Trapped By Monsters » Publishing!

THE TOTALLY TERRIFYING THREE!

David Melling — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:10:35 +0000

Look out for my STONKING new picture book and tell your CHUMS to SKIDADDLE down to your local bookshop and get one!

(Well, there’s three words I’m not sure I’ve ever used before – strange I should do so now – can you guess what they are?

The Biggest Problem in Publishing

Joe Craig — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:22:35 +0000

I just read a blog thingy over at the Guardian that included this lovely paragraph:

“…the single biggest (but rarely acknowledged) problem in publishing today: most of the biggest firms are dominated by cynics and fools. The people in control care nothing for the quality of the product and will always put short-term gain before long-term growth. They remain frustratingly risk averse when it comes to publishing original or unusual material, or promoting new writers, but they will happily endanger their long-term survival at the merest hint of skirt from a big corporation.”

Allow me to elaborate on another man’s point for a while, but from a slightly different perspective: the movie business.

At the moment I’m not working on a novel, I’m working on a screenplay. There are all sorts of reasons for this, but the main one is that a producer was willing to take a risk on commissioning me to write something new, based on an original idea of mine.

Here’s the thing: I didn’t approach her out of the blue and offer her an idea. She liked my books so she approached me to talk about what else I could write.

This has never happened to me in the book business. If any editor ever approached me, having liked my books, and asked what other ideas I had in the pipeline that I might want to write as a novel for them, they would have my next three ideas on their desk at this very moment.

But editors don’t do that. They don’t go out looking for the next new, original, exciting idea. We’ll come back to this…

Meanwhile, the message that I get from most people in the movie industry (producers, writers, directors, film journalists etc) is that it’s now almost impossible to get a big movie made unless it’s already a ‘known quantity’. That is, it’s a remake of something that made money before, or it’s based on an existing character (for example, a comic book superhero), or it’s based on real life, well-known events, or (and here’s an interesting one) it’s an adaptation of a book that has already gathered a bit of a following.

This isn’t universally true – you can still make a low budget film from an original screenplay, and even among the big budget blockbusters there have been a couple of original screenplays that have done well over the last few years. But generally speaking they are the exceptions. And you know what? I think that’s perfectly understandable. It costs ga-zillions of dollars to make and promote a Summer blockbuster movie. If the film is based on an existing property it’s still a massive risk, but it’s at least a risk that can be measured.

This is, in theory, great for writers of books. If the big film studios want to base their blockbusters on existing novels that already have a following, then whoopee: authors rejoice.

Yet here comes the tricky part.

Publishing companies (and, for some reason, especially children’s publishers) are becoming even more averse to risk than big film studios. In fact, children’s book publishers seem to be putting most of their money behind titles that are, guess what: known quantities. OK, so they’re also going for ‘measurable risk’. Why is that OK for film companies but not book companies? Here’s why:

In the book world a ‘known quantity’ means a title that released under the name (or ‘brand’) of a well-known, dead author, or a title based on existing ‘properties’ such as… successful films. Sales of a book are massively influenced by whether there is a movie or TV adaptation. So now publishers are doing it the other way round, to try to minimise risk.

This is why you get ‘new’ children’s books based on ‘properties’ like James Bond, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sherlock Holmes, The Hardy Boys and even Tarzan by my fellow-cave-mate Andy Briggs. I’m not saying these books aren’t good – in particular, Andy’s new Tarzan book is really superb and you should all read it. (The quality of the book depends on the writer, and he’s one of the best.)

But the film studios are looking to the bookworld for new, exciting, original material. All the bookworld can provide are titles based on brands made famous by films (which were, incidentally, originally adaptations of much loved books). Publishing has eaten itself.

At the same time, some of those books based on existing properties made famous by films haven’t done as well as the publishers thought they would. Maybe when people are looking for a book to read they’re actually looking for something new, original and exciting. Maybe by the time the book comes out based on something that’s already been an old book, then a movie, then a remake of that movie, then a film-tie-in book and finally a ‘new’ book the brand is a little… tired. Who knows.

The books that have done REALLY well over the last decade – and I mean HUGELY REALLY VERY WELL INDEED – were all original book ideas. Off the top of my head: Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, Twilight, Alex Rider and so on. They were not based on films. They were all, once, original, untried and untested and they all grew fairly slowly to start with before gathering a bit of momentum based on their own originality and quality.

