Di or Britney Spears)--was a critical factor in deciding me to submit my manuscript to the imprint in the first place, so I'm jazzed that he understands my disillusioned book. Getting Michael Allen to describe my book as "deeply cynical" is a bit like getting the Pope to describe me as "deeply Catholic." At the moment I'm a pretty happy fella.
What Would You Do If You Were Me? Part I
(Or rather, if you were I? which sounds incredibly awkward. Or, were you I? which is stilted to the point of being bad imitation Shakespeare. Who We Would Be Were You I and other collected poems, by Jonas J. Scribbler.)
So, to put it into Americanese, What Wouldja Do If You Was Me?
No wisecracks, please. No plastic-surgery jibes, no suggestions that I take the cloth, no observations about the eternal rest that can be achieved in a warm bath with the assistance of a sharp blade twisted under the veins in the wrist. Or at the minimum, keep them to yourself and anybody else in the room with you as you read this. Please don't share your merriment. ;-} (Don't you loathe smileys?)
Hey, I never intended to become a thriller writer. I haven’t read many thrillers, and most of them I’ve read were experiences I could easily have lived without. I adore Graham Greene and John Le Carre, of course, and some of Lee Child is exhilarating (if nothing else to see how many sentence fragments can be squeezed into a paragraph without being distracting. Plenty. Many frags. All over the place. Lots. All you need to accomplish Lee Child’s purpose. And then some.) But I’ve probably read less in the thriller genre than in any category apart from romance.
But the topics I needed to grapple with in Shock and Awe only amounted to a story in a thriller framework. So I wrote it that way. And now it turns out I’m a Thriller Writer.
No, really. I’m now a dues-paying member of the International Thriller Writers with my own page, right next to Susan Isaacs in the list (whom, as it turns out I have read, starting way way back with her funny novel Compromising Positions--hi, Susie!). And I’m now a member of the UK-based Crime Writers Association. (And they're a good bunch; they quite justifiably shortlisted Brian McGilloway’s Borderlands on a very short list for best debut novel, which shows damned good taste.) Crime Writer? Thriller Writer? I’m okay with it.
I have any number of things I want to write that fit into the thriller genre in some approximate fashion, though it's the kind of approximate that might result in a starfish on top of your Christmas tree. But Thriller Hotel isn’t an address I mind checking into. These days, I consider being allowed to sleep indoors with the humans to be a big step up in life. (Though the fellow who led me to my room said I could call him Procrustes. Name seems familiar somehow…Did he used to be on TV?)
It’s not that I can’t write thrillers (I hope). It’s not that I dislike writing thrillers. It’s just that I already have these other non-thriller books lying about the house, and they don’t fit with the persona/brand/expectations of a book by that "David Isaak" guy. They aren’t a logical follow-on to Shock and Awe. They’re the sort of thing someone might take as a debut novel…but I’m no longer a debutante. (Male form “debutant”, but no one has ever used that word outside of the dictionary.) I’m not a deb any more. I’m a—well, what the hell do you call me after my coming-out party plus forty-five seconds of mad passion in the back of a Ford Cortina? (That was rhetorical. Don’t answer that question or I’ll punch your lights out.)
So, here’s the question for y’all: If I have these books Macmillan won’t want because they don’t fit my brand (and because I’d have to be an even bigger nutcase than I already am to want them to publish them under my name), what do I do with them? Forget them? Sell them for firewood? Publish them in a small way under a pen name? (I’ve already had an editor at a small press ring my doorbell about one of them.) Try and get a new agent and create a parallel career (which Roger Morris has done with resounding success as RN Morris)? And, if I’m going to go back to agent-seeking, should I look for an agent in the UK or in the US? (And are you aware that most UK agents have adopted a policy of charging 15% for UK residents, but 20% for us wogs? [The wogs start at Calais, or so I’ve been told.])
More on this dilemma (Trilemma? Quadrilemma?) soon.
I’m sure you’re just a-quiver with anticipation. Us thriller writers know how to build the suspense, don't we?
So, to put it into Americanese, What Wouldja Do If You Was Me?
No wisecracks, please. No plastic-surgery jibes, no suggestions that I take the cloth, no observations about the eternal rest that can be achieved in a warm bath with the assistance of a sharp blade twisted under the veins in the wrist. Or at the minimum, keep them to yourself and anybody else in the room with you as you read this. Please don't share your merriment. ;-} (Don't you loathe smileys?)
Hey, I never intended to become a thriller writer. I haven’t read many thrillers, and most of them I’ve read were experiences I could easily have lived without. I adore Graham Greene and John Le Carre, of course, and some of Lee Child is exhilarating (if nothing else to see how many sentence fragments can be squeezed into a paragraph without being distracting. Plenty. Many frags. All over the place. Lots. All you need to accomplish Lee Child’s purpose. And then some.) But I’ve probably read less in the thriller genre than in any category apart from romance.
But the topics I needed to grapple with in Shock and Awe only amounted to a story in a thriller framework. So I wrote it that way. And now it turns out I’m a Thriller Writer.
