The Writing Life

The Kindle Isn’t A Short Cut for Authors

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There's a new interview with me up at the Kindle Author blog.  Here's an excerpt:

GOLDBERG_Iron_On_Badge_FINAL  DAVID WISEHART: You've had a successful TV writing career, and strong sales as a traditionally published mystery writer. Why publish on Kindle?

LEE GOLDBERG: I haven't published anything specifically for the Kindle yet—just my out-of-print work. So for me, it's a no-brainer. I'm making money on stuff I've already written and that wasn't earning for me any longer. But I have exhausted my back-list now…

Would I write something original for the Kindle? If I can't sell my next original novel to a major publisher, and it came down to a choice between going with a very small press or taking it to the Kindle myself, I would probably go with the Kindle, simply for financial reasons. I'm sure I could make a lot more money with Kindle publication over, say, the fine folks at Five Star, though it would mean losing some tangible benefits. Five Star books are respected, reviewed by major publications, stocked by libraries, and are eligible for all the big awards…while self-published books don't get much respect (often for very good reason), are not reviewed, are ineligible for major awards (something I understand and accept, having helped craft the eligibility rules for the Mystery Writers of America). All that said, I may test the Kindle waters with an original novella this fall.

DAVID WISEHART: What advice would you give to a first-time writer thinking of publishing on Kindle?

LEE GOLDBERG: Don't do it. I still think selling your book to a publisher, and getting wide distribution in brick-and-mortar stores, is the way to go…and will always be my first choice. You benefit from having an editor, a marketing team, a sales department, and nationwide visibility. I don't think self-publishing is a wise move for novice writers/aspiring novelists…for all kinds of reasons[…] Too many of them do it because they can't get their work published and, I hate to say it, in most cases there's a good reason for it—their books suck. They see self-publishing on the Kindle as a short-cut….or as a gold mine…and its neither. They look at success stories like Joe Konrath and Boyd Morrison and assume the same thing will happen to them. It probably won't.

I have sampled hundreds of self-published books on the Kindle… and 99.9% of them aren't just awful, they border on illiterate, as if they were written by people who never graduated high school. It's astonishing just how terrible the stuff is. Putting unprofessional, hideous crap on the Kindle *will* hurt your career. You only have one chance to make a first impression with readers, agents and publishers. That said, at least self-publishing on the Kindle doesn't cost you anything (if you don't count cover design, which you could do on your own, or hiring a professional editor) and cuts the vanity press scammers entirely out of the equation.

She Should Have Gone into the Furniture Business

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My grandfather owned a furniture store and wanted me to go into the business. I wanted to be a writer. His feeling was furniture was a solid career..that everybody needs to sit somewhere, they don't need to read a book. I argued that what they are doing while they are sitting in that comfy chairs is reading a book or watching TV. But he was right about one thing, it isn't easy making a living as a writer. As author Susanne Dunlap laments on her blog, it's still tough even if you've managed to get published by two major houses.  

my books are timed to come out roughly annually. Based on the advances I have been given for them, each book provides about a quarter of what I require to live on. Even if I gave up my Brooklyn residence and returned to Northampton, I would change that equation to about a third of what I require—which includes debt amassed while going to graduate school and simultaneously raising a family, helping my daughters through the rigors of adult life etc. etc.

So what is an author to do? She thought about putting some of her unpublished work, like the sequel to one of her published books, on the Kindle, but her agent scared her off of doing that.

I cruised around on my hard drive and flirted wistfully with the idea of e-publishing a few unwanted manuscripts, complete books that are very near to my heart but for one reason or another were not taken up by either my adult publisher, Simon & Schuster, or my YA publisher, Bloomsbury. Something held me back, though. And when I exchanged emails with my agent my doubts were confirmed. His advice was to trust that Bloomsbury is working to develop my career by bringing books out in a way that they will not compete with each other, and that self-publishing anything would undermine their sales and probably make me persona non grata.

Personally, I think her agent is full crap…and is wrong to counsel her, particularly in these tough economic times, not to take advantage of an opportunity to make more money off of her writing…especially if it costs her nothing.  He's being an ass.

