“I Have Seen The Future, And The Future…”

By EDWARD WYATT

ee Dick and Jane shvitz. Shvitz, Dick and Jane, shvitz.

Pearson Education, the publishing company that owns the copyright to the Dick and Jane reading primers, has filed a lawsuit against a division of Time Warner in Federal District Court in Los Angeles claiming that the book “Yiddish With Dick and Jane” violates Pearson’s copyrights and trademarks for the familiar characters.

The brisk-selling book examines adultery, drug use and other tsuris that afflict Dick and Jane as adults. When it was published in September by Little, Brown & Company, part of the Time Warner Book Group, Pearson was farmisht and did not take any action. After an Internet video promotion of the book began attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers and the book’s sales topped 100,000, however, Pearson decided that the fun was over.

The book, by Ellis Weiner and Barbara Davilman, with illustrations by Gabi Payn, states on the front and back covers, spine and copyright page that it is a parody. But the lawsuit says the book “is not a parody, but is an unprotected imitation” because it does not use the copyrighted characters “for the purpose of social criticism.”

Pearson says in its lawsuit that it has licensed the characters before, as in the 1977 film “Fun With Dick and Jane,” with Jane Fonda and George Segal. A remake, with Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni, is set to be released this summer.

The suit also names as a plaintiff Elizabeth Dubelman, who was hired by Little, Brown to create the promotional video. It has been shown on the publisher’s Web site and her own, Vidlit.com

In a statement, Little, Brown said the book was “entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment and related laws permitting expression of social commentary.”

“This suit aims at the heart of creative expression,” the company said, “a position no publisher should take.”

George H. Pike, director of the Barco Law Library and an assistant professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh, said that if the lawsuit went to trial, the outcome might turn on whether the book is judged to be commenting on the original Dick and Jane characters and books, in which case it would be considered parody. If the characters were simply being used to make a funny book, he said, that would not be fair use.

Mr. Weiner and Ms. Davilman said in an interview that they did not understand why Pearson sued. Before publication, they said, Pearson asked for, and received, a prominent disclaimer on the book saying it “has not been prepared, approved or authorized by the creators or producers of the ‘Dick and Jane’ reading primers for children.”

Ms. Davilman said she believed that the lawsuit was “a good old shakedown for money.”

A spokeswoman for Pearson said the company would not comment on the lawsuit. Earlier this month, when Pearson filed the suit, its lawyer, Stephen W. Feingold, wrote to the plaintiffs offering to discuss a settlement and saying that it had initially “decided not to sue over a title it thought would not be commercially successful.”

That decision apparently changed, Mr. Weiner said. He added: “We’re both fascinated and horrified at the same time. We’re on shpilkes.”

Dick and Jane’s Tsuris? Oy, Gevalt!

Definitions and pronunciations from “Yiddish With Dick and Jane”:
Shvitz (SHVITZ) – to sweat.
Tsuris (TSOOR-is) – troubles.
Farmisht (FAR-misht) – confused to the point of not knowing what to do.
Oy gevalt (OY geh-VULT, or OY geh-VAHLT) – “oh, no!”
Shpilkes (SHPILL-kiss) – pins and needles.

nytimes.com/2005/01/15/books/15b…

Thoughts on the website VidLit and interview with site creator Liz Dubelman

A Cool Waste Of Time – Flash Films With Flare

by Vern Seward, 3:15 AM EDT, April 12th, 2005

Let’s say you wrote a really entertaining book, a real knee slapper, and you want to advertise in a really entertaining way.

Well, there are certainly a lot of fun, madcap ways of getting the word out to your perspective customers; you could plaster an ad on the side of a circus elephant, get a guest spot on your local cable access channel (preferably after the skin-headed, leather wearing Aryan, but before the sexagenarian who plays the Star Spangled Banner using flatulence and a tuba), or you could create a Flash presentation of your novel novel and let Vidlit run it for you!

Apparently, more than a hefty handful of authors have thankfully picked the latter route to advertising their wares, and the results are the focus of this installment of A Cool Waste Of Time.

Preview the adolescent antics outlined in How I Paid For College. Thrill to the lessons in Yiddish offered up by Yiddish with Dick and Jane. Get the 411 on lessons in love and other concerns in When Love Calls, You Better Answer.

