Category Archives: Michael

March 31, 2011   Michael   art, libraries, Michael, photos  
0

On a lighter note

I feel like everyone’s been so serious on the blog this week, and I’m nothing if not a contrarian (no I’m not!).  So this week, nothing but some gorgeous, pseudo-educational fun from me.  Have you ever wondered: what’s the world’s largest indoor 360-degree photograph?  I’ve been wondering for years, but I’ve been too lazy to look it up.  Fortunately, Shelf Awareness pointed me in the right direction today, over to 360 Cities, a site full of panoramic images.  But this is the record holder: a photo (actually many photos stitched together) of the Strahov Monastery Library in Prague.  You can actually get close enough to see the titles and authors of the books, and the level of detail in the painting is spectacular.

No existential questions here.  Just enjoy the beauty of books.

March 24, 2011   Michael   Barnes and Noble, Borders, e-books, Michael, opinion  
13

Bookstores matter

With the digital publishing revolution upon us, it seems like bookstores are going the way of the dodo. Borders is in bankruptcy and closing hundreds of stores (including some here in Southern California that I particularly liked), Barnes & Noble can’t seem to sell itself, and some amazing indies have decided to close their doors. Some e-vangelists don’t seem to mind this trend–the future (and some argue present) belongs to the e-book, and traditional bookstores won’t have a major role after the revolution. Books will be found through online marketing, author promotion, and word-of-mouth, they say.

Speaking at GigaOm’s Structure Big Data conference yesterday, Marc Parrish, Barnes and Noble’s VP of Retention and Loyalty Management, made some very interesting comments (as reported by Cyndy Aleo in this GigaOm article). First, he noted that as readers move to e-books, their buying patterns change, favoring a particular author or category, which means that consumers are focusing on a much narrower set of books. When you combine this with evidence that e-book consumers are on average buying more e-books than they did print books, it presents publishers with a challenge: they clearly have a market for established authors–maybe even an easier one to reach–but how do they sell new authors in this environment?

Which leads to the second point Parrish made: bookstores are still the best discovery tool around. All that table, endcap and shelf space is advertising (we all know that it’s bought through co-op), but it’s the best, most-focused, cheapest advertising around. Publishers pay for it because it works. By time someone is in a bookstore, they’re at least peripherally interested in purchasing books. And finding something new is easy with the choices that abound. Even if someone is looking for a particular author, so many other books are presented along the way. (I hate anecdotal evidence, but I will say that while I’ve found new authors in all sorts of bookstores, I’ve never bought a book in an e-bookstore that I wasn’t already looking for.)

Now, I take this with a grain of salt, as B&N clearly has a vested interest in keeping the brick-and-mortar stores alive. But they also have a big investment in digital, and in the book ecosystem generally. I think his conclusion is quite right: bookstores matter. Curious to hear what you think. Are bookstores a necessary and important part of book discovery?

March 10, 2011   Michael   digital publishing, e-books, Michael  
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Understanding the e-book pricing issue

With the recent news that Random House was adopting the agency pricing model for e-book sales, I started hearing the, “What does this all mean?!” question from authors again.  When the switch to the agency model happened with the other “Big 5″ last year, I spent a lot of time discussing the differences between the wholesale and agency models of e-book sales.  I’ve sent authors articles that explain the differences and why it matters, both practically and philosophically.  But today, I came across the most succinct, lucid description I’ve seen, from former-agent Nathan Bransford.  The point of the blog post is to explain why you might pay more for an e-book than for a new hardcover–something that seems insane until you understand how both e-books and print books are sold from publishers to retailers.

So please take a look!  And if you have further questions, I’m happy to try to answer them.

