Congratulations, Brian

Warm congratulations to Brian, whose books seem to be selling like hot cakes (Borderlands down to 547 on Amazon today). Another very good advertisement for MNW (and a nice birthday present for, them too).

UK Outcry revisited

Following on from David’s post about HarperCollins, Will Atkins sent over a link to the Guardian Blog which is debating this whole issue. Oddly enough, the blog is worded to seem like Macmillan New Writing are jumping on the band wagon, when in fact it is quite the other way round – but hey ho… We know who got there first, right?

Anyway, judging by some of the comments on the blog, it appears the same issue of advance vs a greater cut of the profit is rearing its head again, and I wonder what any of you think? After all, for the second timers the rules of the game change, with a clause giving Macmillan the option for a third book but under the advance/less royalties contract.

Personally, I’m at odds with advances because I look at being a writer pragmatically. In my day job I’ve never been advanced anything. I get paid on a monthly basis on the work I’ve just done in that month. And I’m guessing that most of you in day-jobs are paid similarly. I’ve never been loaned money by my employer for work I might do over the next 6 months, and would never dream of asking for an advance amounting to five years worth of output (which big advances usually amount to, and that’s if the publisher actually makes that money out of the author by the end of it). Despite the slow decline in the publishing industry, big advances are still fashionable. Last year, David posted a great blog entry on one such ludicrous advance, and just scrolling down the comments on the Guardian blog you can see that the world of crazy advances is alive and kicking.

Without intentionally loading the shotgun and aiming it squarely at my toes, I would rather have a smaller advance that just gets me there followed by a greater share of the profit, than be in debt to my publisher for the next five to ten years.
I think in a lot of ways, writing is about freedom, and having an albatross like that around my neck as a new writer is not something I’d find terribly appealing…

1/3rd off! Pre-order The Dog of the North for only £9.89!

It seems discounting has started early on The Dog of the North, now available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk for only £9.89 (RRP: £14.99). Also offering the title at below market price are Waterstones, pickabook.co.uk and dvd.co.uk. (My experiences of dealing with pickabook, however, are so uniformly poor that if I can cost them a single sale by my negative recommendation, I will be delighted).

Discounts are, on the surface, not good news for a Macmillan New Writer, whose royalties are calculated on the sale price. On the other hand, people are much more likely to buy a 470-page hardback for under a tenner than they are at fifteen quid. My primary interest, as an unknown debut novelist in hardback, is in sales volumes rather than high unit royalties.

I don't know whether such discount wars are common for a book no-one has heard of two months before it's published. What I do know is that it doesn't do my sales prospects any harm.

Celebration time

I have second novel news...

Happy Birthday Macmillan New Writing!!!

Yes, the imprint is two years old this month. And to mark the anniversary, Macmillan has discounted a selection of the MNW titles by 20%. This offer doesn’t last long though…*
All you need to do is guide your mouse arrow down to here, and click.

Easy peasy.

Oh, and a credit or debit card would be good to. And an address. Yes, a mailing address would be quite helpful...

(Now, enough of the shameless advertising… Back to David's Harpercollins debate…)

*ends 30th April!

Stand back and wait for the outcry in the USA

Remember the screams when Macmillan New Writing was announced?

HarperCollins in the US has announced something rather similar. According to MediaBistro, their new, yet unnamed imprint "will offer minimal advances and instead split a much higher percentage of royalties with the authors."

These folks are serious about it, too. The new imprint will be headed by Robert Miller, the founder of and President of Hyperion, a legendarily successful small publisher. But the scheme as related by GalleyCat won't be based on royalties but rather profit-sharing. (!) Can you imagine how that would have been greeted if Macmillan had announced it that way? Profit-sharing is what Hollywoof offers you if they have no intention of paying you anything at all.

In any case, I'm glad to see we're wising up over here. And if HarperCollins were really smart, they'd fly to London, buy lunch for Mike, Will, and Sophie, and have a chat.

The Imaginary Place

I've just posted a ramble on the Veggie Box blog about the assumed importance of real places in crime fiction, but does the same apply to other forms of fiction?

I'm assuming in terms of fantasy that a real location would be positively frowned upon. But how about science fiction?

It would be really interesting to write a historical novel in an imagined setting. Come to think of it, isn't that what Alis did? Did she start a whole new genre?

I've mixed the real and imagined in Light Reading, but my next book is keeping it all real. I think I prefer the freedom to make it up as I go along though (and I certainly prefer not having to do the research).

Someone set me straight - geographical or fantastical?

At it like Rabbit

I promise this is relevant, so bear with me:

Your Score: Rabbit

You scored 21 Ego, 14 Anxiety and 18 Agency!

It was going to be one of Rabbit's busy days. As soon as he woke up he felt important, as if everything depended upon him. It was just the day for Organizing Something, or for Writing a Notice Signed Rabbit, or for Seeing What Everybody Else Thought About It. It was a perfect morning for hurrying round to Pooh, and saying, "Very well, then, I'll tell Piglet," and then going to Piglet, and saying, "Pooh thinks--but perhaps I'd better see Owl first." It was a Captainish sort of day, when everybody said, "Yes, Rabbit " and "No, Rabbit," and waited until he had told them.

You scored as Rabbit!

ABOUT RABBIT: Rabbit is generally considered Clever by his many friends and relations. He is actually a much better reader and writer than Owl, but he doesn't consider it worth mentioning. Instead, Rabbit's real talent lies in Organizing Plans. He organizes rescue parties, makes schemes to reduce Tigger's bounciness, and goes on missions to find out what Christopher Robin does when he's not at the Hundred Acre Woods. Sometimes, however, his Plans do not always go as Planned.

WHAT THIS SAYS ABOUT YOU: You are smart, practical and you plan ahead. People sometimes think that you don't stress or worry, but this is not the case. You are the kind of person who worries in a practical way. You think a) what are my anxieties about? and b) what can be done about them? No useless fretting for you. You don't see the point in sitting around and waiting for things to work out, when you could actually work them out today and save yourself a lot of time and worry. Your friends tend to rely on you, because they know that they can trust you help them work things out.

You sometimes tend to be impatient with people who are less practical in their ways. You don't have much patience for idiots who moan about things but never actually DO anything about them. You have high expectations of everyone, including yourself. When you don't succeed at something, or when something goes wrong despite your best efforts to prevent it, you can get quite hard on yourself. You need to cut yourself some slack and accept that everyone has their faults, even you, and THAT IS OKAY. Let yourself be faulty, every now and then, for the sake of your own sanity.
The Deep and Meaningful Winnie-The-Pooh Character Test

I really thought I was going to be Eeyore, what with me being a miserable bastard and all, but thinking about it logically (and Captainishly), I suppose that I lack the trait of apathy (or is it a non-trait?), which Eeyore has in spades. And I have to say, this analysis is, by and large, bang on target. But it occurs to me that the Rabbit personality (anally retentive, hyperactive, perfectionistic and slightly narcissistic) might well describe the average writer.

So what I'm asking you, fellow MNWers, is this: are we all Rabbits or not? If not, what other Winnie-the-Pooh personalities do we have in the fold?