Not all Vidlit Flash films are fun and games; The Arithmetic of Nurses takes a sobering, poetic look at the elderly.

Not all Vidlit Flash films deal with books; One Lonely Night is a snicker-filled excerpt from the play, Modern Orthodox.

All Flash movies are well done and enjoyable to the extreme. Wired News has done a nice story on the Vidlit site, so check it out. In the meantime, kick back and get Flashed at Vidlit.

Do you have a Cool Waste of Time you found on the Internet? Tell Vern Seward all about it, and he’s pass it around…

Video Shills for Literary Stars

CD and DVD manufacturer Nimbus CD International is a global leader in the development of optical disc manufacturing technology; it currently produces 130,000 to 150,000 DVDs daily

02608686
Title: Nimbus’ technicolor dream
Source: One to One:73, June 1999. ISSN: 0268-8786
Document Type: Journal; Company Overview
Publication Country: United Kingdom,  Language: English
Record Type: Fulltext; Abstract,  Word Count: 2910
Abstract:
Nimbus CD International (Charlottesville, VA) is a global leader in CD and DVD replication services. It is also a leader in developing technology for optical disc manufacturing. One year after the launch of DVD in 1997, Nimbus manufactured over 3.5 mil discs. It presently manufactures 130,000 to 150,000 DVDs daily. It manufactures around 1 mil CDs daily. It has facilities around the world. Its Camarillo, CA facility has 5 DVD production lines and 26 CD production lines. Its Charlottesville facility has 6 DVD lines and 18 CD lines. It Cwmbran, Wales site has 2 DVD lines and 21 CD moulders. It Foetz, Luxembourg facility has 10 CD lines. Around 65% of the company’s CD business is related to CD-ROMs. Technicolor (US), which is, like Nimbus, owned by Carlton International (US), has a VHS turnaround of 1.5 mil tapes daily.

The article elaborates on Nimbus’ manufacturing practices and future plans.
Text:
BY RICHARD BUSKIN

It is one of the world’s leading independent manufacturers of optical discs, with manufacturing distributed throughout North America, the United Kingdom and continental Europe. Its name? Nimbus.

Providing comprehensive CD and DVD replication services, Nimbus CD International has forged a position for itself at the technological forefront of optical disc manufacturing by means of never sitting on the fence and waiting for others to research, develop, test and de-bug. Behind the Nimbus name lies the kind of experience, expertise and innovative attitude that is required in order to carve out a niche in a highly competitive market.

Acquired by Technicolor’s owner, Carlton Communications plc, in July of 1998, Nimbus produced a combined total of more than 3.5million commercial DVD video and DVD-ROM discs during the 12 months following the format’s 1997 launch, and in May of 1998 the company became the first to master and replicate DVDs in production quantities in the UK. Currently it produces between 130,000 to 150,000 DVDs per day, while the daily total for CDs hits the million mark.

The Nimbus CD International headquarters are based in Charlottesville, Virginia, while there are additional facilities in Camarillo, California; Cwmbran, Wales; and Foetz, Luxembourg. Another plant in Provo, Utah, has recently been consolidated into Technicolor’s Camarillo setup. All except the Luxembourg facility have DVD capability – Camarillo has 26 CD lines and 5 DVD lines, Charlottesville has 18 CD and 6 DVD lines, and Cwmbran has 21 CD moulders and 2 DVD lines. For its part, the Luxembourg plant has 10 CD lines.

“Carlton wanted to establish itself as a dominant player in the optical field, and basically I think the Technicolor-Nimbus deal was a great mix,” says Nimbus’ executive vice president of optical media sales, Robert Headrick. Having joined Nimbus in 1993 following a seven-year stint with Sony, Headrick is now responsible for the strategic management of sales activities for all of his company’s DVD and CD activities within the home video, computer software and audio markets in the US.

“At the time of the acquisition, Technicolor was one of the largest video duplicators and Nimbus was one of the largest optical manufacturers,” Headrick continues. “Technicolor would have grown on its own, but I guess the growth rate wouldn’t have been nearly as much without acquiring a company like Nimbus, which had a very substantial customer base.”

Currently about 65 per cent of Nimbus’ CD business is ROM-based, and although the demand for its DVD services is growing in leaps and bounds, there is also a more modest need to invest in extra CD lines.

