Vincent Zandri's Blog - Posts Tagged "bestseller"
My Agent is Retiring and So What???!!!
Holy Crap, have things changed in the span of one year or what?
Ok, I'm sitting here on my bed in my apartment in Italy that I rent once a year, same as I've been doing every year for the past three Falls. Like most of Italy, the ancient buildings are the same, the good natured people are the same, the priceless works of art are the same, the old recipes are still melt in you mouth, the Tuscan hills still damp from almost daily rains, the olive groves lush with fruit, the Chinati still blood red.
I'm still sitting at the old wood desk beside the window that opens up onto the cobbled street four stories below, the sound of boots on the stone creating a kind of rat-tat-tat rhythm that combines with the tap of keys and somehow propels my work. Energizes it even.
But what's changed.
I'm a bestseller for one. Not in one Amazon category, but at least five. Five that I've seen anyway. How has that happened for me? Blame it on the publisher. My newest publisher, StoneHouseInk and its new imprint StoneGate Ink, not only welcomed me in via my agent this past spring, but took enough interest to republish my out of print novels. While the first novel they published this past summer, The Remains, has exploded in sales and great reviews, StoneGate was quick to follow up with The Innocent, the re-publication of my critically acclaimed novel, As Catch Can.
For the rest of the groundbreaking story head over to the Vox!!
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
The Innocent
Ok, I'm sitting here on my bed in my apartment in Italy that I rent once a year, same as I've been doing every year for the past three Falls. Like most of Italy, the ancient buildings are the same, the good natured people are the same, the priceless works of art are the same, the old recipes are still melt in you mouth, the Tuscan hills still damp from almost daily rains, the olive groves lush with fruit, the Chinati still blood red.
I'm still sitting at the old wood desk beside the window that opens up onto the cobbled street four stories below, the sound of boots on the stone creating a kind of rat-tat-tat rhythm that combines with the tap of keys and somehow propels my work. Energizes it even.
But what's changed.
I'm a bestseller for one. Not in one Amazon category, but at least five. Five that I've seen anyway. How has that happened for me? Blame it on the publisher. My newest publisher, StoneHouseInk and its new imprint StoneGate Ink, not only welcomed me in via my agent this past spring, but took enough interest to republish my out of print novels. While the first novel they published this past summer, The Remains, has exploded in sales and great reviews, StoneGate was quick to follow up with The Innocent, the re-publication of my critically acclaimed novel, As Catch Can.
For the rest of the groundbreaking story head over to the Vox!!
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
The Innocent
6 of 2011's Hottest New Hard-Boiled Authors!
I'll be on the road for a couple of days, but I wanted to get one more post in before I take off for America. I haven't been home other than for a few nights since Oct 16, so when I finally do land I'm gonna sleep for a while...
Anyway, it's getting towards the end of the year and in terms of professional advancement, it's been my best year ever thanks to some new associations with a great new forward thinking publisher and the hard work ethic of my soon to retire agent, Janet Benrey.
What will the new year bring?
My prediction is that Kindle sales will double or perhaps even triple this year's sales. Same for other e-book readers. Paper will remain strong however, but there will be shorter runs as the old model of bookstore returns goes the way of the dinosaur, and indie presses go from little and obscure to formidable and much sought out. One thing that won't change however, is great writing. So who are the authors who will be leading the way? I can't say I really know for sure, but I can wager a few intelligent guesses. Here's a list of just a few authors who via indie press, traditional small press, self-published press or even major New York press, are absolutely going to turn the hard-boiled lit scene on its head. They are as follows, off the top of my head:
Head on over to The Vincent Zandri Vox for the list!:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
The Innocent
Anyway, it's getting towards the end of the year and in terms of professional advancement, it's been my best year ever thanks to some new associations with a great new forward thinking publisher and the hard work ethic of my soon to retire agent, Janet Benrey.
What will the new year bring?
My prediction is that Kindle sales will double or perhaps even triple this year's sales. Same for other e-book readers. Paper will remain strong however, but there will be shorter runs as the old model of bookstore returns goes the way of the dinosaur, and indie presses go from little and obscure to formidable and much sought out. One thing that won't change however, is great writing. So who are the authors who will be leading the way? I can't say I really know for sure, but I can wager a few intelligent guesses. Here's a list of just a few authors who via indie press, traditional small press, self-published press or even major New York press, are absolutely going to turn the hard-boiled lit scene on its head. They are as follows, off the top of my head:
Head on over to The Vincent Zandri Vox for the list!:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
The Innocent
Author Richard Godwin Hits the Airwaves!
As an author I often asked to blurb other author's new upcoming novels. The positive to this is that I not only get turned on to new and exciting writing, but I get free stuff. Namely books!!! The downside is I simply don't have the time to blurb all the books I'm asked to blurb so almost certainly I'm missing out on some great new offerings. I'm almost never disappointed with the books I blurb and in fact, I see a real trend coming about of noir authors who are taking real chances with their style, their use of POV, tense, imagery, etc., as opposed to the garden variety white bread dullness the NYTs insists we purchase on a weekly basis...
Get the rest of the story at the "VOX!"
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
Get the rest of the story at the "VOX!"
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Remains
How We Write
There's a great scene in a movie called HEMINGWAY (yah, with cap letters) that came out about 20 years ago in which actor Stacey Keach plays a rough, tough, marauding Ernest Hemingway who says what he means, means what he says and is wiling to prove it with his bare-knuckle fists.
