Pub Rants

Category: Marketing & Promotion

Q&A 2010—Round One

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I shouldn’t pat myself on the back when I have to leave next week to go out of town. I so want to enjoy being caught up.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? LEGEND IN YOUR OWN TIME by Carly Simon

Wow. That’s a plethora of Qs. At least I know what I’ll be gabbing about next week—which is good because pre-trip is always a tad hectic.

worstwriterever asked:
1) If you had to choose a different career than literary agent, what would you choose?
I used to teach college back in the day. Unbelievable to me that it has been over 15 years ago now. I think if I weren’t going to be a lit agent, I’d probably teach again. I really enjoyed it.

Of course what I like to be is independently wealthy. Wink.

2) I tweeted your post(s) yesterday because they rocked. If you’re not on Twitter, how come?
Oi! It’s on my list of things to do. Honestly! Anita, our new fab assistant is getting us on Facebook and Twitter very soon so keep an eye out.

MeganRebekah asked:
I don’t know if this outside your power/knowledge, but I’m wondering why Perfect Chemisty isn’t available on Kindle?

In this case did the publisher decide not to go ebook? Or was that decision made on different level? Any insight onto the reasoning?

Walker, Simone, and I all want to be in eBook format. The eBook was supposed to be available by now but the reason it isn’t has a lot to do with the whole Amazon hoopla and publishers changing to the agency commission model etc. I expect it will be available very soon as Simone’s editor keeps assuring me that it’s in the pipeline etc.

Cheryl asked:
Staying with the cover art theme, could you explain the process. I assume the editor gives the art department direction and the writer’s input is slim to nil (unless your name is Stephen King and your publisher contracts an independent illustrator to do your cover art).

And have you ever had to battle a publisher on your client’s behalf because the cover art was just all wrong or looked like it had been slopped together?
The answer to this question really depends on the editor and the publisher involved. I have some editors who keep us in the loop on EVERYTHING regarding the cover—including seeing early sketches from the cover artist. Then other houses just want to present the finished cover to you (which I hate). Now, in general, editors really want their authors to be happy with covers so they often ask for a lot of feedback before the cover process begins such as how a character looks or scenes that could be cool if represented.

No matter what, I always have a new author put together a file of covers they love and why (and grabbing most from their publisher but others are included too). That way the house gets a sense of the author’s taste even if they aren’t going to get a direct say in the art.

And yes, I’ve done many a battle over cover art. Sometimes I’ve won. And sometimes I have not. In the latter case, I always pray that the publisher was right and I was wrong and the cover works in a big way.

More Qs tomorrow.

Tweetalicious

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m finally caught up. I don’t know what to do with myself.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? MARGARITAVILLE by Jimmy Buffet

I’m having performance anxiety. How can I possibly follow the last two wonderful blog entries?

I need to make a video or something. Speaking of, if you couldn’t get enough of the cover design for BLAMELESS, Orbit Art Director Lauren Panepinto gives an interview here. There is even a glimpse of an earlier version of the cover for SOULLESS. I find that just fascinating and thought my blog readers might think so as well.

Alex, Orbit Publicist, emailed to say that the link was all over twitter including a tweet from Guy Kawasaki. Yes, that Guy from Apple. I think my clients might be too cool for me… Grin.

Let’s hope some of these folks will buy the book….

Also getting amazing feedback from Simone’s book trailer for RULES OF ATTRACTION. I’m hoping that is tweetalicious as well. (Hey, maybe I can get a new word into Urban Dictionary.) It’s gotten a thumbs-up from my 16-year old niece and as all of you might not know, she rules the universe.

If it looks like I’m stalling in writing this entry, you’d be right. I’m floundering around for a good topic today. I haven’t got anything new to relay in terms of contracts and electronic book royalties. For one of my contracts in play, we may be reaching a record on how long it’s taken for a publisher to come to terms with us on language regarding this issue. We are at 6 months. Oi! I so feel for my client. Luckily she realizes how important all this is and so is being really terrific and patient about it. But yuck, 6 months and we’ve been pushing. It’s not like I’m sleeping on the job here….

I’m also getting ready for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I’ll be flying out next Thursday to Italy. I’ll be giving you the scoop from the floor while there. So in the meantime, maybe it’s time for a few questions. We did this in December and it was fun. I thought maybe I’d entertain some every couple of months so let’s see if you have some good ones for me.