“Our DVD growth has been steady, consistent and rather large,” says research & development vice president, John Town, “and we’ve certainly been pleasantly surprised at the level of initial orders for the major titles.” Town started working for Nimbus in his native UK in early 1987, before taking charge of the mastering operation in America the following year. In 1993 he became a company director, and then rose to vice president of R&D in 1995, overseeing the CD, DVD and video formats. Technicolor is the world’s largest producer of VHS videocassettes, with a turnaround of 1.5 million tapes per day.

“The margins have definitely gone down with regard to CD,” Town continues, “but we’re still adding CD capacity. You see, the companies that are the most successful in the CD market are those that come up with the widest variety of services. Capacity is very, very important, and what with the Technicolor-Nimbus merger, the expansion from 8 to 26 lines in Camarillo leaves us very well placed to serve the major ROM clients as well as everyone else. Very few companies in the ROM arena have got more moulders than we have in North America.”

“On the audio side the CD industry is growing at an average rate of about 8 per cent a year,” adds Bob Headrick. “It’s growing nicely, and I don’t think it will flatten out as long as the artists continue to come out with new titles, which they will. At the same time, the CD-ROM side is growing at a rate of about 16 per cent a year, and at some point that will definitely be evolving into DVD. First of all it’s going to be the gamers, which require the most multimedia devices. A lot of titles now come out in multi-disc sets, and as the price comes down in terms of DVD hardware manufacturing and the software volume goes up then the transition will start.”

“There are probably only three companies in North America who are handling the majority of DVD production,” says Town, referring to Warner, Sony and his own organisation. “Certainly only they can offer a proper service level on DVD-9, so I think the challenges for the industry right now are going to be centred around approaching CD service levels with DVD-9 product. The sort of growth that is mapped out for the industry with the way that DVD is going and with DVD-ROM on the horizon, I think the main challenges are trying to manage that growth and just being able to support DVD-9 as it becomes the chosen format. Cost and efficiency are the important factors, and so I think most discs will be DVD-9, especially video.” That having been said, Town doesn’t believe that DVD is now going to take over and leave CD in the dust. “I think there is a lot of inertia in the marketplace, certainly in audio and in ROM, and so it will be a long time before CD starts to trail off,” he says. “I don’t foresee any significant drop- off in CD demand in the next few years. CD is probably going to experience limited growth during that time, and the companies that have the best cost structure and the best available services will be the ones that succeed.”

Bob Headrick agrees. “I don’t think CD will die for years,” he says. “That’s not only because of the price factor but also because a lot of CD-ROM titles now only require one disc, and so there isn’t any justification for jumping to DVD. It’s a two-edged sword. I think the gaming side and the multi-media entertainment side of the business will definitely migrate, and that’s a substantial portion of the CD industry in general.

“One of the things that we have been hearing for years is that products will start moving into sleeves as opposed to jewel boxes, and in some cases that’s happening on the OEM side because they’re trying to reduce costs. They feel that the software doesn’t sell the hardware and so they don’t need something flashy and glossy in order to sell their hardware. As a result, even though they are not taking over, sleeves are becoming more popular. Then there’s the packaging side for retailing, with the retailers pushing to have the developers package the products in smaller, more compact boxes with multiple platforms; in other words, anything they can do to reduce the overheads and increase the number of titles that are available.

“At the same time, on the video side, although people have invested substantial amounts in their VHS libraries, I regard the situation in the same way as I view cassette versus CD; people can see the advantages of DVD in that they can jump around without having to fast forward or rewind. There are a lot more opportunities and there’s a much better picture quality, and so I think the public in general is ready for the next step.

“DVD video is selling very briskly, but I don’t think that means people are going to get rid of their VHS tapes or their players, just as they haven’t got rid of their audio cassettes. It’s an evolution. The DVD video sales have shown that the American public is ready for the next step, and I think with DVD-ROM It’s going to happen in exactly the same way. In fact, when it gets going It’s going to be an easier transition, due to the fact that the entire library that people have of CD-ROMs is backwards compatible. Once it takes off It’s not going to take long for it to grow quickly.”

In terms of its production capability on the DVD front, Nimbus presently replicates in DVD-5, DVD-9 and DVD-10 formats, having been the first independent company to offer DVD-9 manufacturing back in May of last year.

