The Waterstones Debate

In the light of recent news about e-books on amazon can anyone tell me why Waterstones is complicit in the disappearance of the printed book? While Amazon report that sales of ebooks (excluding free downloads) now outstrip combined sales of paperbacks and hardbacks 114 to 100, Waterstones have introduced a counterproductive events policy.
Nothing is ever achieved by being defeatist. Trends are not inevitable.
With passion, hard work, and some common sense, the printed book can survive alongside its electronic partner - yes, partner, not competitor. Why not, when ebooks are attracting more people to read?
Waterstones have a responsibility to readers and authors who want to see them come out fighting in defense of physical books. There is no one else who can do this on a significant scale (with no disrespect intended to the fantastic dedicated smaller chains and independent bookshops).
Read about "Waterstones Faulty Logic" on Book2Book (booktrade.info site)
http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/42274/nl

I make little personal gain from sales of my printed books.  Two of my titles are on offer on amazon kindle, one on the Summer Kindle Reading Marathon. Most sales of my books are already online.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Geraldine-Steel-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0071CQV8U/pocketessentials

But I would hate to see printed books disappear. If you agree, please join in the debate. Visit your local bookshop to discuss what is happening. Post online, join in debates taking place on my blog and others, on my facebook page, and twitter.
Don't wake up one morning and express surprise that Waterstones have gone.
Think about Ottakars, Dillons, and others, recently taken over by Waterstones. Then think about Borders, more recently morphed into stores like Primark. Then think.

Posted by Leigh Russell

Is your interest kindled?

Posted by Leigh Russell
I wonder where other followers of this blog stand on ereaders. I'm in two minds. I like physical books, and haven't got an ereader. At the same time, I can't help feeling pleased when I see how well my books are selling on kindle. All have reached Number 1 on the Bestseller list for thrillers, and are selling even more as ebooks than in print. In fact my publisher recently decided to bring my latest title out as an 'ebook original' five months before the physical book hits the shelves in May 2012. It seems to have paid off as Death Bed was promptly selected as 1 of just 35 thrillers placed on amazon's 12 Days of Christmas promotion @ 99p. I'm almost tempted to buy a kindle myself... So where are you on this? As Hamlet might say, if the B was missing from the keyboard,
"To e or not to e... "

Leigh Russell writes the bestselling UK crime series featuring Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel. Leigh’s new book Death Bed is on kindle http://tinyurl.com/Kindle-DeathBed and available in print 2012. Details of all Leigh’s books can be found on http://leighrussell.co.uk

21st Century Fahrenheit 451

I don't own a kindle so perhaps it's ironic that Geraldine Steel is the number one bestselling female detective on amazon kindle. But although a devotee of print books, and a self-confessed techno-ignoramus, I've never been against e-readers; it seems to me there's a place for both print and electronic books. For many people kindles are ideal: travellers, students who want instant access to research tools while reading, people with limited storage space, and many others.
Yet we shouldn't ignore the risks that electronic books pose.
Without production and distribution costs, self-publishing will be readily available to all. Companies offering a self-publishing service are already burgeoning. But is it a threat or a wonderful opportunity that electronic books look set to revolutionise the publishing model, a move that is bound to signal the demise of the bookshop and diminish the role of the publisher?
Of course not all self-published books are second rate, any more than all traditionally published books are well-written. Nevertheless the publishing process provides a filter, albeit a flawed one, as well as an editing and proof reading service. Remove that filter and you pose the danger that the market will be swamped with books that haven't been professionally edited or even proof read. Working alone, writers can be forgiven for not producing near perfect manuscripts. No one can be writer, editor and proof reader all in one.
But if writers skimp on employing editors and proof readers, standards will inevitably fall until the concept of the book is devalued to the point where it ceases to have any meaning at all, indistinguishable from self-indulgent ramblings written by people lacking any talent for writing. Yes, I would defend the right of anyone to write what they want (so long as it isn't offensive) but I'll be worried if we cease to distinguish between quality prose that has taken years to perfect, and incoherent drivel that has been dashed off without revision.
This article first appeared in Crime Time Magazine http://www.crimetime.co.uk/mag/index.php/showarticle/1937

Leigh Russell writes the Geraldine Steel series of crime thrillers.
CUT SHORT, ROAD CLOSED, DEAD END

amazon kindle's number 1 female detective
http://www.leighrussell.co.uk/

An Awkward Position...