Yes, it would hurt her career if she put a bad book on the Kindle. But if her books are at the same level as her published work, and will satisfy her readers (particularly if she's written an unpublished sequel to a previous book), the only downside is for him…and the commissions he won't be getting on her work. It will not make her "persona non grata" with publishers. That's just absurd. If her publishers wanted the books so bad, they could have published them. They can't hold it against her that she's found other markets for the work. Would she be "persona non grata" if she sold the books they passed on to another publisher?

I also think that his argument, that she should rely on a publisher to shape and craft her career, is ridiculous. It's her career…she's the one who should be deciding the course to take. They are only thinking of their own needs…not hers. He should know that.

My agent has no problem with me putting my out-of-print work on the Kindle. Sure, she wishes she had a percentage of those sales (and some agents are talking about adding such a clause into their agency contracts) but she sees it as a new revenue stream for books that were otherwise played out. 

I don't know how she'd feel if I decided to put my next book on the Kindle if she's unable to sell it. My guess is that if she believed in the book, and thought it was good, she wouldn't mind on a creative level…but might resent not sharing in the rewards of something she worked hard to sell but wasn't able to.

I’m Directing a Little Movie

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The Owensboro Kentucky Messenger Inquirer had a story on July 4 about the short film I'll be directing there over three days in September.The film is based on my short story Remaindered, which was published a few years back in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine .

RiverPark Center officials are excited about the educational opportunities the film shoot will provide local students.

Roxi Witt, general manager of the RiverPark Center, said the film will give theater arts students the chance to participate in a project that they couldn't experience anywhere else.

"Lee is obviously very accomplished," Witt said. "He's also personable and easy to listen to. He's got some great stories, but has a lot of knowledge and is incredibly meticulous."

The movie's cast and crew will all be from Kentucky and there will be film students on the set watching the production…as well as working as grips and helping out with crowd control. I'll also be hosting a few seminars before, during and after production to give the students a glimpse into how TV shows are written, prepped, produced and edited. The finished film will be screened in October at the inaugural NDX Experience Film Festival in Owensboro. 

I owe this wonderful opportunity to my buddy David Breckman, who wrote, produced and directed a short film, Murder in Kentucky over four days during the International Mystery Writers Festival at the RiverPark Performing Arts Center in Owensboro last summer. He also used a local cast and crew. You can see David's movie here.

I had such a good time watching him and the crew at work that I was eager to try it myself, though without the pressure to do it all — write, produce, and screen it — in four days.  In my case, the script was written months in advance, we're taking a few weeks to cast and prep, and then we'll shoot over three days and take about three weeks to edit it.

The original intent was to shoot the movie and screen it at the Festival this summer. But state-funded Festival was postponed due to delays passing the state budget. 

However, thanks to the efforts of Festival organizers Zev Buffman and Roxi Witt, and their enthusiasm for the project, the film is going on anyway as part of a local theatre arts education program the RiverPark Performing Arts Center is involved with.
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I'll be using a lot of the same crew that David did…namely local producers Rodney Newton and PJ Stark…and actor Todd Reynolds, who played the cop in Murder in Kentucky and who will play the cop in mine, too. I think there should be a local ordinance requiring anyone who produces a crime film in Owensboro to hire Todd to play a detective.

I'll tell you more about Remaindered as the project progresses…

If you are interested in reading the short story that inspired the movie, it's in my collection Three Ways to Die, which is available on on the Kindle and it's on Smashwords, too, in every other e-format you can think of.

Freelancing

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Screenwriter Denis McGrath talks about his experience freelancing an episode of STARGATE: UNIVERSE.

While I was off over a month trying to generate my story, fixed in stone — all the other targets were moving, and moving rapidly. Earlier scripts were going through production drafts…characters were changing and evolving. Casting, and then shooting, revealed actors' strengths that meant that they got written to more. I had only the barest, fuzziest hold on some of the secondary characters. In a new show, things change rapidly in production, and when you're in the room you absorb those changes in small increments on a daily basis.

Eventually, I begged for more scripts, and got them, and being able to digest six or seven scripts, and see the characters on the page helped me writing my drafts.

It's hard to believe that freelancing was once the rule in TV, and still is in some places. It just packs more pressure on the one or two people who have to make all the stories line up. As a freelancer, my job with my SGU script was to get it to a point where somebody else could "take it over," and see it through production. The better I did, ideally the less they'd have to rewrite.

