Celebrating Books

We had the pleasure of attending the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books today. The weather was fabulous and the UCLA campus was lovely (sincere apologies to USC fans). The Festival is like a very classy swap meet for books, and publishers, bookstores and self-pubbed authors come from all over to be a part of the action.

We hear so much about the state of book buying and how so many indie stores are going out of business and chain buyers are tightening their belts that you can’t help but wonder about the future of the written word. It, therefore, warmed the cold cockles of my little black heart to see hundreds of people with their arms filled with books and wearing big smiles.

As I walked around, I thought about all the electronic gee-whizzardry that compete for our attention – iPods, cellphones, TV, movies, CDs, computers, and MySpace – it boggles the mind. Books are one of the last bastions where our imaginations are free to roam. Without the marvelous talents that put their thoughts and stories to the page, we’d be automatons in constant demand that some piece of cyberbyte entertain us.

So check your papers and see if your hometown is hosting a book festival. If so, go to it. Lose yourself in someone else’s stories, and I’m betting you’ll come out far richer than had you stayed home and watched Cable Guy.

Oh yes, and if you ever find yourself fortunate enough to bribe a reviewer, I highly recommend it. Lauren Roberts, editor for Biblio Buffet is a lovely woman whose charm and humor can be seen in the many reviews and articles she writes.

Psst...Lauren, don’t forget to mail me that check to my home address…

Touching Greatness - Stan Chambers, KTLA's Icon

Most of my job consists of my being chained to my desk with growling hounds parked at my feet lest I think about taking a break. We’re a small company, so we wear a lot of hats. Most of what I do isn’t earth shattering stuff that makes me want to run into the street screaming, “Hey, everybody, I rule and you drool!”

But every now and then I have a “moment” – a time when, by merits of my position, I get to touch the good, the kind, the admirable, and the honorable. Last month was one of those times. Fred and I met with Stan Chambers, his lovely wife, Gege, his wonderful son, David, and his fun and savvy wife, Deb. It was a beautiful beachy Sunday, and Gege insisted on serving a “little lunch.” It felt like home with these lovely people.

I’m a native Californian and grew up watching KTLA News. They were the only ones who knew what was going on in Southern California. While CBS, NBC, and ABC was busy trying to find their shoelaces, Stan Chambers had been on the scene for hours relaying information to a hungry audience. Whether it was a fire (of which we have many) or the Rodney King story, Stan’s concerned face and soothing voice was always there, the first to break the story. Somehow, seeing him on the screen made me know that everything was going to be okay. And if it wasn’t, Stan would tell me. He had that kind of impact.

For the most part, I hate the news. I detest the way journalists shove a mic under the nose of a woman whose entire family has been wiped out by a house fire and ask her how she feels. Are these people devoid of all sensibilities? Of their manners? This is another reason why I watch KTLA News. They refrain from what I call interviewing the “dying head” – a reference to Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry.”

Stan Chambers is a class act. He never insults our intelligence and never injects personal bias into his reporting. Through Stan’s sixty year career at KTLA – yes, you read that right – sixty years – he created a standard of broadcast journalism that made him an icon in this glitzy, hair sprayed, bloated codfish world. I always had the impression that he set a personal standard for himself – one whose foundations were built on honesty, integrity and decency – and never wavered or sold out. When the world changed, he changed with it. Because of that, he endured.

It was therefore terribly exciting when David, Stan’s son, queried us about publishing Sixty Years With Stan Chambers. (don’t freak, Stan, the cover is only a mock-up). Reading his manuscript was like being thrown back in time and reliving stories that had been a faint memory. Learning about the early years of Stan and KTLA’s groundbreaking ideas and immense growth was a delightful history lesson that I’m certain journalism classes will eat up like Baskin Robbins.

At any rate, I had my “moment.” Stan Chambers is as sweet and kind a man in person as he presents on the news – the last of the true gentlemen. His family is equally adorable. Stan, even though you never knew me throughout your career, I had admired you for a long time. Publishing your book is a gift, and, believe me, the honor is mine.

Interview With Scot Stone – The Snowtear Wars Series

Scot Stone is one of those guys who brightens up the place with his laugh. He’s passionate and energetic and never met a bookstore or fan that he didn’t love. To date, I believe he’s sold out at nearly every book signing. Doesn’t matter where he goes, he sells out.

I know that I yammer on about how the idea of “if you write it they will come” is horse hooie, and I can say with confidence that Scot is the only exception to this rule. His imagination is as bright as his smile, and no where can this be better seen than in his Snowtear Wars series.

