Chip MacGregor .com

A Grab Bag of Publishing Questions

Time to get back to answering your writing and publishing questions...

Denise wrote, "I've had a few friends ask me to recommend an agent. Where can they check out an agent's reputation if they are just starting out?"

The first place to go is Publishers Marketplace, which lists which agents have done deals, how many deals, and at what houses. That's a start. There are also two websites (Writer Beware and Predators and Editors) that both try to track bad agent activity, so you can check out those resources. You can always check to see which agents are in good standing with the Association of Author Representatives. And you can ask around through writing contacts among some of the online writing communities. You can try asking editors, though sometimes they'll feel constrained not to say anything bad about anyone. Still, the best thing to do is to research an agent -- try to meet face-to-face, get a feel for the individual, find out who he or she represents, who they do business with, what sort of books they represent, and what others have to say about them.

Bonnie asked, "If a writer were to get a publishing deal, could they hire you to look over your contract and pay you a one-time fee? Or is it worth it to hire an agent when you've already got a contract offer?"

If an author has a contract in hand, there are contract review companies that will read and respond to your contract wording for a basic fee (usually somewhere in the $200-to-$500 range). I know that Sally Stuart (who does an annual industry guide) and Susan Osborne both offer this service. There are doubtless others. No, they aren't as thorough as a good literary agent, and they won't offer any long-term advice, but they may very well offer you what you need. If you've got a big deal, you can talk with an entertainment lawyer, but realize the clock will be ticking. (Most lawyers are paid for the increments of time spent on reviewing a contract, so they have a built-in motivation to keep the clock moving. If you're going to see a lawyer, try to get a fee negotiated up front.) I don't normally do much "review for fee" work. It's not beneficial to my business in the long-term, so the few times I've done it is because a friend has asked, and I've looked it over to make sure they were protected. I guess I'd be cautious about this -- I'm not going to be dogmatic about this issue, but it seems like a literary agent who is spending his time offering contract reviews is really not all that busy with books, so maybe he isn't such a great agent.

I'm frequently asked the question about "should I get an agent now that I have a deal?," and it's not an easy one to answer. Most agents will be happy to represent you if you already have a deal in place -- they haven't had to invest anything in you, didn't help ready the proposal, didn't offer editing to your work, and didn't have to shop it for you... so being handed 15% of a deal is a gift for them. Should you do it? I'd suggest you keep three questions in mind: First, would a contract evaluation service do the same work for less money? It may not make sense to pay $1500 if a good review service could do it adequately for one-fifth that amount. Second, is the agent going to add any value? I had an author come to me with a deal in hand, but it was frankly a bad deal. We landed the same book with a much better publisher for considerably more money. Third, is this really the agent for you? I happen to think an author is better off with NO agent than a BAD agent. So don't sign up with someone just because she says she'll take you on. Check her out. Don't be in a hurry. The agent you sign with should be able to offer you long-term career advice as well as do a solid review of the current contract offer.

John wrote this: "When we see a print run of multiple thousands of copies (for example, this week on Publishers Lunch I noticed a publisher announcing they're going to print 100,000 copies of a book), where are all those copies going?"

A publisher is only doing a big print run when they've spoken to accounts and they know they are going to see a lot of big orders for a book. So those books are printed and sent to accounts to fulfill orders, or they are shipped to warehouses in order to be ready to fill re-orders when the book starts selling quickly.

Elizabeth sent me this question: "As online retailers are selling more and more books, have distribution and ordering practices changed much? Are things different from when you started?"

Things are significantly different from when I first started in the book business. (Dinosaurs no longer roam the earth, for example. And the whole "movable type" idea has speeded things up.) In my view, the change in book distribution has been the biggest shift I've seen in my twenty-some years in book publishing. First, book readers moved from independent bookstores to mega-stores. That led to the decline of indies and created the rise of Barnes & Noble (and Borders, who I'm praying survives). Second, they began buying books at Big Box stores, so Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and Costco suddenly become players  in the industry (even though you wander through the aisles and can find few employees who know how to read, let alone answer anything about books). Third, Amazon came along and created the online bookstore, so that now you don't need to leave home to buy books. And fourth, the advent of e-books has begun to reshape the patterns again, as Kindle and Sony owners simply have books downloaded digitally to their devices. So the business isn't the same at all. There are fewer people to ask about books, and more pooled ignorance on Amazon reviews. There's much more of a willingness to order and wait for the books to be shipped to your home. Publishers are now selling directly to consumers, which they used to eschew, and they've had to realign their thinking about book sales. As I said, it's not the same business at all as when I started.

Tammy asked, "You've mentioned you Skype your daughter in Europe, so the two of you can see and talk to each other -- do you ever Skype your authors?"

Hmmm. You know, I've never done that. But it's an excellent suggestion, Tammy. Thanks.

Steve noted, "I just read a nonfiction book that would make a fantastic novel. Must I contact the author to him know I intend to dramatize the story? Or because it is a national story and a true event, do I not need to contact anyone? Do publishers care where ideas come from? Can I simply consider the work reference material?"

You're on dangerous ground here, so let me begin by saying I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not giving legal advice. If you need legal advice, by all means contact a lawyer. I asked a lawyer informally about this question, and he said a writer should be aware of the source of his or her information. If the nonfiction book is basically your complete source for the novel you're planning, then yes, you are legally obligated to talk with the author about your novel idea. But if this is, as you say, a national story that everyone knows about, you might have several sources that you rely on to create a story. The example he gave me: there will soon be a nonfiction book out on the Bernie Madoff scandal. If you base your novel on that upcoming book, so that it is the basis of the bulk of your research, then you could be sued for copyright infringement. But there have been thousands of stories written on the Madoff case, and there are hundreds of people who could be interviewed. If you spent time reading those, talked with people involved, and created a fictionalized account of a guy who created a Ponzi scheme and ripped off millions of dollars, you would probably not be violating that nonfiction author's rights. Does that make sense?

Jennie wrote this: "I notice there are numerous writing contests going on, and I always go back and forth about entering. How important to an editor is winning or finaling in a contest? Will winning help me land a book deal?"

I think a contest can be good for a writer because it forces her to really focus and improve her craft, and puts her in competition with other writers. And I suppose publishers appreciate knowing that some editors reviewed the author's work and decided it was the best in a particular contest. There is certainly prestige in knowing a writer has won the Daphne or the Golden Heart. But no, I haven't ever found that winning a contest will actually help you land a book deal.

Joseph asked, "Do Christian readers read general market books, or do they eschew anything not CBA-friendly? Do agents handle both CBA and general market books?"

I've got to admit, I am sick of this question. YES, Christian readers buy and read both religious books and non-religious books. Right now I'm reading A Thousand Splendid Suns and re-reading Gravity's Rainbow. Next up is The Brothers K. None of those are Christian books. Like most Christians, I have wider interests than "the Bible" and "religious books." And yes, like many agents, I handle both Christian books as well as books that are not Christian (or not religious at all). I've done deals with Christian publishers as well as general market publishers. There are some agents who only work in CBA, just like there are agents who only work in the general market and never do CBA books. And that's fine -- everybody gets to choose what they do. But I think we need to declare a moratorium on this question, since I've answered it at least a dozen times, and I'm going to slug the next person who asks me.

