3WW/Dailyprompt Story: Reunion

Mar23

Three Word Wednesday is a once-weekly 3-word writing prompt.

This week’s three words were Dual, Identical, Volley.

[community profile] dailyprompt is a once-daily writing prompt. Today’s prompt was not a secret any more

Reunion

It’s not a secret anymore, so I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you the whole story. They can’t reclassify stuff, spilt milk and all that, but sometimes they try to contain the mess or mop it up, so if they come after you for me telling you this, well, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Still want to know? Okay. I’m not Karla Velazquez. I’m not even Hispanic, no, not even on my father’s mother’s father’s side. I’m, man, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten, but I think mostly Greek, with a good dose of French thrown in for good measure.

I couldn’t tell you what my real name was, even if I wanted to. I went so far beyond dual identities that I lost track back before I entered college – although I know, that freshman year, I was not seventeen. I think I was twenty-four.

What? I don’t look thirty-five now, either. I’m small and I hide my age well, what can I say?

I mean, that’s only part of the story. I was in deep cover in college, which, I’ll admit, is weird. But They had their goals – you have to have heard some of it, even if only on the Daily Show – and they’d already owned me for six years, so I went where I was sent and I did what I was told.

The day I managed to buy my contract back was the happiest day of my life. Our lives, our contracts.

What? You didn’t expect this was going to be a one-volley game, did you? I told you it was complicated.

I’m not only not Karla Velazquez, about a third of the time you were talking to Karla, you weren’t talking to me, either.

They spit out five of us, as far as I know, that year. Identical clones, quintuplets I suppose, and we were raised together and everything, so we were pretty much sisters. We split roles between us, usually only two of us on a role, so it was sister-Beta and I being Karla, Beta covering for me while I was also being, oh, man, usually Jennifer Torqueta, I think. Yeah, that Jennifer Torqueta, I know, you always said she looked like me.

Why? Damned if I know. We’re just the grunts. Like I said, we go where we’re sent. Anyway, I wanted to tell you about buying off our contracts.

That’s the dream they sold us. We were bought and paid for before we were ever implanted, but if we did a good job, we could earn enough money to be free agents. Pick a life and live it, just one life, one face, you know, normal people. Well, as normal as you can be when you’re a clone.

I thought it would work, more than that, I thought it’s what I wanted, what all five of us wanted. So we saved our pennies and we did everything we were told, and when we turned thirty-three, we bought off our contracts.

Problem was, we’d gotten used to it, you know? The money, the personas, changing who we were, sharing identities between us. Even in school, we’d traded places all the time. Being pinned down to day jobs that didn’t change, to one name each… it was maddening. We went back to Them.

You asked why we were in deep cover in college. I think you know why, Tammy.

But I lied a little bit about that, too. Gamma was the one who roomed with you most the time, and she and Beta kind of liked you. So this one’s on me – and I’ve never been Karla Velazquez.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/27232.html. You can comment here or there.

Getting Your Self Published Book in a Library Part Two: Donating Your Book to a Library

Mar23

This is the third in a series of posts by Eseme. The Intro; Part One

Getting Your Self Published Book in a Library Part Two
Donating Your Book to a Library

Thanks for reading Part One, and thanks for coming back. I will warn you now, this is REALLY long. Sorry, but there is a lot of stuff here.

When we left of, I was saying that it is hard to get a library to buy your book. But there is another way to get your book into a library: donate your book to the library.

This is in some ways easier. The library doesn’t have to buy your book. They don’t have to justify it on their budget. This makes it much easier for the library, which makes it more likely to succeed. However, I will admit that this is clearly not easier for you, the author. You have to get a physical copy of your book, which means that you need to pay for it. And then give it away. So this is not for everyone. However, I would consider it marketing expense, the same way that getting review copies to reviewers (either at a local paper or a book blog) is a marketing expense. Your intent is to find new readers. So plan this the way you would any other advertising. Start local, with your local library. Maybe visit a library in a larger town nearby. Find out if your state library has a fiction collection of in-state authors. I know that the state library in Maine tries to get copies of books written by state residents (though I do not know if they consider
self-published books).

