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Welcome
to the Vol. 9, No. 7 July 2011Index (scroll down for stories)
1. Spammers clog Amazon Kindle self-publishing channels 1. Spammers clog Amazon Kindle self-publishing channels Spam is clogging Amazon Kindle’s online bookstore with material that is far from book-worthy. Much of it is information that buyers could get for free from various online Wiki sites. The spammers simply lift the free information and publish it via the Kindle platform for a price. Some of the information that the spammers use to build their wares is known as Private Label Rights, or PLR content, which is information that can be bought very cheaply online, then reformatted into a digital book. The resulting ebooks are listed for sale - often at 99 cents - alongside more traditional books on Amazon's website, forcing readers to plow through many more titles to find what they want. Aspiring spammers can buy a seven-DVD boxed set called Autopilot Kindle Cash that claims to teach people how to publish 10 to 20 new Kindle books a day without writing a word. The set is advertised at $27. In 2010, according to Bowker’s Books in Print, almost 2.8 million nontraditional books were published in the United States, while only 316,000 traditional books came out. That compares with 1.33 million nontraditional books and 302,000 conventional books in 2009. Some of the books tht are spamming Amazon appear to be outright copies of other works – from sites like the Gutenberg Project, but in some cases, ouitright steals of copyrighted material. For Amazon, the wave of ebook spam flooding the Kindle platform could undermine its push into self-publishing and tarnish the brand of the best-selling Kindle eReader, which is set to account for some 10 percent of the company's 2012 revenue, according to Barclays Capital estimates. As a result, Amazon has begun curating submissions to its new Kindle Singles business, which offers short stories, long-form journalism and opinion pieces, after seeing how quickly the self-published Singles channel degenerated. "Undifferentiated or barely differentiated versions of the same book don't improve the customer experience," Amazon spokeswoman Sarah Gelman wrote in a June 14 email to the Reuters news agency. "We have processes to detect and remove undifferentiated versions of books with the goal of eliminating such content from our store." One tactic used by the spammers involves copying an ebook that has started selling well and republishing it with new titles and covers to appeal to a slightly different demographic. Spam has yet to flood the online bookstore of the Nook, a rival eReader sold by Barnes & Noble Inc. But Smashwords, an ebook publisher and distributor, also admits to struggling with spam, although not to the same degree as Amazon's Kindle. According to founder Mark Coker, Smashwords, which competes with Amazon, manually checks the formatting and other basic characteristics of the submissions it receives before publishing the material. Obvious signs of spam include poorly designed covers, the lack of an author's name on the cover and bad formatting, Coker said. Smashwords pays authors quarterly, while Amazon pays monthly, Coker added. The longer payment period means Smashwords has more time to track down spammers and plagiarizers, and close accounts before money changes hands, he said. Amazon does not offer many free ebooks, while Smashwords does. So there is more of an incentive to publish lots of books via the Kindle, according to Coker. 2. Breaking news: Sotomayor gets $1.175 million advance for memoir
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor reported receiving an advance of $1.175
million from Knopf in 2010 for her forthcoming memoir, according to
financial disclosure forms. The advance likely represents only a third or a
fourth of the total advance to be paid over time as the manuscript is completed
and published ... The New York Post reports that a $1 million advance
is what Jennifer Hudson and agent Mel Berger want from publishers for her diet
book proposal. So far, publishers have resisted, asking for a memoir that
discusses, among other things, the 2008 murders of her mother, older brother and
nephew. One "insider" explained to the paper: "It was disappointing. Her book
about her diet is really appealing and wonderful. But if you spend a lot of
money on the book deal, you want it to sell. With no talk of her family, we
didn't think it was worth it." For those unfamiliar with her, Hudson is an
American recording artist, actress and spokesperson. She came to prominence in
2004 as one of the finalists on the third season of “American Idol,” placing
seventh. She made her film debut in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls,” which won her an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award,
an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She won a Grammy Award for
her debut album, “Jennifer Hudson,” which was released in 2008 on Arista Records
and was certified gold by the RIAA for selling over 800,000 copies in the U.S.