No, really. I’m now a dues-paying member of the International Thriller Writers with my own page, right next to Susan Isaacs in the list (whom, as it turns out I have read, starting way way back with her funny novel Compromising Positions--hi, Susie!). And I’m now a member of the UK-based Crime Writers Association. (And they're a good bunch; they quite justifiably shortlisted Brian McGilloway’s Borderlands on a very short list for best debut novel, which shows damned good taste.) Crime Writer? Thriller Writer? I’m okay with it.
I have any number of things I want to write that fit into the thriller genre in some approximate fashion, though it's the kind of approximate that might result in a starfish on top of your Christmas tree. But Thriller Hotel isn’t an address I mind checking into. These days, I consider being allowed to sleep indoors with the humans to be a big step up in life. (Though the fellow who led me to my room said I could call him Procrustes. Name seems familiar somehow…Did he used to be on TV?)
It’s not that I can’t write thrillers (I hope). It’s not that I dislike writing thrillers. It’s just that I already have these other non-thriller books lying about the house, and they don’t fit with the persona/brand/expectations of a book by that "David Isaak" guy. They aren’t a logical follow-on to Shock and Awe. They’re the sort of thing someone might take as a debut novel…but I’m no longer a debutante. (Male form “debutant”, but no one has ever used that word outside of the dictionary.) I’m not a deb any more. I’m a—well, what the hell do you call me after my coming-out party plus forty-five seconds of mad passion in the back of a Ford Cortina? (That was rhetorical. Don’t answer that question or I’ll punch your lights out.)
So, here’s the question for y’all: If I have these books Macmillan won’t want because they don’t fit my brand (and because I’d have to be an even bigger nutcase than I already am to want them to publish them under my name), what do I do with them? Forget them? Sell them for firewood? Publish them in a small way under a pen name? (I’ve already had an editor at a small press ring my doorbell about one of them.) Try and get a new agent and create a parallel career (which Roger Morris has done with resounding success as RN Morris)? And, if I’m going to go back to agent-seeking, should I look for an agent in the UK or in the US? (And are you aware that most UK agents have adopted a policy of charging 15% for UK residents, but 20% for us wogs? [The wogs start at Calais, or so I’ve been told.])
More on this dilemma (Trilemma? Quadrilemma?) soon.
I’m sure you’re just a-quiver with anticipation. Us thriller writers know how to build the suspense, don't we?
Monday, November 5, 2007
Shock and Awe Joins the Armed Services
Some time back, Aliya Whiteley mentioned on her blog that a few of the RAF folks she knows were glancing through my novel with interest. Even (gasp) threatening to buy the odd copy and pass it around.
I mused that it would be great if there were some way to donate some copies to the service, and, lo, Aliya found one. A few days ago I mailed off a dozen copies of Shock and Awe to the Armed Forces Library Service in Germany, from whence they will be distributed to various sites (including back to the UK).
I've added a little sticker on the title page which suggests that if the reader enjoyed the book, they should drop me an e-mail and let me know where in the world they are. I’m not convinced the little tag will tell me much, since if I don’t get answers, I won’t be sure if
1) No one is reading the book, or
2) People who read the book didn’t enjoy it, or
3) No one looks at title pages (I mean, do you?).
I doubt this move will boost my sales, but it may boost my readership, and that’s just as gratifying. And it’s intriguing to think of someone reading my book in some outpost on the edge of nowhere. (Though on reflection, I'm not sure it's the cheeriest book...)
If this works out, it might be something other writers want to consider. Morally, you can't go wrong donating books to libraries, can you?
Thanks to Aliya for all her help and suggestions. And if you read this and happen to be serving in uniform--hey, check the library.
I mused that it would be great if there were some way to donate some copies to the service, and, lo, Aliya found one. A few days ago I mailed off a dozen copies of Shock and Awe to the Armed Forces Library Service in Germany, from whence they will be distributed to various sites (including back to the UK).
I've added a little sticker on the title page which suggests that if the reader enjoyed the book, they should drop me an e-mail and let me know where in the world they are. I’m not convinced the little tag will tell me much, since if I don’t get answers, I won’t be sure if
1) No one is reading the book, or
2) People who read the book didn’t enjoy it, or
3) No one looks at title pages (I mean, do you?).
I doubt this move will boost my sales, but it may boost my readership, and that’s just as gratifying. And it’s intriguing to think of someone reading my book in some outpost on the edge of nowhere. (Though on reflection, I'm not sure it's the cheeriest book...)
If this works out, it might be something other writers want to consider. Morally, you can't go wrong donating books to libraries, can you?
Thanks to Aliya for all her help and suggestions. And if you read this and happen to be serving in uniform--hey, check the library.
Monday, October 29, 2007
A Quick Note
Be aware, all, that shiny reddish Cover the Mirrors has arrived in Faye L. Booth's hands. Literally. Go gaze in admiration.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The MNW Blog Lives!
