A few weeks ago, I was at Hodder's London office for a meeting. My editor, Francesca, smiled as she handed me a finished copy of Cut Out and said, "Your third book!"
At the time, it didn't really sink in and, with the pressures of work (and the pleasures of two different literary festivals this week) publication day sort of slipped past, without me having time to think about it.
Writing and publication are oddly disconnected events. Cut Out was finished months ago and, since then, I've completed a new DI Harland novella, and started work on a fourth full-length novel. With my head now firmly in a different story, it was like an unexpected meeting with an old friend when I read the first reviews of Cut Out. It made me pause, thinking back to the day my agent called to tell me she'd negotiated a three-book deal. At the time, that third book seemed a long way away... but now the hardback is sitting in front of me as I type this.
It's been a brilliant and challenging journey, thus far... I still can't believe it's happening, and I can't wait to see where the stories go next.
Saturday 11 October 2014
Thursday 2 October 2014
Context
I was genuinely saddened to read that old Tom and Jerry cartoons are being branded with a racism warning. In a world where there is so much equality and injustice happening right now, it seems wrong to demonise a cartoon cat and mouse from the 1940s.
To look at something seventy years out of context, is to see it through eyes that have no understanding of the period. To judge it against modern standards, is to judge it against standards that it had no opportunity or encouragement to embrace.
Of course, this may just be a legal safeguarding issue. We do live in a time where some people seem ready – even eager – to be offended at the slightest thing. But while some people may be uncomfortable with aspects of Tom and Jerry, others may be uncomfortable at the suggestion that a cartoon they like is "racist". After all, what does it say about you, if you enjoy racist entertainment?
Intolerant attitudes must be challenged and changed, but this feels like a well-intentioned shot in the foot. Until we've fixed the present, maybe we should be more tolerant of the past.
To look at something seventy years out of context, is to see it through eyes that have no understanding of the period. To judge it against modern standards, is to judge it against standards that it had no opportunity or encouragement to embrace.
Of course, this may just be a legal safeguarding issue. We do live in a time where some people seem ready – even eager – to be offended at the slightest thing. But while some people may be uncomfortable with aspects of Tom and Jerry, others may be uncomfortable at the suggestion that a cartoon they like is "racist". After all, what does it say about you, if you enjoy racist entertainment?
Intolerant attitudes must be challenged and changed, but this feels like a well-intentioned shot in the foot. Until we've fixed the present, maybe we should be more tolerant of the past.
Friday 19 September 2014
10 Favourite Characters from Books
It’s one thing to be asked for your favourite ten books… but
your favourite ten characters? That’s
not so simple, especially when you have to try and give reasons for your
choices. Here’s my attempt at an answer – the fictional people who stuck out
and stayed with me. They’re in no particular order, but each one of them meant
something to me. Read on, and see if any of these would make it into your top ten…
Inspector Morse
from "Last Seen Wearing" by Colin Dexter
It's tempting to think we know Morse from the TV series, but
while I love John Thaw's version, the original written character is
refreshingly different. In those first books Morse is a driven, seedy man,
recklessly embracing one possible theory after another. He makes terrible
mistakes, and seems a lot less assured than a heroic detective ought to, but
therein lies so much of his charm. A brilliantly flawed man.
Gerald Tarrant
from "The Coldfire Trilogy" by C.S. Friedman
There's something wonderfully unsettling about a charismatic
villain, and Gerald Tarrant is the perfect example – simultaneously rational
and evil, yet absolutely bound by a complex code of ethics that elevate him
above being a mere monster. More than any other character, he helped to inspire
my own serial killer, and his presence on the page is so compelling that it
sends the morale compass spinning.
Biba Capel from
"The Poison Tree" by Erin Kelly
Every so often, you meet a character who burns brighter than
everyone around them. Biba Capel is the perfect example of this – a captivating
young woman, a catalyst for chaos, her presence irrevocably changing the lives
of everyone she encounters. As a reader, you find yourself drawn to her, just
like the other characters in this story of destructive obsession, and the
memory of her resonates long after the final page.
George Smiley
from "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" by John le Carré
In many ways, Tinker Tailor is a crime novel, albeit one set
in the shadowy world of the cold-war secret services. George Smiley takes on
the role of the weary detective, patiently following the clues to uncover a
high-ranking double agent. He's a quiet man, gripped by a profound sadness, yet
even after retiring he finds himself unable to turn his back on the job that
brought him so low. Tenacious, with a deeply buried passion that rarely
surfaces, he exhibits extraordinary intelligence and insight about those around
him, while remaining endearingly puzzled by his own life.