I find myself in a slightly awkward position. I'm not referring to my complicated arrangement of balancing my netbook on a box perched on top of a writing slope on a cushion on my knees... (last year I had physio after a neck injury and my wonderful physiotherapist shuddered on hearing how much time I spend at the keyboard) - My netbook hasn't fallen off yet, but you've probably tumbled to the fact that I'm procrastinating. So, back to my topic...
Over the past couple of years I’ve blogged and talked a lot about my passionate support for bookshops and libraries, the ‘real world’ print book outlets. It’s well known that I spend many hours in bookshops and libraries, encouraging other authors to do the same. I’ve also blogged and talked about my concerns that online suppliers are ushering in the demise of the high street bookshop. In the short time since I started writing Borders vanished in the UK, and now Waterstones are closing stores. As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve also expressed my reservations about the wisdom of giving away books for free, not only depriving the publishing industry of potential revenue, but implying that books have no value.
Yet I can’t ignore an email from my publisher urging me to blog about an Amazon promotion of Road Closed…on kindle…for £1.20… or suppress a frisson of pleasure at seeing Road Closed in the Top 100 on amazon kindle. http://tinyurl.com/RoadClosedKindle

Amazon Reviews...

by Matt Lynn

There’s a lovely piece in The Guardian today by Christina Martin about Amazon reviews. Apparently, there has been more controversy about authors writing their own reviews (how could they – the cads!) and whether the reviews are really reliable.

She makes the valuable point that they may or may not be real. It doesn’t really matter. You can fairly easily tell which ones are genuine and which ones are fakes by the way they are written, and whether the person has reviewed similar books. And they open up the debate about books to lots of new voices. After all, before we had to rely on the reviews on the back of book jackets – and they were often fairly fictitious as well.

Most authors have an ambivalent attitude to Amazon and other online reviews. Personally I like them. I’ve had good ones and stinkers, and although none of us like being criticised, I can take that in good spirit. The internet is full of nasty stuff, and there is no reason why authors should be exempt. Online reviews are one of the few ways we have of getting feedback on our work, and of judging how much impact it is making on the world.

The more of them the better – even if they aren’t real.

What Makes a Book Popular?

I've been posting a lot about my recent activities. Life has been hectic with visits to stimulating writers groups and a host of searching interview questions both online and on various radio stations. I still have quite a few events to blog about. I haven't told you how much I enjoyed talking to Thames Valley Writers, or how I felt being interviewed live on Radio 91.8 FM (another live radio interview coming up next Saturday), or being approached by Woman and Home Magazine (where we talked about blogging!), or spending time signing airside at Heathrow Terminal 5 (where I saw ROAD CLOSED displayed at No. 7 on the WH Smith's Travel Bestseller Charts), hearing that my books are displayed at No. 4 and No. 6 on the Bestseller Chart at Waterstones in Bedford, or the thrill of receiving an email from award winning author Sam Millar who's just read ROAD CLOSED "and really loved it" (Sam won the prestigious Aisling Award for Art and Culture, the Martin Healy Short Story Award, the Brian Moore Award for Short Stories and the Cork Literary Review Writer’s Competition. His best-selling memoir, ON THE BRINKS, has recently been acquired by Warner Brothers... and that's just a taster)

But I thought it was time to return to some serious discussion about writing. Even I can see that there's only so much personal news I can blog about without becoming... how shall I put this?... repetitive... (OK, boring...)

One of the questions I was recently asked (Hayes FM) was:
"CUT SHORT launched in the summer and sold so fast your publisher had to reprint after two months. What elements in the book do you think made it so popular?"

That's a tricky one. What is it that makes some books grab our attention while others leave us unengaged?
For those of you who missed the radio broadcast my answer at the time went something like this.
"My books are plot driven so readers read on to find out what happens. But it is character that interests me. People fascinate me. Perhaps the popularity of my books is due to a combination of exciting plots and convincing characters." I went on to say that of course many authors achieve that, so I can't account for my success with CUT SHORT reprinted 3 times in its first year and ROAD CLOSED already off the starting posts, with its first few reviews pretty positive. So far a Top 50 Reviewer on amazon has said: "The characters are believable and I really like Geraldine... I also liked the way everything dovetailed together so that while you're reading you get those light bulb moments when a piece of the jigsaw slots into place..." Another reviewer says "tense and gripping... with an exhilarating climax that you don’t see coming until it is too late... Geraldine is a gifted, strong and likeable character." Sam Millar wrote of ROAD CLOSED that it is "a gripping, fast-paced read, pulling you in from the very first tense page and keeping you captivated right to the end with its refreshingly compelling and original narrative...Geraldine Steel is a complex and highly driven character, with multifaceted feelings of contradiction and nuance." Jeffery Deaver also mentioned plot and character, now I come to think of it, when he described CUT SHORT as "a seamless blending of psychological sophistication and gritty police procedure. And you're just plain going to love DI Geraldine Steel." In fact most of my reviewers cover both plot and character, so perhaps it is a combination of strong plot and convincing characters that is winning fans for my Geraldine Steel series.