Except of course it never works out that way, especially in a show's first season. When you're three thousand miles out of the loop of the show that's developing on those soundstages, you just do the best you can, and hope that you don't cause somebody too much work.

It's always hard freelancing an episode of a brand new series, since nobody is entirely sure what the show is or who the characters are…not the showrunners, the studio, or the network. It's trying to hit a constantly moving target. I've done it a few times… on SLIDERS, PSYCH, and on an upcoming summer series I can't talk about yet. There's no question about it…freelancing is hard, but it's not that much easier writing a script for a show that's been on the air for a season or two. Yes, everyone knows the show (including you!)… but it's harder coming up with a story or character conflict that they haven't already done or have in development.

UPDATE: Here's another view on McGrath's freelance experience from the other side of the desk as SG:U producer Joseph Mallozzi saw it.

Thanks for the Memories

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Starlog67cover  I put myself through UCLA writing for the The Daily Bruin (along with future X-FILES producer Frank Spotnitz) and freelancing for local and national publications. I also ended up writing a few sleazy novels under the pen name "Ian Ludlow," but that's another story.

What got me thinking back to those days was a blog post by John Zipperer , reviewing the February 1983 issue of Starlog, which was a milestone for me because it included my interview with Star Trek II screenwriter Jack Sowards — and my first sale to Starlog Magazine. I would end up writing hundreds of articles for Starlog (maybe it was less, but it sure felt like hundreds!) over the years that followed, but I can still remember how thrilling it was for me to get that acceptance letter from Dave McDonnell who, as it happened, was just starting what would be end up being a nearly thirty year career as managing editor of the magazine. 

It wasn't just a way to put myself through school…it was my real education. What I learned from all the screenwriters, directors,  network executives, producers, studio heads and actors that I interviewed for Starlog, Newsweek, American Film, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications shaped the career I have today. They taught me what I know. 

I am still amazed at all the people I got interview…like George Lucas, William Friedkin, Richard Donner, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Robert Zemeckis, Richard Maibaum, Wes Craven, Peter Hyams, Stephen J. Cannell, Steven Bochco, Richard Marquand, Glen Larson, Tom Cruise, Roger Moore, Roy Huggins, Johnny Depp, Fred Silverman, John Lithgow, Brandon Tartikoff, Grant Tinker, Bud Grant, Norman Lear, Martin Landau, Gene Roddenberry, Kurt Russell, John Korty, Paul Verhoeven, Harlan Ellison, Irvin Kershner, Dan Curtis, Wolfgang Petersen, William Shatner, Timothy Hutton, Roy Scheider, Michael J. Fox, Roger Corman, Ray Bradbury, Darren McGavin, Chevy Chase, John Carpenter, W.D. Richter, Raquel Welch, to name just a few (some of whom, like Cannell, Silverman, Huggins, Larson, Corman, Hutton and Scheider, I would later end up working with as a writer/producer. Only two of them, Cannell and Huggins, remembered that we'd met years before when I was a reporter, but that's because I interviewed them multiple times). 

And I knew how lucky I was even as it was happening. I still have many of audio cassettes from those interviews. One of these days I should get around to digitizing them before they erode away forever…

The Mail I Get

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I recently got an email from a debut author looking for some touring advice. She wrote, in part:

My debut novel is coming out in May, and I'll be spending all of June traveling around the country, visiting bookstores and book clubs. My schedule is anchored by reading/signing events at key bookstores, with private parties and book club meetings in the local areas around them. As I finalize my schedule, I notice I have a lot of downtime on weekday daytimes. Obviously, most people are at work then, so there's not much to do […] Besides bookstore drop-ins, what are ways for a traveling writer to make productive professional use of those weekday daytimes?

Write. Or relax. If you haven't done a book tour before, you will find that it is exhausting. If you want to be at your best for those evening signings, talks, etc., you need some down time. I also find that writing keeps me mentally "centered" when I'm traveling, especially if I'm hitting several cities over a very few days. It can become a blur. It's also nice to do a little sight-seeing…it might spark ideas or scenes in your next book.

But if you are intent on maximizing your promotion time, try to call ahead to each city and arrange a lunch or breakfast with a newspaper reporter or local blogger. Or try to arrange a radio or tv interview with a local station. If all else fails, you can help spread good will (and positive word of mouth) by offering to talk to a local high school or college English class…or at a local library.

