Making it big

There are few authors in the world who ever reach the dizzy heights of Forbes billionaires list, but one or two manage it.

We can all dream big, and we don't want to  be faced with questions about how to manage our money once we make it, so hearing about others who have made it can be illuminating. Some do it better than others. Some have a talent for it, and others mismanage it, but reading how one famous author has done it is illuminating.

Try reading this article by James B Stewart:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/24/business/in-the-chamber-of-secrets-jk-rowlings-net-worth.html?_r=0 and join those who wonder how much money J K Rowling has made and what she has done with it. If it is any of our business!

Give it away for Free?

Reading this article has given me food for thought. We all remember how Robert Galbraith published The Cuckoo’s Calling, gathered critical praise, but sold  a measly 1,500 copies during its first four months. (Actually, I think 1,500 copies sold in a month is pretty good....)

When the news broke that  “Robert Galbraith” was a pseudonym for J.K Rowling, sales of the book skyrocketed to 225,000 copies in a single month and proves how important Author branding is in selling books. With the recent shift towards digital publishing and online selling, it is now more important than ever for authors to build a strong fan base.

What can authors do to reach new fans and build their brand? Lots, it seems. Many authors maintain blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter and email lists, so loyal followers keep up with their latest news and releases. Using these channels, authors communicate with fans, listen to feedback, and even offer special contests.

Authors grab attention by offering a limited number of copies of their book for free. It is a good way of getting people to join your mailing list. (I must push my English reticence about self-promotion to the back of the cupboard under the stairs and get on with it. Grits teeth...)

Free promotions  attract the attention of those who browse for ‘free,’ and hopefully persuade them that your book is worth reading - and that they'll go out and buy something else you've written. Then there's something called "flash sales."

"In a recent Forbes.com article, branding expert David Vinjamuri called flash sales a “powerful tool” for authors looking to build a following. Many authors, for example, will discount the first book in a series, hooking readers early through a price promotion. Additionally, authors may use promotions to prime the pump for a new release by discounting older titles."

BookBub service works with authors to promote limited-time deals.

Bella Andre, an independent, bestselling romance author has this to say: “Limited-time price promotions — mine are often 24 hours — are a fabulous way to help gain visibility for my books.”  Read what she says by following the link: recent interview. And then read the original article that started me thinking about this:Why Bestselling Authors Give Away Their Ebooks For Free
April 7th, 2014

Fiction v reaity

Isn't it interesting how certain fictional characters become real to certain readers?
There's an interesting furore going on in the press at the moment because J  Rowling has finally admitted that Hermione should have married Harry Potter and not Ron Weasley. Her readership has neatly divided into squawks of anguish or howls of joy. It's fun to read how intense these people get - see the excerpts below -

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/02/jk-rowling-hermione-harry-ron-married
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/03/harry-potter-fans-jk-rowling-plot-regrets

But then on a little reflection I have to own up and say I too indulged in this sort of thing over the Crawford of Lymond novels by Dorothy Dunnett though I have to say I found Lymond's marriage to Phillippa perfectly acceptable. It must be the mark of a good book when the character are regarded as real, don't you think? And how often does it happen? Much as I enjoy the Outlander series, I don't get so involved in Jamie and Claire as to argue about whether they should or should not have had sex on the window ledge or parted the first time or even if she should have returned to Jamie the second time. No other book has ever been that real to me, except perhaps for Pride & Prejudice, and even then that didn't happen until I saw the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth as Darcy.

Which books became real for you?

J K Rowling and the book-buying public

There's an article worth reading behind the link quoted below. It has been around for some time, but I've just found it, and I'm "fixing" it here so that I can find it again - and perhaps bring it to the attention of a few more people who, like me, don't always catch the news first time around.

It concerns J K Rowling and her attempts to bring out  new novels under a false name. I can certainly see why she would want to do that. The Harry Potter cult-thing was unique. Enid Blyton was popular but I don't think she suffered the same media attention or the same pressure as J K.  Nor, I am sure, did she make the same amount of money! Once the cult thing began, J K's success was assured, but she must have wondered about her status as writer. Putting books out anonymously was one way of discovering what people truly thought of her work.

It's a sad reflection on people that the ones she trusted  most were the ones who let her down. It is equally a sad reflection on the book buying public - once they knew, they queued up in droves to buy the wretched book. It makes me wonder if any publisher could resist the temptation to "leak" the famous name and thus assure themselves of much-needed sales.

