Seattle Mystery Bookshop

The Brave New World of E-Books and Self-Publishing

Two bits of news caught our eyes recently:

Self-Published Ebook Sales Reach 20% of Genre Market In 2010, the US published 328,259 printed books, the UK 149,400. It is hard to find data on book publications in 2011 but, according to Bowker (they're the outfit that assigns the individual identifying number - the ISBN - to each book), since 2006, self-published books have risen 287%. Some 87,000 or so e-books were self-published in 2011 (some items may've been counted twice but many self-published e-books also lack ISBNs, so the number is 'fluid'). This figure is for the US only, but we can assume that the rest of the English-speaking world is holding up their end of the racket. 

The Bowker article notes that in 2011, Amazon alone released 58,412 self-published works, "39% of all self-published print books." Further, "Smashwords was the largest ebook producer, accounting for 40,608 titles, or 47 percent of all self-published ebooks." Add those two figures and you get 99,021 self-published books by these two major players alone. Do the math to figure out what part they didn't produce (the 61% that Amazon didn't release equals 91,362, and the 53% that Smashwords did not produce comes to  45,792) and you get 149,774 self-published print books and 86,400 self-published e-books, or, if this math is correct, in 2011 there were 236,174 self-published titles. Give or take.

Then there was this essay by Barry Eisler, also on The Guardian's webiste: The Digital Truths Traditional Publishers Don't Want to Hear where he once again touts the advantages of e-books and self-publishing over what he calls 'legacy' publishing - meaning the system of publishing that gave him his start.

From what we hear, Eisler has done very well since he walked away from a fat contract with a legacy publisher to go on his own and with Amazon. We know of many authors for whom this route has not only become a stream of money but the only way they can continue to publish. They include nationally and internationally known writers, award winners - names you'd know, many local. The traditional NYC publishers have turned away from what is known as the 'mid-list' author (as opposed to the novice novelist or the mega-seller), no longer giving them contracts that allowed them to live on their writing and letting their older books go out of print. These backlist titles, if they have the publishing rights to them, can become a source of steady money as the books are complete and simply need to be converted to digital files. No one begrudges them this. They ought to be able to make money on their work.

We're just crabby that the major publishers are so myopic as to let these writers go so that we can no longer have their books to sell.

But here's the thing about someone like Barry Eisler: he launched himself into this digital world when he was already an established author. He didn't get to where he is by using that system from the start. Yes, he's done well selling his books on-line as digital files. Good for him. But would he be where he is had he not benefitted from the efforts of the 'legacy publishing' system he so easily dismisses?

Go back to the figure of quarter of a million self-published titles in 2011. We have to figure that the number of self-published books continues to grow each year. So maybe there were not as many in 2010, and maybe a lot more in 2012. And we're half-way through 2013, so...

What we would like to see is Barry Eisler conduct what we refer to as a 'science experiment': Publish a new work under a pseudonym and keep it a secret for a year. Tell no one that you've done it, do nothing to draw attention to it as a Barry Eisler novel, in no way promote it as Barry Eisler work, or allow it to be connected to you - hell, even lie and deny it is yours if someone asks...Do everything you can to keep it just another self-published work by an author no one has heard of. In other words, launch this as any other unknown author just starting out would have to do.  

At the end of that year tell us, how did it sell?

Will readers find it among the other few hundred thousand other newly-released self-published works? Can he be successful from scratch, without the help of his reputation and name and without the publicity machinery of a 'legacy publisher'?

That would be an interesting experiment.

MURDER, NORTH TO SOUTH

I set my last novel, Bonereapers, in Norway. Norwegian winters are long and dark and bitter and there seems to be a gloomy streak in the national temperament that inclines people to thoughts of death. The brooding landscapes, the aura of ancient stones and ghosts of the past strike a deep psychological chord and add a special sense of horror to the crime of murder. Ironically, the homicide rates in Scandinavia are among the lowest on the planet. Perhaps it’s the rarity of murder that makes crime fiction so popular. A pool of blood oozing across a field of pure white snow is more shocking than a blood-drenched body sprawled in a filth-strewn alley.   

Far to the south in sunny Greece, the murder rate is climbing fast. Foreigners are being beaten and stabbed to death on an almost daily basis. Violence against women and the elderly has risen sharply and the police seem unable to stop the rash of brutal muggings and robberies.

