Welcome to Literary Ashland

Follow

For the last four weeks in The History of Publishing, we have been discussing the challenges faced by contemporary authors. The phrase “Publish or perish,” comes to mind when I come to class everyday. Even though the phrase has been discounted over and over again, the fear still lingers. How can a writer keep their head above water in such a fast moving and evolving market?

A key point in successful publication is the use of social media and networking. In class I have made a point of asking for suggestions from writers, publishers, and bookstore owners who are handling this very dilemma on a daily basis. Each one of them has stressed the importance of networking as a vital medium in their work. I have compiled a list of their ideas and suggestions. Maybe you will find these helpful? Or perhaps they will offer some insight into the current publishing world…

1. Facebook (easy solution, since most of us have one anyways). Great for networking and channeling positive feedback.

2. Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Every tweet is another piece of advertisement! Let your followers know that you are friendly, proactive, and engaged in interesting things. You posts don’t even have to be related to a specific book, author, etc.. It could be as simple as a post about blogging! (Thanks to Ashland Creek Press for mentioning this!).

3. Blogging! This sounds odd at first, since most blogs started off as a place where bakers discussed French cooking… But the persistent and tactful use of blogs helps publishers, writers, and bookstores advertise their products and connect with the public. Blogging about your book could be the secret to getting it published! On a more basic level, it can  help your readers stay in tune to you and your work.

4. Amazon is also a useful tool. The social aspect of Amazon is their review section. If your new book has just become available for sale but hasn’t received a lot of attention yet, then tell you friends to get online and give you some positive feedback! After all, that’s what friends are for, right?

There are many other important tools. But as far as I have learned, these are the most common and the most successful currently being used.

Follow

Tim Wohlforth, fiction and nonfiction writer for more than forty years, resides in Ashland, Oregon where he spoke to Ed Battistella’s History of Publishing class April 11, 2012.  Tim’s fiction novels are mostly crime and mystery based, two out of the four mainstream fiction categories – the other major categories being romance, sci-fi, and classic literary fiction.  Tim spoke to the class about the statistics of major publishing companies, e-books versus printed books, and finally about the problems that arise with self-publishing.

With advancements in technology, people in the last decade have been able to enjoy their favorite books and new books a different way: electronically.  Kindle and Nook sales increased over 100% in 2011 to about $969 million.  Also in 2011, total book sales – electronic books, scholarly books, etc. – rose to about $11.6 billion.  Meanwhile pocket books decreased by about 36%, which Tim claims, “[It] appears to be a category fading out and replaced by quality paper backs or e-books.”

After introducing the statistics of the sales in the electronic book industry, Tim presented information about publishing: big publishing companies.  There are six major publishing companies, also known as the six American Publishers, who publish approximately 96% of books globally; they are Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Penguin Group, Random House, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.  Of the major publishers, 18-22% of all their sales come from e-books; Amazon’s market share has fallen from 90% to 60%.

Tim also shared statistics of American readers who use e-books.  In America, about 17% of adults ages 16 and older have read an e-book within the past year.  These e-readers “are people who read a lot, about two or three times more than the average person.”  Something I found to be incredibly interesting was when Tim mentioned about 29% of people have read an e-book on a cell phone within the last 12 months!

Tim concluded with the downsides of self-publishing.  In small publishing unlike in large publishing companies, there are no agents and an author’s book is not necessarily guaranteed good distribution in bookstores.  In bigger publishing companies, an agent is present to ensure that an author’s book gets distributed in popular bookstores.  Another downside of self-publishing are the extra costs.  A book cover ranges in price between $90 to $250, and the author should also higher a free-lance editor and an agent.  For Tim, the main problem with self-publishing is that, “there isn’t a need for a filter/gatekeeper in the entire publishing experience.”

Follow

Here are the Non-words for April.

fooledscape (also pronounced foolscape), n. those who are taken in on the first of April, literally a landscape of the fooled. 1 Apr

miksyezpit, v. to play a prank on someone (based on the comic book villain Mr. Mxyzptlk). Often shortened to “miks.” 2 Apr

syllabust, n. when a claim that work was assigned is disproved by the course syllabus (adapted from Leroy Fulwiler). 3 Apr

flop-flipper, n. a crisis management specialist (also has a slang use to mean pooper-scooper). 4 Apr

glumdom, n. a temporary state of glumness or unease. 5 Apr

bycrack, v. to talk in an old-fashioned way (from “by cracky”); the noun form is bycracker. 6 Apr

edundancy n. an unnecessary, superfluous reply to an email, post or tweet. 7 Apr

McNap, n. to catch five-minutes of sleep in a fast-food restaurant parking lot while on a long drive. 8 Apr

feminity, n. femininity that is apparent but not overstated. 9 Apr

masculity n. masculinity that is apparent but not overstated (by analogy with feminity). 10 Apr

fallute, v. to ostentatiously display one’s breeding (to high-fallute) or one’s commonness (to low fallute). 11 Apr

adjectify, v. to make an adjective out of a noun. 12 Apr

homeful, adj. having a home; also the noun form homefulness. 13 Apr

tropehold, n.situation in which a speaker uses only allusion, metaphor, allegory, irony and quotation, not logic. 14 Apr

lexthete, n. one who regularly exercises with words and language (from lexical + athlete). 15 Apr

descripe v. to describe in a complaining, grumbling or aggrieved manner. 16 Apr

humbrage, n. annoyance or offense expressed at the mmmm’s of another, especially when they occur in public. 17 Apr

contage, v. (kon-tayg) to cause something to spread, as if by contagion. 18 Apr

beminder, n. a periodic note from an older relative suggesting that you are failing to live up to your potential. 19 Apr

sportriotism, n displays of patriotism at sporting events; the blending of sports and patriotism (from Paul Hadella). 20 Apr

in@ention, n. obsessive, unproductive toggling between writing projects and email or social media. 21 Apr

flat-earth, v. to adhere to outmoded or discredited ideas (backform, from flat-earther); by extension, to round-earth. 22 Apr

dentmentia, n. the feeling you have on the way to work when you can’t remember if you have brushed your teeth. 23 Apr

decisination, n. the process of making a decision, especially when it is a prolonged process about a weighty matter. 24 Apr

recursify, v. to embed one grammatical construction in another, potentially endlessly (thanks to Robert Arellano). 25 Apr

feedeepism, n. celebration of and pleasure in one’s own failure (a form of self-Schadenfreude). 26 Apr

dasvedon, n. a farewell party for someone leaving for a new job. 27 Apr

fidgetal, adj. prone to fidgeting but not actually doing so, used of movements, generations and large groups. 28 Apr

jabbercize, v. to sit on the weight machines at the gym and talk while others are waiting for the equipment. 29 Apr

inscapable, adj. capable of having and enacting a unique internal identity (thanks to Gerard Manley Hopkins). 30 Apr

It’s been a busy month, non-word-wise. Thanks to Paul Hadella and the Medford Mail Tribune for the April 17 story and to the Oregon council of Teachers of English for giving me the opportunity to talk about the teaching and research aspects of the project (really!). Thanks too to Bobby Arellano, Paul Hadella, and Leroy Fulwiler for their words–recursify, sportriotism and syllabust–and to everyone who sent in suggestions this month. I’m researching those and some will appear in the month to come.