National Novel Writing Month

There's this thing called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for shorter, which I do. Or have done. Or something. I think the first time I did it was in 2004, though I may be wrong, it might have been 2003. All records of the period have grown sketchy, and the computers I wrote on then, which might have contained such information, are corrupted and long dead. In any case, from that point I've given it at least a shot every year: try to write a novel of at least 50000 words in one month (November).

There's been a good amount of success. Two years ago I wrote Engines of the Broken World; a couple edits later, it got bought by a publisher, and looks likely to make its way to shelves in time for NaNo 2012 (or maybe 2013, the timing on publishing being not an exact science). 2006 was Daughter of Cleopatra, which I've epublished; 2010 was Never, which is probably my favorite of all the things I've written, and is also readily available. Other years brought Speech of Angels, being edited and polished, and the House of the Serpent, ditto (though it needs much more editing and polishing). There was the year I was at sea, and didn't finish anything (sad year for NaNo, but hell, I was sailing around the world, and I was pretty impressed that I even gave it a shot).

This year I'm getting married in November. That takes up, as you  may know and can certainly imagine, a goodly bit of time in the lead up, and then there's a honeymoon after. So it's not going to be the best month for writing a book. But I'm still going to give it a try, and see what comes. I suspect another failed attempt, and I won't much blame myself for it. One must, however, make the attempt. And so should you, dear readers, if the least hint of being a novelist has entered your head.

One month. One book. It's a hard equation to master, but simple in concept.

With prices like these, they're giving them away

Not really, but it's getting close. The cheapest Kindle is now 79 dollars. Slog gives us a quick look at the facts of the matter, and notes (correctly, I would think) that Amazon isn't really making much on Kindles (esp. the low end ones), so that they're obviously counting on selling a lot of product. Volume has always been their strategy, and I think in this case it's really smart of them. I'm waiting for the just before Christmas announcement that the basic ad supported Kindle is 49.99 for a limited time, which I think they'll do just to try to get people using them, because they make a goodly amount, even with their very generous terms, on every ebook sale. This is really smart, and really great if you're self-publishing on the Kindle. Like, say, for an anthologie of Steampunk stories, or a fantastical Steampunk YA novel, or a sweet, sad tale of a lost and broken young man. Just saying.

Tapping the Zeitgeist II

One of my books is historical fiction, Daughter of Cleopatra. It's about Cleopatra Selene, a pretty obscure historical figure. I wrote it a few years ago, and looked up what there was on her as a character in novels: the last thing written about her was in the 70s. Seemed pretty safe as a topic, not likely to be trampled on.

Well, that was wrong. A woman named Michelle Moran brought out Cleopatra's Daughter two years ago; there's a book called Cleopatra's Moon coming out right about now (Selene meaning Moon, you see); and in the last year about 5 or 6 fictions of Cleopatra have come out. Which is all kind of ridiculous, since it's been a fallow time for her for a while.

I don't know what started this all. I do know I was ahead of them all (at least from their author's notes and such, I was.) But I missed the magic moment when I could have sold it. So instead, I'll just float out there, as a backup as it were. It seems to be working okay.

Amazon starts ebook lending?

The Kindle may soon have ebook lending. A long time ago, this sort of thing was terribly common. There were a number of societies in the Industrial Age, comprised of eager persons mostly of the lower classes who paid a small fee to be able to check out books from a library put together by the society. This is much the same, I think, and may, in a while, serve the same purpose. Once Kindles have dropped to a nice, cheap price (I mean, they are already, but soon enough they will be affordable to the sort of person I was growing up) it is entirely likely that people who never had the means to afford expensive books (technical, historical, reference) will be able to access them cheaply and gain the same education that the industrial workers of the 1890s did. I like the idea, picturing reading groups devoted to historical writings, to genetics, to atmospheric sciences. It will be wonderful, I think. The past made into the future.

Father of Project Gutenberg has died

Michael S. Hart, who created the very first primitive ebook and founded Project Gutenberg back when I was busy being born, has died at age 64. The godfather of the Kindle, in his way. I find fascinating the fact that the first document he typed up was the US Declaration of Independence. What a superb choice, in so many ways, not least because it has one of the best introductions, the preamble, of anything I've ever read.

Book News Roundup

There's stuff going on in the book world.