Thanks to the indefatigable Matt Curran, Macmillan New Writers is up and running, and already has three entries--an introduction from Matt, a hello from Tim Stretton (the most recently signed writer, and a prolific blogger), and a self-profile from Faye L. Booth (author of Cover the Mirrors, the next book to be launched. [A book I've been looking forward to ever since I read the the first chapter in the anthology, I might add.]).
We kicked around the idea of the group blog a few months back, but I'm pleased and impressed at how quickly Matt pulled it all together. If you recall, the group blog was intended to serve several purposes. In case you don't recall, I'll go back through them (largely as a way of reminding myself).
First, the group blog was envisioned as a bit of a clubhouse where MNW authors past and future could stay in touch as a community. Presently it's quite an effort to keep up with anyone except the most active bloggers.
Second, the group blog was proposed as a way of giving all MNW authors access to the blogosphere. Some of our crew aren't interested in running their own blogs (perhaps wisely--it does eat up time that might be better spent doing something else!), though they do have websites: Conor Corderoy, Edward Charles, Hugh Paxton, Jonathan Drapes, Frances Garood, Brian McGilloway, Rosemary Ingham, and LC Tyler. Some others seem to have no web presence at all, at least as far as I've been able to determine: Brian Martin, Suroopa Mukherjee, Jason Webb, Peter Bourne, and Annabel Dore. (Suroopa sometimes shows up in Comments on various blogs, so we know she's out there. I list the others here in hopes that they will come across this while Googling themselves and drop through.) To keep people visiting a blog, the blooger must have new content fairly frequently. A group blog offers a chance to post only when desired on a forum where no single writer is responsible for keeping the ball rolling.
Third, individual blogs seem to have a short lifespan, and after three years most bloggers are ready for the old-folks' home. Roger Morris and Matt Curran have both mentioned at various times that they might be winding up their blogs--though both of them always have enough news that, like the Bear Farmers of Birnam, they keep a-goin'. But two of our formerly active bloggers, Cate Sweeney and Lucy McCarraher, seem to have closed up shop. Maybe a blog where you need not post frequently will lure Cate and Lucy back (Psst! We have candy...), and will also offer the rest of us (that would be Michael Stephen Fuchs, Aliya Whiteley, Samantha Grosser, Eliza Graham, Faye L. Booth, Peter Anthony, and Tim Stretton--oh, and David Isaak) someplace to toddle off to when we come to our senses and stop running our individual blogs.
Fourth, a group blog has the potential to act as a showcase for our work, a source of information for people interested in the imprint, and a sort of switchboard for people hoping to track us down. (Digitally, that is. Being tracked down in real life sounds a bit ominous.) More publicity never hurt anyone. Well, except Britney Spears. And those Watergate guys. And Prince Charles and his girlfriend, and Di and her boyfriends. And anyone who ever lost a libel suit...Come to think of it, more publicity has hurt plenty of people. But it sells books, and who can complain about that?
Finally, a group blog would be a fine place for new Macmillan New Writers (or do I mean New Macmillan New Writing Writers, NMNWW?--sheesh!) to drop though and introduce themselves to the rest of the gang, and to the world at large.
So, hats off to Matt, and feel free to drop through and say hello. (Or even post whatever's on your mind.) And if you have suggestions for improvement or additional features, tell Matt. Not me.
Just kidding. Actually, Matt has me down as co-admin. So you can toss suggestions to either of us. Or, better yet, post them on the Macmillan New Writers blog!
We kicked around the idea of the group blog a few months back, but I'm pleased and impressed at how quickly Matt pulled it all together. If you recall, the group blog was intended to serve several purposes. In case you don't recall, I'll go back through them (largely as a way of reminding myself).
First, the group blog was envisioned as a bit of a clubhouse where MNW authors past and future could stay in touch as a community. Presently it's quite an effort to keep up with anyone except the most active bloggers.
Second, the group blog was proposed as a way of giving all MNW authors access to the blogosphere. Some of our crew aren't interested in running their own blogs (perhaps wisely--it does eat up time that might be better spent doing something else!), though they do have websites: Conor Corderoy, Edward Charles, Hugh Paxton, Jonathan Drapes, Frances Garood, Brian McGilloway, Rosemary Ingham, and LC Tyler. Some others seem to have no web presence at all, at least as far as I've been able to determine: Brian Martin, Suroopa Mukherjee, Jason Webb, Peter Bourne, and Annabel Dore. (Suroopa sometimes shows up in Comments on various blogs, so we know she's out there. I list the others here in hopes that they will come across this while Googling themselves and drop through.) To keep people visiting a blog, the blooger must have new content fairly frequently. A group blog offers a chance to post only when desired on a forum where no single writer is responsible for keeping the ball rolling.
Third, individual blogs seem to have a short lifespan, and after three years most bloggers are ready for the old-folks' home. Roger Morris and Matt Curran have both mentioned at various times that they might be winding up their blogs--though both of them always have enough news that, like the Bear Farmers of Birnam, they keep a-goin'. But two of our formerly active bloggers, Cate Sweeney and Lucy McCarraher, seem to have closed up shop. Maybe a blog where you need not post frequently will lure Cate and Lucy back (Psst! We have candy...), and will also offer the rest of us (that would be Michael Stephen Fuchs, Aliya Whiteley, Samantha Grosser, Eliza Graham, Faye L. Booth, Peter Anthony, and Tim Stretton--oh, and David Isaak) someplace to toddle off to when we come to our senses and stop running our individual blogs.
