Category Archives: feedback

May 20, 2010   DG&B   feedback, Michael, opinion, publishers  
17

Collateral damage

by Michael

I really feel for authors. Partly because it’s my job, but also because I work with them closely and know how hard the business can be. I wrote a bit about rejection the other day, that being rejection from editors, agents and other “gatekeepers.” But then there’s rejection from the buying public. Sometimes books just don’t sell—the book doesn’t find its intended audience. Worse, sometime people buy the book and then explain to the world, via blog, or tweet or Amazon review, why they hate it. Those reviews sting. But I think there’s something that has to be even tougher: when readers reject your work, without having read it, because of a decision made by the publisher—in fact, they may boycott the book to make a point. But as John Scalzi smartly points out on his blog, the one getting punished isn’t the publisher, but the author.

There have been a couple of major brouhahas that caused readers to consider boycotting books from certain publishers. Earlier this year, there were calls for a boycott of Bloomsbury books over their perceived whitewashing of covers, and there’s quite the Amazon backlash to titles not available in the Kindle format. As Scalzi rightly points out, when one boycotts a publisher, authors are hurt, not the publisher. The author benefits more from one book sale than the publisher suffers from a lost one, as the publisher has an entire list (and probably several other imprints, or even other businesses) from which to make money, while the author has just the one book.

Now, I know what you’re thinking—authors don’t have to be published by any one publisher (I’ll ignore that it’s often the case that only one publisher is willing to publish the book), so they have some say in the situation. But in the two examples above, the controversies didn’t exist when the author signed the contract, and in both cases, the authors had no control over the perceived malfeasance. Authors have control over so little in the publishing process, that singling any one book or author out just doesn’t make much sense.

Maybe you all disagree, and I’m open to hear your thoughts. I just hope people will think twice about who’s getting hurt.

May 18, 2010   DG&B   feedback, opinion, reading, self-publishing, Stacey  
13

Diamond in the rough

by Stacey

I know we’ve all talked a lot about self-publishing and what it means for the more traditional, old fashioned book business, and I’m not really interested in getting into the pros and cons of self-publishing, but I thought it was worth exploring this topic a little bit further and see if there are ways to address how the two worlds can come together.

What prompted by interest in the subject was a few things that came up around the same time. First, I read this piece about the rise of self-publishing and how the digital age is somehow making self-publishing more respectable. I’m not sure if I agree entirely , but she makes some interesting points about how far self-publishing has come. Then, I saw this in Publisher’s Weekly about an entire trade show for self publishers and authors who have either published this way, or plan to, or for anyone curious about what it’s all about. Finally, and perhaps the most interesting piece of all, I had lunch with a prominent editor recently at a major commercial house who told me that they had recently done a deal with an author who had previously self-published her book. We talked a little bit about it, and when I asked her if the book had done very well in its self-published life for them to consider reissuing it, she told me that it hadn’t sold particularly well, and the numbers weren’t all that great. So I asked her why in this ridiculously difficult market did they agree to publish it? Because it’s really good, she told me. Oh, how simple. And how refreshing!

I continue to believe that there are untapped talented authors lurking out there publishing books on their own, in some cases quite successfully. I’ve signed up several self-published books over the years, and it’s been a bit of a mixed bag. One author was self-publishing her novels successfully long before it became fashionable, or as easy as it is today. When she chose to reach out to traditional publishers, we got her a very nice six-figure deal for two books with a commercial publisher, and after a few years of feeling increasingly frustrated by the lack of control over the publishing process, she decided to go back to self-publishing. Another was a cookbook that I resold successfully to a division of Random House, and the book has sold fairly well and looks like it will backlist nicely. A third was a nonfiction self-help book that had some great elements and an author who promised to support the book financially, but I wasn’t able to make it work. I am fascinated and intrigued when I hear stories of self-published books selling to traditional publishers, in some cases for a lot of money or with a big promotional plan in place. And I’ve thought over the years about trying to find self-published books that have done well in an effort to find new clients and new projects. If an author has gone through the time and work required to publish on their own, they have already shown a commitment to their work, and if the stars are aligned in just the right way, maybe we can help them in their efforts by matching them with a traditional publisher who can offer much greater sales, marketing and distribution support. In the perfect storm effect, this can be a major win-win for all parties. Look at The Shack as an example.