“A major part of our strategy has been to offer the service level that we supply on DVD-5 with DVD-9,” says Town. “We invested early on in the DVD-9 technology, we had the technical expertise and we put the resources into it. You can’t do this with a cheque book. You have to buy the equipment and you have to make it work for yourself. There is no plug-and-play solution for DVD-9. We got in there early, we invested early, and we made sure we could make the discs for the large orders that came along. We have taken a 400,000-piece order for DVD-9 and we’ve made it on time.”

Of course, the lack of capacity on DVD-9 has also led to Nimbus taking quite a lot of orders for DVD-10 product. Yet, despite its cost efficiency, the lack of titles in the 8.5 – 9.4 gigabyte range means that the company in no way views DVD-10 as the format of the future. All of which paves the way very conveniently for DVD-18 and the handful of enterprising replicators that are prepared to take the plunge and utilise the new technology right from the get-go.

“We’re committed to it,” confirms John Town. “As an industry leader we’ve been first with just about everything on the independent scene – the first to make DVD-5, the first to make DVD-9, the first to do DIVX – and we want to be the first independent to offer DVD-18. We’ve identified a strategy whereby we can manufacture the discs in our Camarillo facility and put the manufacturing process alongside our DVD- 9 manufacturing process in what we believe is a pretty efficient manner. In fact, we think that manufacturing DVD-18 discs this year is absolutely achievable right now.”

Bob Headrick concurs with this prediction. “It is the next step,” he says. “Things have jumped so quickly from DVD-5 to DVD-9, and most industry analysts and manufacturers didn’t forecast that, so I don’t see that DVD-18 will be that far behind. DVD-18 is a completely viable product and credible technology, and we will be producing discs very soon.”

“Whether or not there will be a demand for this format, we just feel that we need to be in a position to offer these services to our clients,” adds John Town. “Certain types of product would lend themselves to DVD-18, no doubt about it, such as a three-hour movie for which you want both aspect ratios… I won’t tell that joke about going down with the ship if you can’t do it, but we all know the kind of titles I’m referring to!”

So what, I ask Town, are the technical hold-ups pertaining to the launch of DVD-18 right now?

“I wouldn’t say there are technical hold-ups,” comes the reply, “but I’d say there are definite technical challenges. Basically, the surface transfer process involves a technology where one of the plastic layers of the disc is stripped off and discarded, and one would imagine that being able to do that efficiently is the key difference between making DVD-9 and DVD-18. There is another step in there – starting off with two DVD-9s, peeling off the top side of both discs and bonding them together as you would with any other DVD-9 – and so the manufacturing process will be tighter and your success will be in no small part dependant on how good and how flat the original DVD-9s are.

“Nobody that we know of has published on DVD-18 yet, but of course a very well respected company has developed a solution for it – concept discs which I have held in my hand and tested. And I would imagine that, with the amount of publicity which this has received, they have put the researchers’ know-how into this product and it will fly. Similarly we believe that if they can make it fly then we can make it fly. We have the same technical capability, and that formed part of our decision in going for this.”

These days a quick tour around the trade shows makes it abundantly clear that, for the replicators, It’s largely a case of jump into DVD or jump out of the business. Most of the investment in technology reflects this, yet Nimbus stands out as one of the few major companies to have also expanded its CD facilities during the past year. Nevertheless, like its competitors, the company isn’t upgrading its existing equipment, converting CD lines to DVD.

“We’ve not chosen to go down that route,” says John Town. “I don’t think any of the major suppliers of discs are doing that. Anyone who’s a major player is buying new.”

“For us there’s nothing that we need to do as a manufacturer to upgrade anything for the audio market,” adds Bob Headrick. “We’re not getting out of it, we’re staying in it and we’re growing it, but we’re growing it along with CD-ROM. In fact, we’re seeing huge growth on both the OEM and the game development side, and it certainly isn’t even close to levelling off. We are continuing to develop the CD business even though DVD has really done well, and we’ll probably expand the DVD business more quickly now as far as hardware and manufacturing lines are concerned because of the growth that we have seen on that side.

