Category: publishing

Book lists: Multicultural SF/F for MG and YA

- Stacy 41 Comments

ETA: If you’re just googling into this list now, please see my booklists over on Pinterest, which I keep much more up-to-date than this page from several years ago. I break them down by age group and genre. I also publish diverse science fiction and fantasy for young readers at Tu Books now. See the sidebar or the Tu Books page for more information.

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Over at Color Online, they do a meme challenge every week “designed to encourage readers to broaden their reading habits.” This week (well, actually, it was last week; I’ve been working on this list for a few days in spare moments), they’re challenging people to discuss science fiction and fantasy where people of color are the leads.

This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately, as we’ve already discussed, but let’s talk about books I’ve already read in which the main character (not a supporting character) is a person of color. Obviously, a lot of the manga I’ve been reading lately features people of color — at least, the ones set in Japan can reasonably be assumed to be people of color. (There’s an ongoing discussion among people who know more about manga than I do that addresses this, because many people unfamiliar with manga assume that the characters are white because of the range of hair colors and because eye shape isn’t characterized with the fold that is so common to Asian people, but from what I understand, it’s just an artistic choice, not a statement on the race of the characters. It certainly makes it easier to distinguish different characters when you’ve got a range of hair colors, especially in black-and-white manga. But that’s not what this post is really about.)

So what science fiction and fantasy — specifically, for young readers — have you read lately that feature a main character of color? Here’s my list (note that even though this is a “multicultural” list, I’m deliberately leaving out fantasy inspired by Celtic culture unless it features a character of color, because such fantasy is usually the most predominant in the market. I love it, but it’s not what this list is for):

SFF books for young readers that feature multicultural characters that I’ve read

  • Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, 2009, by Grace Lin. I’m still working on reading this fairy-tale retelling-like tale, but so far it’s beautiful.
  • Wildwood Dancing, 2007, by Juliet Marillier. This one’s a little bit of a stretch, but it is set in Romania, which is a culture we don’t see too often in non-vampire stories.
  • Book of a Thousand Days, 2008, by Shannon Hale. Mongolia-inspired. Lovely, lovely fairy tale retelling. My favorite of Shannon’s books (and that’s saying something, because she writes some good books!).
  • The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm, 1994, by Nancy Farmer. Set in Zimbabwe in the year 2194.
  • The House of the Scorpion, 2002, by Nancy Farmer. Set in the zone between the U.S. and Mexico, main character is Latino.
  • Flora Segunda, 2007, by Isabeau S. Wilce, and its sequel Flora’s Dare. Set in a fantasy world inspired by a fun mix of medieval, fashion-forward, and Spanish-inspired cultures (Spain-Spanish, given how the language is used, I’m thinking, but I could be wrong).
  • Little Sister,1996, by Kara Dalkey, and a sequel for which I’ve forgotten the name. Japanese folklore. This is actually one of the first multicultural fantasies I discovered way back in college, and I loved it so much, but at the time couldn’t find many more books like it.
  • Magic or Madness, 2005, and its sequels by Justine Larbalestier. Reason Cansino, the main character, is an Australian of mixed race.
  • A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin. This one has had a lot of misunderstanding over the years due to publishers in the 60s and 70s putting a white Ged on the cover, when in fact Ged and many of the other characters are dark-skinned.
  • Eternal, 2009, by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Miranda is Chinese-American.
  • Tantalize, 2007, by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Main character Quincie is English-Italian-Texan, and non-POV character (but featured in a graphic novel sequel) Kieren is Mexican-American. (This one’s kind of a stretch, because Quincie isn’t technically a person of color–unless that Texan part is Latino?)

ETA: How could I forget Lawrence Yep? I have one of his books, but I’m not sure where it is. The ones I’ve read of his feature Asian characters in Asian settings (Chinese? I can’t remember off the top of my head). His books are great reads.

