Shelf Space or why Books Fail

Books fail for the same reason they always have. NO ONE SEES THEM. Lets assume your book is good. Lets assume you have the reviews. Your book still fails. Now why is that? Once upon a time there were only the bookstores. The bookstores had shelf space. Limited shelf space. Your book came out and chances are it did not find space on these shelves. Or if your book ended up in the bookstore it was spine out in the stacks and only for a little while.

Bookselling then was based on the concept that someone walking by would see your book and buy it. But most people never saw your book. The book was buried under the Bestsellers and the publishers who paid for shelf space. Your book from the midsized or even large press never had a chance because they only pay for so many books to be there. Even the Independent bookstores have to be careful about their space and pick only the books that hit their radar.

So now lets fast forward to the cyber world. Your book is now in cyber space and the same problems apply. Book shelf space. Except now it is cyber shelves. And your book has to be seen. But now you have a chance. Now you can get it in front of people. You just have to promote it though the many promotion channels. And your book may not be seen by everyone but by working hard you can make sure it is seen by some. And this is better.

The author now has a choice. Work hard and get cyber space or let your book disappear. The choice is really now up to the writer.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

Just About Everyone is an Indie Authors

I am an Indie Author though I came up the traditional side. I was with Bantam and received the advance commensurate with large publishers and did the big media People, NY Times, Chicago Tribune, NPR and then everything changed. But even when I was with Bantam I was essentially an Indie author. Just about everyone is really.

And how would you define an indie author. Try this one. Thou that cannot get shelf space in the bookstores. That would knock out just about everybody except for the chosen few. And while my books are in the bookstores they do not dominate in any form except for the Indie Bookstores who have actually taken a hand in selling and have read the book and believe in it. After that I am one of the many spine out at best.

But even when I had the two books come out with Bantam they had a short shelf life. They were there and then they were gone. And one of them hit the National Bestseller list but even this was not enough to keep my book in front of the public. The media I received I had to take a hand in and in fact everything good that happened with my books came from me pushing very hard.

So this whole Indie versus traditional is sort of silly. I don't care if you are with Random House or some little three book publisher. Your fight is still the same. It is simply the fight to be seen.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The PItcher

The Art of Rewriting

You don't learn to write until you learn how to rewrite. This is true. My first novels I did not rewrite mostly because I didn't know how. But of course that is what you learn over years and it can not be taught. You have to find out how to do it on your own because it is the million and one things that have to be addressed and yes people can critique your work but you really have to find your own tuning fork.

It really comes down to connotation and denotation. And connotation is the one that guides all rewrites. How much work is each word doing. And this is something writers know or they don't. You know the writers who have not gotten a handle on this because they are the ones that flood you with words that do nothing. And again it is nuance or instinct and you either instinctually know a sentence is not right or you don't.

The big debate in writing classes is of course can writing be taught. Not really. You can lead someone to the water but they really have to have the ability to swim. And that is something in rewriting that can not be cheated. Because the book does not come from a first draft but a careful re-imaging of each scene and then the whole movement of the book has to be evaluated at the same time.

Again these are the hard to define skills  the writer must find on their own.  That is why it is an art.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have

Amazon is right to stop bogus reviews

We all know the whole world of publishing has been on its head for some time. Gone are the years of toiling in obscurity before finally being published. It used to be writers competed for publishing spots on a list the way football players try for the pros. Many try and most fail. But this gave the few the incentive to keep at it when everyone else had quit. The word craft was part of the lexicon of any serious writer. That was then. Enter the digital age.

Now. You want to publish a book then go ahead. Bam. Done. Here is my book. Pay a little and there you have your instant book. Upload to Amazon and there is your ebook .Craft went back to kindergarten classes. And the writers who toiled in obscurity looked up as an avalanche of self published books buried the market. Then came the reviews. I remember getting my first review. I sat on pins and needles as the Library Journal reviewed my novel, Ripples. It was a good one and I shot straight up to the heavens. A starred review on my second novel from Publishers Weekly literally changed my life and resulted in an auction with ten publishers for the rights.

That was then. Now people get reviewed the way someone buys a candy bar. You just pay enough money or know enough people and your self published book is insured a literary fate just beyond the guy who burns CDs in his basement and waits for that one hit wonder fairy. But some people make a science of it and their books ended up with hundreds of bought reviews or reviews by friends and family. This only destroyed the already moribund authority of a literary world in decline.

So now Amazon has said enough is enough. Good for them. They are zapping bogus reviews. I think it is a welcome first step toward veracity. You should not be rewarded for taking short cuts. This goes for all the writers out there. You should pay your dues. You should learn your craft. That is what writing is all about. Not everyone gets a ribbon for just trying. Writers should know this.

There are things worse than obscurity and that is this: the obscurity of a bogus  book.

www.billhazelgrove.com