“We are going to continue to add CD and DVD lines in order to be a front-runner on the technology side, with DVD-18 standing as a particular example of that. It’s really important for an independent such as ourselves to keep up with what’s going on and what the next big thing will be. After all, we took a gamble on DVD two and a half years ago long before anyone else beside Warner was totally into the new technology, putting our foot down and saying, ‘This is going to be a viable disc. It’s going to be a huge plus and we’re going to jump into it now.’ It’s all a case of having the right people here, making the right decisions, knowing what the next level is going to be and not waiting around, but being a leader.”

While Nimbus continues to broaden the turnkey and distribution side of its business, it is also setting its eyes upon expanding into other parts of the world. Inevitably one such territory is the huge Asian market, for which the specifics are currently being considered and discussed, although a precise location has yet to be confirmed.

“That’s the next big market,” asserts Headrick. “There’s so much distribution going on in Asia, and so it makes perfect sense for us to have a local manufacturing setup. There again, when I talk about expansion, that means expanding all of our facilities, not just the US, not just the UK and not just Europe, and so growth and a broadening of the services that we offer with regard to technology are our short-to- medium-term goals.”

As an independent setup that owns no content and therefore works only for third parties, Nimbus caters specifically to the needs of its customers. “You’re dealing with a wider market place,” says John Town. “You’re more in control of your business as opposed to having a bigger identified business out there controlling you.”

At the same time, this is a somewhat different experience for Bob Headrick when compared to that at his former employer, Sony, where there is a tie-in with Sony Music and Sony Pictures.

“Coming to Nimbus represented the complete opposite situation for me,” he says. “From our side It’s a plus being independent, in that you can go to all of the major studios and CD-ROM developers and basically sell your service without being bumped by a major release. If we were a corporate entity with our own artists, we would have to move other people out of the way in order to fit our own product in. For us It’s an advantage to go out and say, “We aren’t hooked to a major.” There are lots of studios out there that are not hooked to a major, and so It’s a huge plus to be able to sell ourselves as an independent. We’ll think twice about giving business to Warner or to Sony, because they have their own motion picture studios and there’s competition on the production side and the movie release schedules.”

Conversely, there are also unique pressures on an independent setup, not least because of the different strategic relationships within the film industry. Certain major companies have agreements with independent motion picture and CD facilities, and therein lies plenty of political manoeuvring.

“There’s always pressure,” says Headrick, “but I think to a certain extent pressure is good, because it keeps everyone on their toes and it has kept us on top. We’re definitely one of the top three – if not one of the top two – in the world for DVD and CD manufacturing, and there aren’t many independents who could even aspire to that.”

Copyright 1999 Miller-Freeman plc
Company Names: NIMBUS CD INTERNATIONAL INC; TECHNICOLOR INC (CARLTON COMMUNICATIONS PLC)
Concept Terms: All company; All market information; Capacity; Corporate strategy; Output
Industry Names: Entertainment; Recording
Product Names: Video tape production (781280)
Geographic Area: European Union (EUCX); Luxembourg (LUX); North America (NOAX); United Kingdom (UNK); United States (USA); Western Europe (WEEX)

TransWorldNews

transworldnews.com/NewsStory.asp…

Top book video producers combine forces in a joint venture that brings the creative and unique VidLit book videos to the top book video distributer and book trailer® producer Circle of Seven Productions.

Starting the end of May 2008 VidLit Productions will become a production partner in the Circle of Seven Productions network.  Circle of Seven Productions will offer a COS/VidLit and VidLit’s special author interview product called The Naked Author which combines an author interview and fun visuals.

VidLit Productions has a very unique and artistic video product that is unlike the video products that Circle of Seven (COS) Productions offers. “I’ve always been a fan of VidLit,” says COS CEO Sheila Clover English, “They have a very unique style!”  VidLit Productions started making VidLit videos in 2004 and have worked with authors like Meg Cabot and Bill Meher. VidLit first became well known after their VidLit for a book entitled Yiddish with Dick and Jane gained media attention and the video received over a million views.

Circle of Seven Productions, who have been making book trailers® since 2002 and have created hundreds of book videos for authors like Christine Feehan, Lisa Jackson and Margaret Peterson Haddix, are a multi award winning producer and the first to put book video into movie theaters.  Their products primarily involve using live action or stock footage while the VidLit uses flash animation and narration.