SFF books written by authors of color (where I’ve been able to identify them) in which characters may be of ambiguous ethnicity, or ethnicity simply not mentioned

Sucks to Be Me

    , 2008, by Kimberly Pauley

Multicultural science fiction and fantasy on my TBR pile

  • Silver Phoenix, 2009, by Cindy Pon. Set in ancient China.
  • Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, 2008, by Nahoko Uehashi, and its sequel, Moribito II. Written by a Japanese author (originally published in Japan and translated to English) and set in a culture inspired by medieval Japan.
  • The Shadow Speaker, 2007, by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. Set in Niger, 2070. I’ve had the ARC of this since 2007, and have been wanting to read it for forever, and keep misplacing it when I actually think of it! It’s an oversight I need to correct.
  • Zahrah the Windseeker, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu.
  • Extras, 2007, by Scott Westerfeld. Main character, Aya, is Japanese, I believe. I LOVED the first three in the series (and somehow have misplaced my signed copies of the first two books šŸ™ ) but haven’t had a chance to catch up with this one.
  • How to Ditch Your Fairy, 2008, Justine Larbalestier
  • Tantalize: Kieren’s Story, by Cynthia Leitich Smith–the above-mentioned sequel to her Tantalize.
  • The Animorphs series
  • Chronus Chronicles by Anne Ursu
  • Doret says that she’s been told the Pendragon series apparently has a black girl protagonist, despite the white boy on the cover? I’ll have to investigate that–perhaps it’s alternating viewpoints, or perhaps she’s introduced at a later point in the series? I know there is a follow-up series once the main boy protag grows up, so perhaps she’s in that?
  • Devil’s Kiss, by Sarwat Chadda
  • Libyrinth, by Pearl North
  • The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
  • Sword and Wandering Warrior by Da Chen

Multicultural fantasy that never came to be, and I lament it

Books 7 and 8 of the Hallowmere series by Tiffany Trent, which was canceled at book 6. I was so looking forward to editing Mara’s story (former slave, probably the most interesting of the Hallowmere girls because of her backstory) in book 7 and Chumana’s story (Hopi girl who Mara was going to meet in her travels through the raths) in book 8.

And books to add to my TBR pile thanks to shweta-narayan

  • Across the Nightingale Floor and its sequels, by Lian Hearn. Japanese historical fantasy. I had a copy of this in Seattle, and I’m not sure where I put it. I think I must have lost it in the move to Utah.
  • Annals of the Western Shore series by Ursula K. LeGuin. I remember the controversy over this cover, too–originally when Gifts came out, they’d put a white kid on the cover, too, and given LeGuin’s long history of having the cover of Earthsea whitewashed, that was a pretty big fight, and the final book ended up with I believe an Indian or Pakistani boy on the cover instead.
  • Un Lun Dun by China Mieville. I keep forgetting to read this one, though people keep recommending it to me. I even have a free copy from ALA a few years back.
  • The Two Pearls of Wisdom (or Dragoneye Reborn as it’s known in the US) by Alison Goodman. I’ve been meaning to pick this one up. The whole mythology is inspired by Asian culture (Japanese? I can’t remember which one).
  • Lavender-Green Magic, by Andre Norton.
  • A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith. (Is this YA?)
  • Stormwitch, by Susan Vaught
  • The Dragon Keeper, by Carole Wilkinson
  • A Girl Named Disaster, by Nancy Farmer
  • The Wizard series by Diane Duane
  • The Green Boy, by Susan Cooper
  • Jin Shei trilogy by Alma Alexander
  • The Magical Adventures of Pretty Pearl, by Virginia Hamilton
  • Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed, by Virginia Hamilton
  • 47, by Walter Mosley
  • Pemba’s Song, by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin
  • The Icarus Girl, by Helen Oyeyemi
  • Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salman Rushdie
  • The Night Wanderer, by Drew Hayden Taylor

There are also books in which the ethnicity of the character is neutral/unclaimed, as in The Hunger Games, in which most of those who work in the Seam are dark-skinned, but of an unspecified ethnic origin (Mitali Perkins discussed this on her blog a while back), so I’m not counting it on this list but it’s still a great book.

As you can see, there are some really great books out there already, but the list is still pretty short. Can you guys help me add to it? Especially the TBR pile, though I know I’m also forgetting books that I’ve read that I just don’t have copies of. What am I missing?

