Back in early 2006, there came a point in my Voynich research when I suddenly realized that I knew enough to set sail. Though I didn’t have all the answers (history is rarely so extravagantly generous), at that moment I could see what happened clearly enough to tell the whole story. That quickly formed into The Curse of the Voynich, which took me a little over six months to research & write, and which I’ve had fun self-publishing and selling ever since.
Over the last few days, I’ve come to realize that I’ve now hit precisely the same point in my more recent research, and so am ready to tell an even bigger cipher mystery story. It has lots of faces and places Voynich researchers will find familiar, but plays out on a much grander historical stage. For now, let’s just call it “Curse 2”.
For Curse 1, I freely admit I was neither an experienced enough writer to give the story the treatment it deserved, nor a big enough fish for literary agents to be interested in. But fast forward to 2012 and the picture is quite different: loads of people have bought my book, 900+ blog posts have sharpened up my writing, and I’ve even been on TV. 😉
But this leaves me in a bit of a quandary.
For example, part of me thinks I should get an agent and negotiate a deal with a big publishing house – I’ve got a great story (not too technical, mind) to tell that is universal enough to stand an excellent chance of going into lots of languages and markets, making a right proper splash. However, I’ve heard that royalty advances for writers have basically gone all homeopathic, particularly if you don’t happen to already be a Named Celebrity. 🙁
Another part of me thinks I should take Curse 2 to the point of publication and only then do a deal with a publisher: I loved the cover Alian Design did for Curse 1 (even if it did blow the budget), so I have enough publishing experience to present that as a complete package. But if I can self-fund it that far, why not then go all the way?
A yet third part of me thinks I should abandon print completely and publish direct to Kindle and other e-readers, i.e. not bother with mainstream publishers but find a neat book PR company to help me get the word out big stylee. And when that’s a big enough success, only then take the print route. Incidentally, while reading a lady’s Kindle over her shoulder today (Fifty Shades of Grey, the bit about horse tranquilizers in the van? But I digress!) on the train, I noticed that there were more e-readers on view than actual books. It’s certainly reached a kind of Kindle-y tipping point in London now, it would seem.
(Though I would add that I went through all kind of hassle trying to port Curse 1 back onto a Kindle, and ultimately gave up because the pictures came out so abysmally. Perhaps doing the Kindle version first would make the print version much easier to do?)
The fourth option I thought of was to instead write it as a screenplay, and sell it to Hollywood: certainly I can see John Cusack in the title role, with Hilary Swank as his pregnant ex-army wife, and Judi Dench as his insane mother… but I’m digressing again. 🙂
Basically, I’m asking you this: what direction should I go in with Curse 2 All comments, hints, suggestions, agents’ contacts and fifth options gratefully received! Thanks! 🙂
What, nobody’s jumped onto your bandwagon yet? OK — I say go for it! But not with Kindle or Ebooks. I’m ready to put my money where my mouth is: Go with your own Compelling Press — and sell your new book (soft-bound, large print) with a banner advertisement right here on your own pages.
PayPal? Come on Nick fans, give our host some feedback!
Maybe Thames and Hudson publishing house?
They did a great job with Joscelyn Godwin’s publication (which I’ve mentioned a couple of times already).
I’ve just checked my bookshelves, and discovered that I have eight books (both hardbound and softbound) published by the New York branch of Thames and Hudson. I reiterate, not “everyone” likes to read literature via electronic gadgets.
So, Nick, do you forgive me (my loud mouth and overbearing ways)?
Nick,
It depends what you really want.
If you want to make a living from publishing, go with it.
If you want scholarly attention – get the book pre-tested by as many dons as might be willing. If it would merit an MA in history, you’re in with a decent press.
But if you secretly believe it makes a better story than history text – sure, go for film. If Josh Weiden might take it on – he does brilliant dialogue and filming in Aus or NZ is pretty cool.
How do you want to be thought of in another 20 yrs’ time?
or – here’s another idea about which I know nothing. Why not publish on a separate, monetised blog? No idea what sort of royalties it would bring, but – wouldn’t that be easy? AND people could read it on their phone or pad.
No, no. Not a film. A TV series (mini if necessary) which you then continue getting paid for from DVDs and re-runs.
