A Million Ebooks

BusinessWire reports that The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo is the first novel to sell a million Kindle ebooks.

Given the lovingly detailed descriptions of early-2000s computers and technology the late Stieg Larsson peppered into The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, we’re pretty sure he’d love to know that he’s just become the first author to sell over a million Amazon Kindle e-books — and we can only imagine what kind of trouble Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander would have gotten into with a Droid X or an iPad. Considering the dominance of Amazon’s platform and company’s recent announcement that Kindle titles are now outselling hardcovers we’d guess that also makes him the first author to sell a million e-books period, which is fairly notable — and with the upcoming Hollywood adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, we’d guess these numbers aren’t going to slow down any time soon. Too bad we don’t know the breakdown of where these million books went — we’d love to know if Kindle devices are as popular as the Kindle apps on various other platforms.

I wonder what royalties Stieg Larsson gets on each ebook? I know most epublishers offer 30-50%, but I think it’s much less with Kindle ebooks. On the ebooks I’m familiar with, a million books would equal a million bucks. Or slightly more.

Should I Stick With Genre Writing?

Remember the Secret Novel?

I haven’t been able to write it yet. I have a plot, characters, theme, setting, everything… but… nothing pulls the book together at the end. It doesn’t go anywhere.

That’s a separate problem from what I wish to discuss right now. (Maybe.)

The Secret Novel, as I conceive it, is meant to be literary. Or “general commercial.” Whatever. Not sf or fantasy, like everything else I write or have ever been inspired to write. And I wonder if that’s a good idea.

What if the reason the Secret Novel idea isn’t clicking is because I’m fooling myself and my real interests aren’t going to be engaged unless I throw in a werewolf or something. I have to wonder. Do I want to write this book set in the real, historical period because that is what is best for the book, or because I have deluded myself this will make it have wider appeal than a fantasy, and make my book a bestseller, Oprah bookclub book, Hollywood film?

And even suppose I could write it and it sold nicely, then what? Then I tell my fans, “Great, if you liked that sober, realistic book, just wait till you check out this next one where gladiators fight pirates!”

I’m not saying that writers have to always write in the same genre. My original plan was to just use a different pen name. But I’ve done that before (my two published romances are under a different pen name) and it’s exhausting trying to “social network” both names. I.e. I write this blog, but do squat all under my other pen name. Logically, I should try and write more category romances, because I know I could sell those, but I prefer fantasy.

So… hmm… should I make my Secret Novel a fantasy. Everything else would be the same. (Which would make it a pretty cool and unusual fantasy). But I just don’t know. Above all, I want to be true to the story. It just may be that I’m not the author who is able to write the book I originally envisioned, and I have to write the books I’m able to actually write.

Does that make sense? Does anyone else out there struggle with this kind of dilemma?

Except – Dragon and Unicorn Discuss the Value of a College Education

Here’s an excerpt just for fun. Both characters are devi, magical creatures who spend much of their time in human form. He is the Dragon Emperor, and she, a Sea Unicorn, is his prisoner. Her people are pacifists.

He offered her the goblet, but she shook her head. He shrugged, lounged in the chair and gulped deeply. “What do you do all day long in a city where no one ever fights? I can’t even imagine it.”

“We commune. Share ourselves. Don’t look at me like that. I don’t mean physically. I speak of emotional connections, intellectual connections. I myself was enrolled in my sixth decade of college.” She added proudly, “We have a number of universities.”

“What do you study with no history of war?”

“We learn how to build castles in the sand. To herd bubbles. To discern at once and discuss at length. To distinguish between melancholy and nostalgia, between reverence and envy. To see a world in a grain of sand.”

“I sympathize. My schooling was a complete waste as well.”

“I didn’t know dragons pursued higher education. What did you study?”

“How to drink, fornicate and devour the hearts of one’s enemies.”

She looked appalled.

