Some surprising reactions here, from Mary Poppins through to Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’:
Some of the most beloved movies ever were based on books. But just because we loved them doesn’t mean the original author did.
All eleven movies here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/131167
Chuck Wendig probably needs no introduction, but here’s a link, just in case. Chuck frequently produces ’25-reasons’ lists and excellent advice for writers. Amidst all the publishing industry doom-and-gloom it’s nice to get a little bit of positivity. Chuck’s response to doom and gloom is:
But, hey, you know what? Fuck that. Let’s lift our chins. Let’s find the sunshine. Let’s punch those dead otters in the face with our gauntleted fists of unmitigated optimism. Why is this a good time to be a storyteller?
There are an entire TWENTY-FIVE excellent reasons to be positive about being a writer now. I quite like this one:
The Age Of The Rockstar Is Over
The rockstar — those figures in pop culture who command all the sales and all the attention — is part of the monoculture and the monoculture is waning. When the really big, greedy fish leave the ocean, the smaller fish get more food (and are themselves less likely to be food). Fewer rockstars mean more craftsmen. They leave more room for the rest of us to come in and do our thing. Or so I like to believe.
That was number 22. Imagine how many other helpful things are in that article? There may be a few swears in there, too, but we’re all grownups here, right?
Original here: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/06/12/25-reasons-this-is-the-best-time-to-be-a-storyteller/
I for one hate trying to come up with a synopsis or even a blurb, and so Mike Wells’s little trick here can help if your book conforms to one of the more common narrative structures. Remember, a synopsis isn’t as much a writing exercise as it is a marketing exercise. Those skill sets overlap but aren’t the same by a long shot.
If you choose to go the traditional route, agents and editors alike are bombarded with so many queries that if they find themselves having to do much mental work to understand the gist of your book, they will simply pass on to the next one. The same goes for self-publishing–all the retailers and distributors require short descriptions of your book. For example, Smashwords requires a description that can be no more than 400 characters, including spaces! That’s short, folks!
Read his suggestion here: http://mikewellsblog.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/secret-formula-for-creating-short.html
I’ve previously talked up the exciting nature of interactive children’s books as applications, as well as linked to some research discussing their effectiveness (or lack of) as teaching tools, but Jon Page recently posted a link to this editorial by journalist Farhad Manjoo, who asks:
When a young reader engages with the Another Monster app, what is he doing? Is he reading a book? Playing a video game? Watching TV? It’s hard to say.
The Another Monster app is an extreme example of what I’ve found to be a common problem with children’s books made for the iPad. They offer too many different kinds of experiences, becoming muddled in the process – and, more importantly, missing the point of children’s books, which is to get kids excited about reading.
I agree with him to a point. Electronic children’s books lie on a spectrum from pure digital conversions to fully interactive games-with-text. Farhad raises good points about children being easily distracted by the tempting ‘home’ button on the iPad, and why they would concentrate on the text in front of them with so many other tempting options, but this really highlights a problem with the hardware, not the individual story applications.
This tempting-home-button problem is fixed in the latest upgrade to the iPad’s operating system, iOS 6, with a setting known as Single App mode, or Guided Access. This locks the device into one application, and optionally disable parts of the screen, meaning Farhad’s complaint about children clicking away from a book application is pretty much addressed (of course iOS 6 will not be available on the first generation iPad, which is the model most often repurposed for children, so…yeah…but my point still stands).
Regardless, it’s a good article about a parent’s experience with digital children’s books.
One Small Step is a new anthology by Fablecroft Publishing, with a nice wide scope for interpretation:
The stories must in some way address the idea of discoveries, new beginnings, or literal or figurative “small steps”. The rest is limited only by your imagination.
It’s open to Australian authors only, and pays $75AUD and a contributor’s copy for speculative fiction stories from 2,000 to 12,000 words.
Submissions open July 1, and you can find the full guidelines here: http://fablecroft.com.au/books/new-anthology-call-for-submissions-july
Andrew Zack argues eloquently that eBook production costs are higher than readers expect and understand.
Originals are books that are first appearing in eBook form and are not reprints of previously published books. And here the argument that eBooks should be cheaper and easier to produce than paper books really fails. To produce a quality eBook takes just as long and costs just as much as producing a quality paper book. Yes, you save some money on paper, printing, and binding. And you save some money on warehousing and shipping. But you incur other costs. But first let’s look at the commonalities.
