Writing – genre fiction - study the market

[The following is aimed at beginner novel writers and those who fancy switching genre.]

If you’re aiming on going the traditional publishing route, then, whether you like it or not, your writing is aimed at a market – not the genre readership, but the publisher or acquisitions editor. Obviously, if you’re thinking of self-publishing, your market is the reader. Even so, if you go that route, you still need to do market research, for you must aim to give the readers what they want – yes, with your particular slant, of course.

There are several companies who publish genre fiction, but not as many as there used to be. There are fewer publishing houses thanks to mergers, amalgamations and takeovers. The traditional genre fiction market has shrunk. So, you don’t have that much choice.

Well, that’s not strictly true. Publishing is in a transition stage. New independent publishers are cropping up regularly – some are e-book only, others publish e-book and print on demand (POD) books. The chances of a new author finding a publisher are better than ever, providing the author does his or her homework.

In the old days, if you failed at the first hurdle (publisher), there were quite a few others available to send your rejected ms on to. Now, you have to hone that ms almost to the requirements of a particular publisher. If it fails there, you may have to consider rewriting for another publisher before sending out the book again. Whatever you do, if it fails, don’t ditch it; try all avenues and if it fails, sit on it until a later date, when either the market might be more receptive or you’re able to review the book with fresh critical eyes. Another alternative is to self-publish, but you still need to address the editing (which is normally done by the publisher).

A good writer can get published in almost any field. They’ve studied their craft of storytelling and know the requirements implicit in each particular form.

Less accomplished writers might contemplate trying, say, a western, as it seems ‘easier than a contemporary detective novel.’ That approach is unlikely to work. To write a western, you need to have a strong affection for the genre. You don’t have to be a fan, but you should respect its roots. If you don’t, then it will show in the prose and storyline – and it will get rejected pronto. And that applies to sci-fi, fantasy, crime and romance too. Those Mills & Boon books are not as easy to write as it might seem, either

First priority, then, is to identify a publisher who is currently publishing your chosen genre. Select a handful of books in that genre from that publisher – ideally, not reprints of older works, but new fiction. The selection can be from your local library or from an online book outlet, such as Amazon or the book depository (the latter mails books post-free anywhere in the world). And, to provide variety and broaden your scope, select a number of authors rather than one.
 
Once you have those three or four books in front of you, approach the reading in a businesslike manner. Analyse each book as you read it. Make many notes. This is not to slavishly copy but to get a feel for the structure, vocabulary, pace, number of characters in the book.

For example, what is the author’s approach to the readers? Do the books from this publisher possess an ethos? There are Christian publishers around, for instance, which is a good market if it suits you. Is the message open and obvious or subtle?

Even though it’s fiction, what kind of topics and facts are used in the book? And to what depth are they treated?

Are there any subjects that appear to be taboo?

What kind of title does the publisher/author favour? A word, a phrase, a sentence? A question, a statement, an exclamation? A play on words or simply serious? How many words are usually in the title? Chapter titles can be helpful clues, too.

The following questions to pose don’t have to be applied to the whole book, that would be tedious, but study several pages to get a feel for the style, presentation and variety in the prose. For example: How many lines of dialogue per page? What age and status are the characters? How many paragraphs to each chapter? What is the usual number of words in the paragraphs? Are the sentences all a similar length or do they vary? What marks of punctuation are used? What kind of vocabulary is used? Simple, or moderately educated or really literary?
 
Study the first paragraph. How does it appeal to the reader? Is there any special emphasis on topicality, conflict or emotion? Remember, it is the first five words that attract the casual reader’s eye; so these should be especially striking. Try to avoid opening with ‘A’, ‘The’, ‘It’ or ‘There’.

In the final paragraph, how is the book wound up? Is it satisfactory? Mickey Spillane said, ‘The beginning sells this book, the ending sells the next book.’

Some book blurbs use quotations from the novel as teasers. Study these snippets – they’re like sound bites, there to suck in the browsing reader. Does your work contain similar phrases or sentences that could be gainfully used to ‘sell’ your story? (I know, you haven’t written the book yet – but consider identifying appropriate sound bites as your writing approaches the end of the book).