NY Times Best Selling author T. A. Barron had this to say about Scot’s first novel, The Chimes of Yawrana: “This is a grand, sweeping journey, full of adventure and intrigue, plus a rich array of characters. Once you enter Scot Stone's marvelous world, you'll return often and gladly.”

Who am I to argue with T.A. Barron?

Q: Coming up with an original idea is difficult to do, even in the world of fantasy. Where did you come up with the idea for The Snowtear Wars series?

SRS: I knew I needed a strong central theme that could tie a handful of books together. The funny thing is, I never expected to discover it in the pages of one of my wife’s garden magazines. One just happened to be sitting there on our kitchen counter, and something inside me urged me to pick it up. Halfway through, I came across a flower called a snowdrop, which immediately struck a cord in me. That’s when the wheels began to spin and I asked myself if something so delicate could be highly coveted, enough to cause kingdoms to go to war over it.

The answer was, “Yes,” of course, but I had to decide what would make it so valuable. I could’ve easily made it have magical properties, which would’ve taken the story line in a completely different direction. However, that’s not the route I chose, and instead opted for it to have unsurpassed medicinal qualities, which were produced entirely by nature.

Q: Why did you decide to place your story on another world (Elvana) instead of on Earth?

SRS: Plain and simple, I love to create, which isn’t surprising considering I minored in Art in college. Every writer starts with a blank sheet of paper, but in my creation process it tends to be more of a canvas at times.

I have always had a deep fear of being criticized for plagiarism, so the best way I found to avoid that was to build my own world from the ground up. It ended up to be a ton of work, but was also a great deal of fun.

Q: How do you choose characters and define their roles?

SRS: For most of my characters, I base them off specific actors or actresses. I then add or subtract qualities, depending on the person and what I need him or her to achieve in the series. By doing this I can create a character people can relate to in order for them to grasp the story easier, especially since it’s based in another world.

I also believe you need to have a broad range of characters to create a believable world. If you look around you at workplace, how many different personalities do you see? No one gets along with every person they come into contact with. There has to be some natural friction between characters, even if they happen to be on the same side.

Q: How do you handle criticism?

SRS: There is only one way it should be handled: professionally. No matter what odds you find yourself against, keep a level head and look at everything objectively. The last thing you want to do is offend someone who is only trying to do their job by helping you put forth the best product possible for the marketplace. If you can’t handle criticism, you shouldn’t be in the field.

Q: According to your website, you will be done writing the series by the end of 2007. Of the five novels, which did you find was the most difficult to write.

SRS: Each novel presented its own challenges, but I would truthfully say Book Three, The Hollows of Candlewick was the most daunting. That book, more than the others, determined so many turning points in the series. There were also many aspects I had to start explaining to keep all the books tied together and on the right track.

Some of the main characters also started to take on difficult challenges, which created new dynamics I had to handle with care. I had to always be asking myself, “Would this character realistically behave this way if presented with this problem?”

I wrote pages and pages on each of these problems to make sure I could navigate through the third book successfully. Some ideas were cut, and others reworked. In the end I was exhausted, but happy with the results.

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You may find out more about Scot Stone at his webpage or our website. Be sure to look at his personal website for the latest details

***Be one of the first five people to email me at lynn@behlerpublications for your free copy of any of the Snowtear Wars books. Be sure to put "Interview with Scot Stone" in the subject title. Please include your mailing address.

A Typical Day At Behler Publications

Brevity At Its Best

We always hold the writer who uses an economy of words in the highest esteem. This highlights what I mean:

A college class was told they had to write a short story using as few words as possible. The story had to contain the following criteria:

1. Religion
2. Sexuality
3. Mystery
   

The A+ student out of the entire class wrote:

“Good God, I’m pregnant; I wonder who did it.”

Classic.

Interview with Douglas Light, East Fifth Bliss

I've invited some of our authors to give interviews in order to discuss their upcoming/already released books. It's our hope that you not only enjoy reading about what makes these great talents tick, but will enjoy reading their wonderful books. To that end, I recommend that you run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and pick up your very own copy.

Everybody, Douglas Light. Douglas, everybody.

Q: On East Fifth Bliss’s jacket copy, there’s a line that read, “There are seven defining moments in a person’s life. For Morris Bliss, the difficulty is in knowing which moments are defining.” What are Morris’s seven defining moments? What are yours?