Make sure the contract says you write the music and/or lyrics. Apparently that’s where the real gold is got.
Nicely costumed. Has to be BBC. Oh yes, definitely the way, I’d say.
… um.. this is about the fifteenth century, I suppose? Vms?
agent spiel is “Sherlock meets Lucretia by Spooks’ light”?
Seriously, Nick – if your book explains the Vms, I do hope you get the widest possible audience, an honest agent and a better reward than most publishers offer these days. The ‘spiel’ was tongue-in-cheek, but I do think detection, historical glamour and intellectual exercise are rarely found together and the Vms has them all. You have my best wishes.
patience pays off
I suppose if you can get a decent publishing deal that could get your book a wider distribution, it’d be nice but given niche appeal self-publishing might be better especially given better royalty rates/structure.
Not sure about UK but there are on-demand printing companies in the US (I think Amazon owns one too) so you may be able to forgo having to order set number of books.
Personally, I do most reading on my Nooks (eInk and Color) and an iPad so I’d love an electronic version, especially if you can incorporate color photos 🙂
Hi Nick,
Here is my take on the Kindle: I have both a Kindle and an iPad. The Amazon App allows all the Kindle material to be read on the iPad. I am an amateur photographer and have found that densely illustrated photo books, while miserable on the Kindle, are a delight to read on the iPad. I would think this would be an ideal medium for your book and would certainly buy it in this format.
Keep in mind who is most likely to read the book. The target audience. Is it the Kindle readers or the traditional readers?
Print on demand makes sense because if a hit there, it will go in the mainstream…
Nick:
Would it be within the realm of possibility if you, Rene Zandbergen, Rich SantaColoma, and Reed Johnson were able to collaborate with your next publishing effort?
I’m volunteering as “proof-reader”!
One more Q from me (for today, at least): What if your publication were in the form of a CD/Rom, that could be read by the user in the comfort one’s own computer? I’m currently downloading, one a time, some 200 files that my brother-in-law CDROM’d to me so that I can type out each file and add it to the family’s history file. (The history goes way back to 1200’s in Europe/1600’s Canada and US (NOT quite the Mayflower, but….)
Wonder no longer why I sign off as “beady-eyed…… %…
…in the comfort OF one’s…..
…one AT a time…
See what I mean about automatic proof-reading? In the future I shall proofread a little more stringently BEFORE hitting “send”!
Heh!
Is the manuscript still just as “cursed”? Mebbe more of a “Mixed Blessing” (?) Proposed advertisement:
Nick Pelling’s Compelling Press’ “Mixed Blessing” (?)
🙂 (beady-eyed wonder without her eyeglasses)
You should stay with self publishing and turn your micro-press into a small press. I guarantee you would have an interesting slush pile!
I suggest launching a Kickstarter campaign. Decide how much it would cost to achieve all you desire for it to be realized in Print and Digital forms, then get a Kickstarter for it. You can offer So many awesome Cipher related goodies to those who make donations.
A note via a friend in publishing.
A standard clause in most contracts says that the author gets no royalties from remaindered copies which are sold at lower than rrp.
Less reputable publishers (so I’m told) hold on to the majority of copies, unless the sales go stratospheric, and then ‘remainder’ the majority, selling through the chains of remainder-shops. So for six years’ work you might get very little indeed, and even (in some cases) have to surrender your copy-right to the publisher as part of the initial deal.
Sobering.
Addendum:
Best course – friend suggests – is to begin by finding a very good distibution agent who will advise on format, and may also refer you to a private editor.
Then advertise a subscription-based publication, printing only that number. (This also attracts collectors of limited editions and costs you nothing upfront in printing costs).
If you want to then, the income can be invested in a good *distribution* agent, who’ll get the book into their list of bookshops, but for that you’d need to keep a number pre-printed and pref. with a different cover design from the subscribers’ limited edition.
Doing things this way maximises your profit, and limits your liability to loss, while allowing you to hire the necessary experts. (all above is quoted).
I’d guess that as sales in the shops rose too, the chances would be that you’d be given a decent number of respectable offers and could negotiate a contract to suit yourself – but that’s my own unqualified opinion.
I’m with Ivan Y. Your subject is awfully niche – getting a publisher to do a print edition under standard terms might be really hard. But you have a good presence on the Web. I’d go for an e-edition. Amazon has a profit-sharing deal. There may be others.
