TO MY DEAR FRIENDS AND LOYAL READERS 

My life has unexpectedly changed. I have just completed an emergency hospital stay of several weeks, and face months of intense and time-demanding therapy to overcome a life-threatening problem.  

As a result, I am forced to end the blog and Charlie’s Choice column that I so enjoyed writing every week. I have also been forced to cancel the scheduled March release of my newest book that introduces inexpensive, effective techniques to promote your writing at minimal cost. I have been instructed to end all related activity as well.  

My programmer will continue to develop the new website that we have begun, and I invite all of you to visit it when it is live. It will contain up to as many as 50 articles on varied aspects of writing, publishing and promoting your work. As I am able, I will add new relevant articles to this new site. 

I also invite all of you to sign up for my e-mail program. While I cannot continue to prepare and send out a new Charlie’s Choice column each week, as I have up until now, I will prepare articles as often as I am able, and send these out at no charge whatsoever. If you would like to join this free program, please send an e-mail to carosbooks@gmail.com. Include your first and last names and your e-mail address. No other info is needed, and all is protected securely. 

I do hope we can maintain some semblance of the fulfilling relationship we have had. I will miss your kind notes and comments. If I can ever be of assistance, you can always reach me through the Caros Books address.  

I wish each one of you good health and great success with your writing. Sadly, but gratefully, 

Charles Jacobs

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WAS MACMILLAN WISE TO DEMAND

HIGHER PRICES FOR ITS E-BOOKS? 

In the humble opinion of this writer, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has one of the keenest minds in the publishing world on issues related to marketing  and sales. And that, of course, includes pricing as well. He’s proved it time and again with the remarkable success Amazon has experienced. 

The executive team at Macmillan too can be proud of its long history of success with print books. But how well do they understand the digital marketplace, an arena in which Bezos shines? 

The real question in my opinion is whether short-term profits blurred  Macmillan’s long-range view when they used their “monopoly of content” to force the bookseller to agree to higher e-book prices. 

The Wall Street Journal stated the issue very simply, “It’s no doubt gratifying to publishers…to see Amazon affirm their (the publishers’ ) control over their own products. But it won’t help publishers if they raise prices so far they kill the burgeoning market for e-books.” And that is the fundamental problem. 

It is generally believed that consumers feel e-books should cost less than print because production, storage and shipping fees are so much less. That apparently is Jeff Bezos’ opinion as well. Macmillan’s CEO John Sargent argues that profit at Amazon will increase with the new pricing policy. What he doesn’t stop to consider is that it can only happen if sales remain strong, and as every retailer knows, rate of sale is directly dependent on pricing levels. Mr. Sargent is taking a helluva risk. 
 

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INDIE BOOKSELLERS TELL PUBLISHERS,

“DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR  FIELD SALES REPS” 

I certainly don’t want this edition to have a negative tone to it. But sometimes, it’s necessary to issue a wake-up call to alleged experts who make decisions  that actually make little sense. Once again, has short-term profit blocked an understanding of the way a decision can affect long-term success? 

Eileen Dengler, Executive Director of NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association), recently sent this open letter to publishers. Knowing the close rapport between all of the regional associations in the U.S., I suspect a similar piece will be issued by Dengler’s counterparts out west, down south, etc, pointing out the obvious mistake of eliminating field sales reps from the publishers’ sales divisions. 

Dengler, who is an impressive and aggressive thinker when it comes to protecting her indie bookseller flock, calls the move “draconian,” and gives sound justification for that accusation by pointing out to the publishers their key role field reps play. 

She explains out that telemarketing can never replace the in-store activities of field reps “who take the time to know our stores, what our customers like and what is on our shelves.” Dengler sees the reps as an invaluable source of sharing information and ideas between stores, resulting in greater sales, a benefit to the publisher. 

Leaving no stone unturned, this feisty letter offers several budget-cutting alternatives to reducing the field rep force. Dengler suggests cutting multiple ARC mailings, doing away with “promotional gimmicks that go from mailbox to garbage can, reducing the number of titles and hard covers and taking a hard look at celebrity advances.  

That’s not just a remedy for the field rep situation; it’s a package every author can readily support.  
 