DL: East Fifth Bliss charts Morris Bliss’s discovery of himself, his identity. He’s a bit behind in the game, though. At age thirty-five, he still lives with his father, has no solid job, and talks more than acts. The one event that has shaped Morris most was the death of this mother when he was thirteen. Even though some twenty plus years have past, he is still trapped by this traumatic event.

East Fifth Bliss is, in some ways, a coming-of-age novel. A very late coming-of-age.

The moments that I identity with, that had a profound affect on me, are as follows: resuscitated from a drowning at age seven; an ice skating accident at age thirteen that sent me to the hospital and left me with a three-day amnesia; homeless in Seattle in the early 1990s; moving to New York City; meeting and marrying my wife.

As for the remaining two moments, we’ll have to wait and see.

Q: What I found most remarkable about East Fifth Bliss was how real the characters seem. Morris is funny and frustrating, lazy and loyal, adventurous and timid—in a word, very human. Was this a conscious act, making the characters so real and yet so unique?

DL: Characters make the story. It’s the characters that create a memorable novel. So yes, it was something I strived for, characters that are both recognizable and unforgettable.

Q: What was the most difficult aspect about writing East Fifth Bliss?

DL:I had Morris Bliss, the novel's protagonist, for some time, and I had plenty of ideas for scenes. My challenge was finding the right vessel to carry the story. I set myself a perimeter: The story, I decided, would take place in a walk-up tenement. Exclusively. The characters never left the building.

The first draft was awful. Too many characters, too little tension.

Thank God for rewrites and the delete key.

Over five rounds of revisions, characters were killed-off, combined, or fleshed out. The story opened, became more cohesive and textured. The setting moved beyond the apartment building, out into the streets of the East Village. And I condensed the time span from four-weeks to four days.

What survived was the protagonist's quest, his need to understand his loss, his identity.

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You may find out more about Douglas Light at his webpage or our website

***Be one of the first five people to email me at lynn@behlerpublications for your free copy of East Fifth Bliss. Be sure to put "Interview with Douglas Light" in the subject title. Please include your mailing address.

POD Series #7 - Questions every writer should ask a publisher before querying.

Before you inject your morning cuppa directly into your veins, before you freebase that jelly donut, before you brush your teeth…Research, research, research BEFORE you query/submit!

I’ve seen thousands of letters and emails of the most trusting souls who were delivering their submission into my grubby little hands. These were writers who nothing about us. They didn’t know whether we were scammers or the next best thing to sliced bread. All I would have had to do is say, “This is the best thing I’ve read since the last submission. Wanna contract?” and they would have jumped.

This, frankly, scares the bejabbers out of me.

Writers, please, for the love of all that’s holy, know who you’re dealing with BEFORE you submit. Once you’ve signed on the dotted line, they own you, and the next number of years can be wonderful or dreadful. The desire to be published should not overrule good business practices.

It reminds me of a few years ago when I returned home to see my kitchen and breakfast nook flooded in two inches of water. I panicked, as any self-respecting woman would, and called the biggest ad that screamed promises of being at my home within minutes. The stopped the flood and proceeded to suggest all sorts of things that were in dire need of fixing or my house would explode. Having just jump started my heart, I jumped at their generous offer of $1500 to make my life complete. Hubby wasn’t nearly as amused. I’d been scammed. Thankfully we charged it, and they never got paid.

But what about you? You won’t have the luxury of calling the credit card company and saying that you made a mistake and your publisher is an idiot. Lawyers have a very difficult time winning court cases against publishers. Your only protection is knowing who you’re dealing with.

I’ve put up a number of questions that I feel will give you some level of comfort as to what kind of publisher they are.

· What kind of a publisher are you? Are you a commercial press, vanity, or POD? Be very careful. Many won’t tell you they’re POD. Vanity is a bit tougher because this requires money up front. But at that, the smaller vanity presses aren’t always forthcoming until you get to the contract stage and they whip out this little tidbit.

· Are your books shelved (not just listed) with Ingram and Baker & Taylor? Be careful if they say that their distributor is Ingram and Baker & Taylor. These guys are not distributors. They’re warehouse distributors. They don’t have a sales team that goes out and pushes your books to chain buyers. Well, okay, Ingram does, but that’s a different animal.

· Are your books listed in the bookstores’ databases? If they say yes, then call up a bookstore and have them look up a few of the publisher’s released titles. If they say they don’t have it listed in their database, this means that no one can buy or even order your book through the bookstore.

