New Edition. Contemporary Publishing Magazine.

pg 6 authoright’s CEO Gareth Howard mulls over whether there is value to agents helping their authors to self publishing in lieu of a traditional deal.

pg 16 industry movers and shakers weigh in on the biggest innovations of 2014 and look ahead to an exciting new year in publishing.

pg 28 author travis casey is a romance writer fighting the genre’s gender stereotypes with his tyler’s trouble series about life and love.

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ISSUE 21, DECEMBER 2014

Kickstart your Christmas!

Kickstarter’s Publishing Projects Specialist shares her tips for launching a successful crowdfunding campaign.

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FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the December issue of New Edition! This month we hear from some of publishing’s top thinkers about the biggest industry news and innovations of 2014 and what’s coming next.

CEO Gareth Howard shares his thoughts on the emerging trend of agent-assisted self pub and examines what’s in it for authors.

Maris Kreizman joins us from Kickstarter to share stories of publishing successes and tips for making your crowdfunding project successful.

As we’re already in the Christmas spirit here, we talk to author Christine Harrington about Christine’s Christmas Countdown, her comprehensive guide to stress-free Christmas planning.

And we share some of the books that make us most nostalgic for Christmas time. Hopefully you’ll see some titles you remember and find a few to add to your list this year.

Thanks for reading!

Jordan Koluch Editor-in-Chief

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Get Wrapped Up: Poetry of the Kimono

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‘A Christmas Carol’

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The Moth Mainstage

The Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY poetshouse.org/programs-and-events/readings-and-conversations-poetry-world/getwrapped-poetry-kimono Sponsored by Poets House, the Get Wrapped Up event allows viewers to explore the Met’s Kimono: A Modern History exhibition before enjoying an hour and a half of activities that include writing, listening to music and exploring textiles with a backdrop of the museum’s Japanese galleries. The event is free with museum admission.

Southbank Centre, London southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/a-christmas-carol-86502 After a sold-out performance last year, ‘A Christmas Carol’ returns to the Southbank Centre for a star-studded reading, narrated by Griff Rhys Jones. Mince pies are available and carolling begins an hour before the show. Tickets are £15 (£10 for members) and are available through the Southbank Centre’s website.

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland, OR portland5.com/arlene-schnitzer-concert-hall/events/moth-portland If you’d like to experience a piece of the New York City literary scene on the West Coast, don’t miss The Moth in Portland, Oregon. A performance competition that pits five storytellers against each other at each show, The Moth allows audience members to choose who weaves the best story, all told around a central theme.

When The Moth is on the road, favourite storytellers from New York and Los Angeles share the stage with local talents. Tickets can be purchased from the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall website.

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News In Brief

HarperCollins strikes deal with JetBlue

Little, Brown to publish Rowling speech Hachette imprint Little, Brown will publish the commencement speech Harry Potter author JK Rowling gave at Harvard University in 2008.

Very Good Lives will be available worldwide in English on April 14, 2015. Sales of the book, which will be illustrated by Joel Holland, will benefit Rowling’s Lumos charity aiding disadvantaged children and university-wide financial aid at Harvard.

AAA releases best practices for agentassisted self pub Though the Association of Authors’ Agents’s Code of Practice already dictates the best practices of literary agents in the UK (US agents are members of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, which has a similar code), the AAA recently

HarperCollins will provide excerpts of bestselling titles to JetBlue customers through JetBlue’s FlyFi in-flight wifi service. Available titles include Flesh and Blood by Patricia Cornwell, Yes Please by Amy Poehler and Endgame: The Calling by James Frey. After takeoff, JetBlue customers will be able to access the excerpts via the screens in the headrests. Excerpts will be accompanied by ‘Buy Now’ buttons for customers who would like to read further. Angela Tribelli, Chief Marketing Officer of HarperCollins, said of the deal, “This is a terrific opportunity for travellers to enjoy some of the best books of the year during the busy, and oftentimes stressful, holiday travel period. We, like JetBlue, are committed to being at the forefront of our industry, so collaborating with them on this innovative consumer experience was a natural fit.”

launched The Good Practice Guidelines for New Agenting Services, largely pertaining to agent-assisted self publishing. The fourteen points were agreed upon by the AAA committee, led by agent Lizzy Kremer of David Higham Associates. Kremer emphasises that the guidelines will change over time to keep pace with changes in the industry: “Widespread good practice has to be positive news for all agencies and all authors, and the best way for everyone to work profitably and effectively.”

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In light of the AAA’s new Code of Practice, Gareth Howard explores the quizzical concept of agented self publishing and asks what agents bring to the indie table.

SELF SURVIVAL

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W Who would have thought it?

Agents have suddenly leapt on the self publishing band wagon with all the feverish urgency of debtors trying to get out of town before the bailiffs show up. For someone who was roundly scorned for self publishing back in 2004, I was certainly surprised, if not ever so slightly affronted. At the time, I had been hopelessly hawking my manuscript around ever literary agent in London I could think of, seeking representation. Because at the time, that was the only truly legitimate route to publication, to sharing my story with readers.

Like any unpublished author, I had turned to my trusty Writers & Artists Handbook and diligently compiled a series of energetic cover letters, synopses and sample chapters, and, like a child corresponding with Santa, I had gleefully skipped to the post office in relative literary ignorance. You can guess the outcome. There were no presents for Gareth under the tree that year.

My novel was a male take on the chic lit genre – which had seemingly reached a fever pitch with the new millennium – a male retort to Bridget Jones, Carrie Bradshaw and all the other female leads who I felt may resonate with women at the detriment to their actual relationships with men. I

was confident it was a good idea, I just didn’t know if I could write.

The feedback from agents was very interesting: you can write (it needs editing!) but the idea is rubbish and no one will buy it.

The primary reason for rejecting my book was that agents didn’t understand the market or how to reach it, denouncing my book as unmarketable. This made no sense to me – I was the market, as were my friends and other single men in their twenties, thirties and early forties, not to mention the legions of women reading chick lit who were arguably a market worth pursuing – and it really made me question who these agents were and how they were able to be so short-sighted. So I decided to self publish. As Michael Tamblyn, CEO and President of Kobo noted recently, this was ‘back in the dark days of self publishing’, when it really was a leap into the commercial unknown. I found it thrilling. My novel Single White Failure and I ended up appearing on NBC’s ‘TODAY Show’, The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, Channel 5 News, BBC Radio, Sydney Morning Herald, Grazia Italia…. the list went on.

Off the back of my self publishing success, I was approached by several leading London literary agents, all keen to

take me on for my next book. I was flattered and excited and, after a couple of meetings with different agencies, I chose one as my own. It was the worst decision I ever made.

Despite the evidence of sales, media coverage successes and endless market research – all of which I’d achieved on my own – my agent simply couldn’t and wouldn’t understand the market or how to write for it. Instead, she wanted to mould me into another market, one which she understood but which I had no empathy towards or desire to write for. I shifted agents and the story was more or less the same. It stifled my writing for years and left me feeling deflated at best and at worst a nagging, talentless nuisance whose efforts to engage were roundly ignored. In two long years I think I had only one brief response to any of my inquiring emails; only now, ten years on, am I close to finishing a second book, the book my first agent had dismissed out of hand.

Agents have spent years deriding self publishing as a crude exercise in vanity. They have honed their self-appointed role as the ultimate gatekeepers of what represents our collective literary good. How many times have I heard a literary agent say “I’ve got to love the book, that’s all that matters”. Really? I thought you just had to sell it.

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From left: Literary agent Andrew Lownie of the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency leads the way in ethical agent-assisted self pub, offering authors incredible value through his Thistle Publishing imprint. Authoright CEO Gareth Howard found self publishing to be much more effective than his literary agent.