There are so many books self-published every year (the stat of 764,448 titles last year is staggering) that there still needs to be some sort of filter to find the quality over quantity. Other than the books I’ve worked on, I haven’t read many self-published titles, and I’d love to learn more about what’s out there. Do any of you have any recommendations for self-published books you absolutely loved?

April 23, 2010   DG&B   children's books, favorites, feedback, fun, Lauren  
13

A literary mystery

by Lauren

Recently I experienced a moment of great joy when a friend spontaneously remembered the name of the girl band we liked in elementary school that no one else seemed to remember. I couldn’t remember any helpful details like the band’s name or song titles or song lyrics or even melodies I could hum. But it turns out they were called BoyKrazy, and they were even worse than I might have guessed.

This is not book-related in itself, but it has come up as a topic of conversation over the last couple years on occasion with my friend Nell, who has her own life mystery to solve. On realizing the joy of solving mine, it occurred to me that I could try to pay it forward by asking for the help of you, our well read audience, to solve hers. Nell loved a children’s book when she was in elementary school that must have been first published no later than 1986, but she suspects it was probably from the mid-to-late 70s or early 80s. Here’s what she remembers:

The main character is a young girl who always paints mustaches on herself. Her teacher tells her that mustaches are for boys and that she can’t paint any more on herself. She has black hair that I think is in a bowl cut with bangs.

At some point in the story, she makes a new friend who has an electric train set in her attic, closet, spare room, or someplace like that. I believe the story takes place in New York City or some other metropolitan area with apartment buildings (I vaguely remember the new friend living in her building), but I may have projected that on my memories from my earliest childhood memories.

The story ends with the girl painting mustaches on everyone in art class, including the girly girl and the art teacher–who ends up laughing about it.

So, please, if this is at all familiar to you, help a girl out in the comments! If you understand the agony of kind of sort of remembering something that no one else seems to know exists, you’ll want to lend her a hand. Thanks!

UPDATE: Mystery solved!!  Nell reports that it was in fact Elizabeth Levy’s Nice Little Girls.   Thank you very much, Rebecca!  Now tell me, do you own the book, or are you the best Google detective of all time?

April 22, 2010   DG&B   advice, feedback, marketing/publicity, reading, Stacey  
14

Author websites

by Stacey

An author recently asked me to take a look at her revamped, updated, and exciting new website. It got me thinking about what a good website entails, which author sites are worth seeking out, and what readers are looking for when they visit an author website. My research took me to this old but interesting piece written by the head of Thomas Nelson which offers some ideas about tools to rank your website’s success, and some, as he calls them, surprising conclusions about traffic to author websites.

All of this author website talk now turns to you, our blog readers, to find out what you want to see when you visit an author’s website? Is it personal information about the author, videos of interviews, excerpts from their book(s), contests? I’d love some feedback from you on what’s of personal interest to get some perspective and perhaps allow us to better inform our authors of things they can do to make their websites more appealing to readers and fans. It would also be helpful to know some of your favorite websites, ones you keep going back to over and over. Thanks!!

April 14, 2010   DG&B   advice, feedback, fun, Miriam, opinion  
21

Out of questions yet?

by Miriam

The weather in New York is beautiful today. Sunny, low humidity, none of those icky smells we’ll be subjected to once the temps start heading toward triple digits. And, I’ve got a case of spring fever–meaning that I am having a hard time wrestling my mind back to thoughts of work as it keeps veering off to fantasies of sitting in Union Square Park drinking a mid-morning latte and watching squirrels chase each other.

