vanity publishing

The buzz spilling all over writer and publishing news these past two weeks have been over Harlequin's decision to SELL publishing services to wannabe writers. Said wannabe writers seem to believe this is a good idea. Corporate self publishing execs are patting themselves on the back for providing the "future of publishing." Writers are screaming bloody murder over a scam they've been warning unpublished writers against for decades. My simplified definitions:

"Traditional" publishing means an author gets paid real money, often lots of it, upon signing a legal contract that specifies exactly what the publisher will do and what rights the author retains. The publisher is then obligated to earn that money back by providing professional editing, copyediting, printing, and sales distribution, nationally and sometimes worldwide. The author may or may not keep rights for films, e-publishing, and foreign rights. The reader gets a professional product they can enjoy, put on their shelves, and resell because other people want to read the book. The writer is mostly responsible for simply writing the book. In other words, the writer is a professional whose work is so valued that people pay money to read it.

"Self-publishing" is a relatively new technological alternative whereby an author can place an electronic book on the internet for purchase for a Kindle or other e-reader or for print-on-demand. I am essentially self publishing when I put my backlist on Kindle or sell it on an author co-op site. My costs are minimal and completely of my own choosing. I may pay someone to scan in old books. I may pay someone to do my publicity. I may pay someone to put a cover together for me. I DO NOT pay a publisher for anything, not even the books I'm selling at e-book sites like Belgrave House. Publishers WANT my books and they are willing to pay to acquire them. I do not pay them. Ever. I earn vastly higher royalty rates on these books than through traditional publishing because sales and distribution are much slower and smaller than a huge mass market release, and I have no middle man. It's a viable alternative for old books or for books that traditional publishers can't place, but unless the writer is a superb salesperson or a well known name, it will not put groceries on the table.

"Vanity" publishing means the writer is paying someone to bind their document. Anyone can produce a document of any size or quality and have a vanity press slap a cover on it, as long as the author is willing to pay a lot of money for the privilege of seeing their writing in print. If the "future of publishing" is for everyone to have their very own book on their shelves, than this will be a sad, sad world, because the whole point of books is to share ideas. Unless we can sell those ideas to a large audience, we've defeated the purpose of reading. And vanity press does NOT distribute books. They print books, period. For a fee, they can list books in the same places as any e-book or traditional publisher, but there is no way of recouping the cost because these places discount too heavily. In vanity publishing, the writer must be the writer, the editor, the copyeditor, the publicist, and the sales person going from store to store, hawking their books to booksellers who really don't need another piece of unreturnable inventory on their shelves. Bookstores are in the business to make money, too, and buying a book that hasn't been vetted by professionals is no way to do business. So essentially, vanity press produces products for no one but the person who paid an enormous sum for a dream. Try Kinko's. It's cheaper.

Shakespeare's copyedit hell

For writers, this is a blog to put your own copyedit hell into perspective. For readers, now you see what slings and arrows we suffer... http://tinyurl.com/cgofah

Enjoy!

Romance in Fantasy

First, a little jig---THE WICKED WYCKERLY is finished, done, ready to go into copyedit. Okay, so a book is never done. I still have to approve the copyedit and page proofs and do promo, but the creative part is history. Sigh of relief.

And now that the taxing revisions are done, I'm poking around my TBR stack, and amazingly, I'm still finding the best romance outside normal romance genres. Thanks to one of my readers, I started looking out for Ilona Andrews and found the first book of her new series, ON THE EDGE. The series relies heavily on fantasy tropes, so the hero is a real Prince Charming, with a heavy agenda. The heroine lives paycheck to paycheck in a world between the real one and a magical one. And when Prince Charming asks her to marry him, she tells him no. I like that in a heroine. "G"

I'm only half way through the next one, SOULLESS by Gail Carriger, which is labeled fantasy/horror, although so far, the most horror has been Our Fearless Heroine stabbing a bloodless vampire with a hair pin and a parasol. I think the fantasy is probably more steampunk since it's in the Victorian era, in an alternate universe that includes very small, well regulated, businesslike cadres of vampires and werewolves, (well, it is Victorian, after all!) dirigibles, and odd machines, ala Wild Wild West. I don't generally care for vampires, et al, but read the excerpt and savor the humor! The romance is a fine one between an Alpha Scots werewolf, head of the supernatural bureau, and our soulless heroine, who neutralizes the poor man in more ways than one. Poor man keeps expecting her to act like an Alpha female when she is a prim and proper lady. Sort of.

I'm not at all certain why I'm finding these offbeat romances so much more interesting than traditional ones right now. Possibly my head needs clearing out, and I'll be back to normal eventually. Anyone else finding good romances I ought to be looking at?

Bad Writing Contest

Okay, shoot me, two posts in a day. But I was afraid I'd lose this link and it's too funny to miss.
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/2009.htm

Here's the winner:

Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the “Ellie May," a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests.

David McKenzie
Federal Way, WA

Lexington KY booksigning

I am terrible about remembering to post appearances on my website, so sorry! But here's where I'll be on Halloween:
the annual KYRW signing next Saturday, October 31, at Joseph Beth in Lexington from 1-3 PM. Authors:
Anya Bast, Sheryl Brennan, Sophie Danu, Teresa Reasor, Jules
Bennett/Sophia Rae, Toni Blake/Lacey Alexander, Dianne Castell, LuAnn
McLane, Rosemary Laurey/Madeleine Oh/Georgia Evans, Patricia Rice, Shiloh
Walker and Molly Harper.

And we'll have candies, cookies, and prizes!

Artful Deceptions

RegencyReads.com has just produced the e-book format of one of my old category Regencies, ARTFUL DECEPTIONS. If you're interested in the older books, go take a look. The site has some great reading!

Reader Art

I just had to show off the lovely tote bag reader Debi Allen sent to me! I'm not a very good photographer, but I hope you can see how beautifully she's copied the cover of MYSTIC RIDER onto this gorgeously decorated, heavyweight tote bag. It arrived after a series of gray days when revisions were making me wonder why I stay in this business--and lifted my spirits considerably!

I don't think Debi is online, but if anyone knows her, tell her she has talent!

romance review sites

Mercury retrograde strikes again!
I started this blog a few minutes ago and it just disappeared into cyberspace. Let's see if I can reproduce what I started.
After reading my wordwenches.com blog, Linda Blanche sent me a list of romance review sites. I haven't had time to investigate (I was trying to when mercury struck) but I believe they review e-books as well as paper, so it's a chance to examine the Brave New World of e-publishing, if you'd like.
Take a look around these sites and tell me if they're of any use for choosing books you'd like to read...

http://longandshortreviews.com/
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/
http://www.noveleditions.com/
http://www.manicreaders.com/
http://www.nightowlromance.com/nightowlromance/
http://www.classicromancerevival.com/blog/?page_id
=186