Fourth, a group blog has the potential to act as a showcase for our work, a source of information for people interested in the imprint, and a sort of switchboard for people hoping to track us down. (Digitally, that is. Being tracked down in real life sounds a bit ominous.) More publicity never hurt anyone. Well, except Britney Spears. And those Watergate guys. And Prince Charles and his girlfriend, and Di and her boyfriends. And anyone who ever lost a libel suit...Come to think of it, more publicity has hurt plenty of people. But it sells books, and who can complain about that?
Finally, a group blog would be a fine place for new Macmillan New Writers (or do I mean New Macmillan New Writing Writers, NMNWW?--sheesh!) to drop though and introduce themselves to the rest of the gang, and to the world at large.
So, hats off to Matt, and feel free to drop through and say hello. (Or even post whatever's on your mind.) And if you have suggestions for improvement or additional features, tell Matt. Not me.
Just kidding. Actually, Matt has me down as co-admin. So you can toss suggestions to either of us. Or, better yet, post them on the Macmillan New Writers blog!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
More MNW Notes
For those who haven't dropped through his blog or website recently, Matt "MFW" Curran has announced that MNW will be publishing the follow-on to The Secret War. That's good news news for Matt, of course, but also good news for his readers (including the Germans, Ja?) as he leaves the future of the world rather up in the air in The Secret War. (I mean, I know civilization survived from Waterloo down to October, 2007, but I'm not quite sure how.)
And, speaking of follow-ons, Aliya Whiteley has posted a book trailer for her second novel, Light Reading. I'm not crazy about book trailers in general, but this one is slick and works quite well.
(And, as long as we're talking about book trailers, there is one I think is quite a work of art--one done as a school project by a team of Italian film students for Neil Gaiman's Coraline. Of course, the idiot fans at YouTube have all concluded that it is a preview for a movie and are all posting Omigod, like when's it coming out? Yep, that's right--they decided to make a movie of Coraline...and decided to do it in Italian.)
Talking about follow-on books (and idiots) reminds me I need to go do some work...
And, speaking of follow-ons, Aliya Whiteley has posted a book trailer for her second novel, Light Reading. I'm not crazy about book trailers in general, but this one is slick and works quite well.
(And, as long as we're talking about book trailers, there is one I think is quite a work of art--one done as a school project by a team of Italian film students for Neil Gaiman's Coraline. Of course, the idiot fans at YouTube have all concluded that it is a preview for a movie and are all posting Omigod, like when's it coming out? Yep, that's right--they decided to make a movie of Coraline...and decided to do it in Italian.)
Talking about follow-on books (and idiots) reminds me I need to go do some work...
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Say Hi to Peter Anthony
Some of you may recall, from the Macmillan New Writing anthology of openings of forthcoming works, the promising opening of a novel entitled Immaculate. It is still forthcoming in December--cleverly positioned for Christmas shoppers--though slightly retitled as A Town Called Immaculate.
The author is Peter Anthony, and you can check out more info about him and the book on his website. The important thing to note is that he's another effing Yank (like myself and Michael Stephen Fuchs, though MSF has been embedded in London long enough that he only rates as kinda). Suroopa Mukherjee, Brian McGilloway, MSF, Peter, and, of course, Yours Truly--that's quite a little cabal of foreigners. I really think a Question should be raised in Parliament.
But meanwhile, welcome Peter to the ranks (and wonder whom he paid off to get that Christmas slot. I've been having a rough time convinving people that a terrorist-themed Christmas might be a nice change, and then this guy shows up. Hell, his jacket cover even has snow and pine trees on it--everything short of eight tiny reindeer.)
nb. He also bumps Faye Booth out of her coveted spot at the top of the alphabetic list. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. (Or do I mean Sic Transit Gloria Johnson? I went to grade school with her, before she sic-transited.)
The author is Peter Anthony, and you can check out more info about him and the book on his website. The important thing to note is that he's another effing Yank (like myself and Michael Stephen Fuchs, though MSF has been embedded in London long enough that he only rates as kinda). Suroopa Mukherjee, Brian McGilloway, MSF, Peter, and, of course, Yours Truly--that's quite a little cabal of foreigners. I really think a Question should be raised in Parliament.
But meanwhile, welcome Peter to the ranks (and wonder whom he paid off to get that Christmas slot. I've been having a rough time convinving people that a terrorist-themed Christmas might be a nice change, and then this guy shows up. Hell, his jacket cover even has snow and pine trees on it--everything short of eight tiny reindeer.)
nb. He also bumps Faye Booth out of her coveted spot at the top of the alphabetic list. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi. (Or do I mean Sic Transit Gloria Johnson? I went to grade school with her, before she sic-transited.)