And that brings me to the first problem with donating a book to a library. The library does not have to add it to the collection. Many libraries simply put all donations into their book sale. Some libraries pull only the books that are current, popular, and in good condition for their collection. Libraries also may apply their regular Acquisition Policies to donated books (if they would not buy it, they don’t take it as a donation). This varies library to library.

And I will also admit that some librarians simply don’t like self-published books. Like bookstore owners, librarians have seen a lot of self-published books, and have likely seen the wide range in quality. I know I have. Yes, we know about vanity presses like Publish America. Libraries are a lot less likely to take a book from the Publish America’s out there, but I’m assuming you know about those scams. If not, visit Writer Beware or Absolute Write’s forums. You can google them.

While a lot of more recent self-published books are vastly improved, the stereotypes you are battling have had time to form at libraries. At least one library I have worked for would not take donations of self-published books (they went right in the recycling or the book sale). Granted, that was about five years ago, and my current employer is much more open minded, but those prejudices are still out there. So, just like policies regarding donated books, this will vary library to library.

Fortunately, you can find out what your local library will do with a donated book, or whether they accept self-published books simply by asking. Go in and explain that you are a local author, and that you would like to donate a copy of your book. Use this opportunity to ask what the library does with donated books, and books by local authors (some libraries are more likely to buy a book by a local author, and see Part Four for reasons why). The worst thing that happens is that they explain that they cannot take your book, or that it would go in the library book sale. You can then decide what to do.

Tips:

If possible, go during normal business hours. The people who are working the circulation desk may or may not be the people who make decisions about adding books to the collection. The people who make those decisions are more likely to be in the building during normal business hours. However, more likely is not a guarantee. They may be in a meeting, or working the night shift and coming in later, or running a program, or the person on the circulation desk who is busy right now. If you can’t go in person, you can call during business hours.

Try not to show up in the middle of a program, or on a very busy Saturday. You want someone to be able to talk to you for a couple of minutes, so if you check the library website and there is a program scheduled when you planned to go in, change the time.

Don’t lie about the book being self-published. You probably don’t want to lead with that, but if the librarian asks, tell the truth.

Have an insert for your book – a sheet of paper with the title, genre (if it is not otherwise clear, and it’s worth it to write it down even if you think it is clear), your name and contact information, and a plot summary (the whole thing, with spoilers). I’ll tell you why this is useful later. The other thing to have is any reviews your book has gotten, even if it is off a blog or website. Having some idea of how readers react to your book helps librarians make a decision.

Don’t be pushy. You want to make a good impression. A lot of these tips are pretty common sense stuff, but it is easy to get excited about your book, and that can sometimes come across as pushiness.

What will probably happen is that the person you want to talk to is busy, and the person working on the desk is busy too. They will explain that they can take the book, but that someone else will decide if it is added to the collection. If you don’t want your book in the book sale, you can decline. Even if you do speak to the person who ultimately makes the decision (they may be the library director or the librarian who manages that section – for example I would make the decision if a donated book was science fiction or fantasy) they may well say the same thing. Librarians like to get more info about a book, and tend not to make snap decisions. But talking to you, learning more about the book, and most importantly, learning that you are a local author, can sway that decision. Some librarians will make the decision quickly and tell you. Others won’t, to avoid saying no and hurting your feelings.

Personally, I’d say to leave your book, even if it ends up in the book sale, as it is likely to find a reader even then. You may not want it in the book sale selling for a quarter. It’s your call. You may be able to get a sense of whether the person who makes the decision seems likely to add it.

If you decide to drop off your book, be patient before you head into the library again and look for it on the shelf (or go to the website and search the catalog). Because the next hurdle your book has to face is getting into the library database. This is done by a cataloger, and adding your book is inherently harder and more time consuming than adding a book put out by Big Publishing.