Arthur Dent from
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams
There's something rather reassuring about Arthur Dent.
Despite being catapulted through space and time, from one absurd situation to
the next, he remains unalterably British, albeit a caricatured, 20th
century British, that's fuelled by tea, understatement, and good manners. His
resolute determination not to forsake this, even when Britain and the whole of
the Earth are mistakenly demolished, is surely an upper-lip stiffener for us
all.
Doctor Sheppard
from "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie
A neighbour of the great Hercule Poirot, Doctor James Sheppard
is one of the most perfectly written characters I've ever encountered. People
often talk about unreliable narrators but, if you know the plot, you'll
appreciate how terribly clever his personal telling of the story is. Also, he's
such an engaging person to be in the company of – wonderfully witty and
considerably more genial than his Belgian detective friend.
Silk from “The
Belgariad” by David Eddings
I first read David Eddings’ epic fantasy series as a
teenager, and even now, with a more mature eye, I still find a great joy in the
books. The reason for their enduring appeal is the wonderful cast of
characters, and the best of these has to be Silk. When we meet him, we see a
rat-faced little man – a common thief and trickster – with roguish morals and
wicked sense of humour. As time goes on, we discover that he is much, much more
than this – a complex character, with unexpected depth and vulnerability – yet
over the course of five books (ten, if you include Eddings’ subsequent series
“The Mallorean”) his character never stops developing. There always seems to be
more beneath the surface, and he’s so likeable that you can’t help but want to
find out what it is.
Sebastian Flyte
from "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited contains both one of my favourite
characters, Sebastian Flyte, and also one of my least favourites, Charles
Ryder. Although he is weak in many ways, Sebastian is wonderfully honest and
entertaining, ultimately remaining true to himself despite the chaotic life he
leads. His presence lights up the chapters that include him, providing a
wonderful contrast to the more cynical Charles.
Miss Marple from
"A Murder Is Announced" by Agatha Christie
I've always had a soft spot for Jane Marple, ever since I
saw Joan Hickson's portrayal in the BBC series. Reading her as originally
written, she's even better – a dignified, yet ruthless inquisitor who calmly
uses her insight to lay mysteries bare. Save for occasional flashes of sharp,
deadpan humour, there are few outward clues to the keen mind behind the shawl,
but she certainly deserves the nickname bestowed by one of her acquaintances:
"nemesis".
Frodo Baggins
from "The Lord Of The Rings" by J R R Tolkien
On the surface, Frodo may seem an odd choice, but he
underpins so many of the key values in the book. At the start, he volunteers to
do what is right, for the sake of others, no matter what the risk to himself.
He continues his quest even when he is sure there is no hope of success or survival.
After terrible suffering and wrongdoings, he still shows mercy, even sparing the
evil Saruman, who has sought to destroy his home. Above all though, Frodo's
character embodies Sacrifice. When speaking to his friend Sam, he says of their
idyllic land, "It has been saved. But not for me," and he says it
without regret. I absolutely love this quality – that one person would gladly
give everything to protect a way of life for others.This piece was originally written for The Festival Of Book Clubs.
Friday 5 September 2014
Eventful
One of the best things about being a writer is having the chance to meet readers and chat about books. Literary festivals are great for this, and I'm very lucky to have several exciting events coming up in the next month or so.
Festival of Book Clubs
Wed 17 September, 2pm - Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire
- with Nicola Beauman (owner of Persephone Books), Fanny Blake (book editor of ‘Woman and Home’ magazine), Katherine Webb (author of ‘The Misbegotten’), Christopher Radmann (author of ‘Held Up’), and hosted by Tim O’Kelly.
Frinton Literary Festival
Thu 9 October, 7:30pm – Frinton Lawn Tennis Club, Essex
- with Sophie Hannah (author of the new Hercule Poirot novel, 'The Monogram Murders').
Click here for info.
Havant Literary Festival
Fri 10 October, 6:15pm – The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre, Hampshire
- talking about the Detective Harland novels, including the latest in the series, 'Cut Out'.
Click here for info.
Off The Shelf Festival of Words
Fri 17 October, 8:00pm – Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
- with Sabine Durrant (author of 'Under Your Skin') and Kate Rhodes (author of 'Crossbones yard').
Click here for info.
The New Forest Readers Day
Sat 22 November, 10am – Forest Arts Centre, Hampshire
- with Erin Kelly (author of 'The Poison Tree') and Judith Kinghorn (author of 'The Last Summer').