March 03, 2011   Michael   about us, advice, Michael, what we're looking for  
8

Make me laugh

I went to a comedy show last night.  I’ve seen a lot more comedy since I moved to LA, in part because I know a couple of people here who do it.  One friend actually hosts a monthly show that I always attend, even when I don’t feel like it.  When you work from home and start work at 6:30 AM, getting your butt out of the house for a comedy show that starts at 8 PM is a challenge.  (Ok, I know plenty of people for whom this would not be hard, but I’m a bit of a homebody.)  I always make myself go, though, because no matter how crappy I may feel when I leave the house, I always feel great by time the show starts.

It comes down to this: I love to laugh.  And I will laugh at just about anything, though especially at my own jokes–which anyone at DGLM will confirm.  And I think humor is important.  One of the comics last night dealt with some really dark, heavy topics, but in doing so with humor, she really drew the audience in.  People were listening to her in a way they wouldn’t have if she’d dealt with the issues in a more serious way.

All of this is to say, I’d really like to see more funny submissions.  Funny memoir, YA, middle-grade, adult fiction–you name it.  I’m just in the mood to laugh.  And if you’re laughing about life’s more serious subjects, even better.  I’ll always take darkly comic over slapstick.  So I dare you: make me laugh!

February 25, 2011   Michael   fun, Michael, nonfiction, West Coast  
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I like to talk about the weather

There’s a real possibility that it might snow here in LA over the next couple of days!  Overnight temps here are supposed to get into the low 30s, and there could be snow at elevations as low as 500 feet.  Craziness, especially considering how warm things were up until last weekend.  But yes, folks, it really can get cold here in sunny California, and it can actually get cloudy, too–today is one of those days (though as I typed those words, the sun broke through the clouds–it can’t be kept down for long).

What’s this got to do with books?  Probably not much, but I’m feeling the blogger’s block this week, and I was tickled by this Jacket Copy post on the weather and the Farmer’s Almanac.  For those that know me, I’m a bit of a Farmer’s Almanac fanboy.  I have no use for the information, really–I don’t garden–but I love both weather and predictions, so it’s the perfect combination for me.  And it’s impressive just how often they get it right, even if they seemed to have missed the mark with this cold snap we’re having.

Any other Almanac fans out there?

February 17, 2011   Michael   Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Michael, retailers, selling  
4

Bummed about Borders

Seriously, I’m rather upset about this Borders news.  Yeah, they were mismanaged for years.  Their website was a disaster (and kind of still is), and letting Amazon be their online retailer for years?  I think just about anyone could have told you that that was a bad idea. But Borders, by being the “other” chain, has played a very important role in the publishing ecosystem.  While Barnes & Noble has had a larger share of sales for years, and therefore has exerted more control over what gets published, Borders was always an excellent counterbalance.  When publishers had a hard time getting B&N to order a book in the quantity they desired, they could hope that enthusiasm from Borders might make B&N reconsider.  They could go back to B&N and say, “Are you sure you’re not missing something?  Borders is taking a lot more than you!”  Granted, it didn’t always work.  Sometimes it took Borders actually selling a book for B&N to get behind it.  As an editor put it to me today about a particular book, “They got the ball rolling.”  Whether through their Original Voices Award or their Books You’ll Love program, when they supported a book, they made things happen.  And when the copies are flying out of one retailer, other retailers pay attention.  And not just B&N, but the big box stores and the indies, too.  You really can’t underestimate just how much that kind of broad, national, enthusiastic support can affect things.

I know that I’m taking this news particularly hard because Borders has supported a couple of my authors in really big ways.  While I know both would have been successful without Borders, I don’t think they would have been as successful as quickly.  Borders’s taste (I know it seems odd to think of a chain having taste, but hear me out) was always just a bit different, a little bit less obvious, maybe.  They could often see the commercial side of the not-so-commercial books, and in being the underdog, I think they paid particular attention to books that others might have been overlooking.