Sales exceeded one million copies worldwide. In late 2008, after Hudson's
mother, brother and nephew were killed in a shooting, Hudson stepped out of the
limelight for three months. She resumed her public appearances in 2009.
3. Kirshbaum to head new Amazon publishing operation In New York Amazon in June announced to a group of literary agents that Larry Kirshbaum will leave agenting and return to publishing, serving as vice presidents and publisher for Amazon Publishing's New York office, starting July 5.
Reporting to Amazon's Jeff Belle, Kirshbaum will be in charge of building
something that will look like a general trade publisher, with "a specific focus
on non-fiction, but also literary fiction," Belle says, since Amazon has already
been rolling out other imprints focused on genre fiction.
In the note to agents, Amazon said, "Larry will be building out a publishing
team in New York and will found new imprints under the Amazon Publishing
umbrella, with a focus on acquiring the highest quality books in literary and
commercial fiction, business and general non-fiction."
He stepped down as CEO of what was then Time Warner Books shortly before the
company was purchased by Lagardere. Exactly how the print side of the new operation will work is open to question, since the publisher’s emphasis will be on acquisitions on the ebook side.
Kirshbaum pointed to Amazon's relationship with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as one
route the titles he acquires might take to print. Jeff Belle said "we look
forward to continuing to work with HMH when possible, or with someone else when
a better fit might exist." Before the Kirshbaum move, Amazon had five publishing imprints, two of which it launched in June: Montlake Romance, which will publish romantic suspense and contemporary and historic romance novels, as well as fantasy and paranormal, and Thomas & Mercer, which will focus on mysteries and thrillers. 4. Liberty Media offers $17 a share for Barnes & Noble
Liberty Media head John Malone said in making an offer to acquire Barnes & Noble
that he "sees the book chain as a bargain and an opportunity to play in what may
be a large growth opportunity for e-books" and is "less interested in uniting
the bookseller with his disparate array of assets," which include cable
networks, satellite TV, home-shopping networks and the Atlanta Braves.
5. Audible launches Audiobook Creation Exchange for audio books Audible has launched ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange, which allows "any professionally published book, new or old, to become a professionally produced audiobook."
The site links authors, publishers and agents with narrators and studios who
work in a variety of ways: deals and contracts have several structures. Audio
titles that evolve from ACX are distributed by Audible (including Amazon and
iTunes) for at least seven years, either exclusively or nonexclusively. Authors
can also narrate their own works.
Noting that the average Audible member listens to close to 17 audiobooks a year,
Donald Katz, founder and CEO of Audible, said, "Close to 95 percent of new,
professionally published books do not become audiobooks. Most authors and
millions of avid listeners are disenfranchised from this important market. ACX
was created to change this." Author Neil Gaiman is using ACX to create his own line, called Neil Gaiman Presents, consisting of titles by other authors never before available in unabridged audio. "I'm constantly astonished at how many great books, beloved books and books that have a special place in my heart are not and mostly never have been available as audiobooks," he said. "ACX seems a brilliant way to change that." 6. Michele Bachmann in talks to publish book in September Announced Republican presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann met in New York with several major book publishers recently, according to a source with knowledge of the meetings.
As the publishers in New York weigh whether to move forward with Bachmann, one of their considerations will be whether she can deliver book sales anywhere close to those of Sarah Palin. Palin’s favorite's first book, Going Rogue, sold over two million hardcover copies. Bachmann lacks the high profile of Palin. But Bachmann still commands a large following among the conservative grassroots and evangelicals - one which will likely be enlarged if she makes her run for the White House.
7. Mermaids replacing vampires, zombies as next big thing According to USA Today, "publishers are releasing a school of mermaid novels.” Publishers and readers are looking for the next big thing in the paranormal genre, says Mandy Hubbard, author of the upcoming YA novel Ripple. "We've already done vampires and werewolves and angels. Mermaids feel a little more fresh and interesting." Even Stephenie Meyer, who made her fame and fortune writing about vampires, told USA Today that she's writing about mermaids. MerCon 2011, the first mermaid convention, will be held at the Mirage Resort and Casino in Las Vegas Aug. 12-13. 8. Books to movies: Will your book end up as on the silver screen?
