BookScan Madness

Earlier last month, Daniel Gross wrote a provocative piece for Slate.com, "Why writers never reveal how many books their buddies have sold." He hits up the use of BookScan data, claiming that "in the hands of journalists and polemicists, BookScan data has becomes a blunt instrument to humiliate, minimize accomplishments, and express joy at the misfortune of other writers."

Generally, you must have deep pockets or be associated with the publishing industry to have access to BookScan figures, which are drawn from sales at chains like Barnes & Noble, Costco (but not Wal-Mart) and Borders and Amazon.com, an estimated 70% of all hardcover sales. Gross chronicles recent book/author bashings by journalists of all ilk:

BookScanning has become popular for a few reasons having to do with the culture of journalism and publishing. In general, the publishing world treats money the way old-line WASPs once did--as a subject that genteel people simply don't discuss. The only question considered to be more indelicate than how much one was paid to write a book is how many copies it has sold.

Interesting related articles on Slate include: In July 2001, Eliza Truitt wrote that publishers weren't excited by the advent of BookScan. In April 2003, Adelle Waldman used BookScan figures to show that classic books are big money makers. In February 2005, Daniel Gross dissected the sales figures of the latest crop of behind-the-scenes business narratives. And in March 2005, he questioned the wisdom of New York publishers starting right-wing book imprints.

[books]

Repeaters

Am I starting to repeat myself? After cross-country posting "remotely" for the last month, I'm back home, but feeling disoriented. From late June, I could access Blogger only through library branches and, occasionally, the computer of one of my mother's neighbors. I'd left myself a large pile of draft posts to use, but the software acted up sometimes, not removing a draft copy after it was posted. I caught myself putting up the same information once, only because I'd marked it "June" instead of "July".

An exciting aspect of the world of the digerati is that while the basics of writing don't change, the tools and technology are in constant flux and development. So, while I could repeat a mini-lesson on grammar, syntax, punctuation or any of the plumbing aspects of writing, I don't want to waste space telling you about a service twice (unless it improves or disappears). So many new ones spring up almost daily, it's a challenge to keep on top of them.

[literary digerati]

Booksfree

Rent-a-book service: Booksfree. The name of the website is a bit misleading, because the books aren't free to rent, they also sell books, and they also have CD and MP3 audiotapes for rent. Sort of like Netflix for the literary-minded. A six-books-at-a-time plan costs just under $18 a month, with no shipping charges coming or going back. Considering that the library has no charges at all with their lending plan, I fail to see the advantage of this service, although keeping the books indefinitely has a charm over due dates and late fees. Say we rent six books and don't return them. We'd still have to fork over the $18 a month, right? If I borrowed six books from the library and kept them, I'd owe 50 cents a book a day after the due date. That would come to $3 a day and $90 for a 30-day month. Maths don't fail me now! Hmm. Maybe it is a good deal?

[books]

F-Words, F-Reads

We all (English speakers) know what F-words are. I maintain that fuck is one of the most versatile verbal devices man has invented, usable as just about all parts of speech. But what about F-Reads? Usability guru Jakob Neilsen, who performs eye-tracking studies on how people read online, reveals the most important parts of web pages form an "F". See his recent Alert Box entry on F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content.

F for fast. That's how users read your precious content. In a few seconds, their eyes move at amazing speeds across your website's words in a pattern that's very different from what you learned in school.

"What the F does this mean for my website?" you may wonder. Nielsen suggests:

* Users won't read your text thoroughly
* The first two paragraphs must state the most important information
* Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words

[websites]

Video Guides

It's getting late and you're all out of inspiration. You want to place those characters in a memorable location. Or, you're writing an article about someplace you've visited, but you can't quite remember the view. Where, oh where can you turn for help? TurnHere: Free video guides for travel, restaurants, hotels, local events & music

[resource]

Picard's Journal

Heard about fictional blogs? One way to exercise your writing skills. Check out Captain Picard's Journal to see what I mean. At one time, I contemplated a similar endeavor, actually a novel in blog format, but I couldn't get the idea across to anyone I knew, so I gave up on it. Mine wasn't sci-fi, though. It was more a romance, so it would have had "Heart Date xx/xx/xxxx" instead of Star Dates.

