- by Tara Maya
Shadow Prowler – Book Trailer of the Day
Simple. Professional. Legible.
I like the smoke over the titles at the end.
- by Tara Maya
Reading Revolution, Ongoing
Here’s what Lori Perkins wrote to a new horror writer who has an agent but still hasn’t been able to find a publisher:
“Print publishing is in turmoil right now. Leisure Books has effectively gone out of the print business, and B&N and Borders are having extreme financial difficulties. Mass market sales are suffering during the recession and horror is mass market. It’s also summer. So, in all likelihood nothing is happening and nothing will be happening soon. I think it’s almost impossible to place a first horror novel right now in print…. I do think epub is probably the way to go for horror right now.”
According to CJ Cherryh, it’s not just newbies, but even established writers who are hurting in this market. For those of you who don’t know, she, Lynn Abbey and Jane Fancher have an online of their own to keep their backlist available, called Closed Circle. More and more authors are doing this, and it’s one of the things I hope to talk about in this series. CJ told me:
Income from backlists has gone from handsome to practically non-existent in a handful of years, so a lot of writers are really hurting. Those of us who formed Closed Circle (which is just us!) each have different problems with today’s market, but it’s not the publishers’ fault, except that an industry that used to seal a deal with a handshake and operated on Victorian transport notions suddenly found itself in the computer age, and faced with business school graduates that view books the same as cans of tomato soup—a buyer can get a book in production killed. Literally killed. That’s what publishers are up against, and since oil companies bought up the publishing houses, nobody upstairs cares. What have you done for me lately is the theme, and publishers are book people who are agonizing over the situation as much as the writers. And you can quote that on the blog, if you like. [Thanks! – TM]
The NY houses aren’t the enemy: they’re in the same foxhole. But little houses may have to save the books the NY houses would love to publish if they could get it past the Committee. I could tell you endless stories, but they all boil down to exactly what you said: readers and writers and publishers need to grab hold of the internet and use it aggressively, to promote new books, to help sift the do-reads, and to keep bread on the table of those who give readers the good stuff. What worries me is that editorial experience is just as threatened as the good writers are.
Agreed. Most editors I know love books. Otherwise, believe me, they would have become doctors like their mothers wanted.
- by Tara Maya
The Dawning of Power – Book Trailer of the Day
I promised some book trailers operating on more modest budgets, but which, I believe, still work to stir curiosity and interest in the book. This trailer uses One True Media, only a few images, and one “video” of the tornado and lightning which is done with digital animation. No use of actors or filming, which helps the pocket considerably.
The trailer has a few problems. The words go by too fast for me to read. I had to play it twice and pause on the words to catch the second sentence. The pictures are a bit dark and hard to make out. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is kickass, deep and powerful and driving. I liked the single word punches at the end. POWER. IS. BACK.
Cool.
Also, the trailer avoids the deadly mistake of dragging on too long or trying to say too much. With book trailers, less is usually more.
Overall, this worked for me. I enjoyed watching it, listening too it, and was willing to play it two or three times to make sure I caught the name of the author and the book and the publisher. So check out Brian Rathbone.
An observation. It’s considered less classy to have a trailer with the media production company right up front, but I have to say that personally, I appreciate knowing how the video was made. Video production is an art as well, and I like artists to get credit for their work. I always like to know, who did the cover art, the book design, the book trailer? It if was a production company like One True Media, I like to know that too… maybe I would like to use their services, so why should I object to them advertising themselves? I don’t!
Notice also that the publisher, White Wolf Press, is featured as prominently as the author. This comes back to what I’ve been saying about small publishers becoming a brand, a way for readers to identify good books.
- by Tara Maya
Highlighting Small Press Publishers
Books are changing. The publishing world is changing. We’re in the middle of a technological revolution which will affect both commerce and art. It’s exhilarating, and, like any revolution, a little frightening, because you don’t know whose head is going to the chopping block next, or which of today’s beggars will be tomorrow’s king. Can authors expect more artistic freedom? Or just tyranny to another technology and economy that is different but no better than before?
I’m going to start a new series on my blog, looking at publishers and agents as brands. In genre fiction, such as science fiction and fantasy and romance, you had some of this going on, Tor, DAW, Harlequin… but now that the internet and POD technology is leveling the field, there are hundreds of tiny presses popping up all over the place. Not that there weren’t small pubs before, I know there were, but the chances of me, Jane Reader, finding them and ordering from them was miniscule. I used to buy all my fiction browsing a bookstore. Now I buy most of my fiction online, and often find it through social networking. I buy many, MANY more books published by small presses and indie authors than before.
Part of what has changed is that a publisher is now also a bookstore.
I’m going to start this month with Chalet Press. On Friday, I’ll review Fins, one of there upcoming titles. (Mermaids! Yay!) At some point this month, I will also review Noah’s Wife and Coming Together. And hopefully Joyce Norman will stop by to talk about Chalet.
When I decided to do this series, I started looking at small publishers and I was amazed at how many excellent little publishers there are out there. I just wish I had more time!