Upcoming books by friends

- Stacy 1 Comment

For those of you who are RPG players or DMs, here’s a book for you. Back in April, I got the chance to line edit/copyedit X-treme Dungeon Mastery, a new book by bestselling fantasy author Tracy Hickman and his son, who is a magician in his own right, Curtis Hickman, and illustrated by Howard Tayler. It’s now available for pre-orders through the Tayler Corp. If you are familiar with Howard Tayler’s excellent webcomic Schlock Mercenary (and the books they publish from that content), you’ll already know about it. For those of you who don’t know the Taylers, well, you should.

The book is a hilarious and enlightening look at how to make your game nights more entertaining and fun for both the dungeon master and your players–including how to wow your players and bring the magic in your game to life with step-by-step instructions on a number of magic tricks. Howard’s excellent illustrations enliven the already-fun text. Here’s a taste of what you’ll learn, from the marketing copy:

Throw off your chains! Too long have your role-playing games been held in the bonds of substandard gamemasters, bound in needlessly complicated rule sets, and enslaved by players who will avoid doing anything unless it counts toward leveling up! It is time to take a stand!

Learn from the masters the ancient secrets of how to:

  • Become a certified XDM and impress dates (Do-it-yourself secret initiation rites included.)
  • Design epic adventures that tell stories.
  • Perform magical feats to amaze your players, and even make them disappear!
  • Employ actual combustion (yes, “fire,” and yes, it’s dangerous) to enhance your games!
  • Hijack any game as a player, and deal with any player revolution as an XDM!

God does not play dice with the universe. We do.

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Also, for those of you who are writers, you’ll be interested to know that editor Cheryl Klein–she of the Arthur Levine imprint at Scholastic, who keeps an informative blog and whose writing advice is excellent–has announced that she’s going to collect her many helpful speeches into a book. She’s decided to self-publish this book (remember how we talked about how some projects lend themselves well to self-publishing?) and is raising the money for the initial print run through Kickstart.com to make sure she has enough interest to pay for the project. I’m sure there are enough people in this world who would love to have a copy of her wisdom in a collected form (especially talks that have not been shared on her website), so if you’re interested in getting a copy of the book or just want to support the project, wander on over to Cheryl’s post explaining the details, and she’ll link you to her project page.

______________________________________

I’m forgetting someone. There was someone else’s book I wanted to plug here, but it’ll have to wait for another post when I remember. Instead, I will just tell you that I’m in the middle of (finally) reading The Hunger Games, and BOY is it good. I bought the book way back in February or March, but was so busy I hadn’t had a chance to read it yet. Then I took it to the seminar I taught in March to use as an example of a great opening line (I had gotten that far), and then when the seminar was over, I brought my big tote bag of books home but never got around to putting the books back on the shelves. I spent most of May and June wondering if I’d dreamed buying the book! Thankfully–because I was in the bookstore mulling over whether to buy it a week before–I’d put the book down to wait for the King’s English’s sale a few days later and then never made it back up to Salt Lake to buy it, because in preparing for my seminar last week I finally found the book at the bottom of that tote bag from March.

Whew! So now I’m reading it, and though I’ll save a real review until after I’ve actually finished it, I just have to say–she already had me tearing up in the first three chapters! It’s that good.

Another post on self-publishing

- Stacy 1 Comment

Today the #followreader conversation on Twitter covers self-publishing, and I just wrote this post to the Utah Children’s Writers list in answer to a similar question, so I’m reproducing it here for a wider audience:

I think you could pretty much group everyone’s comments on what someone who self-publishes has to do under the umbrella of “you’re the publisher.” That means you take on ALL the roles that a publisher does, without the clout a mainstream publisher has. That means you’re no longer just the writer — all the pre-production and production issues are yours (editing, copyediting, proofreading, design, interior and cover artwork, administrative tasks like ISBNs (beware a vanity publisher who says they’ll get your ISBN — often they’re getting it in THEIR name, not yours, which causes problems inĀ  reprints if you get that far), copyright registration, getting quotes from printers and other vendors, etc.), and then the marketing, PR, sales, and distribution are a major hurdle that you’re handling yourself as well. As many have already noted, you’re not going to get your book in most bookstores unless you have several books, and the quality of the book in presentation and editing are always going to be an issue.