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
An Unanswered (and Apparently Unasked) Question
Okay, class. I'm sure we all recall, from previous lessons, that the purpose of the Macmillan New Writing imprint was to find new talent. You can't submit to Pan Macmillan, the parent, without benefit of an agent; but MNW would find new, most likely unagented talent, and in the longer term funnel these talents into the Pan Macmillan fold. Perhaps they would remain unagented; perhaps they would acquire an agent; but the presumption was that they would pass on to Pan Macmillan at some point.
Initially the theory was that the first book would be with MNW, and then the second would move to Pan Mac, but this was amended early on to read that the first two would be with MNW.
The bit that's a little unclear is: What happens after that second book?
Okay, there's Brian McGilloway. who signed for three more books in his series with Pan Macmillan (and a canny move on Pan Mac's part, I would say); but that's a series. What about those who've completed their two MNW books (or even one MNW book and a refusal under right of first refusal)? Do they get a "Legal to Submit to Pan Macmillan Without an Agent" card? And, if so, do they get a chart of who the editors inside Pan Mac are?
Or is it expected that at this point they probably get agents? (Ssome--Roger and Aliya, offhand--already have them, and some of us have already had and divorced one or two.)
In the days of legend (that is, all of a few decades ago), writers tended to stay with their publisher (one reason agents had less clout). And, if I understand the scheme as envisioned by Mike Barnard, one of the goals of the MNW scheme was to take a step back into the past, where writers were discovered by the publisher, and effectively formed a long-term alliance with the publisher. But how does this work? Can writers, once published by MNW, submit their own manuscripts to Pan Macmillan? And if so, to whom? If instead we all have agents hawking our next manuscript, how does Pan Mac get any kind of preference? There seems to be a missing piece here.
Can someone--perhaps someone with two books at MNW (other than Brian, who signed a five book deal after one book, and thereby leapfrogged the process) enlighten me? Do you get an unlisted mailing address, or a secret decoder ring, or what?
(Lessee, two books...that would be Edward Charles, Michael Stephen Fuchs, and Aliya Whitely, I believe.)
Initially the theory was that the first book would be with MNW, and then the second would move to Pan Mac, but this was amended early on to read that the first two would be with MNW.
The bit that's a little unclear is: What happens after that second book?
Okay, there's Brian McGilloway. who signed for three more books in his series with Pan Macmillan (and a canny move on Pan Mac's part, I would say); but that's a series. What about those who've completed their two MNW books (or even one MNW book and a refusal under right of first refusal)? Do they get a "Legal to Submit to Pan Macmillan Without an Agent" card? And, if so, do they get a chart of who the editors inside Pan Mac are?
Or is it expected that at this point they probably get agents? (Ssome--Roger and Aliya, offhand--already have them, and some of us have already had and divorced one or two.)
In the days of legend (that is, all of a few decades ago), writers tended to stay with their publisher (one reason agents had less clout). And, if I understand the scheme as envisioned by Mike Barnard, one of the goals of the MNW scheme was to take a step back into the past, where writers were discovered by the publisher, and effectively formed a long-term alliance with the publisher. But how does this work? Can writers, once published by MNW, submit their own manuscripts to Pan Macmillan? And if so, to whom? If instead we all have agents hawking our next manuscript, how does Pan Mac get any kind of preference? There seems to be a missing piece here.
Can someone--perhaps someone with two books at MNW (other than Brian, who signed a five book deal after one book, and thereby leapfrogged the process) enlighten me? Do you get an unlisted mailing address, or a secret decoder ring, or what?
(Lessee, two books...that would be Edward Charles, Michael Stephen Fuchs, and Aliya Whitely, I believe.)
Friday, October 5, 2007
More Pics of Books on Shelves (and other stuff)
The redoubtable Roger Morris just e-mailed me this picture from the Borders at Charing Cross. (Well, I don't think he probably e-mailed it from there. Probably he took the picture at Borders but e-mailed it from somewhere else. You writers are so picky.)
Roger said that it was face-out and a fair pile, both of which seem like a good thing. At least, if the pile shrinks over time...
Another friend--not a writer (and not much of a reader, either, when you get down to it) claims to have seen it at Gatwick when connecting from Geneva to the US. I guess this is feasible--I seem to remember a Waterstones there.
Over on another site, someone referred to these sorts of pictures as "writer's porn". Okay, I'm willing to admit it--it's gratuitous, it appeals to prurient interests, and has no obvious redeeming social value. To those of us who write, it still looks nice.
It occurs to me that it's LC Tyler's pub date for The Herring-Seller's Apprentice, a book I'm looking forward to reading. Best of luck to Len and MNW on the launch.
(Yes, prurient--in the sense of arousing an immoderate desire. I wouldn't go so far as to label it an unwholesome desire, but immoderate? Sure.)
Roger said that it was face-out and a fair pile, both of which seem like a good thing. At least, if the pile shrinks over time...
Another friend--not a writer (and not much of a reader, either, when you get down to it) claims to have seen it at Gatwick when connecting from Geneva to the US. I guess this is feasible--I seem to remember a Waterstones there.
