Official Website: www.thenextgenerationwriters.org
T-Shirts Now Available...(More designs to follow).... Lil' Man Revolution Tee - $20.00
COLOR
SIZE
Who Am I?
I'm Psychological Thriller/Horror Author Kristy Tallman - I'm on a mission and I need your help. I've founded the Next Generation Writers with one thing in mind; change. What needs changing you might ask? Pull up a chair and let’s chat. The publishing industry over the last decade has seen some remarkable technology based movements that have allowed the common Joe to escape the long drawn out processes of waiting on a mainstream publishing company to publish their books. Meanwhile, in the burst of change a surge of books have hit the market from Small Press Publishers to Self Published Authors, but with a cost. With change comes flaws, flaws that have tarnished what could be a very positive feat for the publishing industry. Many will digress and state that everyone should stand in line and wait to be published like the rest of the authors – pay their dues so to say. Well, I assure you the SPP’s and the SPA’s are paying high dues to be considered “acceptable†to the industry standards. Many SPP’s set out with a great plan and soon learn the industry itself is a harsh and brutal force to reckon with. They make mistakes that oftentimes cause their authors to suffer right along beside them. Why? There are several reasons; lack of knowledge, lack of money and of course the awareness of the vicious force of power the mainstream publishers hold in the industry. To the SPA, it seems like a dream when they finish that first book and set out to get it published and the first one that jumps on them is a Vanity Press. They start by telling them how wonderful their work is and of course they will publish them. Sadly, they will publish anyone for a cost. Your 2 year old daughter could become a published author if you pay what they tell you. That’s mistake number one. But it gets worse, some SPA’s get smart and they work toward doing their own publishing. That’s cool; however, what ends up happening is in the mad dash rush to get their books out they forget or can’t afford the most vital aspect needed to make their books work for them. What’s that? Editing. Good old professional editing. Now mind you when I post on my pages I don’t have an editor standing over my shoulder to check my work, no they are tucked away snuggly in their beds of dollar bills and enjoying life with their red pens in hand. No, by no means am I disrespecting what they do, I am stating they are too expensive for many SPP’s and SPA’s to even come close to affording. Why, you might wonder do they charge so much? Because they can for what they deem their talents they learned through attendance to this or that University and their years of experience etc. Well, many authors went to the same schools as these editors have and many of them possess the same talents that the editors have, except when they write. This is due to the fact they are inside the box and are suffering tunnel vision. I can’t edit my own work but I have enough sense to be able to read a book and find mistakes and edit the hell out of it with my red pen so long as I’m perusing another’s work. I learned how to do that when I was teaching and when I was an Associate Editor at our local News Paper. No – it wasn’t a big paper – the budget was small but what mattered was the quality of the print to the readers so I don’t try to pretend I was working for the NY Times or anything near its capacity. When we look at what has happened across the decade of change we find a stigma has grown like a cancer towards the SPP and the SPA simply because they haven’t leaped into the business correctly. That is why I have founded the NGW – it’s time to kill the cancer and change the way books are presented so that when they are presented they are taken seriously and without malice. If we can join together our talents and our efforts we can create change. We can help SPP’s and SPA’s be taken seriously and acknowledged as something more than “smut workâ€. Yes that’s one of the many names our work is called. My goals for the NGW are to create a large web of industry related businesses and authors who work together to make the evolution of the changing times grow with a positive light. There’s repair that needs to be done but if enough books go out there breaking down the stigma one book at a time we can become a highly competitive force against the mainstream publishers and a highly respected force at that. People who read – how can you help? Well first, let me ask you, do you like the fact that your selection of reading is chosen by the mainstream industry which leaves out the over 70K SPP’s that exist and the genre’s they don’t see as “hot†based on a bias selling trend? Do you like the fact that when you stumble upon an SPP or SP author whose work you like you can never go into a store and buy their books? Do you ever wonder why they aren’t on the shelves? Well I promise you this is another aspect of the industry we seek to find change in and your membership shows a voice of reason to the industry more than any of our voices. Why because you are the consumer and what you want – well you know the slogan, “The consumer is always right.†It is my belief that with the NGW we can join together and unscramble the mess that was made by the forerunners of this newly emergent world of books. Just as with any nation, any era in time, be it the technology era or another, there has been flaws; flaws that are ironed out by the ones who come behind the fathers of invention and revolutionize the changes. They press on until the transformation becomes accepted and embraced because they forgot about the days when the flaws existed. I am ready to press on; banish the stigma one book at a time through the help of an organization that seeks to work toward the future of reading and writing. WHO AM I?