That’s not to say that there aren’t some great self-published books out there — look at Schlock Mercenary and several other webcomic artists’ books. But they definitely fall in a niche — a niche for which they already had a built-in audience from the webcomic of tens of thousands of fans. If you don’t already have an audience in place, it’s definitely something you’ll have to consider, because building an audience for most books, at least fiction, tends to be easier through a mainstream publisher.

Again, that doesn’t mean it’s not possible, but it is definitely daunting. It’s daunting for me as I start my small press, because I’m taking on a lot of these roles myself, roles that when I worked with a larger publisher were delegated to other employees. I will have to use all these kinds of skills — skills tha t I’ve gained through working in a publisher —Ā  and be very active on the selling end (going to shows, etc.) until we get at least five books out because no distributor will even look at a small press who isn’t a self-publisher until you have at least five titles out.

The stigma against self-publishing in the publishing world is simply that with all that up against the average self-publisher — and nowadays the average self-publisher *tends* to be the kind of person who insists they know publishing better than the experts, despite never having worked on either side of publishing as a writer or editor/other publishing staff — few people have the expertise to manage all those roles and come out with a well-written, well-edited, well-designed book that also sells well. Heck, it’s hard enough to do it when you’ve got a team of experts on your side.

Now, when I said “the average self-publisher” that often rules out anyone who’s doing their research, like networking through lists like this and so on. Already you’ve got more knowledge than the literally millions of self-publishers out there — most people who go to self-publishing honestly think that’s how a book gets published. I had an old roommate, who knew I was an editor, ask me how much it costs to get a book published by Random House — she honestly thought you had to pay to be published, and without more information, would probably have ended up going with a scam.

The reason why the number of books published every year is so large is because of all those self-published books. Few can stand out from a crowd in the sea of all those books. But the ones that do know how to capitalize on the skills everyone’s talking about here. And it can be a very good option for all the reasons Rick and several others have mentioned here. I know an author who just wanted a copy of the book to hand to her daughter at a certain age, so she decided to self-publish her picture book. For that goal, it succeeded. She hasn’t succeeded in selling out her print run, but the emotional reason was more important to her at that time, and she has other books she’s writing for the traditional publishing route. Certainly family and local histories have a limited, niche audience, and self-publishing can be a great boon for those kinds of stories. Self-help nonfiction, as someone mentioned here, can do very well in self-publishing because of all the opportunities to use your platform at conferences and such to sell the book, especially if you’re already an expert in your field. I’ve heard the same about real estate and finance kinds of books — again, those are authors with built-in audiences, so the books will probably sell themselves.

But the thing to remember as you consider self-publishing is whether you truly want to take on the roles of the entire staff of experts — or if you don’t want to do it yourself, if you want to enlist the help of independent experts (there are a lot of freelance editors out there who would be glad to help, but as Rick said, good help doesn’t come cheap — I myself charge $50 anĀ  hour for a developmental edit of a full manuscript) or if you have family members with these skills. It’s definitely possible, but it’s a whole lot easier to have a team of experts who are paying *you* to work on your book.

Keep in mind that the Eragons of the world are literally one in a million. There are a million books out there, wanting the limited attention span of the audience you’re trying to reach. It’s definitely wise to consider whether you can and want to take on all the roles necessary to really capture that attention. If you do, go for it. If you don’t, keep going for a regular publisher, working on getting your polished book into the right hands at the right time — and they’ll have that team of experts ready to go at the right time.

Sorry if this appears pessimistic. I may have been the editor at last year’s WIFYR that someone said told them that “all” self-published books are bad. If it was me, I believe I was misquoted. As I said above, *many*–not all, but MANY–self-published books tend to be of a low quality simply because the author doing the publisher is a *writer*–not any of the other roles that you have to fill to publish a book. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s always best to consider these things and consider how they’ll affect the end product of your book.