Got any (other, non-sluggable) questions? Ask away.

More on CBE, Stickered Books, and Celebrations

I've had more than two dozen people write to ask, in effect, "Why are you bashing CBE?"

Hey, let me be clear: I thought the Christian Book Expo was great. Honest. The show itself was wonderful. Incredible authors. Great workshops. The panels were as good as any conference or trade show I've ever attended. So the problem wasn't the show, it was the way the show was put together, marketed, and sold. Nobody came. And that's awful.

Let me choose just one publisher to explore... The folks at Thomas Nelson must have spent a fortune on this show. They set up a big booth. They had a ton of books. And they brought in Max Lucado, Donald Miller, Andy Andrews, Patsy Clairmont, Shela Walsh, Robert Liparulo, Colleen Coble, and even Ron Hall & Denver Moore (the two guys who share their story in the New York Times bestseller Same Kind of Different as Me). They did everything they could to make for a successful show. They not only flew those folks in, but put them up at a nice hotel and must have paid them something to do workshops and panels. In addition, they flew a bunch of Thomas Nelson staffers in to shepherd the authors and man the booth. That had to cost them a fortune. In other words, Thomas Nelson (and the other publishers who participated) did everything right. But the reason I called the show a "disaster" is because, after all this time and effort and money being invested, nobody came. There were no book sales, no big media push, and not even a huge relationship gain with readers.

Think of the losses for the publisher. And those losses are coming at a terrible time, when the economy is in shambles and book sales overall are down, causing layoffs and cutbacks in the industry. That's why I said the show was a disaster -- it was. I don't take any glee in that. I would have preferred the show was a huge hit, with jammed aisles and a huge boost to the publisher's bottom line. So... we move on, and hope for better decisions in the future. I hope they find an inexpensive location, work with churches and bookstores, and put on a great event somewhere next year. But what scares me about this is, after talking with some of the publishers, I don't think everybody will participate again. The show scared away most of the mid-level publishers from investing in this type of event in the future. So... yeah. That qualifies for the "disaster" tag.

If you want to read more about CBE, check out the three blogs Mike Hyatt did at www.michaelhyatt.com. (And if you're not reading Mike's blog, you're missing out on one of the really insightful posts in all of publishing. He regularly has good stuff to share.)

On to something happier, the Christy Finalists were released. The Christy Awards are given out every year to the best Christian fiction, and this year's list of finalists has quite a few surprises and first-time names on it. That just goes to show the breadth we're now seeing in Christian fiction. (The list also includes two authors I represent -- Lisa Samson for Embrace Me, and Claudia Mair Burney for Zora and Nicky. Lisa is already recognized as one of the great writers in CBA fiction, and Mair is a wonderful young novelist who has had a great first two years. A shout out to both of them.)

Max wrote to ask, "Is a place like CBE appropriate for an author to meet with an agent or editor and pitch their book?"

I suppose theoretically that's a good idea, but practically speaking it's almost impossible. Consider my schedule at a show like this... I might have 20 authors I represent show up. Then there are at least 20 or 25 publishers I need to meet with. And there are a bunch of agents and editors trying to create a list, so we're all setting up schedules months in advance. By the last couple weeks before the show starts, my datebook is filled to overflowing with meetings. So I may not be able to squeeze in something else... and even if I could, it will be for 25 minutes, and it'll be one meeting amid 100. You probably want to stand out a bit more. I'm not saying new author/agent meetings never happen at these types of things -- they do. But your odds are better to try and meet at a writing conference, or simply by traveling to meet the agent for coffee sometime. 

I also had some folks from Lifeway write me a note, defending the company practice of stickering certain books with the words, Read with Discernment. They asked me not to quote them directly, so I won't, but their basic arugment was that as booksellers they have a responsibility to protect the minds of Believers.

My response: Okay... so why sell name-it-and-claim-it nutjobs, but put a warning label on Rob Bell? Why sell mindless tripe from the likes of Benny Hinn but warn people to be careful of Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz? This doesn't strike me as really caring about the spiritual lives of believers, so much as defending a certain theological stance. You're willing to sell something weak to make a buck (see: Osteen, Joel), but you want to make yourself feel better by compensating with a sticker on someone not seen as being "with you" in the evangelical camp. That's just intellectually dishonest.  I don't agree with everything that comes from the pen of Brian McLaren (and, to be completely honest, I'm not sure Brian himself knows what he believes any more), but isn't a bookstore the last bastion of intellectual integrity? A place we can go to get all the opinions -- crazy though some may be? Hey, if you don't like a book, or feel a book is heretical, the response is simple: Don't carry it. If you believe a novel is pornographic, don't stock it. But to carry it, sell it, make a buck off it, then slap a lame warning label on it as a way of telling yourself you are "defending the faith" is one stupid way of doing business.

[Correction: Lifeway doesn't stock Benny Hinn. In fact, they're not really favorable toward any charismatic. So, granted, I could have used a better example... They sell C.S. Lewis, who (1) smoked a pipe, (2) drank alcohol, and (3) believed in infant baptism! Or how about if I point out they carry Adrian Rogers books -- a great guy, and a man I did some writing for and respected very much. But Adrian also wrote that he believed Jesus never drank wine. Honest! I know this because he asked me to create the chapter for him. While I think Adrian was wonderful, this one point was, um, not exactly in sync with the biblical text. My point is just that bookstores offer a wide variety of theological perspectives. We read ALL books with discernment, so let's not pick on a couple authors because there's something about their theology we feel doesn't toe the party line. This harkens back to the heresy that salvation is found in checking the right boxes on a test. Knowing Christ as Savior isn't evaluated just by what theological positions you hold, but by who you are as a representative of Christ in the world. If a bookstore feels a book is so bad they need to warn readers away from it, then it seems like they are compromising their values to actually sell a copy.]

Imagine you're a conservative, you walk into Barnes & Noble, and they've put warning labels on the books from Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, P.J. O'Rourke, and Rush Limbaugh. But there's nothing on the inane ramblings of Bill Maher or the spiteful, unfanny rants from Al Franken. Wouldn't you feel as though they had done a disservice to readers? I don't care if they want to sell Al Franken -- I just want to make sure the bookstore is a marketplace of ideas, isn't run by the government, and doesn't turn into a mouthpiece for one particular political party. The same holds true in Christian bookstores. I'm not a charismatic, nor am I a baptist, but I don't want to see CBA stores stickering books with things that warn me from engaging their ideas. Our local Barnes & Noble sells Mein Kampf. They dont' feel a need to sticker it. "Nuff said.