Click here for info.
If one of these is near you, do please come along. Writing is a solitary pursuit, and hearing from readers is important in so many ways. Also, many events have cake or biscuits laid on, so there's really no excuse not to attend. Hopefully see you there!
Festival of Book Clubs
Wed 17 September, 2pm - Lord Wandsworth College, Hampshire
- with Nicola Beauman (owner of Persephone Books), Fanny Blake (book editor of ‘Woman and Home’ magazine), Katherine Webb (author of ‘The Misbegotten’), Christopher Radmann (author of ‘Held Up’), and hosted by Tim O’Kelly.
Frinton Literary Festival
Thu 9 October, 7:30pm – Frinton Lawn Tennis Club, Essex
- with Sophie Hannah (author of the new Hercule Poirot novel, 'The Monogram Murders').
Click here for info.
Havant Literary Festival
Fri 10 October, 6:15pm – The Spring Arts & Heritage Centre, Hampshire
- talking about the Detective Harland novels, including the latest in the series, 'Cut Out'.
Click here for info.
Off The Shelf Festival of Words
Fri 17 October, 8:00pm – Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
- with Sabine Durrant (author of 'Under Your Skin') and Kate Rhodes (author of 'Crossbones yard').
Click here for info.
The New Forest Readers Day
Sat 22 November, 10am – Forest Arts Centre, Hampshire
- with Erin Kelly (author of 'The Poison Tree') and Judith Kinghorn (author of 'The Last Summer').
Click here for info.
If one of these is near you, do please come along. Writing is a solitary pursuit, and hearing from readers is important in so many ways. Also, many events have cake or biscuits laid on, so there's really no excuse not to attend. Hopefully see you there!
Thursday 4 September 2014
#AmWriting
It's been a while since I updated the blog, so I thought I'd do a brief round-up on where things are with my writing.
My third novel, CUT OUT, is published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 9th of October (hardback and eBook – paperback to follow next year). This will be the third Detective Inspector Harland novel, following EYE CONTACT and KNIFE EDGE. For more information, click here.
I've also written another Harland story entitled BROKEN FALL. This is a novella (about a quarter of the length of a full novel) and will be published by Hodder (eBook only) on the 15th of January 2015. It's my first proper "whodunit" and it's priced at just 99p – click here for more info.
Currently, I'm busy working on an untitled psychological thriller set in North London. This will be a standalone story, with a cast of new characters, but I'm confident that DI Harland will return soon enough.
My third novel, CUT OUT, is published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 9th of October (hardback and eBook – paperback to follow next year). This will be the third Detective Inspector Harland novel, following EYE CONTACT and KNIFE EDGE. For more information, click here.
I've also written another Harland story entitled BROKEN FALL. This is a novella (about a quarter of the length of a full novel) and will be published by Hodder (eBook only) on the 15th of January 2015. It's my first proper "whodunit" and it's priced at just 99p – click here for more info.
Currently, I'm busy working on an untitled psychological thriller set in North London. This will be a standalone story, with a cast of new characters, but I'm confident that DI Harland will return soon enough.
Wednesday 21 May 2014
Generation War - Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter
I found the recent TV series Generation War both moving, and surprising. From a British perspective, it was compelling to follow a wartime story that invited me to care about a group of young Germans, rather than simply seeing them as "the enemy".
Predictably, there's been a lot of protest about it. The events of World War II are still too close, and too terrible, for anyone to be entirely neutral, and the BBC was forced to air a debate between several dissatisfied parties and the show's producer. There were several key issues:
In a media-savvy age, where everything needs to be a metaphor, it seems there is no room for a story about five wartime friends, unless that story is a perfect microcosm of everyone’s wartime experiences.
That, of course, would have been impossible to achieve. Even the dissenting experts broadly agreed that Generation War was a brilliant and moving drama series. But clearly it wouldn't have been if it had tried to be all things to all people.
Perhaps, when we look at something like this, we need to be a little more generous, and a little less prejudiced. After all, if we can't be patient with someone else expressing a subjective account, there's no reason to expect a patient response to personal views of our own.
Predictably, there's been a lot of protest about it. The events of World War II are still too close, and too terrible, for anyone to be entirely neutral, and the BBC was forced to air a debate between several dissatisfied parties and the show's producer. There were several key issues:
- The series was too sympathetic to Germans
- The unsympathetic portrayal of East European partisans
- The unlikely friendship between non-Jews and a Jew
In a media-savvy age, where everything needs to be a metaphor, it seems there is no room for a story about five wartime friends, unless that story is a perfect microcosm of everyone’s wartime experiences.
