Meaty Monday: SiWC 2009 Panel Discussion; Surviving the Econopocalyse

On Oct 23-25, 2009, I attended The Surrey International Writers Conference, which is one of the best conferences in North America for improving your writing skills and learning about the publishing industry. The conference is extremely well-run, focuses on craft, and includes (for free!) one ten-minute agent/editor pitch and one ten-minute author/editor "Blue Pencil" clinic.

I'm going to summarize the useful information from my workshop notes here on the blog, but I'm going to have to break it up over several weeks' worth of Meaty Mondays, because there's LOTS to cover.

These summaries will be in point form, because my notes aren't much more than that, plus doodles.

This week:

Panel: Fiction During the Econopocalyse

I use the following abbreviations to denote who is speaking:

Mod = Don McQuinn, moderator
DM = Donald Maass, literary agent
SH = Sally Harding, literary agent
LR = Lisa Rector, Editor
AR = Abby Ranger, Editor

One interesting thing about this panel is it turned extremely interactive, with the audience taking a very active role in the discussion. I haven't recorded every little point, but people got involved (and passionate.) It was great!

Question: In publishing, what rules have changed due to the economic downturn?

AR:
- technology is changing rapidly
- publishers are trying to figure out how they'll be doing business in 2 years
- lots of editors have been fired
- people/publishers are afraid of risk
- that said, don't stop trying things that are difficult or different; publishers need to take SMART risks

SH:
- less able to take risks
- greater competition for safe things, i.e. dependable money-makers
- more budget gets spent on writers who are established, and there are fewer new writers
- to take on a new writer, it has to be a book you're passionate about
- a new writer must bring whatever they can to the assest side of the equation
- publishers are concerned over who they'll publish in 5 years; they know it's short-sighted to not be taking on new talent
- agents must watch like hawks to ensure authors/books aren't being neglected by the over-worked editors who kept their jobs
- the 2nd books of a 2-book deal, if it didn't sell well enough, will now often get cancelled if the author blows their deadline. The publisher is looking for any excuse to cut fat

Unfortunately, at this point, I had to run off to my very encouraging Blue Pencil Cafe session. What follows is what I recorded after I got back; the discussion mainly focused the impact of new technology on publishing.

AR:
- there used to be distinct hardcover and paperback editors, 5 years ago. Now, the jobs are beginning to intermingle

SH:
- ebooks will become very common, will become a bigger market
- I predict a lower return on them for the author

DM:
- ebooks have been around for 10 years but they're only popular now
- ebook sales in general are miniscule
- some authors sell significant numbers of ebooks, but they're bestsellers already
- ebooks are not a tool for success. They're an enhancement of what already exists
- it isn't changing how writers build an audience
- ebooks are a convenience for the subpopulation of readers who happen to want to buy their books that way
- re: price wars - the Profit and Loss statement for an ebook is about the same as a traditional book. I.T. is almost as expensive as printing dead tree books

SH:
- once the system is in place, I.T. costs will come down

DM:
- the web creates too much change for I.T. to keep up

SH:
- but there are no returns for ebooks
(JJ's Note: "returns" refers to the fact bookstores can return unsold copies of books to the publisher, at the publisher's expense. This is a monumental financial hardship for the publishing industry.)

Comment from audience:
- except Amazon "returned" copies of 1984 from owners of the book
(JJ's Note: Earlier this year, Amazon reached into customers' Kindle ebook readers and removed illegal copies of the book 1984. Before they did that, no one even realized they could. It caused quite a flap.)

DM:
- write a great book. That hasn't changed [when it comes to finding success]

AR:
- the Nook ereader is a different business model
- Amazon keeps your book on the Kindle only
- Nook takes any file; it's versatile
- you can loan your ebooks to a friend with the Nook
- I consider Kindle a bad business model

Mod:
- will kids' books be more affected by the new technology, since kids are so savvy about new gizmos?

AR:
- little change, because little kids don't own ereaders

DM:
- what about for young adult (YA)?

AR:
- no. iphones, but no ereaders, in that age group

DM:
- spoils the theory that the new generation will champion this

AR:
- that may be the future. Just not yet.