What elements in any book do you think make it popular? It's an important question for an author - but is it an impossible one to answer?

Celebrity or Privacy

Having sold out in just one week in January, amazon.com ordered 500 copies of CUT SHORT. I should be pleased... but you're getting to know me and my 'What if' questions. So despite all the great reviews this week (links on my earlier post) I started wondering... what happens if no one else buys it?
Then I read this lovely comment on my blog (http://leighrussell.blogspot.com/)
"In all honesty, even as a woman myself, I have never been a follower of women writing crime. They never seem to go for the jugular, and always hold back. That was until I heard crime writer Sam Millar praising the hell out of this debut novel, Cut Short. I immediately bought it on Amazon, and was delighted with it. Really great writing, and terrific story. Can’t wait until your new book hits the shelves."
I know some authors are only interested in sales of 1,000s, but I'm still genuinely thrilled when one person enjoys CUT SHORT. I don't think that will ever change.

Matt Lynn asks, should authors remain obscure. Just as there are celebrities who become writers so there are authors who gain celebrity status. Is this a good idea?

A book, like any other creative work, must stand on its own merits. What difference if Melville hunted whales, or Robert Louis Stevenson sailed the seas with pirates. It may be helpfull, but it’s not necessary to experience something before writing about it. I, for one, have never killed anyone.

In this modern world authors need to promote sales of books. This is particularly so when writing for a smaller, independent publisher. CUT SHORT has not benefitted from the 3for2 tables in bookstores, or had a place bought for it on the bestseller lists. It has not been promoted on amazon’s home page or reviewed in the national press. Nevertheless, it has somehow received many excellent reviews and, mainly through word of mouth recommendation, has been reprinted twice in six months. It has sold out repeatedly on amazon, most recently within a week of amazon.com restocking.

CUT SHORT is out there, in the public domain where people can buy it, read it, and review it. I post links to reviews of CUT SHORT and blog and tweet every time it sells out. I blog about the vicissitudes of CUT SHORT, about the edits for ROAD CLOSED and the concept for DEAD END.

But my own life - dull and irrelevant as it is - my own life is private. And it's really not that interesting to anyone outside my family. (Members of my family are not to comment!)

Leigh Russell

My very own ISBN Number - Chapter 2

I have just seen ROAD CLOSED on amazon, publication 2nd June.

I've just remembered how I felt when I saw CUT SHORT listed.
What if no one likes it? What if everyone hates it?


My head is well and truly above the parapet now. There's no going back. That road is closed...


Oh all right, I admit it, I'm very excited at seeing my book on amazon. I'm now entering the period of waiting when I know that Road Closed is on track, and I don't have to worry for a few months about readers' reactions. I've got 5 months to wallow in self congratulatory limbo...

(But what if no one likes it?!?)

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE TRAPPINGS

As a debut author published by an established traditional publishing house I find myself catapulted into an envied position. So here it is:
The Truth Behind The Kudos of being a Published Author.

I'm scrabbling cheerfully among the roots of the fame tree, confident that's the best place to be. The only reason I hanker after ascending the lower branches is ego. But when I'm on my way up the trunk, will I stop to enjoy the view? Surely there's a better vantage point if I can just reach that next branch . . .

There's an ambivalence to this aspiration, because I'm convinced that the further up the tree you climb, the less enjoyable the experience becomes. Look at the number of celebrities who Fall apart under the pressure. And sliding down the trunk of a tree must be a painful experience.

Why do so many people want to stick their heads above the parapet? There are hordes of people wanting to appear on TV (oh the holy grail that has become!) and, dare I say it, even more who are desperate to see their names in print. Literary agents receive more unsolicited MS than they can ever hope to read. (So if you receive a rejection letter, don't take it personally. Chances are the agent didn't have time to look at your life's work, let alone read it.)

And there are legions of self-published authors. Why do they bother? Then again, why not? University degrees, whiter teeth, titles, physique, everything is up for sale. Recently I met a woman eager to tell me that her pride in becoming a published author was going to change her life. She'd paid a few thousand pounds for this achievement of a lifetime. I didn't tell her that she was unlikely to recover her money.

Maybe my approach is unusual. I never aspired to be an author for its own sake, never even considered writing until I had the idea for Cut Short. Once I began, I discovered that I loved writing, and sent my story to a publisher on a random whim. The publisher loved it and promptly signed me up for a series.

I fell into this world, clueless as Alice when she fell down the rabbit hole. Have I been lucky? I think so, but let's wait and see. For now, I'm enjoying watching Cut Short doing well on amazon ratings, and breaking sales records in bookshops I visit.

Those lower branches of the tree are almost within reach . . . but I've still got my feet on the ground . . . just.

Then again, I never did have much of a head for heights.

Leigh Russell