Chris McGrath, an online entrepreneur from Milton Keynes, who wrote and self-published a little-known book entitled The Attempted Murder of God: Hidden Science You Really Need to Know, has launched libel proceedings against Vaughan Jones, 28.

He claims Mr Jones wrote damning reviews of is book on Amazon September and October 2010, which he had published under the pseudonym “Scrooby.” Mr Jones also revealed his true identity.

The suit is for defamation rather than invasion of privacy (i.e., revealing the author’s true identity).

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Awesome news, guys, Stanza is NOT dead.  Apparently, a month after Apple’s iOS update, Amazon has gotten around to releasing a Stanza update so it now works just fine on your iOS devices.

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Amazon has acquired YAP, a speech transcription software company. The co founder of YAP helped develop the speech engine that drives Nuance (which drives Siri) One columnist suggests that means that there will be speech enabled books in the future for Kindle users. AllThingsD points out that it can facilitate shopping by voice.

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A number of authors really hate the format production process at Smashwords known as the meatgrinder, particularly those authors who go to great lengths to produce a beautifully rendered ePub. In response to those complaints, Smashwords will begin to accept other ebook formats, other than DOC, in 2012.

This is good for readers because the meatgrinder doesn’t always produce well formatted ebooks.

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A couple of weeks ago, I saw the debacle on Courtney Milan’s blog where she suggested the language used by Barry Eisler and J A Konrath in support of their opinions regarding authors in publishing was incendiary. Shortly after this, a reader emailed me with a link to Konrath’s blog, a link to a YouTube video, and a link to Amazon.

Konrath and Eisler have  co written a book called “Be the Monkey” that is sold at Amazon. “Be the Monkey” title is based on this very graphic video of a monkey orally and anally raping a frog.  (Trigger warnings here for those who are sensitive to sexual abuse).

I objected to two white, wealthy men (based on their proclamations of earnings) encouraging people using a metaphor about power through sexual dominance and the binary choice of be the rapist v. be the rapee.  ”Be the Monkey,” I divined, was a metaphor based on the video of the monkey exerting his dominance over the frog.   Konrath took exception to this:

@jane_l We compared publishing to two animals. Two animals are NOT in any way equal to humans being violated and abused.

I pointed out it was a metaphor but Konrath came back and said it was an analogy about monkeys and frogs, nothing more:

jakonrath We linked to a monkey and a frog. The anology begins and ends with a monkey and a frog. Don’t read more into it.

How can I not?  Isn’t that the purpose of linking the video with the book and writing a blog post about it?  And how can an analogy using monkeys and frogs actually only be about monkeys and frogs?  Isn’t an analogy or a metaphor all about using literal terms to express more abstract concepts like, say, power?

Konrath claimed that I should be ashamed of drawing that conclusion from the metaphor analogy:

jakonrath Sorry, I respect women too much to compare them to frogs. Rape shouldn’t be trivialized like that.

I pointed out that he, himself, applied the frog metaphor to his own marriage:

Barry: Yes! I mean, which of the networks would have broadcast that monkey raping a helpless bullfrog?

Joe: It wasn’t rape. It was consensual.

Barry: I don’t know. I don’t think the frog was conscious. I’m not sure it was even alive.

Joe: I–

Barry: After the first five minutes, I mean.

Joe: I’m married. I see this all the time. The frog was conscious. Just not very active.

Konrath replied that I should “Read it again, and try to lighten up.”

I don’t get it, right?

But there are far too many rape oriented insults on the internet. Witness the rape language that female gamers suffer regularly and the entire Dickwolf scandal by the Penny Arcade or Laurie Penny’s piece at the Independent about how having an opinion on the internet is akin to wearing a mini skirt or the MMA fighter who tweeted that “Rape is the new missionary.”

The message regarding choice as it relates to publishing, whether one self publishes or traditionally publishes or goes with a digital publisher or does a coop or a mixture of any type of publishing, does not need to rest on rape metaphors. And publishing isn’t a binary choice of being the Frog (the rapee) or the Monkey (the rapist). I’m pointing this out because I’ve quoted Konrath here before with approval. I’ve posted blog posts by Barry Eisler here, with approval. Had I known that these metaphors were being pushed by both as early as May of 2011, I probably wouldn’t have. I’m not sure. I’m regretful today and maybe it is due to my oversensitive and humorless nature.

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Globe and Mail has an infographic about book sales and publisher margins. The margin of profit for publishers is declining with digital books, according to the infographic from $8 to $4.24. I’m not certain I believe this infographic. I still remember Michael Hyatt indicating that at $9.99 and under the Agency model where publishers get 70% instead of the wholesale 50%, publishers’ margins weren’t decreasing dramatically. And then there’s the statement from Hachette (read the last piece)

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Hachette’s sales are down 8% in the U.S.

The decline at the U.S. Hachette Book Group division was attributed to increased sales of lower-priced e-books and the impact of the Borders bankruptcy. E-books accounted for 21% of HBG’s revenue through the first nine months of the year, compared to 9% in the same period in 2010.

Lagardere said while higher e-book sales contributed to lower revenue, they provide a higher margin, although the company provided no earnings in the quarterly trading update.

Via Publisher’s Weekly.