Two recent articles about the optioning of film rights for books that appeared
in Ed Nawotka’s Publishing Perspectives newsletter are well worth reading
for any author who’d like to see his or her work on the silver screen.
In the first article, Peter Cook interviewed ICM’s Josie Freedman and other
insiders. One of the main points made: a lot of rights are optioned, but few
options are ever exercised. Bowker calculates that 45,181 new works of fiction
were issued in 2009. Nash Information Services estimates that about a hundred
books a year make it to the screens. Books, short stories, comics, graphic
novels, legends, fairy tales and “factual” books together tally up to 29 percent
of the movie Box Office per year. … The same article asks, “How lucrative is
the film/TV rights market?” In her 367-page compendium Selling Rights,
Lynette Owen offers a rule of thumb: “The proportion of films based on literary
works should be seen in the context that between five percent and 10 percent of
options are exercised and of those perhaps one in 10 finally proceeds to
production …” If the number of books optioned that survive past the green light
and make it to a premiere night represents one percent, and about a hundred
films make it all the way each year, that points to 10,000 to 20,000 annual
option sales. … According to Deadline.com, Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts
will serve as executive producers/showrunners on the newly picked-up ABC dramedy
based on Kim Gatlin's book Good Christian Bitches. The show is now titled
Good Christian Belles and will star Kristin Chenoweth.
9. iFlow Reader shuts down, blaming Apple's new apps policy In advance of any official reckoning between Apple's reinterpreted rule requiring "that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase," the makers of the iFlow Reader app angrily announced that they are closing down. BeamItDown Software publisher Philip Huber announced that the company and its e-reading app will cease operations on May 31. They launched their ebookstore in December 2010 and say in a posted letter to customers that "two months later, Apple changed the rules and put us out of business. They now want 30 percent of the sale price of any books, which they know full well, is all of our profits and more. What sounds like a reasonable demand when packaged by Apple's extraordinary public relations department is essentially an eviction notice to all ebook sellers on iOS." 10. Hastings first quarter earnings slide, will start selling e-books Hastings Entertainment reported a drop in net income for its first quarter to 5 cents per share compared to 11 cents per share a year ago. Total sales declined by 3.8 percent, to $124.1 million. Overall book comps decreased 9.1 percent for the quarter, new book sales fell 8.6 percent in the period and used books sales declined 19.6 percent. However, value books (remainders and white sales) gained by 8.7 percent. The retailer said there was a 22 percent drop in “titles for which we purchase more than 1,000 copies,” blaming publishers for weak releases. The company said that it is working on a new program to sell e-books through its GoHastings.com website. Hastings is projecting net earnings per share between $0.22 to $0.37 for the full fiscal year. 11. The publishing revolution: Eight authors join Kindle Million Club At the time this was written, eight authors had joined the Amazon Kindle Million Club, having sold more than one million paid units in the Kindle Store. The first three members were Stieg Larsson, James Patterson and Nora Roberts. Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse True Blood series was the fourth, followed by members five through seven - Michael Connelly, who has penned 23 novels, including The Lincoln Lawyer and The Fifth Witness, Lee Child and Suzanne Collins. The eighth author to join the club (see story below), John Locke, is the first to be indie-published. … By 2012, the Kindle could be generating as much as $7.96 billion in total revenue for Amazon, according Caris & Co. analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, who said that "as the Kindle ecosystem expands, Kindle device users will not only continue buying more e-books but also subscriptions, accessories, hardware warranties, and eventually use Kindle’s wireless and computing capabilities for other data and content consumption," International Business News reported. "Since mid-2009, competition in the ebook market has been intensifying but, in our view, Kindle remains the most compelling ebook device and a material contributor to Amazon's non-core business growth," Aggarwal noted, predicting that for this year, Kindle can generate revenue in excess of $5.42 billion and $1.21 billion in gross profit, followed by "at least" $7.96 billion in total revenue and $2 billion in gross profit in 2012. 12. John Locke eighth author to pass one million Kindle books sold Amazon.com has announced that John Locke is the eighth author to sell over one million Kindle books, becoming the newest member of the "Kindle Million Club," and the first independently published author to receive this distinction. Amazon said Locke sold 1,010,370 Kindle books using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). Locke is self-published/independently published by Telemachus Press.