The big publishers don’t do that any more.

If I ran a publishing company, even if I were completely cynical and only interested in money, I would surely make more by creating new brands that film companies can adapt into big movies, instead of exploiting the estates of dead authors and the copyrighted characters owned by film companies.

In fact, I’d go further. Most publishers don’t get the film rights to a book from an author, because most authors know that they’ll get more (and have more chance of a movie being made) if they keep hold of those film rights and try to interest a film company directly. If a publisher does get the film rights, they simply do the same – try to interest a film company in purchasing those rights and making a film.

So how about this: my publishing company would have a film production division. When I bought the rights to a new book, I would also get the film division involved to make a separate offer for the film rights. If the author doesn’t want to sell, fine. But if it’s a half decent offer it’ll be very attractive – it’s an offer made before the book is published, before anybody else has expressed an interest, and from a proper film production company with a chance to get the film made and even more of a vested interest in doing so because the sister-division is publishing the book.

Then the film production division of my publishing company would develop the property as any film production company would – most likely in co-production with somebody else. But it would mean that the publisher of the book would be in a better position to make money from the property if a film does get made: not just from increased sales of the book, but because they were a producing partner and helped to get it made in the first place.

In other words, if publishers only put big money behind books based on existing brands they’re not going to make as much money back as if they seek out genuinely new ideas and help to develop them across all media.

If I started an independent publishing company it would be with the principle that I am also an independent but ambitious film & TV production company. In a world where most of the major publishers are owned by parent companies that also own film studios, I don’t really understand why this doesn’t happen already. If it doesn’t happen soon, publishers will quickly become wholly unnecessary entities that only exist to publish film spin-off titles.

So that’s why I’m writing a screenplay. And it’s why the three novel ideas I have on my desk will probably end up going to film producers before editors.

How A Book Cover Changes

Joe Craig — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 16:05:14 +0000

For my new book in September I’m working with a publisher I haven’t worked with before. It’s been really refreshing to see how my editor there has responded to my thoughts about the front cover.

The process started off with my editor sending me a first version of a possible cover. It looked like this:

Which is fine. I looked at it for a while and decided… it was fine. Just fine. But I couldn’t work out why I didn’t LOVE it. So I thought about it some more.

Obviously the first thing I realised was that my name should be bigger. That’s the first thing I think about most book covers, even of books I didn’t write. My name should be on there, and it should be bigger.

Then I thought some more and decided it looked a bit old fashioned – haven’t we all seen a target on a book cover about a million times before? And why is this target over a man who appears to be carrying a briefcase at the top of an escalator? Is that exciting? I don’t think so. And my name should be bigger. Oh, I said that already.

But instead of just saying what I DIDN’T like, I tried to find examples of covers I DID like, to give an impression of the sort of thing that I felt would work better for this story. So I sent my editor these three images:

I haven’t read any of those three books, so I have no idea whether they’re any good. But they all have dynamic, arresting covers that give you a strong idea of the genre and pace of the books (whether that’s accurate or not I can’t say – maybe one of you can read them for me and let me know). Also, they have all been very big sellers.

They’re all pretty similar, in a way, and I felt that was closer to the ‘look’ that would work for my book. I talked a bit about the strength of the silhouetted figure – they’re all crisp, sharp, more modern-looking. I like the angles, the contrasts… None of them features a dull man walking up an escalator. Their only weakness is that none of them has my name on it in big letters.

Then an amazing thing happened – the publisher actually paid attention to my comments! This has never really happened before. I’ve always given a lot of feedback about book covers, but I can’t remember a single bit of it ever changing anything with the Jimmy Coates books. But this time, my new publisher took my feedback on board, looked at the images I sent them, and sent back a new version of the cover for my book.

In my opinion, they NAILED IT. Here it is:

What do you think?

I love it.

It’s dynamic, it has pace and focus and, most importantly, it has my name in HUGE LETTERS at the top.

It’s published on September 15th.

Witchfinder: The Complete Saga…

William Hussey — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:09:28 +0000

Hi guys!

Well, I’ve just completed the latest draft of the last Witchfinder book. There’ll be a few changes in the next month or so when I come to look at the book again with my brilliant editor Jasmine, but the central plot will remain the same: what happens to Jake Harker and his friends, the eventual fate of both humanity and demonkind, as well as HUGE revelations about… well, that would be telling! Anyway, here’s a cheeky sneak peek at the complete saga!

