November is the Write Time

It will soon be November and that means it's time to write.  The folk at the National Novel Writing Month website would like to challenge you to pour out a 50,000 word novel from start to finish in a month's time.  Here's the basics taken from their website: 

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Where: You write wherever you’d like. On your computer, on your iPad, on a typewriter---anywhere is fine, just as long as you’re writing! For a more in-depth NaNoWriMo overview, visit the devilishly handsome "What is NaNoWriMo?"and "How NaNoWriMo Works" pages.

It's either write a novel in November or rake up leaves.  So get to typing!

Get Your Inner Thomas Paine on with Kindle Singles

In an news release yesterday, Amazon announced the following in a press release:
 
"Less than 10,000 words or more than 50,000: that is the choice writers have generally faced for more than a century--works either had to be short enough for a magazine article or long enough to deliver the "heft" required for book marketing and distribution. But in many cases, 10,000 to 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages) might be the perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated--whether it's a business lesson, a political point of view, a scientific argument, or a beautifully crafted essay on a current event.

Today, Amazon is announcing that it will launch "Kindle Singles"--Kindle books that are twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book. Kindle Singles will have their own section in the Kindle Store and be priced much less than a typical book. Today's announcement is a call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers to join Amazon in making such works available to readers around the world.  "Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format," said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Kindle Content. "With Kindle Singles, we're reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we're excited to see what they create." "

The idea holds promise on a number of levels to say the least.   What better way to publish a journal length article or story without having to expand or contract one's content into a book or magazine article.  Sounds like the Kindle world may be reviving the age of the monograph in the digital age.  Thomas Paine and Voltaire must be smiling somewhere.

Burke and Hare Movie Trailer

This will be of interest to all those Skullduggery: 45 True Tales of Disturbing the Dead fans out there.  Here's the official movie trailer for the John Landis' Burke and Hare movie.  I did find it interesting that our two leads are talking about "working out what the demand is for".  Especially since the chapter in Skullduggery on Burke and Hare is titled "Supply and Demand".  I wonder if the screen writers sneaked a peak at the book?

Will Pubit's LendMe Program Hurt Author's Sales?

Barnes and Noble has recently opened its new Pubit tool for publishing eBooks on their Nook platform.  The Pubit system allows users to upload their book in a variety of file formats (HTML, RTF, TXT, DOC or DOCX) to be converted into an eReader friendly ePub file.  The system seems to mirror Amazon's Digital Text Platform (DTP) for the Kindle.  The thrust behind the Pubit tool is to allow independent authors and publishers the chance to get into the ePub marketplace with relative ease.   Even Barnes and Noble's marketing efforts are bent towards indie authors/publishers.

Looking simply at margins, using Pubit to publish an eBook is not a bad deal.  Pubit is offering a 65% return on the sales price to the author.  Considering the delivery costs and price matching of Amazon's 70% royalties program, Pubit is an attractive option.  This is especially true if you've been using Smashwords to distribute your book to Barnes and Noble.  Pubit will allow independent authors and publishers to forego Smashwords middleman fees.  All would seem to be running on greased grooves for Pubit's contribution to the independent publishing universe.

That is until you take a close look at Pubit's terms of service.  If you blink you'll miss that when signing your book up for the Pubit service, you are also agreeing to their LendMe program.  The LendMe program allows the purchaser of an eBook to "loan" their copy to another Nook user for up to 14 days.  This is taken directly from the Pubit terms of service agreement:

""Barnes & Noble shall have the right to institute a program whereby customers of any eBook Store can loan eBooks to others. A customer who has purchased an eBook may loan such eBook to one (1) lendee during a lending period. No more than one (1) copy of any one (1) eBook can be on loan from an eBook lendor at any given time. The lending period is for up to fourteen (14) days. By submitting your eBook for distribution using the Service you agree to allow your eBook to be distributed through Barnes & Noble's lending program pursuant to the terms listed in this Section IV.H. and as may be modified from time to time by Barnes & Noble, in its sole discretion."

According to this TOS clause, there is no limit on the number of times one may loan a book.  Theoretically, if one could lend an author's book out an infinite number of times for periods of less than a day if the borrower returns the book the same day.  If you look closely, Barnes and Noble may modify the program from time to time.  Taken to an extreme, Barnes and Noble could turn the LendMe program into a sort of Netflix for print.  The question that no one seems to be asking is what will that do to the sales of independent author's works?  The old adage of "why buy the cow when the milk is free" comes to mind. 

Naturally, I was concerned about this program and the impact it would have on the authors Grave Distractions Publications represents.  On one hand, an author's works could reach a wider audience by being freely distributed via LendMe.  This could potentially lead to long term sales growth by fostering a fan of one's work.  The potential short term consequences are a loss of sales.  So what is the answer?  Is there any advantage to the author/publisher for being forced into the LendMe program?

I didn't have that answer for my company, so I turned to the experts at Barnes and Noble.  One would think that they would have done marketing research on the effects of LendMe and sales.  I penned a nice email to the Pubit team voicing my concerns and asking for data to set my mind at ease.  For my effort I received a form letter saying that: "We respect authors' copyright and would never institute a program that we did not believe created an opportunity to generate sales."

While I appreciated the warm fuzzy of Barnes and Noble creating a program that they felt would assist my authors, I like hardcore data.  After a couple of emails back and forth reiterating my request for something tangible to make me believe LendMe would be beneficial.  After another couple of rounds of emails, this is what I received: "We understand your request for data.  Our response is that participation in PubIt! is dependent on the accepting the whole agreement which includes LendMe.  If you are not comfortable with the program as described we cannot be of further assistance."

I could have understood proprietary data being an issue or even "we're taking a chance and want you to take the risk with us."  However, the answer Barnes and Noble gave brought back memories of "because I'm your father, that's why".  The question remains, will Pubit's LendMe program hurt an author's sales?  I don't know the answer.  If Barnes and Noble does they're not saying.