Today is the national book launch party for Nerd Girls. There are people coming in from all over to enjoy musics, eats, books and a ton more.
If you’re in L.A. we’d love to have ya. (Acoupla hundred are expected; what’s a coupla hundred more, right?)
Yesterday I said that for 99.7% of the authors who will publish a book in 2011, the landscape of being an author about to launch a new title has changed.
Now, I don’t want to get into the weeds by addressing whether or not this is a good or bad thing. Why? Because really, my opinion matters not. The universe of book publishing has been flipped on its head in many ways – but not in all ways (yet you have to figure out which is which; and no one has that answer. Ask 10 different people in the world of publishing and you’ll get 11 different answers… and they will be different answers than those that were given as little as six months ago).
Instead of debating the merits of shift, evolution, de-evolution, and what-not, I am just going to try and be transparent about all the things that I feel almost forced to do as an author in order to give my newest book, NERD GIRLS, a real “shot” at being as successful as I hope it will be. So right now, hold your breath, here’s the target list of things I am doing to help launch my next title.
Nerd Girls Launch
Alan’s Plans
Are you tired of reading yet? Heck, I get tired just looking at all of this stuff and I AM THE ONE DOING IT!
Now, must I? It’s the million dollar question. I’ll get into that a bit more tomorrow.
When I first started out as an author, I used to have to walk barefoot, uphill in the snow BOTH WAYS just to get to a bookstore. Nowadays, the book publishing world has morphed into something ______________ (fill in your own word: exciting, chaotic, dynamic, egalitarian, unrecognizable, opportunity-laced, and so on.)
I still haven’t really gotten my hands around it all in a way. And that kinda stinks for me because as I type this I have a new book coming out on July 5, 2011. This is the date that NERD GIRLS, the first in a planned five book series from me, will launch and the truth is, I really don’t know what the heck I am doing.
But it certainly feels like I am doing a heck of a lot. But, to paraphrase Hemmingway, one shouldn’t confuse activity for actual productivity, and therein lies my rub right now.
To be an author in this day and age means you MUST do more than simply write a good book that people are going to want to read. Those days, at least to me, feel as if they are gone. Of course, this first element is still 100% vital but whereas it used to be an end point, it is now really just a beginning.
First an author has to write a good book that people want to read and then an author has to get out the word about the fact that they have written what they believe is a good book that people will want to read. And by no means is this the same job.
Or does it tap into the same skill set.
Or is there any real playbook an author can follow to ensure a “successful book launch” for a new title.
I don’t imagine certain authors have quite the same dilemma as I do, though. Stephen King, James Patterson, V.C. Andrews, J.K. Rowling, and so on might have different insights than I because they are operating in a different stratosphere in many ways than I am. But for 99.7% of the authors who will publish a book in 2011, the landscape has changed.
Immensely so.
And so, for the rest of this week, I will explore how.
Over the course of the past few blog posts, I’ve spoken to the idea of the hero’s hurt in the world of story. All this ultimately leads to the final part of my hurt theory, the healing of the hurt.
Stories need closure. Since all wounds heal, all hurts must as well, too. Now of course, this doesn’t mean that all stories must have happy endings – though, I must admit as a writer, I am cut from the happy ending cloth – but audiences crave resolution.
Warning: spoilers coming if you have not read the stories I’ve been using to illustrate my theories so far. Stop now if you don’t want to know the endings.
Katniss survives The Hunger Games. The ending is exciting and hopeful and positive. (It’s also laced with suggestion that this story isn’t over yet and that there will be a Book II in the series because the bad guys are never fully vanquished – and yes, there is a Book II as well as a Book III.) In Animal Farm, the pigs have practically turned into men, creatures who have exploited their fellow animals even more cruelly than human beings did when they were in charge of Manor Farm leaving the reader to wonder and think about a heck of a lot. Hamlet dies, a victim in some ways, perhaps a hero in others, but tragedy befalls Denmark. Blood spills through the halls of Elsinore in a way that makes fans of catastrophe, misfortune and calamity proud. Hamlet’s dead. The Queen is dead. Claudius is dead. Laertes is dead. Polonius is dead. Ophelia is dead. The ghost even seems dead. Oh yeah, and the entire kingdom falls to Denmark’s sworn enemy, Fortinbras.
Talk about knowing how to bring closure to a tale. Shakespeare… the best there was ever was.
My book Cinder-Smella has a happy ending. My book Nerd Girls has a happy ending. My book Homeboyz has more of a bittersweet ending, yet still, I think it concludes on a hopeful note. No, it’s not required to have a happy ending; what’s required is that the hurts of the hero have been addressed. Yes, new hurts might be born, but the old hurt which were the primary engine of the plot at this point should have played its cards and run its course.
It’s why they call the end the resolution of the story. Indeed, it’s the laying to rest of the hurt. (Note: I know the word “healed” as I have used it infers a positive outcome but what constitutes a positive outcome is a matter of perspective. To Napoleon and the fat pigs of Animal Farm, their outcome is entirely delicious. To Boxer, not so much. The bigger point being that finality, to some degree, is what’s essential. Therefore the term the “healing of the hurt” is much more a resolution in some tales.)
Life is an open-ended story. Stories are not. Hurts, in some way, shape or form, are healed.
That’s right. Thousands of copies of my new book are going to be given away FREE of charge. Where?
At the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Conference taking place later this week.
Look, NCTE rocks so if you are going to be at the big event, please feel free to stop by the Disney booth and ask for a complimentary book if you’re interested.
Tell ‘em, “Alan sent you.” (I always wanted to say that.)