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PRIZE ANNOUNCED FOR NEW NONFICTION COMPETITION:

A MONTH’S RESIDENCY AT NORMAN MAILER’S HOME 

How is this for an inspiration? GQ announced a nonfiction writing competition for students with a  very different prize, 1,000 British pounds plus a month of living at the Provincetown, MA home where Norman Mailer did much of his writing. Undergrads and post graduates at universities in the United Kingdom are eligible to apply. 

The derivation of the contest is rather interesting.  Mailer once stated, “If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.” 

Frankly, as a journalist for many years, I find that quotation offensive, but the GQ Editor Dylan Jones, said, the award was designed as an antidote to continual predictions about the state of print journalism, and added, “We at GQ believe, as do our friends at the Mailer Writers Colony that there will always be a need and a place for brilliant narrative nonfiction, whether that’s journalism, criticism or memoir.” 

Entries should range between 2000 and 4000 words and be sent to gqmaileraward@condenast.co.uk. Deadline is May 1 of this year.

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Charlie’s Choice

Weekly Tips to Help You Write,

Publish & Promote Your Work 

HEADING INSIDE: A LOOK AT

HOW A BOOK IS FORMATTED 

      In last week’s column, we looked at the goals and the skills needed to create a quality book cover: front, spine and back.  This week we’ll expand our understanding of book design by reaching inside to learn more about the goals of a good book designer and the techniques that he/she calls upon to make it happen.

      Neither publishers nor authors need become experts in design. There are always skilled professionals to carry out these chores. The role of the publisher and/or author is to be able to evaluate skillfully whether the design, either cover or interior, will boost or deter sales. Believe me, design does maintain a powerful influence over sales, as you will realize after reading this short column.

The Designer’s Dictionary

      One of the first requirements is to learn the jargon of the designer. As you know, many specialties have their own lexicon, and interior design does too, of course. Understanding these few key words and phrases will help you comprehend what the designer is saying as you discuss ways to improve your format.

BOOK BLOCK,  also known as Text Block, is the inclusive term for all matter that appears between the front and back cover.

FRONT MATTER represents all of the material that is printed in the front of the book between the front cover and the body or main text of the book.

THE BODY This is the central and most important segment of the book. For fiction, it is the story; in the case of nonfiction, it is the narrative. Whether the book is a how-to, a history, a true crime or a scholarly work, the body carries all of the information the author seeks to pass on to the reader.

BACK OF THE BOOK Any material that is added after the main body of the book is considered part of this category. That includes  things like an index, appendix, special notes, references, etc.

FONT This term refers to a complete set of type of a single size and face (style).

SERIF Serif fonts like Times Roman feature decorative enhancements on their vertical lines; sans serif fonts like Arial have none. It is generally thought that serif type is a bit easier to read, particularly because the little footers lead the eye from one word to the next.

MARGINS While I am sure you know this term from all the way back in your grammar school classes, I add it here because it takes on a special significance when used in a discussion of book design. Books usually present a great deal of type. That, of course, is what a book is all about…a document to be read. It is important to offer the reader the opportunity to take a quick break and rest his/her eyeballs. In addition, it opens up the page, lessening the overwhelming impact of a solid, heavy copy mass.

JUSTIFY This represents an action to adjust the spacing of a line of type so that all the lines end evenly forming a straight margin.

RAGGED RIGHT OR LEFT  In these cases, no effort is made to justify the type. That is why you find in most cases, varying lengths of lines as the typographer attempts to end a line with a complete word. Many literary agents insist upon raged right composition, claiming it is far easier to read than justified copy. As a result, it has become the most common formatting in our industry.

LEADING This term refers to the vertical spacing between lines…the varying amount of white space the typographer may choose to use in his/her layout. Obviously, a greater amount of leading will help each line to stand out in a large block of type. But there are specific ratios that are the most effective based on type size and type design. There is often the concern that the “tail’” or type on a higher line might clash with the height of the type used on the succeeding line.

TRIM SIZE This is the finished size of the page. The most common trims are 5.5 X 8.5  and 6 X 9. I have used both sizes for my books, depending on which I felt was most appropriate. Wherever possible, it’s a good idea to keep your trim sizes uniform so that they will all fit well into a single size shipping carton.  It is also important to remember that in the case of many book covers, the background color goes all the way to the edge of the page. Therefore  you must allow in the neighborhood of ¼ inch for what we call Bleed. Your printer can give you exact specs for the bleed required.