There are two basic types of cataloging. The first is called copy cataloging. It is basically what it sounds like – a librarian adds a book to the local database by copying a record from another database. Computers allow one library to buy a book, make a record for it, and then other libraries can copy that record. It’s much faster than everyone making their own record, and it’s how nearly all books from Big Publishers get into the databases of libraries.

Your book is almost certainly headed for the other type of cataloging, called original cataloging. As a self-published author, there is probably not another record for your book for the cataloger to copy. So the cataloger has to make the record themselves. This will take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. There is a lot of information in a good library record, and it has to be typed up by a person who will have to find all the information they need, and then check it two or three times for typos and other errors. So the cataloger may very well put your book aside, and work on the big pile of other books and movies and audiobooks that they can work through quickly. They’ll wait until they have a lull in new materials, and then they will take their stack of oddball books that need original cataloging and work on it. This can take weeks.

Sorry – catalogers are busy people whose work is never done (there are always more items to catalog) and they often have other duties and help out at the circulation or reference desk. You could call, and ask. Just remember that libraries get a lot of donations, and they don’t write down what happens to each one. If it is on a cataloger’s desk, it can probably be located (though catalogers’ desks are giant piles of books…) but if it is in a box for the book sale, the staff doesn’t have time to go looking.

When the cataloger does get to your book, what do they need to know? They need the title, the author’s name and possibly date of birth (more on that later), the ISBN, the publisher, the place of publication, the year of publication, a physical description (number of pages, illustrations (if any), and height (yes, I have a tape measure in my desk)), a summary one to two sentences long, any pertinent notes (like the fact that you are a local author), and one two three subjects. Yes, all that, and some other things we have to add to the computer file. So a summary of your book (with spoilers) will help the cataloger figure out a subject. The genre will help the cataloger when it comes to subjects too. And being able to contact you helps a lot.

You see, every author in the library database has to be unique. If two authors have the same name, like Bruce Smith, it makes a mess. Bruce A. Smith writes true crime novels with crime scene photos. Bruce B. Smith writes books for kids. If the library owns the first Bruce Smith’s books, and he is listed as Bruce Smith because that is the name on his books, and you are the second Bruce Smith, you don’t really want your books mixed in with his in the catalog. And the library doesn’t either. The first guy gets to be Bruce Smith. All other people with that name who get added later are designated by their middle initial (only if used on the book cover) or birth year, so you would be Bruce Smith, 1980-. This indicates that you are a different Bruce Smith, and there will be something called an authority record that lists your name, birthdate, and the name of one of your books, and it exists to prevent your books from getting mixed up with another Bruce Smith.
So leave an email address, because we catalogers care and we want to get it right.

Then your book goes on the shelf, like all the others. It should be on the new book shelf, but not every library will put it there. If it isn’t, you’ll love Part Four, which will talk about Author Events at libraries – yes, there are ways to help people find your book even if it is not on the new book display. And if the library didn’t add your book to the collection? An author event can still help you out. But next, we’ll have a brief diversion into the world of eBooks in libraries.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/26907.html. You can comment here or there.

New Icons by Djinni!

Mar22

Girey! Looking cranky!

Girey is one of two protagonists of my fantasy romance journey series, creatively titled “Rin and Girey;” he spends most of the series cranky.

And Shiva! looking cranky!

Shiva is a background character in my webserial, http://addergoole.com, and the protagonist of her own super-secret miniseries (shh). She’s also a bit of an author-insertion.

Icons by djinni, from his most recent Free Icon Day

Getting Your Self Published Book in a Library – Part One – How Libraries Buy Books

Mar22

This is the second in a series of guest posts from eseme

Getting Your Self Published Book in a Library Part One
How Libraries Buy Books

In a perfect world, it would be super easy to get your book into a library. Then all sorts of people would read it, and some of them would want to read your other books, and go out and buy them. A lot of people find new authors by sampling books from their library. Even if a library patron does not have the budget to buy books, they are a reader and if they love your book, they will talk about it to all their friends.