Comment from audience:
- a book is an interactive experience between a young child and a parent, turning pages and reading together. The parent isn't going to remove themselves from the equation by buying an ereader for the child

AR:
- even in a weak economy, people still buy children's books. We don't stint on our kids.

DM:
- it is the one solid market [in publishing]

AR:
- YA has established itself as stable too

SH:
- publishers are looking hard at what they're doing. Do they want a new imprint? A new YA list? They're considering new things. [i.e. the challenging economy leads to innovation and new thinking]
- new YA imprints are springing up right now, and they're hungry for books

DM:
- the royalty structure on ebooks is not lower
- there are great fears about piracy, but shoplifting in brick and mortar stores is currently a far greater concern
- books aren't what people want to steal most [on the internet]

LR:
- it's the Bible that gets stolen most from libraries!

Question from audience:
- what do you think about the proposed Kindle enhancement that would allow the device to read the book aloud? Why were agents so opposed to that?
(JJ's Note: The agents got quite punchy about this one, not at the technology, but at corporations making sweeping changes without consulting anyone first.)

SH:
- the distribution system is dictating rights structures to agents
- my blind brother didn't like the idea of a reading Kindle because he didn't want audio books to die out. The performance adds value.

DM:
- the arrogance of Amazon sticks in our craw
- Google's arrogance [referring to the Google Book project] is another example. They just blasted in and did that, and it turned into a huge mess.

SH:
- the Google Book Settlement touches on every legal issue of ownership

DM:
- Google and Microsoft are lobbying to change patent laws so they can rip off small users and take/incorporate applications
- the good news is Google still can't write a book

SH:
- the biggest threat to fiction is video games
- video game makers are now targeting women aggressively [women being the largest buyers of books]

Mod:
- I've written stories for video games
- the audience they're aiming at is mothers, over 45 years of age

AR:
- video games are large, but they won't kill books

SH:
- but we're competing for leisure dollars

Question from audience:
- will interactive books, i.e. sound, video, come into the market?

DM:
- it already is

SH:
- there are a lot of video games taken from books, e.g. Harry Potter

Comment from audience:
- VCR didn't kill theatre, as predicted
- I'm making a network of authors that intends to sell ebooks independently
(JJ's Note: I know the person who made this comment popped by the blog recently. If you do again, please drop me a comment and I'll add contact information for your project here!)

Mod:
- I know someone who published on Kindle and now has a traditional publishing contract

DM:
- it happens less than you think
- erotica is very popular as ebooks, much more so than it is in paper
- so many cross-genre books are difficult to place because no one knows where to shelve them. There's no clear solution for such problematic books, but ebooks may be what they need

SH:
- that "greyness" is often what you can use to get people interested in that sort of book, however
(JJ's Note: Robert Dugoni said essentially the same thing in another panel discussion)

Comment from audience:
- I've bought 87 books on my Sony reader this year, which is more than I've bought in paper [per year] before I got the device. I love it.

Comment from audience:
- DRM (digital rights management) is stupid, however

Comment from audience:
- I feel a great indifference to readers due to my pleasure at the tactile pleasures of a book

AR:
- getting an object, a physical book, has worth to people too

DM:
- why is everyone so focused on ebooks? It hasn't changed things for the writers

Question from audience:
- how much should we be concerned about establishing a presence via Twitter, Facebook, etc?

AR:
- you can wait until after you're published to create a web presence
- it's your choice, but we prefer you do it because we don't want to take on any more risk than a new writer already represents
- we want to hear you'll do all you can to help attract readers

SH:
- if it's not your thing, don't do it because you'll just do it badly

DM:
- when was the last time you bought a book because of Twitter?
- fans connect with you via your web presence AFTER they become fans. You can cultivate your existing fan base with a web presence. I'm not convinced it sells books
- if you're just starting out, don't worry about a blog
(JJ's Note: Josephine Damian relates a comment DM once made to her at a conference in this post: he said blogging can be bad because it scratches your writing "itch", and then you don't end up doing your real writing)

LR:
- in nonfiction, you need a platform. For fiction, I think it is a matter of fan cultivation only

And at this point, they had to staple our lips shut and shovel us all out of the room so the next workshop could begin. It was a very lively discussion!