One last item, and it's the most important one of all: the lovely and talented Patti MacGregor hit the big five-oh! Our small group surprised her with a great birthday party, complete with black balloons and medications for coming ailments. We've been married for 27 years, and Patti has not only stuck by me through all the moves and all the mistakes, but she's still convinced she married the right person. (Please don't text her and let her know the truth -- that she married a dope not really worthy of her. I prefer we keep that a secret a while longer.) Love you, darlin'.

Notes From Big D (that's "D" as in "Disaster")

I spent the last several days in Dallas, attending the first-ever Christian Book Expo. I had really been looking forward to CBE -- a books-only version of ICRS. I thought it would pull together everyone in Christian publishing, draw in the reading public, and forego the people shilling Gospel Ties, WWJD belt buckles, and Thomas Kinkade soap-on-a-rope. The big concept was that this would be a consumer show, not a trade show. So the goal was to get consumers (i.e., readers) to come visit, meet authors, and buy books.

That's the goal. As loyal readers know, I've been a fan of the idea from Day One. I made my plans early to attend, blogged about the show, and encouraged everyone I could to be there. I honestly think the basic idea behind CBE is wonderful. And I had fun.

But let's face facts... The show, in terms of what it was supposed to be, was a disaster. Now don't get me wrong -- I had a good time. Saw lots of great authors. Connected with publishers. Heard some fabulous presentations. But in terms of what it was supposed to be, the show was an unmitigated disaster. And not just your run-of-the-mill disaster, but a Joaquin-Phoenix-On-David-Letterman type of disaster. You're going to read a bunch of reviews, and many of them will try to spin this into something happy, but I'm not buying it.

The problem is that consumers didn't show up. They were planning on hosting 15,000 people at the show. I asked the folks at registration how many tickets they had sold and was told they "did not reach 1500." Ouch. (And Christian Retailing says that 275 of those were kids... who got in free.) The first day consisted of publishers, authors, and agents -- insiders all, walking around and talking to each other. It was like somebody decided to throw a Christian publishing potluck. There were more industry professionals on the floor than there were consumers (and no, that's not an exaggeration).

The organization failed to explain the concept. Hear me out: It cost $29 to attend for a day. And what do you get for your $29? A chance to go buy books. That concept didn't make sense to people. I mean, you can buy books at Barnes & Noble for nothing. When I go Christmas shopping at the mall, they don't charge me twenty bucks for the privilege of going in and spending money. Whether the organization wants to admit it or not, most consumers couldn't get over the high price tag for an event that was basically a chance to spend money. (More on this in a moment.)

The venue was all wrong. Why do this at an expensive place like the Dallas Convention Center? That's where trade shows take place, not consumer shows. Why not move it out to one of the centers in the suburbs that are considerably cheaper? Or why not have it at a mega-church that has the space to host it? For that matter, if they really want to make it similar to some of the "book celebrations" that are hosted in various cities around the world, why not do it outside somewhere, so it has more of a festival feel to it? Going back to my Christmas shopping example, the mall not only invites me to come, they offer me a nice food court and free parking. The food at the Dallas Convention Center was, in a word, awful. And any consumer who wanted to drive to downtown Dallas had to pay to park. All of this worked against the show's success.

The author events were great... and almost completely ignored. Back to my point about the cost of the show -- the reason you'd pay money to get in would be to meet authors, correct? Consumers are willing to pay something for access to insights and insiders -- we'll pay ten bucks to go to a home-and-garden show, for example, or to attend a boat show that offers us stuff we can't find at the local stores. But some of the workshops on Friday had nobody in attendance. At others, a half-dozen people showed up. Can you imagine the embarrassment to have a good author prepare to speak and have nobody show up to hear him? I don't want to embarrass any particular author, since this clearly was not their fault, but I saw some great authors sitting at their signings with nothing to do. Not a single person in line to talk with them. I counted at least ten bestselling authors standing around with no one to sign for. That's a shame (to say nothing of it being a costly mess for the publishers who paid to fly in authors and put them up at downtown hotels).

There were too many signings -- a strange thought, when you consider the interest our culture has in celebrity. In fact, the lack of people at famous author signings is all you really need to know about the reading public's response to this event. You're a book lover -- don't you enjoy getting the chance to meet some of your favorite authors? Don't you love walking up and having a chat with some beloved authors and getting them to sign their books? This is a celebrity-driven business -- and even great celebrities had a tough time drawing a crowd.

Publishers lost a ton of money. If there is anything that could doom future CBE's, it's the fact that publishers spent a bunch of money and got zero return. Let's say you're a publisher who shipped 100 cases of books to Dallas for the show. You only sold a few books, so now you have to pay to ship all those books back. Ouch. (I happen to know that some publishers simply went to chains and distributors, and asked them if they'd buy the entire leftover mess at a huge discount. They figured they'd lose less money dumping them for pennies on the dollar than having to bother with re-boxing and re-shipping the whole mess back to the warehouse.) Publishers didn't find a bunch of new readers at this show. They didn't get much press. And remember, this all took place in a terrible publishing economy, with publishers cutting jobs, reducing inventory, and watching sales sag. While I'd love to see CBE continue, I think the leadership at ECPA is going to have a hard time convincing member publishers to pony up any money for a future event. They are already pulling out of the ICRS show in July, and this looked like it was a colossal financial loss for the publishers who participated.

There was certainly good stuff that happened. I'm really not trying to be overly negative. As I said, many of the workshops and talks were well done. Susan Meissner's Shape of Mercy won Novel of the Year at the ECPA Awards Banquet. That was well-deserved (and here I'll admit that I can be accused of bias, since I represented that novel, but it's one of the best CBA novels I've read in years). The downside: The banquet lasted roughly as long as the weekend -- in fact, it might still be going on. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but... five hours? Should giving out six awards really take longer than the 50+ that it takes to hand out the Academy Awards? (And a mea culpa: I got delayed and missed the big show, sad to say. So the criticism of the length is admittedly second hand, but it's supported by numerous TB sufferers.)

Another nice thing is that Crossway's ESV Study Bible won the overall Book of the Year award. You don't normally see a Bible win something like that, so it put a unique spin on the award. I happen to be a huge fan of the ESV, and maybe this will get more people to pick up a copy and acquaint themselves with it. The nonfiction book winner was John Piper's Spectacular Sins, which I'll admit I have yet to read.

The movie Collision could be a hit. The film is a debate between famous atheist Christoper Hitchens and Christian apologist Douglas Wilson, done in sort of an art-house style. A fascinating piece for people who think. It premiered at CBE, but didn't get quite the press it deserved.

