Is it possible to write a well-crafted, complex, meaningful literary novel that’s also a page-turner and commercial success—even a blockbuster? James Joyce Scholar, Susan Sutliff Brown thinks so.

We met Brown at the San Miguel Writers Conference last February, where she presented to a standing room only crowd her approach to transcending the polarity between literary and commercial fiction.

In Brown’s most popular workshop, James Joyce Meets Judith Krantz, writers are challenged to create a fresh new genre—the literary blockbuster—which merges the goals and devices of serious fiction with those that keep readers up all night.

Speaking later, we agreed that a literary contest aimed at bridging the long-standing divide between these two literary worlds would be a fascinating experiment. Thus, Inkubate’s 2012 Literary Blockbuster Challenge was born.

Brown remains motivated by a key development—the discovery of the blockbuster formula in James W. Hall’s new release: Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the twentieth Century’s Biggest Bestsellers.

Brown explains:

“Creative writing professor James W. Hall has discovered and published the formula common to mega-blockbusters. In a study of bestsellers from Peyton Place, Gone with the Wind, and To Kill a Mockingbird, to Valley of the Dolls, The Godfather, Jaws, and The Da Vinci Code, Hall has identified twelve ingredients common to these strikingly different bestsellers.”

Without compromising content or style, Brown encourages writers to add Hall’s blockbuster “code” to their unpublished literary manuscript. “They’ll want to read Hall’s book, of course, but they’ll also see references to his code in Parts II and III of the PDF guide I created to help writers transform their manuscripts into marketable works of fiction.”

Are you the writer who will bridge the long-standing gap and write something philosophically meaningful that readers will want to take to the beach? If so, “a literary blockbuster is within reach and there are a number of ways to begin,” says Brown.

• Dust off that beautifully written literary novel you haven’t sold and add the ingredients that make it a page-turner.
• Confront the hero of your whodunit with an emotional abyss that causes a character change even as the mystery is resolved.
• Write an entirely new novel that combines the formulas of literary and commercial fiction.

Ready to get started? Need a skilled literary coach? Dive into Susan Brown’s Blockbuster Guide.

And feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues!

You can hear Brown speak in person at the 2013 San Miguel Writers Conference. While there, you can also savor the expertise of many other Inkubate friends, including Ray Bradbury’s goddaughter and presenter, Elizabeth Eve King, award-winning Children’s book author, Dianna Hutts Aston, PEN Mexico's President and contest judge, Jennnifer Clement, and every writer’s favorite literary agent, Oakland-based Andy Ross. You may want to contact Andy now to set up a manuscript review during the San Miguel Writers Conference.

Our Founder and Principal of Publisher Relations, Jay Gale, shares his current views on the rapidly evolving publishing industry.

After speaking with many publishers, Inkubate has learned that they are kept up at night worrying about the rapidly shrinking retail marketplace, and though this is good news for the makers of Lunesta, it portends an industry in turmoil.

Inkubate agrees that this marketplace is contracting rapidly and that securing access to markets is fundamentally necessary for traditional publishers to survive; but, securing access to a marketplace when you have little or no product to sell is a waste of time and effort.

The publishing world is in rapid transition and while Amazon is using innovation and proactive ways to directly connect with writers, and in so doing dis-intermediating publishers and agents, traditional publishers seem content to execute discovery like they always have—passively—e.g., waiting for writers or agents to query them. And, while this continues to work for the time being, it is unlikely that five years from now these same publishers will effectively be able to compete in a publishing industry whose evolution is being driven by technology.

Inkubate levels the playing field by providing publishers with the same kind of direct access to writers that Amazon has built for itself through its self-publishing models. But Inkubate does more—it ups the ante—by leveraging the one thing that publishers have in their favor that Amazon still has to achieve: imprint brand value. Publishers who do not seize the opportunity to leverage their brand values in the only place that it really matters—with the writer community—are missing the best opportunity that they have to secure primary access to new and undiscovered writers, and this, of course, is fundamental to the long-term survival of any publishing house.

By taking care of that part of their business, publishers can then begin to build new ways to access retail markets, either through leveraging the quality of their content in their negotiations with third party retailers or by delivering that content themselves; in either case, it starts with sourcing the most compelling works by the best authors.

