Changes in the publishing business.

You can't be self-published and not keep informed of the huge and often strident debate about the future of the publishing world.

Some authors contend that you're not truly “published” until you're accepted by one of the major publishers and see your book in paper, while others predict the demise of book-store publishing in favor of E-publishing and the importance of the connection between authors and readers.

Major NY publishers are like IBM back in the eighties when they ignored the importance of their own invention (the PC) and allowed an up-start company like Microsoft to retain the rights to the operating software. IBM was monolithic, cast in stone, convinced of its superiority, and unable to change.

I have a suspicion that the major publishers face the same challenge.

Three years ago if you had asked me if I would ever read a book on a computer or hand-held device I would have said “Hell no! I like the smell and feel of a book in my hands!”.

Today I will not buy a paper book. I've found that reading on my computer, Android, or Kindle is easier, more convenient, and fits with the fact that I am a reading baby-boomer. Publishers should take heed. We baby-boomers are in the market for good reading material, but our eyesight is failing, some of use cannot hold a paper book for long in comfort, and we are technologically aware. A Kindle or Nook is much easier to use than a cumbersome novel or paperback that clutters up the house. (I gave mine to the library.)

Major publishers are making another mistake. Numerous posts on Amazon have railed against the high cost of E-books and for good reason. If you buy a title in paper, expect to pay between $10.00 (paperback) to $30.00 (hardback) or more. Part of the high cost is the dead tree and its aftermath, and the horrendous expense of the equipment required to print it. A small fraction goes to the publisher. An even smaller fraction goes to the author. Add it all up and it results in high cost.

The cost of producing a E-book is nearly invisible in comparison. Just a computer and a site to display it on. So why do the major publishers charge nearly as much for an E-book as they do for a paper book? Well, greed for one thing. An E-book is nearly all profit. But a bigger reason is that they know that if the cost of the E-book is substantially less than the printed copy, they won't sell paper books, and book stores will go out of business at a faster rate.

It's gratifying to see the wide variety of quality authors that self-publish E-books. Major works as good as any block-buster touted by NY publishers are for sale, or free for the downloading. (I can prove it.) Most of these authors would never have passed through the screening process of major publishers.

Large publishers “think” they know what the reading audience wants, they supposedly have legions of marketing people helping to make those decisions, so part of the process is to choose works that fit that mold regardless of the merit of the book in question.

Yeah, Right! So I title like “Harry Potter” gets rejected by the big boys 72 times, and is picked up by a minor niche publisher who was willing to ignore the conventional wisdom and give a new author a chance!

If the petrified, fossilized, major book publishers want to save their industry, I have a few suggestions. I will list them.

1. Stop killing trees. If some of your customers want paper, do print-on-demand. Control the costs of your brick and mortar book stores by shrinking them in size and making browsing catalogs and samples available to your customers in the store. Let other customers call the store, submit an order, and have the title ready for the customer to pick up or FedEx it to them. For other print copies, make them available in the Nation's libraries. It will give a good boost to them and the titles can also be available in online E-format on their computers.
2. Find new authors on the net. Look for an author with a good book that has a huge following, good ratings, and who exhibits talent, and offer to represent him or her. (You can still take submissions.) This will encourage self-published authors because they always have chance of being noticed by major publishers while they are selling their works. (While you're at it, promote self-publishing as a viable alternative.)
3. Work with on-line publishing houses. Give them a market, and take a cut.
4. Include self-published authors in the main-stream world of publishing. Give them a chance to win awards, be highly rated, and in general, remove the imaginary divisions between you (the publishers) and us (the independents).

In my opinion, it's the only way you can survive. If you can't beat them, you need to join them.

Upcoming Novels and Novellas

Shadow Games

Shadow Spies

The Reality Plague

For those of you who have asked about a sequel to Shadow Games, my new book in the series Shadow Spies, should be published at the end of June, 2011. I will be a full-length novel with a new character, new twists, and (hopefully) more suspense, depth, and action. The problem is that as I learn more I keep revising and it seems to never end.

Add to the delay, the fact that I keep getting distracted by new ideas, and the resulting new novellas, and you get a picture of an author who struggles to keep on track.

The good news is that you soon will be the recipients of at least three new books. They are shorter, less than 40,000 words but I am polishing them to get them ready. The new novellas are: The Reality Plague, To Sail Beyond Tomorrow-Nate's Story, and To Sail Beyond Tomorrow-Susan's Story. At least two of these will be 'for sale' titles, and most likely published on Amazon and Smashwords.

All are science fiction or paranormal romance stories. I'm finding that romance is my most favorite genre, although I want to branch out to others.

Coming in the next four years will be four novels. Shadow Twins, Shadow Reflections, and two as yet unnamed novels that are parked, waiting for their turn, in the back of my brain. Along the way – who knows?

On writing stories.

Although new at this, I nevertheless learned a very important lesson early on.

Stories are about people.

Without people, there is no story. A good plot, excellent prose, and superior writing skills mean nothing unless the story is about people.

At first I thought I should write realistic stories. Stories about common ordinary people who were thrust into extraordinary situations and battled to find a way to triumph. My efforts were met with a “ho-hum so what” attitude.

I read stories of substandard quality that seemed to resonate with the reader and were consequently more popular than mine, and I started to question myself. What am I missing here? I re-read these stories, all about dysfunctional relationships; women or men who had miserable or abusive childhoods and who, consequently, were unable or unwilling to learn to cope with their adult selves, characters who seemed to be powerless to do the intelligent things or in fact resisted any attempt to learn from their mistakes, and then It came to me.