SIGNATURES Multiple pages of a book are printed at the same time. I know this is a confusing concept, but you may grasp it if you take a piece of paper and fold it in half four times. That will give you 16 sections on each side. A standard sheet-fed press will print 32 pages at one time, 16 on the top of the sheet and 16 on the bottom. The backs and fronts must be carefully matched before running the press. On a web press, the number printed at one time is 48.

Additional Considerations

      Here are a few thoughts that may help you in evaluating the format your designer presents.

      Reading newspapers, as so many hundreds of thousands did regularly, accustomed our eyes to a very narrow column, much shorter than the average column of type in a book. Of course, that would mean a huge waste of space in a book, and force the price sky-high because of the large number of pages you would need.

      So the gurus of the industry set parameters based on a great deal of “eye-to-page” study. These figures are affected by many variables such as the vocabulary the author uses and what he/she is writing about. The standard that is generally set is about 60-65 letters per line, so you can see how the subject matter (long scientific words, for example) and an erudite author’s mode of polysyllabic expression can affect that finding.

      In contrast to the way potential readers see the cover copy, the interior of a book is generally studied  from a distance of between one and two feet away. Bear this in mind when you analyze the type used by your designer, for sometimes designers can be carried away by an artistic consideration, and hand you a format that really isn’t ideal for reading.

      I have searched Amazon for several decent books on interior formatting, but came up relatively empty handed. Most pertained to Kindle or were promos for individual designers. I was lucky enough to find The Non-Designer’s Design Book on B&N.com in an updated version released in February, 2008, and tracked it down on Amazon as well. The original edition has been around for years. These are both 5-star books by the highly respected Robin Williams.

      At a recent meeting of a well known writers’ organization, I overheard a tense discussion of writer’s block that made me bristle. So next week, we’ll turn our attention to writer’s block and a number of other ridiculous myths that have been associated with our profession. See you then.

      Keep Writing!

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NATIONAL ENQUIRER OPENS A

PANDORA’S BOX AT THE PULITZER PRIZES 

You  may laugh when hearing that the National Enquirer, the scandal sheet found in grocery stores throughout the country, has submitted its application for a Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s most revered award. Word has it that their action has shaken some timbers at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, where the prize office is based. 

Yes, much of their coverage is an anathema to any self-respecting journalist. Doctored photos, biased and inaccurate stories, even blatant lies, almost too preposterous to believe. 

But this time they beat the national press at its own game, covering a top candidate for the Presidential nomination, John Edwards. And the only thing trashy about that exclusive newsbeat was the man they wrote about and what he did. 

The Enquirer broke the news of Rielle Hunter’s pregnancy and worse yet, the use of campaign donations as hush money.  Smelling a story in a small comment by the Huffington Post, the tabloid’s “bird dogs” went to work and within a month had confirmed publicly what the Huffington article first sensed, but apparently feared to state.  

As painful as it may be in the pristine halls of the Journalism School, one has to “give the devil his due” if the awards are to continue to have real meaning. Top notch digging and reporting of a disgrace at such a high level in our political structure deserves recognition.

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NATIONAL ENQUIRER OPENS A

PANDORA’S BOX AT THE PULITZER PRIZES 

You  may laugh when hearing that the National Enquirer, the scandal sheet found in grocery stores throughout the country, has submitted its application for a Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s most revered award. Word has it that their action has shaken some timbers at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, where the prize office is based. 

Yes, much of their coverage is an anathema to any self-respecting journalist. Doctored photos, biased and inaccurate stories, even blatant lies, almost too preposterous to believe. 

But this time they beat the national press at its own game, covering a top candidate for the Presidential nomination, John Edwards. And the only thing trashy about that exclusive newsbeat was the man they wrote about and what he did. 

The Enquirer broke the news of Rielle Hunter’s pregnancy and worse yet, the use of campaign donations as hush money.  Smelling a story in a small comment by the Huffington Post, the tabloid’s “bird dogs” went to work and within a month had confirmed publicly what the Huffington article first sensed, but apparently feared to state.  

