CJ Verburg – Page 11

Hot off the e-press! Charisse Howard’s new Regency Romance: Lady Annabelle’s Abduction

Posted on August 10, 2013 by CJ Verburg

Some like it hot — if that’s you, grab Charisse Howard’s brand-new flagship book in her Regency Rakes & Rebels series: Lady Annabelle’s Abduction.

This is a historical-suspense romance that’ll scorch your fingers! Lady Annabelle Chatfield is resigned to marrying the dumpy middle-aged Earl of Brackenbury in order to save her desperate family. But a week before the wedding, a tall dark stranger pops in her bedroom window and carries her off — thereby risking her honor and her future.

Can a rescue party or a ransom come in time to save her?

After just one day of being treated like a woman instead of a lady, does she really want it to?

Find out more on Charisse’s websiteor buy Lady Annabelle’s Abduction on
Kobo
Amazon
ARe/OmniLit
Smashwords

Let’s Get Small! In Which the World Discovers What Artists Have Long Known

Posted on August 8, 2013 by CJ Verburg

In the roller-coaster publishing business, it’s the best of times and the worst of times. Mystery writer Bill Buford directs our attention to an illuminating article by Erica Wagner in the Financial Times a few days ago:

“. . . When you scan the cultural landscape, it seems like everything is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. . . . How will publishers counter the might of Amazon, which recently reported sales of $15.7bn in three months? By mustering their regiments into one giant army: the merger of Penguin and Random House will mean a single company controlling a quarter of the world’s book market.”

Thirty years ago, my publishing colleague Ron Pullins observed that the industry’s obsessive focus on best-sellers and consolidation had the happy side effect of opening up room in the smaller markets. After an internecine battle restructured the company we worked for, impelling us both to jump off the corporate ladder, Ron created his own company, Focus Publishing, and fulfilled his dream of never working for another @#%!#@ again.

Wagner, on the other side of the Pond, paid a call on publisher David Fickling, who recently parted company with Random House. Fickling–cosily settled in his “pleasingly ramshackle Oxford office”–quoted Albert Einstein: “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Most of us who chose creative callings did it for the gift, only to find ourselves browbeaten by the servant. The democratization of the arts, which has fulfilled the hippie dream of Power to the People, AKA the socialist dream of workers owning the means of production, sometimes seems to have let so many hundreds of flowers bloom that we’re all in danger of suffocating from the pollen. It’s useful to remember that the core of what we do is its own reward. Those twin Colossus of Rhodes pillars of our culture, Discoverability and Monetization, are only the legs holding up the creation.

Still, ya gotta have feet! In the “feats don’t fail me now” department, Michael Wolf’s The NextMarket Blog offers some exciting tips on New platforms enabling authors to side-step Amazon Kindle.

Multimedia, Transmedia, Mobile Media

Posted on July 30, 2013 by CJ Verburg

North Beach's main street transformed by a film crew — North Beach’s main street transformed by a film crew

Living in San Francisco has always had its Disneyland side, in that the border between reality and fantasy is fuzzier here than in most places. For anyone who smugly supposes this makes San Franciscans fluffy-headed and inconsequential — wake up! The rest of the world is not only hot on our trail, but moving here to position their own betas and start-ups at the epicenter of our latest revolution.

This time it’s not peaceniks and rock-&-rollers storming the barricades, but creative ambitious techies. At last night’s Transmedia meetup we were introduced to fiverun, which integrates online with bricks-&-mortar shopping; Ignite Video, which lets anyone with an iPhone shoot, edit, and storyboard a commercial video; and Mobzili, where a storyteller can build a visual and verbal presentation into an app sold on iTunes. Also mooted were Snapchat (for sharing short-lived photos), Vine (for sharing short videos), Madefire (animated graphic novels), TangoSource (software development), Global Film Ventures (good business practices for filmmakers), and of course Boom-Books (multimedia e-books and paperbacks, as well as Mystery, Romance, & International Intrigue).

If this revolution will not be televised, it’s because (Transmedia moderator Beth Rogozinski noted) TV is rapidly being plowed under by mobile, i.e. smartphones and tablets. As of 2012, there were 6,835,000,000 mobile subscribers on our planet. That’s 90% of the world’s population.

So, if you’re going to San Francisco, forget the flowers in your hair. Bring your mobile device and join the revolution!

The Cuckoo’s Calling: Put on Your Platform Shoes!

Posted on July 23, 2013July 23, 2013 by CJ Verburg

“JK Rowling Unmasked as Author of Acclaimed Detective Novel!” crowed the Daily Telegraph on July 22. “Writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, the Harry Potter creator wrote a 450-page crime novel called The Cuckoo’s Calling. The book is billed as a “classic crime novel”, written in the style of PD James and Ruth Rendell…”

So — instant hit, right?