Telemachus handles packaging and distribution of digital content for a price. It downstreams all of its distribution through Smashwords for ebooks and through Lightning Source for print on demand pbooks. It charges $995 to produce a cover, format and send an ebook to Smashwords. It also provides an ISBN. About the same level of service from Telemachus for a POD book is priced at $1,995. The author is on the hook to deliver a complete and fully edited manuscript up front.
The Kindle Million Club recognizes authors whose books have sold over one million paid copies in the Kindle Store. Locke, of Louisville, Ky., is the internationally bestselling author of nine novels including Vegas Moon, Wish List, A Girl Like You, Follow the Stone, Don't Poke the Bear! and the New York Times bestselling eBook, Saving Rachel. Locke's latest book, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, is a success story with some how-to marketing advice for self-published authors. Locke joins Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins and Michael Connelly in the Kindle Million Club. "It's so exciting that self-publishing has allowed John Locke to achieve a milestone like this," said Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content. "Kindle Direct Publishing has provided an opportunity for independent authors to compete on a level playing field with the giants of the book selling industry," said John Locke. "Not only did KDP give me a chance, they helped at every turn. Quite simply, KDP is the greatest friend an author can have." 13. Thrillers author John Locke sells 369,000 ebooks in March Backstory: Thriller author and real-estate developer John Locke, who lives in Louisville, Ky., is the author of seven books, all of which have hit Amazon Kindle’s bestseller list. He’s had five books on Kindle’s top-10 list simultaneously, and claims that “every seven seconds, 24 hours a day, a John Locke novel is downloaded somewhere in the world.” Locke prices all of his e-books at $0.99, pulling in $0.35 for each one sold. (Amazon pays a smaller royalty on Kindle books priced under $2.99.) He sold 369,000 ebooks on Amazon in March, and told the Wall Street Journal he made $126,000 that month. Locke is one of the self-published authors with an agent handling his foreign and movie rights. He is represented by Jane Dystel, president, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. 14. Nook more popular with women, who buy 75 percent of books in U.S.
The New York Ti
The reason for the strong performance of female-oriented publications on the
Nook is believed to be that the iPad and other tablets are perceived by some
women as “men's toys.” Women buy more books than men do - by a ratio of about 3 to 1, according to a survey last year by Bowker. They are therefore more likely to buy devices that are made primarily for reading books, the Times said. 15. Amazon.com launches fifth publishing imprint, Thomas & Mercer The new imprint will focus on mysteries and thrillers. Its first four titles will be available on the Kindle, in print and audio formats at amazon.com as well as at "national and independent booksellers."
