For the second week of August, some interesting deals as reported in Publishers' Marketplace:
Debbie Macomber's KNIT TOGETHER: Discover God's Pattern for Your Life, has sold with the book being described as "saying that when we come to recognize our deepest longing, we can discover our potential and reach for our dreams, with her own journey of discovery weaved throughout the book," to Chip Macgregor of FaithWords (formerly Warner Faith), in a major deal, by Wendy Lawton of Books & Such Literary Agency (world). Major deal? $500,000+.
Brenda Mott's COWBOY ATTITUDE, "in which a heroine searching for her missing sister must rely on the aid of her former fiance while trying hard to keep her old feelings of love from resurfacing," to Victoria Curran at Harlequin Superromance, in a nice deal, by Michelle Grajkowski at 3 Seas Literary Agency (world). Nice? $1-$49,000.
Catherine Mann's MIAMI DYNASTY, part of an upcoming Desire continuity series, to Melissa Jeglinski at Harlequin, in a nice deal by Barbara Collins Rosenberg at Rosenberg Group (world). Catherine Mann is a RITA Award Winner, as well as National Readers' Choice Award Finalist. Nice? $1-$49,000.
Cynthia Polansky's REMOTE CONTROL, "about a 31-year-old Jewish control freak with an unlikely last name, who dies in a medical mishap and calls upon her supernatural status to "rescue" her widowed husband from the sexy clutches of their gold-digging, thrill-seeking blonde accountant, with disastrous results," to Karen Syed at Echelon Press, in a nice deal (world English). No agent reported here. Nice? $1-$49,000.
Abby Gaines's ACCIDENTALLY WED, about "a reality show stunt gone wrong resulting in a marriage where happily ever after is the last thing on anyone's mind," to Victoria Curan at Harlequin, in a nice deal, by Pamela Harty of The Knight Agency. Abby's real name is Adele Gautier. Nice? $1-$49,000.
Shiloh Walker's UNDER REALM, "the launch of an edgy alternative fantasy series," to Cindy Hwang at Berkley Sensation, in a two-book deal, by Roberta Brown of the Brown Literary Agency (World).
Hank Phillippi Ryan's PRIME TIME, the first in a series "featuring a 40-something TV reporter who discovers a link between a suspicious car accident and hidden messages in spam emails while juggling an on-camera world that values beauty more than journalism," to Ann Leslie Tuttle at Harlequin Next, in a nice two-book deal, by Kristin Nelson at the Nelson Literary Agency (world). Nice? $1-$49,000.
Saralee Rosenberg's ALL IN THE CARDS, "a humorous, heartfelt romp through bedrooms, boardrooms, and backyards, making unlikely heroines out of two bickering, its-your-day-to-drive moms," to Lyssa Keusch at Avon, for publication in late 2007, by Deborah Schneider of Gelfman Schneider.
Collecting online information on writing fiction for publication...and beginning in 2012, writing about whatever else I darn well please that deals with plot, or character, or anything else related in some vague way to writing fiction.
August 12, 2006
What's an ISBN?
ISBN stands for "International Standard Book Number," and it is a ten-digit number identifying books being sold internationally.
Why have one? ISBNs distinguish one title (or one edition of a title) from one specific publisher. That particular ISBN remains with that particular title/edition, which helps in the book's marketing not only to booksellers, but to libraries, universities, wholesalers, and whatnot. Think of it as that edition's SSN.
What do its four divisions mean? (1) Location of the publisher (national or geographic group); (2) Publisher; (3) Title or edition of a title; and (4) Validation, which is a single digit shown at the end, providing the ISBN's accuracy. If you see an "X," think Roman numerals - here, it stands for 10.
Source: isbn.com
Why have one? ISBNs distinguish one title (or one edition of a title) from one specific publisher. That particular ISBN remains with that particular title/edition, which helps in the book's marketing not only to booksellers, but to libraries, universities, wholesalers, and whatnot. Think of it as that edition's SSN.
What do its four divisions mean? (1) Location of the publisher (national or geographic group); (2) Publisher; (3) Title or edition of a title; and (4) Validation, which is a single digit shown at the end, providing the ISBN's accuracy. If you see an "X," think Roman numerals - here, it stands for 10.
Source: isbn.com
Learning the Publishing Industry From Your Chair
Thanks to the Web, there are several sites that will educate you about the publishing industry. It's up to you to read their content regularly and do your homework on what's selling and what's not - and why.
Of course, you need to do your footwork, too. Check out what's being touted in the grocery store's book section, as well as WalMart's and Target's book aisles. Roam through there and see what people are wanting to read. Do it regularly. It goes without saying that you're also going to be doing this at the local bookstore. Talking to the worker bees there - "what's hot this month?" - can be very enlightening.
As for the sites, there are a few that attempt to do this forecasting/prediction business for you. Publisher's Marketplace, for one. BooksInPrint IntelliMarketing looks pretty, too.
However, as one of my famous, very successful, author role models recently warned me, "remember whatever wonderful things that are said are simply whatever the publisher or agent or whoever sent to PM. It isn't exactly unbiased."
And, there's another negative: they're not free. PM costs around $250/yr for the privilege of accessing its site information, for example. And, you have to email BooksInPrintIntelliMarketing in order to learn its cost. Now, that's skeery.
So, we come back around to the free web sites. Here are a few:
WriteNew's long list of industry links
PublishingIndustry.Net's MostRead Links Page
BookWire.Net
USATodayOnline's Book Section
ParaPublishing's Collection of Statistics - a must read
Yahoo News on Books/Publishing
Google News - nice to create a news alert here for your particular interest - say romantic suspense, or cozies
Of course, you need to do your footwork, too. Check out what's being touted in the grocery store's book section, as well as WalMart's and Target's book aisles. Roam through there and see what people are wanting to read. Do it regularly. It goes without saying that you're also going to be doing this at the local bookstore. Talking to the worker bees there - "what's hot this month?" - can be very enlightening.
As for the sites, there are a few that attempt to do this forecasting/prediction business for you. Publisher's Marketplace, for one. BooksInPrint IntelliMarketing looks pretty, too.
However, as one of my famous, very successful, author role models recently warned me, "remember whatever wonderful things that are said are simply whatever the publisher or agent or whoever sent to PM. It isn't exactly unbiased."
And, there's another negative: they're not free. PM costs around $250/yr for the privilege of accessing its site information, for example. And, you have to email BooksInPrintIntelliMarketing in order to learn its cost. Now, that's skeery.
So, we come back around to the free web sites. Here are a few:
WriteNew's long list of industry links
PublishingIndustry.Net's MostRead Links Page
BookWire.Net
USATodayOnline's Book Section
ParaPublishing's Collection of Statistics - a must read
Yahoo News on Books/Publishing
Google News - nice to create a news alert here for your particular interest - say romantic suspense, or cozies
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