Related posts:

1. Thursday Midday Links: Defamation Accusations Strike Again
2. Thursday Midday Links: Is Google Book Settlement Dead?
3. Thursday Midday Links: Random House hires Sue Grimshaw, former romance buyer for Borders

Dear Ms. Chase:

I don’t have your email address but I had to write you to comment on a note a fan made on your behalf on the Smart Bitches site.  You see, your book Captives of the Night(kind of a sequel to the Lord of Scoundrels) caught the attention of Sarah Wendell.  But not in a good way.  Your cover is poorly designed and it made Sarah wonder if it is was, well, self published.  A reader emailed you to make sure that this was a book sold legitimately. Your response was thus:

BUT, I’m happy to report that the Kindle version of Captives is the first release in the process of an ongoing digitization of my back list—and yes, I’ve authorized it, and I get compensated.  NYLA is my agent.  Yes, sorry about the cover art, but they had to find public domain material, and I didn’t want to drag the process out by micromanaging the design.

I love your books. Love them. I think you are a shining star in the romance genre. I think your books are thoughtful and that you care about your readers and that your care and thought show in the quality of your work.  But this is the problem of publishing with your agent who apparently knows jack all about self publishing.  Nancy Yost is, by all accounts, an awesome agent, but she isn’t doing you any favors putting out a cover like this.  You do not have to use public domain material.  You see you can purchase stock art featuring ladies in historical dress.  You can hire someone to design your cover.  Yes, you do not want to micromanage the design but neither do you have to go with stock art that makes people wonder about the legitimacy of your publication.

P.S.  Someone just emailed me to tell me that the book is not available on any other digital bookstore like nook, Kobo (international readers), Smashwords, or All Romance eBooks.  If that is true, then I’m doubly sad.

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Barry Eisler has made an about face from self publishing and has decided to sign with Amazon’s new mystery/thriller imprint for the publication of his next Rain novel.   Eisler brokered the deal himself (and authors, I wouldn’t suggest this at home because Barry is a lawyer who practiced several years in Silicon Valley as an IP lawyer) and received an advance commensurate with what he was offered from St. Martin’s Press which Barry himself said was $500,000 for two books.  The royalties for print are comparable and the digital royalties are much higher.  Eisler said that the face he has creative control as well as the speed to market encouraged him to make the deal.  With Konrath and Eisler going to Amazon for publishing, is self publishing no longer the best thing out there per these two authors?

I had previously presumed that advances weren’t part of the Amazon publishing scheme but I was wrong.  WRONG.  But the way I see it, Amazon is paying an advance, not just for the book, but for marketing services because Eisler and Konrath speak at a lot of conferences and have large writerly followings and Eisler and Konrath are essentially spreading the gospel of Amazon.  That’s probably worth quite a lot to Amazon.

Speaking of Amazon and publishing, Sarah has an excellent piece on Amazon Montlake over at her blog.

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I saw a tweet that the president of the ABA (American Bookseller Association) said that they were going to experiment with the hardcover + DRM free ebook in the fall.  I don’t see this as anything as a niche (meaning only a few books will garner this type of interest at a premium price) or as a way to preserve print.  But it fits with the publisher goal of trying to present DRM free as a premium feature and preserving print for as long as possible.  Short sighted, in my opinion, but consistent.

Google says consumers love bundling.  (Not sure which consumers Google is talking about) The impediment to bundles? Publishers not allowing discounts.

Google hopes to offer physical/digital book bundles, but publishers are standing in the way. “We’d love to get there. Consumers love bundling,” Dougall said. “But it’s up to the publishing industry to be more open-minded” about allowing discounts on bundles.

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Bloomsbury has announced a new digital division designed to bring readers digital backlist titles.

Bloomsbury Reader, which will be run by digital media director Stephanie Duncan, is similar to Ed Victor’s Bedford Square Books,which he announced earlier this month. Bloomsbury Reader will publish books currently unavailable in print where all English language rights have reverted to the author or their estate and there is no edition currently in print. The books will be sold as e-books or print on demand titles at “affordable prices and to the highest quality specifications”

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British women are pirating books at a higher rate than any other demographic in Britain. I suspect that a lot of this has to do with territorial restrictions.  We need to get rid of those.

According to the firm’s annual Digital Entertainment Survey, one in eight women over age 35 who owns an e-reader admits to having downloaded an illegal version of an e-book. That compares to just one in 20 women in the same age group who admits to having pirated music.

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Paid Content has a few snippets from the BISG study about readers. (I’m trying to get this through interlibrary loan. Wish me luck).

-“Power buyers” represent about 18 percent of the total people buying e-books today, but they buy 61 percent of all e-books purchased.

-The most influential factors leading to an e-book purchase are free samples and low prices.

 

Related posts:

1. Thursday Haiku Review Moment: The Last Hellion by Loretta Chase
2. Thursday Midday Links: New eReaders to debut from BN and Amazon
3. Thursday Midday Links: Thinking of Buying a Dorchester Book?

Amanda Hocking, self publishing star who reportedly sold nearly a half million copies of her 9 books in one month, is on the verge of closing a deal with one of the Big 6 publishers for an advance in the 7 figures.   

Barry isn’t the first author I would have predicted to self publish.   In fact, I thought it might be someone like Janet Evanovich who has turned her books into a mini industry.   It is possible that Evanovich, like Stephen King, has a co publishing deal with SMP so that going it alone makes no sense.   Self publishing is an entrepreneurial endeavor that will result in new but up and coming authors being bought up by larger corporations and existing authors breaking out and starting their own businesses.   It’s a very interesting time.

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More opposites exist in these two bingo cards, one produced by John Scalzi in support of traditional publishing and another produced by Shmuel510, a professional copy editor, in support of readers and digital reading.   Both are fairly biased, but each has its own truths.

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Author Jessica Verday was told by her publisher her contribution to a YA anthology to be published by Running Press would be changed because the story contained an m/m romance between two gay teens.   