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith sold a total of around 1500 copies between its publication in April and its unmasking in July. In contrast, The Cuckoo’s Calling by Galbraith AKA JK Rowling skyrocketed to #1 on Amazon and has more than 1500 reviews so far.

Agent and Author Nathan Bransford remarked (as I quoted previously) that this shows even Rowling can write a good book that sinks with hardly a ripple. Book Designer Joel Friedlander further noted that the takeaway lesson is: PLATFORM! An author without media visibility is like a tree falling in a forest with no one to hear it.

Some of us are bemused by the 21st-century trope that a book sells because its author is well known — reversing the longtime assumption that an author becomes well-known because her/his books appeal, i.e., sell, to readers. Platform evangelists go further: A website isn’t enough; your author platform must include a blog, posted regularly (weekly? daily?) to promote yourself and thereby your books. Your blog must include a way to recruit subscribers: a sign-up widget, plus some incentive to join, such as a free book. Next step: market your blog!

Peter Brantley remarked some time ago that what’s changed about publishing in this new century is that the big decisions are no longer made by literary people — authors and editors — but by techies, at mega-companies such as Amazon and Google. Put it all together and you have a publishing industry which undercuts writers whose greatest strength is writing, and boosts those whose greatest strength is marketing.

What kind of literary landscape does this shift in slant produce? Is the word “literary” even applicable to today’s book world? One author I know regards his book as his business card, handed out more often than sold (and shelved or tossed more often than read) — an upscale credential for his real work as a consultant.

A bright spot on the horizon from my POV is the fairly new, and burgeoning, alliance between Canadian online e-book/e-reader giant Kobo and the ABA (American Booksellers’ Association). A reader who creates an online account with Kobo by way of his or her favorite local bookstore’s website can then buy books from that store through Kobo. This program isn’t exactly the belated Good Fairy at Sleeping Beauty’s christening, but it may be a deus ex machina of sorts — life support for the long-time alliance among publishers, bookshops, readers, and writers.

I’m currently investigating how small independent publishers may be able to create a synergistic niche in this emerging ecosystem. Have you discovered one yet? Let me know!

Navigating the Thrilling and/or Treacherous Amazon

Posted on July 16, 2013 by CJ Verburg

Sometimes you have to wonder if existing laws are making justice impossible. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which enabled (and arguably encouraged) George Zimmerman to murder Trayvon Martin without criminal penalty, is this week’s most dramatic example. In the book world, we have the DOJ’s successful prosecution of Apple for price-fixing.

What did Apple do? Conspired with the half-dozen largest book publishers (who reached separate out-of-court settlements) to stop Amazon from undercutting their e-book sales by setting its own prices under $10. Amazon currently holds a boa-constrictor monopoly in e-book publishing; but since it’s a single corporation (for purposes of this case), it can fix prices legally. No conspiracy involved, so no threat to consumers, right?

The publishing punditry has responded with a wide range of observations and predictions. One enterprising commentator already has a book out on the case’s implications:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/what-would-happen-if-apple-loses-the-ebook-case_b72736
New York Times blogger David Streitfield considers what the Amazon python has already devoured, and how that’s denuded the reading and publishing landscape:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/05/the-price-of-amazon/
Paul St John Mackintosh of TeleRead charts Amazon’s past acquisitions in detail, and speculates on what its next prey might be: Staples? Radio Shack? Netflix?
http://www.teleread.com/amazon/amazon-has-acquisition-hit-list-or-not/?et_mid=627595&rid=233803968

Meanwhile, in another part of the jungle, power is eroding out from under the Big 6. Looming smaller on the media radar, but larger and larger on sales-trend charts, are the independent publishers. Boutique or niche companies such as Heyday, Polis, and Carina, are a proliferating part of this picture. Perhaps even more significant are the myriad of authors who publish their own books (many through Amazon’s, Apple’s, Ingram’s, or some other large company’s subsidiaries). Here the prices are much lower: a reader typically pays less than half what Amazon charges for a Big-6 published title in the same genre, which might be a third of the publisher’s list price.

The financial pitfalls for an indie author-publisher are obvious: Most self-published books reportedly sell fewer than 150 copies, and with per-copy prices ranging from around $10 to free, the author may well lose money, given the cost of editing, design, manufacturing, and publicity. Like the lottery, self-publishing thrives because it’s a kick to enter, and every budding novelist secretly hopes to be one of the lucky few who hits big.

Possibly the hottest news on this front is another conspiracy of sorts. The Canadian e-book and e-reader company Kobo has partnered with U.S. independent bookstores to offer readers (and writers) an alternative to Amazon. More details on that next time; but if you don’t want to wait, check the e-books section on your favorite local bookshop’s website.

Mugging the Muggles?