“Business major,” he explained.

http://stiryourtea.blogspot.com/2010/07/querypolitan-presents-five-stages-of.html

http://www.slate.com/id/2260395/pagenum/all/#p2

Roses By Many Other Names – Finding the Right Title

An agent once told me, “I dismissed your book based on the title. It was so trite, I expected the writing to be bad too.”

Fortunately, she went on to say that the writing was much better than she expected, and she requested a partial. I still felt aghast that I had almost shot myself in the foot with a lousy title.

Interestingly, the other agent at the same session said that the title hadn’t struck her as trite at all — quite the opposite. It had intrigued her. The problem: she didn’t rep my genre. Her area was literary fiction. So if I had been pushing lit fic under the same title, maybe it would have worked.

Not to be coy, the book in question was Dindi Book 1, and the title I was trying out at that time was, “The Secret Society of Warrior Dancers. Book 1: The Initiate.”

When you are naming a series, you have the added difficulty that you ought to have a pattern for the series. I would have moved on to Book 2: The Serving Maid, Book 3: The Warrior; Book 4: The Vaedi. (By Book 4, readers would hopefully know what Vaedi meant.)

Anyhoo.

I now need a title for my present fantasy wip. I don’t know about you, but it bothers me working on a book with no title.

Have you noticed that a terrific title compels you to buy a book even if you know nothing else about it? (Please tell me I’m not the only one with this disorder.)

Some of you, my blogging writer friends, have come up with compelling titles.

STUFF BLOWING UP IN SPACE

Tell me that’s not made of awesome. Anthony Pacheco is working on a space opera with this title.

Although, I realize I remembered it wrong, as BLOWING STUFF UP IN SPACE. Huh. Either way, great title.

CINDERS

This works perfectly to let you know this novella is a retake on the story of Cinderella. At the same time, it makes me think of something burnt to cinders, which is slightly ominous, and fits the theme of questioning what happens after “happily ever after.”

Btw, I think Michelle’s contest is still open. Go join it if you haven’t already.

KILLING HAMLET

I love this title. I hope Scott uses it.

A kickass title (A) forces you, will you or nill you, to buy the book, (B) tells you something about the story, (C) works on more than one level.

Not all books have, or need, kickass titles. FIRESTARTER gives you a good idea what the book is about. CARRIE could have been a gentle coming-of-middle-age story about a divorced woman struggling to keep her small town apothecary in business.

A lot of fantasy books have trite titles because it’s more important to convey the book’s genre than anything too specific. If you title your book, A BOY GROWS UP, even if that’s what it’s about, it may attract a literary crowd who will be disgusted with the actual content. If you title it, DRAGONS FIGHT ELVES, the right readers will find it.

I have a book about gladiators and pirates. With more emphasis on gladiators. There’s also an island, a contest that takes place every hundred years, and the fact that our hero is planning to throw the match. What should I call the book? I considered the obvious (believe me).

GLADIATORS FIGHT PIRATES (Not unless I can fit in such a scene. Which, I admit, would rock.)

ARENA

THE PIRATE AND THE GLADIATOR

PIRATE SEAS, GLADIATOR ISLAND

THE FALSE CHAMPION

ARENA OF THE DRAGONS (Did I mention there are dragons? Of course there are.)

Turning to my husband for help, I received a lot of tongue-in-cheek suggestions. Alas, my book is not comedy.

SAIL AND SWORD

MUSCLE AND MAGIC

HERE THERE BE WENCHES (my husband’s fave, but really not relevant, sorry, sweetie!)

Or I could go for something a bit more obscure and high-brow.

THE MOUNTAIN IS NOT MOVED

WORTHLESS

FOR THE GLORY

WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE (I like this, but is the phrase too tied to historic Rome? My story is fantasy, not historic fiction)

I’m open to suggestions.

How do you come up with titles? What titles are you using? Do you love your title or just tolerate it? Would you change it if an agent or publisher asked you to?

50,000

I hit 50,000 words on my fantasy wip!