Happy New Year!

By Holly Lisle

I’m posting my New Year’s Resolutions again. You’re invited to post or link to your own, so that we can see what we’ve all got planned.

My resolutions come in very few flavors for the coming year—last year was a great education for me, and some things turned out better than I expected. What I have below are what I discovered worked for me last year; when I moved away from them, things went wrong. When I stayed true to them, things went right.

The objective this year is to do what I’ve found works and stay on my path, written out below.


MY RESOLUTIONS

TAO, which includings FAMILY, WORK, and SPIRIT

  • Chop wood, carry water.
  • Give thanks each day.
  • Be here now.
  • Look for lessons.
  • In all things, be the river, not the stone.

HEALTH

  • Breathe consciously.
  • Move with intent.
  • Each moment is its own victory—no past failures, no future glories.
  • Continue to eliminate all milk products.

WRITING

  • Do every project first and foremost for the love of it.
  • Work first.
  • Simplify the day.
  • Remember that rest, too, has a purpose.

What are you resolving to do?

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Looking Toward the New Year

By Holly Lisle

My goals for the year coming:

=================
Before the end of January

Finish novel crit for Writer X
=================

=================
Before the end of MARCH

Finish RUBY KEY
Write 50 pages and synopsis for Editor A
Write three chapters and synopsis for for editor B

(These are all solid, must-do goals)
=================

=================
Before the end of the year

(Will happen)
Finish the re-revision of HAWKSPAR, probably but not necessarily before the end of April (waiting on revision letter from editor)
Write the second MOON AND SUN novel (about 60,000 words)
Write the Create A World Clinic (est. 40-50K)

(Speculative at this point—Read as Chinese menu)

Option A
Sell and write REDBIRD (third stand-alone Korre novel) with Tor and Anna (est. 130K), plus one other item from one of the other menus

Option B
Sell and write another paranormal for Penguin and Claire (est. 90K), plus an item or two from other options on the menu.

Option C
Sell and write Refugee for Editor A (est. 150-200K)

Option D
Sell and write two or possibly three pseudonymous novels for Editor B (est. 120K to 200K combined)

Option E
Sell and write Create A Plot Clinic and Storyshowing Clinic and possibly Finish the Book Clinic (est 150K combined)

Option F
Write “C” or “Project Blue” or one or two other novels I have as on-spec novels

Option G
Some complicated combination of two or more of these options.

Remembering all the while that ‘the best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.’

So…

You made any plans for the new year?

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

By Holly Lisle

christmascard2006-sm.jpg

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


2YN: The Two Year Novel–Year 2 now available

By Holly Lisle

2YNY2-Two Year Novel, Book 2I’m delighted to announce the arrival of the second and final volume of Lazette Gifford’s standing-room-only 2-Year-Novel course. Buy today, read today!

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Thank you

By Holly Lisle

I’d like to take the time to thank each of you who has faced out a copy of Talyn at your bookstore, or bought a copy for yourself or someone else, or recommended it to a friend or a bookseller. I apologize for being so distracted by garbage that I haven’t taken the time to say this properly.

It’s been an unpleasant week or so—most people probably think I should have just ignored the whole Little tempest, but I believe that someone who has been lied about has the moral obligation to defend his innocence. However, as noted by one commenter, anything you say when someone lies about you will only convince the people who want to believe the lie that it was justified, and that sort of hostility is no fun to deal with. While I know that I had to go on record correcting the lies, I acknowledge (and knew beforehand) that this whole thing would have sunk from lack of interest if I had let the lies stand.

You folks have been huge bright spots for me with this garbage, as well, and I want to thank you for that, too. Your support and encouragement, as well as your help with Talyn means more to me than I can say

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


Anyway….

By Holly Lisle

Initially my concept for Refugee was as a contemporary crossover fantasy.

However, my agent made a very good comment about the way the beginning of the thing didn’t work, and in figuring out the new beginning, the project metamorphosed into a high fantasy.