The best bit of the article is the single comment right at the end. Make sure you read that far.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/15/jk-rowling-publishing-industry-unknown-writers

Fiction Bestsellers

I've always known that authors writing school text books were on to a good thing. I've frequently tried to get dh to write the definitive text on auto engineering, to no avail. I've even quoted facts at him, such as did he know that the man who created the Mr Men series of kids books reached no 2 on the list of authors who sold the most books between 2000-2009? I added that at number 7 is the author of hundreds of study guides that have earned him a staggering £49 million. (Ah, correction - the article in the Telegraph says they study guides have taken £49 million at the tills, so maybe the author did not receive all of it.)

The chart listing the top hundred books of the decade  is equally interesting when we look at fiction. For all the sideswipes over the years at Enid Blyton's books, she is present at number 10. Even more surprising is the fact that Jamie Oliver's cook books make him second in earnings to J K Rowling and put him ahead of Dan Brown. (What is it about that rapidly expanding young man that makes him so much more successful than say James Martin or Nigel Slater? I wish I knew, for I find his "whack it in" style of dialogue irritating.)

J K, by the way, has sold 29 million books with a sales value of 215 million. I don't suppose she got all of that, but still, what she did receive would be a hefty sum. Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code was the most successful single title with 5.2 million copies sold. It is worth studying the list for the unexpected. Lyn Andrews, for example - a  shy, gentle lady I heard speak in Corbridge just last year has sold  copies that garnered £9.2 million. I bought just four authors in the list - numbers 15,70, 72 and 100.

 If you want to read Brian MacArthur's full article, here's the link:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/6866648/Bestselling-authors-of-the-decade.html

and here's the list:

