Pub Rants

Author Archive

Do Cheap Backlist eBooks Poach Frontlist Sales?

by Kristin Nelson

Status: Best moment in NYC today? Walking over to Central Park and seeing a dude that looked remarkably like Will Smith asking folks if they wanted to do park bike rentals. And in this town, it really could have been him and people didn’t notice. It was a remarkable double…


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? REAL LOVE by The Doobie Brothers


Today a fellow agent and I were having a discussion about eBook pricing. What should backlist romance titles be priced at and does that poach sales for the current release?


Obviously there are a variety of opinions on this subject but here is mine.


I don’t personally believe that a lower eBook price for a backlist title poaches from a current title. I think the romance reader is more likely to then buy both if the backlist title is reasonably priced.

In terms of pricing, most authors are seeing good movement when a backlist title is priced between the $2.99 and $3.99 price range. Higher than that and the sales are flat.


And speaking of reduced pricing for backlist titles, this is a perfect segue albeit for women’s fiction. Need a cheap summer read? HarperCollins is letting you get a taste of NLA client Kristina Riggle for $0.99


Yep, less than a buck. And it’s across all platforms. Here are links for just a few:

Amazon

BN

Kobo

Sadly Google eBookstore (that does sales for independent bookstores) didn’t have their version up although they were included in the promotion.


Calling All Denverites

by Kristin Nelson

Status: It was already in the 90s by 9 a.m. this morning. Poor Chutney was not happy with her walk in Central Park.


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? SHE BOP by Cyndi Lauper


Even though I have a healthy ego in regards to my agenting, I really do think that this a once-in-a-career opportunity.


I found out this week that Jamie Ford’s Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet is in the running for One Book One Denver!


Always the last to know….


But I’m so excited at the possibility I can barely sleep. I really don’t know if I’ll ever have another book in the running (although one never knows what the future will bring)!


As many of you know, Jamie is not a Coloradoan but his wife is and her family still lives here. They visit Colorado often so even though he’s not a local author per se, he’s an honorary or sometimes local. Either way, he is a writer of the West.


So what is this blog post about? I need your help! The title is in the running but I need Denverites to vote.


Here’s how it works. You go to the voting website here. Of course they are going to want you to register (sorry about that!) because they are collecting info for Denver Events eMailing list. You can always unsubscribe later


Then you’ll see the three titles and I won’t mince words. The competition is tough. I personally enjoyed The Art Of Racing In The Rain and my book club is scheduled to read The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks in just a few short months. I’m not disparaging these titles at all but I still want HOTEL to win!!


It’s a little confusing on the site but voters are suppose to vote on each title by ranking them with the number of stars that applies to your rating of the work.


So, it’s not a matter of the book with the most votes win but the book with the most votes and the highest ranking of stars wins. I hope that makes sense…


If HOTEL does win, trust me, Jamie will be coming to town for a variety of One Book One Denver events. NLA will hold a party and all Denverites are invited!


The New Buzz Word: Speculative

by Kristin Nelson

Status: Dashing out to next meeting in 30 minutes and sheesh, it’s hotter than blazes in New York City today. I’m melting. It’s suppose to be a high of 99 tomorrow. I may stick an ice cube in my bra. That’s probably TMI.


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? I’M MELTING IN THE SUN by INXS (I couldn’t resist putting this title on!)


It’s official. I’ve had three meetings with three different editors at three different children’s publishing houses.


The new hot thing is “speculative” fiction.


I guess we don’t want to call it science fiction, futuristic, and definitely not dystopian. LOL.


Speculative is SF though.


For some editors, they don’t want a huge science focus or an emphasis on technology (as is a bit more traditional in adult SF). They want it based more concretely in an Earth or contemporary society anchor.


One editor actually said screw that. Bring on the next Ender’s Game (and I say Heck Yes to that! I totally want to see that book).


Editors also want:

Horror—not gore but scary as in I Know What You did Last Summer

Psych Thriller

Jodi Picoult with hot topic but for the teen set

Literary but with a hook


Editors are seeing a lot of mysteries with a romantic elements. So far, that doesn’t feel overly appealing to them. Of course it only takes one to break that mold and then every editor will want one.


