We are fortunate in Madison to have several independent bookstores and bookstores for used books.  One of the best is A Room of One’s Own on the corner of Gorham and State Street, lodged snugly between the State Capitol and the UW-Madison campus.

The bookstore has a long and strong record of supporting independent authors, local authors and Wisconsin authors.   At their website: www.roomofonesown.com on the left margin they list the author book readings they sponsor every month.  Generally, they host 4-6 authors.

Authors are often depicted as solitary souls and my experience for attending readings and writer’s conferences for more than 15 years it that this is a myth.  Authors like to meet readers, respond to questions and have their work heard by reading it out loud themselves.  Publishers would like us to believe the primary purpose of author book readings is to sell books.  I don’t believe it is, although, hopefully for the author it does result in at least modest book sales.  The purpose for the author is to connect with readers.  How dismal it is to spend years producing a book and then not have any contact with your readers.  It is certainly a form of purgatory if not hell itself.

Last week I attended a reading by Ben Miller of his first published work, RIVER BEND CHRONICLE.  He greeted my wife and me with a warm handshake and an introduction to his wife and several other family members.  Sadly for Ben, the crowd included only Lynette, me and the Miller family members.  Not daunted in the least Ben gave a spirited reading from a scene in his book about growing up in urban (yes, urban) Iowa; Davenport, Iowa to be specific.  He also took questions and the entire event was about an hour.

From his reading I learned Ben is an excellent writer and his prose are dense and thought provoking.  Of course I had to buy the book and have him sign it.  Ben was thrilled to have me buy his book – not because it was a sale that would blossom his income – because he met a reader – his reader.  My wife was amazed at how Ben bubbled over me and was sincerely appreciative of our attendance.  I won’t forget Ben Miller and I’ve dived head first into his book.

Please, go to an author reading whenever you get a chance.  Lonely authors need the human connection as much as anyone – maybe more.

Please take the time to comment and share your author reading experiences on my blog. 

Reading a good literary work does the heart and soul good.  With our recent celebration of Blooms Day on June 16th (a coincidence with Father’s Day this year) I thought it fitting to dive into a recently published literary novel and found John Banville’s ANCIENT LIGHT, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012.  The story is told by first person narrator, Alexander Cleave.  Alex toggles back and forth between the story of his affair with his best friend’s mother at age 15 and his transition to movie acting and the loss of his daughter in later years.

Banville language is nothing short of elegant and single sentences can be a paragraph long.  Yet, there is a rhythm and cadence to the writing that makes it a very easy read.  In some ways it’s also an “anti-novel” by modern standards because there is no plot, nothing the protagonist must have to live, and no conflict in the Donald Maass – WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL model.

Alex simply tells his story of his life from vantage of old age reflecting on what happened and not always sure if it actually happened or it’s make believe.  For a sample of the language Banville commands, here is a description Alex has of his co-star in the movie:

“She is impossibly thin, as they all have to be these days – “Oh, but I don’t eat,” she told me, with a tinkly laugh, when we broke for lunch, and I gallantly offered to fetch her a sandwich – especially on the inner sides of her upper arms I notice, which are positively concave, with sinews unpleasantly on display under the pallid skin that makes me think, I am sorry to say, of a plucked chicken.”

We know exactly what his co-star looks like through his eyes and also have his perspective woven into the description.

So, for your summer read – try a literary novel, it will do you a world of good and be a good reprise from the host of formulaic novels available anywhere.   

What is your favorite literary novel?

I write a monthly column for an Ezine, Extra Innings,http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/extrainnings called Preyers, Predators and Pretenders.  On my voyage to self-publication I knew that I needed help with editing, web design, copy editing, book printing and marketing.  As with many first time self-publishers my knowledge of resources available to help me is very limited.  I signed on with a company that specializes in helping self-publishers by acting like an agent to secure competent help.

The first suggestion of the new company was that my book needed content/development/story editing.  Wanting the highest quality product possible, I agreed.  The copy acquired a quote for about $2300 to edit my 84,400 word novel.  Fine, I thought, what do I get for $2300?  I never did find out.  The person submitting the amount never took the time to make a written proposal. 

I gave the company a ten point list of items I wanted to see in any written proposal.  I received a written proposal for $5000 but the editor refused to thoroughly read my novel before beginning editing work.  Her response was “I don’t have time to read every book before I edit it.  I would have to charge a reading fee for that.  This guy doesn’t know very much about the publishing business.  Tell him to get an education in the modern publishing business.”  And that person thought I would spend $5000 with them with that attitude?

A friend who did a quick content edit for me challenged the need for another content editor.  I wrote two additional chapters to fill in some gaps and he agreed to read them and give me an assessment.  Next, I decided to have my website reviewed because in the past month my hits dropped.  The tech person made a detailed proposal and wanted $3200 – for consultation only, I would have to do all the work.  Do I look like I carry gold coins in my pocket?

The potential cost just for editing and website are $8200, then there’s copy editing, book printing and marketing.  Assuming my gross royalties will be $4.00 per book I would need to sell 2050 books just to cover the cost of editing and website.  Really?

There are predators in the self-publishing world ready to play to a writer’s ego to be read.  Self-publishers beware! 

On one of the linkedin author chat groups I participate in some brave soul finally asked – has anyone had experience getting book sales from their facebook page?  Guess what the answers were?  That’s right – not one person could document a single book sale as a result of having a facebook author page.

I have done numerous google searches for data on book sales and facebook.  I have not been able to find any data.  Then there is the question of buying advertising on facebook to sell books.  A number of my linkedin colleagues experimented with facebook advertising.  It’s not cheap.  Again, there was no hard data to link facebook advertising with book sales and even if there were, the cost effectiveness is murky at best.

I don’t intend to be crass and demand or have an expectation that an author facebook page generate fabulous sales.  It would be beneficial to be able to demonstrate that there is some correlation between facebook and book sales.  As an author I need to allocate my time.  Is a presence on facebook a good use of my time?  I wonder?

There is one question no one has asked.  Are those that participate in the various forms of social media readers?  If your limit is 144 characters my guess it’s unlikely you could handle more than 144 pages.  Some may argue that social media people purchase e-books.  Again, where is the data?  An e-book is only a change in format – you still need to be a reader.  While I don’t have any objective data, my guess is that if you spend a great deal of time (more than 1 hour a day) on social media, you’re not a reader.

I already have a webpage, linkedin and twitter and I’m thinking about having an author facebook page, at least on Amazon.  My solution is simply to devote the minimum amount of time to each.  If I don’t spend time working on my novel anyone finding me in the social media world won’t have a book from me to read. 

The right division of time for me is, 90% novel writing and 10% everything else – until someone can SHOW ME THE BEEF!

If you have any objective data on the relationship between book sales and social media – PLEASE – respond to this post – for now I’ve used up my 10%.