The two companies have been on friendly terms for years, sharing opinions on trends, distribution lists and contacts.  Since the video products of each company are so creatively different there was more to be gained by joining forces than by competition.  VidLit videos will still be made by the VidLit team, but the administration and primary distribution will be handled by Circle of Seven Productions. Clients who have VidLit videos made through COS will benefit by the combined distribution of COS and VidLit as well as a combined professional effort to identify the best practices for creating and distributing book video.  Liz Dubleman, President of VidLit shares, “Both Paca and I believe that, given the state of the business, everyone benefits from this co-operative arrangement.” Liz Dubleman and Paca Thomas are the masterminds of the creative VidLit video.

“This is an exciting venture that all of our clients will benefit from,” says English. “We have broadened our product base by offering COS/VidLits and The Naked Author videos. And we’re working with one of the top book video producers. Liz Dubleman and Paca Thomas have been doing these years. It’s an art. And they bring expertise that, combined with ours, will put us on top in the book video business.”

gothamist

gothamist.com/archives/2006/04/1…

M.J. Rose burst onto the publishing scene with her self-published first novel Lip Service in 1998. After garnering signicant buzz and selling over 2,500 copies, it was picked up by Literary Guild/Doubleday Book Club, and Rose has since gone on to pen five more published novels including In Fidelity, Flesh Tones and The Halo Effect. Rose is well-known for her journalism for publications such as Wired, Poets and Writers, and Pages and online presence, having authored How To Publish and Promote Online (with Angela Adair-Hoy) and Buzz Your Book (with Douglas Clegg), as well as maintaining the popular writing-related blogs Buzz, Balls & Hype, covering various aspects of the publishing industry, and Backstory, allowing authors to explore the motivation behind their work.

In fact, at times her own backstory (she’s been called the “poster girl” for e-publishing by Time) and work championing authors and covering the industry has threatened to overshadow her fiction, which would be a shame as Rose has been at the forefront of the brigade leading the erotica genre into the mainstream while infusing her own, unique perspective on the field. Her forthcoming novel, Lying in Bed, (out in June) about a woman who has a sexual awakening in the course of her job penning erotic love letters for clients, is the lead title in Harlequin’s new Spice line, and The Delilah Complex, part of her Butterfield Institute Series starring sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow, about a group of women who form the anonymous Scarlet Society, where they host parties with masked men as their willing sexual servants, is a nail-biting, fast-paced whodunnit that also delves into the psychology of submissive men. The third book in the series, The Venus Fix, tackles a topic seen in the news, with a twist, exploring teenage boys, online porn—and murder. Here, Rose tells Gothamist how she juggles fiction writing and blogging, what an author needs to do to stand out from the pack of 195,000 books published per year, how she chooses her reading material, and elaborates on new arenas for book promotion, the rich online literary culture, and what’s changed in publishing since she wrote Lip Service.

You’re the author of six published novels (with two more on the way this year) as well as two books about writing. What’s your novel writing process like? Do you write for a set amount of hours or pages every day, or do you just get totally immersed in whichever book you’re working on and not stop until it’s finished?
I work on one book at a time. And yes, I am immersed. Six days a week, for four to six hours a day. In between books I stop writing for as much as two to three months but during that time I do research and think, plot and plan the book. They always change as I write them, but I need to treat each novel like a journey and know where I’m going before I set off.

How do your blogging and online promotional activities mix with your fiction writing? While the former obviously is meant, in some way, to promote the latter, does the time it takes detract from your fiction? How do you balance the two?
I do the marketing/blogging after my writing. It uses a totally different part of my brain so it doesn’t seem to interfere. In fact, even when I’ve consciously tried to stop anything but fiction writing, I’ve found I still come up with ideas. I was in advertising for 13 years, so it’s hard to just stop thinking about it.

You write the book blog Buzz, Balls and Hype, covering various aspects of the publishing industry. What motivated you to start the blog, and what encourages you to keep writing it?
From 1999 on—until 2003—I covered publishing in a weekly column for Wired.com and wrote for several other publications—altogether writing over 150 articles. After I stopped, I found I missed it a little more than I thought I would and wound up unofficially posting a lot at Readerville.com in much the same capacity as I did in Wired. Then, late in 2004 when Michael Cader of PublishersLunch.com decided to offer a blogging service and asked me to be his first beta tester. It was a perfect opportunity.

