Do You Really Want to Self Publish Your Book?

For those of you looking at Self-Publishing your book, you might want to look into Westbow Press, a new venture announced today by Thomas Nelson on Nelson CEO Mike Hyatt's blog.

Now some of you may be confused. Isn't Westbow Press a fiction imprint from Thomas Nelson? Well, yes, it used to be. They shutdown that brand a couple years ago when they incorporated all their brand names into one. However, now it has been resurrected and rebranded. See the new Westbow Press web site for details.

Hyatt's reasoning, according to his blog, is that there are more authors out there than ever, and in 2008 for the first time in history, the number of print on demand and self published books published outpaced traditionally published books. Is this a good thing? Well, maybe. But Hyatt goes on to say that this will help Thomas Nelson find new talent, and put more power into the hands of the people, the authors who haven't been able to get published so far.

Some of these things might be true. But I pose another reason.

Money. Self-publishing, or some companies call it Co-Publishing, is a no risk business for publishers. When Nelson (or any traditional publisher) pays out a massive advance to an author in a traditional publishing deal, they're betting the farm that the book will hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of copies. And many times, that advance is never earned back. Increasingly, publishers have tried to find other revenue streams to offset the major risks they take every day.

Self-publishing is a way to add a no risk revenue stream by making authors pay to get their book published. The new Westbow venture will "publish" your book through a variety of package deals that range in cost from $999 to $6499. You get your book published, and Thomas Nelson takes zero risk and essentially covers their cost (and makes a small profit).

Over the years, self-publishing has been viewed by the traditional publishing industry as everything from a simple way to get your ideas out there (bestseller Rich Dad, Poor Dad started out that way!), to a scam that preys on authors deep desire to see their work in print, whatever the cost. Today, maybe that perception is changing in some speheres, but I'm not so sure.

Is this a good business move for Nelson? Absolutely. Is it good for writers? Well, I want to know what you think!

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner has posted her thoughts up on her blog here, and she's generally positive about this move.

I'm curious though. Among those of you who are writers, artists, journalists or interested in publishing at some level, how many of you would prefer to work with a traditional publisher, who pays you a royalty for every copy of a book you sell; and how many of you would prefer to work with a self-publishing operation where you pay a fee, and a few whirs and clicks later, BAM! you have a book in your hands. Go do with it what you will.

What would be your preference? And why?

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The Power of Fun...

Here is my favorite little video this week...thanks to Volkswagon....here is a great little experiment to test the power of fun by creating a set of piano stairs. Enjoy!

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Top Ten Fictional Characters?

As reentry into the blog world, I wanted to tackle something fun instead of going for deep and thoughtful. Not in the mood, sorry.

So Which Fictional Character Would You Most Like to Be?

Several months ago I posted on another fun topic, which was "what fictional places would I most like to visit?" Recently, blogger friend Beth posted on which fictional characters she would most like to be ... and I had to follow suit, though yes, quite a bit later.

My list will be pretty straightforward and simple, and most of is all from great geek fiction and film. So if you're not a fan of geek fiction or film, oh well. Suggest your own top ten. : )

So here we go:

1. Han Solo, Star Wars
What kid did'nt want to be Harrison Ford as Han Solo with a cool mid-thigh gun holster and an insane starship? Seriously. No brainer.

2. Mal - "Firefly"/Serenity
One of the coolest science fiction shows ever to hit TV and get canceled in under one season and go on to sell thousands of DVDs. Mal is the best and ever since, I've been a huge fan of Nathan Fillion. I love that his name means "bad" in Spanish. He's like Michael Jackson, he's bad.

3. Gandalf - The Lord of the Rings
He's got a great staff and magic that comes from somewhere (above?). Gandalf is an uber-stud and he's like way past retirement age. How cool is that?

4. Jack - Lost
Who wouldn't want to be the heroic doctor on a gorgeous desert island, where you're trapped with women who love you. Jack is the quintessential hero with a plethora of moral struggles and a host of overly-complex riddles to figure out. Sounds like a vacation man.

5. Joe the Cowboy - A Fistful of Dollars
Clint Eastwood plays the cowboy who makes an amazing comeback in Sergio Leone's classic, sometimes called the Star Wars of Westerns. Such a great ending - classic.

6. Jack Bauer - 24
C'mon, he's the coolest counter-terrorist in the world. And he can't be stopped...by anything, or anyone, or any bomb, bullet or terrorist alive.

7. The Gunslinger - The Dark Tower Series
This guy is another one of those archetypal characters who is so hardcore that he cannot be stopped - he is relentless, amazing with a pair of pistols and strangely, he looks like Clint Eastwood. At least in my head.

8. Steve McQueen - The Great Escape
I loved this movie and though i its based on real events, I think the film took enough liberties to be called fictional-ish. And I have to say that the escape scenes inspired me to no end as a boy. So I want to be Steve McQueen too.

