My mind has been going in far too many directions these days for a single thought to settle for long. It’s even impacted this month’s RTB post. While I thought about writing an impassioned essay about inflation in romance (when did we move from millionaires to billionaires?), other topics occupy my mind this month, all jostling for supreme position in my thought queue.
First, the trickle-through-the-romancesphere news about the death of author Anne Weale. Weale died on October 24, 2007, yet the story has been slow to reach our community. Given how fast communication about, well, just about everything can be, it’s strange to me that losing an author like Weale hasn’t been bigger news.
Anne Weale, the pseudonym of Jay Blakeney, started her publishing career with Mills & Boon in 1955…at the age of 24. She went on to publish nearly 90 novels, under the Weale name and as Andrea Blake. Prior to turning to full-time fiction writing, the author was a journalist. She was working on her autobiography 88 Heroes…1 Mr. Right at the time of her death.
Weale was influenced by the sexy style of authors such as Rosalind Brett — and while the romance market has clearly moved in hotter directions since those authors were bestsellers, they were both influential in upping the sensuality quotient in their novels. Their work lead to the establishment of the Presents line, which, well, begat all manner of variety in the romance genre. Weale reportedly wrote the very first oral sex scene — the very first very clearly oral sex scene — published in a romance novel.
Anne Weale embraced the online world with unusual zeal, starting with a regular column that reviewed websites for the UK’s The Bookseller in 1998. She continued writing the column until 2004 before starting her own site Bookworm on the Net. The site currently features Weale’s final post — a lament about technical difficulties — though her death raises another question: what happens to websites like Weale’s once the owner dies*? If service providers are not paid in a timely manner, they pull the plug on the site. And if the deceased’s executor does not wish to continue to pay these costs, where does the site go?
Yeah, the web may be the ultimate in ephemeral. Which reminds me of something else on my mind. Yet another e-publisher has gone out of business. Twilight Fantasies Publications has shuttered operations after a mere six months. Now I’m as optimistic as the next person — and there are more than a few well-established e-publishers — but please, please, please think about what you’re doing before you sign a contract with a new publisher. Once you enter into a contractual arrangement, signing over your precious novel, you are playing on another level.
Authors who signed with this brand new publisher may now find themselves in a position where their contracts become assets sold in bankruptcy proceedings. They may find that their rights become part of a muddled chain of events. At the very least, it seems that moneys owed will not be paid and rights, well, rights reversion will be a painful difficult process.
Also, for my money, if the publisher’s website looks like amateur hour, that should be a major red flag. Just sayin’.
Starting an e-publishing house is easy. Running an e-publishing business is hard. Running any kind of publishing business is hard. Authors must demand a certain degree of professionalism from their publisher — financial stability being the least. I do not agree with all points the Romance Writers of America make about financial commitment to an author’s career, but I absolutely agree that finances should be such that all contractual obligations are met comfortably, on time, and without suggestion that authors need to “help” the publishing house reach financial solvency.
I freely admit that I’m bothered by the lack of quality I see from many e-publishers (and, in all fairness, traditional publishers). I am firm believer in the power of good editing; I still recall with shock and horror the comments of an acquaintance who, upon signing with an e-publisher, declared her joy at “not being edited”. She needed an editor. I read her book and can state this without hesitation. E-publishers who cannot (or will not) invest in quality editorial staff not only show a lack of commitment to their authors, but also a lack of commitment to their brand.
Whenever I read thrilled-beyond-belief emails from author friends who have signed contracts with new e-publishers, my heart twists a little bit. I want them to have all the success they deserve. And I cannot feel that racing to be first in line with a brand-new publishing house is a dangerous move for so many of these authors. Nothing destroys the glow of having your novel published like dealing with the trauma of a publisher who breaks promises.
I’m also thinking a lot about the Writers Guild of America strike. Way too much, if truth be told. All the WGA members on my floor are gone. It’s sad, the firmly closed doors and lack of chatter in the hallways. I really miss the guy who spends a lot of time stretched out on his office couch, staring at th ceiling. He is exactly how I once imagined all writers to be.
The productions are operating as if business is normal, we see actors showing up for auditions, but I know that it’s just a matter of time before staff is told to take time off. I mean, other shows are closing down like so many dominoes. I have been discussing this strike and its underlying reasons (you want historical perspective? I’ve got more than I need!) for a few years now. That the two sides couldn’t reach agreement isn’t a surprise. Personally, I think we’re seeing the start of a huge shift in the way entertainment content — motion picture, music, and books — are created, distributed, marketed, and paid for.
Artists, I sincerely hope, will be taking a greater share of ownership in their creations. Publishing houses, studios, and labels will need to prove that they can do the best by offering the best for the artists. Creative people will always receive the smallest piece of the money pie. This is all good, all doable, but requires a massive shift in how business is done. These changes will not happen overnight, but I do believe they will happen.
