Are Print Books Fated for Extinction?

Lida Quillen

Publisher and Founder of Twilight Times Books

Shares her Views on the Publishing Industry's Future

By

Dora Machado

 

 

 

Are print books fated for extinction? What does it take to remain cutting edge in the current publishing environment? What are the challenges and opportunities ahead? These are some of the questions I asked Lida Quillen, independent publisher and founder of Twilight Times Books as we wrapped up our conversation.  

How has the growth of self-publishing affected independent publishers like TT Books? When considering self-publishing, what are the advantages that authors may gain by signing with an independent publisher instead? What are the challenges?

I lurk on a number of publisher email lists and forums. I’m seeing reports that other small publishing houses have seen a downturn in the number and quality of submissions and thus fewer contracts are offered. At the present time Twilight Times Books continues to see a significant number of submissions.

Taking everything into consideration, an author may well have a certain amount of success (i.e. sales) if they self-publish a number of their titles. Readers seem to be paying more attention to Indie authors these days and showing their support by buying their books.

Several authors currently self-publish in addition to placing certain titles and/or series with TT Books. I don’t have a problem with this. If an author sends me their best work and I place them under contract then I can ensure that galley copies of their book will be sent to the pre-publication book reviewers. In addition, the editing process, the page layout and design (both ebook and print) as well as the cover art will generally be superior with a small press as opposed to what the author could achieve on their own. Also, the book will be eligible for a number of major book awards if published with a small press.

Sales for Indie authors can be rewarding, but so can the addition of “award-winning” author to the author bio and/or a snippet of a review from the Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, etc. to the cover of the book.

On the downside, an author published with a small press is most likely not going to see their book on the shelves of chain bookstores throughout the U. S. As you may know, new titles remain on the bookshelves for six weeks to three months before they are removed. Books with a small press will be in print for years.

 

What did it take to bring TT Books from a cutting-edge, pioneering e-publisher to a full-service independent publishing house? What were the highpoints? What were the challenges?

Twilight Times Books was established January 1999 as an epublisher. In 2004, we evolved from an Internet epublisher to a small press print publisher when we published 21 titles in trade paperback. We currently have 150 ebook titles, of which 110 titles are in print.

In 2004, we had a backlist of books that the authors were anxious to see in print. I had also lined up a national distributor who carried all 21 titles. I was able to keep up with production, just barely, but I was not able to properly market each and every book. So I have slowed down to 12 – 15 print books per year since then.

In 2005 we acquired new distribution channels for both our print books and ebooks more than doubling overall sales. From 2006 to 2013, we’ve seen a steady increase in sales of about 15% per year. Also, from 2006-2010 about 65-70% of our sales revenue came from print sales, but that changed to 50% in 2011 due to the increased demand for ebooks with the advent of a variety of affordable ebook devices.

In 2014 we have again doubled overall sales, compared to 2013, primarily due to a significant uptick/interest in our SF/F titles in recent months as well as acquisition of new distribution channels. 

Our print titles are highly competitive with other trade publishers, large and small. By that we mean the quality of the writing in the books. We have always been highly selective as to what books we selected for publication since inception.

We have ramped up promo opportunities via our ebook distributors such as Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Barnes &Noble Digital, Kobo Books, OmniLit, OverDrive, etc. We have a direct relationship with our ebook distributors. We do not go through a third-party.

Twilight Times Books was listed in Writer’s Digest Magazine 2012 Top 100 Markets for Book & Magazine Writers. We are currently listed in the Literary Market Place. Twilight Times Books is on the Mystery Writers of America list of approved publishers as well as the International Thriller Writers list of recognized publishers. Our titles are eligible for major mystery and thriller awards.

We publish award-winning books which consistently receive four and five star reviews. Hundreds of libraries across the U.S. have purchased our books. Several titles have been selected as required reading for college classes in such places as George Washington University, Loyola College, Pfeiffer University, University of Kentucky, etc.

We will celebrate 15 years in business this year. Twilight Times Books was established in 1999 to publish the works of highly talented and yet unpublished and/or under-published novelists. We are committed to providing an outlet for brilliant authors with books that deserve to see print. Our philosophy has not changed in fifteen years.