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I’m sure agents everywhere will be reaching for their sharpened letter openers as I make the comparison, but does an estate agent have to adore every house they represent in order to make a sale? The personal versus the professional often seems oddly skewed in publishing, and the reality is somewhere in the practical middle.

Now that the publishing world has changed - and at lightening speed - agents are trying to get in on self publishing, having found traditional publishers harder to sell to. Why waste your time trying to sell in to a big house when you can have your client self publish in an instant? I’m not a believer in telling people ‘no’ without basis.

That’s what set me on this course in the first place: Authoright would never have been born if agents and publishers hadn’t told me ‘no’. So I am all for agents embracing self publishing in order to give the books they believe in a fighting chance, even though it would seem to be the ultimate admission of professional failure, if we’re to accept the tenets of their profession.

And I think it’s a wonderful idea for the Association of Authors’ Agents to enforce a Code of Practice that

governs the role agents play in the self publishing process. But we do have to ask what they bring to the table to merit their 15 per cent.

I remain unconvinced that they presently deserve their cut.

To self publish is to be entrepreneurial. At the moment, that is about as opposite in nature to most literary agents as it gets.

Self publishing is about setting a budget, working creatively to produce a polished product with what you have at your disposal, being a designer, a marketer, a publicist, a consumer insights researcher. If I am going to a literary agent to help me self publish, what value are they going to add, what are they actually going to do for me if their essential role is to sell my manuscript to someone else to do all of those aforementioned jobs for me? I think the greatest value they could probably add is editorial. I am certainly not seeing this ‘super agent’ that the industry talks about with such conviction at present. Usually it’s just an agent who happens to be a bit younger and can operate a Twitter account – beyond that, there’s not much innovation, experience or value as

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far as I can see.

It’s hard work, self publishing.

Culturally it represents a massive departure from the profession that agents thought they were going into. And they need skills they don’t often prioritise: a real head for business, legal expertise, journalistic insight, sales skills, PR savvy, a talent for branding, the ability to manage an author intensively and responsively. And so on.

What Julia Kingsford achievesat her recently established agency Kingsford Campbell, with her background in marketing and retail, may help define future practice. Likewise, the businessfocused, relentless juggernaut that is Curtis Brown is likely to lead the way, having embraced printon-demand early on. But their reality has little in common with the majority of agents, working in tiny teams, struggling to keep ahead of the curve and find potent new ways of working. We’ve already seen self publishing agents and agencies come and go. I have even spent time with larger agencies in New York and London consulting on how they might help some of their clients to self publish well.

Each one has ended in misery

and misunderstanding – that could either be that I’m a useless consultant or that they just don’t get where the author market, and our industry, is headed.

There is one profound exception.

There is one agent who, in my opinion, has been carelessly overlooked in this whole debate and who is, without doubt, a true super agent. And that’s Andrew Lownie, along with his colleague David Havilland of the Andrew Lownie Literary Agency. In 2013, Andrew set up a self publishing imprint for both a selection of his backlist and for new authors he couldn’t place elsewhere, Thistle Publishing.

If you asked me why Thistle is doing what others can’t do – successfully self publishing and promoting and selling their authors’ work to consumers – I’d say it’s entirely down to the people involved. Andrew is a man with a strong head for business, as well as a publishing industry titan with a keen eye for talent and a persuasive salesman. He doesn’t seem clouded by the puff of the publishing industry. There is a rigour and determination to get the job done and his authors

seem to benefit from this dynamic work ethic immeasurably. In just eighteen months, Thistle has published over 250 titles including several bestsellers; authors have sold foreign and translation rights and many have been serialised in national newspapers.

I am proud of the books that we self publish. I would also be pleased to have one of my books published

by Thistle. I would not, however, be pleased to have my book thrown up on Amazon’s White Glove purely because my literary agent failed in the job I originally engaged them to do and am still paying them a 15 per cent cut on sales for the privilege of it. As always in publishing, as we navigate these choppy waters of change and digital disruption, only the strongest, best built and most nimble boats will stay afloat.

Gareth Howard is the Co-Founder and CEO of Authoright. Find him on Twitter @AuthorGareth

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The publishing industry is often a legacy business – most of today’s high-power executives started at the bottom and worked their way through the ranks. But the industry is changing, and we’re starting to exhibit a need to fill positions that didn’t exist a generation ago. Jordan Koluch questions whether the best candidate for the job needs any publishing experience at all.

At the FutureBook conference in November, Marissa Hussey, Orion’s digital marketing director, said that publishers need to hire “people who want to know the answers and learn new things…Publishing experience is not necessary. A love of books is.”

Publishing has long been an industry of apprenticeship – editorial assistants become assistant editors become editors. Production assistants become production associates… you catch my drift. And in some ways, that works really well. The people who taught me everything I know about publishing are industry veterans, all with impressive careers behind them and yet to come, and I have the upmost respect for them and their work.

But the industry is changing in ways that editorial and production directors couldn’t have imagined when they started out as assistants. eBooks, POD and Twitter marketing have turned publishing on its head. We’ve all been taught what makes a good book, but fewer of us understand the intricacies and limitations of EPUB3.

I think it’s a great idea to bring outsiders into the industry because it allows us to tap their unexploited knowledge resources. How do we do interactive eBooks? How do we build an

online following of loyal readers that translates into better sales? How do we advertise to reach our target readerships? There are professionals out there in different industries who have this kind of expertise. And they bring the benefit of an outsider’s perspective.

My dad has been an engineer for over thirty years, and has been thinking like an engineer since long before that. Every time I try to explain the industry I work in to him, he asks, “Why do they do it like that?” Why not tackle your own digital distribution? Why package eBooks as EPUBs rather than straight HTML? Why continue to rely on the return model of retailing? My answer is always, “Because that’s the way it’s done.” Not to say that all of these ideas are as easy to implement as they seem, but within ten minutes, an outside perspective has generated dozens of ideas that break the mould of what we’ve been doing for decades. It’s this kind of fresh look that could be exactly what the industry needs.

My best friend is also an engineer and went to a maths- and science-focused university (a far cry from my experience at liberal arts school studying literature and publishing). His college friends are engineers, computer programmers and tech entrepreneurs. When I started to

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From left: Marissa Hussey, Ben Willis and Crystal Mahey-Morgan all emphasised the importance of hiring outside the publishing industry at the FutureBook conference in November.

learn the nitty-gritty of eBooks, about how technologically backward they really are, I asked him, “Is anyone you know interested in fixing this? In making the reading experience better?”

He said no. None of these brilliant thinkers – the ones inventing the tablets and writing the code – are enticed by the problems that it’s so clear to us need solving.

At the same panel at FutureBook, Ben Willis, Headline’s senior publicity and digital campaigns manager, said publishing needs to “lose its relatively stale image” to entice the kind of talent we need. Working for Apple is sexy; working for Penguin Random House… not so much. But it’s the Apple minds we need – they build the means of distribution, after all.

So how to attract those minds?

Maybe the answer is as simple as a good PR campaign. While big tech companies show up on the campuses of Stanford, MIT and UCL to court the best talent there, maybe directors of digital content for publishing houses also need to be out there selling their open positions.

There’s a good chance most top computer science graduates have never heard of the Big Five and don’t know to go looking for jobs there in the first place. If they did, how many would be interested? How many of those nerds also enjoy art and culture and books?

I also think we need an industry paradigm shift in terms of the value we place on new methods and technologies. Professionals who work for ad agencies, marketing firms and tech giants are used to having their expertise respected – they’re trained in their fields and have worked hard to be good at what they do.

There’s nothing for them in an industry that isn’t sure where digital fits yet, telling ourselves that eBook sales will die out in the next decade, readers don’t want subscription services and we’ll all be back to print before we know it.