That, of course, would have been impossible to achieve. Even the dissenting experts broadly agreed that Generation War was a brilliant and moving drama series. But clearly it wouldn't have been if it had tried to be all things to all people.
Perhaps, when we look at something like this, we need to be a little more generous, and a little less prejudiced. After all, if we can't be patient with someone else expressing a subjective account, there's no reason to expect a patient response to personal views of our own.
Friday 4 April 2014
If App Developers made Books
After spending millions of dollars training a generation NOT
to pay for content, the app industry has discovered that it really needs to understand (and adapt to)
its audience if it wants to get any more money from them. In less than six
years, a global media sector has been turned on its head – pivoting from Paid
to Free, in one irreversible step.
The new business models rely on
in-app-purchases (IAP) and adverts for their revenue, but this means they need
a much deeper, much longer engagement with their audience if they want to break
even. There are many innovative methods employed to achieve this… but what if
these approaches were applied to other digital media? What if app developers
made ebooks?
Advertising
It might start simply – a banner ad across the bottom of
your Kindle screen, plus a few seconds of streaming video ads, every other
chapter. At first, these ads would be fairly generic, but after a while you'd start
to notice things. You're enjoying an Inspector Morse novel and the banner ads
just happen to include one for London Pride beer and another for a new
recording of Wagner's Ring Cycle. You might also find that ads were being
delayed, so they'd be less obvious. After all, if you read The Silence Of The
Lambs, it's reasonable to expect a few ads for L`Air du Temps… but not today.
From midway through any novel, eerily accurate
recommendations for other books would start popping up. Reading on, the ad
frequency would steadily increase as you approached the pivotal chapters,
culminating in a blizzard of banners and a timely [Pay to Remove Ads] button.
In-Book Purchases
(IBP)
Removing Ads has always been a popular in-app purchase and
its applicability to all kinds of content ensures its inclusion here. But what
else might readers pay for?
Paywalls certainly aren't new – and you could argue that
Amazon's "Try a sample" button is effectively just that: giving a few
pages for free followed by the option to purchase the rest. But imagine if the
book's publisher could set multiple paywalls, wherever they wanted in the text. Rather than appearing after an arbitrary
number of pages, the paywalls would be exquisitely placed at twists and
cliff-hangers, creating the strongest possible emotional need in the audience
before asking them for their money.
If the above seems a bit… well, manipulative, then how about a Pay Per Chapter (PPC) model instead?
Readers would be able to audition new books and, effectively, pay an amount
commensurate with their enjoyment. If they finish the book, they pay full price;
if they can't get into the story, they pay a tiny fraction.
Of course, this approach relies on the book chiming with as many
readers as possible. Are there perhaps ways to broaden a book's appeal?
Adaptive Content
Again, it could begin with something simple. You might think
it's just a coincidence that it's raining outside while you read the opening chapter
with the hero trudging through a sudden downpour… but is it? Context sensitive
narrative might easily cross-reference the Kindle's location with weather
services, modifying the displayed text to build resonance between the reader
and the protagonist. But that's not the only thing that could adapt.
If a book contained multiple versions of the text, then
subtle cues (quietly mined from social data) could shift the protagonist's age,
gender, religion or ethnicity, to be more compatible with that of the reader.
Authors and editors could watch the behaviour of early
readers – identifying where people seemed to lose interest and stop reading.
The problem chapters could be tweaked or replaced, with updated versions of the
book downloaded automatically. But why stop there?
Using a process called A/B Testing, it's possible to split
an audience and measure how each segment responds to something. So at any given
time, 10% of readers reading the same
book might be presented with a slightly different plot – and whichever
version showed the highest completion ratio, or received the best reviews,
would become the new "standard edition" of the book.
Social Reach
Last but not least, it's worth considering how a book's
social reach might be extended through digital techniques. There was a time
when audiences went looking for content but now, increasingly, content has to
go looking for an audience. We're seeing more and more innovative methods of
publicising titles and it's not hard to predict a time when the amount you pay
for a book could be reduced by the number of friends you tell about it. After
all, everyone knows the importance of studying the algorithms that drive the
digital stores and recommendation pages. But app developers also know that
people are busy, that people are forgetful. So perhaps ebooks will start reaching
out to readers if they've been gone for a while – a friendly nudge via
push-notifications or social media, complete with a one-page reminder of the
story so far. Re-engaging the audience is so important… especially if there's a
Pay Per Chapter model on the horizon.