NERD GIRLS is my first comedy. (I’ll tell the story about the birth of this series in the weeks ahead, but in short, life is so darn serious these days that I really wanted to flex another writing muscle and simply pen an LOL comedy – something that would bring a bunch of genuine smiles to this oh-so-bonkers world. As it turns out, Disney scooped it up right away when I showed them the first draft and paid me more money for it than for any other book which I have yet published. Indeed, it’s been very, very well received so far.)
Laughs. Friendship. Nerds. It’s a moment years – if not decades – in the making for me and NCTE 2010 is the official launch!
I am so fired up.
BTW, I’ll be signing at 12:30 on Saturday in the Disney booth.
One warning, while Disney will be bringing a boatload of copies to NCTE, they will get scooped up quick. (As an author, I can’t really say that this is a fact that bothers me, though.)
For those of you not going to NCTE, I have a host of other stuff planned. Click here to learn more. (And check out the web comic I am starting, too.)
Do you know what this is?
It’s called the Espresso Book Machine. Essentially, it’s a vending machine for books. A vending machine that can theoretically hold about a million titles. You just scroll through the digital catalog, choose your book and poof! … plop in your credit card and your book will start printing.
I imagine it takes 15 minutes or so to get Pride and Prejudice, or The Alchemist or The Bible (or every readers must-have title, Homeboyz.) But for those who still want to read in print, this is one way that will be more and more evident in the future.
Kinda cool, huh? A kiosk for literature.
Advantages are plentiful with this type of system. You only print a book when someone actually orders the book thus saving paper, warehousing and the such. Of course, it’s also yet another assault on bookstores. (And I love bookstores. I really do wish they’d stop being assaulted.)
Yet, I must concede that even one of those super-store 100,000 title mega-story bookstores with a cafe can’t carry as many titles as one of these Espresso book machines. And if these things start popping up at Starbucks – in an inverted way from how we saw Starbucks start to pop up in bookstores – well, even more change might be afoot.
Ultimately, I think that what this contraption represents to me is an insight into how printed books and eReading is going to blend in the coming years. I don’t see it as an either or scenario with either digital publishing or print publishing winning entirely while the other loses entirely.
Co-existence seems more likely.
I feel guilty.
It’s like I am a teenager who swore their undying love to a prom date and now a new hottie has come along that has caught my eye and I am thinking, “Well, I don’t recall actually getting officially married. And, okay, officially, we’re still going to the prom together but a fella can date in the interim, can’t he? Especially, if he’s willing to allow her to date as well?”
Are you confused yet about the pangs of my heart and lust in my soul ? Well, join the club because so am I.
See, in the scenario above, I am a reader, printed books are the steadfast, well-seasoned girlfriend, and eBooks are the new hottie on the block which have my head spinning – as well as the entire school’s.
Now, of course, printed books will always remain constant and steady and dependable. How can you knock that?
Yet me, as a reader, I am allowed to flirt with eBooks aren’t I? Maybe even have a few serious affairs with them?
Can I have my cake and eat it too or am I a Book Chauvinist oppressing the beautiful feminine spirit of printed books like some middle age reader having a mid-life crisis right now?
The hot and sexy thing who is fun and interesting and filled with limitless possibilities is seducing me and I, Mister Reader, feel akin to a weak male with weaker flesh… and I am succumbing to these tantalizing flings, all the while promising in my heart that I will never really l leave my first and purest love.
Printed book, I do love you! But right now, I want to scoot off to Tahiti with an eBook that resembles more Brazilian bikini than she does one-piece moo-moo.
I mean, WOW… check out that body and those moves on that eBook!
(And do you know what she can do in bed? Let’s face it… you just kind of lay there.)
Oh my goodness, am I losing my mind?
And if I do go off the deep end, does that mean that I can’t ever come to you, my original love?
Will printed books hold a grudge?
Will eBooks prove vacuous and empty and meaningless and shallow?
Am I just a dirty, scorn-deserving old man or has a new young love bloomed?
My heart is torn asunder.
With reading on my iPad, I am really digging it for non-fiction texts because often when I read NF, thoughts bubble up of people with whom I would like to share a thought, idea and so on.
The iPad makes it a one device “bounce over, shoot a quick email, copy and paste passages if I’d like, and then right back to my book” experience.
I love that.( Cause, like I said, when I read NF, I seem to think of other people to whom I’d like to share/connect these ideas to which I am being exposed.)
That’s an unexpected treat for me.
With fiction reading I rarely do that. I am far too immersed in the characters, story, narrative and so on.
NF though is about ideas – and since it taps a different part of my brain, I guess it also taps a different way that I process the information… and want – or do not want – to share it.
More and more ereading and print book reading are becoming apples and oranges.
eReading provides things like video embedded text, hyperlinking, ADD style reading (whereby, I read, check my email, read some more, check a sports score, read some more, buzz in on the news, read some more and so on.)
Print book reading is singular and if I want to multi-task, I need to put my book down.
Fiction doesn’t seem to trigger in me the desire to put my book down to do other things nearly as much as NF does.
Hmm… it’s interesting now that I think about it.
Either way, to remove judgement about either of these two means of reading seems like the best approach to me. One is not necessarily better than the other. (For a skilled reader, that is. For a kid with low literacy skills, learning to concentrate and focus and hold one’s attention for long stretches of time appears very critical to me… I am not willing to throw that skill under the bus for young adults at all! But does it have to be a printed book? Well, it certainly removes the temptation to use the “device” to bounce on over to something else if the device – by that I mean, the book – doesn’t offer any “bounce on over to” function. )
The world is changing right under our eyeballs. Of that there is no doubt.