You also run the blog Backstory, where authors share the history of their novels. Do you think having this personal behind-the-scenes peek at these writers’ thought processes helps readers connect with a given book? Do readers need that in order to feel closer to the author and their work?
The blog isn’t about process. It’s about what inspired the novelist to write the novel. I think that’s the single most often asked question a writer gets from his/her readers.

You claim that 195,000 books are published every year, and that they can’t all get reviewed in the New York Times. That number seems so huge, and my immediate reaction is a bit of sadness knowing that I’ll never be able to read as many books as catch my eye and may appeal to me. So first let me ask, what do you read for fun? How do you decide which books you’ll read or won’t read?
Well, that number is about half self-published and half traditionally published, just to keep the record straight. And it’s sad and wonderful at the same time knowing that while it’s tough to get noticed, there is enormous opportunity for authors.

I decide what to read in three ways:

1. I meet a lot of authors and try to read the work of people I meet and like.

2. I browse a lot and am attracted to covers that imply the novels have something to do with art or certain historical periods. In those cases I read backcover copy and a few pages of the first chapter. I read the blurbs too—some you can tell really are sincere and they tend to influence me.

3. I read a few blogs and occasionally will read a description of a book I’ll get.

I have favorite authors from a lifetime of reading, so there are some I’ll automatically read every time they have a new novel. Included in them: Robert Goddard, Jeffery Deaver, Sophie Kinsella, Katherine Neville, Greg Isle, Laurie King, Lee Child, Lisa Tucker, Susan Howatch, Paul Auster. Barry Eisler, David Hewson, Tracy Chevalier.

Are there certain types of books that get less press coverage? Does it depend on being with a small press versus a large one?
Generally, the bigger the PR and marketing budget the more the press seems to pay attention. But there is reason for optimism. There are a lot of books from the smaller presses that get coverage. Soft Skulland Hard Case Crime—for instance—are two small publishers that get press.

What can authors do to make sure they get the most publicity possible? Do they need to be more proactive?
It’s tough. It’s not why we became writers. It’s not what we know how to do—or even in my case—I know how to do it—but it’s not what I want to do. I left advertising to be a novelist. I didn’t want to stay in the biz. But here we are.

Generally I think writing is an art and publishing is a business and the day you get a deal you stop jut being an artist and you also become a businessperson. So should we be proactive? It’s up to each author.

The only thing you have to think about is: You can sit back and let the publisher do what they will, but if they don’t do enough and if the book disappears, you’ll always wonder—what if I tried? Would it have been different? I can tell you that authors who get involved the right way can energize a publisher into doing more.

Speaking of publicity, last year you heavily promoted VidLit, a new way of spreading the word about books where viewers could watch a short video promo for your book, The Halo Effect, or other books. How did that go over, and what do you see as the next frontier for book promotion online?
Book trailers like Vidlits (vidlit.com) and interviews done through companies like Booklook.tv are fabulous vehicles—think of them like commercials. They are exciting and communicate the flavor of the book or the author really well. The trick is to realize that just having a great commercial in the can doesn’t do you any good unless you make a wonderful media buy and get people to see it.

That’s not easy. It’s why in the fall of 2005 I created Authorbuzz.com. It gets the word out about videos, reviews, and author contests—to over 330,00 readers, 10,000 librarians and 1200 booksellers. It’s an affordable channel—and the first of its kind.

You recently took umbrage at a Slate press release claiming there’s a lack of literary culture on the web and are even sponsoring a contest where readers write in about their thoughts on the topic. How would you characterize the literary culture on the internet, and how has it grown since you first started covering the topic?
It’s rich, it’s abundant, it’s vital, it’s revolutionary and it is currently more important than print or TV combined when it comes to books. What TV shows offer a literary culture? How many magazines? Even The Atlanticpulled its short stories out of every issue and put them in one issue a year now. Reviews are down in traditional media over 50% from where they were five years ago. There are over 60% fewer short stories and excerpts of novels than there were in top magazines five years ago. It was laughable to me that Slate even suggested that. I’ve been on line since 1995 and the literary culture gets richer every year. As for what the early days offered—Beatrice.com and Bookreporter.com and TheWell.com were there then. And more ezines that posted poetry and short fiction than I can even name.