Thankfully, the fact that you can do something doesn't always mean that you should do it. True, the above ideas are all based on real
techniques from the apps business, but there's no reason to assume that this is
the future for ebooks. Although, now that I think about it, the Pay Per Chapter
approach might just work, especially for a series crime author like myself.
Perhaps even digital clouds have silver linings.
Tuesday 1 April 2014
Circumstantial
Plotting. Planning. Researching. This must be how a lot of
criminals are caught. Because it wasn't until I'd done a fair amount of prep
work on a crime of my own that I noticed just how incriminating my actions
were. And the murder I had in mind wasn't even a real one.
I'd been mulling over some ideas for a new novella. The subject had come up during a meeting at Hodder, and my initial thought was to use one of the novel concepts I'd been making notes on for a while. But the more I considered this, the less suitable it seemed. My books always seem to give a lot of narrative (sometimes most of it) to the villain. This is okay for a full-length novel, where there's enough time to develop satisfying emotional links with multiple protagonists, but in a shorter story I felt it could prove difficult to connect with my detective and another principle character. I needed to come up with something different.
So I got a new idea. And, because I always try to base my stories in reality wherever possible, I started doing my research. As usual, there was plenty to do – articles to read, things to check on Google, a day inBristol to walk the
routes and visit the scenes…
…and that's when I started to get that eerie, uncomfortable feeling. Much of what I was doing was what my villain might do in preparation for their crime. If a real investigation were launched, my own internet history would have left an obvious digital trail for the police to follow. My movements around the city would have been extremely suspicious, and I'm sure I must have been caught loitering on any number of CCTV cameras. I could just imagine a grey-haired solicitor peering at me over his glasses and sighing, "I believe you, Mr McNeill, but I'm afraid it doesn't look good."
Of course, I'm not a criminal. But I couldn't help wondering, how long would it be before circumstances aligned to drop some poor writer in it? How long before some unhappy coincidence led to an author being detained by the police for a real crime, similar to the one they were researching? In that position, how would you counter the dreadful burden of circumstantial evidence?
I suppose you just have to make sure you always have an alibi… and maybe write a blog-post like this one, to undermine the prosecution's case!
I'd been mulling over some ideas for a new novella. The subject had come up during a meeting at Hodder, and my initial thought was to use one of the novel concepts I'd been making notes on for a while. But the more I considered this, the less suitable it seemed. My books always seem to give a lot of narrative (sometimes most of it) to the villain. This is okay for a full-length novel, where there's enough time to develop satisfying emotional links with multiple protagonists, but in a shorter story I felt it could prove difficult to connect with my detective and another principle character. I needed to come up with something different.
So I got a new idea. And, because I always try to base my stories in reality wherever possible, I started doing my research. As usual, there was plenty to do – articles to read, things to check on Google, a day in
…and that's when I started to get that eerie, uncomfortable feeling. Much of what I was doing was what my villain might do in preparation for their crime. If a real investigation were launched, my own internet history would have left an obvious digital trail for the police to follow. My movements around the city would have been extremely suspicious, and I'm sure I must have been caught loitering on any number of CCTV cameras. I could just imagine a grey-haired solicitor peering at me over his glasses and sighing, "I believe you, Mr McNeill, but I'm afraid it doesn't look good."
Of course, I'm not a criminal. But I couldn't help wondering, how long would it be before circumstances aligned to drop some poor writer in it? How long before some unhappy coincidence led to an author being detained by the police for a real crime, similar to the one they were researching? In that position, how would you counter the dreadful burden of circumstantial evidence?
I suppose you just have to make sure you always have an alibi… and maybe write a blog-post like this one, to undermine the prosecution's case!
Monday 24 March 2014
If You Love Books, Don't Set Them Free
I hope there will always be physical books. They’re one of
the world's most enduring forms of media, and one that still works well today,
even in direct sunlight. However, more and more, people are choosing to read ebooks
and this trend isn't going to go away. As reading shifts from physical towards
digital, there will be enormous challenges and tough times for everyone –
authors, publishers, and retailers. But how tough do those times need to be?
As a series crime author, published by Hodder & Stoughton, I follow the fortunes of the book market with great interest. But my day job is running a successful app developer, working with a range of digital publishers. The games/apps business is a new market that moves extremely fast. Compared to books and music, it's the youngest, but it's evolved at a frightening rate, overtaking more established media with an explosion of innovation (and considerable collateral damage to the people and businesses that work in the space).