[blogging]

No Competition

In an article entitled Libraries and Google/Google Book Search: No Competition! RLG Senior Analyst, Walt Crawford suggests:

Being complementary works both ways. Google Book Search could stand some librarian-guided refinement. As part of that refinement, the public domain portion of the Google Books Library Project really should be working and partnering with the OCA and other public-domain book digitization projects.

He cites three issues Google could address: snippets only being shown for books published prior to 1923, all now in the public domain; the same for quite a few government publications; and the lack of a "find this book in a library" link for every book that originates in the Google Books Library Project and for every book in the public domain. He notes that books supplied by publishers show purchase links for sources other than the publisher itself.

[research]

Memorable Quotes

We're often looking for them--good quotations to use in our writing, in a character's dialogue, in a speech we have to give. What makes a quotation memorable or at least a good one? According to The Eigen - Arnett Educational & Cultural Foundation Ltd.,quotables comprise quite a long list of qualities, but tops are brevity ("The best quotes are terse.") and thought ("The quotation expresses an idea that itself has significance.") Get started at Quotations, memorable quotes at Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations.

[writing]

A Public Space

About A Public Space from Meg Weaver's Woodenhorse News:

a new independent magazine of literature and culture ... founded by Brigid Hughes, the former executive editor of The Paris Review. This new magazine plans to make fiction and poetry the stars. Four times yearly, they plan to bring their readers a collection of new and established authors. They will encourage writers to write about what intrigues them, to explore and snoop around, with no boundaries. They plan to publish fiction, poetry, and essays, short stories, novellas and novel excerpts. They are also interested in essays on issues that are relevant to our culture. In addition to Brigid Hughes, who is the editor, Thomas Roberge is the assistant editor, with Elizabeth Gaffney their editor-at-large. They are at 323 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217, (718) 858-8067, fax: (718) 858-8069, editors@apublicspace.org.

[literature market]

Social Stuff

Two newer social networking/bookmarking/services that strutted across my short attention span theater proscenium:

PB Wiki--Collaborative Editing and Publishing

Clipmarks - It's a Big Web. Clip It. (Thanks to Michael at River Tyde, who calls it a "scrapebook." I like that neologism.)

Keen observers will already know I disfavor wikis because of the lack of authority and potential for mischief. The notion of using them for collaborative editing and publishing intrigues, nonetheless. I looked into Clipmarks as an antidote to saving everything of interest in the Drafts section of Blogger.com (subject to the vagrant misdemeanors of free software and services.) I decided Clipmarks was just too much for me, maybe not for you. Perhaps I could automate using FTP to cache Notes to Self onto my server? Ah, but then they wouldn't be here at Blogger, ready to turn into posts. What to do? What to do?

[websites]

Microsoft Book Search

Microsoft Ups its Book Search Service - 6/9/2006 - Publishers Weekly

After much talk about Microsoft's interest in giving Google a run for its money on the search front, the software giant has announced that out-of-copyright titles from the University of California and the University of Toronto libraries will eventually be searchable through its Windows Live Book Search service.

So how much heft do these two institutions bring? The University of California Library, with some 34 million volumes amassed in over 100 libraries across 10 campuses, is the largest research and academic library in the world, while the University of Toronto's system is the largest in Canada with 15 million volumes. With the support of the Open Content Alliance (OCA), publicly available print materials in UC and U of T libraries will be scanned, digitized and indexed to make them accessible to customers.

Wow! Wonder how long it will take before we start to see some results at MSN Search? MSN release.

[research]

Sciencewoman's Scribblings

A new "Blog of Note" is On being a scientist and a woman where Sciencewoman says, "I'm a graduate student working on my Ph.D. in the natural sciences, and I'm also a wife, and someday I'd like to be a mother. Right now, I'm just trying to survive my Ph.D. and figure out how to be a decent, sane person at the same time." She also offers pre-built excuses for not blogging often:

Why am I not blogging more?
July 14 - Paper 2 to coauthors
July 17-20 - Teaching
August 11 - Paper 3 to coauthors
August 18 - Diss. Intro. Written
August 25 - Diss. Conclusions Written
September 5 - Diss. Due
September 14 - Our anniversary
September 19-21 - Defense
October 6 - Final Diss. due

Okay, she's slightly busy.

[blogging]

Poetry Podio

Mark Leslie's PodCast - Prelude To A Scream - Episode 02 post contains useful podcasting references of the treebook and virtual types. He adds:

Prelude To A Scream - Episode 02 in which I read from five different poems and then talk a bit about the writing of each and my own haphazard approach to writing poetry. Oh, and I've monkied a bit with the opening sequence and think it's a bit improved over Episode 01.