I’ve received a lot of questions and comments about why I’m no longer a part of the WICKED PRETTY THINGS anthology (US: Running Press, UK: Constable & Robinson) and I’ve debated the best way to explain why I pulled out of this anthology. The simple reason? I was told that the story I’d wrote, which features Wesley (a boy) and Cameron (a boy), who were both in love with each other, would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers.

I find this shocking given that Running Press had dabbled in publishing mainstream m/m romances.   What would be the point of excluding an m/m romance for teens?   Does the publisher believe that teens don’t know about homosexuality?   or that they aren’t accepting of it?   

Update: Since I wrote this up, apparently the editor of this anthology has spoken up and said to not blame the publishers. Instead, she made the decision to have the story changed/pulled because …. a story about homosexuality somehow is too something for the collection?   

Oh dear. Might as well give you my two cents. Not that it really matters but… Don’t take it out on the publishers, the decision was mine totally. These teen anthologies I do are light on the sex and light on the language. I assumed they’d be light on alternative sexuality, as well. Turns out I was wrong! Just after I had the kerfuffle with jessica, I was told that the publishers would have loved the story to appear in the book! Oh dear. My rashness will be the death of me. It’s a great story. Hope jessica publishes it online. (By the way: if you want to see a you tube video of me wrestling a gay man in Glasgow, and losing, please let me know).

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Amazon killed the Lendle site.   Lendle was a site that allowed Kindle users to share their books through the lending features. This lending feature is not “turned on” by any of the big 6 publishers except, ironically, Macmillan.   Amazon has shut Lendle down by refusing Lendle’s access to Amazon’s API which makes it impossible for Lendle to automatically populate the site based on Amazon’s product identifiers.   Lendle could still continue but it would require a ton of manual input.   

My guess is that Amazon is trying to convince the major publishers to participate in the lending program and this is one way Amazon can say “see we aren’t allowing these lending clubs and it will only be used within a circle of readers similar to a print book club.”

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Amazon has opened its Android App store. Interestingly there is a Kobo App within the Amazon Android store.    I think this means I will have to jailbreak the nook to see exactly how these apps look.   Apple suing Amazon for use of the trademarked term App Store.

Other publishing lawsuits include Microsoft’s suit against Android interfaces including Barnes and Noble’s nook interface. I don’t foresee the suit against BN lasting long and suspect that BN will agree to pay licensing fees to Microsoft rather than fight it.

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HarperCollins is experimenting with paid author events.   Last month, there was a fairly pricey event held with Susan Elizabeth Phillips (I think the price was $75). In April, 75 readers paying $10 will get to have tea with Eloisa James and Julia Quinn at the Panama Hotel Tea House. This is a promotional event run through BookPerk, a company owned by HarperCollins.   

I know that we’ve talked about how authors aren’t like musicians and can’t make money off public appearances, but will that be changing in the future?

Related posts:

1. Tuesday Midday Links: Non traditional sales venues
2. Tuesday Midday Publishing Links: Enhanced EBooks?
3. Tuesday Midday Links: Amazon’s Charm Offensive

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Great to back at DearAuthor, and Jane, thanks for the invitation.   No discussion of execrable book covers this time; instead, I'm going to briefly describe how I first got published, with an eye toward what lessons other writers might learn from my experience and apply to their own efforts

At the risk of stating the obvious, it bears pointing out that the first thing you need to do to get a novel published is- write a novel.   I've said a lot about this before, particularly at my TEDx Tokyo talk, so for now, I'll just mention that in retrospect, I realize what gave birth to my first novel, Rain Fall, was a lifelong tendency to indulge certain passions of mine:   forbidden knowledge, politics, judo, jazz, and Japan (where I was living when I started writing the book).   Stories don't get catalyzed by the things that bore you; they quicken instead when you do the things you love.   So if you want to write a story, or just avoid writer's block, I recommend finding a way to do the things that fascinate you, the things you love to do, the things you obsess over and that make the world go away.   Those things are like coal being shovelled into the furnace of your imagination, and denying yourself those things is like denying your mind the nutrition it needs to thrive.   For more thoughts on how to find the time, discipline, and structure to write a novel (hint: don't watch television), again, my TEDx Tokyo talk is a good resource.

Okay, fast forward:   after about five years of on-again, off-again effort (I had a busy day job), I finished the first draft.   I had no idea what to do with it, so I went to a bookstore and picked up a book on how to get your novel published.   Apparently, I needed an agent.   Okay- next up, The Writer's Digest Guide to Literary Agents.   I identified the ones who handled thrillers, contacted them all in whatever manner each requested and, in short order-

Fifty rejections.

Most were form letters, but a few had some helpful suggestions scribbled in the margins.   A few had some really bad suggestions, one of which I still remember:   "Try third person."   That would have been a disaster for Rain Fall, leaching the story of the appeal of firsthand access to the mind of a ruthlessly competent but conflicted contract killer.   I ignored the bad suggestions, considered the good ones, and did an extensive rewrite.

Eventually, a friend of a friend who worked at a publishing house suggested that I send the manuscript to a few agents with whom she worked, one of whom was Nat Sobel, who became my first agent.   Nat saw promise in the early manuscript but knew it wasn't ready for prime time; he offered suggestions for improvement that were as extensive as they were excellent, and, about two years later, he judged the manuscript ready to go.   At that point (this was autumn, 2001), the deals came fast and furious:   first Sony's Village Books in Japan, then Penguin Putnam in the US, then eight foreign offers, all over the course of about two months, all two-book deals.   I quit my day job and have been writing full time ever since-’a dream come true.

Let's pause here and consider what might be usefully learned from my experience.

