Is Publishing’s Approach to Digitalization Upside Down?

I wouldn’t normally link from here to an explicitly political site like Dros or Kudge (or whatever), but Huffpost has an interesting piece about publishing’s approach to product digitalization.

Most intriguing to me was with the following not-so-flattering description of the development approach publishing firms take, which could spell trouble in the digital age:

The “somebody do something that works so we can copy it” mentality duplicates the … attitude espoused by long-time executives in music who simply could not or would not question the viability of the professional cocoons they’d built for themselves …

What offed the music business — and what the publishing industry is facing — is a corporate structure built to churn out hits to subsidize an entire product line. Rather than developing artists, exploiting regional marketplaces, and building financial models that can easily support a mid-range list, both industries focus on entertainment at the expense of art and expression.

(Difference between selling entertainment vs art? Entertainment starts with the customer and works back to the product. Art begins with the product and works forward to find/create an audience.)

Thoughts?  Agree? Disagree?

A Snowstorm of Publishing Links

Not much to do this weekend, given the Snowpocalypse besieging the East Coast.  I certainly will attempt to “write my ass off” but otherwise I strive to pick up where I left off posting a few writing and publishing links now and then.

So, let me start with commentary by Lydia Sharp, which I took to heart, that writing & publishing bloggers have been discussing the Amazon v. MacMillan conflict far too much.  Hear, hear.  I (think I) am done.  And, if the links in this post seem a bit light, it’s because I’ve purposefully skipped over any possible links dealing with ebooks or their attendant rights and royalties.

Also on the subject of beginnings, agent Kristin Nelson provides some good advice on why prologues often do not work, and why action often does.

Author Kelly Morgan describes what happens when a book “clicks,” while author Jade Smith offers some advice on authenticity which I whole-heartedly endorse: Let your fictional world be itself.

Agent Nathan Bransford tells us why it’s a great time to be an author, while agent Rachelle Gardner outlines the Top Ten query mistakes, discusses book trailers, and invites guest blogger Sandra Bricker to explain how a writer finds his or her niche.

Jessica at BookEnds answers writers’ questions about novel series (a subject newly dear to my writers’ heart) and querying as a youthful writer (a subject long far from my interests) as well as addressing the professionalism displayed by readily accepting the need for revisions (on which I completely agree with her).

I would be remiss not to direct you to three entries (1, 2, 3!) in Jennifer Jackson’s “Letters From The Query Wars,” or Alan Rinzler’s tips from 3 top agents about how YA fiction is “red hot.”

Enjoy!

Story Behind The Story 1 : Phenograph vs. Genograph

While working out the larger story arc behind the novel I’m pitching, I thought it might be fun to blog a little about writing itself, as I experience it.  Sort of telling the story behind telling the story.

I have written a lot of stuff over the years, including tons of poetry (mostly bad), a few short stories, hundreds of thousands of words of non-fiction prose, and one really terrifyingly nawesome* fantasy novel which I will discuss later.

But, for this little series on writing, I want to focus on the hopefully not-nawesome novel for which this blog is named, and the larger world that is still growing from its seed.

Archaic Definition of the Week – Funk

Funk. In a funk or blue funk, To be. The word may derive from Old French funkier, ‘to smoke’, though the connection is uncertain.  A funk is a state of apprehensive fear or abject fear.  The word first appeared at Oxford in the first half of the 18th Century.

“If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk.” – THOMAS HUGHES: Tom Brown’s Schooldays, Pt I, ch ii (1857)

- Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, Sixteenth Edition revised by Adrian Room.

The Amalgam Poems

A lord or lady wrapped in ashy silk
was welcomed in Amalgam’s public hall.
Her gender hidden by his silken mask,
He spoke with love, but still she hurt us all.

The Pro-Piracy Argument Rises Again

Responding to the recent slapdown of Amazon.com by MacMillan publishing, an oh-so-tech-savvy fellow over at DigitalTrends.com asks if book publishers are the new record labels, i.e., by responding badly to the digitalization of their product and encouraging piracy.

The writer offers up the typical hipster, pro-criminal argument that stealing is an acceptable response to high prices.  This isn’t Les Misérables, guys; we’re talking about entertainment, not food. 

Amazon Submits To Publisher Demands

In what could be seen as great news for authors, agents, and publishers, online bookseller Amazon.com has capitulated to MacMillan’s demand that ebooks should be priced at $15 rather than $10, but only after a weekend temper tantrum in which they removed all of the publishing firm’s titles from its shelves.

The question now is whether other publishers will join MacMillan, or try to exploit the conflict by pushing their own bargain-priced ebooks in hopes of scooping up market share.

January is Leith Literary’s Biggest Month Ever!

After four straight months of rising readership, the Leith Literary blog has now broken its own record, which was set in July 2009 when I first completed Ligan and started working on its sequel, and the prequel stories I want to anthologize in An Observer’s Handbook.

To be completely honest, watching the stats rise month after month has been surprising to me because I don’t feel like I’m doing anything differently.  Yet, January has been five times busier than September, when this climb started!

But, I know I have readers like you to credit because — looking at my referrers — I can see that people are sharing the blog through email and by linking from their websites.   Thank you so much.

Archaic Definition of the Week – Futtocks

FUTTOCKS, the middle division of a ship’s timbers; or those parts which are situated between the floor and the top-timbers …

As the epithet hooked is frequently applied in common language to any thing bent or incurvated, and particularly to several crooked timbers in a ship, as the breast-hooks, fore-hooks, after-hooks, &c. this term is evidently derived from the lowest part or foot of the timber, and from the shape of the piece. Hence.

- Wm. Falconer’s Dictionary of the Marine (1780).

Writing and Publishing Round-Up

Yes, there were other things going on this week in publishing beyond half the world calling the iPad a savior and the other half poo-pooing its ability to spark a revolution.

Lydia Sharp at The Sharp Angle navigates a middle course to calm the nerves of writers who fear ebook piracy in the wake of Apple’s iPad with some very instructive anecdotes about how free can sell.

The ever-prolific Jessica at BookEnds, LLC, serves up a triptych of good info on: backing up your data, interpreting long query response times, and how agents are weathering the recession.  BookEnds also hosts guest writer Becky Levine, who advises writers how to find a critique group that’s “right for you.”

In the realm of publishing-related graphics, Michael at Dystel & Goderich discusses the perils of book covers, while Janet Reid provides photographic evidence of the role Alces alces plays in certain writing guilds.

Kristin Nelson explains why “often the deciding factor [for sample pages] is not whether the writing is good or not but whether the voice fits an agent’s taste.”  And Jennifer Schuessler at the New York Times explains reader boredom, why we’re so hesitant to admit it, and how it can lead to ecstasy.  And, finally, Rachelle Gardner explains how to become an editor or agent. 

Let’s just say there’s a lot of explaining going on.