News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #131…
Calling all readers. (This is a reaction to a short and probably inaccurate NY Times article.) Nielsen and publishers’ reports indicate a declining American readership. Only about 50% of those polled plan to read at least one book in the next year. That’s a bit nebulous, but it confirms my suspicions: Americans are not reading much for pleasure anymore.
I don’t have accurate stats, but the reasons seem obvious: people are entertained or distracted by many other things now. Reading a novel takes a bit more time than reading the latest tweet by Mr. Trump or a Hollywood celebrity, for example. And a video game compensates for its lack of plot and creativity by offering striking visuals, visceral emotions, and even lewd experiences for many (all females in these games, whether good or bad, are so endowed that they set the fem lib movement back at least one hundred years).
Publishers are also reporting that ebook sales are declining. That’s a lot easier to understand. When a publisher charges almost as much for the ebook as the print version, readers feel a bit like those parents faced with that $ 600 bill for an Epipen pack—in other words, they feel like victims to price gouging. An ebook doesn’t cost as much to produce and shipping and storage costs are close to zero, so that feeling is justified. A reader who prefers ebooks will turn to indies and small presses that offer more reasonable prices.
Big Five publishers are loathe to reveal the real stats, even to their stockholders, who might want to see how their publishing company A compares with B, C, D, and E; small publishers and indies can’t afford to produce the stats that show what a scam the Big Five perpetrates. No stats can get to the heart of the matter, though, namely that the readers who remain want new and exciting books. They might want to follow some of the old mares and stallions in the Big Five stables, but not if they’re paying high prices for the same formulaic crap. The new voices tend to be among the indies and small presses.
Love of writing. (This is another reaction to a NY Times article, a review of someone’s memoirs.) You have to wonder: they asked a writer why he wouldn’t write his memoirs (I won’t say who he is—you can look it up, but it doesn’t matter here). Answer? Bla-bla-bla, but here’s the reason that stood out: “I hate to write.” Huh? Writing, storytelling, spinning a good yarn, whatever you call it, even history and biography, all of it is akin to composing and painting—good prose writing is an art, and to do it well, you have to love doing it. Like other arts, you’re lucky if you can make some money doing what you love (that’s true in almost any career or profession), but I can’t conceive of doing anything else. If I used bumper stickers, I’d have one that said, “I’d rather be writing.”
If a writer says s/he hates writing, s/he should do something else. If a writer writes for some narcissistic ego-trip—“Look, people, I wrote a book!”—her or his motivation is questionable. If a writer hops on a bandwagon, writing the next “Gone X…” or “Girl on the Y…”, s/he’s being an opportunistic without artistic sensibilities. If s/he just strives to tell a damn good story over and beyond these sins, I can cut her or him some slack, I suppose, but I would approach her or his book with some negative bias, knowing that some of those bad motivations might diminish my reading experience. I don’t begrudge writers who make money with their books. I just don’t think they have the creative spirit if the business of writing dominates the love of writing for art’s sake.
Review queries. I get a few each week. Some author goes through all the old reviews on Amazon and queries me without going to this website and seeing what my review policy is. That’s troubling. Just seeing that old review and emailing me a query assumes an awful lot, folks. In fact, many of those Amazon reviews are repostings of reviews I’ve made for Bookpleasures, something I offer if the author wants it (and allows her or him to escape further embarrassment if s/he doesn’t). Bottom line: query Bookpleasures, not me directly. (I sometimes review books I’ve read for R&R and liked, but not in my official Bookpleasures’ reviewing capacity, but most of these go in the “Book Reviews” or “Mini-Book Reviews” sections of this blog, and NOT Amazon.)
I get that reviews are hard to come by. I’m personally aware of that. Given the above stats about reading in America, we might come to a point where there are more authors than readers. That’s always been the case with reviewers. I suffer with this just like everyone else. Moreover, the trend is for readers to review books that don’t need any more reviews! This “jumping on the bandwagon” only helps Amazon calculate their rating—if you do this, you’ve proven nothing and your review will probably be ignored. (This is why I ignore reviews for my R&R book purchases. Using Amazon’s “peek inside” feature and the author’s blurb, I can pretty much tell if I’m interested in reading her or his book.)
What to say in review queries. They’re a bit like queries to agents. There are certain things that turn this reviewer off (note that I’m talking about queries to Bookpleasures I scan when choosing a book to review there). (1) Avoid saying your book is like X. First of all, that’s not a wise thing to do: I might hate X! Second, if it’s exactly like X, maybe I’d rather read X instead of your book. Third, what do you mean by “like X”? Plot, style of writing, characters, settings, flashy dialogue, gut-wrenching action scenes, steamy sex? If I’ve read X (in that case, your statement might have some meaning), I might wonder what things I like in X are also in your book.
(2) Avoid asking for a positive review. When I write a review, I want to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Almost every book has all three, including mine and all those books your HS English teacher admires so much! (Because s/he was brainwashed to admire them?) I write an honest review. I won’t and can’t guarantee positive. (And I don’t expect that from reviewers of my books either.) Think of it this way: both readers and you want to know what works in your book, what doesn’t, and why. Readers are smart enough to decide that what bothers a reviewer doesn’t really bother them, and vice versa. They want honest reviews. You should too.
Soldiers of God. I’ve added it to my Smashwords catalog, so it’s available in all ebook formats now and will be sold there as well as by retailers Smashwords distributes to (B&N, Apple, etc), not just Amazon. It’s a terrifying and complex story about a future America where religious fanaticism and government conspiracies abound—a bit of dystopia mixed with unrequited love, cloak and dagger actvities, and good police work, shaken and stirred. If you missed this one, now would be a good time to try it.
In libris libertas!