9. Mr. Darcy - Pride & Prejudice
Yeah, I know right? Weird. But hey, I love this book and loved Joe Wright's adaptation on film. So sue me. Revoke my testosterone card. Whatever. Darcy is a stud.

10. Ender - Ender's Game
Best young kid science fiction hero to come along in a long time, and this was years before Harry Potter. Ender was kind of a genuis Huckleberry Finn kind of character who saves the world in the coolest possible way - by playing a video game. Cannot wait for a movie of this book to come out!


So how about for you? Who are you top fictional characters - who would you like to be for a day? Have a great week everyone! : )

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Writing Contest, Jeff Bezos and a Sale for the AFLA!

A couple of fun updates and notes for this Thursday.

First of all, an exciting announcement about one of my friends and literary clients, speaker, nutritionist and weight-loss expert Robert Ferguson. Robert is the creator of the Food Lovers Fat Loss System, which just became the #1 infomercial on TV, airing over 200 times per week. Robert's infomercial started airing in May, he has a number of other TV projects in development and by this time next year, he will be a household name.

I just sold Robert's first official book, titled The Food Lovers Fat Loss Express to Penguin USA for their Perigee imprint and the announcement is just about to go out on Publisher's Lunch. So congratulations to Robert! See his web site here and stay tuned for his book next Fall!

Second, for all you novelists out there who write in the Science Fiction or Fantasy genres, Tor UK just announced a new contest that is open to writers worldwide. The winner of THE WAR OF THE WORDS contest earns him- or herself a publishing contract with Tor UK (20% royalties, but with no advance).


Aidan over at A Dribble of Ink reports on the contest here, and you can see the full rules and regulations over at SciFi Now Magazine here.

Finally, I'll end today with an interesting little video from Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. He is a seriously quirky dude, but he shares some fantastic rules for entrepreneurs and people running or managing businesses.

And if you're a writer, you are essentially running your own business, so his advice totally applies. For example, Bezos says that one must "obsess over customers," which in a writer's world translates to "obsess over readers."

Enjoy and happy Thursday!

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Big Change Is Afoot Today!

I haven't posted in a week and that's quite out of character (sort of). Although, I have a good reason why. Yesterday we made it official: My wife and I are moving our family to Colorado Springs.

We have been thinking about a transition for some time now, but this decision came on rather suddenly and despite the incredible speed of it, we're feeling total peace about the change.

I accepted a role working with the book line at David C. Cook, and we're excited to make the shift from southern California to Colorado. In the interim, we have a vacation planned for the family, which will include beach time, Disneyland, lots of time to read manuscripts and catch up on answering queries, and of course, simply spending some time with my family.

The Springs itself will be a great place to continue working on my writing and consulting, while also tackling a fun, new challenge at Cook with some wonderful friends there.

In order to make this post about writing, at least a little, here's an update on my reading this week:

I am finishing up George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, which I had put down for a time - but I am now loving every page of it...however then I saw a new book by Dave Eggers on the shelf while I was in Denver...

So I just picked up Zeitoun, Dave Eggers' nonfiction book about Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of a Syrian-born, New Orleans-based Painter and his family. I'm eighty pages in and it's a wonderful read! Go get it!

Next I will be consuming Robin Parrish's new novel Offworld, which I'm actually excited to read. I love me a little science fiction.

So anyway, to all my Southern California friends and family, it's been awesome. We love you, and will miss you greatly... and of course...good luck with the CA budget crisis!

Kidding. : )

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The Purpose of a Book Cover

I stumbled across an interesting post by Seth Godin on The Purpose of a Book Cover. This is a question you may not think about (or maybe you do), however, it's something I discuss with colleagues, authors and agents often.

The conversation usually arises around a particular cover, as in, what is the purpose of this specific book cover? Does this design or image achieve the goal we set out for this book? Will this particularly design style appeal to the primary target audience of this book?

This discussion happens regularly and many different opinions inevitably fly around the room.


But I am interested in your opinion—what is the purpose of a book cover? Godin tackles this question generally, offering three options and singling out one as the key purpose of a book cover. His three options are: (1) to sell books, (2) to accurately describe the book, or (3) to, as he says, "tee up the reader so the book has maximum impact." Of course, he says that the purpose of the book cover is #3.

I would argue, however, that the actual purpose of the book cover is #1, to sell books through intriguing design, imagery or placement of information. My reason? I think #3 is cheating first of all (#3 sounds an awful lot like #1 with better words), but also, I think "maximum impact" is determined more by internal design, endorsements, and ultimately, the content of the book itself. Maximum impact has very little to do with the Book Cover in my mind.

After all, if you picked up a book because you loved the cover, read page one and found the book itself to be horribly dull, you would put the book down immediately.

The Book Cover is only responsible for the initial impact a book will have on a potential reader.