I like podcasts because they enable me to accomplish at least two activities at once, usually listening and scanning the Internet. [podio poetry]

Lulu Profits

According to David Ranii, Staff Writer at The News & Observer, Self-publisher triples revenue

So how does Lulu make a profit?

It doesn't charge any upfront fees, but when an author sells a copy of a book, Lulu charges a printing fee. Authors can get a 200-page paperback book printed for $8.50 each.

Authors then set their own royalty fees, and Lulu adds a 25 percent commission. So if the author sets a $4 royalty fee per book, Lulu adds another $1 in commission. The 200-page paperback that cost $8.50 to print is sold for $13.50. The author makes $4 and Lulu makes $1 in commission -- plus a profit on the printing.

By contrast, the going-rate for author's royalties on books published by mass market publishers is $1 on a book that retails for $20, said Jerrold Jenkins, owner of Independent Publisher Online, an industry trade publication.

Okay. This is nice for the Lulu.com officials and/or stockholders, but how about profits for people who use the service to self-publish? Anyone making money this way? Anybody earn back your investment? Anyone at all?

[books]

Author & Book Promotion

Nadia Brown started Author & Book Promotion last year to be:

An online site where authors can access articles, resources, and get free marketing tips, suggestions for book promotion from the list of articles, web site links listed here. However, authors should not limit their promotion to this site.

She includes Free Articles, Marketing Tips, Resources on Book Promotion, Sample Websites, and a message board.

[resource]

Archival Rights

The writers' world of copyrights and selling rights became considerably complicated with the advent of the commercial Internet. Marg Gilks' Rights: What They Mean and Why They're Important makes a good effort to clear the confusion. It even contains a section on Electronic Rights, which explains:

Archival Rights
Here's one that's becoming more and more prevalent on the Internet: "the right to archive" or "the right to make [works] available" on the Web. This means that the publication will keep your piece on file and accessible by visitors to that site, long after its first appearance. As long as your piece is archived or being made available, it's considered "in print." It can be very difficult -- and tricky -- to sell rights to a piece being archived. If a webzine wants the right to archive your piece, make sure it's only for a limited length of time.

If you want to know Google's take on all this, see Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

[copyrights]

Daily Paragraphs

Paul Strauss wrote to me about a free service:

"The paragraph of the day, is a weekday e-mail that contains a short piece of fine prose. The paragraphs come from a variety of sources - mainly novels, letters, histories, and magazines. Some people say they need the paragraph of the day as much as their morning coffee and nicotine gum.

The e-mails are free. There is a website that has an archive of prior paragraphs.
While many of the paragraphs were written by well-known authors, they also come from books that are not seen very often now, and from contemporary books and articles that might have been missed. Past paragraphs have come from the following, for example:

J. Christopher Herold, Love in Five Temperaments (1961)
Andrea Lee, Sarah Phillips (1984)
Michael Ignatieff, The Russian Album (1987)
Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946)
Lorrie Moore, "Agnes of Iowa," Granta (1996)

If you want to receive paragraphs by e-mail, you can subscribe on the www.tpotd.net site. You don't have to worry that you will be stuck with it if you don't like it - every e-mail includes an 'unsubscribe' button."

[writing]

Bookstore Trysts

According to Meg Weaver's May 28 Wooden Horse newsletter:

A BizRate Research survey for comparison shopping site Shopzilla found that 52% of men and 61% of women like to check out the other in a bookstore.

She claims that bookstores are the second most popular location (after restaurants) to meet blind dates for both men and women. Disclaimer: BizRate's Shopzilla is a prime sponsor of Writer's Edge. Heh, another reason to support your local bookstore. I'll be the one pretending to read a copy of Stephen King's On Writing.

[books]

Publishing Jobs

Did you know that Publishers Weekly lists job openings in the publishing industry? Currently, 60 jobs are listed, none of them for writers specifically, but you never know where you might end up if you start as an editorial assistant. Limited search facilities are available at the bottom of the page. No registration necessary.

