BEA Wrap-up; To Live Is to Die

The past few weeks since returning from BEA have been incredibly busy for a number of reasons; extreme work deadlines on several projects and visiting family members have put a severe cramp in extra-curricular activity like this blog. Now that the family members have left and I've gotten caught up with work, I can dwell a little more on BEA.

If you remember from my last post on this topic, I lamented on the fact that I felt the mass market publishing industry was (and has been) in a sense of change. I've felt this way for a while now. Many of us involved in the world of mass market book publishing, especially writers, have been witness to this slow change for over a decade. This change was very evident at BEA this year. If you were a newly published mid-list novelist attending BEA for the first time, you'd probably come away from the event thinking it might be time to get into another line of work...in the service industry, maybe, or as a plumber or maybe even healthcare.

However, there were some bright spots. The aforementioned Espresso machine from Lighting Source was one. Another was the many small and regional publishers on display who seemed to be taking up the slack for the mid-list. Many of these publishers are in the early stages of putting out books that would be attractive to any serious writer or reader of dark fantasy, crime, thrillers, or horror fiction...and best of all, they are not the typical small press fare. The packaging is attractive, the books clean and professional looking. A good example of this was was Medallion Press. When they debuted a few years ago, their books had the same general look. The new releases they had on display at BEA are a very attractive. I was especially impressed with their hardcover release of Ronald Damien Malfi's novel Shamrock Alley. The book is so impressive looking that people were lined up outside the Medallion booth to snag an autographed copy. My assessment after leafing through the inside jacket flap and the first few pages is that this novel is a winner, both content-wise and through its overall packaging (now if I can only get through the rest of my To Be Read pile so I can read it). Medallion is just one publisher that seems to be taking up the midlist slack and I hope they succeed.

One of my assessments from this year's BEA was that it seems that for a publisher to survive in today's publishing climate, they have to be a niche publisher. While the large NY houses seemed to feature the same big Brand Names, the more exciting material was being offered by niche publishers: African American, or Urban fiction, was big with several publishers; another was so-called "paranormal romance", especially those involving vampire/werewolf/were-whatever detectives, policemen, doctors, lawyers...well, you get the idea. Yes, this particular niche has been around, slowly gaining traction since the mid 1990's, but it is even more popular now.

The fields of Non-fiction were rife with niche subjects too, everything from popular culture, history, hobbies, and other subjects. One publisher's booth I visited was Jaw Bone Press, who specialized in books on rock music. The week before, I'd read a review of a biography on drummer Bill Bruford on Neil Peart's website (his aptly named Bubba's Book Club, a review site written and maintained by Neil) and was intrigued enough to file the title away in the back of my mind. Jaw Bone Press had the book on display, as well as others (Metal: The Definitive Guide, Lennon and McCartney, among others), but one title clearly leaped out at me: To Live Is To Die, the Life and Death of Cliff Burton.

Since many of my readers are huge Metallica fans, I feel compelled to share with you my feelings about this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Having been lucky enough to have seen Cliff play live with Metallica several times, reading Joel McIiver's authorized biography on the late bassist sparked a feeling I can only describe as nostalgic and bittersweet. I usually like and appreciate biographies, especially those that provide a nice, well-rounded, personal tone to the subject of the book. McIver's book provides all that and makes you wonder what Metallica (and Cliff himself) could have accomplished had his life not been so tragically cut short from the terrible bus accident in Sweden that ended his life in 1986. Many die-hard fans will be surprised to learn that those close to Cliff feel that had he lived, Metallica would probably have evolved to the musical landscape they explored on 1991's Black album (which many old-time fans hate because of its commercial leanings toward stripped-down, blues-oriented hard rock/heavy metal). Throughout the book, McIver simply lets those closest to Cliff reveal the complex, intelligent, and thoughtful man he was.

You can get a copy of the book here.

Trust me...all of you who read my stuff who love Metallica will want to read this book.

JFG

Primitive up for pre-order

The trade paperback edition of my novel Primitive is now up for pre-order. However, if you can't wait for the paperback edition, the ebook (PDF Digital Download and Kindle Edition) is available for immediate download now.

Go here to place your order.

And be sure to tell all of your friends.

JFG

Writing Advice

To everybody who has ever asked me for advice on any writerly-related topic, especially as it pertains to dark fantasy and horror fiction, I urge you to pick up this book: Writer's Workshop of Horror, edited by Michael Knost.