So in a perfect world, this would all be easy. Our world is not perfect, and one of the first things anyone who wants to get their book into a library needs to know is that libraries are short on two things: time and money. Library budgets often get slashed just when people need them most (recessions) and it can take years for them to recover (flat-funding year-to-year is not uncommon even when we are not in a recession). Lack of money can also mean a small staff, where everyone wears lots of hats and does lots of different jobs. So they have very little time.

When libraries buy books, they need to make the most of the time and the money that they have. Librarians do not get paid to read books. We get paid to help other people find the books they want, order the books that we think people will want, add those books to the collection, arrange programming, and a whole host of other things (I also get paid to wrangle computers). So, since we can’t read every book published, we read reviews to maximize our time.

Reading reviews should also help us maximize our book budget. Reviews help us determine if we think a book would be popular in our community, by giving us a sense of what the book is about and what it is like without reading it. We also watch pre-publication announcements, which make us aware of when a book by a very popular author will be coming out so we can order it in advance and theoretically have it on the shelf the day the book is available in stores. For instance, if it is by James Patterson (including James Patterson and someone else) we buy it because his books are wildly popular and if we are late getting the book we hear about it. We also follow, or at least glance at, bestseller lists, because they give some idea of which books people are reading (though they are not perfect, I know this, but there are a lot of people who pick which books they will read based on what is on the New York Times list – I have seen people do that). Finally, if
we have the time, we also try to be aware of what books are in the media. If a book is mentioned on the radio, a TV show, or in a local newspaper, it is likely that at least one person will show up asking for it, usually with only a partial title or saying “It was in last week’s Sunday paper, I think the cover was blue.”

Whew. Sorry that was long. But this gives you an idea of how libraries find books to buy. The order cards I currently use have a place for me to list where I found a review of the book. Because I currently order for only one section of the library (science fiction and fantasy) I get a bit of leeway on where I find reviews, as I get the review journals after everyone else. But I do need to be able to find some sort of review (I have a couple of websites I use) or be able to say “This is a bestselling author” when I place an order. Libraries do not want to buy books that never get checked out.

Unfortunately, as it currently stands, this system of reading reviews is stacked against the indie author. Your book is not likely to be reviewed in any of the major trade journals. Those include : Library Journal, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus (though there are others). They don’t review self-published books at present. They are sent books to review by Big Publishers. They don’t even review all of the ones that the Big Publishers send them.

Now, some of those journals (Publishers Weekly and Kirkus that I know of) claim to review self-published books. However, they will charge you money for this, as well as having you pay to send them the book. Again, these journals charge self-published authors an additional fee (Big Publishers just mail the book or send an electronic copy). And once you pay that fee, they do not guarantee that they will review your book (just like they do not guarantee the Big Publishers, but again, you would pay an extra fee). So you send them money and your book, and they may not review it. They will “list” you book, which means the title, author, genre, price, ISBN, and a one sentence blurb will be in the journal. Or rather, in a supplement of the journal which subscribers can opt out of. Honestly, I see this as the book review industry preying on indie authors, and I can’t recommend it.

But if you are interested:
PW Select main page http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/index.html

PW select intro to the first issue, which includes some listings (note the numbers, they got money from 200 authors and reviewed 25 titles) http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/45559-pw-select-introducing-pw-select-s-self-publishing-listings.html

If you want to try PW Select, details are here, note that it will cost you $149 but you do get a six month subscription to the digital edition of Publishers Weekly http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20100823/44225-the-new-pw-select-a-quarterly-service-for-the-self-published.html

The other way in which library purchasing is not friendly to self-published books is where we order from. Most libraries order from either a book distributor or a book jobber. A book distributor could be the same place a bookstore orders from. A book jobber is a company that “finishes” a book for a library. They will often add a cover and a spine label, so that the book arrives at the library nearly ready to put on a shelf. Some even add barcodes to the books and create records for the library’s computer system (more on that in Part Two). These companies often have trouble getting a self-published book, or it takes longer. Thankfully, that part is changing – if your book can be ordered from Ingram or Baker and Taylor, it can probably be ordered by any library. But if your book can only be bought form Amazon or another website, a library might not be able to order it. Why? Libraries tend to pay with purchase orders, which means that they order, say,
$300 of books at once (and send a purchase order), and then pay for them later (sometimes on a quarterly basis). Also, libraries do not pay sales tax. It can be nearly impossible to set up accounts with web-based companies as a result (although Amazon has been getting better, I still hear it takes multiple phone calls).