If I could do things over, I would have tried to write more consistently.   Spending months or even days away from a manuscript detaches the story from your unconscious.   Conversely, working on a story every day lights a fire in your unconscious that becomes self-sustaining, igniting new story points even when you're not consciously working on the draft.   So the on-again, off-again approach drastically inhibits your access to one of your most powerful storytelling assets:   your unconscious, what I've heard Stephen King call "the boys in the basement."

I would also have read more how-to books.   There are some excellent books on craft out there, and while I believe they're of secondary importance to actually writing and to learning to read like a writer, they can dramatically accelerate your mastery of craft.   Anyone who tells you "but you can't teach art," by the way, is being glib.   Of course art can't be taught, but teaching art isn't the point.   The point is:   all art is based on craft-’that is, on a   body of techniques that can be taught to and learned by anyone with talent.   Art is an expression of something unique to you and indeed, it can't be taught.   But without craft, there is no art, because all art is based on craft. The truism that "art can't be taught" is an observation so pointless and irrelevant that I wonder how it continues as a meme.   Maybe it makes artists feel more special, as though they've been chosen for unique dispensation by the magical writing muse.   Maybe it comforts talented non-artists by freeing them of responsibility for their failure to study.   Either way, it's silly and misleading and ought to be retired.

(On the subject of glib pronouncements inexplicably embraced unimpeded by critical thought:   Frank Zappa is supposed to have said, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."   I suppose this could be true, if the expressive, descriptive, and overall communication possibilities of dance were identical to those of the written word.   Are they?)

(Another glib straw man argument, advanced not long ago by David Pogue, the NYT's technology columnist, is that we in the book biz need not be concerned about digital books because "E-book readers won't replace books." True, and the car hasn't replaced the horse and buggy-’you can still catch a carriage ride around Central Park, right?   But this is probably scant comfort to the horse-based transportation economy, which was devastated by the advent of the automobile.   The point isn't replacement; it is disruption, and anyone who tells you the functional equivalent of "firearms didn't really change warfare because after all the bow and arrow is still used at the archery range" is intellectually lazy or in denial or both.)

Sorry about the parentheticals- obviously, more coffee is in order.   Anyway, there's no substitute for practice, true, but for any skill you're trying to learn-’a martial art, a language, a musical instrument, writing-’there's an optimal balance of practice and theory.   In retrospect, I realize would have learned faster if I'd informed my practice with a little more theory, whether how-to books, writer's groups, conferences, or whatever.

One thing you shouldn't conclude from the fact that it was a friend of a friend who put me in touch with the guy who became my first agent is that it matters who you know in this business.   That's a common misapprehension, born of wishful thinking.   What matters is writing a great story.   The literary agent's business model involves reviewing everything that comes in, so eventually I would have gotten to Nat, and his judgment would have been the same.   Having someone steer me to him speeded things up for me, but that's all.

Remember, who you know might get a door opened for you, or get it opened a little sooner than you might have opened it on your own.   But what happens on the other side of that door is entirely up to you.   Manage your priorities accordingly (translation:   Write. The. Book).

Another lesson:   the truth of the adage, "Good writing is rewriting.   Sometimes people are astonished when they learn that Rain Fall, the first novel I'd started, was also my first published.   What they don't realize is that how much rewriting went into that manuscript-’for the amount I learned from it, it might as well have been my fifth manuscript, not, technically, my first.   You have to be committed taking the time and expending the effort to develop your mastery of the craft-’the practice side of the practice/theory balance I mentioned earlier.

Maybe I should close with a few thoughts on what kept me going during the eight years between the first idea for the Rain Fall manuscript and the first sale of rights for the novel.   That can be a long, lonely stretch:   no contract, a busy day job, the distractions of everyday life, and no external reason to believe you have the talent or might have the luck to get published.

I think that, in life, there are things you can control and things you can't (or, to think of the whole thing as a continuum, there are things that are relatively amenable to your influence and things that are relatively unamenable).   The things you're responsible for, and therefore the things that can be the source of legitimate pride or shame, are the ones you can control.   If you want to be a writer, the thing you can almost totally control is finishing the book.   Finding an agent, getting published- that all takes a certain amount of luck and timing and circumstances (although of course your hard work on what you can control will affect these less controllable factors, too).   So my attitude was this:   I wanted to be published, but if it didn't happen, I didn't want it to be my fault.   I wanted to be able to look in the mirror and say, "Okay, you didn't manage to get published, but you did everything you could to make it happen, you finished the book, so you've got nothing to be ashamed of and every reason to feel proud."   That attitude-’the fear of one day feeling that if I didn't make it I might think it was my fault-’is what kept me going for many years with no external signs of success.   Imagine how it'll feel if you don't get published and you know it was your fault-’and make sure not to let that happen to you.

I hope this was helpful-’and that you'll now get back to writing!

Related posts:

1. Writing About the Difficult Protagonist by Barry Eisler
2. GUEST REVIEW: Fault Line by Barry Eisler
3. GUEST REVIEW: Fault Line by Barry Eisler

I asked if he would allow me to post a piece about writing and in return I promised to post it near the release date of his newest book,Inside Out: A Novel, a fictional book that at times seems more fact than the newspaper reports. The protagonist in the Rain series is an assassin, an anti hero. How can we cheer for a guy who kills others for a living? The following is Barry’s theory. Got a different one or agree? Leave a comment.