Please no questions easily answered via our website or have been discussed ad nauseam on this blog.

Taking The Book Trailer To A New Level—Guest Blogger Simone Elkeles

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Second cool thing that happened yesterday but couldn’t share until today. Grin.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE by New Radicals

I have to say this is a video intensive week but it’s not fair if my blog readers don’t get to see it first so here you go.

For Simone’s new book, she really wanted to do a book trailer that looked like a movie trailer. Considering how many teens loved her first novel PERFECT CHEMISTRY, I have a feeling that they are going to love the trailer for RULES OF ATTRACTION. My only regret? That I wasn’t in LA with Simone for the filming. Be still my Mrs. Robinson’s heart.

Kidding.

From Simone:
I’m no stranger to quirky book trailers. I’ve produced parody rap videos as book trailers for some of my previous books, but for the sequel to my bestselling novel Perfect Chemistry I wanted to do something totally different. I wanted my book trailer to look exactly like a real movie trailer – with actors acting out snippets of scenes from my book.

I called Pete Jones, a friend and writer/director whose screenplay Hall Pass is currently being filmed with Owen Wilson and Bill Murray and being directed by the Farrelly Brothers. I told Pete I wanted him to direct a “movie trailer/book trailer” and he said he’d do it. Pete hooked me up with producer Pat Peach with Spotlight Films in California, who did an amazing job of auditioning actors and scouting locations (among other things – the guy seriously is amazing). Each audition was emailed to me, so I was a part of the audition process even though I live in Chicago. After hiring actor Giancarlo Vidrio to play the lead high school bad boy Carlos Fuentes (I knew my fans would LOVE him) and Catesby Bernstein to play the lead heroine Kiara Westford, I still needed to find “my Alex.” It was a cameo role for the hero to Perfect Chemistry and Carlos’s brother. I knew I couldn’t settle for anyone less than “perfect.” My fans are obsessed with my Latino hero Alejandro “Alex” Fuentes. They get tattoos with Alex’s name because they’re so obsessed. I knew I couldn’t let my fans down…I needed to give my readers an Alex Fuentes that fed the fantasy of who Alex is in the book.

As I was watching the auditions and the filming date grew closer, I told Pat Peach that nobody who’d auditioned filled the bill to play Alex. He said if I could have any actor in the world to play Alex, who would it be? That was easy – Alexander F. Rodriguez from Katy Perry’s Hot N Cold music video. Talk about perfection! Both Pete and Pat told me it was a long shot. I got Alexander’s email address and emailed him. To make a long story short, I told him I couldn’t imagine anyone else making my character Alex come alive for the book trailer.

To my complete and utter shock (yes, my jaw actually dropped) Alexander emailed me back and said it sounded like fun and he was on board for the cameo role. I flew out to California for the filming, and I felt like a teenager again seeing the heroes I created come to life. To see my characters exactly how I imagined them was surreal and wonderful and crazy and…and I got so emotional when it was over and Pete Jones called “that’s a wrap!” I started crying. Of course when Pete looked over at me and saw tears running down my cheeks, he laughed and said, “Stop it, Simone. There is no crying in Hollywood.” I couldn’t help it…it’s no accident I write romance novels!

Cover Design In 2 Minutes

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: There’s a lot of cool stuff going on today but I’m only allowed to talk about one of them. See below.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? PRIDE & JOY by Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

Sometimes a Publisher will put together a really cool promo for an author. And in general, I have to say that the Orbit team is one of my favorites to work with—especially publicity guru Alex. He’s the one that came up with the SOULLESS paper doll promotion. (I’m not biased or anything as he was NLA’s marketing director Lindsay Mergen’s assistant back in the day….Grin).

He, Lauren and Eric of the fab Orbit team (huge thanks!) came up with this just incredible promo—a video montage that compresses hours of labor into 2 minutes on the making of the cover for BLAMELESS—Gail Carriger’s third book in the Alexia Tarabotti Parasol Protectorate Series.

Love Orbit! Galley Cat and Huffington Post have already picked it up.

Check it out.

And for fun, here’s the ‘oops’ first draft of the cover. If you watch, you’ll learn exactly what was the mistake in draft one.