My most recent book, “Her Boyfriend’s Bones,” takes place on the Aegean island of Samos, which has become a chokepoint for refugees fleeing wars in the Middle East and Africa. Smugglers can transport their human cargo across the narrow Mycale Strait from Turkey in less than an hour, but the passage is treacherous. Many die in the attempt and the Samians, left to cope with the bodies washing up on their beaches and the horde of survivors who must be fed and housed, feel increasingly resentful. The Greek debt crisis and burgeoning unemployment have stoked fear and xenophobia. Corruption is rampant and bitterness bred during the military junta of the late ‘60s makes the island fertile ground for murder. 

My sleuth Dinah Pelerin has seen murder both north and south.  Trust her when she says that blood spilled on a gleaming white beach is no less horrifying that blood on a field of snow. 

 

Jeanne Matthews

For more information about Jeanne’s books, visit her website www.jeannematthews.com

Platitudes and other Drugs for Depression

Life is what you make it.  That used to be my favorite platitude and it meant nothing--now, as I approach my dotage, it has a horrible ring of truth.  Why horrible?  Because it means I have to quit blaming and start doing/acting.

Oh, boy, the woman is in a philosophical mood.  Not really, just face-to-face with what only I can change.  If I'm in the pits it's up to me to climb out.  Now that's bad news.  Blame was always so useful, together with duvet diving (pulling the covers over my head and trying to sleep my way out of "not being happy.")

No more.  If I duvet dive in future it has to be because a) I'm tired or b)I'm cold.  Otherwise it's chin up and get the hell on with it, Cameron.

Today has been good for me.  Being with my friends at Seattle Mystery Bookshop has to help--they don't care what color sneakers I turn up in or if my socks are inside out.  But it helped that I found my lines to live by.  Not a platitude but true, meaningful lines:  Happiness is not the destination, it's the journey.

I'll leave all my mates on the journey with that thought--and the news that I'm just finishing COLD, Introducing Alex Duggins, my reluctant but budding sleuth in a new (and I hope enduring) mystery series set in Folly-on-Weir in the English Cotswold Hills--with the occasional sidetrip to London or other places of fascination.

Loving and leaving you for now--but happy:)

Stella

 

 

J.R. Rain Giving Out Kisses!

Bestselling author and world-class flirt, J.R. Rain, is a puckering fool down here at Seattle Mystery Bookshop. What had started as a simple booksigning has turned into...something else entirely. The signings have given away to a "kiss fest," as J.R. Rain referred to it (between smooches, of course). Hurry down and get in line where the kisses are free, even if the books aren't.

Jussi Adler-Olsen - Review

 

We have signed copies in stock now!

   

Jussi Adler - Olsen - Keeper Of Lost Causes

Fran Recommends:

Adele talked me into reading Jussi Adler-Olsen's first book, The Keeper of Lost Causes and so I absolutely had to read The Absent One, and it's just as much fun as the second one!

Carl Mørck is still head of Department Q, and he's not sure which cold case to take on next. But his assistant, Assad, has one already picked out, and it's one that's going to cause controversy. You see, the murder of the two siblings back in 1988 has been solved; someone confessed and is doing time. So why should Department Q take another look? Because perhaps those weren't the only two murders. And perhaps some of the assailants are now high-society members. Carl's not convinced, until his supervisor tells him to leave it alone. Nothing will get Carl Mørck's attention faster than being told to go away.

Adler-Olsen has added a new member to Department Q, a secretary named Rose who is definitely thorny, and he's set up a story that is fast- and well-paced, filled with unique and intriguing people, and has managed to make someone who's really a dreadful person be sympathetic. That's no easy feat!

And the humor comes through as well, maybe not as clearly as in the first one, but different translators do sometimes emphasize different aspects. Still, I found myself snorting in amusment at times.

This is such a great series, and I'm glad Adele talked me into it. I can't wait for the next one. These books should be read in order, but read they absolutely should be!