No one who specialises in online guerrilla marketing wants to enter the industry just to hear, “This is how we do it” before being told

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to run a full-page ad in PW. We need to start creating a culture of openness, fostering a willingness to try things that have worked for other companies that aren’t necessarily publishers. That will bring the outside voices in.

Another problem we currently have, which was touched on at FutureBook by Crystal Mahey-Morgan, formerly of Penguin Random House and now a freelance digital marketer, is “producing entry barriers because of low pay”.

Don’t worry; this isn’t about to turn into a diatribe about low salaries across the industry.

Because the cold, hard truth is that English majors are a dime a dozen (I know, I am one), and that salaries are always commiserate with experience and value provided. But if publishers are becoming interested in hiring programmers and web developers to help with production of eBooks, they’ll have to be willing to pay the going rate for those skills, which is currently outside most salary levels for the industry. Because there are very few people willing to take a pay cut for the love of a job. But this, again, goes back to value.

If publishers don’t attribute the value of that salary to newly created job titles within their houses, we’ll continue missing out on the insights these professionals can bring.

I, for one, always want to be working with people who are smarter than I am. Who have different ideas. Who make my ideas better with their own. I want to learn what’s possible beyond EPUB, beyond retailer discounts, beyond POD. There are brilliant people in the industry who are already exploring those possibilities. I’d like to know what people outside the industry have to say, as well. I love books. I love making them. I love reading them. I love owning them. But I also want to know how we can make them better, and I want to embrace what’s next. I want to find those answers, no matter where and who they come from.

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NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2014

2014 was the year crowdfunding finally made a splash in the world of books. Whether it was traditionally published authors who wanted to hire additional marketing and publicity services or self published authors trying to fund whole book projects, writers increasingly took to the internet to build buzz and raise funds for their books.

Jordan Koluch talks to Maris Kreizman, Kickstarter’s Publishing Project Specialist, about books that got their start on Kickstarter and how to apply the pertinent lessons to your own project.

Prior page: Maris Kreizman is Kickstarter’s Publishing Project Specialist. More than 6,000 projects have been funded with over $62m on Kickstarter.

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When most people think of crowdfunding, they do so in the context of products they’d like to own – such as Oculus Rift – or media they’d like to see – the ‘Veronica Mars’ movie. But Maris Kreizman has seen numerous book projects take shape by garnering interest on Kickstarter.

“There are lots of ways to use Kickstarter to fund publishing projects.

I’ve seen writers start literary magazines, fund full publishing seasons for small presses, fund their own book tours and research trips, create zines and reading series, and also – of course – self publish. A great case study is the children’s book Hello Ruby by Linda Liukas. Linda was a programmer who wanted to make it more friendly for girls to learn about technology.

Hello Ruby was a passion project that filled a big void in the marketplace – Linda set her funding goal at $10,000, and Kickstarter backers were so taken with her idea that she ended up raising more than $380,000 from more than 9,000 Kickstarter backers.”

This seems to fly in the face of the old model of publishing, where an author submits themselves to months of solitude, only to surface with a finished product ready to show the world. Crowdfunding has in some ways pulled the author out of the shadows, exposing all of the steps of the process to the reading public. As Kreizman reminds us, it takes a village to publish a book, and that’s not a process we need to be hiding. “The act of writing a book might be solitary, but the act of publishing has always been a process that requires a wide variety of people to succeed – most importantly, readers! Kickstarter is a global community of millions of people from nearly every country on the planet who are shaping the world into what we want it to be rather than accepting it for what it is, and who are looking to be inspired by the most imaginative, colourful, and

TOTE BAGS ARE FINE, BUT IT’S INTERACTIONS BETWEEN READER AND WRITER THAT MOST OFTEN MAKE THE BEST REWARDS. innovative ideas.”

So how best to reach those readers with the book project you know has potential? It takes some pretty serious planning. “Most successful Kickstarter projects contain three key elements: “A description and video that clearly explains the story behind the project. Telling the story of your project means explaining who you are, what you plan to make, why you want to do so and how you’ll go about doing it.

“A series of creative and engaging backer rewards is essential. Your rewards should reflect the personality of both you and your project – and they should offer something tangible to your supporters.

“Updates that share the journey of the creative process as the project comes to life.”

It may seem difficult to come up with innovative giveaways for a book – after all, who has time to worry about custom bookmarks when they’re focused on editing, typesetting, cover design and marketing plans?

But Kreizman assures me it’s not as complicated as it sounds. “Most potential backers aren’t as interested in swag as they are in the book itself! A digital copy or a print edition is the most important reward for a self publish project. Special editions and signed editions are great too, and they very clearly add value. I’m also a big fan of experiential rewards – a Skype session with the author, for instance. Tote bags are fine, but it’s interactions between reader and writer that most often make the best rewards.”

Kreizman touches on what I, personally, find most interesting about crowdfunding – the potential to

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build community. Backers want to know who you are, what your vision is, and why they should care.

Because, ultimately, they want to feel as though they’re part of the project, have a sense of ownership when it comes to fruition, and engage with the creator on a personal level. Kickstarter has made that sense of community part of its mission across all of its crowdfunding categories. “Kickstarter’s a place where people come together to make new things – like books, movies, restaurants, board games, and innovative technology. Our mission is to help people bring creative projects to life. Funding on Kickstarter is allor-nothing – projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money. All-or-nothing funding might seem scary, but it’s amazingly effective in creating momentum and rallying people around an idea.”

So if you’re looking to publish but money is an issue (and let’s face it, in publishing, when is money not an issue?), crowdfunding may be the way to go.

Yes, it is another step in what may already feel like a daunting undertaking. But not only can it result in the funds you need; your backers will also become builtin readers and supporters of your career, whether that takes the form of Twitter followers and blog readers to demonstrate your platform to a literary agent or buyers for your third, fourth and fifth books. And, hey, you may even make some friends along the way.

Maris Kreizman is Kickstarter’s Publishing Project Specialist. Find her on Twitter @mariskreizman. For more information on crowdfunding on Kickstarter, visit kickstarter.com or Twitter @kickstarter

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2014 was another year of momentous change for the publishing industry.

Hugh Howey’s AuthorEarnings extolled the financial virtues of authors going indie. Amazon and Hachette duked it out over eBook discounting. The Frankfurt Book Fair put on its first English-language self publishing programming. We’ve asked industry bigwigs – from authors to publishers and everyone in between – what they think the biggest happenings of the past year were and what’s coming next.

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Distribution revolution In the world of ‘traditional’ publishing, single copy POD (print-on-demand) linked to distribution and reselling channels has been well established for some years in practically every flavour of publishing that can be imagined. In 2014, we saw a continuation of that trend, but on an increasingly global scale. It is no longer sufficient to offer publishers a ‘global’ POD solution that is largely confined to North America and the UK: publishers are now demanding zero inventory solutions on a much wider canvas – of special interest is China and the Asia Pacific region. The idea of selling from a pre-printed inventory position is becoming increasingly anachronistic. Expect more of this.

The printed book is in good health, but its method of production is increasingly shifting to digital and on-demand printing. The publishing model has been moving from printing a book, storing a book, then selling a book to selling a book and then printing it. Print runs also continue to shrink – expect more of this. In addition, digital print technology is shifting from toner based to ink jet manufacturing methods. Full-colour digital printing costs have tumbled as a result; that in turn has opened up a new tranche of titles to the world of ondemand. Expect more of this as well.

The world of self publishing continues to grow at a staggering rate; there seems to be no limit to the outpouring of titles, and no limit to the enthusiasm to self publish. One clear trend has been the move to genuine self publishing at the author level as that community becomes more sophisticated and aware of new services that support this, such as IngramSpark, Ingram’s independent publishing platform.