The movie also portrays Papa Hemingway sitting at a pool-side table in the backyard of his Key West home, in front of his typewriter, a bottle of whiskey handy by his side. He's got the blood stained T-shirt on from his fishing adventures on the Gulf Stream, and he's pounding away at the keys of the old Remington with muscular arms and a tight but well fed belly. All around him people are swimming and drinking and having fun. His girlfriend is also present while his wife occupies the house.
Nothing could be further from the truth...
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox....:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
The movie also portrays Papa Hemingway sitting at a pool-side table in the backyard of his Key West home, in front of his typewriter, a bottle of whiskey handy by his side. He's got the blood stained T-shirt on from his fishing adventures on the Gulf Stream, and he's pounding away at the keys of the old Remington with muscular arms and a tight but well fed belly. All around him people are swimming and drinking and having fun. His girlfriend is also present while his wife occupies the house.
Nothing could be further from the truth...
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox....:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
REAL TIME BLOG: Departure Observations
I rarely spend less than two weeks in Europe when I travel there. More often, I spend about a month at a time. In this case, three countries and five cities in 9 days, two of them travel. Not including daily jogs, I logged in probably 100 miles over cobblestone pavement leaving the bottoms of my feet feeling and looking like raw hamburger.
But it's worth it. Europe, especially, Italy, is always worth it...
Get the rest of the scoop here at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
But it's worth it. Europe, especially, Italy, is always worth it...
Get the rest of the scoop here at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
Some Days You Just Gotta Write...
The following blog is "Now Appearing" at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
____________________________________
...And today is one of those days.
After a week of events, marketing ops, meetings with agents and pubs and even Amazon and Google, I have a novel to complete, or let's face it, I'll be out of a job.
Which brings up a HUUUUUGGGGEEEE point (that HUGE thing is me imitating car salesman and villain, Billy Fuscillo, in my digital short, MOONLIGHT MAFIA)...despite the blogs, despite the social networks, despite the virtual tours, despite your Amazon rank, despite the Iphone or Blackberry, despite everything that has everything to do with your books but that also keeps you away from your craft, you must eventually sit down and write.
Which is what I need to do today and tomorrow in order to complete MURDER BY MOONLIGHT...
I hope you decide to work as hard as you can at your writing too...And if you're not a writer, I just hope you plain work hard and enjoy it as much as I do.
Cheers,
Vin
P.S. THE INNOCENT is back on sale all month long...Grab the Top Ten Amazon Bestseller Today!
The Innocent
____________________________________
...And today is one of those days.
After a week of events, marketing ops, meetings with agents and pubs and even Amazon and Google, I have a novel to complete, or let's face it, I'll be out of a job.
Which brings up a HUUUUUGGGGEEEE point (that HUGE thing is me imitating car salesman and villain, Billy Fuscillo, in my digital short, MOONLIGHT MAFIA)...despite the blogs, despite the social networks, despite the virtual tours, despite your Amazon rank, despite the Iphone or Blackberry, despite everything that has everything to do with your books but that also keeps you away from your craft, you must eventually sit down and write.
Which is what I need to do today and tomorrow in order to complete MURDER BY MOONLIGHT...
I hope you decide to work as hard as you can at your writing too...And if you're not a writer, I just hope you plain work hard and enjoy it as much as I do.
Cheers,
Vin
P.S. THE INNOCENT is back on sale all month long...Grab the Top Ten Amazon Bestseller Today!
The Innocent
"You'll Never Get a Major Deal Again!"
The following blog is now appearing at the Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
"You'll never get a major deal again!"
Sounds harsh doesn't it. Even cruel, especially when it comes from the mouth of a respected independent bookstore owner who operates one of the most successful bookselling operations out of Albany.
This was the scene: a year ago or so, said bookstore owner was lamenting the fact that my newest novel at the time, The Remains, was being published in trade paper and E-Book by an indie press. Due to the slowdown in paper sales because of E-Book sales and other economic factors, she didn't want to take the book on in the traditional manner by ordering it from the distributor. She wanted it on consignment. That way she wouldn't get burned down the road by having to hang on to unsold books.
When I explained to her that she could by all means return the books, she wouldn't hear of it. Ok, fair enough. These are trying economic times after all, and book stores are quickly going the way of the record store and the Blockbuster video store. Somehow our talk shifted to my original major deal with two Random House imprints back in '99 and 2000. I mentioned how my agent was going after another major deal based on the excellent E-Book sales I'd been experiencing thus far with The Remains. That's when she turned to me, looked me in the eye and said, "Vincent, you will never get a major deal again!" It wasn't like a slap to the face, it was more like a swift kick to the soft underbelly. She then backed up her statement by telling me the deal with RH had been fluke. The editors were tossing major six-figure deals around like confetti back then. Didn't matter the talent or the inherent value of the writing.
Wow, if I didn't already feel poorly enough about having to be on consignment at her shop, now I was made to feel like a total loser. I mean, I thought bookstore owners were supposed to prop up writers? Work with them? Live in harmony? You need me and I need you and all that...
Fast forward a few months.