More Junk Email

One of the funniest ads recently received is for a post-and-bid job board. "Freelance writing for you and your bussiness" it screams in text that is all linked to the website. Toward the end of the message, the owner reassures with this seal:

The Writer's Edge inbox is flooded with PR about books that have won a certain little award this year. I think I've finally traced the source of the spam deluge to a particular marketer. He gives away the source by quoting himself or using the same self-promotional lines in each message (also the same format, addressing me as "Georganna Hancock, Blogger Writer's Edge".) I'm certain I didn't sign up for this mailing. Unfortunately, the return address on each message is different, and I can't find even a disguised original source. And there's no "opt out" link. Should I name names?

50 Tools List

Remember the post about Roy Peter Clark's series of Fifty Writing Tools at Poynter Online? Well, he's started a blog with a bang-up post of his own, a quick list of the 50 writing tools.

[resource]

Recycle Articles

From one of the ladies who will teach you how to turn a blog into a book in 90 days for $297 to $897 comes 21 Ways to Use Articles to Build Your Business:

21 Ways to Use One Article

1. Post on your own website
2. Post on other websites you own
3. Use in your ezine (and archive on your website)
4. Use on your blog
5. Submit to other people's websites
6. Submit to other people's ezines
7. Submit to other people's blogs
8. Use in ebooks you create
9. Use in print books
10. Use it for an audio recording for a CD or podcast
11. Use it for a DVD - great for how-to articles
12. Adapt it for a teleclass
13. Adapt for a webinar
14. Use as the basis for a press release
15. Submit to traditional print publications
16. Use it as a press kit stuffer
17. Use it as a product stuffer
18. Sell your articles
19. Submit to article directories both free and targeted in your field
20. Use in autoresponders as part of an ecourse
21. Create your own article directory on a specific niche topic

I ask you, what writer would ever have thought of #18?

[creativity]

Silly Saturday

For those who have high speed connections and want to be creeped out, I offer (via Bonnie Wren's blog, Ballpoint Wren and YouTube.com) Christopher Walken dancing in "Fatboy Slim--Weapon of Choice". Catch those neat high rise pants to cover the protruding pot.

[creativity]

Websites for Marketing

What Is Online Marketing? - Part 2 of 6: The Web Site By Richard Hoy provides a great explanation of the value of writers' websites. I'm working on one these days. The author says she doesn't want it to be a marketing tool, just a source of information about her books and herself, something that she can refer people to. Maybe I should send her Hoy's article? Hoy explains:

For an author, the web site really serves as a way to build a readership to which you can later pitch your book, and future books. Why is a readership important? Because the person who has the relationship with the customer has the control. Amazon.com is not a powerhouse in the publishing industry because they sell books, but because they have millions of customers to which they can market and sell those books. In other words, Amazon.com has a direct relationship with millions of book buyers.

What you want to do is try to create a similar, though admittedly smaller scale, relationship with the potential book buyers who visit your site.

There's that relationship thing again! I'm still pondering the best way to measure relationship for a smaller blog/website, as well as good ways to nurture this virtual animal.

[websites]

Google Genealogy

Today would have been my recently deceased mother's 89th birthday. I'm busy sorting through her possessions, making difficult decisions and finding surprises. Most of the finds are pleasant, like my grandmother's cookbook and a cache of old photographs of relatives I can barely recall or never met. With genealogy in mind, I thought the following post was appropriate today.

Ben Bunnell, Manager, Library Partnership Team, for Google Librarian, has an article in the latest newletter. Find a Page From Your Past explains how Google can aid in your genealogy searches:

Google Book Search is becoming a useful tool for discovering the past, both personal and collective. "Ego-surfing" the web is not new, but generally speaking, web-based information reflects the youth of the Internet, and older historical works just haven't been available to be included in a search. Of course, a genealogist's toolkit is large and varied, and I'm not suggesting that Book Search is supplanting public records, family letters, newspaper articles, or the files kept by genealogical societies. Still, I think it has the potential to become a valuable addition to the toolkit, or at the very least, a good starting point for people who haven't delved deeply into their family histories before.

[research]

Worst Agents Revisited

Given all the brouhaha over a major writing website and Wikipedia, I don't hesitate to leap into the fray by posting the following preamble requested by Ann Crispen for the 20 Worst Agents post:

"Below is a list of the 20 literary agencies about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints over the past several years.

None of these agencies has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (book placements claimed by some of these agencies turn out to be "sales" to vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made--whether directly, by levying fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for editing or other adjunct services.

Writer Beware recommends that writers avoid questionable literary agencies, and instead query agencies that have verifiable track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.