As the number of books published continues to climb, expect it to get more and more difficult to be discovered as an author. The good news is that there is a plethora of avenues in which authors can connect with their potential readers; and a plethora of ways in which readers can discover a title on almost any topic under the sun, and possibly a good many that really should not see the light of day.

One of my favourite sites as a reader is Goodreads, which is slightly addictive and a little dangerous as you realise how much there is to read and how little time you have to read what you want to. The good news is that you can find pretty much whatever title you are interested in, but I am still awaiting the day when the entire canon of Biggles books is retrieved from the out-of-print graveyard.

David Taylor is the Senior Vice President of Content Acquisition at Ingram Content Group Inc.

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Authors embrace independence Some years back I used to anticipate with great pleasure visits to the biggest bookstore in the city, part of a chain but with a highly independent manager. It was eclectic, surprising and exciting.

Now it’s the same as all the others, packed high with the same cookery spin-offs, celebrity memoirs and everything else that is temporarily popular. A consequence of this new, safe publishing world can be seen in the closure of bookshops and the diminution of range in the review section of periodicals.

Even Harry Potter couldn’t maintain Bloomsbury as a buy recommendation on the stock market. The excitement has gone; we buy from Amazon.

However, outside this safely regulated world there exists the chaotic quantum universe of independent publishing where the old rules do not apply but where the future of publishing is being changed by a market reaction to rapidly evolving reading patterns. A brief glance at the music industry provides a clue as to how this change might go.

The sprawling independent sector covers the spectrum from the barely literate to excellent works that in the current climate struggle to attract either an agent or a publisher. Amazon, eBooks and social media have released a genie

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that won’t return to the bottle.

There is considerable evidence that the new generation of younger readers operate in a culture where free reading through offers and downloads, not to mention heavy discounting, is the new norm.

Surprisingly, perhaps, it is independent authors themselves who act as a catalyst for this.

Jessica Ward, author of the topical ‘Ebola Virus’ series, writes in tweet-length paragraphs and runs a strong Facebook profile involving her readers as friends, but more radically searches for new avenues to offer free downloads. For Halloween she contacted organisers of Halloween parties nationwide offering a free download to all who buy tickets, an example of profits deferred to build a readership.

Simon Williams, established author of the ‘Aona’ series, promoted his latest book by donating all profits to charity. These are not models for commercial publishers.

The growth of self publishing has spawned an industry of book tweeters, marketing and production services. Social media is replete with sites where authors remorselessly promote their books to what probably is an audience of other authors doing the same. As with all revolutions, something new will evolve to better serve independent authors and it’s worth examining a

model emerging in the States.

Rave Reviews Book Club (@rave_reviewsbc) attempts to combine member-authors through an ethic of mutual support, whereby the social media following of each author is placed at the disposal of all members through active recommendations and reviews, creating a quantum of interest. It also provides advice and a level of support through a very low membership fee. Like Authoright, it does not act as gatekeeper by judging the quality of the books but it provides a platform which the authors can use to apply and share their own judgements. In doing this, it lessens the isolation of independent authors and seems to inculcate generous supportive behaviour.

Should the innovative outreach of authors like Ward and Williams capture a new generation through downloads and the use of social media, then the traditional publishing industry will need to adapt rapidly.

Nick Brown is the author of two series of books, ‘The Ancient Gramarye’ series and ‘The Luck Bringer’ series. Find him online at nickbrownbooks.com and on Twitter @NickBrownAuthor

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Collaborative culture Having been a bookseller for more than two decades and having been a writer for even longer, I am quite excited by the manner in which publishing and bookselling have evolved and that technologies have emerged that allow unique collaborations and opportunities for writers that have never before existed.

I continue to witness indie authors coming together and forming alliances in all sorts of collaborative efforts, such as box sets that combine multiple authors’ works and help cross-pollinate one another’s readers, resulting in further exposure for authors, the ability to hit important bestseller lists, and to do something that traditional publishing has yet to successfully pull off. You’d never find a physical or digital box set of thrillers (for example) that contain novels from two or more different publishers; and yet indie authors have done just that in multiple successful demonstrations that rocked much of 2014.

Authors have also formed intriguing collaborative groups such as ‘The Jewels of Historic Romance’ or the Uncollected Anthology Authors, and they have recognised that there is more to gain by seeking commonalities by which,

when joining forces, they can have a bigger impact in terms of marketing their combined brand.

Two fun collaborative projects that I had the thrill of being personally involved in at Kobo include the work Kobo did with indie author Melissa Yi as part of a larger ‘Gone Girl’ promotion. In the summer of 2014, to celebrate the launch of Kobo’s Aura H20 (the world’s only premiere waterproof e-reader) and the release of the much anticipated movie tie-in to Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel Gone Girl, Kobo commissioned Yi to write three short stories that would be available for customers to read for free. The stories contained clues for readers to respond to, which, if answered correctly, could lead to their winning some great prizes. Yi fashioned three connected tales that not only captured the spirit and essence of the Flynn novel, but also included her most well-known protagonist, Hope Sze. This collaboration provided Kobo with a great manner by which they could run a contest, and it provided Yi with a more comprehensive access to new customers.

Another project, and one that assisted both a small publisher and a handful of new writers, was Kobo’s support on a couple of

Fiction River anthology projects.

The Fiction River anthologies, overseen by series editors and publishers Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, which normally contain a dozen stories, ended up with too many great stories and not enough budget to include them all. Kobo’s support allowed them to purchase three additional stories for both the ‘Past Crime’ and ‘Pulse Pounders’, which were put into exclusive Kobo editions.

As publishing continues to evolve and digital allows more flexibility and greater freedoms, there’s one thing I am sure of – and that is that it has never been a more exciting and rewarding time to be a writer or to be anyone involved in electronic publishing. And that it’s only going to get more exciting, more rife with opportunity than ever before.

Mark Leslie Lefebvre is Kobo’s Director of Kobo Writing Life & Author Relations. Find him on Twitter @markleslie

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NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2014

Readers rule As the retail environment rapidly evolves, it’s vital that traditional publishing companies adapt their approach to commissioning, selling and marketing in order to best serve their increasingly discerning and brandaware consumers (readers) of their products (books).

Only a few years ago, traditional publishing companies considered their customers to be the ‘trade’, i.e. retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, independent bookstores and Amazon, along with a handful of giant wholesalers, such as Ingram, Bertrams and Gardners, who serve those retailers. In recent years, however, publishers have slowly (and often reluctantly) woken up to the concept of ‘D2C’ (directto-consumer) selling and marketing.

In some cases, where their brand is high-profile, traditional publishing companies are now actively selling from their own websites, by-passing the trade altogether. This approach works particularly well for specialist or academic publishers whose brand is well known and serves a particular niche. Osprey (military) and Kogan Page (business) have been particularly successful with D2C selling from their own websites; both having built loyal and knowledgeable communities around their specialisms.

Selling the product is the final stage in the process, of course. This new, consumer-led approach needs to pervade throughout traditional publishing companies’ entire culture, structure and strategy.

Commissioning editors need to think about the target market for their book; who and how many readers will read it and how easy will it be to reach those readers? Designers need to research similar titles in the genre and package the book accordingly, ensuring the cover is appropriate and appealing.

The book needs to be priced correctly and in line with the competition. Most importantly, the marketing team will need to focus their campaigns very precisely, to ensure that the target market is hit

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and that potentially interested readers are aware that the book is available.

Many specialist traditional publishing companies have reorganised their businesses to facilitate this new, consumer-led market place. The aforementioned Osprey and Kogan Page were amongst the first to do so. In the ‘general’ sector, Faber & Faber and Constable & Robinson have done the same. The larger houses, such as Penguin/Random House and HarperCollins, have massive consumer marketing budgets and whole divisions dedicated to D2C. Here at The History Press, as our name suggests, we publish a very large and disparate range of history titles. We have around 7,000 books in print, along with 2,000 eBooks. We’re not quite niche or specialist but we do serve markets with particular interests.