Fifteen years? Congratulations! One of the biggest changes that we've witnessed in the industry during the last few years is the evolution of the E-book. E-books or print books, which one do you prefer to publish and why? Are print books fated for extinction?

I was perfectly happy as an epublisher. I was publishing well-written, interesting books from talented authors in a variety of genres. But I realized to maintain the quality of the submissions I wanted, I needed to offer print versions. Also, my ebook authors were clamoring to see their books in print.

We expect to see ebook sales continue as an increasing percentage of our sales revenue over the coming years. However, I don’t expect ebooks to completely displace print books. I anticipate that print books will remain popular for another twenty years.

What are the driving elements of the ever-changing publishing industry? What are the main challenges that publishers like Twilight Times Books face in today's changing environment? What opportunities will the future bring?

The publishing arena is changing quickly so we do need to stay abreast of any and all innovative developments. Publishers need to be alert to new markets, new ebook reader devices, new ebook formats, new developments in technology, etc.

Several of today’s established small press publishing houses started as epublishers in 1998-2000. At that time we knew ebooks were the wave of the future. We had no idea it would require over ten years for ebooks to take off. In my opinion, the ebook revolution took off with the advent of popular new ebook devices in 2007-2008.

For small presses who maintain high standards, have learned the business end of book publishing and who produce quality books, I feel the future is very bright indeed.

Thank you very much for sharing your insights with us, Lida. Talking to you has been great. We wish you and TT Books another fifteen years of continued success. And to our MB4 readers: The future is bright indeed. Have a good one and as always, thanks for reading.   

 

*****

 

About Lida Quillen

Lida E. Quillen is an author, editor, publicist and publisher. She is the founder and owner of Twilight Times Books, Paladin Timeless Books and Twilight Times ezine and current owner of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine.

About Twilight Times Books

The mission of Twilight Times Books is to promote excellence in writing and great literature. TTBooks is dedicated to enhancing the prospects of getting great fantasy, historical, literary, mystery, science fiction and Young Adult books into the hands of readers.

Submission Information

Twilight Times Books will be open to submissions from February 15th to March 5, 2015. Send a cover letter, synopsis, first chapter and marketing plan in the body of an email message. The subject line must begin with ttb or ttbooks.

http://twilighttimesbooks.com/subs.html

Contact Information:

 

Lida E. Quillen, Publisher

Email: publisher@twilighttimesbooks.com – or – publisher@twilighttimes.com
Website: http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com/

Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter.com

*****

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She is one only a few Hispanic women writing fantasy in the United States today. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories.

When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for the award-winning blog Murder By Four and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

 

To learn more about Dora Machado and her award winning novels, visit her at www.doramachado.com , email her at Dora@doramachado.com, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

 

 

 

How To Help Budding Authors (without killing their spirits)

copyright Aaron Paul Lazar, 2014

If you’re a published author, chances are you’ve been asked a hundred times to critique or review a newbie’s book. They might ask to send you a first draft, or sometimes they’ll ask you to endorse them by writing a blurb for their book cover. Frequently, they may be angling for an introduction to your publisher or agent.

How do you respond? You were in that position once upon a time. You remember how hard and confusing the whole industry was to understand. How scared you were of rejection and failure.

So, if you have a little extra time, you might be willing to take a look. But be careful what you promise, because no matter how great or awful you expect this book to be, you could inadvertently fall into a time-consuming nightmare.

I love to help new writers. I really do. And I try like heck to make time to read and comment on a few pages of their manuscripts. I usually ask to see a page or two before I make any promises to review or endorse. But sometimes I’m just in a nice mood and agree without thinking. This can be a mistake if the writing ends up being abysmal.

When I’ve read the first few sentences, I’ll know if I’m dealing with a well-trained writer or a rank beginner. When it’s the former, I read on with glee, making small suggestions where necessary. When it’s the latter, I usually put in an hour or so with deep edits, adding careful comments about grammar, sentence structure, skills needed, etc. It’s a lot of work, but I do believe in giving back after so many writers helped me in the beginning of my career, so it’s all good.