The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains all hit the Top 100 on Amazon Kindles and eventually the Top 20. I started moving around 3,000 units per day. That's right. That's not a typo. 3,000 units. The Innocent hit the Top 10 and stayed there for seven weeks. In the meantime, I completed yet another novel, Murder by Moonlight. My agent wanted to go out to sale with it, hoping for the major deal said bookstore owner claimed would be impossible.
The Big 6 in New York all enthusiastically expressed interest in getting a read. So did another major publisher. A new major publisher that's emerged from out of Amazon. Thomas and Mercer. I'd heard about this publisher as not a major in the traditional sense, but more of a hybrid indie and major in which the author receives a terrific E-book royalty on top of being published in hardcover, audio and trade, and along with it, a nice advance or even better.
What makes this new publisher more enticing than the Big 6 however, is their direct connection to Amazon, the biggest store in the world. This publisher will not only sell your books but it is in their best interest to market them and even position them to sell. Something the Big 6 cannot guarantee.
I told my agent that if we did indeed get an offer from T&M that I wouldn't entertain a Big 6 deal, even if they offered me a much larger advance. I wanted to be at a home that represented the future of book selling. I wanted a place that would offer me security and a voice as an author. T&M, I was told would offer that and more. Then, when I heard that big name bestsellers like JA Konrath and Barry Eisler were signing contracts with T&M, that entirely iced the deal for me.
Just yesterday my agent excitedly forwarded my new contract from T&M to me for my review. There's a few details we're ironing out, but it looks great. I'm not at liberty to discuss the upfront money or the percentages, but suffice to say I'm back in the big leagues in a big way. Not only is T&M publishing Murder by Moonlight, but they are re-publishing five titles on my back-list, including The Innocent and The Remains--a first for my agent who has been in the publishing business for two decades. News will be forthcoming in all the usual trades: PW, etc. It's an exciting time for me and my entire family.
"You will never get a major deal again!" said the bookstore owner.
Sometimes I love proving people wrong.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
"You'll never get a major deal again!"
Sounds harsh doesn't it. Even cruel, especially when it comes from the mouth of a respected independent bookstore owner who operates one of the most successful bookselling operations out of Albany.
This was the scene: a year ago or so, said bookstore owner was lamenting the fact that my newest novel at the time, The Remains, was being published in trade paper and E-Book by an indie press. Due to the slowdown in paper sales because of E-Book sales and other economic factors, she didn't want to take the book on in the traditional manner by ordering it from the distributor. She wanted it on consignment. That way she wouldn't get burned down the road by having to hang on to unsold books.
When I explained to her that she could by all means return the books, she wouldn't hear of it. Ok, fair enough. These are trying economic times after all, and book stores are quickly going the way of the record store and the Blockbuster video store. Somehow our talk shifted to my original major deal with two Random House imprints back in '99 and 2000. I mentioned how my agent was going after another major deal based on the excellent E-Book sales I'd been experiencing thus far with The Remains. That's when she turned to me, looked me in the eye and said, "Vincent, you will never get a major deal again!" It wasn't like a slap to the face, it was more like a swift kick to the soft underbelly. She then backed up her statement by telling me the deal with RH had been fluke. The editors were tossing major six-figure deals around like confetti back then. Didn't matter the talent or the inherent value of the writing.
Wow, if I didn't already feel poorly enough about having to be on consignment at her shop, now I was made to feel like a total loser. I mean, I thought bookstore owners were supposed to prop up writers? Work with them? Live in harmony? You need me and I need you and all that...
Fast forward a few months.
The Innocent, Godchild and The Remains all hit the Top 100 on Amazon Kindles and eventually the Top 20. I started moving around 3,000 units per day. That's right. That's not a typo. 3,000 units. The Innocent hit the Top 10 and stayed there for seven weeks. In the meantime, I completed yet another novel, Murder by Moonlight. My agent wanted to go out to sale with it, hoping for the major deal said bookstore owner claimed would be impossible.
The Big 6 in New York all enthusiastically expressed interest in getting a read. So did another major publisher. A new major publisher that's emerged from out of Amazon. Thomas and Mercer. I'd heard about this publisher as not a major in the traditional sense, but more of a hybrid indie and major in which the author receives a terrific E-book royalty on top of being published in hardcover, audio and trade, and along with it, a nice advance or even better.
What makes this new publisher more enticing than the Big 6 however, is their direct connection to Amazon, the biggest store in the world. This publisher will not only sell your books but it is in their best interest to market them and even position them to sell. Something the Big 6 cannot guarantee.
I told my agent that if we did indeed get an offer from T&M that I wouldn't entertain a Big 6 deal, even if they offered me a much larger advance. I wanted to be at a home that represented the future of book selling. I wanted a place that would offer me security and a voice as an author. T&M, I was told would offer that and more. Then, when I heard that big name bestsellers like JA Konrath and Barry Eisler were signing contracts with T&M, that entirely iced the deal for me.
Just yesterday my agent excitedly forwarded my new contract from T&M to me for my review. There's a few details we're ironing out, but it looks great. I'm not at liberty to discuss the upfront money or the percentages, but suffice to say I'm back in the big leagues in a big way. Not only is T&M publishing Murder by Moonlight, but they are re-publishing five titles on my back-list, including The Innocent and The Remains--a first for my agent who has been in the publishing business for two decades. News will be forthcoming in all the usual trades: PW, etc. It's an exciting time for me and my entire family.