The biggest buzz was probably the live debate that featured a bunch of Christian theologians taking on Christopher Hitchens. I'd have to say that Doug Wilson did a nice job of stating his case, and Lee Strobel seemed to be the only one on the panel who didn't buy into the "we have to be respectful to Mr. Hitchens' ideas because we want to show you how polite we are" line. Good grief, why didn't somebody say, "This guy is actively trying to destroy lives, and it's not healthy"? Look, Mr. Hitchens is charming, but he didn't once respond to a question with an answer. He's making a buck off saying "I don't think God exists, and you shouldn't either," but he can't ever answer a question with any sort of reason. (When asked a straight question, he smirks and says, "Let me tell you a story..." -- which never actually gets around to having a point, other than revealing what a charming guy he is. I kept waiting for one of the Christians to shout, "Answer the damn question!") So I found the whole thing rather frustrating. I'm sure if they had a debate with Hitler, the Christians would all be polite and try to find areas of agreement, rather than saying, "You're an evil nutcase whose ideas don't merit serious consideration." But perhaps this is why I'm not an academic.

So what lessons do we take away? I still think a Christian Book Expo is a fine idea, but it needs to be cheaper, needs to be marketed better, and needs more than just a few tweaks to make work. And no, I don't think it will happen. I think the losses the publishers took will scare many away from investing in something of this size again... which is a shame, but probably reality. My guess is that a large publisher might see great advantage in doing this sort of thing themselves (I could see Thomas Nelson hosting their own version of this in Nashville, for example).  I honestly think the leadership at ECPA swung for the fences, and there's something to be said for that. They whiffed this time. And, in the end, that's probably all that matters.

[Addendum: The leaders at the larger publishing houses (Dwight Baker at BPG, Mike Hyatt at Thomas Nelson, Mark Taylor of Tyndale) were all quoted today as saying they saw value in the event, and would try to make the event work in a better venue, with a different pricing plan and better marketing. That's good news. CBE is still a good idea, if done right.]

Cleaning Out My File

I'm looking through my files and realizing it's time I clean out some stuff...

The Big Event: The first-ever Christian Book Expo (CBE) is coming up this weekend at the Dallas Convention Center. I'll be there, along with a bunch of other agents, publishers, and authors. If you're anywhere close, drop by. It's about $20 for the day (you can get a $5 discount by typing in the coupon code cbe5off ), and there are dozens of events featuring hundreds of authors. (I can't wait to see Christian apologist Douglas Wilson take on devoted atheist Christophy Hitchens.) All the big names will be there. I'm hoping this new model for religious publishers takes off. (I'm also hoping Susan Meissner wins the Novel of the Year Award for her fabulous book The Shape of Mercy.)

More on E-Books: I had several people say the new Kindle II is much better than the original version. Doesn't feel plasticky or toy-like, according to them. (Some felt I was dissing the Kindle, but I just call 'em like I see 'em.) Here's the funny thing: For all the talk about e-books, there were reports from both Penguin and Lagardere that sales revenues for e-books jumped five-fold for each company... and total sales still accounted for less than one per cent of all book sales within each company. So I wouldn't get too worked up about electronic book sales just yet.

Someone to Visit: Stop by www.101ReasonsToStopWriting.com for some great wisdom, including this recent tip: Slushpile: Looking for a needle in a field of haystacks, and having to tell each stalk that it's not the needle you were looking for. (My thanks to fellow agent and wiseguy Steve Laube for this tip.)

Someone Else to Visit: You'll enjoy the reviews and interviews at www.GalleyCat.com. The recent article on the Publishing Panel is great, and Jeff Rivera says he is looking for a few good books to review.

The Death of CLEAR: I've received a number of email asking why I didn't support CLEAR, the Christian literary association. If you haven't heard, there was a movement afoot to create an organization that would offer official "approval" of literary agents who work in the CBA market. The concept is noble -- they'd ask each agent if they agree with a basic statement of faith, have them sign something that promises they'll do business ethically, etc. But the devil is in the details, and I didn't think the details worked. An agent's organization (like the Association of Author Representatives) needs to be agent-run, so that it can vet agents, approach publishers, deal with problems. I didn't see this organization (which was not going to be run by agents) being able to do any of those things. It didn't seem to offer any valid approval, and I didn't think it would be able to vet or discipline agents. I just failed to see much benefit in it. And, noble though the cause may be, the whole thing got cancelled. That's the story.

Worst Proposal of the Week: I received a query regarding a "fiction novel" that is 180,000 words long and tells the story of "a girl with sad eyes." And yes, that's nearly the entire description. The author told me four times in 14 lines of text about her sad eyes, but he didn't tell me anything else about her (except that she doesn't have a name; she's just "the girl"). So what's the story? Beats me. She wanders around and has adventures, I guess. Looks at people sadly. Maybe they look back. Hey, authors, here's a hint: If you're going to send a query to a prospective agent, consider taking a few minutes to create a good, coherent query. I mean, if you took a year to write the book, you might want to take a couple days to shape the sales pitch.

Bad First Lines: These words actually started a recent proposal... "For almost 175 years, a group of Gay Mormon men have been protecting the Mormon Church at the request of Prophet Joseph Smith." Who knew?

Bad First Lines II: "I have written a book on sexual abuse, but my book is different...it's written from the point of view of the cat." Um... the cat? I don't even WANT to know why a cat would tell me about this stuff.

Things I Hate: Pitch letters that start with four lines telling me everything the author has ever done, but never hinting at the book. I just got in a query from a guy who begins by telling me he is a pastor, the author of some "church resources" (whatever that means), a former Marine, a counselor, a guy with a Bachelor's in Music and a Master's in Biblical Studies from some school in the midwest I'd never heard of, and that he has worked at camps, been a manager for a cleaning company, and sold bibles door-to-door. It went on to tell me about his marriage, his kids, the fact that he's completed five manuscripts, and that he recently published an article in a boating magazine. Do you see any coherence in all that info? Me neither. So when he finally gets around to telling me about his book (line 12 of his email), it turns out to be a novel about the Turkish Civil War. Shouldn't that early information be a set-up to the actual book?

Deep Thoughts: Novelist Ginger Garrett discovered a close friend, who claims to be a vegan, munching on a Big Mac. She wants to know, "Is it fair to call a vegan a 'weenie'?" (And she notes that her SPAM filter ate her vegan newsletter.)

So You Want To Do Something Good: Christian Library International collects books and Bibles, then distributes them to more than 900 prisons and jails in 49 states. If you or a bookstore near you is looking for a place to get rid of extra inventory, check them out at www.ChristianLibraryInternational.org.

Happy St Patrick's Day to all. Off to visit with the Guinness family in celebration, then head off to CBE!  

Kindles, Advances, and Self-Publishing Questions

I've been out on the Left Coast, enjoying some sunshine and renting a house, but neglecting my little corner of the blogosphere. (Hey -- we've now had more than a half-million people check out this blog. Pretty cool, considering I have very little actual "talent" for anything.) Some of the questions that have come in lately...

Andrew asked, "Why does everyone in publishing prefer the Sony Reader to the Amazon Kindle, when it seems like the marketplace prefers the Kindle?"