You self-published your first novel, Lip Service, to great acclaim, and it was later picked up by a major publisher. Do you think it was the erotic nature of the subject matter that made it so tough for you to get it published in the first place?
No, it was how much of a cross genre novel it was. It had some suspense but not enough to be called suspense, it had some erotica but not enough to be called erotic, it was slightly literary but not enough to be called literary fiction. I remember being enough of a neophyte to ask my agent why they didn’t just call it a good book if the editors all liked it that much to write asking for another novel that would be easier to market. Ten years ago—which is when my agent shopped it—psychological suspense wasn’t a genre. I believe there would be no problem selling it now.

What would you recommend to an author who’s gone through rejection after rejection and is at their wits end as to what to do with the novel they know is brilliant but isn’t getting picked up? Would self-publishing or serializing online be advantageous, or should they keep sending it out?
I’d write a second book. I wouldn’t self-publish in this environment until I’d really tried to get more than one book published. There is just so much fiction being self-published it’s getting harder and harder to break out.

You’re now working on the Butterfield Institute Series, starring sex therapist Dr. Morgan Snow. How did you come up with the idea for the series, and what are the constraints and pleasures of writing a series versus a stand-alone novel?
I’m actually doing both a series and some stand alones—we’ll be alternating them. And the reason for that answers your question. I love the series and coming back to the same characters and following them. It’s reassuring to me, comforting the way old friends are, I know who I’m going to be living with for the next ten to twelve months. But writing two Morgan Snow books back to back is very hard for me. I need the excitement of a whole new cast of characters. And by the time I finish the stand alone I’m anxious to go back to the sex therapy.

As to how I can up with the idea—since you asked—it’s at my blog Backstory!

Do you use an outline when writing a thriller? Is it clear from the moment you conceptualize the book “whodunnit?” What’s the most challenging thing about writing mysteries?
I have a very short, two page outline. Writing a novel is, for me, a journey and I need to know where I’m going to wind up. I don’t need to know every stop on the way.

The most recent book in the series, The Delilah Complex, involves a secret society of anonymous dominant women and submissive men, and a murder mystery involving them. How much research did you do into the psychology of dominance and submission? Because that was one of the best parts of the book to me—you getting inside the heads of these characters.
I research everything in these books. And when I’m done with the last draft, I have a top NYC therapist read them.

Are you trying to make a statement about sexuality in our culture with these books, or are you simply telling a story?
My goal is to tell a story. But I’m only interested in writing about people who have strong ideas and feelings. So I wind up writing stories that do make some statements.

As erotica becomes more and more mainstream, I feel like that is a sign in and of itself that people are looking for authentic stories about sex that speak honestly about sexual impulses, even within the framework of a clearly fictional story, so I’m wondering if you see that as having a cultural impact. Why do you think erotica has become so big in the last five years?
I’ve read a lot of history and the desire for the authentic stories is nothing new. Human beings always look toward stories about other human beings in order to understand themselves. And we want stories about all aspects of ourselves. Including our sexuality.

The difference is:

A. These days in publishing when publishers see a sales bubble up in any area they all jump on it. Think about how every publishing house started a chick lit line when they thought that was what readers wanted. So this erotica craze is because of the sales bubble of the last few years in the erotic area.

B. And the reason I think there has been a sales bubble in erotica is because of the internet.

With Lip Service, the publisher sold about 25,000 copies in stores. But the Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild offered the book via direct mail and sold twice that number. People wanted to read something erotic but not necessarily ask the salesperson in the store where the erotic section was. Or which one of the two dozen titles on the shelf was better.

So I’m not just saying the net is someplace to buy erotica without anyone seeing you do it, the net is also someplace to read about what erotic fiction is out there, read reviews of it, and read excerpts of it.

As long ago as 1998, that I know of, hundreds of websites like Cleansheets and the Erotica Readers Association were instrumental in this, offering readers hubs where the could go to discover what was new and what was worth reading.

You also have a new one coming out from Harlequin’s new Spice line of erotica called Lying in Bed.Can you tell me more about that and your inspiration for it?
It’s about a woman who writes erotic letters for other people to send. A sort of erotic Cyrano De Bergerac, which is the inspiration for the novel.

What’s next for you?
I have two novels coming out this summer. Lying in Bed in June and the next book in the series The Venus Fix in July.