It contains an original essay by yours truly, as well as worthwhile essays and advice from many of my friends and esteemed colleagues: Stephen King, Gary A. Braunbeck, Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, among many many others. You can get your copy here.

Horrible Saturday

Next Saturday, June 20, 2009, I will be appearing at the York Book Emporium in York, PA for their annual "Horrible Saturday. If you live within the York/Lancaster area, please stop by. My appearance is from 1:00-2:30 or so. I will have copies of various titles on hand for purchase and signing, and I'm supposed to talk about something...I have no idea on what topic, but that's not the point. Come see me make a complete idiot of myself anyway, get some books signed, and we'll have fun. Click here for details.

More thoughts on BEA and some of the good things that came out of it in a few days.

JFG

The Downward Spiral


No, not this is not in reference to the Nine Inch Nails album of the same name. Nor is it in reference to my career, which is actually okay now; not great, not down in the dumps the way it was six years ago when after a handful of novels sold and published I couldn't sell a goddamn thing for a good year or more. Instead, think of this title as an allusion to the publishing industry itself.

Many of you have heard this from other sources, and the news is the same: publishers (the mass market NY industry, at least) is suffering incredible losses; book sales are down overall; Borders is on the verge of closing; Barnes and Nobles has seen flat sales; the sales numbers of best-selling titles is down overall despite the sales figures of flavor-of-the-month titles like the Twilight Series, Harry Potter, and whatever self-help tome touted on Dr. Phil or Oprah (last week, on the train ride home from New York, I jokingly told Brian Keene that I could probably get rich by writing a diet book called "Lose Weight With Cocaine"; it was a joke, but in hindsight it might actually sell...). And let's not forget what many of us in the industry have been hearing (and witnessing first hand) for years--the death of the mid-list title.

Combine all that with our topic from a few weeks ago--Google's plans to rewrite copyright law to their benefit--and you've just experienced last week's Book Expo America (BEA) in New York.

My first BEA experience was over a decade ago, in Anaheim, California. BEA has always been the place to gauge where the industry is heading. It is also a place to gauge the current conditions of publishing. Normally, publishers are out in droves at this event, promoting their lists to distributors, bookstore buyers, and others in the form of review copies, catalogs, and other promotional materials. Things were way toned down this year. Many of the bigger publishers didn't have booth space this year, and those that did were scaled back. I did a lot of eavesdropping at this event, and I heard more than one executive say that the industry was in dire straits. I heard this from Random House suits to independent presses. A very well known graphic novel publisher lamented the same thing.

Couple this with the Google thing and it made for a depressing event. If you were a first time novelist who'd just sold a first novel that was getting typical mid-list treatment, you'd probably come away from this event thinking about going into another line of work--the service industry, maybe.

There were some bright spots, though. While mid-list titles and authors were seriously lacking in promotion and display from the larger NY houses at BEA, the independent presses who were on hand appeared to be picking up the slack. I also sensed a big shift towards co-op publishing, POD printing, and direct marketing. POD printing, in fact, seems to be gaining in popularity with many publishers large and small. Long disdained by traditionalist in the industry, POD may be the technology that saves the industry, as witnessed by Lightning Source's display booth, clearly the largest at the event. It was here that Lightning Source unveiled it's Espresso machine. About the size of one of those copy machines you find at a Mail Boxes Etc., the Espresso machine is being heavily marketed to bookstores for the purposes of printing POD titles at point-of-sale.

Want an example? You've been telling your mother-in-law that she has to read my books. She's picked up my mass market titles, but can't find any of the small press paperbacks at her neighborhood Big Box store and she isn't really into placing special orders (much less ordering from Amazon.com; yes, people like that do exist, and they comprise most of the book buying public). With the Espresso machine at her neighborhood Big Box store, she can ask the bookstore clerk for Clickers and Clickers II (both POD paperbacks from Delirium Books). The clerk brings up the titles on the system, sends the files to the Espresso machine and within minutes both titles are printed, bound, and they're in her hands. The production quality is the same as she'd get if she'd special order them (and they were printed from Lightning Source's Tennessee plant). Just as important, she's satisfied that she has the books and the sale is made that much quicker. What's not to like?

There were other bright spots amid the doom and gloom, which I'll highlight in future installments. Suffice to say, as Bob Dylan put it, "The Times are a Changing." If you're a mid-list paperback novelist, it's time to adapt or die. Myself and many of my colleagues have seen this coming for several years now. Change has never been so evident in publishing as it was at this year's BEA.

Time to take a deep breath and wade in.

JFG