How many chapters does each book contain? Picked at random, four books I’m now looking at have, respectively, 15, 10, 16 and 20 chapters. Many beginning writers worry about the number of chapters, but there’s no need. A chapter break can be made almost anywhere – to signify the passing of time, to leave the reader wanting more after a cliff-hanger situation, to foreshadow worse to come. In fact, deciding on chapter breaks can wait until the self-edit stage.

Genre fiction is invariably about action – but not exclusively so. One of these four novels has a fight (fist or gun) in seven of the fifteen chapters. Another has seven fights in twenty-one chapters.

So, study the pacing and the relevant vocabulary…
 
- extracted and adapted from Write a Western in 30 Days.

 

E-book from Amazon com bought from here

E-book from Amazon co uk bought from here

or paperback post-free world-wide from here

 

Books – Crystal balls at the ready!

By 2018, a new consumer report predicts that e-books will be Britain’s favourite reading format. They’ll overtake the sale of paperbacks and hardbacks, according to PwC.

So, in the next four years the consumer e-book market is predicted to triple from £380m to more than £1bn.

Astonishingly, half the population of the UK is expected to own a tablet device of some kind by 2018. In that same period, sales of printed books are estimated to fall by a third, to £912m.

Yet it’s still positive for print book writers and buyers. Before 2013, the UK book market was in decline, but now it is predicted to be worth £1.9bn in 2018, which is a healthy balance sheet by all accounts...

Perhaps we should be looking to the east as China is predicted to become the world’s second largest book market in 2017, overtaking Japan and Germany, with the US the world’s number one book market with predicted revenue of $37bn.

[My apologies for the repetition of the word ‘predicted’ – who’d have foreseen that?]

 

Information gleaned from Writers’ News, August 2014 – www.writers-online.co.uk

Revival of the short story anthology

The e-book revolution has its detractors, but few can deny that it has been good for the revival of the short story, novella and the anthology.

For years, the received opinion has been that ‘short stories don’t sell’. The men’s short story market, once vibrant in UK magazines, is definitely moribund. Go back far enough and we had Weekend, Titbits, and Parade – all gone. Short story anthologies included Argosy (UK) and The Saint Magazine. Men’s magazines such as Playboy, Men Only, Escort, and Fiesta ran stories – not necessarily of an erotic nature. The stories were in the main adventure and crime. From time to time a specialist magazine arrived on the newsagent shelves, though briefly; brave attempts, indeed: World of Horror, New Witchcraft, and Science Fiction Monthly. I sold stories to four of the above, but by then the writing was on the wall (instead of in the pages). One periodical that has survived is The London Magazine, but it’s a hard nut to crack. The women’s magazine market is still healthy, though even that too has shrunk.

Perhaps the decision-makers deem imagination passé. The same malaise hit TV some time ago, as well. Reality TV has almost obliterated fiction presentations. (I know, dramatic work is very expensive in comparison.)

So we must welcome the e-book for once again providing an outlet and a marketplace for short fiction writers and readers. Save for the few, the rewards may not be great in monetary terms, but it’s rewarding to see your story out there, hopefully being read and enjoyed, because that’s the main impetus for writing in the first place – to entertain.

Currently available e-book anthologies that feature my stories are:

Story title                                                         Anthology

SILENCE (2011)                                                 THE TRADITIONAL WEST

HAZARD (2013)                                                LIVIN’ ON JACKS AND QUEENS

SLEEP WELL, MY DARLING (2014)             NOIR NATION #4

PROCESSIONARY PENITENTS (2014)         CROOKED CATS’ TALES     

MESCAL MAKERS (2014)                              WESTERN TALES #5

‘Silence’ is a long short story that embraces the concept of ‘silence’ – the omerta of the early Mafia in New York and the Old West. The Traditional West contains stories from 24 writers, some of which have become award winners. This collection is also a large format 384-page paperback.

 

‘Hazard’ concerns Ace Hazard, a gambler on a riverboat. Livin’ on Jacks and Queens is an Old West anthology about gambling, edited by Robert J. Randisi and features 14 brand-new stories.

 

‘Sleep well, my darling’ is a noir crime story about a marriage that goes wrong, leading to murder. Noir Nation #4 has 'over 20 entries from some of the very best literary crime fiction writers in the international scene' - plus photos of exotic tattoos...

‘Processionary Penitents’ is a private eye Leon Cazador story set during Spain’s Easter - Semana Santa. Crooked Cats' Tales show-cases the work of 20 Crooked Cat authors.