Within these 1,000 + pages (draft 6 of Witchfinder 1; draft 5 of Witchfinder 2; draft 2 of Witchfinder 3) all the secrets of Jacob Harker’s world are revealed. By September 2011 you too will uncover those secrets… Brace yourselves!

And in case you were wondering, The Claw was a present from David O’Callaghan and the good people of Easons, Dublin. Thank you, Dave, I knew that creepy extremity would come in useful!

The Silly Monster Book!

Alexander Gordon Smith — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 09:26:25 +0000

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that way back in May last year I attempted to rescue the authors from their hideous monster captors. It was a complete and utter disaster (possibly because I tried to rescue them using rhyming couplets, never a good idea). Ever since then, the monsters have been out for revenge… and this month they finally managed to get it!

They lured me in by pretending to be representatives from the Boggart’s Gob Literary Festival, and asked me if I’d like to put on an event for teenagers in their quaint little village. They promised me ice cream, so how could I say no?! (They obviously knew my one weakness: that I’m weak!) I expected there to be a huge festival, in honour of me of course, but on arriving there was just one large, moist, smelly tent with a banner hanging over it on which ‘Book orfurs in heer’ had been written.

Despite being slightly suspicious I walked inside – only to discover that I wasn’t in a tent at all but an actual Boggart’s Gob! It took me a little while to pass through the foul beast’s digestive system, and when I finally plopped out of its rear end I realised that things were far, far worse than I ever could have imagined. I had been… Trapped By Monsters!

My first ever book!

Luckily I was prepared for such a scenario. In fact, I’ve been prepared for an encounter with monsters ever since I was a wee boy (a young boy, that is, not a boy made from wee). My first ever book, written when I was six or so, was actually called The Silly Monster Book! As you can see, it is a literary masterpiece, but I didn’t just write it to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, oh no. Somewhere in my young head I must have known that one day I would be captured by foul beasts, and I wrote this book to prepare me for the horrors that lay ahead.

The Silly Monster Book is my only defence against the creatures who dwell down here, and I’m hoping it will tell me enough about them to let me escape. For example, I can clearly see that the Pood has enormous feet, which might let me outrun it. The Swit is so tall it might not see me all the way down here. And the ferocious Need appears to have a strange frilly brassiere for eyes, which means I might be able to sneak past it. With this book, I might just survive.

Just so long as the unthinkable doesn’t happen…

Just so long as my worst nightmare doesn’t come true…

Just so long as I don’t come face to face with the most terrifying monster imaginable…

The Ploop!

Patience

Joe Craig — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:45:43 +0000

I like to think of myself as a patient person. But I expect patience is one of those things like driving, where we all think we’re above average, but we can’t possibly all be above average, can we?

In the last 12 months I’ve had to learn that patience is a huge part of being a writer. But I don’t like it. The publishing business seems to move at the pace of a snail covered in treacle driving an electric car up a hill in reverse. Decisions take weeks. Action takes months. Negotiation takes forever.

Compared to all of that, writing is a speedy whippet of a thing, breezing through a racehorse stable with a jetpack. Trouble is, that makes it all the more frustrating that projects progress so slowly. To be honest, even when things are going well I find it incredibly demoralising. Maybe this is a symptom of my short attention span. Sometimes I get news (good, bad, indifferent) on projects I’ve forgotten I’m even involved with.

It makes me think that if I had the technical expertise I would just bypass the whole industry and publish everything I write on a website to sell (or give away) my stories directly. I’m not talking about rushing out something that’s substandard. I still take great care over what I write and I never even show it to anybody until I’m happy that it’s as good as it can possibly be. Then I enjoy the process of continuing to rewrite to satisfy excellent notes from my agent and editors. It’s everything else that seems to take so long.

Surely the future is quicker…

Excitement and Anticipation

Mark Robson — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:20:46 +0000

When I first started out as an author, I made the decision to self publish my first book. I did so before really exploring the traditional publishing route properly. If I had persevered, my first series might have eventually been published by a major publisher … but I doubt it. The story in The Forging of the Sword was too similar to other stories by better authors, and was riddled with cliches. That said, it was the best story I could write at the time and I’m still very proud of it. Especially as it has gone on to sell tens of thousands of copies in the UK … and to attract the interest of the German arm of the publishing giant, Random House Books.