Happy Friday!
* – I should note that the Bookworm on the Net site is part of the Blogger network. I am not sure how, if at all, Blogger decides which blogs are still alive or are abandoned. Anne Weale’s site might live for eternity.
Related posts:
I love the idea of ePublishers. Whatever their problems, I hope they work them out. I hope they improve and more become solid. For the record though, I really have no personal interest in them. As a reader, it’s visually irritating for me to read on a computer, which I do for some ARCs that are sent to me electronically. But, that’s just me. I know a lot of readers love eBooks!:grin:
As a writer, I’m so in love with the whole sensoral experience of a bookstore – the smell of the books, the sight of them lined up on shelves, the beautiful covers (like NEFERTITI by Michelle Moran,) the energy of all the other minds devouring knowledge in one place, and sounds of joy when someone finds just what they’re looking for. That’s the future I want for my stories. I’m willing to wait for it and hope I have fantastic editors who will help me get there.:grin:
Blog sites once the hosting fees are not paid,
simply disappear.
However, the information is usually still out there on sites that specialize in caching the information (like Wayback Machine).
As for Blogger…
Blogger’s official policy is that their blogs do not expire even when dormant.
However, Google (the new owner of Blogger) has a policy of having an option to delete blogs after 9 months.
So who knows how that will end up.
Again the information will likely exist forever on archiving sites.
As for ePublishers,
I view dealing with small press or ePubs a partnership
and with every business partnership,
there are good partners and bad partners.
I did a lot of research to find Champagne Books.
They put care and time into their editing and cover art.
However, I still pre-edit (with an editorial service) because… well… that’s the way I am.
I hope things work out well for the Twilight Fantasies authors. :/ That’s, what, four this year? Scary.
I agree with the thread over at DearAuthor about writers signing with a brand new publisher because they’re friends with the owners. I know a number of people who’ve done that recently and I wish them all the best but I’m not going near it. It can be easy to get swept up in your best friend’s enthusiasm, and just as difficult to turn down that best friend’s request to help her out by joining in with her brand new business venture, but even with the best will in the world and good intentions on all sides, so many new businesses fail in their first year, it’s a scary proposition. And IMO it’s very uncool to put a friend into that position. :/
Especially recently, with the e-pubs dropping like rotten fruit this year. I hope next year’s better for the industry. [crossed fingers]
Angie
Kimber An,
Many ePubs also publish in print.
As a blogger, I love this
as most of my fans (and early adopters) are eReaders
(blogging has trained them to read online)
and spreading the word about an eBook
is SO much more cost efficient and timely
than mailing the print books out.
However, with any small press,
authors should assume that they’re doing all their marketing and promo themselves.
Could be costly and/or a time sucker.
I still recall with shock and horror the comments of an acquaintance who, upon signing with an e-publisher, declared her joy at “not being edited”.
I hear this from authors at print publishers too. It’s a mark of pride for many to say their manuscript was accepted without revisions. I think that would concern me. My editor and I create such synergy during the revision process. She keeps pushing me to make not just the blah scenes good, but the good scenes GREAT.
Also, I’ve heard too many horror stories about harried editors accepting things sans revisions and then the copyeditor going, wait, there is a major continuity/timeline/logic/plot problem!
I’m with Diana, the input from my agent and editor is priceless. They point out my bits of fuzzy logic and catch things that I haven’t explained well enough (I mean, I know why the character does X, but sometimes it fails to make it to the page, LOL!). They help with pacing, and character arc. Sometimes all that’s needed is a little tweak (my agent is the queen of “I think you need one more sentence before the scene break”).
I didn’t get any major plot revisions on my second book and it’s kind of freaking me out . . .
If the e-publisher had said to me that my work didn’t need editing I would have ran, not walked away from the contract. My grammar sucks, commas are my sworn enemies, and yes, at times, the spelling bee queen, mucks up. So I have faith in my publisher, but still I know that e-pubs have it hard to stay afloat even when they are on the up and up. People need to be better educated on what they are getting into and what’s a red flag to run, not walk away. This goes for any small publisher. Hell, most times all you can do is have faith after you’ve researched your eyeballs out about a publisher.
1 – It is weird that there is no “official” obituary about Anne Weale. Don’t they publish those in UK papers or magazines?
2 – No matter how well intentioned the many new e-publishers are – “I am going to publish the books that I like,” “be better that the other guys,” or (?) – I wonder what type of business model is being used to decide whether to launch such a business. It seems to me that every month there is a new erotic or other e-publisher. How can these publishers attract enough business to keep afloat? Not just the authors, but don’t they need lots of reader buying those e-books? How would one decide on this publisher over that one? I suppose that up until recently the number of possible online readers seemed limitless. Now, I guess, we are seeing that just having books or even lots of great books is not enough.