"You will never get a major deal again!" said the bookstore owner.
Sometimes I love proving people wrong.
GET ZANDRI BOOKS: WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
Scream Catcher
A Few More Minutes With Andy Rooney
The following blog is Now Appearing in The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
I'm having a trouble imagining a world without Andy Rooney. It's kind of like trying to imagine Star Wars without Yoda. How else are we supposed to move on with our lives while having to put up with its everyday absurdities, banalities, and garden variety foolery? Did I just write the word "foolery"?
Andy worked almost right up until the end. As writers we never retire. But he did give up the TV gig with 60 Minutes only a month ago, which should serve as a sort of be a warning to those seniors who insist on working well into their golden years. Don't give up the day job!
I can just picture this week's A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney if only we were to be graced with one more. He'd appear in the crumpled up suit he pulled out from under his bed, even though God would probably offer him a nicer choice of threads. He might look a little younger, maybe because he wouldn't be in pain. Old age is often accompanied by aches and pains. He might bear a little more of a smile. His eyebrows might be trimmed. But I think otherwise, he'd be the same old crotchety Andy. The subject of his spot would be "Retiring."
"It's not retiring that's hard," he'd write. "It's the dying part of retirement that is."
He might say that had he known he was gonna cash it all in within a month of retirement, he would have negotiated a better end-of-career bonus with the network. He would have coined this as a "Sure to Perish Immediately Upon Retirement" clause or something like that. Then he might have mentioned other famous men and women who have "retired" and died soon after. Since I can't think of anyone famous who has died very soon after quitting their job, I can tell you that I've had a couple of uncles who retired from the construction business and died within a year or so. It's a warning for my dad who at 76 is still putting in a full week. Keep working!!!
Andy was an everyman's writer in that he didn't believe in writer's block anymore than a plumber believes in plumber's block. He once wrote: "Writers are repeatedly asked to explain where they get their ideas. People want their secret. The truth is there is no secret and writers don't have many new ideas. At least, they don't have many ideas that a comic strip artist would illustrate with a light bulb over their heads."
Andy's ideas came from the everyday. Like procrastinating before getting to work. Or having to deal with pulling out all that cotton filling in your plastic bottle of Advil. Once he wrote about how the French had expelled something like 47 then Soviet spies that year from France. "That's a lot of spies," he wrote.
I mean, how can you not smile and laugh a little on the inside when you read that?
I've met Andy on a few occasions, most of them having to do with a private high school we both attended up in Albany called The Albany Academy. I attended the place in the 80s and Andy in the 30s. The place has changed a lot in the many years since I moped around its marble halls. But back in the early 80s it wasn't much different than the school that Andy attended. It was a military country day prep school that prided itself on discipline as much as it did sports and the arts. We wore military uniforms and ate not in a cafeteria, but a "buttery." Also, Andy played left guard for the football team and so did I. We played the same position and we were both under five feet, eight inches. We took a lot of pounding in those four years, but we gave a lot out too. Maybe that's why we became writers. All that head banging will prevent you from looking at the world in a conventional way.
I guess I've known Andy my whole life, having first taken notice of him when 60 Minutes would pop on the TV after the New York Giants football games. Even if we were bummed out about the Giants losing a barn burner to the rival Dallas Cowboys in the last minute of the last quarter, and even if we were in a black mood over having to go to school or work in the morning, we could always count on Andy gracing the screen in his wrinkled suit. You'd wait for the topic of his "few minutes" with baited breath. When finally he'd come out with something like, "It costs us almost a quarter for every mile we drive a car," we knew we were in for something special about something not so special. And that getting up in the morning and putting on your socks one at a time, wasn't all that different from the life he was living. Andy was just a regular guy in possession of an extraordinary talent.
I'm going to miss Andy Rooney and his words and his unconventional wisdom about the conventional. I'm going to miss running into him and having to remind him of my name and what I do for a living. That stuff never bothered me because I was such a fan with a little hero worship sprinkled in. Did you know that during World War II Andy spent about an hour hiding in a ditch alongside a road that had been strafed by German planes along with Ernest Hemingway? How many people can brag about something like that? But Andy would be the last guy on earth to talk about Papa. He'd be more apt to comment on how every buffet you dine at no matter how nice the facility always offers you Sweedish meatballs. He'd write about how you couldn't resist the Sweedish meatballs even after some of the gravy got on your tie and stained it. He'd show up on TV the next week with the same tie and the same stain. It would become a heated topic of discussion. A philosophy. A reason to carry on in the everyday.
Enjoy the afterlife Andy.
Keep writing.
Keep being you.
Scream Catcher
I'm having a trouble imagining a world without Andy Rooney. It's kind of like trying to imagine Star Wars without Yoda. How else are we supposed to move on with our lives while having to put up with its everyday absurdities, banalities, and garden variety foolery? Did I just write the word "foolery"?
Andy worked almost right up until the end. As writers we never retire. But he did give up the TV gig with 60 Minutes only a month ago, which should serve as a sort of be a warning to those seniors who insist on working well into their golden years. Don't give up the day job!
I can just picture this week's A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney if only we were to be graced with one more. He'd appear in the crumpled up suit he pulled out from under his bed, even though God would probably offer him a nicer choice of threads. He might look a little younger, maybe because he wouldn't be in pain. Old age is often accompanied by aches and pains. He might bear a little more of a smile. His eyebrows might be trimmed. But I think otherwise, he'd be the same old crotchety Andy. The subject of his spot would be "Retiring."