It's true. The publishing houses all got Sony Readers for their editors. In this age of green thinking, editors no longer have to lug home a big sack of dead trees. Instead, they download everything to a Sony Reader, and can take home all those bad proposal ideas in one small tool. But why the Sony over the Amazon Kindle? Three reasons, I think... (1) Price: the Sony is $299, though you can find them on sale for $250 fairly easily. The Kindle is $359, with no discount, ever. (2) Design. The Sony looks and feels like a book. It has a nice cover to it, and the device is metal. The Kindle is plastic and ugly. It feels like a toy. Thank God they got rid of the stupid plastic cover, since all they did was break off. (3) Formats. The Sony will give you Word documents, PDF's, RSS feeds, and  blogs for free. The Kindle will charge you for each of those. (Though they will give you that bastion of ignorance Wikipedia for free! Barf.) So publishers went with the Sony.

The Kindle has two big advantages to it... (1) Wireless technology. Since it works like a cell phone, you don't have to hook the device up to your laptop, log on, and download book as you do with the Sony. Great advantage. (2) Marketing. Amazon has spent millons selling everyone  on the advantages of the Kindle. I like them both, though I use the Sony. It's been said that the Kindle is basically a portable bookstore, whereas the Sony is more of practical a tool for readers. I don't think you'll go wrong with either.

Laura wrote to ask, "Are advances on the way out? I read that publishers are going to stop giving author advances."

To say that book advances are out is an overstatement. This crappy economy has certainly affected the world of books. Publishers have trimmed their lists, are taking fewer risks, making fewer deals, and offering less money. In addition, we're seeing a few imprints try to change the way they're doing business, so we're seeing things like non-returnable books and no-advance deals happen as a way to find some successful strategies to spread the risk. This is a time of change in publishing -- we saw the distribution patterns for books change significantly over the past six or seven years, and now we're seeing the production and economic patterns change as well. That's to be expected. My guess is that we'll see more no-advance deals in the future. But no, publishers have not stopped the practice of offering a writer an advance-against-royalties as any sort of widespread policy.

Carol sent this: "If someone chooses a 'no advance' deal, does the publisher refrain from pushing sales as they would with a book that had a healthy advance?"

Here is a perfect example of the way publishing economics have changed. Traditionally, I would dissuade an author from taking on a no-advance deal. In a situation like that, the publisher had very little at stake. They had their hard costs (ink/paper/binding) and overhead (editorial salaries, etc), but there was no advance to earn back, and therefore no real motivation to push the book very hard. After just a few thousand copies, the basic costs are covered and the publisher is earning money. While I realize most publishers will deny this, I've seen it happen where publishers would basically refuse to put any marketing efforts into a book like that. As my former boss Rick Christian at Alive Communications liked to put it, "There's nothing keeping the publisher awake at night, wondering what he's got to do in order to make a profit." When a publisher has taken a risk, he or she HAS to work overtime in order to make the book successful and have the risk pay off.

Yeah, that may be overstated a bit, but the basic truth is that I think it's hard to find a no-advance deal that has received a lot of marketing and sales effort aside from bestselling authors who felt they didn't need an advance. (One publisher I know used to crow to prospective about his bestselling author never asking for an advance, which basically glossed over the fact that the author already had a loyal readership and had earned hundreds of thousands from previous books, so "paying the light bill" wasn't exactly an issue for her.) Again, an advance is an investment the publisher makes in your book. In my experience, the smaller the investment, the greater the tendency for there to be less commitment to making the book succeed.  

Gwen wants to know, "What do you think of authors sending proposals to online-only book publishers, rather than traditional book publishers?"

I haven't been a fan up to this point, since I don't see any of the online-only book publishers having much success. However, I expect that to change. The dwindling number of slots with regular publishers, combined with the growing interest in e-books, means that we'll probably see some online-only book publishers find some success in the next few years. But no, I don't know who that will be yet.

Gene wrote this: "So help me out... I can send in my manuscript to a regular publisher, wait 12-to-18 months, and have it release from a publisher who just axed his marketing staff. Or I can finish my manuscript, get a decent-looking copy self-published at Lulu, and have it for sale on Amazon in a couple weeks. Can you convince me to be patient and go the traditional route?"

Here's my response: Most self-publshed books fail to make the author any money because the author doesn't know how to market and sell what he or she wrote. You may be an expert in crime scene investigations, and able to put your experience into an interesting manuscript, but if you can't get word out to prospective buyers, all that expertise will not get noticed and will go to waste. (And, in my view, simply posting another book to Amazon's list of more than three million titles doesn't qualify as "marketing.") The issue usually isn't with the book itself, but in the marketing and distribution of the book that causes it to fail.

On the other hand, if you have a big online following, or you regularly speak to large groups of people, or you have media opportunities like a daily radio or television show, then you might be able to self-pub and do fine. However, that's not usually the case. Instead what happens is that an author talks to publishers about his sure-fire idea, but gets rejected. He then turns to agents and tries to sell them on his wowzer manuscript, but gets rejected. He shows up at conferences to pitch editors directly on his wonderful project, but gets rejected. So... he assumes that everybody in the industry is wrong, that his idea and writing is too brilliant for the average fenderhead working in publishing to recognize, and he self-publishes. He turns in a manuscript, the vanity press up-sells him to hardcover, and one happy day he receives 1000 copies of his book to place in his garage. After giving away 25 copies to relatives, and selling 15 to friends at church, he then waits for the stampede of readers to purchase the remaining 960 copies. He chats it up, maybe buys some ads, and does what he can to move all those books he paid for. Three years later, he wonders what he'll do with the 922 copies still collecting dust, since the cover and tone of the book is beginning to get dated. They get donated to garage sales, offered as free giveaways, and eventually turned over to a recycler to be turned into pulp.

I've noted on here that I have successfully self-published a few books. But I only did so when I knew exactly how I was going to sell them. The huge majority of self-pubbed titles lose money for the author. Sometimes large quantities of money. And then the word doesn't get out anyway. That's why you may want to consider sticking with a publisher who knows how to market and sell books.

In a similar vein, Caroline wrote, "What if I'm doing a book on a very current subject and don't want to wait two years to see it in print? Let's say I'm dealing with a political situation or a new technology -- something that's actually NEW and not a re-hash of old ideas andI don't want an agent querying and showing it to others. Should I consider self-publishing?"

In my view, the same rules apply as my previous answer. If you have a very current subject (let's say you want to do an instant book on Rush Limbaugh's speech to the RNC, or you're planning to do a handbook on "how to get the most out of your Kindle"), you might ask yourself if a book is the best way to get the word out. Would an article on the web be better? What if you created some sort of handbook and sold it on your site? Publishers can handle the occasional drop-in book, but there has to be a reason they're going to surprise bookstores with that sort of title. You can do the book yourself, but again, if you can't reach the buying public with effective marketing of your title, then it doesn't matter how good your manuscript is.

As for the implied concern you've got about secrecy, my experience is that those concerns are usually overblown by authors. I've had writers ask me to sign confidentiality agreements before showing me their manuscript (I declined) and tell me things like, "You've never seen anything like this before" when in fact they've just created a novel that turns the Book of Revelation into a novel. Whoopie. If I've got a good idea, I'm probably going to sell it. I work with good authors, so I don't lose much sleep over the worry that somebody else is going to steal the idea.