--Sony's got a new ereader for release. The only thing I see here that's notable is that when Pottermore goes live, they'll be getting a Harry Potter branded limited edition ereader, which is kind of cool and fanboyish.

--Barnes and Noble has 4 times the sales of Nook content over last year.

--Amazon has launched daily deals for the Kindle, with massive discounts on select titles. This isn't exactly new; they've often taken ebooks and made them free, but discounts instead of giveaways is something different. Further, these are daily deals, while the free books might be free for days or even weeks at a time. I like the urgency.

--DC relaunched their universe today. Reviews are in. I suppose I like that they're making everything very basic and introductory level, but even I, who know very little about comics, and less about DC, feel like it sounds maybe a bit slow out of the gate.

The Continuum of Words

I'm not sure if the average person is aware, but there are debates within book publishing as petty and pointless as ever the early Catholic Church thought up. In the age of ebooks, some of these debates can become almost of critical importance, because everything one puts up as an ebook is effectively self-described. So how you define things is of great importance, because if you use the wrong term, you may be thought of as wrong (or to pursue the Church analogy, heretical) and punished for your crime (sin).

I speak, of course, of the length of your piece, and how you thus describe it.

There is only two categories, the uninitiated might think: a short story, and a novel. But this would be wrong, and exactly how one defines the stuff in between (or even those two end points) determines the degree of heresy. At the top squats that novel: ponderous, weighty, with no real upper limit, but certainly a lower. What defines a novel is length, few would argue, but what's the bottom edge? Some say 50000 words (which is the definition assigned by NaNoWriMo), and would include just about every book you've ever read. But not quite all; there are a few, like The Old Man and the Sea, that fall below that threshold. And in Young Adult fiction, you can get away with a 40000 word novel and no one blinks. So even that low edge is a bit vague and ragged.

Below the novel but above the short story are several categories poorly defined and uncertain in nature. They are often seen but seldom measured. The novella comes next. Sometimes, it fills the entirety of space between novels and short stories: anything from about 10K to about 40K words. But some people think that it has to be more like 15 or even 20 thousands words to get the novella designation. So under that there is another named category, the novelette. It isn't a popular designation. I don't know anyone who uses it, but the Nebula Awards enjoy it as a category. Maybe they just wanted to be able to give out more awards, like the Best Animated Movie for the Oscars. Anyway, the novelette is sometimes defined as anything above 7500 words, but below 15 or 20 thousand. It's not well known, and not much spotted in nature.

Just for reference, a standard page in a book comes in at maybe 300 words, depending on how much dialogue there is. So a novel must be perhaps 180 or 200 pages; a novella can drop to as little as 30 or so, but the novelette lives in the 25 to 50 pages category overlapping the novella. All right, on to short stories. That should be simple, right?

Nope. There's the short story, which is technically anything that is a story, and that clocks in at under 10K words (or 15, or 20, depending on where your novella category ends). But there are subsets. A short short story is a category that includes anything that's under 1000 words, or about 3 pages at most. But there's the even shorter category of microfiction, which is half that length, or a third: under 500, or maybe 300, words. Flash Fiction is even tinier: perhaps 50 or so words, with one definition stating that it must be 55, no more and no less.  And then come the arguments over what is a word: do hyphenates count as one or two (there is disagreement, and it depends on what's hyphenated, is the answer), for instance.

One must be very clear when one defines a work. But one man's clarity is another man's obfuscation. So I think the best choice is to just pick one that feels right, and then state the word count, and then move on with your life. If you've been as clear as you can be, no one can really trash you for misleading them (though I'm told they still, in a few cases, will do so. "This wasn't long enough for the price" is a common complaint, or "I wish I had known how short it was before I bought it".)

To recap, from longest (normally defined) length to shortest: Novel, Novella, Novelette, Short Story, Short Short Story, Microfiction, Flash Fiction. All of them overlapping and blending, causing confusion wherever they are deployed. But that's the way of things, right?

Bricks and mortar

Bookstores are some of the best places in the universe, estimating conservatively.

First there is the smell: musty, secretive, and mysterious. A hint of dust, laden with the memories of childhood books. Then, the sights: gilt lettering on leather spines, well-loved titles, favorite authors, classics. Tall shelves march in endless stacks until all is dim-lit and indistinct. Sounds are hushed, save for the tinkling bell at the door whenever a new patron enters. Perhaps the friendly bookstore cat will rub up against your leg.