HESTER by Paula Reed At The Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, CO

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: TGIF and an author book event. Hooray!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Nothing At the Moment

Dashing out the door to head south to the Tattered Cover Highlands Ranch, Colorado. From downtown, I want to give myself plenty of time.

Even if you haven’t RSVP’d , you can still join in the fun tonight.

We are at the Landsdowne Arms, Library Room from 5-7:15 p.m. Then the signing will be at the Tattered Cover (right next door) at 7:30 p.m.

See you there!

A Milestone

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Some pretty great news today.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN by Cyndi Lauper

One of my agent friends is constantly chastising me for not taking a moment to celebrate when really big things happen at my agency.

For example, last week, we did a huge film deal and I barely broke stride. I have to admit, I didn’t even go out to a celebratory dinner or anything. I just kept my nose to the grindstone (in my defense, Bologna Book Fair is rapidly approaching—I have to be ready!)

But today, I really can’t just do that. Besides, I don’t want her to berate me again (and I know she’s reading this and will call me up).

Last week was big—no doubt. This week is a huge milestone for an agent and in truth, it doesn’t happen often so I really need to take a moment and acknowledge it so that’s what I’m going to do.

Today, I have two authors sitting on the New York Times Bestseller list at the same time.

Now, I’ve had one author with two books sitting on the NYT list at the same time but never two authors on at the same time.

Wow.

Great. Now I’ve just raised the bar and I’ll have to do 3 authors on the list at the same time or 2 authors with 2 different books on the list at the same time…. Naw. I’m just going to enjoy this moment.

Save Money! Save Trees! No ARCs!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Next Monday is a holiday in publishing! Hooray, another quiet day in the office to get caught up.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? HOT N COLD by Katy Perry

This is the latest rally cry in publishing. One of my authors just found out today that her publisher is not going to be doing ARCs for her book. But it’s not just for her title but for all the mass market titles at this house.

Gone. They’ve decided that it’s too costly to continue with the current economic conditions.

For those of you who don’t know, ARC stands for Advanced Reading Copy. This is the main tool in terms of getting reviews and influential blog posts about the upcoming release. Savvy authors can use those ARCs in a variety of ways such as making them available for special promos or having them handy at events or conferences where booksellers attend. And this is just the tip of the ice berg of uses for the ARC.

At the agency, we often use ARCs to shop film or foreign rights (although mainly we prefer a clean, electronic copy—costs of international shipping and all that.

But back to my Author. Her publisher isn’t even offering an electronic ARC. Just a bound manuscript but only on request. Yeah, I said the same thing. This author is feeling really supported….

Now I do understand that the printing of ARCs is expensive and often these copies end up on sale at eBay for pennies (with neither the publisher nor the author seeing any of those royalties) but egad.

As I mentioned above, the publisher did say that they were willing to send out bound manuscripts instead but talk about unwieldy. That’s basically asking a person to lug around 300+ regular sized pages. Any reviewer will be delighted to haul that around on the subway or to the soccer game or wherever they might be trying to squeeze in reading. Not.

I highlight this because now it’s becoming even more important to find alternate ways to connect to your audience before publication.

I have more thoughts on this but it’s getting late so I’m out.

Kirkus Reanimates

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’m back in the office.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? GLAD TIDINGS by Van Morrison

While I was out, I saw an article in Publishers Weekly that mentioned that Kirkus might be bought so the review journal could continue publishing.

I have to say this warms my heart—even though they gave one of my books an only so-so review last week. Big smile here.

I do think that online review sites will gain in prominence and I’m certainly not against that, but I do think there is value in a long-standing, revered review journal continuing. It’s going to take some more years for the online sites to gain the same prominence with booksellers and librarians that Kirkus already has in place.

A strong Kirkus review can create an automatic buy for libraries. I can’t name an online site that does the same—yet.

Come back and stay this time Kirkus.

Q&A continued

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Nose to the grindstone. Only two more days after today to finish stuff.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? NIGHT PART ONE: SNOW by George Winston

Before I kick off more Q&A, here is a fascinating article on Amazon, $9.99 eBooks, losing money, profits, wholesale prices and where the author is going to fit in all this.

Definitely worth a read.

Anonymous asked:
My question would be what are your instant turn-offs? Any genre or just something that you are so tired of you don’t even want to look at anymore…
It’s certainly true that we often tire of seeing vampire queries or thieves as the main narrator in fantasy or what have you but you never know when somebody is going to have a different spin on it. In general, if the query is well done, we’ll ask for sample pages, even if we saw 200 queries this week about a vampire thief in a dystopian near future society.