It’s important, indeed crucial therefore, that we embrace the consumer-led transformation in the books market place with vigour, confidence and skill. Of course, we value our trade relationships immensely but we also recognise the imperative to build a much more direct route from commissioning editor to reader.

With that objective in mind, we conducted a strategic review of our business in the early part of this year. The review identified the need to specialise further by capitalising more explicitly on our four core publishing genres of general history, military history, local history and heritage.

As a result, we have completely restructured our business and created four autonomous and devolved new divisions, one for each of those four core publishing genres, each with the aim of creating a distinct and focused consumer proposition for each genre.

Each division is headed up by a new Publisher and has its own dedicated design, marketing and sales teams. It’s been a long and complicated process but we’re confident that our new structure will set us fair for 2015 and beyond.

It was good to see this thinking confirmed at last month’s FutureBook 2014 conference in London. All the talk at FutureBook was of the ‘Future Publisher’, the impact of digital, consumer insight, community engagement, social media, tomorrow’s trends and disruptive publishing models, including self publishing, of course.

It’s an increasingly challenging and competitive marketplace out there, for both traditional publishing companies and indie/self published authors alike.

Neither shelf space nor column inches is guaranteed for either group, regardless of how good the book is.

Chances will improve, however, where the end user, aka consumer, aka reader, is both known and specifically targeted.

Tim Davies is Authoright’s Chairman, and Managing Director of The History Press.

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

Give peace a chance At newspapers and news networks in December, everyone is always asked to contribute year-enders on every subject of note. I hate year-enders. We lived through it once, I don’t want to go through it again.

Happily, I’ve been given a pass by the good folks at Authoright and am allowed, instead, to look forward –-okay, to guess forward –-and propose to you a shift that I think we’re about to see stabilise.

If we glance back over our shoulders just long enough to glimpse Douglas Preston’s Authors United effort formed during 2014’s Amazon–Hachette tussle, we see something more remarkable than we may have realised it was at the time. Here were some of the best-known names in the world in literature agreeing to work together in an effort at commercial pressure. It doesn’t matter whose side you were on: getting some 1,000 substantive authorial voices to say something in unison about publishing and retail was a feat.

If it was overlooked, that’s probably because the self publishing sector developed a lot of unity of its own, to create a deafening backlash to Authors United.

In these two colliding currents, authors captured more media attention and focus than their respective associations had managed to attract for years on any issue. The Authors Guild in New York, the Society of Authors in London, the UK’s Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) –-for a time, they lived in the shadows of these high-profile ad-hoc efforts.

Now, as we turn back to look at 2014, don’t fail to listen to recent authorial voices: Hugh Howey, champion of the option to publish in the best way possible, has called a ceasefire, saying that self publishing’s points have been made, that it’s time for ‘equal access and equal respect’.

Not that everyone is happy with this kinder, gentler tack. Even as Howey recommends authors take the Digital Book World 2015 Writer’s Survey that he

criticised so relentlessly in 2014 – to give it more and better data this time – a small group of outspoken self publishers continues to fire blistering comment artillery at coverage they don’t like. The tone of these raids on the media doesn’t sit well alongside the advent of The Ethical Author Code, facilitated by ALLi. Many fine authors look unfairly worse when someone uses unethical marketing practices, yes, and the self publishing corps does itself no favours when it delivers its messages with snarling rancour and fisticuffs.

What I think we see ahead in 2015 – what I hope we see – looks better: authors, publishers, agents, editors, all seem tired of the clashes and happier to think of themselves as comrades, each choosing a pathway for publishing that makes the most sense at the time. There’s nothing left to win but readership.

The #EthicalAuthor code, as it’s being hashtagged, is attracting support from traditionally published authors as well as self publishing writers. No floor fights yet.

The fundamental importance of good writing is too critical to publishing for any of us to put up with rude, nasty, hothead behaviour from any quarter.

Raunch doesn’t make a right. 2015 is the year in which a redeveloping books business will begin to strand the strident and support the sensible.

Authors can do no less than make sure they’re at the forefront of this energy of reunification. The time of the amateurish and vulgar has passed. There’s little tolerance left now for anything but professional poise and friendly, frank exchanges about each other’s needs and the readers’ interests.

We can give ourselves a happy new year. We’ve earned it.

Porter Anderson is a publishing journalist, speaker and consultant. Find him on Twitter @Porter_Anderson

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NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2014

Retrospective What else happened in 2014? Before we move on to the New Year, Edward Coats recaps some of the year’s biggest headlines.

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Amazon vs Hachette and Simon & Schuster

Hugh Howey’s AuthorEarnings report

This year saw Amazon enter a drawn out dispute with two of the ‘Big Five’ publishers, Hachette and Simon & Shuster. The disagreement, made public in May, regarded the terms for a new agreement on print and eBook sales in the US. Hachette accused Amazon of withdrawing their books from sale and holding them to ransom (although with no mention of 2012’s antitrust case against Hachette and others). Amazon responded that its aim was to ensure the best value and prices for its customers.

Major authors, such as James Patterson and Hugh Howey found themselves dragged into the PR fight on both sides.

The dispute was resolved for S&S in October, and Hachette in November, with all sides mutedly claiming victory. The agreement is that Hachette and S&S will continue to be able to set the prices for their eBooks, but will have incentives to ensure those prices are low.

Whilst both sides will present it as a return to business as usual, this represents a big shift in the landscape towards Amazon. Any future decisions or agreements will have to put the important parties, authors and readers, first and foremost.

In February, author and self publishing proponent Hugh Howey published the first of his monthly AuthorEarnings reports. With an anonymous coauthor, Howey culled data from nearly 7,000 eBooks in the bestselling category on Amazon, thrillers. They found that self published and single-author titles were outselling those published by the Big Five, with 43 per cent of daily unit sales, compared to 34 per cent.

Howey also found that self published books had a higher average review rating than traditionally published, with an average of over one hundred reviews per title.

Most intriguing for authors, though, were the findings on earnings. Whilst the Big Five are making 52 per cent of the gross daily revenue from the genre bestsellers, self published authors are earning 49 per cent of what goes to authors. This is explained by the much higher revenue share you can command as a self published author.

Whilst publishing is never a get-rich-quick scheme, and there is always a lot of work and luck involved, the numbers relevant to authors are clear. Traditional publishers must take notice, and be fairer to authors in how they distribute royalties.

Unbound author Paul Kingsnorth makes the Man Booker longlist

News Corp buys romance publisher Harlequin

In July, the longlist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize was announced and featured The Wake by Paul Kingsnorth, an author who found success through crowdfunding service Unbound. This represents something of a coup for the world of self publishing, which is still effectively marginalised by the prize’s rule that books published by the author themselves or a single-title company are not eligible. Hopefully, this will lead to greater respect and acknowledgement of non-traditionally published authors, especially those that don’t have a pre-existing media profile.

Unbound presents an interesting model, one that connects the author directly with their readers, but the proof will be in how viable it is going forward. So far it has been subsidised by investments and celebrity support, with a lineup of authors very well equipped to generate their own media interest. Any publishing model going forward must find a way to give all authors greater power and engagement with how their work finds its way to readers.

In August, News Corp announced that it had acquired Canada-based Harlequin, the world’s largest publisher of romance and women’s fiction. The agreement saw Harlequin become a division of HarperCollins.

Harlequin had struggled in recent years, despite the massive resurgence of the romance genre, due to their inability to successfully replace falling print sales. CEO Craig Swinwood had previously argued the company was merely ‘in a transition’. Harlequin is also currently facing a class action suit brought by a group of its authors over royalty payments.

In an age of publishing mergers and acquisitions, the biggest companies continue to get even bigger.