Collaboration

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My buddy Max Allan Collins talks on his blog today about his collaborations with Mickey Spillane. Here's an excerpt: 

The truth is, these are genuine collaborations, all of them. I would put them at 50%/50%. I usually take Mickey’s work, expand upon it, and extend it so that it takes up at least half of the finished product. Probably about 60% of the wordsmithing in these novels is mine. But the plot idea, and various notes, and sometimes rough drafts of endings, plus the other 40% of the writing, are all Mickey’s. That’s how it’s done. I don’t believe anything like it has ever occurred in mystery fiction, a writer of Mickey’s magnitude leaving half a dozen substantial manuscripts behind, having designated a trusted collaborator (me) to complete them.

He also talks about his collaborations with his long-time researcher Matthew Clemens, who is uncredited on the covers of Max's C.S.I. tie-ins. Max is very candid about why his name is so much bigger than Clemens' on the cover of their new "standalone" thriller, even though they equally divided the work:N335740  

A good collaboration is synergistic – two plus two equals fourteen. While there are plenty of Matt’s sentences in YOU CAN’T STOP ME, it is about as fifty/fifty a project as you can imagine…and neither of us could have done it alone.

[Bill Crider's]comment that my bigger byline on THE BIG BANG may indicate a bigger contribution by me is at odds with the truth of publishing. Often times, the bigger name of a dual byline did the least amount of work. YOU CAN’T STOP ME is very much a fifty-fifty novel by Matt and me, but my name is much larger, because I am the bigger name (at the moment). But usually with such a situation, you could safely guess that the smaller name did most or even more of the writing.

The blog post is worth reading… it's a very interesting look into the work habits of a professional writer and, to some degree, the business of writing. 

Just Like the Mail I Get

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My old high school buddy Christine Ferreira sent me this hilarious email exchange, which comes frighteningly close to many that I've had with people who'd like me to work for free. Here's an excerpt:

From: Simon Edhouse
Date: Monday 16 November 2009 2.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Logo Design

Hello David,

I would like to catch up as I am working on a really exciting project at the moment and need a logo designed. Basically something representing peer to peer networking. I have to have something to show prospective clients this week so would you be able to pull something together in the next few days? I will also need a couple of pie charts done for a 1 page website. If deal goes ahead there will be some good money in it for you.

Simon

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 16 November 2009 3.52pm
To: Simon Edhouse
Subject: Re: Logo Design

Dear Simon,

Disregarding the fact that you have still not paid me for work I completed earlier this year despite several assertions that you would do so, I would be delighted to spend my free time creating logos and pie charts for you based on further vague promises of future possible payment. Please find attached pie chart as requested and let me know of any changes required.

Regards, David.

Fwd Pie Charts %E2%80%94 Inbox 20091204 101416 This must be the funniest email conversation ever

Mr. Monk and Mayhem

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There’s a Q&A interview with me today over at the MAYHEM & MAGIC blog about me and my latest MONK novel. Here’s a peek:

Lee, tell us about a bit about your latest book and your writing schedule

[…]My writing schedule isn’t set in stone. I basically work on my books whenever I am not working on a script, or vice-versa. I have about four months to write each book, so I write anywhere and everywhere I can put pen to paper (or fingers to a keyboard). No matter what I am writing, I tend to do my best work between 8 pm and 2 am. Don’t ask me why…my brother Tod is the same way.

Will you be guest speaker at any mystery conferences this year?

I’ll be attending Left Coast Crime in L.A, the 3rd Annual Forensic Trends: Psychiatric & Behavioral Issues Conference in Las Vegas, the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro KY, Bouchercon in San Francisco, and the Professional Pierce Brosnan Impersonator Convention in my living room.

AWOL

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Sorry I've been absent here on the blog. There's just been too much to do. Next week is looking crazy, too. I have two important studio pitch meetings next week to prepare for…and  I need to start working on the outline for the next MONK novel…and I have to keep up with my reading of ROMEO & JULIET (I'm helping my daughter, who is having a rough time with her Honors English class). On top of that, I need to do research for a pitch/approach on an open feature assignment that I'm up for. I sure wish I got paid for pitches, I'd be financially set for life.