However, as we all know, most of us judge our books by their covers and oftentimes a poor cover can result in far less interest in a work that we might otherwise read (I know we're a shallow lot - unless it's just me!). Apparently, the average book buyer spends about eight seconds looking over a potential book purchase in abook store before putting the book down. The cover certainly is important in the final purchase decision!

So this is a question that is certainly up for debate. What do you think?

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Writing Tips from 3 Masters

I love writing tips, but I pay attention when they come from a master of the craft. So for today we have a selection of links to writing tips from 3 masters of the craft - Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell.


First, paraphrased from his book On Writing, 7 Tips Tips for Becoming a Better Writer from Stephen King. King is of course one of the most disciplined and well-respected writers in American letters. Whether or not you like his work, his attention to the craft of writing is unparalleled today.


Next, a selection of Ernest Hemingway's Top Five Tips for Writing Well. Debate Hemingway's lifestyle and his respect for women, but do not debate his powerful contributions to literature. Ever since reading and rereading The Sun Also Rises in college, I have been a fan of his writing.


Finally, from George Orwell, author of some of the finest novels in American literature (Animal Farm, 1984 etc.) we have 6 Questions and 6 Rules for Writers.

Happy Tuesday!

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In Which I Talk About Writing That's Frighteningly Good

In this post I want to highlight FOUR of my favorite books of the last few years (and maybe a few more). I have NO doubt that I will add to this post in the future (or post another list with some of my favorites in specific genres), but for today, I will highlight only four.

About three years ago I went through an immensely inspiring time in my life when I dove headfirst into a whole shelf of books that blew my mind, one leading me to the next, all in the space of a couple years. This time inspired me to write more and reignited the literary passion I had in college when I studied whole shelves of fiction and poetry.



One of those books was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. This tour de force of voice, language and downright pen-to-paper ambition blew my mind.

Mitchell is a British born writer who has traveled the world, lived in Japan and written about it, and is fast becoming on the most recognizable voices of his generation. In Cloud Atlas he creates a band of massively diverse characters, hopskotching centuries and cultures with skilled precision and nailing their worlds. He leaps from a voyage across the sea to a new world to a composer in Europe to a modern day investigator to a near future Japan and somehow, acrobatically manages to connect these stories. Since I read and was astounded by Cloud Atlas, I tore through Mitchell's other novels Ghostwritten, Numer9Dream and Black Swan Green, and have thoroughly enjoyed myself each time through. Mitchell has been compared to Salinger and Dickens and others, and I think we'll continue to see amazing works from him in the future.

Perhaps one of the first books I read that opened my mind to the power of the memoir was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. The ironic style of Eggers voice is charming and fun, but the writing in this memoir propelled the reader through the book, each page peppered with wit and humor even in the midst of such bewildering tragedy. Since taking this journey, I have very much enjoyed Eggers' What is the What, You Shall Know Our Velocity and his book of short stores as well, How We Are Hungry. I am looking forward to his new novel, Zeitoun and The Wild Things, inspired by his screenplay for the upcoming film Where the Wild Things Are.

And a little aside: Eggers' wife Vendela Vida made we wish a plane ride would never end (which rarely happens as I'm 6'3'' and I hate the small seats) with her novel Let the North Northern Lights Erase Your Name, a riveting work that kept me glued to the page until they forced me out. AND ONE MORE ASIDE: I just saw Away We Go, a film written by Eggers and Vida together, and LOVED it. I highly recommend this film for married couples, parents and anyone thinking about a life change of any sort. Or for anyone who can appreciate good movies.

Sometime later I plunked down in my chair and read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. Chabon had recently been nominated for a Pulitizer Prize when I picked up this book, and I could see why after reading this sweeping comic-book related psuedo-epic. The story concerns a pair who create a comic book character from scratch in the age when comic books were beginning, and Chabon charts the course of their lives from huge successes, to terrible tragedies. Chabon's use of metaphor, his phrasing and the way he combined words rocked me on every other page, and he continued to deploy this skill in The Yiddish Policeman's Union and Gentleman of the Road. I also went back and read his now classic The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and The Final Solution. I think there a few more of his that I still need to pick up.

Finally, I read this book in college: The Brave Cowboy by Edward Abbey. For some reason this book got to me when I read it years ago, relating to the plight of the last cowboy wrestling with the onset of the modern world. I bought a copy of the old movie version starring Kirk Douglas and have often dreamed of seeing this film remade now. The ironic, seemingly inevitable and partially satirical final scene broke my heart and made me sad for a lost profession. I have since started to collect Abbey's other books as well.

I think I know a good book when I put it down and then decide, then and there, to go out and read everything else by that particular author. Anyway, so here are four, and I managed to sneak a few others in there, but my list of favorites could go on.

Do you ever have that experience? What books would make your list?

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