I have done this more times than I can remember, and I believe (hope) these efforts have helped.

It’s really hard when both the story and the writing skills are lacking. But I always try to find something nice to say, followed by a gentle but honest list of suggestions.

Here is an example of a recent letter I wrote, trying to accomplish what I referred to above. (all names are fictitious)

***

Dear Stanley,

Thank you for letting me take a look at the first chapter of your book, The Biggest Boy on the Block. I know it takes a great deal of courage to "open up" to the world after working so hard on your book, and I am honored that you trusted me to do so.

I've gone through a few pages and marked them up with writing advice. I've suggested grammar, sentence structure, and alternate word choices, etc. Please don't be discouraged by all the markups, because in the beginning all writers need to learn these skills, and it just takes time. It took Dean Koontz time, it took me time, and it'll take you time, too.

You have a wonderful imagination, and I can see your mind is very fertile! You've created fun characters and an interesting setting. Although I don't normally enjoy urban street crime novels, it was interesting to see how you set it up. I liked the way you moved your readers into the story through the old man’s memories.

Now for the hard part. Please take this in the generous spirit it's intended, okay?

Your book (including formatting) needs quite a bit of work before you think about submitting it to agents or publishers.

You might consider a few things to help you move to the next level where you'll be able to compete with the thousands of authors also trying to "break through." Following are some possibilities.

1) Join some writing forums and ask for critiques from fellow writers. But be careful of this, however, because sometimes there are very nasty people who like to tear down other writers. Check it out and see what kind of comments they make. Be sure they are decent people involved who use constructive criticism.

2) Befriend a few writers in your genre and swap chapters or books with them on a regular basis. You can learn from each other and this is a win-win situation if you choose the right partner.

3) Hire a writing coach (if you can afford it), or better yet, take some community courses on creative writing.

4) Read constantly. Find and read at least 50-100 books in your genre. With Kindle deals these days, you can probably find most of them for free or 99 cents. I have newsletters I subscribe to where you can sign up to get daily notifications of free or discounted eBooks, targeted to your genre. Let me know if you want the list. I get these “deal alerts” in my email inbox and search for the most interesting books I can get for free or cheap, even though as a writer it sometimes bothers me that it's come to this. But as a reader, I love it. LOL. I would recommend you spend the next year or two devouring books as fast as you can. Listen to the voices of these authors and learn from them. (Another way to accomplish this is #5.)

5) Audiobooks. You can download the files to your Kindle (Fire), iPad, iPod, PC, laptop, smart phone, etc. just like music files. No more messing with CDs or going to the library to pick up and drop off. You just join Audible.com and you're in. That way you can listen while you drive, work, do dishes, exercise, etc. I even listen while I do laundry. I now get many more books in my head every week, thanks to audiobooks.

6) Last of all, I would buy some basic grammar and writing books. Better yet, visit The Grammar Girl's website to use her free articles on grammar whenever you have a question. She is great! My favorite writing book of all time is Stephen King's ON WRITING. It's fantastic. You could also consider listening to my writing guide, Write Like the Wind (3 short volumes). You might pick up some new tips there as well. No pressure, naturally. (btw, I am revamping the eBooks for this series and they'll be out in a few months.)

7) When you are ready and feel your book is as good as it possibly can be, I highly recommend hiring an editor for your final manuscript before you submit.

I'm happy to keep offering advice - I love helping new writers. So please, let me know what you think and if you have any questions. Hard work will get you there and your wonderful imagination should fuel that process.

Best wishes,

Aaron

***

How’s that? How would you feel if you received a letter like this when you were starting out?

In the beginning, I think I would have crumpled, in spite of the “nice” comments that precede the truth. It would have killed me. Matter of fact, I did get a few aggressive critiques in my early days, and it really took me ages to grow a skin thick enough to handle such criticism. But I needed to hear the advice back then, and I’ve become a better writer because of it.

I encourage you all to help out newbie writers whenever possible. Be kind, be helpful, and give them sound advice.