The good news is that the older, more established media can look at the parallels and, if they choose to, learn from the mistakes and successes of their younger counterpart. As someone with a foot in both camps, it's fascinating to watch, but I sincerely hope that the book industry won't slavishly tread on all the same landmines that the app industry has.
Let’s start with an (ironically) obvious issue: discovery. Going digital brings more choice, but almost everything is harder to find. Previously, publishers fought to get their physical products into traditional retailers where it was tough to stand out, surrounded by hundreds of competing products. But now, as the physical shop becomes an online store, each product is swamped by millions of others. These virtual shelves are never cleared; they just get longer and longer as thousands of new titles are published every week. And with no shopkeepers to curate the content on offer, and self-publishing offering a way to sidestep the publisher’s quality-threshold, much of the content is mediocre.
So if your title is swamped by a deluge of other stuff, how do you make it stand out? Surely, if it’s good enough, it will rise to the surface. Isn’t that the point of all those reviews, ratings, and charts?
Sadly, the answer is no. When I stated that the apps business was innovative, I wasn’t kidding. There’s now a whole sub-industry, dedicated to “gaming the app-stores” – artificially inflating chart positions and sales by manipulating the algorithms that drive them. And if you thought sock-puppeting was scandalous in the world of books, you should draw the curtains and hide under the bed, because in the app world there are stories of “incentivised” review campaigns that would make your pages curl.
Which leads us to the final solution: price. With no other way to differentiate themselves, many app publishers lowered their prices as a way to attract attention and grab market-share. The theory behind it was simple enough – yes, you’d make less money on each sale, but you’d sell many more titles, and end up making more money overall. It was a winning strategy...
As a series crime author, published by Hodder & Stoughton, I follow the fortunes of the book market with great interest. But my day job is running a successful app developer, working with a range of digital publishers. The games/apps business is a new market that moves extremely fast. Compared to books and music, it's the youngest, but it's evolved at a frightening rate, overtaking more established media with an explosion of innovation (and considerable collateral damage to the people and businesses that work in the space).
The good news is that the older, more established media can look at the parallels and, if they choose to, learn from the mistakes and successes of their younger counterpart. As someone with a foot in both camps, it's fascinating to watch, but I sincerely hope that the book industry won't slavishly tread on all the same landmines that the app industry has.
Let’s start with an (ironically) obvious issue: discovery. Going digital brings more choice, but almost everything is harder to find. Previously, publishers fought to get their physical products into traditional retailers where it was tough to stand out, surrounded by hundreds of competing products. But now, as the physical shop becomes an online store, each product is swamped by millions of others. These virtual shelves are never cleared; they just get longer and longer as thousands of new titles are published every week. And with no shopkeepers to curate the content on offer, and self-publishing offering a way to sidestep the publisher’s quality-threshold, much of the content is mediocre.
So if your title is swamped by a deluge of other stuff, how do you make it stand out? Surely, if it’s good enough, it will rise to the surface. Isn’t that the point of all those reviews, ratings, and charts?
Sadly, the answer is no. When I stated that the apps business was innovative, I wasn’t kidding. There’s now a whole sub-industry, dedicated to “gaming the app-stores” – artificially inflating chart positions and sales by manipulating the algorithms that drive them. And if you thought sock-puppeting was scandalous in the world of books, you should draw the curtains and hide under the bed, because in the app world there are stories of “incentivised” review campaigns that would make your pages curl.
Which leads us to the final solution: price. With no other way to differentiate themselves, many app publishers lowered their prices as a way to attract attention and grab market-share. The theory behind it was simple enough – yes, you’d make less money on each sale, but you’d sell many more titles, and end up making more money overall. It was a winning strategy...
...except when everyone did it.
Very, very quickly, the majority of apps dropped to £0.69,
the lowest available Apple pricepoint at the time. It was a desperate race-to-the-bottom
but, as it turned out, 69p wasn’t the bottom, and prices kept going down. Some
titles – big titles, with five or even six-figure development budgets – hit
zero. And once they were free,
everyone else had to follow suit, or risk being left behind in the tumbleweed
of the Paid Apps section.
But zero wasn’t the bottom either.
Soon, digital publishers were incentivising people to
download their apps, handing out vouchers and in-game rewards to try and bribe
people into playing their free titles. Propped up by investment funding,
businesses are now discussing “new user acquisition costs” of $1 to $2 per
person – meaning the price of a free app is actually minus $1 or minus $2.