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I have an odd habit of writing protagonists who are killers-’assassins, black ops soldiers, rogue spies, femme fatales (actually, I guess that would be femmes fatale?).   The books are doing reasonably well, so all the killing seems not to be turning people off.   This must mean either that the public is exceptionally depraved, or that I'm writing my characters in a way that makes them engaging and sympathetic despite what they do.   I don't know that I could offer any useful thoughts on public taste (other than to wonder:   did they really need to do a remake of  I Spit On Your Grave?), so I'll stick to some thoughts on craft:   specifically, how do you make readers care about a protagonist who they should in fact be expected to despise?

I'll focus on my series character  John Rain, a half-Japanese, half-American assassin whose specialty is making it look like natural causes, because if you can make a contract killer sympathetic, your only remaining challenge is probably robocallers and people who talk on cell phones in elevators.   What's the secret?

First, you have to remember that when we experience a character in a novel, we experience him or her not in isolation, but rather by reference to his or her surroundings.   So Rain may be a bad man, but within the corrupt, duplicitous world in which he finds himself, he's actually pretty good.   He has a code (no women or children, no acts against non-principals); he has a conscience (he's troubled by some of what he does); he's good to his few friends (Harry and Tatsu).   This relativity allows us to like Rain.   By the way, I think the best example of this way of making a bad guy into the good guy is Mario Puzo's  The Godfather, where the Don comes across as the most admirable character in the book.   Sure, he's an organized crime boss and murderer, but within the book's overall setting that's all just a given.   What really matters is that the Don is a family man, is straight-laced about sex, won't sell drugs, and is relied on and trusted by his community.   In a sense, Puzo turns upside down the ordinary moral universe that we take for granted-’an amazing case of authorial slight of hand.

Also, at times you get a peek at Rain's past-’his initial killing experience in Vietnam, for example-’which makes him much more real to the reader.   Real means understandable, and understandable means, possibly, sympathetic.   You come to understand not only the events that have shaped Rain; you also are privy to his thoughts and feelings about these events-’his guilt, his remorse, his regret.   Hopefully one comes away from this with a sense that, despite the exterior dissimilarities, Rain is not so different from you or I.   After all, he has a conscience, he's troubled by things he's done, he's lonely, he wants to be part of something larger than himself but doesn't know how-’feelings common to all of us, in which we recognize our common humanity.

In addition to these elements, killers like Rain are appealing because they fulfill (in a safe, fictional environment) certain anti-social wishes that all of us possess.   Think about a character like Thomas Harris's Hannibal Lecter, who's so enthralling that by his third appearance, in  Hannibal, we're cheering him on!   In part, our enthusiasm for Hannibal is a function, again, of the degraded moral universe in which Harris places him (corrupt, incompetent FBI agents; venal, scheming prison administrators; depraved, vicious pursuers); partly, again, it's a function of Hannibal's (admittedly minimal) code of conduct (by his third novelistic appearance he's pretty much only eating the rude or otherwise had-it-coming-to-them).   But there's something else going on here, I think:   we like Hannibal because we want to be like him.   Not that we want to be cannibals, but at some level we do wish we could free ourselves from the rules with which society has surrounded us, we wish we could just do as we please and the hell with the consequences.   Wish-fulfillment is part of the allure of evil characters like Hannibal, and there's some of this going on with Rain, too.   If you cross Rain, he's doesn't complain about it, he doesn't sue you, he doesn't check into an anger management program.   He kills you.   Anyone who's ever dealt with irritating coworkers, rude drivers, or any of the thousands of other annoyances of daily life can't help but feel that "damn, that would be kind of nice."

So overall, I think it pays to do two things when you're trying to make an unsympathetic character sympathetic.   First, place that character in a universe where, by comparison, he or she looks good.   Second, explore the character's inner world.   Open up aspects of your character's psyche that readers can relate to.   Real villains never think of themselves as villains-’they think they're the hero, and difficult protagonists think they're the good guy, too.   Why do they think that?   What's their basis?   Explore that, and you'll be heading in the right direction.

I hope that was helpful, and would love to hear from anyone else who's faced similar challenges in making a difficult protagonist sympathetic how you've gone about it.   And what works for you, or doesn't work for you, as readers?   Any difficult protagonists you've loved despite yourself, or who've turned you off despite the author's efforts?   And any thoughts on why?   Looking forward to a good discussion-’thanks.

Related posts:

1. GUEST REVIEW: Fault Line by Barry Eisler
2. GUEST REVIEW: Fault Line by Barry Eisler
3. EPPIE Judges Know Good Writing When They Read It Just Not that It Was Someone Else’s Good Writing

Fear of criticizing one’s publisher evinces a certain lack of faith in one’s work. If speaking out on an important issue like one’s cover might cause an author to become unpublishable, I wonder how saleable that work really is. If the author’s voice is so easily replicated or replaced, why should it make any mark in the marketplace?

By coincidence, during last week’s controversy, I received an email from Barry Eisler, whose French publisher, Belfond, has repeatedly chosen covers Barry finds weak. Barry’s past attempts to persuade Belfond to change course have been fruitless, and Barry found their latest proposed cover so insipid and inappropriate that he decided to pen them an open letter. Would I post it, he asked? In a word: yes.

Will authors ever feel free to criticize publishers? Should they?   Should a conspiracy of silence be maintained? Does that help or hurt?   Is is unprofessional to air out criticisms in public?   If yes, what kind? If no, why?

Dear Belfond,

I’m grateful that you like my novels enough to buy the French publishing rights. And I hope it goes without saying that I want you to succeed with those rights, and succeed wildly. In fact, I think I can safely say to all publishers, on behalf of all authors, that we want nothing more than to help you succeed.

But damn, you sometimes make it hard.