Over on another site, someone referred to these sorts of pictures as "writer's porn". Okay, I'm willing to admit it--it's gratuitous, it appeals to prurient interests, and has no obvious redeeming social value. To those of us who write, it still looks nice.
It occurs to me that it's LC Tyler's pub date for The Herring-Seller's Apprentice, a book I'm looking forward to reading. Best of luck to Len and MNW on the launch.
(Yes, prurient--in the sense of arousing an immoderate desire. I wouldn't go so far as to label it an unwholesome desire, but immoderate? Sure.)
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Eliza Graham Redux
Just a short post to note that Eliza Graham has announced that her second novel has been picked up by MNW for publication next September.
I throughly enjoyed her previous novel, Playing with the Moon, and I'm glad to be able to look forward to her next one.
I throughly enjoyed her previous novel, Playing with the Moon, and I'm glad to be able to look forward to her next one.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
So Long, Charkin Blog
Ulp. This makes three posts in a day. That's all wrong...
But, if you haven't heard already, Richard Charkin, the CEO of Macmillan (and a big supporter of the Macmillan New Writing concept from the start), has moved to a job as Executive Director at Bloomsbury. (Mike Barnard, MNW's founder, will be emerging from retirement to take up the job of Deputy Chairman for the moment.)
I haven't any idea what this means to Macmillan, Bloomsbury, or publishing in general. But what it clearly means is the end of the Charkin Blog, one of the more prolific blogs on the web, and one of my favorites (despite the disproportionate number of posts on cricket). Without warning, Mr Charkin filed his brief farewell post today.
If you never visited the Charkin Blog, you've missed out on a lot of good information, as well as some rather snippy controversy and a whole lot of fun. Perhaps the finest moment was the occasion on which, to prove a point about intellectual property rights, Mr Charkin and a partner in crime stole two computers from Google at Book Expo America.
In any case, good luck to Richard Charkin--and I hope that Bloomsbury will devote at least a few of their Harry-Potter bucks to establishing another Charkin Blog over there.
But, if you haven't heard already, Richard Charkin, the CEO of Macmillan (and a big supporter of the Macmillan New Writing concept from the start), has moved to a job as Executive Director at Bloomsbury. (Mike Barnard, MNW's founder, will be emerging from retirement to take up the job of Deputy Chairman for the moment.)
I haven't any idea what this means to Macmillan, Bloomsbury, or publishing in general. But what it clearly means is the end of the Charkin Blog, one of the more prolific blogs on the web, and one of my favorites (despite the disproportionate number of posts on cricket). Without warning, Mr Charkin filed his brief farewell post today.
If you never visited the Charkin Blog, you've missed out on a lot of good information, as well as some rather snippy controversy and a whole lot of fun. Perhaps the finest moment was the occasion on which, to prove a point about intellectual property rights, Mr Charkin and a partner in crime stole two computers from Google at Book Expo America.
In any case, good luck to Richard Charkin--and I hope that Bloomsbury will devote at least a few of their Harry-Potter bucks to establishing another Charkin Blog over there.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
If You Happen to be Passing Through Sligo...
Brian McGilloway was kind enough to drop me a note telling me he found several copies of Shock and Awe sitting in the Just Published section of Keohane's Books in Sligo. I never expected to hear my book was on the shelves in Ireland--the Irish, of course, being the real owners of the English language--so I'm jazzed to an embarrassing degree.
I'm hoping the fact that Shock and Awe's epigraph is from WB Yeats (we had to pay his estate for four lines of verse, which made more sense back when the title was Smite the Waters, but it was money well-spent anyhow) will give me some street cred with the locals. Yo, Willy Butler--howzit hangin', dawg?
Speaking of Mr McGilloway, his debut novel Borderlands (which was selected by The Times as a Best Summer Read, and I sure can't argue with them) seems to have continued doing good business. A few months ago, it sold to the Japanese publisher Hayakawa, which is one of the top Asian publishers of American and European novels. Best of all, though, it has even broken through the walls of Fortress New York, becoming the first MNW title to be onsold to an American publisher. Thomas Dunne Books, a well-known imprint of St Martin's Press, has not only bought Borderlands for hardback publication next year, but has also bought the hardback rights to his follow-on Gallows Lane (which is planned for MNW publication in April 2008). There are plans for both to come out in US paperbacks as well.
I'd like to pretend my interest in this topic is entirely selfless, but the truth is I'm hoping Brian has blown a big enough hole in the North American defences that some of the rest of us can sneak through the breach behind him. Little Rock, Arkansas, here we come...
I'm hoping the fact that Shock and Awe's epigraph is from WB Yeats (we had to pay his estate for four lines of verse, which made more sense back when the title was Smite the Waters, but it was money well-spent anyhow) will give me some street cred with the locals. Yo, Willy Butler--howzit hangin', dawg?