Posted on June 27, 2013 by CJ Verburg

“The savviest agents for the biggest authors . . . figure out in concert with the publisher how many copies they think the book should sell . . . and get an advance that is equal to a startlingly high percentage of the revenue that sales level would produce.” — Mike Shatzkin, 6/26/13

Ever since the dawn of time, when I launched my publishing career as an editorial assistant at Harper & Row’s new West Coast branch, publishers have vigorously defended their habit of paying giant advances to already-successful writers.

Common sense suggested that emptying the coffers to sign the next Valley of the Dolls (or Harry Potter) would leave no advance money, and scant enthusiasm, for books in the not-soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture class. On the contrary! ran the mythology. It’s the little guys we truly value, and it’s our prodigious income from Jacqueline Susann (or J.K. Rowling) that enables us to publish them.

It wasn’t true then, and it isn’t true now.

The latest Shatzkin Files turns a spotlight on financial finagling between authors, agents, and editors. It seems the hardship level of the big publishers, like that of Wall Street, has been greatly exaggerated. It also seems that the rising tide has not lifted all boats — only the yachts.

“A must-read piece,” says Digital Book World, and they’re right. Check out The Shatzkin Files at The Idea Logical Company: http://bit.ly/17FTAN3

Platforms, the Cloud, Devices & Desires

Posted on June 25, 2013 by CJ Verburg

Last night’s Transmedia meetup at YetiZen Innovation Lab here in SF was as cutting-edge & multifaceted as its title:
Platforms of Tomorrow: Connecting in the Cloud, Across Devices and Desires.

Transmedia’s biggest revelation for me has been that in the 21st century, the creativity I associate with art has, to a startling degree, migrated into commerce. The success of “Mad Men” owes less to decor nostalgia than to the 21st century’s embrace of money as a universal measure of value, with marketing as its vestal. At the previous Transmedia meetup I attended, we learned how to use ancient mythological themes (as distilled by Joseph Campbell) to sell sneakers or Coke.

Last night’s presenters focused on the growing integration of media in commercial ventures, from movies and games to Craigslist ads.

Launching the evening’s theme of interweaving not only multiple media but social and/or real-world experience was Paul Cheng of Phigital. He described the “mix and match from the physical and digital worlds” his group is applying to, for instance, a Hunger Games-based game played in real time in New York City with instructions, weapons, and communications transmitted by smartphone.

Alex LeMay and Steve Harshbarger of The Shadow Gang developed Galahad to enable game- and movie-producers to build the whole apparatus which now is an obligatory sideshow for any world-creator, without having to learn the tech on either the development or the monitoring end. A central assumption is that “technology and content exist in the same plane — when you change one, you should change the other.”

Robert Mindzak showed off Cover Page, which lets anyone create a magazine or other content delivery vehicle for multi-touch media as an app for iPhone, iPad, et al. Like Phigital and The Shadow Gang, he emphasized the integration and interdependence of content and media: among his key points was “Design content for the brain, eyes, and fingers.”

Moovweb, as Ishan Anand explained, meets a critical need in the present shift from desktop to mobile interaction with websites: “A web developer can point the Moovweb cloud at any website and transform everything to mobile.” It’s all in the interface; the content and functionality remain intact, but the user experience is mobile-optimized.

Ponga had a table nearby to demonstrate their beta, which lets the user annotate sections of a photograph, verbally and/or visually. For instance, if you were selling your antique desk online, you could show potential buyers where to find the secret compartment and how to open it.

Last but not least, thanks to YetiZen, which provides free work space to innovators daily from 10 AM to 8 PM, and evening space for gatherings like this one, brilliantly organized and conducted by Beth and Maya.

Objecting to death with Edna Millay

Posted on May 13, 2013 by CJ Verburg

Dirge Without Music

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, thew wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,–but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look,
the laughter, the love,–
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses.
Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

— Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edward Gorey House Opens Tomorrow!

Posted on April 17, 2013 by CJ Verburg

Staggered as we are by the grim irony of the Boston Marathon bombing on the 13th anniversary of Edward Gorey’s death, still we celebrate the lives that will keep that day in our memories for years to come.

And in the spirit of Spring, we look forward to tomorrow’s opening of the Edward Gorey House for this season with a more cheerful anniversary: the 5oth of The Vinegar Works, that memorable trilogy comprising “The Gashlycrumb Tinies,” “The West Wing,” and “The Insect God.” Check it out at 8 Strawberry Lane, Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, or at http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/

even Google loves Gorey!

Posted on February 24, 2013 by CJ Verburg

A tip of my tulle-trimmed bowler to Google for their Amphigoreyesque 2/22 Google Doodle honoring the brilliantly crepuscular artist and genius Edward Gorey!

And another hat-tip to actress/author Renee Gibbons and actress/director Margot Breier for their dramatic readings at Edward’s posthumous 88th birthday party at San Francisco’s Cartoon Art Museum on Friday night. Many thanks to all who attended, and especially Heather Plunkett and her squadron of interns who made it happen! Also to photographer Michael Starkman, who kindly pitched in to help us record this festive event.