Supposedly, this means they expand into markets and genres they may not have any presence in, and allows them to more effectively market all their relevant authors. But whilst growing in size can mean efficiency, it can also result in less contact and consideration for individual authors. Acquisitions often mean job losses and redistribution of resources. The experiences of each author, especially those not commanding the most attention, may suffer as a result.

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5 6 NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2014

The launch of Kindle Unlimited

In July, Amazon launched its Kindle Unlimited subscription program, which it extended to the UK in September. Responding to the enormous success of Spotify and Netflix in their respective media, the program offers over 700,000 titles to read for £7.99 / $9.99 a month. None of the Big Five publishers have yet committed their titles to the program.

Whilst smaller subscription programs such as Oyster and Scribd already existed, this saw the model hit the mainstream and the public consciousness in a large way. The situation will continue to develop, but the questions that authors face are already important.

Firstly, independent authors who wish to be on Kindle Unlimited must give Amazon exclusivity, something that Scribd and Oyster don’t require.

The payout for every time a title is downloaded is also currently vague and subject to change month to month. The potential readership, however, is huge, especially of those who are particularly price-conscious.

As with all new models and ideas, the future outlook remains unclear, although it is obvious Amazon is keen to push ahead. With all promotions and opportunities, authors should consider carefully what they want their book to do, and how they want to reach their readers.

The Alliance of Independent Authors launches its Ethical Author Code In November, ALLi unveiled its new guidance on how self published authors should conduct themselves in relation to reviews, promotions and other matters.

The relationship between an author and their readers has come into the spotlight in recent months, after Kathleen Hale told of how she investigated a negative reviewer and tracked her down to her home and workplace. Book blogger Suzanne McGee also closed down her review blog after she received dog filth in her mailbox, wrapped in a printed review she had posted.

The initiative describes itself as a ‘practical approach to author ethics’, and allows those who sign up to download and display a badge to show their support.

Authors will agree not to hide behind an alias in order to boost their sales or negatively affect competitors’, not make false statements in order to promote their books and to run their publishing business in a professional and timely manner.

As with many codes of best practice, some of the guidelines will appear to be common sense. But with authors, readers and reviewers now closer than ever, it is worth being conscious of representing yourself as professionally as possible.

7 8 The fate of the physical bookshop

2014 has seen the situation of the bricks-and-mortar bookshop brought into sharper focus. Earlier this year, we learned that there are now fewer than 1,000 independent bookshops in the UK, whilst James Patterson gave £250,000 (and then $1 million) to help preserve them both there and in the US. Meanwhile, the larger chain retailers, such as Barnes & Noble and Waterstones, continue to see their business squeezed.

Whilst nobody can deny the opportunity and service that Amazon and other online retailers provide, many believe that physical bookshops still have an important role to play. A resurgence in localism has seen small bookshops find good opportunities to support and be supported by local authors.

Waterstones has even begun to ‘de-brand’ its stores in order to offer a different experience.

Readers are still keen to engage with their favourite authors in person where they can, and events such as Q&As and book signings often have a strong mutual benefit. Independent bookshops can offer a great opportunity to let authors connect to their local and fan communities.

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Diversity in the literary world hit the headlines again Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, recently caused a stir when he made ill-judged (but apparently humorously intended) comments about fellow author Jacqueline Woodson at the US National Book Awards.

Whilst the publishing world has a relatively good gender balance, the lack of diversity in other ways has been a big issue this year. The Bookseller in the UK recently penned a ten-year followup to In Full Colour, their report on the state of the industry, both of publishers and authors. The results were striking: there is not a single black or ethnic minority executive running a major UK trade publisher, and only a single non-white author was featured on the week’s UK Top 50 Chart.

The rise of the author gives a lot more power to those traditionally marginalised by the industry, and allows for a greater diversity of voices. Further, new technologies and models are allowing authors who might never have been published to connect to readers who thought no books were ever written for them.

Authors are as diverse and eclectic as the people who read their work, and routes like self publishing give opportunities to those denied by the traditional route.

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

CHARACTER STUDY Throughout history, writers have paid homage to their favourite people – the earliest odes in the English language are credited to Edmund Spenser in the 16th century. But in the era of social media, super celebrity and fastand-easy litigation, Diana Rissetto shares a few words of caution for authors considering turning real people into characters.

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I once had a number of acquaintances who were all fervent fans of a certain Off-Broadway show that featured several handsome and charming young men.

The show attracted a cult following, with many of these young fans seeing the show more than once a week.

One of these fangirls was particularly an admirer of a certain actor in the show and became friendly with him. Being a fan of a theatre actor can be very different from being a fan of a movie star. New York theatre actors are accessible; their fans can meet them and talk to them and feel like they know them. This can sometimes lead to disaster.

This young woman decided to write a novella about herself and this actor. In the story, she was a bartender at the theatre and began a flirtation with the actor. The story went on to become a very erotic love story.

This novella ended up in the backstage area of this Off-Broadway show, passed on by a mutual connection of the actor’s and the author’s who couldn’t resist showing it to him. The other actors in the show read the story and continually teased the subject of the tale about it. The subject himself felt gravely embarrassed, but, showing some respect for his number 1 fan, refused to read the story.

I clearly remember watching this story unfold and thinking this young woman was rather unwise in my opinion. She was actually using the real name and persona of a known actor! And used her own full name in the story as well!

I tell you this story as a warning: use a real person in your book at your own peril. This story may have ended in embarrassment, but that’s certainly not the worst that can happen.

Last year, Gregoire Delacourt published the novel The First Thing We Look At. In the novel, the main character bears a striking resemblance to Scarlett Johansson, and assumes her identity. The story ends with the young woman dying in a car crash. Johansson immediately filed a defamation suit saying that the book ‘fraudulently exploited her name, her image and her celebrity’. The book was never translated or made into a film, as was planned, and Scarlett was awarded damages.

Delacourt was upset with the turn of events. “I thought she’d get in contact with me to ask me to go for a coffee with her”.

I read that and then remembered my friend

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from the theatre fan community. Writers often put celebrities in their fictional works to live out their fantasies of meeting their heroes and to draw their thanks and praise. They assume the response will be positive but often forget that a celebrity’s image is the finely crafted creation of dozens of people, something that has to be maintained and controlled. As this case proves, that reputation is something to be protected at all costs.

Johansson’s choice to sue for defamation can be viewed as overzealous, but celebrities have their choice over how to handle such a situation. Some are less concerned for their image than they are about the invasive nature of being used as putty in an author’s hands. These celebrities can sue for ‘Right of Privacy’ – individuals can be protected from having personal, embarrassing information published about them that is not newsworthy or of ‘public concern’ and living celebrities can use Right of Privacy to protect their name, likeness, or persona from being commercially exploited.

Is it really worth it to the author take those risks?

If you’re really such a big fan of this person, write a respectful fan letter to them. But be cautious about turning them into a character, allowing yourself to manipulate them into any number of situations and control their reactions. If this doesn’t draw a reaction from the actual person, it may well affect readers.

The novel The Starter Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer is about a Hollywood wife whose husband leaves her for Britney Spears. The book was released in 2006.

Britney was certainly a megastar by then and at the height of her fame.

Spears is attacked in the book and called a ‘homewrecker’. While she’s had her share of tabloid blunders, this isn’t something Spears has been widely accused of, and therefore doesn’t fall under the ‘factual representation’ clause that would protect the author from litigation. Still, Spears has not yet reacted to the book.

However, when browsing the reviews for this book on Goodreads, so many reviewers do call the author out on her use of Spears as a character. Many readers commented that they felt the book was cheapened by it and would have been better served by a character the author created from scratch.