Readers want to be swept away from their mundane existence. They want to experience the bizarre, swept up by a muscular man with impressive sexual equipment, mesmerized by the antics of a harlot who doesn't have a clue how to live, frightened by the idiot who steps into harm's way, knowing that at any minute the monster that lurks in the dark will sink his or her fangs into their neck and drink blood. Readers want to escape reality and enter new worlds that may frighten them, make them weep, or disgust them. They want to be swept away to exotic places, terrified by violent danger, stimulated buy sudden, passionate romance, captivated by quirky characters who have shaky pasts they never experienced, and intrigued by new ideas and concepts. In the world of books, one can snap back, simply by putting the book down, back to sanity and safety. It's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it.

I got the message...

A Walk in the Park

At 67 years old, if I set at this damn computer typing for too long, my legs start to lose their ability to support my body. So, my wife convinced me to undertake a daily exercise walk. Here in San Diego there is a park, a wildlife preserve located in the southern part of San Diego Bay. The park has a trail for hikers and bicyclists that meanders through the marshlands. Since it is nearly Spring, the plants are green and flowers are blooming. Water is still flowing from the winter rains so there are streams burbling and connecting with the lagoons. It never fails to bring me peace. I look back over a lifetime, a lifetime I don't regret, and I remember the hectic pace that prevented me from enjoying moments like this. Then I think of all the young people who are flung headlong into the unrelenting demands of today's society and I can't help but pity them. They never have the time to just walk along with nature surrounding them, and enjoy existence.

What's worse, the younger generation is busily engaged in dismantling all the protections that my parents suffered and sometimes died for. Protections from bank failures, protections promised from Social Security, protections from the greedy bastards that manipulate the stock market, and protections from the environmental disasters such as the one that nearly destroyed Lake Erie back in the sixties, are all being threatened by the illiterate, moronic fools that call themselves the Tea Party.

When I was a young father and provider for my family. One income provided for home. Car, food and three children. Since I was an industrial worker, I was protected by a strong union that kept the predations of the companies from intruding upon my life. In fact, I never worked at a job that didn't have a union, including my time spent as a college professor. Never, that is, until just before I retied. It was a retirement job at an aerospace company, and as non-union, the workers were powerless. The pay was substandard, the workers worked seven days a week, sometimes twelve hours a day (I didn't, I refused to.), just like the miserable conditions of the early twentieth century.

As I say, I pity the younger generation. Now it requires two incomes to make ends meet, so the children must be left at a daycare center. Mom and dad may be required by the employer to work long hours so they're too tired to enjoy life or their families. This seems to be escalating, and I fear for the future. People can only take so much misery before they react. The Tea Party fiasco is typical of their reaction, but it is certainly not the right one, that will only make the problems worse.

The hell with it. I'm in my life's twilight. It's not my problem anymore. I think I'll just walk along the trail and enjoy the flowers.

Sex in Novels

Sex sells.

I've been in the business of writing novels for a little over a year, but I discovered sex sells early in my career. List a novel or a short story in one of the several categories provided by the web publishers such as romance, fantasy, science fiction, etc. and sure, you'll get a few downloads; but list it as erotic or adult content, and the sales will double.

Sex sells.

But why does sex sell?

Could it be because at any given moment, nearly half the world's population is engaged in the pleasurable act of making babies?

Half. – over three billion people.

Maybe more than half, if you count those people making love in the daytime.

So, why hold back on the one aspect of life that prevents the extinction of the human race?

In the U.S. We have a very skewed outlook on sex. This is a country in which a three letter word, describing the act of killing people, is considered heroic and brave, but a four letter word describing the act of making babies is considered obscene. Is that rational or sane?

So I put sex in my works. I don't do it to sell, I do it because it belongs there. Sex is an essential part of human life. It's grand and sometimes glorious if it includes love. There's nothing nasty, obscene or degrading about it. It's about the closest you'll come to experiencing heaven in this life. The French call orgasm the little death. They've got a point. If a good orgasm never stopped, I think I would die.
Check any novel, novella, or short story ever written and you’ll find sex ranging from either blatant sex or sex hidden somewhere between the pages. Even Harry Potter has sex in it and that's supposed to be a kids book. Lord of the Rings has the romance between Arwen and Strider, and between Sam and the barmaid. Sex is the natural outcome of romance. Everyone knows it, it hovers in the back of their minds and that's what makes romance work.

I studied psychology in college and learned about Adlerian Psychology. Alder felt there were two types of love. One, he termed agape and the other, Eros (from the Greek words). Eros is the love found in romance novels; grasping, jealous, heart pounding, sweaty, physical love, the really fun stuff. Agape is the distant, worship from afar, love of God, in other words, boring and unfulfilled. The old Jane Austin novels are like that. When you read these romances, you have to wonder how the human race survived. Surely someone, somewhere during the Victorian era just wanted to hop in bed and fuck, didn't they? Every happy-ever-after love story that ends with the heroine bouncing a new baby on her knee means the couple jumped in bed and screwed their lights out. It takes a lot more than one session to make a baby unless you're really, really lucky – or unlucky as the case may be.

I look at it this way, if two people fall in love, then sooner or later they'll have sex, make love, or in other less acceptable words, fuck. It's as inevitable as sunrise. So, if the end is a glorious, loving sex scene, then why not write about it?