· What kind of editing do you provide? Better be developmental and copy editing or walk away. Ask them what standard they use – for instance, we go by Chicago Manual of Style

· Do you do print runs? On average, how big? If not, would you consider doing it for me?

· Do you send out galleys to reviewers? If so, how many and to whom? If they don’t mention the usual suspects – Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Blooomsbury, Booklist, Library Journal, New York Review of Books etc. this is a giveaway because these folks don’t review POD books.

· Are your books returnable? Ask if it’s a standard return policy. Again, be very careful. I know of some scammers who say they have a return policy but in reality, it’s so restrictive that most bookstores won’t order their books. A standard return policy where the book is returned to either Ingram, Baker & Taylor, or the publisher’s distributor within a three-four month time.

· Are your books competitively priced? This is easy to check by going to Amazon.com.

· Does the publisher have a marketing department? Distributor?

· And lastly, ask around. It’s as simple as asking, “Hey anybody heard about Haveievergottadealforyou Publishing?” You’re bound to get feedback. Never, never, ever assume everything is okay. You’ve worked your fingers off writing your novel – treat it with the respect its due.

Happy writing! Happy submitting!

Disclaimer: I’m talking generalities here. There are a number of pretty good POD companies out there. While they still adhere to the points I’ve written about, they’re honest about who they are and what they can and can’t do for their authors.

POD Series #6 –Random House doesn’t want me, so what are my options?

Keep submitting. Keep writing. Don’t settle.

Join writer’s groups who can offer you good, sound critique. I belong to one and adore their often slice and dice approach because it’s made me a better writer.

Having said that, I agree that not everyone will be picked up by a major house or even a small fry like us. At some point you may wonder about which road to take. Do I continue to submit? Do I look at other options? Do I put my book in the desk drawer?

Analyze

The first thing you have to do is analyze the intent of your book. Yes, we all believe we’ve written the Great American Novel, and then we hit the intersection of Reality Checkpoint and Honesty Road. Is your book going to be of interest to a large number of people or is this for a specific group. Is it regional? Is it good? Most first novels should be put into the desk and left there while you begin writing another, better book. It’s a fact. No use fighting it. Most of us don’t have the writing ju-ju to crank out brilliance on our first try.

However, no one can tell you when to face that intersection – it’s personal. Some give up the submission ghost after six months, others after six years. But while you’re deciding what your time limits are, be aware of what is out there.

Self Publishing – The Omigod Factor

I would much rather see a writer self publish their book than get trapped into the POD paradigm. Yes, it takes some money, but you also have complete autonomy over your book – from print runs to pricing. I’m not going to go into all the machinations of self pubbing because that’s not what this series is about. But know that if you self publish, we can still be friends.

Are all PODs really bad?

No.

There are POD companies out there who are honestly trying to do the very best with what they have. Admittedly, they don’t have much and their abilities are severely limited, but that doesn’t mean they’re trying to steal your dog and wear your new shoes while you’re at work. I’ve received emails from people who genuinely liked their POD publisher but see the restrictions by staying with them.

Case in point: I met a guy who had real can-do personality and a fairly good book. Unfortunately, it was a specialized work and no one wanted to publish it. He didn’t have the money to self pub, so he went the POD route and let them assume all the production costs. They allowed him to submit his own cover, and he took care to have an outside editor check his work. He didn’t care if his book was going to be in the stores because he made his money through seminars. In this case, POD worked for him. He sold a lot and saved his money so that when the next book was ready to publish, he self pubbed it and made a mint. But keep in mind, this guy can sell sand to Arabs. Can you?

He did his homework. He looked around for a good, honest POD company. I’m hearing you, “Dammit, Price, you said they were all pond scum!” Just like a handful of honest politicians (and if you find one, let me know), there are honest PODs. These are the guys who state right up front that they are Print on Demand. They tell you they don’t do print runs, they don’t market, and their primary source of income is selling to their authors. Again, I’m talking generalities here. A very small number actually do a bit of marketing, but this is limited because their books aren’t going to be stocked anywhere.

Keep in mind that while an honest POD can work for you, marketing your book is a full time job, and sales will normally remain pretty tepid unless you’re like my friend. Most people, however, aren’t like my friend. Do the research, analyze your personality type, and analyze the intent of your book.

If you’ll excuse me, a dump truck just pulled in front of my house with a ton of sand…

Coming tomorrow - the last of this series: Questions you should ask every publisher before querying.

POD Series #5 –Nightmare On Madison Avenue

While most of the Print On Demand business plans result in an author’s book never seeing the light of day, there is another side of the coin: Success.