-Jay D. Gale, Principal & Co-Founder

jdgale@inkubate.com

603-491-1168

In his August 31^st GigaOM article, “Amazon Continues on its Mission to Disintermediate Publishers,” award-winning journalist, Mathew Ingram, writes about the many steps Amazon has taken recently to cut publishers out of the market and to build relationships directly with authors. Nathan Bransford picked up on Ingram’s piece last week, describing Amazon as the force that is “disrupting the traditional publisher’s place in the reading ecosystem.” Has one goliath book distributor and now book publisher changed the literary landscape forever?   

Perhaps.

But Inkubate’s diverse inventory of new and established writers’ works offers insulation against the onslaught of Amazon. How? Inkubate transforms the proverbial paper “slush pile” into a valuable, searchable literary resource and provides traditional publishers with inventory and content management for their eBook revenue models.

Over the past year, we’ve had sit downs with the executive teams of two major and well-known publishing titans. They believe that re-engaging writers in a proactive manuscript submission process will attract talented writers who have longed for a traditional career path, but because of industry-imposed roadblocks, have pursued alternate, less resistant publication models.

In 2010, the trade industry generated approximately $30 billion in revenue by publishing approximately 250,000 new trade book titles, 750,000 new eBook titles and an ever-changing catalogue of books still in print. Compare this to 2007, when approximately 250,000 trade books were published and the number of eBooks published was insignificant. The rapid evolution of online technology is redefining what it means to be a writer, publisher, agent and retailer of books.

The migration of authors to self publishing models and the rapid expansion and proliferation of eBooks and eReaders means that traditional publishers who modernize now will reap the rewards that will come from a level playing field, one where writers know that after many decades in the dark, they now have a shot at being seen by mainstream publishers.

Whether traditional publishers are looking for content to drive their trade or educational divisions or to fill the growing demand for quality eBooks, they’ll have to do so in a way that preserves their price point. Being the first to discover the best new writing by up and coming authors is one sure way to build brand value. And, Inkubate’s content is the engine that can drive that process. At its core, Inkubate is a powerful relational database and search engine that enables publishers to search, browse and “Discover” exactly what they are looking for, easily and efficiently.

Mathew Ingram of GigaOM

Getting a traditional book deal with a major publisher has always been, and continues to be, the Holy Grail of a writing career. Nothing about the emergence of e-books has changed this and the numbers prove it. For example, Amanda Hocking, one of the most successful e-book writers of all time, recently commented on her blog:

“Traditional publishing and indie publishing aren’t all that different, and I don’t think that people realize that. Some books and authors are best sellers, but most aren’t. It may be easier to self-publish than it is to traditionally publish, but in all honesty, it’s harder to be a best seller self-publishing than it is with a house.”

There are reasons why traditional publishing continues to be the preferred route of aspiring AND established writers, like the often overwhelming amount of work a writer is required to do to self-promote, which takes them away from the joys of writing. Amanda Hocking’s fans recently learned that she hardly has time to write anymore: “I don’t think people grasp how much work I do…the amount of time and energy I put into marketing is exhausting.” Financial compensation from e-books, even for Amanda Hocking, is slim when compared to what a popular, traditional book would generate in writer revenues, and as Amazon continues to refine its increasingly self-serving royalty terms, it’s clear that the vast majority of writers will not be able to earn sustaining incomes.

Fortunately, traditional publishers are no longer spinning their wheels. They are beginning to realize that if Amazon’s goal of seeing every book sold as an e-book is attained, several negative things will happen:

Access to bold new writing will be limited due to a smaller pool of intellectual property and the free exchange of ideas will suffer.

Access to quality new work will decline as books are condensed and over-simplified and this “dumbing-down” of the intellectual body of work available to consumers will exacerbate already declining U.S. literacy levels. 

Finally, the $30 billion dollar trade publishing industry will evaporate and an important American economic engine will stall; career paths will change, and like the railroads before, traditional publishers will find little demand for their value added and premium products.

So, in response to these concerns, visionary traditional publishers know they need to reinvent themselves by transitioning to increasingly organized, collaborative publisher “Discovery” models that preserve their connection with writers, who remain their primary resource. 