So getting a library to purchase your book is hard, at least right now in March of 2011. Hopefully this will change. Your best bet is for a librarian to read your book and like it and have the extra money in their budget to buy it. That’s hard, because all three things may not happen. It would also help to get your book reviewed in a local newspaper, or get mentioned on a local TV station. Again, that’s hard (and I have no advice on that, sorry!). However, we will explore another option in Part Two : Donating Your Book to a Library.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/26245.html. You can comment here or there.

Getting Your Self-Published Book in a Library – A Guest Post From Eseme

Mar22

This is a guest post from Eseme

Intro

Aldersprig has invited me to do a guest post on libraries, and how the acquire books, because this is something that some self-published indie authors don’t know much about. And they are curious. Great. Getting your book into a library is a super cool thing!

Why do I think this? I’m a librarian. I got my Library Science degree in May of 2007. I had worked in two libraries, one prior to starting the degree, and one while I was getting it (though that one was a university library which did not buy fiction). After getting the degree I job hunted for a while, the worked at a small rural public library (a town of 5,000) and I now work in what my state, Maine, would consider a medium-sized to large library (town of 20,000) but which most of the country considers a small library.

So I know a bit about how libraries buy books, how they add them to their collections (cataloging books and other items is among my job duties), author events at libraries (I have arranged more than one), and ebooks in libraries. I am also going to end with a few links I have found about bookstores and self-published books (I lurk on Publishers Weekly’s website, and read a blog written by bookstore owners).

Do I read indie books? Some. I read two web serials, and I have read MCA Hogarth’s self-published titles. But I haven’t read many. However, given that it is March and I have read a grand total of one novel in 2011, I don’t have much time to read anyone’s books, be they from Big Publishing or self-published. I do not hate self-published books (though I will admit that I have been handed some dubious ones in my work as a librarian). I think indie publishing lets people find the books they like, even if a Big Publisher won’t take a chance on that book.

I will warn you, this is not all rosy. Libraries, as they currently order books and add them to their collections, are not set up to easily find indie books, and it is more difficult to add them to collections. I’m going to explain why, and I hope this will give you ideas about how to reach out to your local library (and bookstores) effectively.

Also, I am a long winded individual. Particularly when talking, but I get wordy with my writing as well. I am going to do my best to keep this short, but there is a lot of info. So sorry, Aldersprig, but this is going to be about five posts, I think.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/26058.html. You can comment here or there.

Now THAT is how a weekend should be

Mar21

Weekends like this past one remind me what I love (and hate) about living down here.

Saturday was a trip to Horseheads to get T. fitted for a tux for an upcoming wedding we’re both in (Horseheads is the closest town with a Men’s Warehouse; it’s about an hour away). This involved driving through some of the most depressed and depressing parts of Southern Tier, NY, but it also involved random sights like this, a stop at a winery above Watkin’s Glen, a stop at a really nice restaurant, and a really nice drive with my spouse-person. I’ll chalk it up as a win: I’m still full from those ribs!

Sunday we were still feeling like driving, so we headed out to Liedenfrost Winery, where we stopped last weekend, got a little more wine, stopped at Atwater Vineyards for a tasting (Really, really, really good wine!) and then took a hike in the Finger Lakes National Forest.

We started discussing the history of the Reiassani people while we were walking & driving, so I’ll have some worldbuilding notes and maybe an exodus map later this week.