The new opening? On her wedding day, a princess whose marriage will seal a peace treaty between two nations is dragged off to her temple and stabbed through the heart by a dagger during the workings of a spell meant to throw both nations back into war. Only the spell goes wrong, and the magic that was to have given the traitors casting the spell immense power ends up keeping the princess alive instead, but landing her in an unknown location in her new world. And leaving things very messy back home.

I’ve never written a princess before—I generally use regular folks as protagonists in my stories. But I think this could be huge fun.

Work is going well. Will be back again as I’m able to find time.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved


DearAuthor.Com Behaving Badly

By Holly Lisle

The charming correspondence I have had with [the pseudonymous] Jane Little at DearAuthor.com, who believes frank lying about someone is a protected form of free speech.

You’ll notice that in this entire exchange, I have never threatened Ms. Little once. I have never suggested suing or seeking to have her site shut down. I have, in fact, done nothing but ask for a much-deserved apology and a retraction.

—–Original Message—–
From: Holly Lisle
Sent: Saturday, December 09, 2006 10:52 AM
To: jane@dearauthor.com
Subject: Contact from Dear Author Website

Holly Lisle wrote:
To whichever Ja(y)ne wrote “Holly Lisle Hates the Chains”:

It does astonish me that, since you not only misrepresented what I said but flat-out lied about it, clearly with the intent of damaging my livelihood, and I pointed this out clearly, you have neither printed a public retraction nor an apology.

You do owe me both.

Holly Lisle

Website: https://hollylisle.com/


On Dec 9, 2006, at 12:06 PM, Jane wrote:

Dear Ms. Lisle

We will be printing neither a public retraction nor an apology.

Under the laws of defamation, libel is only considered to be actionable when the statements that were made were untrue, not a omment/opinion, or otherwise privileged.

The quotes were taken directly from your blog post and the statements that were made on the DearAuthor blog were either true and/or opinion which is protected free speech.

Further, for a public figure such as yourself, the bar is much higher for proving defamation by requiring a showing of actual or legal malice, depending on the jurisdiction.

If you have specific parts that you believe were not accurate, feel free to point those out and we will take that into consideration.

Thank you,

Sincerely

Jane Litte


—–Original Message—–
From: Holly Lisle [mailto:holly@hollylisle.com]
Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2006 10:21 AM
To: Jane
Subject: Re: Contact from Dear Author Website

On simple lies made by you which are clearly contradicted in my post, Ms. Little, I can carry the burden of proof all damn day. Witness:

1. to state “Holly Lisle Hates the Chains”. Flatly false. I never said it, I never implied it, and the fact that you managed to infer
it only compounds the extraordinary number of other lies you told in the same article. All listed below.

2. “Lisle says that her career is being killed by Chain Bookstores.” My statement, in fact, was exactly the opposite. “I’m not in danger of having my career killed at the moment,” from the first post in the series.
https://hollylisle.com/writingdiary2/index.php/2006/11/29/the-tonk-need-rescue/

3. Next flat-out lie: “In Ms. Lisle’s fantasy construct, the white hats are the Indie Booksellers and the black hats are the Chain
Booksellers.” My exact words were “To understand why chain bookstores are the Villians of Bookselling.” Unless you are in fact
a bookstore, you were not figured anywhere in my equation, and neither was any other bookseller.

4. Next lie: “Amongst the dark lord’s sins are the failure or refusal of the bookseller in the chain to read the book; to want to respond to the market (ie promising sales); or even to actually want to sell books.” What I said was: “The computer spits out the fact that Midlist Writer’s New Novel sold 900 copies, so Corporate Buyer, who almost certainly hasn’t read the book, hasn’t talked to a single reader about the book, and looks at the book as no different than Cans of Tuna, Brand A, will order 900 copies of Midlist Writer’s Next Novel.” You are not a corporate buyer, either, so neither you nor any other bookseller was insulted by this —and neither were corporate buyers, who do skim some books, but who mostly listen to pitches from publishers’ sales representatives, and who, as a result, regard about 99% of the books the purchase as simply product. They have no emotional involvement with them.