On the whole, using celebrities as characters can also very much date a story. Yes, Britney Spears is a

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household name today and Scarlett Johansson is an Avenger, but there will likely be people in fifty years’ time who will hear their names and say, ‘…Who is that?’ No writer wants their work of art to fade out in their lifetime.

Can this ever end well? There are some rare cases. In Bridget Jones: The Celebrities have Edge of Reason, the sequel to Bridget had various Jones’s Diary, Bridget is introduced to reactions to being her favourite actor, Colin Firth. Firth used as characters later starred as Mark Darcy in the film in books. Scarlett adaptations of the books. Clearly, the Johanssen sued author was a Firth fangirl as well, and in this Gregoire case, using a celebrity’s likeness proved to be Delacourt, Britney harmless, affectionate and good for publicity.

Spears ignored Everybody seemed to win in this case. But this The Starter Wife is largely due to Firth’s decision to be pleased by and Colin Firth the homage, which isn’t something every author starred in the can rely on. movies When is it probably harmless to use a celebrity based on or a historical figure in a book? Julian Moss uses a Helen young Adolf Hitler in his novel Not in the Hands of Fielding’s Boys, which is about a WWI soldier. Adolf Hitler has books. been dead for seventy years and is one of the most hated men in history. He has no living relatives who are keen to defend his reputation. For these reasons alone, Moss’s use of a famous name is safe and very relevant to his story.

In fact, if you go to Goodreads and look up ‘real people used in fiction’, pretty much everybody listed in the books are, indeed, dead. There are two novels that use Anne Frank’s fellow annex hider, Peter van Pels, as the main character. Stories such as these are particularly interesting, taking a person we, in reality, know nothing about and piecing together a personality and voice for him. Again, with no living descendants, van Pels is fair game for authors. (Though it is worth noting that, while safe from legal repercussions, an author should be wary of a deceased person’s historical context so as not to offend readers.)

It’s safe to say that in most cases, it’s a weighty decision to use a real person as a character in a novel. My mother always told me never to put anything in writing. This advice is worth nothing in this context. A piece of writing belongs to the writer only until one other person reads it. Although your intent in using the celebrity’s likeness, in your mind, was full of flattery and you just know they would be honoured – you can never truly know how they’ll react. Is it worth it to risk a cease and desist letter or a law suit? I certainly don’t think so.

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NEW EDITION, DECEMBER 2014

FUNNY LO V E Inspired by the money he made as a freelance contributor to various websites, Travis Casey decided to try his hand at writing fiction by combining his love of comedy with the universality of falling in love. Often feeling like he’s “walked into a female locker room”, Casey continues to pursue his dream while fighting against the gendered nature of genre.

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What made you decide to start writing, and in the romance genre in particular?

I began writing articles on the website helium.com in 2006. I enjoyed it, sold some articles and made a little money at it. In 2011, I joined critiquecircle.com and began learning the craft of writing fiction and in November 2012 published my first novel.

I wouldn’t say I write straightline romance, but romantic comedy. Nearly everything in life has a funny side, especially romance. Except for religious reasons, virtually every person wants to find that special someone – a soul-mate or companion of some kind on a romantic level – so I work in a genre that virtually everyone can identify with. With that, I love to write comedy and putting a couple together when their personalities clash creates endless material and has terrific comedic value.

Have you found any difficulties being a male writer in the romance genre?

Yes. There is a stigma about a guy writing in the romance genre – like I walked into a female lockerroom where I shouldn’t be. When watching a film, the audience identifies with the actors, not the writers and directors who put them there. Readers connect more with the author when reading than other forms of entertainment and have stronger defences about it. Writing is still a very sexist industry. How many guys would read a book about submarine warfare written

by Amanda or Betty? If an author steps out of their gender genre, readers are more likely to look for things to be ‘wrong’.

How do you define romance?

I think it’s pretty simple. Two people falling in love.

What was the inspiration for ‘Tyler’s Trouble Trilogy’?

I had a great time in the Navy in the 1980s and wrote my naval memoirs in 2010. When I realised there may be a limited market for the memoirs of a nobody, I created Tyler Chambers. He was a lot more daring and entertaining than I ever was. What I thought would be a simple conversion from nonfiction to fantasy took a whole new direction.

When I wrote the first book, Trouble Triangle, the story of Tyler, Holly and Debbie was going to take a few chapters and I was going to move on. But the characters didn’t want to leave the page.

Before I knew it I had 30,000 words and I realised I had a whole book with them alone. That was when I decided to make Tyler’s story a trilogy instead of a single title and I managed to create three very different books from it.

Do you outline your stories before you write them or do you generally go with the flow?

My books are very character driven.

I think of my two main characters, male and female, and let them resonate in my mind for a week or so. I come up with a basic setting, professions, personality traits, then begin. Certainly in my first two books the characters wrote the story. I just sat at the keyboard and typed what they told me to say.

Then I add characters as needed to advance the plot. So far none of my books have turned out as I thought they would. I love it when they write me into a corner and I don’t know how I’m going to get out of it. If I don’t know what’s going to happen next, how’s the reader going to guess?

How long does it take you to write a book?

For a novel I go through ten to fifteen drafts and it takes four to six months from start to publish.

How has your writing progressed since you first started?

Above: Travis Casey’s latest novel is the third in his Tyler’s Trouble trilogy.

Below: After living in the UK for decades author Travis Casey repatriated to the US last year.

It was interesting that I chose to write the trilogy in first person. I did a lot of research before I began writing fiction and most advice stated not to write in first person unless the character had a strong voice and that character had to tell the story. I started out writing drafts is both first and third person, and in the end I decided Tyler could tell the story better than I could. So I let him.

What’s interesting is that the trilogy takes place over seven years.

In that time, Tyler matures. And so

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did my writing. So what happened was Tyler’s voice and maturity progressed at the same rate as my writing, which kept his voice authentic as he told each story. So instead of saying my writing has improved with each book, I can say that I was just writing in the narrator’s voice to reflect his age and experience.

What is the best thing about being a romance writer?

I can control what a woman thinks, says, and does!

You have ties to both the US and UK in a very unique way.

How has that affected your writing?

they wanted to return to Minnesota and never leave it again. But eighty years of living had created some health issues for them. So my wife and I made the monumental decision to return to America to assist them with resettling back into their Minnesota home.

Seven months later and we’re still here in Minnesota. I will return to England, but I’m not sure when.

The bright side about moving here is that it has given me material and a change of pace as I’ve written two books about the move. Foreigner in My Own Backyard and Still a Foreigner are satirical memoirs about my repatriation to the United States.

What are you working on next?

reply. He finally passed the test, got his licence, and he’s very proud of it. When he tells people he’s a bus driver, they don’t ask to ride his bus and he doesn’t expect them to.

When I published my first book, I expected everyone I told would want to read it. And although I’m quite proud of what I’ve done, I now realise that not everyone wants to ride my bus.

What is your advice to firsttime novelists in the genre?

Be original. There are far too many writers jumping on popular bandwagons trying for copycat fame. There are pages and pages on Amazon of bare torsos by an author with an initialled name. Fifty Shades

How do you define romance?

I think it’s pretty s imple. Two people fall ing in love.

As a Midwest American boy, I joined the Navy at the age of nineteen and embarked on a nine-year adventure of seeing and experiencing the world. After tours in Hawaii and Scotland, I left the Navy and settled in Seattle with my British wife. After two years there I came to the conclusion that I really liked the European way of life. So in 1992 my wife and I moved to England and remained there for the next twenty-two years and thought that was my ‘happy ever after’.

Then life interfered.

My parents retired to Brainerd, Minnesota, in 1998. In 2013 my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and my dad had a stroke. After spending the winter of 2013 in Florida with my sister,

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I had begun work on my fourth novel when I stopped to write about the move to America. I’ll be back on the novel soon, but am currently devoting some time to promoting and marketing what I already have out there. The new novel is another romantic comedy about a horse racing tycoon and his love interest, the state prosecuting attorney. It will be a lot of fun.