So what about book pricing? A few years ago, £2 or £3 felt cheap for a mainstream novel, but not now when the Kindle Daily Deal offers amazing titles for just 99p. There are definite signs that ebook pricing is following the same downward trajectory as apps. Some will say that it’s just progress, that it might even be a good thing. Lower prices for everyone and more sales overall… and it’s kind of working for the apps business isn’t it?
This is where it gets dangerous. Because, unlike books, games and apps are not fixed, linear content – with a predefined beginning, middle and end. They’re built to adapt, to mould themselves to each individual user in increasingly subtle ways. Games may be “free”, but they employ a huge arsenal of psychological techniques to create a need in their audience… then sell them something that addresses that need.
So what about book pricing? A few years ago, £2 or £3 felt cheap for a mainstream novel, but not now when the Kindle Daily Deal offers amazing titles for just 99p. There are definite signs that ebook pricing is following the same downward trajectory as apps. Some will say that it’s just progress, that it might even be a good thing. Lower prices for everyone and more sales overall… and it’s kind of working for the apps business isn’t it?
This is where it gets dangerous. Because, unlike books, games and apps are not fixed, linear content – with a predefined beginning, middle and end. They’re built to adapt, to mould themselves to each individual user in increasingly subtle ways. Games may be “free”, but they employ a huge arsenal of psychological techniques to create a need in their audience… then sell them something that addresses that need.
"Oh, you were
almost at the end of the level… do you want to buy another try?"
"Oh, it's taking ages for your virtual crops to grow… do you want to buy
fertiliser?"
"Oh, your virtual
kitten is sad because it’s hungry… do you want to buy it some food?"
Within this ruthlessly-optimised ecosystem,
audience-behaviour is tracked and studied in
real time, with apps adapting their sales approach automatically to
monetise better. After all, modern games and apps are never finished; they are on-going services, constantly evolving in
the pursuit of revenue.
This is why the book industry should be extremely wary of following the apps model, especially on pricepoint. Unless we want pay-walls between chapters, invasive advertising, or other consumable content to drive in-book-purchases (IBP), how will publishers and authors make enough money to cover their costs? And as we've seen in the app industry (which has spent millions of dollars training its audience not to pay for content) once you go free, you can never go back. There was a time when 69p was a small price to pay for a game, but now it's a ridiculous demand by "greedy" publishers.
So why does this situation continue? The answer is simple: because it works for the channel.
This is why the book industry should be extremely wary of following the apps model, especially on pricepoint. Unless we want pay-walls between chapters, invasive advertising, or other consumable content to drive in-book-purchases (IBP), how will publishers and authors make enough money to cover their costs? And as we've seen in the app industry (which has spent millions of dollars training its audience not to pay for content) once you go free, you can never go back. There was a time when 69p was a small price to pay for a game, but now it's a ridiculous demand by "greedy" publishers.
So why does this situation continue? The answer is simple: because it works for the channel.
Whatever the pricepoint, some
people still pay for some content.
And whatever they pay, channels like Apple or Amazon will take a 30% cut, which
is completely fair when you remember that many physical retailers demanded more
than 50% in their day. Of course, Apple and Amazon can afford to be generous –
their marketplace now covers the entire planet, and there’s a good chance they
sold you the device you’re buying the content for too. Crucially, if they are
taking 30% of a whole industry’s revenue, they aren’t worried about whether
individual content creators and publishers are breaking even or not. But this
isn’t a criticism of Apple or Amazon – they don’t set the prices, the content
providers do.
Which begs the question, if so many of them are making a loss, why don’t the content providers do something about it? Why don’t they starve the machine rather than keep feeding it? In the apps business, the blunt answer is that there will always more content coming along, because there will always be new people prepared to give their content away in return for exposure. The overwhelming majority of apps make a loss, and the app-stores are gorged with games from developers who have (or will) go bust. But what about books?
Anyone with a Word document can get their novel on the Kindle store, but it’s not just self-publishing that’s bulking up the virtual shelves. Traditional print publishers all have rich back catalogues and, because digital stock doesn’t take up any space, they are naturally uploading old titles as well as new ones. An unimaginable wealth of content, constantly growing, always on sale whether anyone buys it or not… it’s hard to put the brakes on a machine with that sort of momentum behind it.
This is probably the point where I should insert a fluffy, upbeat conclusion, to dispel some of the gloom above. But rather than glibly suggesting that everything will be all right, I think it’s more reassuring to remember that everything wasn’t all right before. The “good old days” of physical products and physical distribution were beset with problems, and the rise of digital brings a host of positive opportunities, not just challenges. There’s growing talk (and investment) around the areas of content sharing and social discovery, which is very exciting.