“What’s that you, say, Price? Success? You’re mad! Since when is success a problem?”

Obviously it’s not a problem when a publisher is set up to meet the demand that’s been created by theirs and their authors promotional efforts.

Case in point;

An author contacted me asking if I’d consider taking on her book. Her story tumbled out in an emotional rush.

Her book had caught the attention of a major sports chain, and they wanted 20,000 units in three month’s time to coincide with some sports hoopteedoo. She spent that night celebrating with an expensive bottle of wine and caviar. She’d done it. She hit the Big Time.

The next morning, while nursing a hangover, she contacted her publisher with the fabulous news, expecting they’d name a day of the week after her. They hemmed, they hawed, and……..

dumped her.

That’s right. They dumped her. What was their reasoning, you ask? Not being successful.

The author was dumbfounded. I explained that the Print On Demand business plan isn’t equipped to handle huge orders like this. First off, her book wasn't returnable. If it was, they’d potentially face X number of returns. This can kill a small company, and they have to have the financial backing to withstand the financial hit. That’s why publishers are so careful about what they publish. We don't want returns.

The sport company, naturally, wanted deep discounts. This isn’t unusual. For the POD company, however, it is very unusual to allow deep discounting because it costs them money. It’s a lot easier all around to simply sell books to their authors at higher prices because they don’t discount those sales nearly as much.

Suddenly without a publisher, this author was left hanging in the wind. The sporting hoopteedoo happened without her. They found another book to promote at their event, and that author is becoming quite a name in the sports world. This author aches at the thought that it could have been her.

End of story.

End of dreams.

POD Series #4 – A Bedtime Horror Story

I’ve heard every kind of horror story imaginable about the Print On Demand paradigm – most are sad enough to bring tears to my hard-hearted eyes. I’m a writer, and I know what it’s like to pour my soul into a story morning, noon and night. I know what it’s like to agonize over character development and arc placement. I know what it’s like at the end of the day to have respected people in the business say, “Hey, Price, I think you really have something here.”

So does it seem right that all the hard work we pour into our writing is ultimately sent down a steaming pipe of oblivion? Of course not. But that’s exactly what happens with Print On Demand books.

Case in point; I got to know an author on a mutual writer’s board who was extremely proud of her book, and she should have been – it was fabulous. I knew nothing about her publisher, but I made the assumption (yeah, me…assume anything. Go figure) that it was an indie commercial press like ours. Some months later she became despondent and asked for my advice. Here’s what she told me:

The book was published, and she jumped into promotion with both feet. She’s a whiz at it and her subject matter was bursting with all sorts of different promotional paths. She hired a publicist and had visions of book signings dancing in her head.

It never happened. Stores looked up her title in their computers and saw that the book was non-returnable and the retail price was too high. Undaunted, she convinced several stores in her area to read the book and made them promise that if they liked what they saw, they’d agree to a signing. She’d provide the books.

They read it and loved it. Yahoo! They were so impressed that they ordered 25 copies for their stores. Her signings went off without a hitch, and she ended up outselling a well-known author whose signing was the same day.

But POD giveth and POD taketh away. The stores called the author and informed her they couldn’t shelve the books in their stores. Since the publisher hadn’t sent her title into the corporate buyers in NY her title wasn’t listed in their corporate database. The books remained in the boxes and were never unpacked, and she had to buy them back from the store.

And the publicist? She bolted after finding out that no matter what she did to promote her client, the books would never hit the stores.

It was the same scenario every time she had a book signing; she had to order all her own books and lug them to every signing.

Who made out? The publisher.
Why?
Because the author was the point of sale, not the bookstore. There was no risk to the publisher, and all the financial risk was placed on the author.

Broke and unable to obtain more signings, her choice was to hawk her book in other ways. In and of itself, this is fine. Many well-published authors do the very same thing. The difference is that these efforts are in conjunction with the publisher’s own marketing plans. Repeat this scenario a few more times and she was beaten before she ever got out of the shoot.

At that, none of this an arrestable offense. My hot button is that all too often the author NEVER KNOWS ABOUT ANY OF THIS UNTIL AFTER THE INK IS DRY ON THE CONTRACT.

After a year, she asked to be released from her contract, taking the tact that she wasn’t aware of any these problems before she signed the contract. The publisher refused. The author got a literary attorney with the intent of suing. The lawyer said she didn’t have a solid enough case that would hold up in court.

End of story.

End of dreams.