If you do a limited edition, I’m in!
With regards to Kickstarter, I don’t know if this type of book is fundable (I’ve backed almost 150 projects). Most books don’t get a lot of funding and it’s kind of a presale anyway.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all the book-related comments and suggestions, so many that it’s hard to know where really to begin.
Kickstarter is a great idea (all caveats noted), as are e-editions, numbered/signed short print runs and moving from a micro-press to a small press. The limitations of the Kindle for pictures is a wall I’ve already slammed hard into. 😐
Arguably an even bigger issue is what Tonio raised to do with audience. Having thought about this for a few days now, my overall conclusion is that I don’t really want to write a second niche book. For all its occasional imaginative forays into historical reconstruction, Curse 1 nonetheless remained extraordinarily dense and technical, and probably too d&*n hard for most people to read comfortably: probably not something to reprise stylistically. So the question comes down to this: how can I write Curse 2 in a way that tells a complex historical narrative without sacrificing every shred of precision or logical argumentation and that people can still read on a Kindle standing on a suburban train? That’s a properly tough writing challenge…
Perhaps Avi’s point that “patience pays off” is perhaps the one I should address most. Hmmm…
Thanks for all your help! Cheers! 🙂
You might consider a trilogy
Part 1 the historical narrative
Part 2 fitting the subject of interest into that narrative
Part 3: the really technical cipher bits and index.
If it’s pre-planned, you’ll sell heaps of (1) as historical adventure story
a fair number of (2) to the Voynicheros – if that’s what its about
and (3) to specialists and people like me, who can’t resist indices.
Why not make it into a game for iOS and Android?
As previously stated:
Go with your own Compelling Press — and sell your new book (soft-bound, large print) with a banner advertisement right here on your own pages.
People interested in real books WILL buy a real book, digital media formats can be added…
Nick,
I know London is a pretty big town, with quite a crowd of spectacular writers, but you’d probably get some good advice from at least two of them. Vanora Bennett, author of “Portrait of an Unknown Woman”, may still be writing a weekly column for “The Times (London) website. As a birthday present for me, my husband bought the deluxe first edition of her book. I mean Deluxe! Later editions of the same book were Penguin soft-bound but sturdy, and at a reasonable price of $14-$15 US/Canada.
Two others of my favorite writers are Susan Vreeland and Tracy Chevalier. They both are also published by the “Plume Books” division of PenguinViking. Their retail prices were $14-$15US/$20Canada.
Viking/Penguin has offices in London. It couldn’t hurt to maybe get some advice from the ladies and/or their publisher.
Last, but not in the least, is non-fiction writer Russell Shorto “The Island at the Center of the World” – ‘The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan & The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America’
Among Shorto’s retelling of Henry Hudson’s disappearance is “the rest of the story”: Hudson and his 16-year-old son were put into a dinghy, with no food, water, or means of delaying their freezing to death.
Russell Shorto’s book also was published softbound. Shorto’s acknowledgements runs to four pages. I kinda wonder what kind of acknowledgements you would have to make if you publish “hard copy”! Heh!
And then there is Patricia Cornwell: “Portrait of a Killer”, ‘Jack The Ripper-Case Closed’
Basically, Ms Cornwell spent millions of dollars on her investigations and purchases of various works of art. Fascinating reading, even if a trifle gory. Remember – Jack left a note (cipher mystery) at one of his crime scenes.
Nick, I will not weigh in on the format or various publishing options but only make a few suggestions as to content. I like the way you have prised out various clues from the VM as to date and place, like the use of parallel hatching in the art work, the naming (or renaming?) of the signs of the zodiac, castle architectural details like those merlons, etc. These are scattered around and sometimes buried in a pile of posts at your various blogs. Why not pick out the best and review the work you and others have put in to date? It would be a series of topics related to the VM decipherment and and get into the peripheral arcania and sometimes extraneous weeds that all true Voynichers seem to love, like the history of the telescope. It could also include the very latest work on dating the vellum and chemical analysis of the colorants. Title suggestion: “Exorcising the Curse of the Voynich” Cheers, Tom
If you set up some way to pay online, I’d buy it as a pdf and print or not.