"It's not retiring that's hard," he'd write. "It's the dying part of retirement that is."
He might say that had he known he was gonna cash it all in within a month of retirement, he would have negotiated a better end-of-career bonus with the network. He would have coined this as a "Sure to Perish Immediately Upon Retirement" clause or something like that. Then he might have mentioned other famous men and women who have "retired" and died soon after. Since I can't think of anyone famous who has died very soon after quitting their job, I can tell you that I've had a couple of uncles who retired from the construction business and died within a year or so. It's a warning for my dad who at 76 is still putting in a full week. Keep working!!!
Andy was an everyman's writer in that he didn't believe in writer's block anymore than a plumber believes in plumber's block. He once wrote: "Writers are repeatedly asked to explain where they get their ideas. People want their secret. The truth is there is no secret and writers don't have many new ideas. At least, they don't have many ideas that a comic strip artist would illustrate with a light bulb over their heads."
Andy's ideas came from the everyday. Like procrastinating before getting to work. Or having to deal with pulling out all that cotton filling in your plastic bottle of Advil. Once he wrote about how the French had expelled something like 47 then Soviet spies that year from France. "That's a lot of spies," he wrote.
I mean, how can you not smile and laugh a little on the inside when you read that?
I've met Andy on a few occasions, most of them having to do with a private high school we both attended up in Albany called The Albany Academy. I attended the place in the 80s and Andy in the 30s. The place has changed a lot in the many years since I moped around its marble halls. But back in the early 80s it wasn't much different than the school that Andy attended. It was a military country day prep school that prided itself on discipline as much as it did sports and the arts. We wore military uniforms and ate not in a cafeteria, but a "buttery." Also, Andy played left guard for the football team and so did I. We played the same position and we were both under five feet, eight inches. We took a lot of pounding in those four years, but we gave a lot out too. Maybe that's why we became writers. All that head banging will prevent you from looking at the world in a conventional way.
I guess I've known Andy my whole life, having first taken notice of him when 60 Minutes would pop on the TV after the New York Giants football games. Even if we were bummed out about the Giants losing a barn burner to the rival Dallas Cowboys in the last minute of the last quarter, and even if we were in a black mood over having to go to school or work in the morning, we could always count on Andy gracing the screen in his wrinkled suit. You'd wait for the topic of his "few minutes" with baited breath. When finally he'd come out with something like, "It costs us almost a quarter for every mile we drive a car," we knew we were in for something special about something not so special. And that getting up in the morning and putting on your socks one at a time, wasn't all that different from the life he was living. Andy was just a regular guy in possession of an extraordinary talent.
I'm going to miss Andy Rooney and his words and his unconventional wisdom about the conventional. I'm going to miss running into him and having to remind him of my name and what I do for a living. That stuff never bothered me because I was such a fan with a little hero worship sprinkled in. Did you know that during World War II Andy spent about an hour hiding in a ditch alongside a road that had been strafed by German planes along with Ernest Hemingway? How many people can brag about something like that? But Andy would be the last guy on earth to talk about Papa. He'd be more apt to comment on how every buffet you dine at no matter how nice the facility always offers you Sweedish meatballs. He'd write about how you couldn't resist the Sweedish meatballs even after some of the gravy got on your tie and stained it. He'd show up on TV the next week with the same tie and the same stain. It would become a heated topic of discussion. A philosophy. A reason to carry on in the everyday.
Enjoy the afterlife Andy.
Keep writing.
Keep being you.
Scream Catcher
Hate Amazon? Well Read About What Random House Did to Me and My Family...
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.fr/2012...
I thought I was done writing about this particular subject... the subject of the old guard and establishment writers/MFA profs, publishers, and booksellers ragging on Amazon Publishing because, oh gee, they are doing something the old guard can no longer do: sell books.
This past week while I've been away, bestselling author and fellow Thomas & Mercer (Amazon) author, Barry Eisler, was invited to do a live chat with some Seattle Times reporters and the bestselling literary novelist, Richard Russo. Russo, whose books I like but who is also in that MFA-you-should-set-your-sights-on-teaching-at-the-community-college-don't-forget-to-pay-your-tuition is a huge hater of Amazon. And the ST has just run a scathing 4-part series on Amazon picking them apart like they are Satan.
Maybe they are Satan (if you believe in that kind of thing) but more than likely, they are not. They listen to both authors and writers and so, they now are able to offer great books at low prices. And yes, it's putting big publishers and bookstores out of business. I know, I'm supposed to cry for these people, but they had a chance to survive and in fact thrive in today's digital book publishing world, but they haven't. And now they are going the way of the 8-track.
Bon voyage.
I'm not as knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the publishing industry as Eisler and say, J.A. Konrath are, and I've never self-published a book, although one of my indie publishers is entirely based on the self-publishing model even if my deals with them are agented. But I have also been published by the majors and once more, I've just signed a 7 book deal with T&M for a "very nice" advance, part of which I'm spending right now in Italy and Paris, where I've been for the past month.
Ok, maybe you think I'm bragging?
Maybe so.