Fine Writing

    "Somewhere in all this musing, I noticed a fat little snowflake drift across my field of vision and settle against one of the concrete blocks and disappear. There were others, now that I noticed, gently floating through the cooling night air. Scientists say there is a noise that snoflakes make when they land on water, like the wail of a coyote; the sound reaches a climax and then fades away, all in about one ten-thousandth of a second. They noticed it when they were using sonar to track migrating salmon in Alaska. The snowflakes made so much noise that it masked the signals of the fish, and the experiment had to be aborted. The flake floats on the water, and there is little sound below; but, as soon as it starts to melt, water is sucked up by capillary action. They figure that air bubbles are released from the snowflake or are trapped by the rising water, Each of these bubbles vibrates as it struggles to reach equilibrium with its surroundings and sends out sound waves, a cry so small and so high that it's undetectable by the human ear.

    I looked up a the few remaining stars. It seemed that an awful lot of the voices in my life were so small and high as to be undetectable by the human ear."

Narration by Sheriff Walt Longmire

Craig Johnson, A Cold Dish

Saturday July 13^th at Noon

Craig Johnson signs A Serpent’s Tooth

YA Book Review

 

 

Gail Carriger  - Curtsies & Conspiracies

Amber Recommends:

Sophronia fought against her parents sending her away to finishing school, now she cannot imagine being anywhere else. Just as her mother imagined, Sophronia is learning how to dance, pour tea and curtsey as any proper lady should. However the other classes offered at the floating school (did I mention the school is located on a dirigible?) are a bit more exotic…poisons, self-defense, information gathering and reconnaissance. Ultimately, her finishing, should she pass all her exams, will turn out a fine polished young spy into society.

The school is all atwitter when a trip to London is announced by the headmistress. Sophronia suspects the reasons for this sudden excursion are far more complicated than meets the eye, since it doesn’t make sense that the school would uproot itself merely to witness a historical event, no matter the supernatural implications. Adding to the excitement is a debut ball, several kidnapping attempts and a flamboyant vampire. Well things are about to get very interesting!

For those of you who have read the five books in the Parasol Protectorate series, this is a very interesting YA series, as they are a prequel to those books. You get to meet Genevieve Lefoux as a precocious ten year old and Lady Sidheag Maccon and begin to understand how she was able to lead a werewolf pack as a human. I found it great fun to meet these characters again and learn more about their origins.

For those of you who have not read anything in this universe before, never fear! While it is set in the same world and has a few carry-over characters, you do not have to have any knowledge of them in order to understand and love this book. Carriger does a great job in setting the reader up for success, without her writing becoming formulaic.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is charming, witty, humorous, adventurous and filled with intrigue. I found that the notion of women out in society (high or otherwise) would make excellent spies during this period, with a bit of training, since ladies’ intelligence was often overlooked, and the school helped them to take full advantage of this flaw in society. I also enjoyed the fact that while there are many strong male characters, Sophronia never relies on them to save the day. Rather she relied on herself and her training to figure out what is afoot and to thwart other people’s machinations.

I would suggest reading Etiquette & Espionage, the first book in the series before you start on this one, as it will give you a firmer grasp the complexities in this installment in the series. I would recommend this book to any female 14 and above, or very open minded males of the same age (but this I think is mainly aimed at the female audience).

May YA / Kids Bestsellers

 

   

May Mass Market Paperbacks Bestsellers

1 – J.A. Jance, Judgment Call, Harper

2 – tie

        Kevin O’Brien, Unspeakable, Pinnacle - Signed Copies Available

        Waverly Curtis, Chihuahua Confidential, Kensington - Signed Copies Available     

        Lee Child, A Wanted Man, Dell

        Charles Cumming, Foreign Country, St Martin’s

6 – tie

        Nancy Atherton, Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch, Penguin

        Carolyn Hart, Death Comes Silently, Berkley

        Carol O’Connell, Mallory’s Oracle, Jove

        James Swain, Dark Magic, Tor

        KW Jeter, Infernal Devices, Angry Robot

A Sweep of Shadow

A gust of wind, a sweep of a shadow and one can imagine a boy aflight in the dark of night. Peter and the Starcatcher arrives to Seattle late October (the play!). But I am here at Seattle Mystery Bookshop in the company of John Knox and Grace Chu, carried down a canal in Amsterdam, running down a street market, jumping a water taxi. A gust of wind, a sweep of shadow.

Ridley Pearson