Jeremy is an emerging speculative fiction writer and professional illustrator from Sydney, Australia. His first full length novel GRIMSHAW: The Binding Passage is Part One of a flintlock fantasy trilogy and was recently selected for the inaugural QWC/Orbit Manuscript Development Program.
Typical — the darkest discussions I’ve attended as part of the Sydney Writers’ Festival were also the funniest. First thing Saturday morning was spent listening to Australian authors Steve Toltz, Chris Wombersley, and Michael Robotham as they talked about flawed good guys and sympathetic baddies in Heroes and Criminals, followed by Memory, a very frank discussion by Australian Venero Armanno and young Texan author Stefan Merrill Block on the recollections of lost friends and a family cursed by Alzheimer’s disease. I do hope that the organisers of the Festival release these discussions as podcasts, they were brilliant.
Thursday afternoon was spent in the company of the erudite Antoni Jach, who led the discussion on writing historical fiction. A senior lecturer at Melbourne’s RMIT, Antoni clearly knew his subject with three acclaimed historical fictions under his belt.
A range of issues were covered, from the motivations of authors to write historical fiction, to complications raised by balancing historical facts with a enjoyable fiction, to integrating wonderful details of our past within the narrative. He questioned the reliance of historical writers on recorded history, and spoke at length about the bias and propaganda behind historical “facts”.
A surprisingly large part of the conversation focused on author’s intentions,and Antoni asked of his audience why they write, what they hoped to achieve, and suggested means of motivating authors to produce the best of themselves. Most of his lecture notes are questions, provocations that I have since found challenging to answer. He used a particular phrase in describing his own literary works as “meditations on a theme” and ever since I left his discussion I have been pondering what my works are a meditation on. I think I have a good idea. At least I hope so!
Like every session I have attended so far at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, I have found it to be a wonderful, thought-provoking experience. Many thanks Antoni!
There are two kinds of creatives out there, at least from my experience: those who would keep their creative efforts under wraps, hidden from the world until their creation is perfect, and those who love to talk about their struggles while in the middle of try to bring their creations to life. Fortunately for this blog I’m one of the latter.
At the QWC/Orbit Program we talked a lot about author promotion and industry awareness, and one of the ideas I cottoned on to was the notion that aspiring authors should start that process now, long before they start hawking their manuscript. If you can generate interest in what you’re writing, agents and publishers will already have an awareness of what you’re doing when it comes time to sending out your manuscript. You might even be asked to send your manuscript in, which is a far better prospect that unsolicited submissions. Nothing beats an excellent manuscript of course, but if you have enough publishers interested in your work, then surely you’re in a better position to be published, right?
I made a few inquiries regarding yesterday’s VidLit discussion, and received a wonderfully quick response from Liz at VidLit.com. I asked about the viability of book trailers as a successful marketing tool for authors, and if they had any solid data about the effect book trailers have on sales.
This was her response:
It used to be we could track click-thoughs.Five years ago, when we started VidLit we kept all the VidLits on our site and could see when a user clicked to buy the book and see when they actually followed through and bought the book online. Now, that didn’t take into account any books that they bough in a brick and mortar store.We could see, at that time, that children’s books for example at a 50% click-though rate and most other books averaged 10%.There were notable exceptions like Yiddish with Dick and Janewhich had an exponential increases in sales.
Then came the birth of Youtube and its ilk. And we could no longer track sales directly because there is no click to buy. Everyone who marketed books in any way, took credit for increased sales and there was no way to prove otherwise.Marketing is about raising awareness.
We still believe that authors and publishers should see themselves as part of the entertainment business vying for the same entertainment dollars and time as television, movies, and music.Publishers used to sell only to people who identified themselves as “readers.”But there are people out there that just want a good story with emotional content or need interesting information. One of the best ways to embrace this idea is to exploit the digital rights and low barrier to distribution on the Internet. In short, tell a good story, get out to a wide audience, and leave them wanting more.
Thank you Liz for shedding light on the matter.
10% click through, followed by the author only getting 10% royalties. If the author’s footing the bill for a $5,000 book trailer for a book that retails at $20 you’d need 250,000 hits just to break even. Jeez… that’s tough!
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” — Elvis Costello. Or was it Woody Allen? Either way its a useful thought to kick off this discussion about book trailers, part of the new media revolution in which a visual trailer is used to promote literary creations.
I like trailers, and I like short animations. There is an art to distilling the essence of a film without giving away too much of the story. I have a background in illustration and storyboarding, and have done several animated previsual scenes to help market films to producers. They’re hard work, finnicky, time consuming, and a lot of fun to do; it slakes any desire I have to work in film. But yeah: if you don’t know what you’re doing, a book trailer can be quite expensive to make. I’ve heard prices in the region of $5,000 for a trailer less than a minute long. When you consider the knife edge existence that many authors lead, that can be a savage cut in profits. And does it guarantee sales? I hope to find out more on the matter.
The second issue raised by book trailers is that visual elements used will define a reader’s mental image. Simple case in point: can you read Lord of the Rings now without thinking of Viggo as Aragorn, or Elijah as Frodo? I can, but I really need to push past those immediate visual references that I have handy in my mind if I want to think of another incarnation of such iconic characters. Creators of book trailers need to be careful to evoke the mood and themes of the literary work, without hamstringing the reader’s visual associations by defining the look of each character. Who needs imagination when the word-image connections have already been set?