But while Eisler goes on to defend the obvious author/reader benefits being provided right now by Amazon publishing, try and consider for a brief moment just how Big Six Publishing not only tried to crush my career a few short years ago, they literally cost me a marriage.
Once more, I'll bullet my near suicidal relationship with the Big Six and, in particular, Delacorte Press...You know, the supposed "good guys" of the industry.
--I was contracted in 1999 for mid-six figure two book hard and soft deal.
--I was told to change the name of my novel, The Innocent to As Catch Can, because another author in their stable was publishing one of the same title. As Catch what?????
--While the hardcover was being produced, talk around the office centered on Delacorte being swallowed up by another publisher. They more or less dropped attention on As Catch what???, and rushed a very poor front cover into production...Yup, an insider pulled me aside and admitted the cover was a total fuck up....Oops, it's just people's lives we're dealing with here...
--I was promised ads in The New York Times and support for a Northeast tour. I got neither.
--Delacorte shut down and was indeed swallowed up by the new publisher only weeks after the publication of As Catch what????
--I was suddenly the bastard child of the new publisher.
--They reneged on the contract and only agreed to publish the second book in the deal in paper. It was of course my right to sue them. But who in the world wants to sue a conglomerate cartel like Big New York? The big wigs laughed at me and went on vacation in the Hamptons.
--The second book was printed. Not published. Not even the B&N around the corner from Times Square had one in stock. It was around this time I met my then editor for a drink in NYC. In her words, "You didn't hear it from me, but they are preventing you from selling books."
--Now that I didn't sell out my 250G contract for no fault of my own, another publisher wouldn't touch me if a gun was pressed to his or her temple. And at one time, the most powerful agent in the world was repping me: Suzanne Gluck. I must assume that an agent of her caliber chooses only manuscripts she sees tremendous potential in.
--Delacorte (Random House) refused to release my rights...even though they remaindered my books. An evil, self-serving move if ever there was one. "We're not going to sell your books, but ahhh, neither can you!" Hitler comes to mind here...Too harsh? Okay, at least Uncle Joe Stalin.
--I went broke.
--I had to sell my house
--I lost my wife
--My children had to move, quit their schools, give up their friends
--I nearly lost my reputation and my sanity
--I could have quit writing
--But I didn't...
--I wouldn't let the motherfuckers beat me
--My new agent, after 8 grueling years, was finally able re-secure the rights to my two books
--An indie, StoneHouse Ink, took on As Catch what??????, changed the title back to The Innocent. It sold almost 200,000 E and paper Books. Plus they published several other novels of mine that have also sold in the hundreds of thousands, primarily in E-Book, of which I was making a 50% royalty as opposed to the 12.5% of Delacorte.
--My career not only shot back up, I could have easily made up Delcorte's advance plus plenty of change.
--Thomas & Mercer signed me to a seven book, "very nice deal."
--The Innocent (formerly As Catch what?????) is about to published in its third edition.
--I got my wife back.
--I travel all the time and write fiction for a living.
--I make more in royalties per month than most editors in their paychecks--the same editors who went on to reject me after the Delacorte train wreck...Rejected me because they had too.
Of course, I could go on and on, but those old time writers like Russo who teach at the MFA programs and think that they themselves are not a part of a money making racket designed to lure would-be writers (or no talent writers) into a "literary writing program" that costs tens of thousands of dollars, had better take a good fucking look in the mirror.
You know who you are.
I've been taught by you, criticized by you, ridiculed by you and now I am feared by you. You are old and gray, teaching the same tired lecture. You're also short of breath while climbing the stairs to the next workshop you've been hired to preside over at one of those garden variety low residency MFA programs that are springing up all over the globe like reality TV and Pampers.
And for all you editors who couldn't take me on because I didn't sell out my advance while my rights were held hostage? You can work for me as a freelancer....if the price is right.
Pay back's a bitch ain't it?
Ok, off for some steak frit...It's Saturday in Paris...In the springtime.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
I thought I was done writing about this particular subject... the subject of the old guard and establishment writers/MFA profs, publishers, and booksellers ragging on Amazon Publishing because, oh gee, they are doing something the old guard can no longer do: sell books.
This past week while I've been away, bestselling author and fellow Thomas & Mercer (Amazon) author, Barry Eisler, was invited to do a live chat with some Seattle Times reporters and the bestselling literary novelist, Richard Russo. Russo, whose books I like but who is also in that MFA-you-should-set-your-sights-on-teaching-at-the-community-college-don't-forget-to-pay-your-tuition is a huge hater of Amazon. And the ST has just run a scathing 4-part series on Amazon picking them apart like they are Satan.
Maybe they are Satan (if you believe in that kind of thing) but more than likely, they are not. They listen to both authors and writers and so, they now are able to offer great books at low prices. And yes, it's putting big publishers and bookstores out of business. I know, I'm supposed to cry for these people, but they had a chance to survive and in fact thrive in today's digital book publishing world, but they haven't. And now they are going the way of the 8-track.
Bon voyage.
I'm not as knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the publishing industry as Eisler and say, J.A. Konrath are, and I've never self-published a book, although one of my indie publishers is entirely based on the self-publishing model even if my deals with them are agented. But I have also been published by the majors and once more, I've just signed a 7 book deal with T&M for a "very nice" advance, part of which I'm spending right now in Italy and Paris, where I've been for the past month.