Before I go, let me point you to a couple things you should check out. Lisa Delay's blog at lifeasprayer.wordpress.com gave me much to think about as I've been reading it lately. I always seem to learn something when I go to Rachelle Mee-Chapman's magpie-girl.com. And the latest words from both Jenny B Jones blog and Jon Acuff at Stuff Christians Like (links for both can be found to the right) made me snort coffee through my nose. 

The Dumb Stuff:

1. So I had two letters this week that started with the words, "After taking hours to research agents, I came to the conclusion I needed to send this to you..."  And they are both children's books. We don't represent children's books. We state clearly on our website (which you can link to here: www.macgregorliterary.com) that we don't do children's books.  Are people really so dumb as to think I'll believe they took hours to research this?

2. This week's hot book concept came from a guy who wants me to represent his "cross between Stolike and Schmerna." Um... I have no idea who Stolike and Schmerna are. None. Polish authors, perhaps?

3. And you'll be happy to know that creative packaging still works. Somebody sent me a chick-lit novel in a Jimmy Choo shoe box. The novel didn't work, but I loved having the box to hand to my wife. (And no, I won't send it back.)

Tell Me About Agents...

We've had several questions about literary agents recently, including...

Stan wrote and asked, "I just waited four-and-a-half months for an agent to give me a response to my proposal. Why does this take so long?"

Well, any good agent is busy, so it takes a while to sort through the ever-increasing stack of ideas. But let's be clear to every wannabe writer: If you just send in a blind query, you may never hear from an agent. I don't respond to most unsolicited queries. I look at all of them, and if something strikes me as interesting I might ask for more information, but I don't have the time or inclination to respond to everyone who wants to write me. (Though I do respond to all projects I ask to see, and try to get back in a couple months.) I state clearly on my website that I don't have the staff required to manage unsolicited requests, since the bulk of my time goes toward the authors I already represent. I also have a list of qualifiers on my site (things like "I don't represent children's books"), but I'm regularly surprised to find people have sent something to me without taking five minutes to check out my site. If it's been more than four months and you haven't heard, my guess is that the agent isn't interested.

Phoebe wrote to say, "I terminated my agent's contract after he apologized for being hard to reach and told me he had put his agency on hold because it's not the primary way he makes his income. I waited a few months. Was I too impatient? What is a reasonable length of time an author should wait for an agent to do something with his manuscript?"

I don't know if you were too impatient, but certainly a conversation would have been in order. Sometimes life happens that slows us down. (I was in a car accident a few months ago, and we had another family medical emergency, and all that caused me to move in slow motion for a while. Happens to the best of us.) Still, there's no set time an agent takes to develop interest in a manuscript. Sometimes it happens in a rush, other times it can take months to get editors on board. My buddy Lee Hough spent a year working on Same Kind of Different As Me -- but that book went on to a life on the bestseller lists. However, if you really can't reach your agent, or he isn't working at this full time, there's a problem. If you're a writer looking for representation, by all means seek out someone who does this full time, not somebody who represents books, runs an editorial service, is a part-time realtor, has a job as a janitor, and sells Amway on the side. Work with a professional. It sounds like the person you had was a wannabe-agent.

Deidre noted, "It seems like agents either sell manuscripts or screenplays. Is it too much to ask one agent to do both? If I decide to write a screenplay, do I need two agents?"

You're right -- most agents either sell books or screenplays. Trying to do both, in my experience, usually results in one area not being taken care of very well. The world of books is completely different from the world of movies -- it requires different relationships, it has different contracts, it needs very different expectations. The truth is, I've never really found a good book agent who knew what he or she was doing with a screenplay (though I've known many who CLAIM to do both). So while I've often sold the dramatic rights to a novel, I don't take on the screenplay, and I tell authors I'm fine with having them talk to a good screenplay agent. Not every agent feels this way.

Debbie said this: "I received different advice from my agent than I received from an editing service I hired. What's the best approach to take when you get different advice from trusted sources?"

Here at MacGregor Literary, we always rely on the Urim and Thummim. I toss them, and -- Voila! God reveals the answer. For those not as spiritual as me, you might want to assume that even good people can disagree, take the time to think things over, and move ahead slowly with the decision that feels right. Some agents may not have a lot of editorial experience. Most editors have the best interests of the publisher at heart. And it's no secret that some editorial services are using unpublished authors, who may not really have the wisdom needed for the marketplace. If you're going to work with your agent long-term, talk it through with him or her. Make sure you understand what the different sources are saying. And remember this bit of Scottish wisdom: "Good is always better than fast." So don't be in a hurry to get something decided.

Andy asked, "Do publishers have a 'fast track' for an idea that is time sensitive? Do they leave room for hot topics in their publishing pipeline?"

Sure they do, but they use it very carefully. When you turn in a completed manuscript, it's usually with the publisher for a year before it hits store shelves. That's partly because they have artistic and production decisions, but it's really more of a sales issue -- stores order books months in advance. A book that is dropped into a list hasn't been given much time to create a marketing buzz, it hasn't been presented to stores to order, and the whole process gets rushed. What I've found is that frequently an author wants to fast track a book, when if fact it would do better if the sales and marketing types put it through the usual process.

Ten years ago I represented Lisa Beamer's Let's Roll! Due to the high visibility Lisa had during those post-9/11 days, there were publishers who wanted to take the book and get it out immediately. I was worked at Alive Communications at the time, and we were afraid that would result in a book that felt rushed, and that lacked depth and texture. We didn't want something that sounded like an emotional screed. Fortunately we linked Lisa up with Tyndale, who took their time, really marketed and sold it hard, and the book not only hit #1 on the New York Times list, it remained on the list for months.

BeBe wrote to say, "You've frequently talked about the dire circumstances publishing is in. Are we through the worst of it?"

I have many skills, but the gift of prophecy is not one of them. (Okay, that's not really true. The truth is, I don't have that many skills.) So... beats me. Borders is in a world of hurt, and cut 742 managers and supervisors this week. Readers Digest, Harvest House, and David C Cook all cut staff in the past two weeks, and that's on the heels of cuts at most every major publishing house. I continue to argue that book sales aren't down as much as most retail sales in this country because they offer an entertaining escape that's a good value. But sales are down, companies are retrenching, and everybody in the industry is scared (check the stock prices of any of them). On top of that, we're looking at major changes in the distribution and presentation of books. So this is a period of significant change, and that will mean we'll come out the other end of this season as a different industry. But I'm the eternal optimist, and I think the book business will be fine. Really.

Jim wants to know, "So what's the worst stuff I've been sent this past week?"

1. A guy sent me a proposal this week detailing how we can reduce the instances of sexual abuse and the problems caused by adultery in our culture. His solution? Voluntary castration.  Huge appeal in THAT idea.  I suppose it would, um, trim the problem. (sorry.)