Author, Voume Sold, Value

1 J K Rowling 29,084,999 £225.9m

2 Roger Hargreaves 14,163,141 £26.6m

3 Dan Brown 13,372,007 £74.1m

4 Jacqueline Wilson 12,673,148 £69.9m

5 Terry Pratchett 10,455,397 £77.2m

6 John Grisham 9,862,998 £65.9m

7 Richard Parsons 9,561,776 £49.2m

8 Danielle Steel 9,119,149 £51m

9 James Patterson 8,172,647 £53.8m

10 Enid Blyton 7,910,758 £31.2m

11 Bill Bryson 7,409,656 £61.2m

12 Patricia Cornwell 7,355,180 £49.8m

13 Jamie Oliver 7,244,620 £89.5m

14 Daisy Meadows 7,149,788 £24.1m

15 Ian Rankin 6,848,039 £44.3m

16 Julia Donaldson 6,621,594 £33.7m

17 Alexander McCall Smith 6,609,779 £40.6m

18 Francesca Simon 6,564,681 £31.6m

19 Bernard Cornwell 6,297,911 £45.5m

20 Roald Dahl 6,169,406 £33.8m

21 Martina Cole 6,021,960 £41.7m

22 Philip Pullman 5,544,376 £35.8m

23 Stephenie Meyer 5,487,313 £32m

24 Maeve Binchy 5,476,134 £37.6m

25 J R R Tolkien 5,280,406 £50.6m

26 Delia Smith 5,269,783 £58.7m

27 Stephen King 5,268,577 £38m

28 Marian Keyes 5,029,363 £31.7m

29 Jeremy Clarkson 4,913,989 £35.1m

30 Josephine Cox 4,651,166 £24m

31 Sophie Kinsella 4,528,095 £27.7m

32 Jodi Picoult 4,514,620 £24.1m

33 Terry Deary 4,495,655 £21.6m

34 Anthony Horowitz 4,304,041 £23.6m

35 Lemony Snicket 4,220,508 £23.9m

36 Andy McNab 4,123,633 £30.4m

37 Ian McEwan 4,040,887 £27.7m

38 Wilbur Smith 3,871,484 £30.1m

39 Michael Connelly 3,785,330 £23.5m

40 Sebastian Faulks 3,782,665 £27.5m

41 Kathy Reichs 3,514,087 £22.2m

42 Helen Fielding 3,473,003 £22m

43 Cecelia Ahern 3,422,899 £19.5m

44 Joanne Harris 3,392,198 £21.2m

45 William Shakespeare 3,333,670 £17.8m

46 Carol Vorderman 3,315,641 £11.2m

47 Chris Ryan 3,289,855 £21m

48 Lee Child 3,274,928 £20.2m

49 Dave Pelzer 3,217,905 £20.2m

50 R L Stine 3,096,584 £13.1m

51 Catherine Cookson 3,020,751 £16.8m

52 Dean Koontz 3,010,242 £17.5m

53 W Awdry 2,991,572 £9.9m

54 Michael Morpurgo 2,989,161 £15.1m

55 Jeffery Deaver 2,972,145 £16.9m

56 Khaled Hosseini 2,957,026 £21.1m

57 Nick Hornby 2,956,544 £19.6m

58 Ben Elton 2,907,294 £20m

59 Katie Price 2,856,697 £21.8m

60 Jill Mansell 2,798,518 £14.2m

61 Mark Haddon 2,783,600 £16.8m

62 Lucy Daniels 2,768,332 £11.2m

63 Dr Seuss 2,760,156 £14.8m

64 Tess Gerritsen 2,745,556 £14.7m

65 Tony Parsons 2,731,436 £17.3m

66 Alan Titchmarsh 2,707,834 £27.5m

67 Harlan Coben 2,672,713 £15.1m

68 Lauren Child 2,632,369 £13.4m

69 Darren Shan 2,617,959 £14.4m

70 Nigella Lawson 2,616,955 £39.2m

71 Robert C Atkins 2,591,073 £17.3m

72 Philippa Gregory 2,577,235 £17.4m

73 Jane Green 2,498,100 £14.8m

74 Clive Cussler 2,435,718 £16.5m

75 Fiona Watt 2,431,376 £14.1m

76 Cathy Kelly 2,391,540 £13.2m

77 Penny Vincenzi 2,358,041 £14.6m

78 Charles Dickens 2,341,980 £9.3m

79 Eric Hill 2,334,612 £12.1m

80 Joanna Trollope 2,333,337 £14.5m

81 Meg Cabot 2,309,844 £12.1m

82 Jackie Collins 2,295,308 £14.4m

83 Lesley Pearse 2,261,007 £12.6m

84 A A Milne 2,255,346 £14.5m

85 Paulo Coelho 2,229,564 £16.3m

86 Eric Carle 2,225,336 £12.1m

87 Louis de Bernières 2,221,481 £15.3m

88 Jack Higgins 2,207,100 £12.4m

89 Anita Shreve 2,198,899 £13.4m

90 Karin Slaughter 2,196,031 £12.6m

91 Louise Rennison 2,172,395 £11.9m

92 Sheila O’Flanagan 2,162,811 £10.8m

93 Robert Harris 2,150,818 £16m

94 Paul McKenna 2,114,476 £16.6m

95 Alice Sebold 2,106,630 £13.2m

96 Gordon Ramsay 2,094,376 £23.4m

97 Roderick Hunt 2,077,092 £7.3m

98 Frank McCourt 2,055,939 £14.9m

99 Dav Pilkey 2,051,622 £9.4m

100 Lyn Andrews 2,027,382 £9.2m

Did any names on that list surprise you? 

Second Bite at the Cuckoo

Tim really doesn't like JKRowling's book. He's had another go at it, and this time he has torn the cover right across to the spine. I shall have to get the Sellotape out and do a spot repair (Ha! Excuse the pun). But happily all the words are intact.

I enjoyed the book and found it an absorbing read. I didn't guess the villain and was surprised when he/she was revealed. It's a neat set up for a series based on Strike and Robin's adventures. I wondered at the title until I reached the book's conclusion, and then all became clear - but to talk about it here would spoil the pleasure of those about to read the book, so I shall stay quiet.
Sorry Helen. It's no way to treat a gift and I've had words with Tim about this habit of pouncing on a certain lady's book. He promises to do better in future, but we all know what that night mean. I now keep all my books on the very highest shelf in my study, or in a drawer in my bedroom.

I'm off to do some research on how people tag their books. I think I'm doing it correctly but  reassurance would be nice.

Libraries, sex and soft porn

Neil Gaiman has defended libraries this week - http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming#start-of-comments

-as if they needed defending. I am posting the link here because it’s worth reading. One thing I learned – he’s English. There I was, always thinking he was American – not that I’d ever bothered to check. I haven’t ever read anything of his. Strange how these ideas float around. Perhaps I’d better find something of his and read it!

I am about halfway through JKR’s book and surprised to find I am enjoying it. Strange how reviews, verbal or writtten, even a chance remark, can influence one’s enjoyment of a book. Helen didn’t say a lot, but gave me the impression she was not impressed. She didn’t rate the ending, certainly. I won’t say any more until I finish the book. 