The first four Thomas & Mercer titles, to be released this fall, are
Resuscitation by D.M. Annechino, Stirred by J.A. Konrath and Blake
Crouch, The Immortalists by Kyle Mills and Already Gone by John
Rector. The imprint is named for the streets where Amazon's headquarters are
located in Seattle. Author Barry Eisler’s bestselling John Rain thriller series was originally published by Penguin Putnam and Ballantine. But in March of this year, the 48-year-old author and former CIA agent and technology lawyer announced he’d turned down a $500,000, two-book deal with St. Martin’s Press to self-publish the next Rain novels himself. Eisler concluded that he could do better self publishing than going with St. Martin’s. With traditional publishing contracts, a 25-percent royalty on e-book net revenue is standard. In the case of a book priced at $2.99 or more sold on the Kindle Store, the royalty would be only $0.74. Amazon would take 30 percent of that and the agent would take another 15 percent. That leaves the author with just $0.35 per sale (14.9 percent). And authors have to earn out their advances - in Eisler’s case, that would have been $500,000 - before they even see a royalty payment. By contrast, when Eisler self-publishes, he earns 70 percent of each Amazon sale - forever. And though he doesn’t get an advance, he starts earning sooner. If Eisler had gone with St. Martin’s, his book wouldn’t have been available until next spring. By self-publishing, he says, he can make it available earlier and gain an extra year of sales. Eisler started his self-publishing career by publishing short stories on the Kindle Store. He says that between Amazon, the Nook Store and Smashwords, which both publishes and distributes ebooks, his short stories generally make $1,500 apiece in the first month and $1,000 per month thereafter. “I’ll keep dropping the price of previous shorts as new ones go up,” he says. Each story contains an excerpt of Eisler’s next John Rain novel, The Detachment, which he plans to release this summer. 17. Author drops e-book price to $0.99, ups sales by 2,500 percent An author who remains anonymous, with control of the rights to five of his titles previously published by a traditional publisher, initially listed the titles as Kindle selections priced at $2.99 each. When the books moved slowly, he decided to drop the price to $0.99 per title, and more than tripled his sales. The books were formatted for and made available only on the Amazon Kindle and Nook platforms since November 2010. The books sold an average of 20 e-books a month until the beginning of May. That’s when he decided to try lowering the price of the five e-book titles to $0.99 each, just to see what happened. He calculated that he had to increase his sales to 120 copies per month to match the small income he was receiving from the same books at $2.99. Since dropping the price, he’s sold over 400 copies in three weeks, and if current trends continue, estimates he will easily eclipse 500 copies for the month. “A number of his titles sold in excess of 10,000 copies when they were first released years ago, but to have them find new life as e-books,” he says, “is especially gratifying.” 18. Penguin reissues ‘Of Mice and Men’ as enhanced e-book
Penguin Classics, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary, is releasing
several enhanced e-books.
19. Georgia author praises two book festivals in Georgia, but pans one
“I've spent a small fortune on them,” she says. “Fairs and festivals are expensive and rarely show a profit,” she cautions. “They are good exposure, so if you can afford them it can be worth it. I would carefully research them beforehand though.”
Among the events in which she recently participated in Georgia were in Canton
and Decatur. “Later in the year I did the Decatur Book Festival (also in Atlanta). That was a complete and utter waste of time and money. The way I could determine this was watching the attendees. They were there with their children and no one was carrying a bag of purchases. It is a social day; a reason to get out of the house with the kids and the dogs and enjoy the day. The book vendors were scattered, from inside churches to inside burger joints. There was no continuity or logic. And this is a huge and well-known festival.” Leslie did not participate in the recent Savannah Book Festival, but based on advice of writer friends who did, says “The Savannah book festival is probably worth doing because those are serious buyers. So do your research!” While Leslie’s experience with the Decatur Book Festival was that she spent more money participating than she made, that is not the case with all authors participating. Publisher Karen Syed says Decatur is one of the best festivals for sales to which she brings authors. The four authors she brought to the Decatur event in 2010 sold $3,500 worth of product, she says. More about that in the August issue of the Southern Review of Books. Visit Leslie’s Web site at http://www.leslieestern.com/b-allbooks.htm 20. Milestones: 50th anniversary of Miller’s ‘Tropic of Cancer’ observed
The 50th anniver 21. More on Bowker report on U.S. book publishing in 2010 According to the Bowker Books in Print report on U.S. publishing in 2010, highlights of which we covered in last month’s Southern Review, in traditional publishing, SciTech continued to drive growth Continuing the trend seen in 2009, science and technology were the leading areas of growth as consumers purchased information for business and careers. Major increases were seen in Computers (51 percent over 2009, with an average five-year growth rate of eight percent), Science (37 percent over 2009, with an average five-year growth rate of 12 percent) and Technology (35 percent over 2009, with an average five-year growth rate of 11 percent). Categories subject to discretionary spending were the top losers, perhaps still feeling the effects of a sluggish economy. Literature (-29 percent), Poetry (-15 percent), History (-12 percent), and Biography (-12 percent) all recorded double digit declines. Fiction, which is still the largest category (nearly 15 percent of the total) dropped three percent from 2009, continuing a decline from peak output in 2007. Religion (-4 percent) fell to fourth place behind Science among the largest categories. Titles in top book production categories:
Non-traditional Print-on-Demand is concentrated in a handful of houses.