So, given my seasonally induced lack of intellectual wherewithal to come up with an interesting and enlightening blog topic, I thought I’d jump on Jim’s questions bandwagon and let you guys do all the work. Given what you know about us as agents, bloggers, and all-around snarks, what do you want to know that you can’t find in the submission guidelines or staff bios page of the DGLM website. Target v. K-Mart? Pynchon v. Vonnegut? Dancing with the Stars v. American Idol? Kindle v. Nook? I’ll answer to the best of my lethargic abilities….

April 12, 2010   DG&B   advice, feedback, fun, Jim, opinion  
37

Blogger’s block

by Jim

Let’s face it, sometimes you stare at a blank screen, knowing you need to write SOMETHING, and nothing comes to mind.

Yes, dear readers, I’m suffering from writer’s block on the blog (blogger’s block?). So I look to you for inspiration. Go down there to the comments and ask me anything. Pet peeves in a query, favorite Stephen King novel, best pitch ever heard, preferred footwear designer, least favorite colleague (okay, maybe not that one). But you get the picture.

Bombs away!

April 05, 2010   DG&B   favorites, feedback, fun, Jim, reading  
9

Jim told you what to read: A recap

by Jim

I had a lot of fun/was totally overwhelmed last Monday when I offered to suggest the next book any commenter should read based on the last five titles they had completed.

Beyond the fact that I love telling people what to do, it was an interesting challenge trying to draw connections between titles individuals had read (often without having read those books myself). And coming up with fresh books to recommend each time was tricky. Happily, since 2007, I have kept a list of everything I read.

For me, reading is a great individual pleasure, and there’s something exceedingly exciting about finding a novel on your own that you just tumble head over heels for. But there is something equally invigorating about finding yourself in a community of readers. I thank everyone who took part for sharing what they’ve read and entering that community for a moment. It was also an exciting opportunity to mentally revisit my own reading habits, and I can say that I’ve been browsing my bookshelves quite a bit over the past week. I was surprised to find that I didn’t recommend anyone read Prague by Arthur Phillips, a novel I adore and have tried to convince many people to read over the years. For some reason no one ever takes me up on it. So I’ll offer it as a group suggestion. It has one of my favorite openings ever, and there’s a small scene on a funicular over the river between Buda and Pest that thrilled me so much I can still remember the first time I read it.

One of the most interesting comments (I thought) came from Michael who noted: “Too lazy to check for myself but of all the books mentioned in the last five read list, has any book been mentioned by more than one reader? So much for the idea we all are reading today’s ‘Bestsellers’.”

Good question! I went through all the lists and counted. Five books were read by three people. They were:
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Wintergirls
Kathryn Stockett’s The Help
James Dashner’s The Maze Runner (repped by our very own Michael Bourret)
Gail Carriger’s Soulless
Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth (repped by yours truly)

Soulless totally surprised me. Two books that agents here represent makes sense since our readers might share an interest in…you know, us. Wintergirls and The Help are great big books that have gotten tons of attention. Soulless doesn’t seem to have those characteristics, which makes it kind of exciting. Are we seeing a book in the process of really breaking out? Go Gail Carriger!

And then one series truly set itself apart: seven people had read either The Hunger Games or its sequel Catching Fire. Rock on, Suzanne Collins. I haven’t loved a YA series more since Harry Potter. I root for the success of these books as a reader and a fan.

But let’s get to the MOST exciting part of my suggestions: the ones people have already taken! Three people have been in touch so far to let me know that they read what I suggested. How’d it go? Well…two hits and a miss.

Kristi had this to say: “I don’t often read books involving male protagonists but I absolutely loved “Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You.” It was a quick read but has stayed with me for several days and I love it when books do that to me.” Yay! This makes me happy.