Spaces still left for worldbuilding seminar

- Stacy

We still have about 11-15 spaces left for the worldbuilding seminar this Saturday, so if you were thinkingĀ  you might come but weren’t sure if there’d still be room for you, be assured that we’ve got plenty of room. If Paypal was the trouble, at this point, just bring your check ($45 for an individual, $35 if you’re in a group of 5 or more) with you to the library, but still be sure to email my intern, Chersti, at cjstapley AT gmail DOT com with your registration information to let her know you’ll be coming.

Hope to see you there, and for those of you not local, I’m still working on the online workshop idea. Last week was rather slow on that end, however, due to a family emergency and my own asthma problems–I’m still waiting to hear how my ten-year-old niece is doing (thank you all for your thoughts and prayers–she’s doing better, and every time they do a test, like taking her off the heart bypass machine, she continues to improve, but we’re still just waiting to hear about a number of tests that I’m not sure that they’ve been able to do yet). I’m trying to get that ox back out of the mire from last week, which means getting several critiques back to people who have been very patient as I’ve been dealing with other things. Thank you all for being so kind and thinking of my niece–between all of my friends, and all of my siblings’ and cousins’ and aunts’ friends, I think there must be thousands of people thinking of her and praying for her. Thanks, everyone.

Have you taken the dare?

- Stacy

Author Cynthea Liu is doing something unique for the launch of her new book: daring others to bid in her online auction, a fundraiser to provide classroom book sets to an elementary school that desperately needs it. Many, many authors, editors, and agents have donated their books and services so far, and the auction will last until July 5.

If you’re an author, I’m sure she’d love to have you donate a signed copy of your book or something to that effect. If you’re an editor or agent, consider donating a critique. If you’re a writer who’s still learning, check out how many different people you can get to take a look at a sample of your manuscript and give you their opinion! If you’ve been thinking about engaging my services for a submission packet, for example, look no further–right now the bidding on a critique from me, a $50 value, has a high bid of $35. So go check it out, bid on the services and prize packages, and help a school in need get the classroom sets of books Cynthea is working to provide for them.

I dare you!

More seminars in the works

- Stacy 2 Comments

I’ve been brainstorming topics for seminars that would be useful to you, giving an editor’s perspective on topics specific to writing for children and young adults and to writing SF/F for that audience. I’ve got several topics in mind–and plan on repeating the worldbuilding and beginnings seminars, as well–and I’m working on ways to host an internet-based seminar on these topics so that attendees aren’t restricted to locals.

I’d also like to take the in-person seminars on the road, however. I was thinking that hosting one in Idaho Falls, for example, might be able to reach the many writers in Idaho who can’t always make it down to Salt Lake or Provo for Utah-Idaho SCBWI events. It’s also conceivable that I could do a seminar in Tooele, Salt Lake, Vernal, or St. George, Utah, or possibly even Vegas, if there were enough interest to fill a session. If you live in any of these places and would like for me to come do a seminar in your area (or even further out in the Intermountain West, Pacific Northwest, or Southwest), I’d be glad to talk about how to make that happen.

Here are some of the ideas I’ve got bubbling in my brain. Please comment and suggest other things you’d like to learn directly from an editor. All seminars will include writing/brainstorming exercises to address the specific topics, as well as workshopping time on your own work, allowing everyone in the class to get each others’ suggestions as well as my opinion on ways the piece can be improved.

Seminar topics

(First of all, the obvious ones–a split of the one I did back in March into two more specific topics, and the worldbuilding seminar that we’ll be doing a week from Saturday. Then other new ideas, which look generic but will always be discussed in the context specifically of SF/F for young readers.)