The cover you plan to use for my seventh novel, Fault Line, pictured below, is inexcusably bad. It’s not just bad for my book; it would be bad for *any* book. It wouldn’t even work as part of a brochure from a surveillance camera equipment supplier (although at least there it would have some logical connection to the underlying product). Yes, it’s that meaningless. That boring. That unlikely to cause a potential customer to do anything but overlook it and move on.

Before we go further, let’s acknowledge two things. First, two percent of people are going to love your cover. It’s their favorite color, they find garage doors strangely erotic, whatever. It doesn’t matter. Such reactions are idiosyncratic and will exist in two percent of the population for any cover imaginable. Unless your goal is to appeal to only two percent of your possible customer base, you need to do better. Second, I understand different things work in different markets. But what you’ve chosen isn’t a violation of a particular market sensibility. It’s a violation of the fundamental principles of marketing itself — principles that apply across cultures. We’ll discuss those principles below.

Now, I grant you, Fault Line isn’t an easy story to capture in a cover. Two brothers — a soldier and a lawyer — riven by an old family tragedy. A conspiracy that forces them back together. A beautiful Iranian-American woman each desires and distrusts. Sex, violence, exotic locales. Suspense. A backstory right out of the headlines.

Did you notice how, in describing the book, I’m also describing its potential selling points, the points that might induce a potential reader to buy it? For some books it’s harder, for some it’s easier, but this is always what you need to do.

Now, can you identify even a single *one* of the selling points I mention above in your proposed cover?

I didn’t think so.

Let’s look at it another way. If you knew nothing about the underlying book and could judge only by this cover image and title, what would you guess the book is about? Related and equally important, what would the cover suggest the book feels like? Sexy, gritty, funny, phantasmagoric, scary, thrilling, fast, slow… you get the idea. A cover should convey sellable mood as well as sellable story points.

What you’ve proposed for Fault Line looks like a closed garage door with a couple CCTV cameras top right. The title suggests there’s some kind of fatal connection here, but in the absence of anything else, that’s not much to go on. So you’d have to guess, “The book is about closed garage doors. Or maybe surveillance cameras.” Of course, you’d be wrong — in fact, the book is not about garage doors or surveillance cameras, or even about concepts suggested by garage doors and security cameras. There is some (incidental) surveillance in the book, but even if the pictured cameras appealingly conveyed this notion, is surveillance really one of this book’s key selling points? Really the reason someone might want to buy this book? Is surveillance the reason *you* bought the book?

The proposed cover doesn’t even offer higher-level clues. Sex? Action? Exotic locales? Is a single one of these more general selling points even hinted at in this proposed cover?

As for the mood your image conveys, I’d say: Closed. Impenetrable. Inert. Dull. Lifeless. Empty.

Are those qualities that attract you to a story? Do you expect they will attract readers?

Of course not. In fact, if someone deliberately sought the most insipid, inert image possible, it would be hard to beat what you’ve proposed. I can only conclude from this that you don’t understand what makes a cover work, or what principles you ought to apply in choosing one, and that you’re therefore picking images more at less at random. That’s not good — you’re in the business of selling books, after all — but it would be worse to just accept this level of performance and give up. So I hope the following will help.

You need to start by asking yourself what *you* liked about the book. Why did you buy the publishing rights? What about the book made it special to you? Why are you excited about it, what moved you, what do you talk about when you talk about the book? If you like, you can approach this step instead by trying to articulate to a imaginary customer why he or she would like the book, find it exciting and satisfying, etc.

Next, once you’ve articulated these things and refined them, list them, in order of importance.

Third, try to identify imagery that suggests these things. You can do this yourself, or through a design firm to whom you’ve conveyed the list above (but don’t outsource the creation of the list itself. You might wind up with… well, with a picture of an olive-hued garage door). The imagery you or the designer selects will form the basis for the cover.

Finally, pressure check the proposed cover by asking the question I mention above: If you knew nothing about the underlying book and could judge only by this cover image and title, what would you guess the book is about? If the cover provides the correct answers — that is, the very things *you* liked about the book — you’re doing well. If you want to be thorough and do this test properly (and why not?), show the cover to people who really don’t know the first thing about the book and ask them what they think the book is about, what they think is the feel or mood of the story within.

A good cover will engage the potential customer. Eye-catching is fine, but it isn’t enough — otherwise we could just slap on florescent colors and zebra stripes and call it a day. As a general rule, there should be something in the cover that suggests a story, that makes the reader wonder about something hinted at but not revealed, that causes the reader to want to pick up the book to investigate further, something that’s like a whispered promise on which the book will then deliver. If a cover doesn’t interest a potential reader enough to at least cause her to pick the book up and flip it over, you’ve lost the opportunity to get her to take any other steps that might end with her carrying the book to the cash register. And if a cover doesn’t help you sell books, whatever else it might be doing, it’s a failure.

Stated simply, you must keep two things in mind: what a cover is for, and how your cover will achieve it. If you can’t clearly and persuasively answer both these questions, your efforts are likely to be substandard.

For what it’s worth, you’re hardly the only publisher that finds itself, shall we say, book packaging challenged. See, for example, Stephen King excoriating FSG for their inexcusably anodyne packaging of Mischa Berlinski’s Fieldwork. Or browse the shelves of any bookstore and see how few books are packaged effectively. Or consider this example of a publisher’s proposed author bio. But why not be better? After all, a poorly thought-out cover doesn’t cost less than a well conceived one. Mediocrity doesn’t save you money. It only costs you. And with so many poorly-packaged books out there, it’s easier for a good one to stand out.

