Pub Rants

Category: Publishing Industry General

Black Forest Wildfire Pics

by Kristin Nelson

I’m sure you’ve been dying to see a picture of Agent Kristin manning a wood chipper. Finally, your chance. My husband Brian and I spent a weekend with Dave helping him clear his property after the Black Forest Wildfire destroyed his home and everything there.

Pic 1: Dave chainsaws a tree

Pic 2: One tree down

Pic 3: That’s me picking up branches that have been cut so as to take to the wood chipper

Pic 4: I’m watching Dave cut so I can grab those branches

Pic 5: A very dirty Kristin & Brian

Pic 6: Dave & Me & a wood chipper

Pic 7: Me feeding the chipper. Fargo anyone?

Pic 8: The clean up crew. Jen, who saved the dogs, is sandwiched between me and my husband Brian. She, who had just lost everything, still came to help clean the property. Amazing gal!

Pic 9: My favorite picture! Dave had a stack of firewood for his fireplace. It was the ONLY thing that didn’t burn. LOL How ludicrous is that?

DaveChainsawsTree DaveWithFoundation Landscapeshot_me&branches KN&Dave-tree-down Brian&Kristin-dirty Dave-Kristin-Woodchipper KristinFeedsChipper TheCleanUpGang Firewood-didn'tburn

Isaac & The PediCab World Bookmobile Night

by Kristin Nelson

We had sunshine but warm it was not. I needed that down jacket you are seeing me wearing.

Best story of the night? Standing on the corner of 16th Street and Market when Isaac zipped by on his pedicab. On such a cold evening, we couldn’t help shouting out “free book to celebrate World Book Night?” He said, “no thanks” and starting riding away. He wasn’t interested in any religious material (although I didn’t realize at the time that he thought we might be giving away some religious literature). I called out, “But it’s Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens (sorry Terry I was speaking quickly) and The Phantom Tollbooth.”

Isaac whipped around so quickly on his pedicab, I felt like I had whiplash. “No kidding?” he exclaimed..

No kidding!

He thought Book Night was so cool, he insisted on being our Pedicab bookmobile and wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was darn chilly. Not a lot of people walking up and down the mall. But we loaded up on his pedicab and he zipped us up and down 16th street looking for kids and other delighted folks who couldn’t believe we were giving away free books. No strings attached.

Pictures to enjoy!  And Sara’s son Elan was our very special ambassador! Thank you Elan for braving the cold with us! And thank you Isaac! If you see this blog post, drop us a line. You made World Book Night a triumph for Nelson Literary Agency. We’d love to send you the pics.

Kristin&IsaacSara,Elan,Isaac,Kristin-withbooksMan-BabyStrollerAnita-Kristin-withRecepient CoorsField

Update on World Book Night

by Kristin Nelson

Oh it’s happening – despite the fact it’s 25 degrees out right now and we will all be bundled to the max and unrecognizable. LOL. Last year it was 82 degrees on this date. Oh fickle Mother Nature.

We’ll be celebrating World Book Night as promised but instead of being at Skyline Park and 16th street, we’ll be on Wynkoop near Coors Field. There is a Rockies game scheduled and I’m betting that if you are a diehard enough fan to sit outside in 25 degree weather to watch a game, you might be a reluctant reader. Besides, kids will be there!

With the minimal foot traffic along the mall we are likely to get because of weather tonight, we’ll hedge our bets. So come join us. Bring Hot Cocoa and say hello! Just look for the banner. And notice that I’m wearing Rockies colors.

 

KN & WorldBookNight-Poster

Come Celebrate World Book Night With NLA!

by Kristin Nelson

And incidentally, my birthday! If you haven’t got plans on Tuesday, April 23, come join the gals of NLA at Skyline Park on the 16th Street Mall of Downtown Denver. We’ll be talking to passerby’s, reluctant readers, and giving away two very cool books.

Last night my husband says to me, “I’m a reluctant reader. Can I get a copy of Good Omens?” I replied, “it’s true you are a reluctant reader but you can afford to buy a copy so no, you don’t get one.”

I know! I’m tough. No nepotism people!