We know how that goes.


Going Public

by Kristin Nelson

Status: Most of today I felt like I still had BEA brain. And the Brenda Novak Auction is ending tonight!


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? ROSEALIA by Better Than Ezra


Many weeks before several authors started making headlines about their choice to self-publish, my author Courtney Milan, with my blessing and support (not that she needed it!), had already made that decision. She walked away from an offer on the table from her publisher Harlequin. There were several reasons for this decision but it will come as no surprise that it mainly hinged on the electronic royalty rate that had been offered. It’s no industry secret that Harlequin is well below what has become the “industry standard.” And it’s also not a secret what I think about Publishers’ current industry standard of 25% of net.


What was secret is that Courtney didn’t announce it—until now. Today she launched this new publishing direction with a novella entitled UNLOCKED in her Turner Brothers series that began with Unveiled & Unclaimed which will release in September.


In four short days, I can already tell you two important things about this digital revolution.


1. Pricing is everything. Pricing a title appropriately will move a great number of books in a short period of time.


2. Publishers are under-reporting electronic book sales in any given period on the royalty statements we are seeing.

That’s a fact.

BEA Pics And Sara’s Live Webinar

by Kristin Nelson

Status: Dashing out to the subway to be somewhere in 20 minutes


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? Nothing At The Moment


Here is a BEA Pic to tie you over until I can properly write up some entries. Sarah Rees Brennan and Marie Lu at the Young Adult Buzz Panel.

Link


Sara is also giving an amazing Webinar today called HOW TO HOOK AN AGENT WITH YOUR QUERY LETTER. It’s starts at 1 pm Eastern.


I know, I know. Not much advance notice but you can still sign up and participate even if you can’t be there during the scheduled time frame. Writers Digest records it and participants will have access to it at any time at a later date for up to one year. You can still even ask questions that will be responded. No need to miss out if you have a life or work!


BEA Week

by Kristin Nelson

Status: It’s pouring rain in New York too. Is there anywhere where it’s not raining?


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? WHATAYA WANT FROM ME by Adam Lambert


Dashing off in the next hour to head to Javits Center. It’s going to be a crazy week but I’ll try and report from the floor. I’m armed with my camera.


And some great news to kick it off. Kirkus lists the Top 26 Galleys to grab at the Fair and guess who is on it?


Heck yes!


In a totally unscientific sampling, I gave an ARC of this title to my 17 year old niece who loved it. She cajoled my 14 year old reluctant reader nephew to read it. He spent an entire day, while on spring break, away from playing his favorite video game because he couldn’t stop reading it.


There have only been two other books that did the same for him. ENDER’S GAME and the HUNGER GAMES trilogy.


This is how I know Marie and I might be on to something with this LEGEND trilogy so if you are at BEA, you might want to hit Marie’s signing on Wed. May 25 at 3 pm at Penguin’s booth #3252.


The last NLA book to be chosen as a top galley at BEA was SOULLESS by Gail Carriger.


This bodes well for us!


Tales From The Contract Wars

by Kristin Nelson

Status: It’s pouring rain and the temps feel anything like spring but I’m eating ice cream right now anyway.


What’s Playing on the XM or iPod right now? DON’T GIVE UP ON ME NOW by Ben Harper


Today we officially wrapped up our negotiations on the new Macmillan boilerplate contract. It only took 6 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days from start to finish. It was worth it to get a decent contract.


Oddly enough I was excited to sell yet another book to a Macmillan imprint. THAT contract will only take several weeks. All the heavy lifting is done.


Then I get a new Random House contract in. Basically the same except for 2 rather key clauses that come at the very end of the contract but are referenced throughout.


Great. Publishers will certainly let you reserve rights but are now inserting clauses that hamstring the author from exploiting those reserved rights.


This seems to be the latest fashion.


21st Century Evolution Of The Agent’s Role

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: As it’s almost 8 pm here and I’m still at the office, you can guess my status. I’m getting ready for Book Expo so there hasn’t been a lot of extra time for blogging.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? I’M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE by Barbara Streisand

I can’t say I have all the answers to this one but I can very clearly tell you what it WON’T be. I’m not on twitter but I’m still in the loop on a lot of things and there has been a lot of discussion around this blog posting.