2. A woman sent me a very brief query to tell me she has written a 20,000-word memoir (that alone is stoopid -- just think of all those popular 80-page books you've been buying) about "the times I brought drugs to school." Very uplifting.

3. And one gent sent me a query that's in ALL CAPS (a sure sign an author's brain cells are running low) to ask, "ARE YOU A REAL AGENT? A REAL AGENT DOESN'T TURN DOWN ANYONE AND IF YOU ARE YOU CAN GET ME THE BOOK DEAL I WANT." Nothing like a man who knows his own mind. Or what's left of it.

4. One more: "In the tradition of the movie Left Behind with McCauley Caulkin where a boy is left to fend for himself..." Um... It's "Culkin." And that wasn't "Left Behind," that was "Home Aone." And it was intentionally funny, whereas "Left Behind" was just stupendously bad, and therefore funny. Aside from the fact you don't know what you're talking about, I'll bet your idea is a real winner.

More on Digital Books (and Digital Ideas)

Is giving away free books a good idea? Bestselling author Paul Coelho has been a huge proponent of giving away digital text, arguing that it was one of the biggest reasons behind his worldwide success. A recent study undertaken by Random House, O'Reilly Media, and Magellan Media has explored the idea, and found that giving away the digital book seems to help promote sales of e-books a bit, but, according to a report in Publishers Marketplace, all that free text didn't create a huge upturn in traditional book sales. (If you want the whole schlamozzle, you can find the report here: www.toccon.com/toc2009/public/schedule/detail/7582.)

The concern about piracy continues to worry authors. In the early days of MP3 players, all those stolen songs created a lot of controversy over pirated music -- in essence, "If you copy a song and send it to all your friends, aren't you defrauding the singer his royalties?" (Hint: the correct answer is "yes.") There are two ways to view the outcome of that debate in music circles ten years ago. One view is to say that people who copied and sent music files could also be shown to become bigger music buyers, thus helping grow the market. A second view is that aggressive industry steps to protect author copyrights prevented wholesale theft, and helped usher in the current music culture.

In simple terms, the concern in publishing is that "if you receive a Word or PDF file with the downloaded text of a book, there is the possibility you'll pass it along to others, thereby cheating the author out of a royalty." I was always careful to tell my kids that, while their friends may give away music, they won't be doing so. I work in a copyright business, and I won't stand for people being cheated. Then I was sent a really interesting book last week, and found myself starting to forward it along to a friend. Oops. I stopped before hitting "send." Wait a minute -- is this fair? Is it legal? I was amazed how quickly I began to do it before common sense stopped me. We all appreciate free things in this culture. And it makes me wonder about the problems of piracy with book texts. BUT studies have shown that piracy with books is a minor problem so far. And if free texts actually increases book sales... well, we'll see where this goes. There's going to be a lot of study on this before it gets resolved. Are you worried about your words being stolen?

More on digital books: If you haven't heard, the folks at Amazon announced that you can now have any of their 250,000 Kindle e-books delivered to your iPhone. Seems like a small screen to me for reading a book, but I've got a friend who tried it immediately and says he loves it.

And an interesting study on the cost of e-books: While it's been suggested that e-books are considerably cheaper to produce (there are no ink/paper/binding costs, no shipping, no warehousing), one would think they would be cheaper to buy. A recent study of Kindle titles show that while there are roughly 7000 public domain books available, and 28,000 titles that sell for less than $2, about 13,000 titles sell in the normal book range of between $10 and $20. And the surprising thing is that nearly 56,000 of the e-book titles sell for more than $20.

The folks at Publishers Lunch made a point of noting that Amazon Prez Jeff Bezos claimed on TV last week (he was a guest on Jon Stewart's program) that the books for Kindle "are $9.99 each." But they pointed out that any reasonable study of Amazon's site will reveal there is no fixed price-point for e-books. They explained, for example, that Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn is selling for $11.38 on Kindle, while the hard copy is $12.64, and the iPhone version is $19.99. It just goes to show that there's still a lot of miscommunication on e-books. Publishers have always used a variety of formats and price-points with books... we were just hoping the cost of digital books would be lower.

The Authors Guild recently got the people at Amazon to stop incorporating the text-to-speech format on the Kindle, by the way. They claimed it made each book a free audio book, and that was a violation of author contracts that either grant or withhold recorded rights. It's an interesting argument that I'm not sure I agree with -- I recognize the Guild is trying to protect author royalties, but the book isn't actually "recorded." It's a computer voice, reading the text (arguably the same as having a friend read you the book). To me, it seems like a handy feature to have when you want to keep going on a book but can't actually hold it and read it. A couple bloggers (Seth Godin is one, Mike Hyatt is another) argued that trade associations seem intent on protecting the status quo, but the current status of publishing is in a world of hurt. I tend to agree with them.

Speaking of Mr. Hyatt: The folks at Thomas Nelson have announced what they are calling "NelsonFree" -- an offer to give book-buyers more than one book format in a single purchase. The idea basically looks like this: When a reader buys a traditionally bound book, he or she is given the option of also receiving an e-book file sent to their email account, plus a ditial audio book. It's an aggressive, forward-thinking approach for a company that has really been on the cutting edge in recent years. I happen to be one of the people who subscribes to the notion that one of the best ways to build a readership is to give away books.

But... one aspect of this bugs me. If you buy a book, give it to your mom (who likes traditional books), then read the book on your e-reader, then give the audio book to your friend at the office (who listens to books but won't read them), it certainly gets the title a wider readership. But it also seems like the author of that book has lost two potential sales. Or at least the author has not been paid a royalty for two more products. So while I see the possible value in doing this, I worry that writers are going to see even less money (and I wonder if that means the publisher needs to negotiate a higher initial royalty for the author). This is a voluntary program, and Nelson is just trying it to see how people respond. Again, I'm not negative toward it, since I think the end result could actually mean more sales of the book. But I represent authors, and I want to make sure their interests are protected, and on its face it seems like everyone would opt for getting both a hard copy and a digital copy of a book if it were offered to them. That would eventually mean less money to authors, who are already being squeezed. Your thoughts?

And the dumb stuff...

Unsolicited proposals have skyrocketed lately -- apparently hard economic times inspire everyone to assume they can write a book and make a pile of money. Recent submissions include:

1. A book described as "Santa Claus meets Interview with the Vampire." And no, I don't have any idea what that could possibly mean either.

2. A guy who wrote to me because he "knows I'm religious" and he is "channeling notes from God regularly."

3. A book proposal entitled "Jesus Is a Republican." Which I doubt, since the Lord wasn't able to run up gigantic deficits or get his followers involved in a never-ending, pointless war.

4. Several projects from people who want to send me "fiction novels." Those are the best kind, of course.

5. An "action-adventure romantic spy thriller with religious overtones that takes place in another galaxy that's not our own." This book according to the author, would "not only appeal to adults, but to YA and to Republicans." Honest. I can hardly wait.