‘Mescal Makers’ tells of the meeting between an Apache and a priest in 1790 and how torture led to an understanding. Western Tales #5 is one of a series of western anthologies; this contains 'Six short stories from some of the best western writers working in the genre today!'

 

It figures, maybe

Yesterday’s blog drew some comment on the blog and on FaceBook. Again, I emphasise that the statistics are not mine, but gleaned from a newspaper’s graphic. And the argument is against the big publishers, not the independents.

In my library I have a book printed in 1980, long before e-books, and it gives a breakdown on where the money went on a hardback novel then.  It makes interesting reading, even now.

 

 

BRITAIN

Author – 10%

Text printing and paper – 5.6%
Jacket printing and paper – 1.8%
Binding and freight – 2.6%
Bookseller – 41%
Publisher’s overheads – 20.6%
Publisher’s profit – 9.2%
Composition and plate making – 8.6%
Jacket design and artwork - .6%
 
USA

Author – 10%

Text printing and paper – 3.7%
Jacket printing and paper – 1.5%
Binding and freight – 4.7%
Bookseller – 47%
Publisher’s overheads – 23.9%
Publisher’s profit – 1.3%
Composition and plate making – 6.7%
Jacket design and artwork - 1.2%

The differences are accounted for, apparently, as the example is based on a print run of 5,000. The ‘British market is smaller; a sale of 5,000 copies in Britain is above average; in the US it is close to the norm.’

- Novels and Novelists, Editor Martin Seymour-Smith, 1980.

Now, I’ll just look at the British figures, as if enlightened by the e-book arrival:

Sure, figures have probably altered over 34 years – though not in the authors’ favour. And who said publishers react quickly? As John D MacDonald said, ‘If you would be thrilled by the galloping advance of a glacier, then you’d be ecstatic watching changes in publishing.' They were late to grasp the e-book nettle and then discovered they could profit hugely...

 

Anyway, back to the chase. If we exclude all the print associated overheads (say, 39.2%), we arrive at 60.8% of the cover price. So, at a rough-and-ready estimate, the e-book cover price should be at least 39% less than the print version. I suspect that is not the case for new e-books coming from the big 5 (or however few are left after the latest amalgamation, conglomeration, takeover).

 
Author – 10%
Bookseller – 41%
Publisher’s profit – 9.2%
Jacket design and artwork - .6%
Total percentage of cover price = 60.8%

[All of the following are probably associated with a print version, not e-book]
Publisher’s overheads – 20.6%
Text printing and paper – 5.6%
Jacket printing and paper – 1.8%
Binding and freight – 2.6%
Composition and plate making – 8.6%
Total percentage in this group – 39.2%
 
Mark Twain had something to say about statistics. I’m sure he had a view on percentages, as well. Even so, it’s plain as a pikestaff, to use an out-dated cliché, that certain publishers are attempting a form of profiteering where e-books are concerned.

(The earlier mid-16^th century phrase was ‘plain as a packstaff’, which alluded to the staff on which a pedlar carried his pack, which was in plain view. Amphitryon, III, Dryden.)

Tomorrow, back to a non-controversial subject, perhaps…

The e-book wars

Some of my books - poets' corner

 

The continuing skirmishing between Amazon and certain book publishers is in the news. There are opinions from those affected – authors, booksellers and publishers, yet there’s an elephant in the room that seems to get ignored.

The big publishers price their new e-books too high, doubtless knowing that the fans of the best-seller authors will buy regardless, thus boosting their profits.

The business model quoted in a Sunday paper gives us this example:

Printed book

40% of cover-price goes to the retailer, such as Amazon, or bookshop.

60% goes to the publisher (two-thirds of which goes on production (paper, printing, pulping unsold books, transport) [doesn’t mention warehousing], with 5-10% of the price going to the author.

E-book

30% to Amazon

70% to the publisher with 17.5% of the cover price going to the author.

That’s the simplified model, anyway.

Obviously, some of these percentages will differ, depending on the author and the publisher agreements. But the principle probably holds. Bottom line is that publishers and retailers are in a business and need to make a profit.

Producing a book has a lot of costs attached, though not mentioned specifically in the example above. For instance, editing, page format setting up (should be minimal in the digital age), cover design, marketing (if any).