But I do think there’s a bullet to be dodged here. Let’s just hope that the book industry reads all the way to the end, before it decides to follow other digital media too closely. Because unlike games and apps and music, books haven’t given away their pricepoint yet. And so long as they don’t train their audience to believe that digital content has no cash value, there will always be hope for non-digital content. Like physical books.
Which begs the question, if so many of them are making a loss, why don’t the content providers do something about it? Why don’t they starve the machine rather than keep feeding it? In the apps business, the blunt answer is that there will always more content coming along, because there will always be new people prepared to give their content away in return for exposure. The overwhelming majority of apps make a loss, and the app-stores are gorged with games from developers who have (or will) go bust. But what about books?
Anyone with a Word document can get their novel on the Kindle store, but it’s not just self-publishing that’s bulking up the virtual shelves. Traditional print publishers all have rich back catalogues and, because digital stock doesn’t take up any space, they are naturally uploading old titles as well as new ones. An unimaginable wealth of content, constantly growing, always on sale whether anyone buys it or not… it’s hard to put the brakes on a machine with that sort of momentum behind it.
This is probably the point where I should insert a fluffy, upbeat conclusion, to dispel some of the gloom above. But rather than glibly suggesting that everything will be all right, I think it’s more reassuring to remember that everything wasn’t all right before. The “good old days” of physical products and physical distribution were beset with problems, and the rise of digital brings a host of positive opportunities, not just challenges. There’s growing talk (and investment) around the areas of content sharing and social discovery, which is very exciting.
But I do think there’s a bullet to be dodged here. Let’s just hope that the book industry reads all the way to the end, before it decides to follow other digital media too closely. Because unlike games and apps and music, books haven’t given away their pricepoint yet. And so long as they don’t train their audience to believe that digital content has no cash value, there will always be hope for non-digital content. Like physical books.
Friday 21 March 2014
Two Words
Writing can be tough. You’ve got to find a great concept,
plot out the story, then carefully unfold the whole thing across several
hundred pages. Some days it goes well, some days it doesn’t, but you press on
towards that exhilarating point where the book takes on a life of its own,
where it starts to feel real, and the chapters fuse together into a whole…
And then comes the really gruelling bit: thinking of a title.
Strictly speaking, it’s not just thinking of a title, it’s thinking of a good title that hasn’t been used recently. I got lucky with my first book – “Eye Contact” had the right feel, and it had been a few years since anyone else had used the name. For the sequel it took longer, with a large number of emails going back and forth before my editor suggested “Knife Edge”, which fitted the story perfectly.
And so to Book Three, whose name has been an ongoing source of debate and head-scratching for months. There have been email exchanges, word-lists, and phone-calls. Every time I thought we had something, a quick check on Amazon would reveal a recent book with the same title, and my hopes were cruelly dashed. Were all the good titles taken?
In the midst of such despair, it was a truly great moment when, over cookies and coffee at Hodder, my agent Eve White came up with two words that everyone agreed on: “Cut Out”. It’s certainly a huge relief to me, and the book feels more complete, now it has its own identity.
So there you have it – writing really can be tough. The first ninety thousand words might be straightforward enough*, but the last two can be a right pain.
CUT OUT will be published in August 2014, with paperback the following January.
*Actually, not straightforward at all.
And then comes the really gruelling bit: thinking of a title.
Strictly speaking, it’s not just thinking of a title, it’s thinking of a good title that hasn’t been used recently. I got lucky with my first book – “Eye Contact” had the right feel, and it had been a few years since anyone else had used the name. For the sequel it took longer, with a large number of emails going back and forth before my editor suggested “Knife Edge”, which fitted the story perfectly.
And so to Book Three, whose name has been an ongoing source of debate and head-scratching for months. There have been email exchanges, word-lists, and phone-calls. Every time I thought we had something, a quick check on Amazon would reveal a recent book with the same title, and my hopes were cruelly dashed. Were all the good titles taken?
In the midst of such despair, it was a truly great moment when, over cookies and coffee at Hodder, my agent Eve White came up with two words that everyone agreed on: “Cut Out”. It’s certainly a huge relief to me, and the book feels more complete, now it has its own identity.
So there you have it – writing really can be tough. The first ninety thousand words might be straightforward enough*, but the last two can be a right pain.
CUT OUT will be published in August 2014, with paperback the following January.
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