Books in Boothbay

We had quite a book show at the Boothbay Festival of Books, at the Boothbay Railway Village.

It's a great place to visit in the Summer, with lots of things to see and do. They hosted us again this year for a great show.
Thanks to the hardworking volunteer staff, Joanna and Desiree and all the rest.
Special thanks to Sherman's Books for handling all sales and moving mountains of books all day!

There were quite a few Maine authors taking part, as you can tell from the promotional poster.

And we had a great crowd of folks coming to add to their reading lists and get signed books from the writers who created them.

Everyone got a greeting and a flyer

Here's just a few of the noted authors.

Bruce Robert Coffin, with his debut novel, Among the Shadows (a steal right now on Kindle), talking to the Press.
He must have impressesed the reporter, Art Mayers, because we got written up in the Boothbay Register!
(And I got quoted. Cool thing to add to my press clippings. :-)

Kate Flora explains things before getting back to her table and the fans of her multiple mystery series and non-fiction.

Sandra Neily with Barbara Ross, who writes the Maine Clambake mystery series.

The ever-gracious Tess Gerritsen (who you might know from Rizzoli and Isles).

 

 Here's Brenda Buchanan

 And Paul Doiron

I got to meet one of my writing heroines, Linda Greenlaw.

 More authors: Liza Gardner Walsh and Jen Blood

 And so many more

More shots with the tallest man in the room, Bruce.

My table- they like putting me in the front, to greet the folks coming in.

My Second Trip to Granite State ComiCon- With Pictures

I took another trip to an alternate universe last weekend, where I sold and signed books at the Books and Boos table and walked around in wonder.

Wrote about in in an article at Jason Harris Promotions, and its got a ton of pics.

Here are a few others:

Don't let the Dalek into the Tardis!

 



 

At the Decimated Designs area, with their cohorts, Zombie Leader

 

Robbie the Robot at the Thrifty booth

 

This purple giant is over 8 feet tall.

 

Scott Goudsward, of the NEHW, enjoying his cupcake.

Featured Again- Alumni Magazine

Well, my alma mater is taking notice of my writing. They profiled me in the latest issue of the online alumni magazine. Nice to get another mention.

 

Addendum- they've announced their Commencement speakers for this year (not me- yet).
Writer Tess Gerritsen and singer/songwriter Dave Mallett.
Just so happens I've met them both. Cool! Saw Dave perform at a concert and got his autograph on a record album- so you know how long ago that was!
And I met Tess at the Bouchercon conference last year. Her work to support Alzheimer's research nudged me to make a donation, which then got me a guest post on the influential publishing blog of Joe Konrath!

 

 

 

Views From the Top

A couple of great perspectives here on modern publishing, both in one day!

First is Hugh Howey. Who's he? Merely a guy who was writing his books and working for wage just over a year ago, and who struck gold with his writing, and signed a monster, 7-figure deal with a big publisher-- for the print rights only-- he keeps the ebook profits!
Holy crap! This is a sea change in how business is done in the publishing world.
Yet better is that Howey seems like a really nice guy who wants to help other writers. And he has a great piece out on Salon today, which is a response to another of Salon's self-publishing-bashing pieces from a few days ago, where an idiot whined in public about being a failure at self-publishing-- and condemned it-- because he did it wrong, was incredibly stupid, and had unrealistic expectations.
So read Self-publishing is the future — and great for writers.

Then go for the perspective of a long-time pro in the writng biz. Kristine Kathryn Rusch posted
The Business Rusch: Four Years on what a revolution there has been in a mere four years.

The Sky is Falling (Again)

We constantly hear the cries from Big Traditional Publishing (BTP), telling how whatever new thingie means the End of Books As We Know It.

"Nobody's buying books these days!"--- Uh, yeah, they are, and lots of them. Sure, in these tough times there many be fewer people plunking down thirty bucks for a new formula hardcover, but overall, books are doing quite well.
BUT-- folks who want a good story need not support a big company with $29, while the producer of the work (the writer) gets $1, there are other options.
Writers can now deliver a good book for under $10, and keep a chunk of that for doing the real work.

"Amazon is killing us by being unfair!"--- People don't just use the online retailer for lower prices and convenience, they return for the great customer experience. Amazon has changed the game, no doubt about it. But the lumbering old companies want the clock rolled back to their distribution monopoly.

Writers put up books at Amazon and have enormous distribution and exposure. In many cases, the writer can make more money via that route than going to BTP. And get a book up for sale a hell of a lot quicker than BTP ever can. The way BTP is mistreating so many writers means more work-producers are leaving BTP every day.

"Ebooks are killing us by flooding the market with cheap crap!"--- BTP has tradtionally been in the business of pushing expensive stories on paper, with high costs for printing, shipping, and storage.
With ebooks, those costs have gone away, and a writer can get a book out for a few hundred dollars.

Of course, an easy delivery method has opened the floodgates to many new books, so yes, there's a lot of crap. But there's a lot of very good work as well, that would never have seen the light of day under BTP.  A writer can get editing for a good story, put on a good cover, and compete with the best.

It's the reader, the buyer who decides if the book is crap or not. I've read a great deal of BTP professionally-produced garbage, including NY Times Best-Sellers, so that's no guarantee of quality whatsoever.

And guess what? On Smashwords and Amazon, you can preview sections of the book to check the quality for yourself. You need not pay for crap when you can screen it out in a minute or two of sampling.

As a historical note, this isn't the first time we've heard the shrill cry that a new thingie will flood the market with cheap crap. Remember paperbacks? And yet, all these years later, we still have the sky where it is. Check out this article posted on The Passive Voice.

And for those who think writers won't make any money in the new world of publishing, a good writer now has a better chance of making money than any other time in history.

Why should we, who have spent many years learning craft give away our time and expertise?
Harlan Ellison said it best: "Pay the Writer!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj5IV23g-fE

Book Talk

There was a recent article in Forbes, linked to at The Passive Voice:
Publishing Is Broken, We’re Drowning In Indie Books – And That’s A Good Thing
http://www.thepassivevoice.com/08/2012/publishing-is-broken-were-drowning-in-indie-books-and-thats-a-good-thing/

Some people are afraid that we'll have so many e-books we won't be able to find or get notice for good ones.
Bunk!
There are millions of print books. Many millions. How do good books get found?
There are millions of songs. How How do good songs get found?

Sure, traditional publishing will have to change its business model to survive, as have many industries in the modern age. This does not mean good books will go away. This does not mean we won't be able to find enough good books. It just means a different way for people to access books.

***

In publishing, the Joe Konrath site has a guest posting from a successful writer who capitalized on a fad.
Independence
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/08/independence_19.html

Stephen King's book On Writing

Great article on Stephen King's book On Writing. This terrific, influential book is still helping writers, with some of the best advice you'll find anywhere.


Thanks for the pointer from the Passive Guy, one of the best places to find current info on the publishing biz.