Best Always,

Aaron Lazar

www.lazarbooks.com

A Publisher's Take on Book Marketing

A Conversation with Lida Quillen

Publisher and Founder of Twilight Times Books

By

Dora Machado

 

 

As you may remember, for the past few weeks, we've been talking to Lida Quillen, independent publisher and founder of Twilight Times Books, about a variety of topics. So far, Lida has shared with us how she became and independent publisher, what her day is like, how she makes publishing decisions, which books deserve publication and her best advice for new writers seeking publication. Today she shares with us her views on book marketing.

Hi Lida and welcome back! This is a one question post: Let's talk marketing. When it comes to book promotion, what are the basic elements that an author has to have in place in order to support a novel's publication? What kinds of promos do you recommend to your authors and which ones do you think have the most impact on sales?

The reality in today’s publishing environment is an author not only has to write a great book, they must have an author web site and be active on social media such as Facebook, email lists, forums, Twitter, etc.

We provide new authors with practical promotion plans that include no-cost and low-cost promo ideas as well as a step-by-step marketing plan. The marketing plan outlines what the author needs to be doing several months prior to the release date, three months prior, one month prior, etc. Fortunately, there are a number of no-cost and low-cost ways in which to promote a book.

For example, I’ll share an excerpt from Practical Tips for Online Authors:

Online promo action plan

All of your promo efforts should be part of an overarching plan of building an “author platform.” That is one of the first questions the major NYC print publishers will ask. Does the author have a following? And then they might ask, is the book well-written?

Have you set up an Amazon.com author page? A Facebook page? Have you placed announcements in online forums or web sites that are open new release announcements?

It might be helpful if you put your tasks into separate promotion categories:

Online (reviews, Virtual Book Tours, interviews, etc)

Local media (local papers, radio)

In-person events (signings, presentations, visits)

Social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc)

You might consider including in your promo plan a few, but not necessarily all, of the following suggestions:

• Set up an Amazon author page

• Create a Facebook Fan Page

• Set up an author page on Goodreads (lots of book bloggers hang out here)

• Twitter campaign (you can pre-schedule your tweets in advance and keep them going)

• Include freebies in your newsletter/website for readers (short story, reader’s guide, book club guide, etc)

• Schedule several radio interviews. Links to all interviews should be on your web site/blog.

• A podcast and/or series of podcasts where you could read excerpts or talk about the writing of your books. Readers love to hear authors talk, learn what’s inside their minds. A video would be even better. This could also go on YouTube.

• Target Amazon top 10 reviewers

• Have everybody you know ‘like’ and ‘tag’ your book on Amazon

• Make sure you have at least 50 people review your book. 100 would be even better.

• Enter awards competitions

• Put an “Amazon Short” free on Amazon with links to your books. The short story should have a nice cover and be available for download on your site/blog as well.

• Be active on the Kindle forums and boards. According to Karen McQuestion, who has made close to a million on Kindle, this was one of the secrets of her success.

• Create a book trailer.

• Hold contests periodically

• Goodreads book give-away

• Send out press releases every time there’s news. A great way to bring traffic to your web site. Press releases should be sent before release, at the moment of release, and as a follow up when reviews or award nominations start coming up.

• Publish articles, excerpts, book announcements, writing essays, etc. in appropriate online forums such as Gather.com.  Broadcast to Gather Broadcasting group and send email to “friends” on Gather.

• Be sure to comment BACK on other writer’s pieces. Make sure it’s not a one-way street!

• Join Bookblogs.ning.com, Productreviewplace.ning.com to find blog reviewers.

• Write reviews for other authors to get your name out there

Virtual Book Tour

Solicit hosts to provide reviews, interviews, book excerpts, or various creative venues to promote your book on a weekly basis. Provide books free to these hosts in exchange for the promotion. Make sure your tour includes radio interviews and perhaps audio and video podcasts. Plan at least 3 one-month virtual book tours during the first year of publication.