What’s something you’ve learned about being a writer?

A friend of mine made a career change to become a bus driver.

He failed the test three times and people asked him if he was going to give it up. “I have too much time and money invested to quit,” he’d

broke new boundaries; but instead of following the trend already set, try to set the next trend.

Travis Casey is currently living in Minnesota with his British wife, Wendy, and their two Shih Tzus.

Forbidden Trouble is Casey’s third novel (published by CreateSpace, RRP £10.99 paperback, RRP £1.99 eBook) and is available to purchase from online retailers including amazon.co.uk and to order from all good bookstores. Find him online at traviscasey.com

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s ’ a t San

r e p l e H e l t t i L d e d n a L s a H

Kate Appleton provides a festive season finale for New Edition as Christmas superfan Christine Harrington, author of Christine’s Christmas Countdown, gives us her critique on the self publishing process as well as revealing last-minute tips to ensure you don’t go crackers in the run-up to the holidays.

In Christine Harrington’s household, Christmas has always been the event of the year. “Every year, without fail during Christmas lunch, my father would thank my mother for making it so special. My other lasting memory is of my mother always taking great care to ensure that we all looked very smart in our best clothes at Christmas time. Because of these very happy memories of wonderful Christmases during my childhood I was determined to make Christmas special for my family.”

It was these experiences as a child that inspired Harrington to begin what would become the foundation of her book. “It soon became apparent to me that as a busy working mother this was not easy. Every year I made lists which I kept and added to annually and my apparent lack of panic impressed my friends and family. I shared my check-lists with a favoured few and they complimented me on my comprehensive coverage of the preparation for Christmas. Many of the ‘tips’ arrived on my lists as a result of my omissions! Thirty years later I have now found time to share my lists with everyone.

But of course everyone’s requirements for the festive season are different so this can only be a guide.

Nonetheless, I hope everyone who celebrates Christmas finds this little book helpful and that you

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enjoy the preparation and the festivities of Christmas.”

When it came time to share her years of knowledge with the world, Harrington decided to self publish rather than chase a traditional publishing deal. “I found self publishing by an internet search! I published the first, much more basic, edition last year and after receiving some positive feedback I decided that I wanted to evolve the book – adding in the ‘list’ elements and also improving the overall design with people who had experience within the publishing industry. Having control over adapting my book year on year was very important to me so self publishing was an ideal and practical route to go down. I would recommend it to anyone wishing to fulfil their ambition to publish a book without the stress and perhaps demoralisation of seeking a traditional route.

Equally, with self publishing you keep the rights to your work, which was extremely important to me.”

Harrington is no stranger to the field of writing, but has shifted direction with the publication of Christine’s Christmas Countdown. “After a successful career as a consultant dermatologist and writing medical chapters and papers, I am now shifting down a gear and have retired to a farmhouse in South Wales. By publishing this book I hoped to achieve something very different for this new chapter of my retired life and felt it would be rewarding to produce a book that proved practically useful to other people.”

Harrington ultimately hopes that the book will spread the joy she feels at Christmas to her readers’ households. “I hope the book will be read by working, busy mums and anyone who enjoys being organised in their Christmas preparation – or even those who are usually disorganised and aspire to not rushing to the petrol station for a last minute present on Christmas Eve!” And it seems that Harrington has reached at least one such reader in the BBC’s Emma Maitlis, who gave Christine’s Christmas Countdown a five-star review. “I am always surprised and at the same time ecstatic to receive such warm and complimentary reviews – especially from famous personalities such as

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Harrington’s Christine’s Christmas Countdown is a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to be more organised over the holidays.

CONTEMPORARY PUBLISHING MAGAZINE

Christine Harrington’s favourite memories of Christmas are those of her mother’s special care and attnetion to detail.

Emily Maitlis!”

Harrington may be a Christmas maven, but she’s sure to let readers know that the pursuit of perfection should never rob them of the joy of the season. “My favourite thing about Christmas is to see everyone happy and enjoying themselves. I do try to practise what I preach [in the book] – in general – but no one is perfect!”

And even though the book is now in print, Harrington doesn’t rule out other editions that include suggestions from her readers. “Will there be more books? I don’t know. I think it would be interesting to invite readers to add suggestions of things that they do at Christmas that I have not included, and include these items in future editions, perhaps annually – I also might consider other ‘busy mums’ titles.”

If you’re reading this and still don’t feel ready for the holidays, Harrington has a few last minute tips for you. “Sit down and think through the whole Christmas period and with a diary, carefully plan everything – jobs, presents, meals, shopping etc. Make lists for each task and calmly work through a few each day. You will soon feel better once you start ticking off and the lists get smaller. Do not panic but be determined to enjoy it all!”

Christine’s Christmas Countdown by Christine Ida Harrington (published by Clink Street Publishing, RRP £4.99 paperback) is available to purchase online at retailers including amazon.co.uk and can be ordered from all good bookstores.

I hope the book will be read by working, busy mums and anyone who enjoys being organised in their Christmas preparation – or even those who are usually disorganised and aspire to not rushing to the petrol station for a last minute present on Christmas Eve!

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is the Most lifelong readers have been getting books for Christmas since before they could read.

And some of those books have the power to bring us right back into the holiday spirit as soon as we brush a year’s worth of dust off them.

Check out some of these holiday reads that we revisit every Christmas, and pull out some of your own before the season ends.

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Diana

Season

I have an aunt who is a nun and we would visit her convent right before Christmas every year. My mother bought The Mouse in the Manger for me at the convent bookstore one year and it became one of my favourite holiday books as a child! It’s about a mouse named Oscar who is tired of having to share his straw bed with all of his siblings, so he sets out to find his own home, collecting straw along the way. He comes across a stable and is happy to find some space, but then his peace is interrupted when a young couple expecting a baby enter because there is no room in the inn… (You see where this one is going?) Oscar realizes he needs to share his straw and goes back home to his family, realizing how lucky he is to have them. I still love this book and love sharing it with the little kids in my life.

Kate

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was the first book that caught my imagination and made me really wish that I could be in the story – as Lucy Pevensie obviously – and that my best friend was not a girl called Kelly but a fawn called Mr Tumnus.

Bizarrely, Narnia is a world where ‘it is always winter and never Christmas’, but I would say for many, the festive season wouldn’t be the same without it, either in book form or the original TV – not Walt Disney – adaptation (sorry, Walt).

Jordan

My family has a stocking with ‘The Night Before Christmas’ by Clement C Moore cross-stitched, in its entirety, onto the front. I don’t know who purchased it, or when, but we hang it every year as though it’s a family heirloom. One year I became particularly interested in that stocking, memorising the entire poem in the corner of the living room. To save me from myself, my parents bought me a copy in book form, reasoning that a child sitting in the corner reading a book is way more normal than a child sitting in the corner reading a stocking. The jury’s still out on that one.

Justin

I think that The Outsiders by SE Hinton is one of the greatest books around in terms of cultivating Christmas nostalgia. Think about it: You have a classic, landmark novel whose entire narrative arc focuses on the impregnable nature of the family, the human potential for peace and the fleeting wonders of childlike optimism. It covers all thematic Christmas bases and reminds us of the blessings and hardships universal to mankind, regardless of economic and social background.

For my part, I’ve spent many a snowy Christmas night reading this very book and feeling the true strength of universal love and familial belonging. Those takeaways will stay with you throughout the year and rekindle themselves every time you return to Tulsa and the Greasers. Honestly, the book is holiday gold, even if you wouldn’t think of a rough-and-tumble, masculine YA title in holiday terms from the outset. So do your best to stay, Outsiders. Stay gold.

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PUBLISHING DECEMBER

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