So I’m just going to state my stance in very clear terms.

1. Agents roles will indeed transform but I’m willing to go on the record and say that we will never need to charge a reading fee or for editorial services in order to be an agent in this new publishing world.

2. I believe, and I’ll be talking about this in more detail in later blogs, that agents and agencies opening publishing divisions as part of their agency is a conflict of interest. Plain and simple. One can’t be an agent and a publisher at the same time.

3. I do believe that agents have a role in the ePublishing realm and I have definite opinions on what that role should be and I promise I will share it but not right at this moment.

Soon though.

Friday Funnies

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: You don’t want to know.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? KNEES OF MY HEART by Jimmy Buffett

I’m doing everything but laughing at the moment. Right now our ISP Server is down and our submissions database is offline. Argh! Supposedly any incoming or outgoing emails are being saved on the back up server until it’s up and running again. And I hope to goodness the database is on their backup server as well or we are going to be in trouble.

If you were planning to query or submit, hold off until next Monday, please, as we are migrating to a new ISP host on Sunday. We actually had this planned but of course was waiting for the weekend when the transition would be the less inconvenient. Go figure that our current provider would have problems this week of all weeks. Talk about bad timing.

We did a whole tech conversion in February and these are just the final pieces that we need to put in place so my apologies for the inconvenience.

So I really need a laugh on this Friday. This video doesn’t have anything to do with publishing but it did make me laugh uproariously. It’s compliments of my assistant Anita. Since I haven’t done funnies in a while, I hope it does the same for you. TGIF! Have a great weekend.

Because It’s May

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: It’s going to be in the 80s for the weekend! I’m so ready for that kind of weather.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? ROCKET MAN by Elton John

And Springtime can bring out the best in all of us.

Every year I participate in Brenda Novak’s On-line Auction for Diabetes Research. This is a cause close to my heart. My best friend, brother-in-law, and my six-year old nephew all have juvenile diabetes. This is personal for me.

So, I’m always delighted to support Brenda in this charity event, which happens every May. And although I can’t really compete with Celine (did you see that auction item!!!!), I am offering something new this year for a very lucky highest bidder.

Not only am I auctioning a 30-page read with a 5-day turnaround, the auction winner also gets a 30-minute follow-up phone convo with moi.

No really, this is exciting….

And if the winner skypes, we can even do the follow up call via video.

I’ll even put on lipstick and sit Chutney on my lap to say hello as well.

Really, does it get any better than that? Don’t answer that.

But I’m not the only one offering cool items. Sara is also doing a read and a follow-up call.

Jamie Ford is going to buy you lunch and personally show you around Seattle’s China Town where his novel Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet is set.

NLA author and former ICM agent Maggie Marr (who writes for TV by the way) is offering a screen play evaluation. She knows her stuff and here’s your chance if you are a screenwriter.

Anita, my assistant, will critique your query letter. Sherry Thomas is also jumping in on the query game. She helped Courtney Milan and look where that got Courtney.

Miranda Kenneally and Simone Elkeles are critiquing YA manuscripts. Laurence who is currently on submission and runs a terrific writer critique group here in Denver is also jumping in on the critique action as is Janice Hardy of the wonderful Healing Wars Trilogy. These folks are top-notch on giving feedback. You don’t want to miss out.

And there are lots of autographed author copies to boot.

And if you aren’t interested in me, lots of agents have donated good stuff. Jessica Faust will be your Agent for a Day (go Jessica!) and Jim McCarthy will evaluate a proposal (and I can vouch that he’s a smart dude). Fellow Denverite Kate Testerman is in the game as well as my nemesis (which I say laughingly as we have similar tastes and are always vying for the same projects) Ginger Clark. And you don’t want to pass on getting a read from Barbara Poelle!

In Romance, I adore Kevan Lyon, Natasha Kern, Deidre Knight, Elaine Spencer, and Elaine English so a couple of other good agents to keep in mind.

What are you waiting for?

Ack! I did not mean to leave out Tiffany Riesz who is offering a personalized love scene. Rock on!