Place announcements online in appropriate venues such as

Author’s Den
Book Bloggers
Carolyn Howard Johnson’s Sharing with Writers
Compulsive Reader newsletter
Fran Silverman’s Book Promotion newsletter
LibraryThing
NING book promotion groups
Writers Gazette, “Writers Brag Board”
Yahoo “My Book’s Out” group
Yahoo Online Authors groups

Note: credit goes to Aaron Paul Lazar and Mayra Calvani for the above promo tips

The more techniques you use the more recognition you and your book(s) will receive which should result in more book sales!

Wow. Lots of great suggestions.  Thanks again. And to our MB4 readers, next week we'll conclude our conversation with Lida Quillen by discussing some of the hottest trends in the market and Lida's views on the future of the publishing industry. See you then!

 

******

 

About Lida Quillen

Lida E. Quillen is an author, editor, publicist and publisher. She is the founder and owner of Twilight Times Books, Paladin Timeless Books and Twilight Times ezine and current owner of Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine.

About Twilight Times Books

The mission of Twilight Times Books is to promote excellence in writing and great literature. TTBooks is dedicated to enhancing the prospects of getting great fantasy, historical, literary, mystery, science fiction and Young Adult books into the hands of readers.

Submission Information

Twilight Times Books will be open to submissions from February 15th to March 5, 2015. Send a cover letter, synopsis, first chapter and marketing plan in the body of an email message. The subject line must begin with ttb or ttbooks.

http://twilighttimesbooks.com/subs.html

Contact Information:

Lida E. Quillen, Publisher

Email: publisher@twilighttimesbooks.com – or – publisher@twilighttimes.com

Website: http://www.twilighttimesbooks.com/

Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter.com

 

 

******

 

Dora Machado is the award-winning author of the epic fantasy Stonewiser series and her newest novel, The Curse Giver, available from Twilight Times Books. She is one only a few Hispanic women writing fantasy in the United States today. She grew up in the Dominican Republic, where she developed a fascination for writing and a taste for Merengue. After a lifetime of straddling such compelling but different worlds, fantasy is a natural fit to her stories.

 

When she is not writing fiction, Dora also writes features for the award-winning blog Murder By Four and Savvy Authors, where writers help writers. She lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats. 

 

To learn more about Dora Machado and her award winning novels, visit her at www.doramachado.com , email her at Dora@doramachado.com, find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Catch Those Pesky Typos - Aaron Lazar

How to Catch Those Pesky Typso Typos

copyright aplazar 2014

It’s one of the hardest parts of being a writer, don’t you think? Editing your own work, running over the same pages over and over again…and still, if you’re human, it’s inevitable that you’ll miss a quotation mark here, an extra space there, or worse, a typo.

You know that reading your own words is the most difficult scenario for proofing, don’t you? Your big, beautiful brain is so good at translating what you physically “see” on the page into what your mind “knows” you “meant” to type, that it usually will glide right over an extra “the” or a missing “a.”

Yes, it purposefully corrects the errors, without even notifying you!

You can read the same sentence a hundred times, and it’ll look great to you. Your mind interprets it as you intended it. And when the first person to take a look at your book finds a glaring omission, or an extra word in that lovely prose, you may feel like an incompetent idiot.

You thought you were careful. Right? You worked so hard to catch those typos.

When it first happens, it's embarrassing. But over time, you’ll learn you cannot catch all of the errors by yourself.

I’ve written twenty-two books, so I’ve been through this process a few times. (you can see them at www.lazarbooks.com, including my newest release, Betrayal.) Over the years, I’ve had publishing house editors go over my manuscripts. They found errors, I fixed them. And I tried not to make more errors when I made the corrections, which is all too common.

We had the first and second edits, then copy edits in the end to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Once in a while, in spite of our best efforts, an error would creep through. Humiliated, I’d beat myself up for this one stupid error and swear it would never happen again. 

Because, you see, I, like you, get upset when I see typos in a best selling book. I used to think, "How can they have missed them?" "How hard can it be to find them?" "Didn't they even READ this thing?"

It was very humbling and illuminating to discover that sometimes, in spite of heroic efforts, these pesky mistakes can make it through to the final version. It happens to the best of us. 