Ok, maybe you think I'm bragging?
Maybe so.
But while Eisler goes on to defend the obvious author/reader benefits being provided right now by Amazon publishing, try and consider for a brief moment just how Big Six Publishing not only tried to crush my career a few short years ago, they literally cost me a marriage.
Once more, I'll bullet my near suicidal relationship with the Big Six and, in particular, Delacorte Press...You know, the supposed "good guys" of the industry.
--I was contracted in 1999 for mid-six figure two book hard and soft deal.
--I was told to change the name of my novel, The Innocent to As Catch Can, because another author in their stable was publishing one of the same title. As Catch what?????
--While the hardcover was being produced, talk around the office centered on Delacorte being swallowed up by another publisher. They more or less dropped attention on As Catch what???, and rushed a very poor front cover into production...Yup, an insider pulled me aside and admitted the cover was a total fuck up....Oops, it's just people's lives we're dealing with here...
--I was promised ads in The New York Times and support for a Northeast tour. I got neither.
--Delacorte shut down and was indeed swallowed up by the new publisher only weeks after the publication of As Catch what????
--I was suddenly the bastard child of the new publisher.
--They reneged on the contract and only agreed to publish the second book in the deal in paper. It was of course my right to sue them. But who in the world wants to sue a conglomerate cartel like Big New York? The big wigs laughed at me and went on vacation in the Hamptons.
--The second book was printed. Not published. Not even the B&N around the corner from Times Square had one in stock. It was around this time I met my then editor for a drink in NYC. In her words, "You didn't hear it from me, but they are preventing you from selling books."
--Now that I didn't sell out my 250G contract for no fault of my own, another publisher wouldn't touch me if a gun was pressed to his or her temple. And at one time, the most powerful agent in the world was repping me: Suzanne Gluck. I must assume that an agent of her caliber chooses only manuscripts she sees tremendous potential in.
--Delacorte (Random House) refused to release my rights...even though they remaindered my books. An evil, self-serving move if ever there was one. "We're not going to sell your books, but ahhh, neither can you!" Hitler comes to mind here...Too harsh? Okay, at least Uncle Joe Stalin.
--I went broke.
--I had to sell my house
--I lost my wife
--My children had to move, quit their schools, give up their friends
--I nearly lost my reputation and my sanity
--I could have quit writing
--But I didn't...
--I wouldn't let the motherfuckers beat me
--My new agent, after 8 grueling years, was finally able re-secure the rights to my two books
--An indie, StoneHouse Ink, took on As Catch what??????, changed the title back to The Innocent. It sold almost 200,000 E and paper Books. Plus they published several other novels of mine that have also sold in the hundreds of thousands, primarily in E-Book, of which I was making a 50% royalty as opposed to the 12.5% of Delacorte.
--My career not only shot back up, I could have easily made up Delcorte's advance plus plenty of change.
--Thomas & Mercer signed me to a seven book, "very nice deal."
--The Innocent (formerly As Catch what?????) is about to published in its third edition.
--I got my wife back.
--I travel all the time and write fiction for a living.
--I make more in royalties per month than most editors in their paychecks--the same editors who went on to reject me after the Delacorte train wreck...Rejected me because they had too.
Of course, I could go on and on, but those old time writers like Russo who teach at the MFA programs and think that they themselves are not a part of a money making racket designed to lure would-be writers (or no talent writers) into a "literary writing program" that costs tens of thousands of dollars, had better take a good fucking look in the mirror.
You know who you are.
I've been taught by you, criticized by you, ridiculed by you and now I am feared by you. You are old and gray, teaching the same tired lecture. You're also short of breath while climbing the stairs to the next workshop you've been hired to preside over at one of those garden variety low residency MFA programs that are springing up all over the globe like reality TV and Pampers.
And for all you editors who couldn't take me on because I didn't sell out my advance while my rights were held hostage? You can work for me as a freelancer....if the price is right.
Pay back's a bitch ain't it?
Ok, off for some steak frit...It's Saturday in Paris...In the springtime.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Remains
Speed Does NOT Kill
The following blog is now appearing at The Vincent Zandri VOx: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Speed.
It can mean many things, not the least of which is that chemical stuff all the sixties hippies used to inject to enhance the creative process. But it can simply mean, going fast. Back in the olden days, when I started out writing, I sat down with one of my MFA in Writing professors and asked him what he thought was a reasonable output of work for a lifetime of writing.
I can still see the humble, raggedly dressed man ... a man who lived in Vermont and who'd written a couple of novels that were critically praised but hadn't sold very well. Thus his position in life as a teacher, not at one school, but many schools (Poor guy).
I recall him inhaling a breath before saying in a near whisper voice, "If you write two or three real good short stories and maybe five novels, that's something to be proud of."
At the time this seemed like a reasonable answer to me. In fact, the thought of writing five good novels seemed almost overwhelming to me since, like the MFA prof, my goal was to teach writing and to write on the side once I graduated from the program. If I wanted to follow the career path of the literary writer who taught, I would be more or less expected to write one novel every ten years or so. If I toed the line according to that math, five novels would carry me into my 70s.
Fast forward fifteen years.