5. Your next lie states that I suggested indies were a good sales point for romance: “Gandalf’s minions, the Hobbits, cheerfully
handsell all books. They never scoff at a romance readers inquiry about midlist authors like Caroline Linden or Carla Kelly. They never deem romance books as trash; instead the Hobbits value all the book readers the same.” My words were: “In an indie bookstore, a human being will notice that five copies of Midlist Writer’s New Novel sold out of six ordered. Indie Owner will say, “Wow. That’s excellent.” Indie Owner will reorder, say, three or four or more copies, and he or one of his booksellers might read the book, may suggest it to people who he knows to like that sort of thing, and when supplies run out, will reorder it again so that copies stay on the shelves.” I said nothing whatsoever about romance. Romance, and Wal-Mart, Target, etc., are completely irrelevant to my discussion because publishers have to pay about a dollar a copy to put books in the racks at those venues, and the specific book I was talking about, again introduced the previous post, which you clearly did not read, is a FANTASY novel, and in MY world, Wal-Mart, Target, etc. don’t exist as markets at all because MY book, which is fantasy, will never have a shot at those readers. Mentioning them is pointless.

6. Next lie: “Lisle goes on to say that Local Chain booksellers do not order books once they run out in the store and that they are
prohibited from doing so and that midlist books have no chance of selling more than their original order.” What I said was: “Even if
they are not, though-even if Local Chain receives seven copies and sells six, Local Chain WILL NOT REORDER THE BOOK unless it sells above a set number chain-wide. Most midlist novels are ordered in quantities too small to ever reach this number, and unless a miracle happens, are essentially stillborn. From the day the first copy of the first novel ships, these series have no chance (barring the aforementioned miracle) of selling more than their initial order.” Again, unless you personally are a local chain, you are excluded from this portion of the discussion, as is every other human bookseller, because here I am discussing the chains’ automatic replenishment system, which most books NEVER qualify for. Never do I state OR imply that booksellers are prohibited from reordering books. And most midlist book don’t have any chance of selling more than their original order. There are too many books and simply not enough human booksellers in the system to overcome the computerized order-to-the-net algorithms that destroy so many careers. You state: “A book may be re-ordered according to the discretion of the local chain bookseller,” and this is absolutely true. Out of all the books in the fantasy section, how many have you personally gone to bat for? Are all the booksellers in all the chains going to bat for that same book? What about all the fantasy novels you never got around to reading—any chance one of those might be worth saving?

7. Next lie: “Bookstores, says a manager of a local chain bookstore, receive arcs and promotional items from authors to help cull their book from the pack.” “Perhaps Ms. Lisle should have spent time cultivating relationships like those.”

I have.

8. “I find it hard to believe that an author whose sell through rate is 90%+ could ever lose a contract with a publisher.” Believe. If
you had read the post clearly, you’d find that even though the first book sells through at 90%+, the second book is ordered in lower
numbers, “to-the-net”, and therefore gets proportionately less shelf space, and leaves readers who bought the first book not finding the second, and does not sell to readers who cannot find the first, and therefore has a lower sell-through. And the percentage worsens for the third book. All three books can have wonderful reviews from readers, from reviewers, and the third can even be repeatedly called the “best book of the series” and there will be no contract for a fourth. I’ve been through this cycle with four publishers now. In each case, the computerized “ordering-to-the-net” system has decreased numbers that should have grown, and has eventually led to me moving to yet another publisher, yet another segment of the genre, and even to yet another genre.