As time went on, I learned that beta readers were an amazing asset. Not only were they excellent at finding and spotting typos, but if you found talented readers or writers with a knack for literary insight (like my beta readers!), they would point out inconsistencies in a scene or even mention when they thought a character went beyond their natural boundaries. My beta readers have helped my books become the best they can be, and I love them. ;o)

Over the years I’ve developed friendships with writers and readers, and I’d offer them the job of beta reading my manuscripts before I submitted the book to my publisher. It worked out very well, and I always felt better when they’d read through my books. On average, I have 10-12 people read the manuscript before I consider it “close to done.”

Of those twenty-two books, I’ve published fifteen through a traditional small press since 2007, and have recently moved on to self publish (through Kindle Select) seven more that were waiting in the publishing queue in the past year. Polishing and proofing all of these manuscripts was a real challenge, and my beta readers did me proud. But believe it or not – they didn’t catch all the typos.

I have discovered there is one more essential step to proofing one’s manuscript: reading it aloud.

Yes, it’s something you can do yourself. It might take you a whole weekend to get through it. But it’s worth the effort. Better yet, if you have a narrator who is recording the audio book version, this is where the final catches will be found. 

Aside: I recommend that authors release all books in this order: eBook, audio book, print.

I have found that my best narrators (actors, really, with great attention to detail) have consistently isolated a couple of leftover “extra or missing letters/words” which are the hardest to find. Sure, with a real typo, like a misspelled word, MS Word underlines it for you in red. Those aren’t too hard to find. It’s harder when you have an extra preposition in a sentence, or a misused word like “here” instead of “hear.” MS Word doesn’t often catch those mistakes.

I find these errors creep in at the end of a work in progress, when I’ve gone through to beef up a sentence or make changes in general. Then I don’t always “cut” fully or “paste” fully and that’s my downfall! Creating typos because you’re fixing another typo is annoying, but pretty common.

Does that happen to you?

Here’s my advice on how to produce a typo-free book. 

1) When creating your book, try to find a writer or reader friend who will swap chapters with you as you write it. You read their stuff, they read yours. You help them, they help you. It’s all good. They can help you cull out that first crop of errors, right off the bat.

2) When you’re done writing the book, go through it until you feel you are satisfied. This may take multiple read-throughs. It all depends on how careful you were the first time around when creating the story.

3) Ask another good friend to check it over, so you can be sure you didn’t make any really embarrassing faux pas.

4) Draft beta readers to help you. This may take years of cultivating friends and readers, but it is worth its weight in gold.

5) Review it a few more times yourself after you’ve incorporated beta edits (remember, just use what makes sense to you, you don’t want to lose your focus!)

6) Release the book as an eBook.

7) Find reviewers. Watch the comments come in from readers. Notice if anyone mentions typos! If so, go after them immediately. In this day and age, it’s easy to fix a file and reload it up to your seller’s page. Repost the eBook with the changes. (easy peasy if you are on Amazon)

8) Post the file on ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) to find the perfect narrator. Choose him/her carefully.

9) Send the manuscript to your audio book narrator to read before they begin production. 

10) When they find a few mistakes – fix them. Reload the eBook to correct these things.

11) Let the narrator finish the audiobook recording. If they find anything else (at this point it might just be a missing quotation mark, or an extra space), then upload the corrected eBook again. Now it should be close to perfect.

12) At this point, it’s safe to start thinking about creating your print version. I use Create Space and have been very happy with their quality and support. 

13) Order a proof (or two, or three, depending on what you find and fix!) before you finalize the manuscript. NEVER just review it online – you need to hold it in your hands, go through it page by page. Formatting can be tricky at first, so make sure you focus on page numbers and margin spacing before you let it go live. And read this printed version one more time – you might find another error! 

14) Send an autographed copy of your print book to all your beta readers – they worked hard for this, and they deserve a special treat!

Even with this painstaking approach, once in a while something slips through. It’s disappointing if it happens, but it’s probably God’s way of keeping us humble. ;o)

Let me know what you think in the comments below. And remember, if you love to write, write like the wind!

Aaron Paul Lazar

www.lazarbooks.com

Write Like the Wind audio books