A good example of this is the trailer to The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt. I haven’t read the book, but here’s the trailer:
First up: it’s wonderfully illustrated. I love the style, but is it appropriate for the book? Personally I’d have to say no. It’s manga inspired, which doesn’t strike me as the right fit. It also jars somewhat with the style of the book cover — if this is the first release of the novel I want a solid identity, not a hotpotch of themes. The pacing is disjointed: a voice over or faster delivery of text would have helped solve this. And lastly, when I get round to reading this book (and I will) I will immediately associate the characters’ appearance with what I’ve seen here. As a reader I’ve been robbed of my opportunity to create my own mental associations with Stephen’s words, and that’s a shame, because when I do get round to reading it, his words will be diluted.
But perhaps most important of all — having seen the trailer will I now go out and purchase a copy? Yes — I must admit that I was already aware of the book, having been intrigued by the cover. But it wasn’t the visuals of the trailer that hooked me: it was the story.
So was it worth Mr. Hunt’s time and money to have produced this? I can’t say. Is VidLit a legitimate marketing exercise? I invite any and all authors who have experimented with the medium to comment on their experiences, any publishers and marketers with solid financial data to inform us, and anyone who’s decision to purchase a book was influenced by a book trailer to tell us how.
Check out VidLit for a huge collection of the buggers. As for me? I can’t wait to give them a go.
Actually it is a great read; the stand out article of the May 2008 Edition was Part Three of Ian Irvine’s series “The Truth About Publishing”. I look forward to traveling back in time far enough so that I can subscribe to Writing Queensland two months ago, just so I could read Parts One and Two.
Alternatively you can read the whole article online here, which is a slight pity because even though its a wonderful article the website is a bit hard on the eyes, and it would mean you wouldn’t subscribe to Writing Queensland. And that would be bad, because there’s a lot more good stuff in there that I won’t tell you about. And they’re nice people too.
The Sydney Writer’s Festival is kicking off next week. Flush with my new writing mission I feel obliged to attend. In typical fashion for a multi-venue program of 333 events, all the best ones take place pretty much at the same time on the same day, dammit. Oh to be gestalt.
While it’s impossible to give a completely accurate figure, the general consensus is that SF/fantasy accounts for somewhere between 5-10% of Australian book sales, and 10-15% of International book sales (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here, I’d love to know the real deal). But even so, at worst that’s 5% of the total market. 5% of 333 is roughly 16, so you’d think there would be something in the vicinity of 10 or more SF/fantasy events at the Sydney Writer’s Festival.
Why the complete disregard shown by the program organisers towards Sci-fi/Fantasy? Why shunt these events to the far corners of the city, out of the limelight? Nothing wrong with Blacktown and Penrith, but they’re not exactly central locations.
What makes it even stranger is the theme for the Sydney Writer’s Festival. I only just found the address from the Artistic Director while skimming the SWF website, and to be honest I can’t believe it’s the same festival:
“The idea of vision underpins the 2008 program. Australia has a new government; the US is in an election year; the immediacy of climate change continues to be impressed upon us: these are just some of the events preoccupying us at this point in time. It is a time of setting targets and goals, of looking backwards to see where we have been as we envision what lies ahead. Future imaginings; utopian dreamings; dystopian visions; fear of annihilation and the drive towards conservation; reconciliation and indigenous politics; an altered sense of personal and civic responsibility; mobilising and political activism; hope and optimism all feature strongly in the sessions.” Wendy Were Artistic Director and Chief Executive
Isn’t vision, imagination and conjecture the very heart and soul of speculative fiction? Judging by the above quote, Wendy certainly knows the SF/fantasy jargon; why then would she shun such fare when the festival’s themes are so at one with the genre?
I can only speculate.
Ranting aside, there are a number of discussions that sound aboslutely fascinating and I will be doing my best to attend a number of them. Top of the list for me is:
So, why this blog? I’ve just come back from what I will probably look back on as a life changing event: I was one of ten “emerging authors” selected for the Queensland Writer’s Centre/Orbit Manuscript Development competition. I managed to throw down a 99,000 word manuscript over three months, working down to the wire (many, many thanks to Vanessa for her loving support), and spent the last week in a series of critiques and lectures on the ins and outs of the publishing industry.
Under the auspices of QWC’s lovely Kate Eltham, ten rookie writers spent time in discussion with chief publisher Bernadette Foley and senior editor Dione Fiford of Hachette Livre’s Australian Orbit Imprint. Also offering their wisdom was author Marianne de Pierres of Parrish Pliess fame, Tara Wynne of Curtis Brown Literary Agency, and Ron Serdiuk of Pulp Fiction Press. Their insights and advice will (hopefully) prove invaluable to all us lucky Orbiteers:
Back row: Author Marianne de Pierres, Terence Hornby, Susan L Cullen, me, Graham Storrs, Joanne Clay, Jody-Ann Brocklebank
Front row: Fiona Sawyer, Janette Dalgliesh, QWC’s Kate Eltham, Joanne Anderton, Luke Keioskie
So what was it like?
Just fantastic. Five days in the presence of a wonderful bunch of creative kids, talking nothing but fantasy, horror, and sci fi. We had the chance to hear each other’s work, and to be held in the same regard as these guys does amazing things for your confidence as a writer. Everyone had a unique voice and concept, and were very inspiring. The industry guff was frank and informative (it’s a tough gig). Dedication, critical skills, vision, and industry presence are paramount (hence this blog). But I’ve returned to earth with my heart set on becoming a professional genre author and illustrator. I had so much fun slogging away at my manuscript. And I guess that’s where the real magic of the week is to be found: I feel as though my dreams are being transformed into reality.
Jeremy is an emerging speculative fiction writer and professional illustrator from Sydney, Australia. His first full length novel GRIMSHAW: The Binding Passage is Part One of a flintlock fantasy trilogy and was recently selected for the inaugural 
At least the little guy thinks so. 