And, as traditional publishers transition, writers in search of a book deal were reminded that the Holy Grail for writers is still worth pursuing in a March 22, 2011 Los Angeles Times piece by Carolyn Kellogg, which spotlighted the value of legacy publishers for writers: “Maybe traditional publishing has another role: providing a kind editor to talk writers off the ledge. It’s OK to go to sleep. It’s OK to let someone else answer those emails. It’s OK to get back to writing, and if you decide to step away from the laptop, that’s OK too. You’re not going to die.” INKUBATE thinks she’s right!

Yesterday, Nathan Bransford asked readers what they believe may be causing the shift in perception regarding the appropriate price for e-books. Below, Jay Gale pens INKUBATE'S response:

We think that the perceived value of e-books will continue to decline because the purchasing public, by and large, has no idea what the component costs are in publishing a book. The printing, distribution and inventorying of a traditional hard cover book represents only about 6-8 percent or so of its selling price, so if you make the argument that the only difference between a hard cover and an e-book is that the manufacturer doesn’t have to incur the costs of the paper, the printing, and shipping, then an e-book should cost approximately 6-8 percent less than a traditional book. In reality, most of the costs associated with publishing a book are wrapped up in the acquisition of the intellectual property, the cost of editing and refining that work prior to publication, the marketing and, finally, a reasonable profit margin.

The point is that it is no less expensive to acquire, edit, and properly market an e-book than a traditional hard cover book. Herein is the rub: Most consumers will likely never understand that simply removing the paper has such a little impact on the selling price, so the perceived value of e-books will likely continue to erode, as consumers wrongly surmise that with the elimination of all these manufacturing costs, publishers can drastically lower their selling prices.

The solution for the publishing industry is to not pander to this invalid perception.  This can only be successfully accomplished, however, if the marketplace remains richly textured with many houses competing for the very best works and access to the very best writers. If competition disappears from the marketplace, writers will see their value drastically decreasing and commoditized and the prophecy of low cost e-books will be self-fulfilled. Prices will ultimately fall to such low levels that writers’ careers will not provide enough income to support full-time employment, except for a very select few. Just look at the music industry to understand the problem.

This perception of declining value is either a situation that the publishing industry is willing to accept or they need to take steps to support their pricing structures. This is largely a matter of education and reestablishing individual imprint brand value to the reading public at large. One solution is for publishers and individual imprints to aggressively and proactively reengage with the writer community that they have spent the last twenty years alienating. By making their brands valuable again to those writers, readers will come to understand that all things are unequal, that there is a general quality difference between books published by Random House or Penguin—even as e-books— vs. those obtained through a self-published supply chain.

Writers acting in their own best interests should know that the panacea of going straight to publish is a bit like the lure of "Pleasure Island" in the story of Pinocchio. In the short term there is the lure of instant gratification, but with the next dawn comes the bill, which is the demise of traditional publishing companies, the breakdown of any substantial competitive publishing models and the not so figurative enslavement of the writer community and the rapid devaluation of their combined output. Today, trade publishing represents a 30 billion dollar per year industry. On the morning after, it could easily see its value halved. We will all look like and feel like A##es..."Donkeys" if that happens.  

We are delighted to find so many new and published writers signing on to Inkubate to create their Writer Profiles and upload their works! One early adopter of Inkubate is Peggy Bedingfield, a published author (“In the Arms of the Father”), a journalist, a former Air Force weather analyst, and a dog-groomer!

Bedingfield lives in East Texas and several days ago she was browsing the Half-Priced Books store in Rockwall. She asked the seller if there were any new books on writing and the computer search returned Áine Greaney’s latest release, “Writer with a Day Job" (cover jacket seen below). As noted in our last post, Jay Gale, Inkubate’s Co-Founder & Principal of Publisher Relations met Greaney last Friday at her book launch in Ipswich, MA!

Bedingfield described how she devoured Greaney’s guide in two days and laughed out loud over the author’s recollections of “writer’s block regularly leading to an incessant desire for chocolate Sundays” and the fact that “writers continually talk to themselves when writing, causing others to conclude they are insane.” Bedingfield rates Greaney’s guide 5 stars and hopes other writers enjoy it too.

Our next post will include answers to the questions we received from writers this weekend. In the meantime, feel free to contact us with additional questions, as they arise.

Thanks for posting!

Stacy Clark: stacy@inkubate.com

Jay Gale: jdgale@inkubate.com