Forgive me for discussing your packaging shortcomings in public, but I’ve tried before in private and to no apparent effect. I hope that by addressing you in this context, I might finally get your attention. And though I recognize this kind of communication might irritate you, a reaction authors generally fear, what do I have to lose, really? If you go ahead with this cover, you’ll have killed the book in France anyway (not for the first time, let’s be honest). So for me, there’s not much to lose in beseeching you to do better. And even if you don’t listen, others might learn from your mistakes. A conspiracy of silence on ineptitude in this business is slow suicide for everyone involved, and I’d like to see other authors push back harder when their publishers propose ineffective packages. If this letter encourages or enables other authors to improve their own publishers’ efforts, it would be some measure of consolation for stillborn sales of Fault Line.

But come on, you can do better than this. My British publisher did. Their initial covers for the UK Rain books were almost as bad as what you’ve proposed for Fault Line, and my sales in the UK reflected it. But to their great credit, the Brits acknowledged how poorly they had done, did a complete rethink, and dramatically repackaged the books with stunningly good covers (images below). My UK sales immediately shot up, I earned out, and my UK publisher is now firmly in the black with me. You can do the same, if you want to. I hope you’ll let me help.

Sincerely yours,

Barry

	First British cover for Rain Fall, looking like… a thriller about cloud formations?
	First British cover for Hard Rain, looking like a thriller about… the color mustard yellow?
	Now we’re talking.   Apply my test for a book package to this cover and to the previous British covers:   If you  knew nothing about the underlying book and could judge only by this cover image and title, what would you guess the book is about?   Related and equally important, what does it *feel* like?
	Again:   what does this cover convey vs the first British Hard Rain cover?

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I was literally in the middle of writing this review when the news broke on Tuesday that an Iranian nuclear physics professor was killed by a bomb left outside his home in Tehran. Now I know that the circumstances of this man’s murder have nothing in common with one of the opening scenes in your book other than the words “Iranian nuclear scientist,” but I must confess that I am quite sure I would not have paid nearly as much attention to that news story had I not just finished reading your latest book,Fault Line. I am reminded that real life is as compelling and as fraught with peril as is the best suspense fiction. And that sometimes the two intersect in the most unexpected of ways.

This is not the first guest review of your book to appear here. Carolyn Jewel  wrote one back in December that appeared before I had a chance to even start reading the copy Jane so kindly gave me. I’m glad I read Carolyn’s review first because her perspective as a writer, technology sector worker, and resident of the Bay Area gave your book a great deal of credibility. I am none of those three things. I am a working mom from the midwest who devours about 4 romances a week. I would have taken the book at face value anyway, but it’s nice to know that the book is grounded in reality. You include a lot of detail in the book that is really helpful in setting your scenes–whether in the location is Istanbul or Palo Alto. I liked the way that you gave me a feel for two places that are equally foreign to me.

For those who don’t know,  Fault Line is primarily a suspense story involving a special piece of encryption software called Obsidian. The developer of the software is murdered just before he is to meet with his attorney, Alex Trevan. Alex is responsible for obtaining a patent for Obsidian as well as finding venture capitalists to bring Obsidian to market. Alex stands to gain a great deal should Obsidian perform as promised. When one of Alex’s friends who works in the US Patent Office, and was helping keep Alex informed about the patent’s status, suddenly also turns up dead, Alex becomes suspicious. But  then someone breaks into Alex’s house in the middle of the night and  Alex knows he needs help. So he turns to his older brother, Ben, an army soldier who is an assasin for the US government’s war on terror. They’ve been estranged for many years. Ben comes home to Palo Alto to help. It’s his first trip there since the death of their mother and old hurts and resentments surface time and again as they attempt to solve the mystery of who is after Obsidian and why. Also mixed up in the whole affair is Sarah Hosseini, an attractive young lawyer in Alex’s firm who happens to be an Iranian American.

As has been pointed out repeatedly, this book is not a romance. Nonetheless, I think it would appeal to other romance readers like myself because we like to read about relationships, or more specifically, relationships that have a positive outcome. Personally, I was just as interested in what was going on between Ben and Alex (as well as how Sarah factored in) as I was in the race to protect Obsidian and save Alex and Sarah’s lives. Ben and Alex had seen their family torn apart by a tragedy that also left behind a good deal of guilt and bitterness. I liked the way you used the circumstances surrounding Obsidian to reveal just what kind of men Ben and Alex had become–what their strengths and weaknesses were, and how they had moved on (or not) from the family tragedy. As the stress builds over their circumstances, more and more of that anger and bitterness is let out until they finally really talk to one another. I also really liked the way that both Ben and Alex had the opportunity to do heroic stuff–in other words, the book is not all about Ben riding to the rescue.

But there is also the developing relationship between Ben and Sarah that would appeal to other romance readers. There is some fabulous dialogue between the two of them. Ben leaps to conclusions about Sarah simply because of her race–he is instantly suspicious of her. Sarah stands up to him and challenges his thinking. In return, Ben recognizes that Sarah has made some safe choices in her life and I sense he’s challenging her to take risks. When lust blooms between them it fits, and the romance reader in me hopes that there will be a lot more to this relationship–in a future book perhaps?

This book has a great opening line: “The last thing Richard Hilzoy thought before the bullet entered his brain was, Things are really looking up.” That caught my attention. But there was a lot of ground to cover before Ben and Alex got together. According to my Stanza reader (I read an e-copy on my ipod touch), I was 30% into the book when Alex finally emailed Ben. I found that first 30% a little slow-going at times. The pace was much faster once Ben & Alex were together and I pretty much read straight through from there. I give this book a solid B+.

I will be watching for your next book and perhaps an opportunity to meet you at the RT book signing this spring. Meanwhile, I’ll be looking for some of your older titles. Finally, and again, my thanks to Jane and the DA crew for my copy of Fault Line and the chance to write this review.