Speaking of Mr McGilloway, his debut novel Borderlands (which was selected by The Times as a Best Summer Read, and I sure can't argue with them) seems to have continued doing good business. A few months ago, it sold to the Japanese publisher Hayakawa, which is one of the top Asian publishers of American and European novels. Best of all, though, it has even broken through the walls of Fortress New York, becoming the first MNW title to be onsold to an American publisher. Thomas Dunne Books, a well-known imprint of St Martin's Press, has not only bought Borderlands for hardback publication next year, but has also bought the hardback rights to his follow-on Gallows Lane (which is planned for MNW publication in April 2008). There are plans for both to come out in US paperbacks as well.
I'd like to pretend my interest in this topic is entirely selfless, but the truth is I'm hoping Brian has blown a big enough hole in the North American defences that some of the rest of us can sneak through the breach behind him. Little Rock, Arkansas, here we come...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
The Mysteries of Amazon
Matt Curran has been musing (with only the tiniest touch of asperity) on why The Secret War has been absent from Amazon US for so long, and why, now that the book is there the synopsis is attenuated; and finally, he’s been wondering where the thing is published, as it is still listed as Macmillan New Writing.
Helpful as always, I can say with certainty that I haven’t a clue on the first two questions he poses. (There. Glad to be of service.) On the third matter—where the heck is this published?—I can engage in some meagerly informed speculation. People getting MNW books over here from Amazon US seem to be getting the same UK editions; the books seem to be shipped across the Atlantic to one of Amazon’s US warehouses. (Hence the “Usually ships within 4 to 7 weeks” estimate. Even my plumber’s estimates have a narrower range than that.)
But staring at the Amazon US and UK pages for Shock and Awe and The Secret War, I found other puzzles, as my book is now available from both sources as well. I’d been advising folks to order from Amazon UK, as it was available there first, the shipping time was shorter and the prices were about the same. But on close examination, given current exchange rates and the complication of shipping charges, I began to wonder.
Let’s take a look from the US buyer’s perspective, starting with Matt’s book. Amazon UK charges £2.99 to ship a book to North America, plus a £3.99 handling charge, resulting, at today’s exchange rate of £1 = $2.02, in a jaw-dropping shipping charge of £6.98 = $14.10. Amazon UK gives (or, to those speaking British English, who insist that a corporate entity is plural, ‘Amazon UK give’) a discount of £3.90 off the cover price of £12.99 for a price of £9.09, which in our wimpy US currency at the moment amounts to a price of $18.36. Add all that up, and for a US buyer, The Secret War from Amazon UK will cost £16.07= $32.46 delivered. (And probably get you on a Homeland Security watchlist, too. I mean, the title does sound a bit suspicious, doesn’t it?)
Ordering from Amazon US, the charges are somewhat simpler…at first. The book is priced at $26.27, which is very close to the cover price of £12.99, and the shipping is $3.99. Maybe. If you’re one of those obsessive sorts who reads footnotes, the shipping changes include the warning that *Books with listed availabilities of more than 3 weeks may incur an additional shipping fee of $1.99 per item. (Why this should be so is baffling. It seems like we’re being punished enough already by having to wait.) So, a US buyer ordering The Secret War from Amazon US will pay as little as $30.26 or as much as $32.25, depending on aspects formed between Mercury (communication and writing) and any planets you have in Gemini (which governs publishing), and on what was served in the Amazon cafeteria at lunch.
In other words, at the moment, depending on currency fluctuations, The Secret War costs pretty much the same for us Yanks whether we order from Amazon UK or Amazon US. Economists call this situation arbitrage. Other folks I know refer to this situation as ‘you can’t win.’
One would suspect that a similar arrangement would prevail for Shock and Awe. One would be wrong.
Amazon UK is selling Shock and Awe for £10.49 (£4.50 off the cover price of £14.99). That’s $21.19 to us colonials. Add the $14.10 shipping charges, and we’re up to a delivered total of $35.29.
Worth every penny, of course. But Amazon US is selling it for $20.04 (a savings of $10.32 off the cover price of $30.36—exchange rates do strange things). Add in the standard shipping of $3.99, and you’re up to $24.03. Or, with the mystical maybe-you-pay-it-and-maybe-you-don’t $1.99 surcharge, a total of $26.02.
Mathematics has never been my best subject, but even I can tell that $35.29 is a bit more than $24.03 (or maybe $26.02). Like $11.26 more (or maybe $9.27). So, without offering to give financial advice or holding myself out as a chartered accountant, I think I can state with confidence that Amazon US now offers the better deal on Shock and Awe for those living in the US. For now. That could change at any minute.
And, you might have to wait longer than when ordering from Amazon UK. Then again, you might not. Amazon UK has delivered MNW books to me within 10 days, but has on occasion taken up to nine weeks. Roll them dice!
One final note. I have mixed feelings about Amazon. I like the fact that I can order any book from them, and am not limited to what happens to be on the shelves of a local bookstore. And I like the fact that they can be used as a sort of free database. Amazon has done great things.
On the other hand, I’d rather pick up my books from a bookstore. Bookstores are the temples of our art. Many bookstores complain they can’t keep up with Amazon’s deep discounts, but Amazon’s pricing isn’t a favorable as it looks: once you include the shipping costs, Amazon’s delivered prices often aren’t that different from the cover price, and are sometimes more than you would pay in a bookstore.