Horror Author Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc
I am a best selling, two time award winning author of Horror Sinisteria. A maverick and outlaw author who has forged her own way in the world of the published, she unapologetically is proud of how she got her start...as a self published author via Lulu.com...and the contracts with small presses and fame she has received because of it.
Visit her at Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc's Official Website.
Who Are We? Authors on the Rise is a proud member and sponsor for The Next Generation Writers. For authors and small press publisher members we offer discounts on all of our pricing to assist you in gaining the recognition you need. We know the importance of marketing and having a publicist on your side when you already are fighting a very political industry and we want to pass this on to you as a part of your membership with The Next Generation Writers.
Stop by and visit our websites:
Authors on the Rise
Authors on the Rise Book Reviews Who Am I?
A Fan Member - Dave Dunbar
I had a very real wake up call today when I walked into a B&N store. I went looking for your books along with a few others who have contacted me recently. I could not believe they had never heard of you or the other authors. I talked with a few friends about the situation. It truly is sad for the world that this is occurring. Your latest blog literally took the words right out of my mouth! How many other authors are there who are getting the same treatment and possibly do not know this movement exists? How many have given up? That's a very scary thought. I have a friend who owns a small, very small, publishing company. I sent him the info for this site and I truly hope he joins the movement. Thank you again for the fans of novels as a whole. This is truly a service to everyone, not just the authors. The fans have a right to know what is written and walk into any bookstore to find them. Things need to change and this is definitely the beginning. Again I offer my support in whatever way I can help. I've joined/donated money to the cause and am getting others involved. Well, at least trying to do so. Thanks again.~Wolfie/Dave Dunbar
Some Interesting Quotes/Facts....Are you ready to break the stigmas and start a revolution?
New York agent Lucienne Diver, of Spectrum Literary Agency: "I know that some people turn to POD for instant gratification because they don't have to go through the long, involved process. If you're writing for your own satisfaction and seeing a bound book is enough, it's one thing. But if you're a writer who wants to have your voice heard, then the best way to do that is through a publishing house that has distribution, a publicity department and people who can create a buzz for your work." One challenge is to get reviewers to look at your book. Jeff Zaleski, Forecasts editor at Publishers Weekly, says, "We're open to reviewing POD books with one very serious proviso. It's simply that there's got to be a compelling reason for us to review any book that comes into our office. If some new writer writes a novel as a POD book and sends it to us, we're not going to review it. We don't have room in the magazine or the facilities to review every book that comes to us. So we need some kind of filter on the book-maybe a reputable agent sends it or the writer has serious previous credits. Given that, we've reviewed two or three POD books in the last few months. We're not closing the door on POD, but we do have stringent requirements." There are an estimated 70,000 publishers in the country today publishing books in a wide range of genres, many of these are considered to be small press publishers. Lightning is owned by Ingram. Inclusion in the Ingram database makes your book available in many wholesale and retail outlets like Amazon and BN.com.. You can tell if a book has been printed by Lightning by the oddly placed barcode on the last page of the book. Ingram has now closed it's back door for Small Publishing houses to get their titles listed. Without going through their sister company Lightning Source or other contracted POD companies the once open door has closed to Small Publishers...Now you could pay nearly 1K per title for your books to be listed or warehoused but there are grand stipulations that will inevitably leave you feeling like it's useless... Booksellers don't like dealing with POD services. In order to sell books in significant numbers, you need bricks-and-mortar bookstore placement. Don't believe the hype about the power of the Internet: only around 10% of all new books are bought online. Bookstores are still where most people do their bookbuying.
If stores won't stock the books, they should at least be willing to order them. But booksellers' policies on this vary. Some will order any book you ask for. Others are selective--Barnes & Noble, for instance, which owns a minority stake in fee-based POD iUniverse, at one point would only order iUniverse books--and some booksellers refuse to carry books from POD services in their computer systems at all. To make things worse, complicated ordering protocols from wholesalers like Ingram means that books may show up as out-of-stock. Some POD services have taken steps to deal with this, but others have not.
Nonmainstream presses generated $14 billion in 2005 -- more than half of all book sales!!!
Without the marketing muscle or resources of the large houses, small publishers have innovated in order to successfully bring their authors to market. For one, they have created alliances with like-minded independent bookstores with fiercely loyal customers. Small houses also defray costs by publishing their book catalogs online and publicizing new releases and author events through e-mail blasts and blogs.
More coming soon...