Sincerely,
Phyl
“She makes her own quilts”–Prov. 31:22 (NJB)

This book can be purchased at Amazon (affiliate link) or in ebook format from Sony (non affiliate link) or other etailers.

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Fault Line was the first book of yours that I’d read. I’ve since read more, by the way. In the past, I have worked at Intellectual Property law firms as well as in the legal department of a Bio-Tech firm, so I am intimate with the portion of Fault Line that deals with patent prosecution and the highly educated and degreed men and women who do this kind of work. I am also currently employed in the technology sector and while I do not work directly in the security end of IT, my job daily involves many of the issues involved with the security software that is at the heart of the plot of Fault Line. Lastly, I live in the Bay Area and have been to most of the Northern California areas where Fault Line takes place. I found Fault Line to be quite accurate in those respects and I say this with the painful experience of having read books in which authors did not do any research worthy of the noun into the technology they decided to write about. So thank you, Mr. Eisler, for getting it right.

Alex Treven is an intellectual property attorney who’s brought on a client of his own to the firm where he hopes to make partner. The client’s product, a computer security software application, has the potential for immense profits. His hopes unravel when his client is murdered. When the murders continue, it’s clear someone is eliminating everyone assoiciated with the software. Alex and Sarah Hossieni, a beautiful junior associate of Iranian heritage assigned to work with him on the patent application, are the obvious next targets. Correctly afraid he’s in over his head, Alex is left with no choice but to ask his estranged military-operative brother for help.

I confess I was a bit put off by the opening of Fault Lines. A great deal of backstory gets laid down in the first twenty to thirty pages (an estimate, since I was reading on my iPhone) and I started feeling anxious for things to get started.

Two main backstory lines are important to Fault Line; the security software program for which people are being killed on page one and throughout the book, and the family history between the two male protagonists, brothers Alex and Ben Treven.

Initially I was puzzled by Alex who I mistook for the protagonist and found to be oddly beta for the hero of a political thriller. Alex is quickly in physical peril, and for a bit I wasn’t at all sure how this guy was going to survive his story. Patent attorneys do not typically learn the skills required to survive attempted assassinations.

To an experienced reader of Romance (which I am) Alex’s brother Ben is immediately identifiable as Hero Material. In fact, Ben was so precisely the kind of man who is the protagonist of a military Romance that I briefly floundered a bit as I tried to figure out what kind of book I was reading. A traditional political military thriller or a Romance? Or was Fault Line going to be a book that attempted a fusion? Oh, how I have been dying for someone to do this!

Ben Treven is a shooter for US government-sponsored Black Ops, and we meet him as he is carrying out the assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists. He’s emotionally isolated and (to a romance reader) desperately in need of the love of a good woman. But wait! Isn’t Alex in love with Sarah, the only possible Heroine of any romance that might take place? Why, yes, he is! Very interesting, Mr. Eisler. Gotta keep turning pages to find out how that works out.

Fortunately, I got myself properly oriented to the story -’ that is, open minded about where Alex and Ben were headed as dual protagonists and absorbed in the many fascinating dynamics laid out on the pages. Alex and Sarah have the smarts and knowledge required to solve the mystery surrounding the security software while Ben has what it takes to keep them alive and investiate just who is behind the killings while the software mystery is being solved. The various story lines bend back around, intertwine and intersect in intriguing and chilling ways up to and including the ending.

Ben eventually takes over as the protagonist of the story, but Alex remains a strong second protagonist who is vital to the resolution. Ben thinks he’s safe in his tightly controlled world only to gradually suspect betrayal of the worst and potentially fatal sort. Alex and Ben have a truckload of childhood issues to either resolve or figure out how to keep from igniting before the past ends up getting them killed in the present. Alex wants Sarah. Ben wants Sarah and wishes he didn’t. Sarah knows her own mind but really, what woman can resist the likes of Ben after he proves there’s a softer side under that damaged exterior? It’s this portion of the book that is most strongly a Romance. With a capital R.

Most female readers of military thrillers (we are legion, just ask Lee Child) are familiar with the traditional fate of the woman unfortunate enough to fall for the hero. At best, she’s doomed to be dumped while the hero moves on with hardly a regret. Often, however, she’s doomed to die. Fault Line breaks with this tradition. Sarah has scenes in her point of view, which means readers get a direct line to her doubts about Ben and her eventual resolution of most of them. These scenes make Sarah a more fully realized female character than is usual for a thriller.

The romance element of this story is wonderfully done and done without sacrificing the unraveling mystery and resolution as the disparate plot lines come together. Unlike Alex and Ben, however, Sarah is not in a situation that requires her personal or emotional transformation in order to survive. Ultimately, the story is not about the relationship between her and Ben. For this reason, Fault Line is not a romance. That isn’t a criticism, by the way. It’s merely an observation.

I suspect that for readers of military thrillers the deeper focus on Sarah and the relationship between Sarah and Ben must seem novel. Ben is challenged and transformed (in part) by his relationship with Sarah. And yet, she’s not there just so Ben gets to have sex. In fact, I’d even say that in at least one key scene, Ben is there so Sarah gets to have sex. The focus given to the sex scenes and their unusal flip from the male-centric to the female-centric is refreshing. For readers familiar with romance, of course, this is nothing new.

Fault Line is a gripping political/military thriller that moves quickly and features one of the more fully dimensional female characters I’ve seen in the genre. I thoroughly enjoyed Fault Line for all the reasons I enjoy military thrillers and for many of the reasons I enjoy romance.

A-

~Carolyn Jewel

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

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