As painful as it may be in the pristine halls of the Journalism School, one has to “give the devil his due” if the awards are to continue to have real meaning. Top notch digging and reporting of a disgrace at such a high level in our political structure deserves recognition.

Technorati Profile

WAS MACMILLAN WISE TO DEMAND

HIGHER PRICES FOR ITS E-BOOKS? 

In the humble opinion of this writer, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has one of the keenest minds in the publishing world on issues related to marketing  and sales. And that, of course, includes pricing as well. He’s proved it time and again with the remarkable success Amazon has experienced. 

The executive team at Macmillan too can be proud of its long history of success with print books. But how well do they understand the digital marketplace, an arena in which Bezos shines? 

The real question in my opinion is whether short-term profits blurred  Macmillan’s long-range view when they used their “monopoly of content” to force the bookseller to agree to higher e-book prices. 

The Wall Street Journal stated the issue very simply, “It’s no doubt gratifying to publishers…to see Amazon affirm their (the publishers’ ) control over their own products. But it won’t help publishers if they raise prices so far they kill the burgeoning market for e-books.” And that is the fundamental problem. 

It is generally believed that consumers feel e-books should cost less than print because production, storage and shipping fees are so much less. That apparently is Jeff Bezos’ opinion as well. Macmillan’s CEO John Sargent argues that profit at Amazon will increase with the new pricing policy. What he doesn’t stop to consider is that it can only happen if sales remain strong, and as every retailer knows, rate of sale is directly dependent on pricing levels. Mr. Sargent is taking a helluva risk. 
 

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INDIE BOOKSELLERS TELL PUBLISHERS,

“DON’T TAKE AWAY OUR  FIELD SALES REPS” 

I certainly don’t want this edition to have a negative tone to it. But sometimes, it’s necessary to issue a wake-up call to alleged experts who make decisions  that actually make little sense. Once again, has short-term profit blocked an understanding of the way a decision can affect long-term success? 

Eileen Dengler, Executive Director of NAIBA (New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association), recently sent this open letter to publishers. Knowing the close rapport between all of the regional associations in the U.S., I suspect a similar piece will be issued by Dengler’s counterparts out west, down south, etc, pointing out the obvious mistake of eliminating field sales reps from the publishers’ sales divisions. 

Dengler, who is an impressive and aggressive thinker when it comes to protecting her indie bookseller flock, calls the move “draconian,” and gives sound justification for that accusation by pointing out to the publishers their key role field reps play. 

She explains out that telemarketing can never replace the in-store activities of field reps “who take the time to know our stores, what our customers like and what is on our shelves.” Dengler sees the reps as an invaluable source of sharing information and ideas between stores, resulting in greater sales, a benefit to the publisher. 

Leaving no stone unturned, this feisty letter offers several budget-cutting alternatives to reducing the field rep force. Dengler suggests cutting multiple ARC mailings, doing away with “promotional gimmicks that go from mailbox to garbage can, reducing the number of titles and hard covers and taking a hard look at celebrity advances.  

That’s not just a remedy for the field rep situation; it’s a package every author can readily support.  
 

Technorati Profile

PRIZE ANNOUNCED FOR NEW NONFICTION COMPETITION:

A MONTH’S RESIDENCY AT NORMAN MAILER’S HOME 

How is this for an inspiration? GQ announced a nonfiction writing competition for students with a  very different prize, 1,000 British pounds plus a month of living at the Provincetown, MA home where Norman Mailer did much of his writing. Undergrads and post graduates at universities in the United Kingdom are eligible to apply. 

The derivation of the contest is rather interesting.  Mailer once stated, “If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.” 

Frankly, as a journalist for many years, I find that quotation offensive, but the GQ Editor Dylan Jones, said, the award was designed as an antidote to continual predictions about the state of print journalism, and added, “We at GQ believe, as do our friends at the Mailer Writers Colony that there will always be a need and a place for brilliant narrative nonfiction, whether that’s journalism, criticism or memoir.” 

Entries should range between 2000 and 4000 words and be sent to gqmaileraward@condenast.co.uk. Deadline is May 1 of this year.

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