So, let’s assume the publisher is justified in getting 40% (two-thirds of 60%) for print, which includes paper, printing, etc. That still means 20% is left over for – the author? No, the author gets 5-10%, if he or she is lucky. So some percentage (10-15%) is sort of floating somewhere… Maybe that’s the publisher’s profit? Hmm…

Now, for the e-book, there are no paper, print, delivery, warehousing, pulping, and transport costs. So why does the publisher get 70% of the cover price?  If the author gets that 17.5% (many don’t get nearly as much), that means the publisher gets 52.5% and Amazon gets 30%. If the publisher doesn’t spend on print, paper, printing etc for this version, then that 40% is ‘unclaimed’ by any process for the e-book model. Of course, subsumed within though not quoted must be the editing, layout, setting up, cover design, marketing… which is necessary for the print book anyway. So if, as is usual, the majority of books from the publisher are both print and e-book, those costs are already accounted for in the print model so shouldn’t be deducted from any percentage in the e-book model. Yes, setting up an e-book requires additional work, but it’s fairly basic and cannot account for that 40% slice. Whatever way you cut it, the costs of producing an e-book are negligible and don’t warrant the high price.

 
There is probably something else at work here. If the price of the e-book was lowered to a realistic level, then that might affect print sales. At present a new hardback and e-book are only about $5 apart in pricing (a hasty straw poll on the B&N site). People who prefer print books will be content to pay that extra; but they might baulk if the difference were greater. So it could be argued that the artificially high e-book price is to protect the sales of the hardbacks.

Whatever side of the fence we sit on, I suspect that authors – the originators, the people who effectively create the books – are unlikely to see percentages improve in royalties any time soon.

[This view concentrates on the big publishing conglomerates, not the independent presses who quickly grasped that e-books sell better if priced low. Certain assisted-publishers/vanity publishers tend to price their e-books as high as the big publishers’ model, thus denying their writers a viable outlet.]

 

Death is Another Life

Where there is light, there is shadow…

This cross-genre thriller is set in present-day Malta and has echoes from pre-history and also the eighteenth century Knights of Malta.

Malta may be an island of sun and sand, but there’s a dark side to it too. It all started when some fishermen pulled a corpse out of the sea... Or maybe it was five years ago, in the cave of Ghar Dalam?

Spellman, an American black magician, has designs on a handpicked bunch of Maltese politicians, bending their will to his master’s. A few sacrifices, that’s all it takes. And he’s helped by Zondadari, a rather nasty vampire.

Maltese-American investigative journalist Maria Caruana’s in denial. She can’t believe Count Zondadari is a vampire. She won’t admit it. Such creatures don’t exist, surely? She won’t admit she’s in love with him, either...

Detective Sergeant Attard doesn’t like caves or anything remotely supernatural. Now he teams up with Maria to unravel the mysterious disappearance of young pregnant women. They’re helped by the priest, Father Joseph.

And there are caves, supernatural deaths and a haunting exorcism.
Just what every holiday island needs, really.

My latest e-book, from Solstice Publishing.

Boom in e-books – my way forward

Reported in City & Finance, Daily Mail, August 27: The CEO of Bloomsbury, Nigel Newton is looking forward to tapping into the boom in digital books. ‘Newton believes Britain is “one year behind America”, where e-book sales trebled in the first six months of 2010 to £120m. The report ends, ‘With a £33m warchest, Newton is looking for further acquisitions after beefing up its non-fiction wing following a spate of recent takeovers.’ So small-to-medium publishers had better watch out. I’d like to think his acquisitions would be new authors rather than other publishers, but maybe I’m being a bit naive there.

Anyway, I’m embracing the e-book. I’ll still buy and treasure printed books and wherever possible I’d like to see and hold my books in print, but e-books have their advantages too.

In light of the above, I’ve accepted the job offer of editor made by Gary Dobbs, the chief western editor for Solstice Publishing (pictured right in pensive mode).



Gary achieved the impossible by getting his Black Horse Western Tarnished Star to outsell any other Hale westerns and in record time. His Tainted Archive blog is worth visiting regularly too. He has constantly banged the drum for a western revival in books. And he is the driving force in getting the Edge gritty western series by George G Gilman into e-book format (published by Solstice). This western line for Solstice is shaping up into an exciting project and I’m honoured and pleased to be a part of it.