Next year (almost 10 years exactly since I took delivery of the first print run of The Forging of the Sword) all four of my ‘Darkweaver Legacy’ books will launch in Germany, published for the first time by a traditional publishing house. This sort of feels like vindication of my belief in that first set of novels. I’m hoping that they gave the books a good edit while they were translating, as the books were rather over-written – I guess I’ll never know, as my German isn’t good enough for me to be able to read them in that language! I absolutely love the covers they have given the books. They are very reminiscent of the original artwork on the covers of The Belgariad by David Eddings, which were my favourite fantasy series as a teenager.

Here is the German cover for The Forging of the Sword. If you want to see all four covers, you can see them on the news page of my website, or on my blog.

The Forging of the Sword (German Edition)

Klung!

Sam Enthoven — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:25:13 +0000

That was the sound of my jaw hitting the cave floor, when I read the first line of Furnace: Death Sentence by Alexander Gordon Smith. By the time I was at the bottom of page one I’d forgotten that my mouth was still open, and it was only when I finished the book that I remembered. My tongue has dried to the exact consistency and stickiness of a rubber-faced ping pong paddle. But enough about my hobbies.

Here’s a link to a review I wrote back in April of the first book in this series, Furnace: Lockdown. I won’t tell you anything about what happens in the follow-up, Furnace: Solitary, or the third book, Furnace: Death Sentence, as I don’t want to risk ruining the story for you. I’m just going to say that these books have more that lived up to the promise of the first: in my opinion, this is the best and most thrilling YA series being published right now. If you’re a fan of fast and ferocious storytelling, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

PS: Have you ever wondered how the books that you see in bookshops are chosen? Out of all the thousands of books published each year, who chooses which of them are going to be there on the shelves of bricks-and-mortar shops for you to pick up at look at? For an insight into this utterly crucial aspect of the book trade — and for a rare opportunity to review books yourself, before they’re even published! — check this blog post by samurai bookseller Simon Key, of The Big Green Bookshop.

Free Books!

Tommy Donbavand — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:51:11 +0000

I don’t know why, but I’ve been getting a lot of emails recently asking for free books – some from the type of organisations that contact authors on a regular basis, but increasingly from children asking me to send them a signed copy.

Without wishing to sound harsh, my response is always in several parts:

One – authors don’t get their books for free. Yes, we get a small number of ‘author copies’ when the title is first published (usually around 10, which immediately go to friends and family) but if we want more, we have to buy them just like everyone else. So, what you’re really asking when you email for a free book is for me to buy you a copy, and that’s very unlikely to happen.

Two – writing books is how I make my living. I have a house and a family, both of which cost money – money I earn by writing books. If I then spent that money buying the very books I’ve written to give them away for free – I’d very quickly have a hungry (and angry) family on my hands! Try nipping into your local bakers to ask for a free sandwich – I bet you already know what the answer would be.

Three – Sometimes I DO buy books to give them away for free – as competition prizes. I recently ordered 20 copies of Scream Street 5: Skull of the Skeleton and 20 copies of Scream Street 6: Claw of the Werewolf – and I’ve already handed most of them out as prizes at events or through competitions in the Screamcast or Terror Times. To get your hands on one, simply watch out for the next contest and enter – you might be lucky!

Four – BOOKS ARE FREE at every single library in the world. All you need to do is join once, and then you have literally thousands of books available to you, every day of the week, for absolutely nothing. Plus, of course, joining your local library will help support a valuable local resource which should be protected at all costs.

So, the next time you want a book for free – I recommend you enter a contest, borrow a copy from a friend, or pop your coat on and head down to your local library. Then you’ll have something to read, and I’ll be able to have dinner!

Tommy

Bwah ha. BWHA HA HA HA!

Sam Enthoven — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:13:13 +0000

Ahem! Er, sorry about that, but I’m rather excited. Here’s an interview with me by Tracy Baines for her blog, Tall Tales & Short Stories. Tracy’s brilliant blog is a great information source for aspiring and up-and-coming authors. I’ve done my best to pass on a bit of whatever wisdom I’ve managed to hang onto so far(!) but if you click on the link you’ll also find exclusive details about Phase Three Of My Sinister Masterplan to Conquer the Universe — including, at last, the book’s real title!