  • The basics of writing SF/F for children and young adults (and how to convince editors and agents that you’re good at it)
    • Hitting the right voice
    • Point of view: first person, third person, or omniscient?
    • Building sympathy for your characters
    • Crafting a story your audience won’t be able to put down
    • Current trends in SFF for children and young adults
  • Hook your reader: How to hook an editor and, later, a young reader within your first three chapters
  • Worldbuilding in MG and YA SF/F
  • Writing a killer plot: the structure of your story (lots to explore there — making promises, raising the stakes, internal and external arcs, etc.)
  • Knowing your market (audience and the business of writing)
    • Being a partner in the publicity of your book
    • School visits
    • Social networking
  • Line editing yourself: How to get down to the nitty-gritty and make your sentences sparkle
  • Characterization

What else? Please feel free to re-suggest things that we might have discussed in earlier posts–I need to do a search for what people have suggested in the past and I’d rather have them all right here in one place to reference. Also, feel free to suggest ways that an online seminar might be accomplished. I’ve had several suggestions, from a private page here on the website that only attendees have the password to (which are more text seminars than live), to Skype, to Go to Meeting (which is something like $50 a month, which seems a bit expensive, but I haven’t looked deeper to see if there are different levels of service that might suit a more sporadic seminar schedule–though perhaps we might be able to do one once a month and then it wouldn’t be an issue!), to the examples set by a couple of online writing workshop sites, and I’m open to more possibilities so that I can choose the best option for what I want to accomplish.

New seminar: Worldbuilding in MG/YA science fiction and fantasy

- Stacy

I have a confirmed date, time, and place for our next local seminar on writing fantasy for children and young adults. This time we’re going to focus specifically on worldbuilding–how it’s different for younger audiences (and how it’s the same as worldbuilding you might hear about in adult books), how to really hit the right tone with the audience you’re seeking to reach, how to use key details to flesh out your setting, how to use worldbuilding to create character, support the plot, and make your world come alive!

Here’s the skinny:

Provo Library, Provo, UT
Bullock Room 309
1-5 p.m.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Deadline: June 19

Cost: $45 for individuals (the increase in price is because I reserved the room for another hour, so we have plenty of time to workshop)
$35 for groups of five or more (make sure when you register to tell me who is in your group, or at least tell me who the “group leader” is)

We’ve got a bigger room this time, so be sure to tell your friends and anyone who might be interested–instead of being limited to 24 people, we can have 30-40 (I won’t want to get bigger than that, because we want to have a good number of people who want to workshop to be able to read).

On the day of the seminar, be sure to bring a sample from your current work in progress. It does not have to be the first chapter! Whatever section you think is the best representative of your worldbuilding and/or that you want the most help in creating a sense of worldbuilding: that’s the section to bring.

As with the previous seminar, we’ll start with me lecturing a little, giving you information on the topic and plenty of examples from great books. Then we’ll start workshopping! You don’t *have* to share your own work, but you’ll get a professional editor’s opinion on how you might improve a particular aspect of your story, and great feedback from all the rest of the people in the class, too.

My intern will be helping me with registration, so the directions for registration are a little different this time. As before, if you want to pay via PayPal, send the payment to me at stacylwhitman AT gmail DOT com, but then send an email to Chersti at cjstapley AT gmail DOT com, giving her the following information:

Name
Address
Phone number
Email
The one thing you’re most hoping to learn about from this class (this helps me to gauge the learning levels of everyone in the class so I can tailor the seminar to the people who are attending)

Note that my email is down, so I won’t be able to answer any questions today until it comes back up. But Chersti will confirm registration, and once I receive the payment I’ll notify her and she’ll keep track of who has paid, confirming with you that we got your payment.

Also, watch that deadline! If I don’t have enough registrants (I need at least 10 people registered to make it worth the room rental), we’ll cancel. But I don’t think we need to worry about that–just a head’s-up to let you know that we need at least a certain number of registrants for it to happen. We’ll have plenty of room for everyone, but you’ll want to register early so that I know you’re coming.

On e-books, the distribution chain, the Amazonian monster, and all that other fun stuff

- Stacy 2 Comments

Over at Booksquare last week Kassia had an excellent post on what consumers are looking for in the pricing of ebooks, in which she took a devil’s advocate role in saying that perhaps it’s good that Amazon is creating this expectation that an ebook shouldn’t cost more than $9.99. It wasn’t even so much her post as some of the comments that frustrated me, because they have at least a ring of some comments that I’ve seen recently and not-so-recently about how publishing needs a change and how the big bad greedy publishers are trying to take away people’s hard-earned money, and that they deserve what they get during this economic downturn.