I returned a book to the library today with mixed feelings. It was a historical romance, and the blurb claimed the author was a best selling author, had been on the New York best seller lists. It opened most pleasantly, with a well written heroine called Temperance,* but about half-way turned into what I would call soft porn. Maybe the boundaries have changed these days, but really, what's wrong with a little discretion? I don't want to find crude words - the kind often seen scrawled on walls - in a Victorian romance. I don't want items of genitalia detailed, or long descriptions of sex - I have imagination, I have had experience and I can fill in the gaps quite well without such blunt details. I think Piatkus should check their buying policy - or at least how they market the books they import from the US.

OTOH - one woman's soft porn is probably another's exciting read though I think the readers who want soft porn would find the story itself trite. Oh, to be a publisher these days. What one must do to make money.

*PS her sister was called Silence. I should have known......

Cormoran Strike meets with an Accident

Helen kindly left me her copy of  J K Rowling's  book - the one published under a pseudonym. I haven't read it yet, but I keep looking at it. Unfortunately it has already met with an accident - Tim jumped on the bed, nudged it off the bookshelf and was having a whale of a time when I caught up with him. Fortunately, though it looks bad, only the corners of the first two pages have been nibbled. The introductory pages have been given a lacy edging, but the story is intact.

The perceived wisdom for authors seeking publication is to write to a certain style, broadly outlined in my last post. With memories of JKR's writing in the Harry Potter series,  I looked at the first page and thought to myself She hasn't changed her style. I've read that page twice more before I go on. After all, the first page is the one that entices you to read the story, isn't it? It's the most important page, the one we are told we should spend the most time on, honing and sharpening. The first sentence should be a hook.

JK's first sentence is "The buzz in the street was like the humming of flies."

Not bad, although it contains a passive verb and a gerund - an -ing ending. But not brilliant either. Out of interest I got out three coloured marker pens and marked up 5 -ly endings, 12 gerunds and 12 adjectives. All on the first page. H'mmm.

Enough to make aspiring authors groan into their cups of coffee. Perhaps the English publishing market is different to the American market. Perhaps the English prefer a longer, more leisurely read and don't mind adjectives if they work well. Perhaps I should ignore it when critiquers highlight all my gerunds and -ly endings and go with my own instinct of what works for the story. I do ignore them, some of the time, but I always consider the word, the place and the tone of the piece before I do. Find highlights every gerund in the chapter and if you are so minded, you can then consider each one individually. Sometimes it is good to get an overview like this. Active is all very well in its place, usually when something exciting is happening on the page. But there are times when  introspective is good and less active writing  gives the reader a rest. I still remember how irritated I got with the Da Vinci Code with its relentless demand that I turned the page.  Somehow, I don't think JK's writing will make such a demand. It occurs to me that the name of the hero  - on the back cover - is the giveaway to the author's identity. Cormoran Strike is a name that harks straight back to the Potter stories.

Debut authors

I don't know about you but I was intrigued to hear the J K Rowling had written a thriller and published it under a false name. How did the book fare, I wondered? Well, here are the closing comments of an article in the Guardian newspaper by Mark Lawson -

"For the moment, we are left with an enjoyable, highly professional crime novel that has escaped from the aim its author had for it but taken on a massive new significance for readers. Many pseudonymous novels are intended to make a point: Doris Lessing, in 1984, submitted a manuscript under the name Jane Somers, its rejection by her regular publishers proving to her that the literary business defers to famous names.

While Rowling does not seem to have tested her publishers by sending in a book under cover - now there would be a tense and interesting experiment - her experience with The Cuckoo's Calling does seem to show that unknown first time novelists are likely to get nice reviews but zero publicity and low sales: the novel was pottering along selling mere hundreds of copies until it started Pottering along.

Already one of the most fascinating figures in the history of popular fiction, J K Rowling has become even more intriguing with this brief by neat vanishing trick. Lucky, though, are those few who read it in the purity of obscurity rather than the distracting glare of hindsight."

For the full article, see:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jul/18/cuckoos-calling-robert-galbraith-jk-rowling-review

The picture was taken yesterday in the walled garden at Wallington in Northumberland.

Newcastle Writing Conference

This time last week I was limbering up for the Newcastle Writing Conference. The programme read well and I looked forward to hearing Nicola Morgan speak. Her blog Help! I need a Publisher is choc full of information I've dipped into time and again.

Claire Malcolm chaired the conference for New Writing North and did so very well. The Great Hall in the Sutherland Building of Northumbria University was vast and I was surprised to see it completely full by ten when everything began to click into action.