Download full report here: 22. James Beard cookbook award winners named
Winners of the 2011 James Beard Foundation Book Awards include:
23. 2011 Moby Awards for best and worst book trailers announced
The winners
of the 2011 Moby Awards, recognizing the best and worst book trailers of the
year, have gone to: Grand Jury/We're Giving You This Award Because Otherwise You’d Win Too Many Other Awards: Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart Book Trailer As Stand Alone Art Object: How Did You Get This Number? by Sloane Crosley Best Big House: Packing for Mars by Mary Roach Worst Big House: Savages by Don Winslow Best Small House: Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer Worst Small/No House: Pirates: The Midnight Passage by James R. Hannibal Worst Performance by an Author: Jonathan Franzen for Freedom Most Celebtastic Performance: James Franco for Super Sad True Love Story What Are We Doing to Our Children?:It's a Book by Lane Smith General Technical Excellence and Courageous Pursuit of Gloriousness: Most Monkey Sex: Bonobo Handshake by Vanessa Woods Worst Soundtrack: GhostGirl Most Angelic Angel Falling to Earth: Torment by Lauren Kate Most Conflicted: T Cooper for Beaufort Diaries Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to video book reviewing: Ron Charles (Acceptance Speech) 24. Nebula award-winners for sci-fi writing announced
The winners of the 2011 Nebula Awards, sponsored by the Science Fiction &
Fantasy Writers of America, are: 25. Court revives Penguin's copyright case against American Buddha
The 2nd Circuit court in New York reversed a decision that would have publishers
file copyright-infringement cases in the states where the violations allegedly
occurred, as opposed to the state that the publisher calls home.
26. French publishers sue Google for illegal book scanning Publishers Gallimard, Flammarion and Albin Michel filed suit against the Web giant on May 6 for trademark violations stemming from the unauthorized scanning of 9,797 books. That number does not include titles that were scanned since the lawsuit was filed nor those owned by the publishers' subsidiaries, according to TheBookSeller.com. The three publishing houses are seeking approximately $14 million in damages for "a fixed tariff of 1,000 euros per scanned book to which the publishers own the rights," a legal representative close to the matter told the AFP. Google has denied any wrongdoing, noting that its Google Books initiative is in compliance with all domestic and international copyright regulations. "We were surprised to receive this new claim... We remain convinced of the legality of Google Books," a company representative said in a statement. "We are committed to continue working with publishers to help them develop their digital offering and to make their works accessible to Internet users in France and abroad." The lawsuit comes only six months after France's largest publisher, Hachette Livre, came to an accord with Google to allow the Internet firm to scan its out-of-print French books.
The 1,000 euros per title is in line with a similar Dec. 2009 lawsuit filed by
another French publisher, La Martiniere. A Paris court found that Google
violated the nation's copyright laws with its digital library project and
awarded damages. The case is currently in appeal. (Source: Beecher Tuttle,
TechZone 360)
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The
Southern Review is edited by Noel Griese. The author of 17 books and
numerous articles on various subjects, he has been a newspaper reporter
and editor and has taught English and journalism at the Universities of
Wisconsin and Georgia. Elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi,
he holds three degrees in English and journalism.
The
Southern Review of Books has once again organized an outstanding
faculty that will inspire and inform you. We're offering a comprehensive
one-day seminar on writing. The seminar will be held at the Hynes
Convention Center in Boston, Mass., on a Thursday in August yet to be
determined. Attend and you get free admission to the Great American
Bargain Book Show, a $50 value.
The
Minnesota Republican was asked by one of the publishers if she could deliver a
manuscript by August, in time for a September publication. Bachmann was
reportedly accompanied to the meeting by John Fund, a columnist for the Wall
Street Journal. 