 

GoodOmens PhantomTollBooth

New Adult – Perhaps the latest word for Chick Lit

by Kristin Nelson

Just recently I was doing an interview with a reporter from  Publishers Weekly and she asked if I found it surprising that the New Adult category had remained hot for so long. Here is my response: 
I don’t find it surprising at all actually. Publishing tends to run hot on trends. Sometimes to the point of saturation.
What indie self publishing authors are doing is writing and releasing a lot of content quickly. They see what works and what doesn’t and they shift course if something is not getting the desired reaction or when something is. They have that flexibility because it’s all digital.
Ten years ago, new adult was “hot” but we called it chick lit and it was less sexual relationship or romance focused. Then that became a dirty word and we had to call it contemporary romance or women’s fiction and age up the protagonists.
That left a hole in the market for a whole lot of readers who loved reading works in that genre but got tired of the same old Sex in the City type story lines.
New adult is the 20-something coming of age and the new novels hitting in this realm are emotionally intense (unlike their chick lit predecessors). Prolific indie authors figured it out pretty quickly that the audience was there and started writing for them. It hasn’t abated because the market is not yet saturated.
One thing about Jasinda Wilder is that she is creating her own niche within what people are calling New Adult. 50 Shades is a story of sexual discovery and awakening. What Jasinda is doing is more Nicholas Sparks. Her stories are about emotional healing and the relationship/romance is part of the healing process in a significant way. Now she is a little stunned at the velocity of the response/sales for Falling Into You.

SFWA gives RH’s Hydra Imprint The Thumbs Down

by Kristin Nelson

If you’ve ever wondered about the efficacy of writer organizations such as RWA or SFWA when it comes to protecting authors, then the last twenty-four hour period has proven just how valuable they can be.

Last week on Facebook, I linked to an insightful blog article Victoria Strauss had posted on the SFWA-endorsed site Writer Beware about the new Random House Hydra imprint. Yesterday, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) issued this statement:

Dear SFWA Member:

SFWA has determined that works published by Random House’s electronic imprint Hydra can not be use as credentials for SFWA membership, and that Hydra is not an approved market. Hydra fails to pay authors an advance against royalties, as SFWA requires, and has contract terms that are onerous and unconscionable.

Hydra contracts also require authors to pay – through deductions from royalties due the authors – for the normal costs of doing business that should be borne by the publisher.

Hydra contracts are also for the life-of-copyright and include both primary and subsidiary rights. Such provisions are unacceptable.

At this time, Random House’s other imprints continue to be qualified markets.

Today, within twenty-four hours, Random House responded and asked for a sit-down with board members of SFWA.

I’d say that’s your membership dollars hard at work for a good cause. If you write in this genre and you qualify to be a member but for some reason aren’t one, maybe now is a good time to join. I only foresee more battles like this in the future.

 

 

 

 

The New & Improved NLA eNewsletter

by Kristin Nelson

Newsflash!

If you are looking for our “subscribe to our newsletter” button, you won’t find it quite yet. We are currently transforming the design, and we are migrating over to a new, more user-friendly delivery service. We plan to launch the new look on April 1. Once we’ve fully transitioned, we’ll be sure to announce that the subscriber button is back up.

Sit tight and don’t worry, I’ll remind folks in April.

Agenting in 2013

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I spent 7 hours in the office yesterday revamping our text content for the new website. We are so so close to launching. I can’t wait. The new site is awesome. The new blogging medium is going to be hot!

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now?  GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN by Frank Sinatra

Next week I head out to New York to speak at the 2013 Digital Book World (DBW) Conference. I’m rather honored to be sitting on a panel with the illustrious Jane Dystel (who  has repped a half a dozen successful self-publishing authors) and Steve Axelrod (who just recently did the first publicly announced print-rights only deal for his client Belle Andre).

I’m working on my talking points so I’ll have something intelligent to say. In this company, I had better! Ms. Dystel represented President Obama for his first book for goodness sakes.

She also recently did an interview for DBW entitled AGENTS UNWILLING TO ADAPT WON’T LAST. Worth a read as I could see myself saying every answer she gives.