About We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Joan offered this: “I loved it from the first page: “Everyone else in my family is dead.” And the magic continued throughout the book where she’d drop in little bombs like that… To me it felt like a mix of two of my favorites, Diane Setterfield’s Thirteenth Tale and Sarah Waters’ Little Stranger. I’m sure you’ve read them, but if not, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.” Hurrah! Success AND other recommendations. I’ve read the Setterfield but not the Waters. Add it to the list!

Peggy was less thrilled with her suggestion. “It was… OK…I’m glad I read something by de Maupassant, though, since he’s one of those authors I was probably supposed to read in high school and never did. I have found, as I have read those sorts of books through the years that most of them are disappointing. I suppose the moralistic tales that can teach us what to be – or not to be – in high school don’t have much effect on us years later.” Drat! Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all!

To wrap it all up, I got a lot out of this exercise and hope others got a bit of fun out of it as well. And I hope that if any more people do read the books I recommended, they let me know what they think, good or bad!

March 23, 2010   DG&B   about us, feedback, Lauren, our blog  
20

Checking in

by Lauren

So how’s it going DGLM blog readers? We wanted to take the opportunity now that we’ve had time to settle in to find out how you feel about the changes we made here.

We’ve all been thrilled with the feedback we’re getting and how active you guys are. Finding time to work on this without taking time away from our clients has been a challenge–I’m writing this on the subway en route to the office, for example–but we’re having fun being part of the discussion with you.

So how do you feel about the redesign? We’re blogging much more than we used to, but are there areas we’re still not covering (or covering enough) that you’d like us to consider? What are you liking most? Least? The title contest and Slush Week were both a lot of fun for us, and we’d love to do more contests and series–what do you think? Is there a helpful button or widget you wish you could find in our sidebar? We’ve gotten great suggestions from you guys, like Slush Week and the I Wish I Saw More… sidebar, so please keep ’em coming. (In the comments below, but also in the comments at any time! We’re always interested to hear what you think.)

You can see the blogs that we’re reading to the right–we’d love more suggestions! In particular, I’d love to read a blog by someone who works in sub rights. Anyone know of one?

Speaking of which, who are you? Unpublished authors, published authors, editors, agents, publishing professionals, tax attorneys who simply love our sparkling wit? Let us know below, anonymously or otherwise.

Some housekeeping as well. We stopped doing questions corner because we weren’t really getting many questions emailed, but we’re reading the questions you ask in the comments and try to cover the bigger ones in separate blog posts. If you’re missing that feature, try clicking the advice tag in the cloud at bottom.

Speaking of the tag cloud, I may have gotten a little overambitious early on with the tagging and created a ton of tags that aren’t very useful, so I’ll be cleaning that up a bit.

And for our fellow Blogger bloggers, are there any handy widgets or tricks we should know about? You guys were very helpful in resolving our color issues some time back. If anyone has any tips on embedding video in particular, that’d be great. We’ve had sizing issues, fought with the HTML forever, and then given up when it was still not quite right.

Most of all, thanks to everyone reading! Thanks to the linkers and retweeters and Facebook sharers who’ve helped us find others. Thanks for actively participating in the discussions, letting us know what you think, and helping us improve. Thanks also to those of you who read but don’t comment–we hope to hear from you, too! It’s a genuine pleasure talking with all of you.

And now the train’s pulling into 14th Street, so it’s time for me to go!

November 06, 2009   DG&B   changes at DGLM, feedback, our blog, polls, What's New at DGLM  
3

DGLM Poll-a-thon

Thanks to all of you for the great feedback in the comments on our post about changing things up around here. I’ve turned that feedback into some handy polls, so we can get a better sense of what all of you would like to see. And while we’ll still have to decide how much of the feedback we’re getting it’ll make sense to run with, we are eager to hear from you.

And let me apologize in advance if these polls don’t actually work–I’m trying some advice I found on a message board to put the polls in the posts rather than the sidebar, but as we’ve seen, when I get near HTML code, colors tend to go wonky. I’ll fix ’em if this doesn’t actually do the trick. Wish me luck!

-Lauren

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