I didn't become a teacher. I became a writer instead. A journalist, a pro blogger, and a noir novelist. Not only have a I written and published those two or three real good short stories, I've probably published fifteen of them (yes, yes, yes, in very good journals and mags). And compared to some great short story writers out there, like Dean Wesley Smith or Leslie Edgerton, that's absolutely nothing. As for the five novels, I currently have about ten in print, with two more on the way. Five of those ten are about to enter into second and their third editions.
My point to all this braggadocio?
Back to Dean Wesley Smith.
In his blog, he talks at length about "Speed" taken from a larger a piece he calls "New World of Writing." Speed, according to Smith, is what separates a professional writer from an amateur. Gone are the days of writing one book every ten years. Gone are the days when you were considered not worthy of literary status if you even thought about writing more than one book every ten years.
In today's new "golden age" of writing opportunities, where a writer can maintain major, indie, and self-publishing deals all at once, it's the writer who can put out two or three good novels and maybe at least that many short stories per year who is going to bring in about as much annual cash as your average accountant. Maybe more so, depending upon your popularity and your ability to hit some home runs in the sales department, such as having a novel hit and remain in the Amazon Top Ten for a few weeks, like my novel The Innocent did a year ago and has come very close to doing a few times again since. In fact Smith claims that you don't even need to hit a home run to make a great living, and he's got that math to back up his words. You can check out his very informative blog right here. It makes for speedy reading.
I'm still a journalist (even if I only have time to work for one trade publication right now), and I am presently writing and polishing two novels per year on average. I write maybe two or three short stories per year. I'm planning on adding one or two short novelettes to that mix soon. I've yet to spend the entire day writing, while I like to use part of my day for working out, fly fishing, walking, drinking at the local, traveling, cooking, hanging with my girlfriend and our daughter, hanging with my sons, thinking, living, reading, simply being. Imagine how much work I might put out if I wrote for as many hours as some lawyers put in at their practices? It would certainly amount to more than two or three novels per year. More like ten or twelve.
We all need to embrace speed in this, the new golden age of writing. But we also need to find a speed that we are comfortable with. A speed that doesn't compromise the quality of the work. Only when we write so fast that our work suffers does speed kill.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Innocent
Speed.
It can mean many things, not the least of which is that chemical stuff all the sixties hippies used to inject to enhance the creative process. But it can simply mean, going fast. Back in the olden days, when I started out writing, I sat down with one of my MFA in Writing professors and asked him what he thought was a reasonable output of work for a lifetime of writing.
I can still see the humble, raggedly dressed man ... a man who lived in Vermont and who'd written a couple of novels that were critically praised but hadn't sold very well. Thus his position in life as a teacher, not at one school, but many schools (Poor guy).
I recall him inhaling a breath before saying in a near whisper voice, "If you write two or three real good short stories and maybe five novels, that's something to be proud of."
At the time this seemed like a reasonable answer to me. In fact, the thought of writing five good novels seemed almost overwhelming to me since, like the MFA prof, my goal was to teach writing and to write on the side once I graduated from the program. If I wanted to follow the career path of the literary writer who taught, I would be more or less expected to write one novel every ten years or so. If I toed the line according to that math, five novels would carry me into my 70s.
Fast forward fifteen years.
I didn't become a teacher. I became a writer instead. A journalist, a pro blogger, and a noir novelist. Not only have a I written and published those two or three real good short stories, I've probably published fifteen of them (yes, yes, yes, in very good journals and mags). And compared to some great short story writers out there, like Dean Wesley Smith or Leslie Edgerton, that's absolutely nothing. As for the five novels, I currently have about ten in print, with two more on the way. Five of those ten are about to enter into second and their third editions.
My point to all this braggadocio?
Back to Dean Wesley Smith.
In his blog, he talks at length about "Speed" taken from a larger a piece he calls "New World of Writing." Speed, according to Smith, is what separates a professional writer from an amateur. Gone are the days of writing one book every ten years. Gone are the days when you were considered not worthy of literary status if you even thought about writing more than one book every ten years.
In today's new "golden age" of writing opportunities, where a writer can maintain major, indie, and self-publishing deals all at once, it's the writer who can put out two or three good novels and maybe at least that many short stories per year who is going to bring in about as much annual cash as your average accountant. Maybe more so, depending upon your popularity and your ability to hit some home runs in the sales department, such as having a novel hit and remain in the Amazon Top Ten for a few weeks, like my novel The Innocent did a year ago and has come very close to doing a few times again since. In fact Smith claims that you don't even need to hit a home run to make a great living, and he's got that math to back up his words. You can check out his very informative blog right here. It makes for speedy reading.
I'm still a journalist (even if I only have time to work for one trade publication right now), and I am presently writing and polishing two novels per year on average. I write maybe two or three short stories per year. I'm planning on adding one or two short novelettes to that mix soon. I've yet to spend the entire day writing, while I like to use part of my day for working out, fly fishing, walking, drinking at the local, traveling, cooking, hanging with my girlfriend and our daughter, hanging with my sons, thinking, living, reading, simply being. Imagine how much work I might put out if I wrote for as many hours as some lawyers put in at their practices? It would certainly amount to more than two or three novels per year. More like ten or twelve.
We all need to embrace speed in this, the new golden age of writing. But we also need to find a speed that we are comfortable with. A speed that doesn't compromise the quality of the work. Only when we write so fast that our work suffers does speed kill.
WWW.VINCENTZANDRI.COM
The Innocent