It is true the ebook revolution has done wonderful things for authors and readers. We have more selection and lower prices than ever before. Opportunities for new authors and new media are burgeoning. And that's a good thing. But bricks and mortar hold a secret not to be neglected or forgotten in this age of electrons - a secret held we are pushed toward by the nudging of a furry feline head-bump, by the faded lettering on a timeworn leather spine, and by the scent of old, old books.

That secret is connection. Connection between reader and author; between reader and reader;between reader and book-as-book. But those things need not be lost simply because of the ebook revolution. Though harder to find, their value has only increased. They are there to be found if your eyes are open.

Have you made a friend through ebooks? I have. And I'd love to hear about yours.

[Special thanks to A Softer World for the picture. Go. Read. Connect. They're great!]

How much for those electrons?

Everybody knows there is a sweet spot.

In cooking, in driving, in relationships - everything seems to have its sweet spot, a point of diminishing returns beyond which extra effort does not produce extra results. Business is no exception. In the publishing business, book pricing is an art. Where do you set a price point to maximize profit? The trouble for traditional publishers is that there is fixed cost to produce a printed book ( or "treebook" as author Bill Jones calls them). But what about ebooks? Once you edit it and give it a cover, electrons are so cheap to produce (and reproduce) it begs the question: is there a non-fixed production cost for epub books?

Here's what former chemist turned computer scientist David Slusher has to say:

"Every single time I’ve heard anyone defend higher ebook prices, they cite the fact that “just because the publication is electronic, that doesn’t eliminate costs.” This fact is what I like to call “true but useless.” Yes there are costs associated, but all costs in ebooks are fixed. The publisher does whatever they need to do editorially, formatting wise, etc. When that is done, they push a file to Amazon/B&N/Smashwords et al and that is that. Whether there is 1 sale or 1,000,000 unit sales, the costs are identical. I’m treating promotion as a fixed cost although I can be argued on that. Regardless, the costs of promotion do not rise as a function of sales. They may drive sales, but if you sell 10x what you estimate, your promotion costs don’t expand ten-fold."

What this means is that ebooks can and should be priced differently than pulp books. How much less? That is still an unfolding question. According to David Slusher's analysis from 2010, $3-4 is how much an ebook should cost. Certainly there are many books both more and less expensive than that, and many of them do well. The curve is currently so broad the market cannot be pinned down to a standard price. But the idea that ebook production costs are non-fixed means we must change our mental approach to pricing them, understanding that the business model is so different they may not be compared with pulp books. In price as in so many other areas, ebooks are truly in a class by themselves.

Somebody better watch their bank accounts

Because I'm not sure we can trust little Jimmy to know how many books to buy.

When I grow up, I want to be J. K. Rowling

The being rich and famous part would be nice, but the dictating terms for your ebook releases, that's the killer aspect of the prospect. But as with all things, Apple will have its way, as well, or try to.

It had better be a big sling stone

I do not think it will end this well for the Kobo...

Concerning this post, it turns out that at least one ebook reader isn't just going along with Apple's plan to get their fingers into every bit of profits from iPad ebook sales (ten years ago, that last bit would have been so ridiculous to type; come to think of it, it still is a bit so even now.  But we move on....) The Kobo, which is one of the lesser players in the market, has come up with a notion to still use something like an in-app sale to move their books. There's a lot of technobabble there, but what it seems to come down to is that they'll be cheating the system a bit, and hoping, one guesses, that Apple doesn't notice.  I don't think this will end well for the poor Kobo; but then, they partnered with these guys, so very little does.

It's like Christmas in July. Or in September, I guess.

This is wonderful news. Gollancz is one of the great and foolish imprints, like NYRB Classics, which I adore.  They bring the greatest books of times past to us in lovely editions (sci-fi/fantasy for Gollancz, and literature/strangeness for NYRB).  And now to have all the science fiction authors that I read as a youth, most of them drifting into the mists of obscurity and generally out of print, coming back in ebook editions, is terribly exciting.

Ebooks making Paperbacks more prompt?

This is something I've noticed a couple of times now, but it's not yet true for very many books at all.  And for every book that publishes before the year standard, there's another that takes more than a year.  I still think that it's an interesting trend, especially if ebooks are in fact the cause.  Also, the article quotes Seattle's own Peter Aaron of Elliott Bay Book Company, the only bookstore owner quoted, which is pretty cool.