2007 February | Beyond the Elements of Style

The fascination of
words and writing

Archive for February, 2007

Promoting Your Book in the Virtual World

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

Second Life can in some ways be seen as an extension of one’s “real” life into the virtual world. Unlike the popular role-playing games that dominate the Net with fantasy scenarios, it enables people to conduct themselves in very “real” scenarios … just like we do now, in many ways, but with the added visual element that is lacking in the traditional URLs through which we access information.

It may be virtual, but it is also very real. Support groups are held in SL. A professor has created a place where his students can experience what it’s like to be schizophrenic. Major League Baseball has a presence there, as does Harvard University. John Warner is using Second Life to launch a possible presidential campaign; Suzanne Vega and Duran Duran have performed concerts there; and the Linden Lab virtual world is being used to model everything from the possible layout of an office to a global response to disaster or terrorism.

And, as Toby Sterling of the AP has reported, people are paying real money for things in Second Life, which would have a GDP of $150 million if it were to stop growing today. But it’s not: it will probably pass the million-user mark later this year, and many of those users are earning a full-time living there, selling virtual things or offering virtual services.

And authors are not immune. There have already been a number of readings and signings on Second Life … and it may not be such a bad idea. Based on the numbers of people who turn up for concerts and the like, you could potentially do far better there than at your loal Borders!

There are a lot of details to arrange, the primary one being the facilitation of buying books easily and quickly when doing a reading in Second Life. I’m not yet sure of all the practical ramifications.

But — here goes. Watch this space. I’m going to give it a try! When my new book, Open Your Heart with Geocaching, comes out this spring, I’m going to try a book reading and signing in Seconf Life. I already have a character there: my name is Sherpa Voyager, and together with my partner Seeker Gray I offer occasional reviews of interesting places to visit in Second Life (check us out at SecondSeeker.com); so Sherpa will be my spokesperson. I’ll give it a try and let you all know how it goes!

I’ll make sure that Sherpa gets … beyond the elements of style!

Posted in Publicity, The Cutting Edge | No Comments »

What Sales Figures?

Sunday, February 18th, 2007

There was an interesting article in the L.A. Times last week about how publishers often hide the number of books that are sold.

In case you wonder why major publishers are less and less willing to take risks, the article noted that “we estimate that out of every 10 hardcover adult books, seven lose money, two break even and one is a hit.”

“The real problem with revealing sales numbers,” noted the article, “is that publishers put out too many books — and the vast majority sell poorly. Greco estimated that more than 200,000 titles were published last year, which averages out to 22 new books every hour. This is in addition to about 3.5 million already in print.”

There is an upside: the system allows small and medium publishers to quietly stay in business. Smaller publishers generally have 100% of titles in the break-even-to-profitable categories, so, while their unit costs are much higher (think up to 55% retail discounts, 15% wholesaler, 10% distributor), they make at least 5% on every copy sold after paying production costs.

The smaller publisher will also, almost always, have books in print for much longer periods. Sales may be far lower initially but they tend to grow slowly and then keep going for many years.

There are hundreds of small publishers who have been in business for years. They’ll have never claimed huge sales or paid dramatic advances, but they do pay authors.

So when you’re shopping your books, don’t feel that you need to aim for Random House or HarperCollins or Penguin: a smaller publisher might mean better shelf-life and better profitability in the end.

And that will bring you … way beyond the elements of style!

Posted in Books, Getting Published, Publishers, Publishing | No Comments »

A Perfect Gift for a Writer

Thursday, February 15th, 2007

That’s what my husband gave me for Valentine’s Day. Perfect and thoughtful and … I could easily run out of words to describe it. So let me tell you about it, in case you’re interested in doing something nice for a fellow writer, or in dropping a hint to those around you …

Last spring I was honored with a writing fellowship that involved spending two weeks in a dune shack on Cape Cod – no electricity, no running water, and all my writing was done on a manual typewriter. Naturally, I took a great many pictures there.

What I didn’t know was that when I returned, Paul became concerned about the 150 pages I’d managed to type during those two weeks; typewriters don’t provide backups. So he scanned all the pages into his computer.

Then, this winter, he assembled a number of the photographs of the shack and the dunes and put them together with passages from the book that I was working on out there, passages he had scanned for backup protection. He created an album through iPhoto, and gave it to me for Valentine’s Day.

It was touching beyond belief. And, yes, it put him way beyond the elements of style!

Posted in About Writing, Books, The Writing Life, Tools | No Comments »