It’s terrible to be losing 200 of their stores, and even more terrible to think that it’s quite possible they won’t pull out of this mess ever.  I’m sad that great booksellers will be losing their jobs and that some nice retail locations here in SoCal will close—the Pasadena store was pretty great.  I’m sad to think the bookstore that I frequented most often in high school might no longer exist.  And I’m sad for the authors who won’t get championed by a company that truly believed in books.

February 03, 2011   Michael   fun, Michael, publishers, video  
2

Too cute to be embarrassing

When I saw a tweet from GalleyCat that read “Random House staffers share their teen crushes in a book trailer; who was your teen crush?” I immediately assumed it would be from children’s book editors.  As much as I would have loved that, I was tickled to find some of the more venerable names from the very literary Knopf talking about the guys and gals that made them swoon, to promote Allison Pearson’s I Think I Love You.  It turns out that Allison had a thing for David Cassidy as a teen, as does the protagonist of her book.   I don’t want to reveal who crushed on whom, because it was just so much fun to hear Judith Jones and Chip Kidd acting so silly in the video. Definitely worth three minutes!

January 27, 2011   Michael   about us, fun, Michael, our clients, what we're looking for, why I signed up, writing, YA  
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Why I signed.. Brodi Ashton

I thought I’d give you, our readers, a bit of insight into what I like and what I look for in a submission.  It’s often hard to articulate what does and doesn’t work once you get past simple mechanics and formatting–which is one of the reasons agents often blog and write about those details.  I hope hearing about why I signed Brodi Ashton gives you a window into my thoughts.

This story is going to start in a surprising way, maybe even for Brodi herself!  Brodi came to me highly recommended by not just one but several clients.  I had actually been hearing about her for quite some time before she queried me.  The clients recommending her were enthusiastic about not just her work, but also as a person.  Everyone seemed to like her.  You’re probably thinking that this was all weighing heavily in her favor, and the truth is, it was…and wasn’t.  By time she queried me, I’d heard such good things that I was a bit overwhelmed by the praise, and frankly concerned she couldn’t live up to it.  But her email query was very friendly, and I really liked the sound of her novel, which she mentioned was based in part in Greek mythology:

“17-year old Nikki Beckett has just returned from the Underworld to a family who doesn’t know where she’s been, a boyfriend who doesn’t know why she left, and old friends who think she’s using. But Nikki won’t have time to answer questions. She only has six months at Park City High before the tunnels of the Underworld come for her again. Six months for goodbyes she’ll never be able to say out loud. Six months to find redemption, if it exists.

She didn’t plan on Jack’s reaction to her return. The boy she betrayed so long ago doesn’t care why she left him or why she’s back, as long as he doesn’t lose her again.

When Nikki discovers she didn’t return to the surface alone, being near Jack becomes dangerous – for him. Cole, an Everliving, followed her back from the Underworld, and he needs Nikki in order to make his push for the throne. He’ll do anything to make it happen, even if it means going back to high school.

Jack would sacrifice anything to help Nikki defeat Cole, but the choice will be Nikki’s: serve the Underworld, or rule it.”


Greek mythology?  Supernatural beings?  Undying love?  And a heroine who who must choose between two seemingly terrible alternatives?  Yes, please!  Paranormal books continue to sell very well, and this pitch was full of both romance and high stakes–something I knew editors were looking for.  I was also impressed that I was able to understand the heart of the story very easily from a short pitch, despite not understanding the rules of the world yet.  I was paying attention by this point, but it was the next paragraph of her query that really drew me in:

“I wrote this story because as a teenager, I had a friend who just took off one day. When she returned months later, she was different. Broken. I never found out where she went, but I wondered what would do that to a person as I watched her try to reclaim her life. I was fascinated in the before and the after, so this story looks at why Nikki left and the struggle after she returned.”

I love to know where writers get their ideas.  And I really loved that Brodi used Greek mythology to explain why something happened in real life–just like the Greeks used myths to explain the world around them.  So, before I got her email I was apprehensive that she couldn’t live up to the hype, and then she blew me away with just the kind of story I love.  I was totally, completely hooked, and I hadn’t even read a word yet.  Though she’d included a sample, I didn’t need to look at those pages to know I’d be reading the whole book.  So I quickly requested the manuscript that day.