Note that while the 20 agencies listed here account for the bulk of the complaints we receive, they're just the tip of the iceberg. Writer Beware has files on nearly 400 questionable agencies, and we learn about a new one every few weeks."

And because this list has proven so popular, here they are:

The Abacus Group Literary Agency
Allred and Allred Literary Agents (refers clients to "book doctor" Victor West of Pacific Literary Services)
Capital Literary Agency (formerly American Literary Agents of Washington, Inc.)
Barbara Bauer Literary Agency
Benedict & Associates (also d/b/a B.A. Literary Agency)
Sherwood Broome, Inc.
Desert Rose Literary Agency
Arthur Fleming Associates
Finesse Literary Agency (Karen Carr)
Brock Gannon Literary Agency
Harris Literary Agency
The Literary Agency Group, which includes the following: Children's Literary AgencyChristian Literary Agency New York Literary Agency Poets Literary AgencyThe Screenplay AgencyStylus Literary Agency (formerly ST Literary Agency)Writers Literary & Publishing Services Company (the editing arm of the above-mentioned agencies)
Martin-McLean Literary Associates
Mocknick Productions Literary Agency, Inc.
B.K. Nelson, Inc.
The Robins Agency (Cris Robins)
Michele Rooney Literary Agency (also d/b/a Creative Literary Agency and Simply Nonfiction)
Southeast Literary Agency
Mark Sullivan Associates
West Coast Literary Associates (also d/b/a California Literary Services

[agents]

Google Government

Help with Google U.S. Government Search resides on a FAQ page:

Google U.S. Government Search offers a single location for searching across U.S. government information, and for keeping up to date on government news. You can choose to search for content located on either U.S. federal, state and local government websites or the entire Web -- from the same search box. Below the search box, the homepage includes government-specific news content from both government agencies and press outlets. You can personalize the page by adding content feeds on government or other topics that you're interested in.

Perhaps even more interesting is the Government Solutions page. No, not solutions to our problems with the government (sigh, wishful thinking!) Google claims to have

search solutions that will meet the critical needs of government employees, legislators and the public. These solutions deliver blazingly fast, secure search across your organization's public websites and internal information - including documents, databases, satellite imagery and business applications. Google search will make your employees more productive, and give the public better access to your services. Our solutions are currently used by hundreds of government organizations (see our case studies with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Parks Service) and are available on the GSA Schedule.

Wouldn't it be nice if our government used Google's Enterprise Solutions for the so-called war on terrorism? I'm just sayin' ...

[research]

Writers Tips

Stephen Coonts - Tips for Writers offers on one very long page of text, the best-selling author's thoughts about Scribbling for Fun and Profit, Originality, Book Doctors (this better be good as I'm about to become one), Start With What You Know, The Courage to Fail, Breaking In, The challenge to beginners, Be Wary. He ends with this:

My final piece of advice is this: Don't begin writing with the goal of getting rich. You will be deluding yourself, wasting your time. A few years ago the Writers Guild did a survey and discovered that the average published writer in America made less that $7,000 a year at the craft, hardly enough to quit the day job. Indeed, the Guild said at the time that only about 900 people in America made their living solely from writing.

This means the writing gig is going downhill, because I remember a Writer's Digest poll in the early 1970s indicating the average earnings for freelancers was $9,000.

[writing fiction]

Blog Success

Remember when I asked how to measure success of a blog if not by traffic? [In the post about reasons to blog less frequently.] Eric Kintz asserted that "Traffic is generated by successful bloggers linking to you either in their posts or in their blogroll. Mack at Viral Garden has a series of great posts on the importance of joining the community." and "Engaging with the audience you want to have a relationship with is a much smarter strategy than posting frequently."

In All websites are alike?, Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads, says:

But 'quality and relevance of content' are NOT the only drivers of online success. A few sites are now living, breathing communities. eBay. Flickr. MySpace. Threadless. Slashdot. These are places where people invest some portion of their lives, producing something that their peers consume and vice versa.

Aha. Now I'm beginning to comprehend why Nick Wilson from Performancing.com advocates bloggers responding to comments and engaging in conversations with visitors who participate by commenting.

Getting back to Copeland, he answers my original question:

Maybe the new metric will be Share of Life, or Share of Passion, or Share of Community. Investment? And on these metrics, publishers and their potential "corporate competition for page impression production" are all currently no-shows.

[blogging websites]