Anyway, my sincere thanks to everyone who has bought Shock and Awe, from whatever source, despite the fact that the NYMEX market in January heating oil futures looks like a model of price stability in comparison. It's like a typical airline flight these days: every passenger has paid a different price. (Contact me if you want little baggies of free peanuts or pretzels.)
Helpful as always, I can say with certainty that I haven’t a clue on the first two questions he poses. (There. Glad to be of service.) On the third matter—where the heck is this published?—I can engage in some meagerly informed speculation. People getting MNW books over here from Amazon US seem to be getting the same UK editions; the books seem to be shipped across the Atlantic to one of Amazon’s US warehouses. (Hence the “Usually ships within 4 to 7 weeks” estimate. Even my plumber’s estimates have a narrower range than that.)
But staring at the Amazon US and UK pages for Shock and Awe and The Secret War, I found other puzzles, as my book is now available from both sources as well. I’d been advising folks to order from Amazon UK, as it was available there first, the shipping time was shorter and the prices were about the same. But on close examination, given current exchange rates and the complication of shipping charges, I began to wonder.
Let’s take a look from the US buyer’s perspective, starting with Matt’s book. Amazon UK charges £2.99 to ship a book to North America, plus a £3.99 handling charge, resulting, at today’s exchange rate of £1 = $2.02, in a jaw-dropping shipping charge of £6.98 = $14.10. Amazon UK gives (or, to those speaking British English, who insist that a corporate entity is plural, ‘Amazon UK give’) a discount of £3.90 off the cover price of £12.99 for a price of £9.09, which in our wimpy US currency at the moment amounts to a price of $18.36. Add all that up, and for a US buyer, The Secret War from Amazon UK will cost £16.07= $32.46 delivered. (And probably get you on a Homeland Security watchlist, too. I mean, the title does sound a bit suspicious, doesn’t it?)
Ordering from Amazon US, the charges are somewhat simpler…at first. The book is priced at $26.27, which is very close to the cover price of £12.99, and the shipping is $3.99. Maybe. If you’re one of those obsessive sorts who reads footnotes, the shipping changes include the warning that *Books with listed availabilities of more than 3 weeks may incur an additional shipping fee of $1.99 per item. (Why this should be so is baffling. It seems like we’re being punished enough already by having to wait.) So, a US buyer ordering The Secret War from Amazon US will pay as little as $30.26 or as much as $32.25, depending on aspects formed between Mercury (communication and writing) and any planets you have in Gemini (which governs publishing), and on what was served in the Amazon cafeteria at lunch.
In other words, at the moment, depending on currency fluctuations, The Secret War costs pretty much the same for us Yanks whether we order from Amazon UK or Amazon US. Economists call this situation arbitrage. Other folks I know refer to this situation as ‘you can’t win.’
One would suspect that a similar arrangement would prevail for Shock and Awe. One would be wrong.
Amazon UK is selling Shock and Awe for £10.49 (£4.50 off the cover price of £14.99). That’s $21.19 to us colonials. Add the $14.10 shipping charges, and we’re up to a delivered total of $35.29.
Worth every penny, of course. But Amazon US is selling it for $20.04 (a savings of $10.32 off the cover price of $30.36—exchange rates do strange things). Add in the standard shipping of $3.99, and you’re up to $24.03. Or, with the mystical maybe-you-pay-it-and-maybe-you-don’t $1.99 surcharge, a total of $26.02.
Mathematics has never been my best subject, but even I can tell that $35.29 is a bit more than $24.03 (or maybe $26.02). Like $11.26 more (or maybe $9.27). So, without offering to give financial advice or holding myself out as a chartered accountant, I think I can state with confidence that Amazon US now offers the better deal on Shock and Awe for those living in the US. For now. That could change at any minute.
And, you might have to wait longer than when ordering from Amazon UK. Then again, you might not. Amazon UK has delivered MNW books to me within 10 days, but has on occasion taken up to nine weeks. Roll them dice!
One final note. I have mixed feelings about Amazon. I like the fact that I can order any book from them, and am not limited to what happens to be on the shelves of a local bookstore. And I like the fact that they can be used as a sort of free database. Amazon has done great things.
On the other hand, I’d rather pick up my books from a bookstore. Bookstores are the temples of our art. Many bookstores complain they can’t keep up with Amazon’s deep discounts, but Amazon’s pricing isn’t a favorable as it looks: once you include the shipping costs, Amazon’s delivered prices often aren’t that different from the cover price, and are sometimes more than you would pay in a bookstore.
Anyway, my sincere thanks to everyone who has bought Shock and Awe, from whatever source, despite the fact that the NYMEX market in January heating oil futures looks like a model of price stability in comparison. It's like a typical airline flight these days: every passenger has paid a different price. (Contact me if you want little baggies of free peanuts or pretzels.)
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
As If You Hadn't Heard Enough From Me Already
The estimable Steven North (no relation, insofar as I know, to the enigmatic character in Brian Martin's novel), has published an interview with me in the newish but rapidly expanding Pan Macmillan interview archive.
I do go on, don't I?
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