6. And I'm having an email fight with this guy who thinks he is a deep thinker (lots of mentions of his feelings and impressions, and in love with words like "missional" and "my journey"). He decides to do a book proposal, but instead of researching the industry, he creates an email and cc's it to a dozen agents. (That's right. My name is there on the send line, along with several other agent friends. A sure way to impress us all, as you can imagine.) I write him back to say, "Do yourself a favor and spend ten minutes in research, for crying out loud." His response? "Acting like an ass to a prospective client is no way to run your business!" Um... prospective client? Why is it that anybody who can recognize the difference between a verb and a noun thinks he can be a writer?

Hey, I discovered a really good blog screated by a Christian bookseller. If you want to see what a retailer thinks about the industry, check out bookshoptalk.wordpress.com. Fun to get the take from the other side of the store shelves.

Got a question about publishing or writing? Send it along and we'll get to it.

E-books and E-rights

We've had a number of questions lately related (more or less) to e-books...

Dan wrote to ask, "Chip, can you tell me what you mean by an 'e-book'? And what are my e-rights?"

Okay... the text of a book that is delivered in a digital format to an electronic reader of some kind is an e-book. The two most popular e-readers are Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader. Both are about the size of a trade paper book, with an electronic screen on which you read the text of the book. When you buy an e-book from either company, it is simply sent through the air to you. There is no hard copy; no ink, paper, or binding. The Kindle uses cell phone technology, so it arrives on your machine using the same technology as that of a text message. The Sony plugs into your computer, so the book arrives like an email attachment that you download to your reader. The e-book itself is just like any other book you buy and read, except it doesn't take up any space on your shelf and you can't loan it out. (On the other hand, you also can't lose it. If you ever had a meltdown and lost the book, either company would replace it for free.) You look at one page at a time on your reader's screen, it's formatted to look like a book -- and trust me, it IS a book. If you use one, it'll only take you a couple hours and you'll get used to reading a book on an electronic screen, then you'll love it.

I tried the Kindle and liked it. Since it uses cell technology, it's easy to download books. The screen is nice. Amazon has made about a quarter-million books available for it, and many are priced a bit lower than the traditional book. It's small and light (think of it as a small clipboard), and you can type notes into the margin of the text. The cost is $359, and the new version will hold more than 1000 books.

I bought a Sony Reader. It costs a hundred bucks less, they were giving away 100 free books with each purchase, and I think the Sony feels more like a book (the Kindle is plastic and felt, to me, more like a toy). My Sony reader is sturdy, has a leather-like cover, and hasn't broken when I've dropped it on airport floors. I also liked the screen on the Sony better, though that's much debated by users. Both are very readable, so you don't feel like you're reading a computer screen all day. But my real reason for buying is because all the publishers have been using the Sony, so the people in the industry are definitely tending that direction. Downloading books on the Sony is clunkier than the Kindle, but my own purchases have proven cheaper on the Sony (that's obviously based on my own small research, so don't take that as gospel). The best part of using e-books? I no longer have to lug a stack of manuscripts home with me. I load them onto my reader, and I walk out of the office with my little, book-sized tool in my hand. Editors and agents who are reviewing a bunch of submissions love this device.

Your "e-rights" are the electronic rights to your work that you grant a publisher in your book contract. Until last year, nobody made any money with e-rights, so it wasn't seen as being a big deal. Then the Kindle and Sony Reader sparked interest, digital book sales were up something like 400%, and it looks like these will be important income producers with the next generation of readers. Where there's money, there is interest... so now everybody is talking e-rights.

Janice noted, "My publisher offered to have my e-rights match my print rights. Is that a good deal?"

Nope. Most publishers have settled on about a 25%-net royalty rate to the author. The publisher saves a lot of money on e-books, since there are no paper, ink, or binding costs, nor is there traditional warehousing or shipping. It still costs the publisher the same amount to produce the initial book (editing, copy-editing, interior page design, etc), but there are certainly cost savings once the manuscript has been readied for market. So the investment is considerably lower, and the return paid to authors can be a bit higher than standard print royalties.

Think of it this way: Publishers are not sub-licensing your digital rights by sending them out to another company in order to produce the book. Instead they are treating digital rights as simply a different form of the book -- a "digital binding," if you will. That requires a clear clause in your publishing contract that spells out what you're going to be paid. That said, there is one as-yet-unresolved question about e-books... the fact that there is no physical inventory to track, no SKU's, and therefore no real check-and-balance for an author to know how many copies have sold. (Like many things in this industry, there's a trust between author and publisher. That's the business.)

One other thing to be aware of in your digital rights, Janice, is the notion of reversion. Does having an e-book for sale on the company website constitute being "in print"? That's an issue agents are now dealing with. Some feel there has to be a traditionally bound book for a contract to be in force; publishers prefer that any form of a book being sold constitutes a version being on the market. This is probably moving toward a sales threshold as the solution -- if the publisher sells X number of digital copies in a year, the book is still considered "in print."

Claudia wrote to find out, "Will the move toward e-books increase the speed at which books are brought to market? Since there is no printing or shipping time, will the lag time between completion and distribution be shortened?

I doubt it. The time lag that exists now between the completion of the book by the author, and having copies for sale on store shelves, is not one of production. The technology exists to complete a book one day and print it the next. The gap between "completion" and "availability" is sales-and-marketing driven. If you turn in a book to your publishing house, they need time to chat it up, create buzz, get the marketing machine worked up, talk to retailers about it, and figure out how many orders are coming in. While an e-book might allow an author or publisher to respond faster, I don't see this changing significantly the way books are sold in the near future. The "immediate response" type of thing is more the domain of magazines and the web -- so you'll still be able to get the same uninformed, emotional, and biased rantings of people who can listen to the President speak this morning and have a really stupid response to it before we all sit down to dinner. So don't worry -- there will be no shortage of pablum in your publishing future.

And Len wrote to say, "I've heard you sound a bit reluctant to fully endorse what Amazon is doing to promote e-books. Why is that? What is it about the situation that makes you uncomfortable?"

Well, I am reluctant. Amazon is treating the Kindle and all the related e-books as proprietary properties -- which is legit, since they developed it and are the sole retailers. Sony did that once -- they produced movies in Beta, which was much clearer and more vibrant than movies on VHS. But Sony refused to share the technology, so everybody bought VHS machines and Beta disappeared. (It's still great technology, and most of the Hollywood movies you see are filmed on Beta...but the company screwed up by trying to corner the market on movies purchased by consumers.) The fact is, when you own a technology, it's easy to charge an arm and a leg, since you don't have competition. But as the cost of the hardware gets easier to produce, they should get cheaper. I'm afraid Amazon will continue charging $359 for the Kindle, which is too much. And I'm afraid they'll try to block others from using the technology, which means the market will look for alternatives (and find them). Those two concerns keep me from predicting world domination by the Kindle. If you could find a $99 e-book reader, and a ton of cheap books to play on it, my guess is that you'd buy one. I'm not convinced the folks at Amazon will be able to resist the urge to rule the world and make millions.

Got a question? Send it my way.