Needless to say, the manuscript lived up to the query letter.  I knew about half way through that I wanted to work with Brodi, but the moment when I knew I could sell this book came only a few pages from the end when–and this is hard to admit–I may have teared up.  Or cried.  Whatever you want to call it.  The story moved me in a way that I did not expect.  Before I could reach out to her, Brodi let me know she already had more than one offer of representation, and I immediately set up a time to speak with her.  We discussed the book at length, and it turned out that she and I had a similar vision for it and the rest of the series.  We talked about what I thought worked and what needing more fleshing out, and we talked about dramatically changing the very end of the book.  I was happy with the conversation, confident that my vision was the right one for the book, and nervous beyond belief.  In the end, I was lucky enough to have Brodi choose me over several other agents clamoring for her book, now titled EVERNEATH.  In the fall, we accepted a pre-emptive offer from the amazing Kristin Daly at  Balzer + Bray, and the book is due out in 2012.

So that’s why I signed Brodi Ashton.  Hope it gives you a better idea of what I’m looking for and what the process is like.

January 20, 2011   Michael   advice, conferences, etiquette, Michael  
31

Making the most of a conference

I had the pleasure of attending SCBWI Florida’s Wizarding World of Writing conference this past weekend.  It was a good event, and I met some talented writers and great people.  But I noticed something worth pointing out: for every person who came up and talked to me, there were at least five who smiled and nodded but didn’t actually speak with me.  Now, I’m making an assumption here, but I think those smiling and nodding folks probably wanted to talk to me.  I’m assuming that because they were at the conference.  And, if you’re going to get your money’s worth, you should be talking to the faculty!  I’m sure it’s easier for writers to talk to the featured authors; they can convey their appreciation for the author’s work and have a conversation between peers, at least of sorts.  I understand why  authors might find agents and editors  scary, but have you seen my picture?  I’m not exactly intimidating.  In fact, I think I’m pretty darn friendly!  I also love to talk to new authors, and I attend conferences not just to scout new talent, but to help people improve their craft.  Without interaction, it’s difficult to do that.  This doesn’t mean that you should be pitching indiscriminately, or interrupting someone’s workout, meal, drink or conversation.  You should still be polite.  But conferences usually offer ample networking time, and if you don’t take advantage of it, someone else will!

As anyone who works with me knows, I love to assign homework.  So for you dear blog readers, I have an assignment: the next time you attend a conference, introduce yourself to at least one agent or editor.  And if you’ve had a good experience speaking with an agent at a conference, let us know in the comments!

January 10, 2011   Michael   advice, conferences, feedback, Michael, opinion, social networking  
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Miami this weekend!

I’m really looking forward to my first conference of the year, the Wizarding World of Writing conference held by SCBWI Florida (which you should know I’m attending because it’s on our nifty new calendar over yonder).  I’ll be doing some manuscript critiques, a fantastic “Psst! Wanna Know a Secret” agent panel with fabulous agents Erin Murphy and Sarah Davies, and a workshop on social networking.  I’ll also be spending time with the amazing faculty, which includes editors and authors I very much respect and admire.  What can I say?  I love publishing!

But I’m really here to ask for your help.  As I mentioned, I’m doing a workshop on social networking, officially titled “I’m Mad as Hell, and I’m Not Going to Tweet It Anymore!”  I have a good presentation put together about my perspective, but I’m wondering if our amazing blog readers have any questions they’d like answered or wisdom they’d like to share.  I want to make sure I’m addressing what writers are thinking (and worrying) about, not just what’s on my mind.  I have a lot of opinions, as you know!

Send me your thoughts in our new comments when you have a chance.  Doesn’t the redesigned site look great?

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