Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Ask Treva, Part 1 of 2--veinglory
This is a first of what I hope will be a recurring feature on the EREC blog. "Ask Treva" is your chance to direct questions about the epublishing industry to someone with a broader perspective as author, editor and epublisher owner. If you have any question please email them to me at veinglory at gmail.com
QUESTION: I have a set of characters and storylines that I could either write as three shortish (maybe 20-30k) each stories, or as a single long story with three parts to the plot (occurring linearly in time, rather than being able to be interwoven). In your experience, which would be likely to be better received by both an acquiring editor and the e-book reading public?
TREVA: The correct answer is whatever works best for your story. If it’s meant to fit together closely, it should be a 60-90k story. But not being able to be interwoven sounds like an argument for a three shortish story arrangement. Here are the cons on that -- The hard part of writing three shorter novels is trusting your readers will stick with you if, for example, they don’t like something in Book 1 that will be explained in Book 3. In addition, if a book is too short to sufficiently develop the character and plot, readers can feel cheated. And, if they’re meant to be read together, you best have all three stories written quickly. There’s nothing worse than leaving a reader wondering “what next?” for a year or two. In fact, each story should be self-contained, not with a cliffhanger ending. Finally, if you’re a new author and a publisher doesn’t know if you’ll finish the series, the publisher will be wary about accepting the first story. It would be best if all three stories are done or close to done before you submit.
QUESTION: Is there a deal in the works to unite Loose-Id with a major print publisher like Samhain and Elloras Cave have already done? What percentage of sales is derived from sales outside of the U.S. as opposed to domestic sales? Are people in Europe and Asia purchasing from Loose-Id? What is in the future of Loose-Id, conventions, promotions, anthologies, deals with amazon and kindle etc? What is the most successful title or series that Loose-Id has ever published?
TREVA: At the present time, we see no advantages to farming our authors' intellectual capital out to another company. We're doing well with our own paper publishing program.
Loose Id doesn’t share competitive sales data with the general public as it would violate the confidentiality of our contract with the author. However, we many of our customers are from non-U.S. countries. You can also probably get some idea of our best sellers from reader buzz.
As for the future, we have exciting plans to continue our expansion into virtual reality worlds like Second Life, where we've maintained a virtual kiosk since 2006. In general, we solicit authors for selected anthologies that tie into specific promotions based on larger marketing efforts. We attend many conventions, primarily the national RWA conference, Romantic Times, EPICon, and smaller regional conferences.
Treva Harte: Editor Bio
Treva Harte became co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Loose Id in 2004. She holds a B.A..in English Literature from University of Arizona (high honors), a M.A. in English Literature from University of Virginia and a J.D. from University of Virginia. She is a member of the Virginia and D.C. bars. From 1988 until 2008 she specialized in intellectual property law as a Trademark Examining Attorney for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Treva is multi-published with several e-publishers in print and e-book format, a member of RWA and PAN, and winner of the CAPA 2003 award in the "Erotic Fantasy Romance" category.
This is a first of what I hope will be a recurring feature on the EREC blog. "Ask Treva" is your chance to direct questions about the epublishing industry to someone with a broader perspective as author, editor and epublisher owner. If you have any question please email them to me at veinglory at gmail.comQUESTION: I have a set of characters and storylines that I could either write as three shortish (maybe 20-30k) each stories, or as a single long story with three parts to the plot (occurring linearly in time, rather than being able to be interwoven). In your experience, which would be likely to be better received by both an acquiring editor and the e-book reading public?
TREVA: The correct answer is whatever works best for your story. If it’s meant to fit together closely, it should be a 60-90k story. But not being able to be interwoven sounds like an argument for a three shortish story arrangement. Here are the cons on that -- The hard part of writing three shorter novels is trusting your readers will stick with you if, for example, they don’t like something in Book 1 that will be explained in Book 3. In addition, if a book is too short to sufficiently develop the character and plot, readers can feel cheated. And, if they’re meant to be read together, you best have all three stories written quickly. There’s nothing worse than leaving a reader wondering “what next?” for a year or two. In fact, each story should be self-contained, not with a cliffhanger ending. Finally, if you’re a new author and a publisher doesn’t know if you’ll finish the series, the publisher will be wary about accepting the first story. It would be best if all three stories are done or close to done before you submit.
QUESTION: Is there a deal in the works to unite Loose-Id with a major print publisher like Samhain and Elloras Cave have already done? What percentage of sales is derived from sales outside of the U.S. as opposed to domestic sales? Are people in Europe and Asia purchasing from Loose-Id? What is in the future of Loose-Id, conventions, promotions, anthologies, deals with amazon and kindle etc? What is the most successful title or series that Loose-Id has ever published?
TREVA: At the present time, we see no advantages to farming our authors' intellectual capital out to another company. We're doing well with our own paper publishing program.
Loose Id doesn’t share competitive sales data with the general public as it would violate the confidentiality of our contract with the author. However, we many of our customers are from non-U.S. countries. You can also probably get some idea of our best sellers from reader buzz.
As for the future, we have exciting plans to continue our expansion into virtual reality worlds like Second Life, where we've maintained a virtual kiosk since 2006. In general, we solicit authors for selected anthologies that tie into specific promotions based on larger marketing efforts. We attend many conventions, primarily the national RWA conference, Romantic Times, EPICon, and smaller regional conferences.
Treva Harte: Editor Bio
Treva Harte became co-owner and Editor-in-Chief of Loose Id in 2004. She holds a B.A..in English Literature from University of Arizona (high honors), a M.A. in English Literature from University of Virginia and a J.D. from University of Virginia. She is a member of the Virginia and D.C. bars. From 1988 until 2008 she specialized in intellectual property law as a Trademark Examining Attorney for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Treva is multi-published with several e-publishers in print and e-book format, a member of RWA and PAN, and winner of the CAPA 2003 award in the "Erotic Fantasy Romance" category.
Labels: Ask Treva
¶ posted at 9:00 AM by Emily Veinglory
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I didn't know Treva was a U of A alum! Me too! Always exciting to see another Wildcat around the blogosphere! *starts humming 'Bear Down'*
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