I replied rather obliquely to the topic at hand, mostly frustrated at the whole situation we’re in here rather than at Kassia’s post, and conversation ensued. I went back and read several responses and started to respond there, but it turned pretty long, so I made it into a post here instead. My original comment bascially outlined how much Amazon takes as a percentage–usually 55%, but sometimes up to 70%, which seems highway robbery to me, especially when you’re talking about e-books which don’t require the shipping and handling and warehousing that print books do. Publishers are often in a hard spot when it comes to pricing because they make so little money once the distributor gets their cut, the author gets their cut, and PPB (paper, printing, and binding) are accounted for. The 20%-35% of the pie that they’re left with has to cover staff salaries (editors, art directors, marketing people, design, typesetting, admin, etc.), overhead (and even if they’re not in a New York City office, that can run high), marketing, public relations, and any freelance costs like copyediting and proofreading that might come up.

Despite the frustrated tone of my response in the comments, I agree with Kassia that the pricing of ebooks is a sticky situation and that they really should be relatively low-priced, especially on platforms like the Kindle on which your books could go up in a puff of smoke one day simply because Amazon decided you were returning too many physical books. I’m not sure what the solution to that is for the whole industry, though I’m with her on how many small presses are making it work. (There are quite a few things a small press can do more efficiently than a large conglomerate, and I’ve heard from a number of readers of e-books that small presses tend to look to the details of e-books more carefully.) I’ve been reading a lot of opinions across the board on this, and in general, I also agree that the e-book shouldn’t be priced higher than a paperback. I know I’d never pay hardcover price for an ebook.

It’s just that there can be some very frustrating factors going on behind the scenes in the distribution chain that publishers have little control over (at least, maybe the big ones do, but not most medium to small publishers).

As far as the publishing industry needing a complete “redo” as some have said in the comments (and others have said a lot more vehemently and with more rancor elsewhere), I’m not sure that’s really hitting it quite right. Though we are in the midst of a major transition, that’s for sure. I personally think that publishing houses need to no longer be owned by even larger conglomerates that demand financial returns that historically no publisher has ever achieved without compromising and becoming more and more commercial. (I do not use “commercial” as a bad word, but with further commercialization comes the question of whether “quiet” books should be published or marketed.) Bookstores are in a major shift, not only with all the indies closing left and right but also with Borders on the brink and the the bestseller short-sale/loss leader mentality in most chains that loses the long-term midlist. And e-books are shaking things up. And I could rant about Amazon the whole live-long day–especially the way they demand things of small presses who don’t have the negotiating power that the conglomerates have.

Publishing has a history of consolidating and breaking apart. Some of the best small presses (who are now imprints of other publishers or pretty large) came out of contractions in the industry–they were able to adapt and innovate in ways that the bigger behemoths couldn’t. Tor, Greenwillow, Holiday House… perhaps another Greenwillow or Tor might rise from the ashes of all this shaking up. Who’s to say that this isn’t just a natural part of the economic cycle of publishing? Yet it feels bigger than that. Perhaps because I’m living through it rather than reading about it in Ursula Nordstrom’s biography.

But what good books will always need is that sifting that comes from the editorial process. I’ve heard many people (usually people who don’t understand the industry, and certainly not Kassia!) who say that editors deserve to get fired/laid off in all of this (I’ve even seen on a listserv someone comment on MY layoff from my last full-time job, saying that because I said at a conference that I didn’t want picture books or talking animals–we didn’t publish them–that I deserved to be fired). I really don’t think that’s true–in the latter case, even if I do say so myself. I also don’t think that the editors left behind just need to become “more efficient” at their jobs, at which they’re usually already overworked–most of the people left after all the latest layoffs are taking on orphaned books and their workload has increased from an already heavy load.

Publishing simply isn’t an efficient industry. It takes time to edit a book. It takes time to market it, and that marketing is very word-of-mouth oriented due to the nature of books. It’s an art and a business, and by its very nature, tends to take up a lot of input for little financial reward (except outliers like J.K. Rowling).