My answer is that there isn’t anything that is an instant turn off.

Evangeline Holland asked:
What I would love to ask an editor? In the crunched market, would some measure of success in the e-publishing or self-publishing market tip the scales towards acquiring the author? What is expected of an author today that a newly published writer of one year ago, two years ago, or even five years ago, wouldn’t have had to deal with or worry about?
For your first question, would some measure of success in e or self-publishing tip the scales? It would really depend on the type of e-publishing. If the author is with an established eHouse in a genre that has had a lot of success with eBooks only, then yes, I can see this being a weighted factor in the author’s favor. However, if the author just self-pubbed and got out a 100 copies to friends and family, probably not going to help.

There have certainly been several publishing stories this year of successful books that had their start in self-pubbed world such as STILL ALICE or THE LACE READER. However, the authors of those books did the whole self-pub thing smartly by hiring an external PR firm that had done a lot of book promotion to get the book in the right hands etc. They hired professional book cover artists and editors for book layout and design. They didn’t just throw it out there “to see what might happen.” The authors had a plan, a budget, and a way to reach people. When they started selling thousands of copies consistently, you bet editors took notice and both titles ended up selling to traditional publishers after the fact.

As for your second Q, an author today is definitely expected to be internet savvy, have a website, and have a sense of social media outlets and how promo is done electronically.

Anonymous asked:
“In general, is the number of male readers declining? What trends do you see among male readers over the next three to five years?”
The answer is yes—although I don’t have any statistics on hand to confirm my yes. I just know I’ve seen articles this past year highlighting that male readership is declining. This is not necessarily true for SF&F readers. That male readership has stayed fairly steady.

As for trends, I see male readers staying tight with their tried and true authors and not exploring much outside of the biggest name sellers unless we give them a reason to. I see young male readers becoming more reluctant to read unless schools loosen up their definition of a book by letting them read graphic novels or other things that catch their interest. Reading—any kind—is good.

Anonymous asked:
Kristin — Kirkus is closing, can you offer any insight into what this means for authors? That Kirkus star review was such a sign of quality, and they often gave stars to books that other reviewers (such as Booklist or VOYA) overlooked. I’m so sad that books will have one less opportunity to shine and gain notice.
Kirkus was a bi-weekly founded in 1933 and has annually published hundreds of thousands of reviews since its inception. This was huge news when it hit the wires. I’m still stunned although not surprised. Lots of publications are discontinuing because of declining subscriptions.

I have to say that Kirkus rarely liked things. It was almost a badge of honor to get a bad Kirkus review asit was expected. But when they did like a book, wow, that Kirkus review would carry some major weight.

Now I’m not sure what will be “the review.” I do think blog reviewers will start becoming more prominent and certain sites will start becoming more and more well known to fill the gap. It’s just too bad Kirkus couldn’t make that transition to that medium (although I’m not sure if they even tried).

Publicists Help Those Who Help Themselves

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I’ve actually been spending my time negotiating some new deals for current clients. Hey, that’s always good.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY by Dave Matthews Band

An often quoted adage (that’s not actually in the Bible) with one little word change to make it apply to what I want to talk about today.

If you are a published author, one of the smartest things you can do when it comes to marketing and promotion is to be a squeaky wheel without the annoying squeak.

In other words, how can you politely keep yourself on the publicist’s radar without coming across as disappointed, demanding, or annoying?

One thing Lindsay and I have been working on with our clients is our weekly or bi-monthly reports of what the author is doing to promote their recent release.

It’s a great way to constantly be having a dialogue with the in-house publicist. All the publicists we’ve worked with have been really appreciative. It allows them to talk about the author in the next meeting, maybe even spotlight something cool the author has done, and it often helps the publicist make requests on the author’s behalf.

So take a moment to think about the last time you sent your in-house person a lovely report on all the amazing blog appearances, local signings, conference events, etc. you’ve been doing?

Never too late if you have some nice summaries to share—even if your book isn’t a new release.

This is just part of the reason that together, Mari and I were able to revive interest in her Blood Coven series and get that fourth book under contract. We constantly kept Berkley in the loop on all the things Mari was doing for those books.