Questions were not allowed until the plenary session, which did not suit everyone. Most, like me, probably forgot their question or had to rush off home at 4pm when the Plenary session was just about to kick off.
The first session included Nicola, Juliet Mushens (Literary Agent)  and Lisa Highton (Two Roads Books Publisher) I wished Nicola had been allowed more time. Juliet is a new agent and therefore deals mainly with debut authors. Lisa selects books that reflect her taste, and is looking for talent and an individual voice.

(Aside to self - If all agents select to their personal taste, isn't it time we knew what their personal taste might be? and - if thousands of fiction books are published every year in this country, how does she realistically expect to discover an "individual" voice? There simply cannot be thousands of individual voices. Or is that just me being picky? And - what exactly does she mean by individual voice?)

The second session was about Market Focus, subtitled What's Hot and What's Not, but do you know, no one actually told us what was Hot. Or Not. Barry Cunningham  (Chicken House), Mark Stanton (Jenny Brown), and Julia Churchill (A M Heath) were entertaining (even though BC kept his trilby on the entire time he was on the dais and the conference in general). On the stairs afterwards I asked him to describe J K Rowling's voice, since he was the man who "discovered" her. Straightforward, he said, not too grammatical, over use of adverbs, focussed on character. The one thing that drew him to the book was the friendship of the children.

On the whole I enjoyed the day, though the paper bag lunch could have been more imaginative, and I learnt a good deal about the process my book will go through once it has been accepted. The next conference should be on the writing process and have agents who can say what it is in writing that makes them say no - or I like it but I don't love it.

The pic? Sophie Rochester of the Literary Platform, Toby White, Lisa Gee and Chris Rickaby.

The more they want....

Galilee Chapel, Durham

Amongst all the the hype that has hit the tv, newspapers, twitter and Facebook this week, this article is the one I found most interesting: click
The J K Rowling phenomenon is beginning to take on aspects of the J R Ewing style of doing things; in other words, a lawyer lies at the heart of her empire and he sounds like a human  rottweiler as he bludgeons critics and reviewers into silence. There have been embargoes on who can read the novel, let alone review it, and when they may do so, plus how many agreements they had to  sign before they're allowed to do any of it - it just doesn't sound like the normal style of publishing in Britain. The more they want, the less you give them has been the PR maxim since the first word leaked that there was to be a new book.

If all that is said in the Mail Online is absolutely accurate, then it could be that publishing as we have known it for the last few decades is about to change, for the article reads like the plot of a big business thriller. To be fair to the publishing industry, it seems it's the PR side of things that is the driving force. The ad men have got a grip and they're unlikely to let go.

Perhaps earning all that money changes a person's personality; or the lure of power is too great to resist. If you can have things exactly as you want them, then why not? Maybe we would all go for that if we could. but I can't help wishing the publication had been just as it is for any other author. Then the lady might have received an honest and accurate assessment of her new book.

I read Harry Potter and loved the imagination that created the HP world. The writing, I always felt, could have been better edited, and I skipped over quite a few laboured paragraphs. The subject, theme, premise - call it what you will - of this latest book does not, for many reasons, draw me toward reading it. I wonder how many other Potter fans will feel the same way? And how many of them will hopefully sample the new work, just in case they might like it?

Rowling's new venture

There seems to be a cloud of secrecy about J K Rowling's novel for adults scheduled for publication later this year. Not a hint or a whisper about the content, not even genre. Could she be writing a romance? A historical?  A paranormal? The imagination runs away with ideas...

I suppose it's more likely to be literary fiction, or aimed in that direction. Story of how a pennyless single mother writes in secret for years and finally finds success, and a new lover, perhaps?

It's a big risk she's taking, because in some ways children are an uncritical audience. They either like it or they don't, and if they do, they'll clamour for more, more, more. But adults are a different thing altogether, especially in cases such as this. There will be those that think she has all the success and monetary reward one author ought to have, and that it isn't fair to try for more. Others will applaud her efforts for trying, even if they think the result is pretty feeble. Some will give an honest opinion of the work. No doubt there'll be the one nasty review on Amazon.

Whatever it turns out to be, it will be interesting. I suppose all the Hogwarts fans who are now young adults with salaries to splurge will buy a copy out of a mixture of curiosity, hope and loyalty. The reviewers will be sharpening their pencils. The publishing world will watch with interest. I note she has gone to a new publisher and that her relationship with Bloomsbury was "tempestuous" acording to one report I read.
Sigh. Well, I just wish I had that much clout.