Perhaps the current crisis and the laying off of all these people involved with the making of the books–not just editors, but marketing and sales staff, art staff, managing editorial staff, production people, and so forth–will lead to fewer books being published, which might be a good thing when looking at the industry as a whole due to the number of books published every year, but that still leaves us with the problem of the further homogenization of the market, given the concurrent bestseller mentality. But I still don’t think that justifies people losing their jobs. I’d go so far as to say that I *like* that there are so many good books published every year (despite the low quality at the long tail, especially with many self-published books)

Sometimes the frustration of the whole distribution chain makes me want to tear my hair out.

I know this post is circular, but so are my thoughts on the issue. How do we fix this chain of frustration? Perhaps taking the power back from Amazon will help. More direct sales to readers? How do you drive traffic so readers even know about your books? etc. etc. So many factors involved, that perhaps I shouldn’t try to tackle at nearly 1 in the morning after a long weekend. Definitely quality–and becoming known for that quality–is one of the most important things, as Kassia mentioned in her comment related to the small presses. But I think there’s still something else, something I feel like I’m missing in all of this. Perhaps it will come to me if I just get to bed like I planned to two hours ago!

Ramblings when I should be off reading the Maze Runner ARC or sleeping

- Stacy

Not really much to post about. I had a great time at Conduit seeing friends and talking books. Very nice Schlock Mercenary launch party, for which I dropped in and took some pictures. I’ll be downloading those straight to Sandra, who will probably post them on her LJ or Howard’s blog or both. I’m not terribly satisfied with the pictures–it was pretty dark in that room and I had to use flash, which always flattens the subject–but hopefully the Taylers and Schlock fans will enjoy them.

Went on my first bike ride of the year and it was nice, but I probably should have started with a jaunt closer to home, because while the outbound trip was awesome, I realized just why that was on the way home when the wind hit me squarely in the face. Between the wind (it was pretty blustery), my sore behind from not being in the saddle for six months, and being tired from the ride out, I ended up getting off and walking at least twice. I’m thinking I’ll take a rest day tomorrow and try again on Wednesday, but not try a total of about 7-8 miles round trip. Perhaps 2-3 total for a few days, to get back in the swing of things!

Had my own personal Bones marathon today, watching all the episodes from this season that I’d missed and had been recording on the DVR. Maybe if I clear out the DVR I won’t feel so bad about dropping the cable, which I’m really going to have to do. Also went to a barbecue at a friend’s, and thought about all my family members and others who have served in the military. I come from a long line of farmers, salt of the earth kind of people, and as you can imagine those are the type that tend to get drafted. (I also descend from one draft-dodger, and I’m grateful he did, or I wouldn’t have been born a Whitman, I suppose–he stowed away on a cattle boat to avoid the draft of William the First and Bismarck, the Second Reich that killed off a great number of Prussian peasants, and came to the US, to Illinois, and became my great-great-grandfather.) I have ancestors who served on both sides of the Civil War, including one who was on Sherman’s March to the sea, several vets of the War of 1812 (another reason I’m an Illinoisan–western Illinois was veteran pension land-grant land for War of 1812 vets), vets of several minor skirmishs, two grandfathers and a great-uncle who served in the army and air force, respectively, during WWII, and an uncle who fought in Vietnam.

More recently, I have an uncle who served in the Marines during peacetime (during the 70s) and an uncle who just retired from the Air Force as a navigator a few years ago. That same Uncle Kevin served two or three tours post-September 11th as a translator. My brother and several cousins have served in the reserves wherever needed. I have several friends who have done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and several friends whose husbands are currently or who have been deployed.

I wouldn’t consider my family a “military” family. Far from it. We’re just average working Americans, and each of these people served when they were called to do so, or even just to find a better life through the GI Bill. But it makes me proud of them to know that they served when they were needed, even if they occasionally did so a bit cantankerously. The cantankerousness–that’s just a Whitman family trait. šŸ™‚

Back to real life tomorrow, catching up again on those short pieces I didn’t get to yet last week, and two manuscripts that I have waiting in the queue as well. I’ve got a few other things going on this week that I’m excited about but can’t talk about yet, so when I can, well, I guess I’ll drop the mystery and post it. šŸ™‚ Off to sleep!