Of course the grim reality of the marketplace is that it doesn’t matter how much something costs to produce, consumers have an expectation of ‘value’ that is very hard to shift. The trick is to find a profitable balance: if a reader won’t pay more than $5 for an eBook (a reasonable price as far as I’m concerned), then if your eBook upfront costs and per-sale costs are greater than $5 per unit you are not going to have much luck.
Bear in mind I’m no expert on this at all, and have no experience selling books, just buying them. Personally, I’m not optimistic about the $0.99 eBook model, either (but hey, if you can make quality eBooks and sell them profitably at that price, I support you).
Andrew goes through the cost and royalty breakdown for his own small publishing business, and determines:
So who is getting rich here? No one, really. And are readers being overcharged for e-books? No.
However, have readers been led to believe that eBooks should cost less than they do? And far less than printed books? Yes.
It’s a lengthy but valuable article, so do have read of the entire argument here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-zack/making-ebooks-is-harder-t_b_1610953.html
This 1 minute promotional video for comic books presented by the Madefire application for iPad is pretty cool. It’s a nice iteration on digital storytelling.
From their ‘About’ page:
Madefire is undertaking an epic journey [...] that we believe will revolutionize how stories are told, read, and shared. One that will transform a once static medium into an interactive iPad experience that unfolds dynamically on-screen, and evolves with each new episode. It’s our proprietary Motion Book Tool that will make all this possible.
What’s really cool is that they offer access to their tool (beta sign up at this stage), which will allow artists to generate these animated eBooks themselves.
Definitely worth checking out here: http://www.madefire.com/
This post highlights a change that Amazon made to the Kindle app on iPad. Specifically, they claim:
Improved reading experience on iPad: Smaller margins and a cleaner look help you focus on the author’s words.
Bryan at the Daily Exhaust shows some before and after screen comparisons, and for anyone working in typesetting for their own work, it’s a perfect example of whatnot to do.
The new Kindle app presents a page in a suffocating block of text and looks unpleasant. Am I biased? Who knows, but let’s go with yes: it’s still an ugly page.
Bryan says:
When I first saw this in the blurb, I was immediately suspicious. It’s hard to overstate the importance of healthy margins and whitespace in good design. Generally, it’s also one of the earlier casualties when good design meets project managers and clients who aren’t designers. But I updated the app anyway. Upon opening, I saw what had been a decent treatment of margins had been destroyed by the redesign.
There are other design issues with the new application, and the choices frankly boggle my mind.
As it happens, there is no reason for Amazon to have a clunky, poorly designed reader app on the iPad.
Have a look for yourself here: http://dailyexhaust.com/2012/06/improved-reading-experience-no.html
I’ve featured Derek J. Canyon here before, and he continues to deliver helpful and candid analyses of his adventures in ePublishing, on the blog of the same name.
I started my self-publishing efforts back in September 2010. Back then, I planned to commit to 5 years of writing before deciding whether or not it could become my actual career. By late 2015, I hope to have 10 novels in print. The sales of those ten novels should give me a good idea if I’m successful enough to quit my day job and become a full-time novelist.
Read the analysis here: http://derekjcanyon.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-much-do-e-authors-make-per-hourword.html
Obviously the short answer is ‘it depends’, but that’s highly unsatisfying. More specifically there are interactivity options that iBooks Author can provide that suit particular books. Children’s books spring to mind:
For some authors, specifically those creating highly-interactive titles, their choice hasn’t really been about Amazon-or-iBooks, since standard EPUB represents a fairly static output technology. Their decision is more about choosing between an iBooks Author ebook versus a custom, standalone iPad app. I have encountered book creators who have gone in both directions.
There’s some great breakdown of strategies and examples in here, including a company that decided they needed more interactivity than iBooks Author could offer:
“We do books as applications,” he explained, “Because, frankly, there’s no platform that’s mature enough yet to support the kind of interaction we create. If iBooks Author could produce the level of what we wanted it to do, we’d use it in a heartbeat. The problem is that it can’t handle the demands we put on an interactive book.”
If you are working on a title that would benefit from interactivity, check it out here: http://www.tuaw.com/2012/06/17/ibook-lessons-so-what-exactly-is-ibooks-author-for-then/