Agents who haven’t already embraced assisting clients to make their books digitally available are behind. What started off as an added service to assist authors in finding their audience (as part of the evolving role of agents in this rapidly changing digital landscape) has fast morphed into being a necessary service to offer. As Ms. Dystel so aptly points out, it’s now, more than ever, our job to help writers connect with audiences.

In whatever medium, form, channel, or type of deal necessary.

In one year, I’m astounded at how fast the gross revenues are growing for authors who opted to publish through NLA’s digital platform. Even authors who are digitally publishing on their own use our digital platform for venues they can’t have direct access to. Those venues don’t have the advantage of being as big as Amazon (hands down the largest seller of ebooks) but even with these “smaller venues” revenues are growing from several hundred dollars a month to several thousands a month in just a few short months.

It’s a bit crazy to watch.

Two authors of mine have comfortably quit their day jobs because of their digital publishing success. And who knows, maybe I’ll be contracting print-only deals for them, like I did for Howey, in the not so distant future.

Agents — if you haven’t started, the time was yesterday to jump on this bandwagon as I’m fairly certain, it won’t be going away.

DBW Panel: Straddling The Models: Authors Choosing to Both Self- and Traditionally Publish.

On The Last Day Of December

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: The usual. I slammed every day as we wind down to the agency closing on December 14, 2012.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR by Mikey Wax

On the last day of December, my true inbox sent to me:

12    Eggnog Chai’s a-drinking
11    queries reading
10    royalty statement reviewing
9     checks depositing
8    Foreign deals a-doing
7    Payments a-processing
6     full manuscripts left a-reading
5     contracts done
4     calling clients
3     client fulls
2     pecan sandies

And a Party in the New Year!

A heads up if you aren’t on our newsletter circulation or on FB, Nelson Literary Agency is now closed to queries for the holidays. We wanted to make sure we finished reading every query, every submitted sample page, and all the remaining full manuscripts in our queue.

To do that, we closed queries on Monday, December 3. Anything incoming will now get our auto-respond email.

But never fear, we’ll be back in full form starting on January 2 2013. We’d be happy to read your query then.

What Are The Big YA Debut Break Outs in 2012?

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I need 5 more hours in any day.

What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? COLORADO CHRISTMAS by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Yesterday Sara Megibow and I went to lunch – just the two of us – so we could sit down and process the year. Celebrate what was great. Commiserate on what wasn’t. LOL

Of course the conversations came around to what we think is hot or trending. And honestly, I’m not sure I see any clear direction there but I can say in the adult realm it’s definitely genre cross-over novels, literary thrillers, and big upmarket literary commercial novels that appeal to women readers and book clubs.

In YA, it’s a  bit more murky. In fact, neither Sara or I could think of a single debut author that broke out in a really big way in 2012. (Marie Lu’s LEGEND debuted fantastically but that published in November 2011 so I’m not counting it per se…). Maybe CINDER? That title looked to have done well (and pubbed in January ’12). 

Certainly many already established YA authors did quite well in 2012 (Green, Condie, Roth, Dessen, Hopkins, Bray, Asher etc.) but I’m not sure I could name a 2012 debut. So I figured I would ask you folks! Sara and I might simply be having brain fatigue.

At this time of year, I always like to look back at the books on the 2012 BEA YA Buzz Panel. The titles were the following:

CREWEL by Gennifer Albin (Dystopian/speculative)
WHAT’S LEFT OF ME by Kat Zhang (Dystopian/speculative)
SKYLARK by Megan Spooner  (Dystopian/fantasy)
SKINNY by Donna Cooner (Contemporary YA)
COLIN FISHER by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz (YA contemporary mystery)

Looking at the numbers on Bookscan wouldn’t suggest that any of them are a breakout – although I’m wondering if it just is a slower build now as dystopian/speculative have been a hot trend for a while.

Now there are two contemporary YAs on that list. I was kind of hoping the trend would swing back in the contemporary direction. Too soon to tell I think. Sara has an author doing well in that realm (Kenneally) as do I (Elkeles) but we need the next John Green or Zarr.

Most likely there is a quiet title out there gathering steam. Any ideas? Put some titles in the comments section.