9. Last lie: “Pretty sure that when you call Indie Booksellers the HEROES and Chain Booksellers the VILLIANS that your words were taken and consumed appropriately.” Never said it. Never implied it. In the economies of scale with chain computerized replenishment and ordering to the net, the human component, the bookseller, isn’t plentiful enough to make a difference for more than a handful of writers. Lora Leigh may have gotten her miracle, but Barry Hughart, a World Fantasy winner, didn’t. He never got a second chance. Alis Rasmussen, who eventually got a second chance as Kate Elliot, didn’t. And so far, I haven’t either. And neither have hundreds of other good writers whose books were never lucky enough to catch a bookseller’s eye.

The post was about ordering-to-the-net (which is why that was its title, actually), and in your entire dishonest rant about me, you
never addressed the ugly realities of ordering to the net to those of us whose careers don’t have a Wal-Mart to save us.

I still think both a retraction and an apology are in order, and I think I’ve presented enough facts to back that up.

Holly Lisle


From: jane@dearauthor.com
Subject: RE: Contact from Dear Author Website
Date: December 10, 2006 5:17:37 PM EST
To: holly@hollylisle.com

Ms. Lisle

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately, we have a differing opinion on the law that governs free speech and the limits imposed by the doctrine of defamation. As I am sure you are aware, the Supreme Court of the United States has required those bringing an action for defamation to prove that there is something more than opinion that is being challenged. Additionally, you know that commentary and interpretation is considered protected. If you decide to pursue this, I would rather discuss this matter with your attorney rather than engage in a continuing discussion of what the law permits regarding opinions.

The only “fact” that I see we have mistaken is regarding the health of your career. We will certainly print an apology and retraction in the following form. I will post this tomorrow morning.

Holly Lisle has contacted me and accused us of engaging in libel. She has claimed that we have lied and misconstrued her original post in the post that was published last week. We suggest that you readers, if you have any question in your mind about what she said, read her blog posts here and here. Dear Author does not believe in succumbing to intimidation and threats. We know that the First Amendment and subsequent case law interpreting the First Amendment protects us from challenges to our right to post our views and opinions. We remain committed to protecting this site from censorship and from any attempts to stifle our legitimate voice.

We did get one fact wrong. In the original post, I stated that Holly Lisle’s career was in danger. Holly Lisle has kindly informed us that she is in no danger of having her career killed at the moment. I suggest that all readers who feel so compelled to read her books can feel comfortable getting them at a Used Bookstore or their library or borrowing it from a friend or other reader through a source like paperbackswap to test out if Lisle’s writing is to your liking.

If you wish to post the below itemizations, I would be happy to link to that as well.

Best

Jane Litte

All articles in this series, in order:


Hughart, Rasmussen, and little guys versus the juggernaut

By Holly Lisle

My question in the Bookseller Furor post about what happened to Barry Hughart and Alis Rasmussen was rhetorical. I know what happened to both of them; I was oddly involved in both writers’ careers.

Barry Hughart was the brilliant, World-Fantasy-Award-winning author of Bridge of Birds and its sequels, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen. I came into this story late. I’d read and loved all three books and hated the fact that there was no fourth.

My then-husband, ironically a Waldenbooks bookseller and one of the best hand-sellers I’d ever met (this was, in fact, how we met), my then-publisher, and I were at dinner, and over dinner, the conversation wandered to who in writing was good, and my publisher asked me who I thought he ought to buy. I don’t know if this is something he routinely asked authors, but I know that I didn’t even have to think about my answer.

I said, “Barry Hughart.” I described the books, the awards, the brilliance, and the fact that he wasn’t currently writing for anyone, and my publisher shrugged.

“Couldn’t sell him,” he said. “His numbers got eaten by the chains ordering system, and I couldn’t get them to order anything new in by him in numbers large enough to be anything but a loss for me. Maybe if he changed his name…”

As for Alis Rasmussen, she and I had the same first publisher, (though at different times). She did one book with him, then pursured a more lucrative offer from an editor at another house. She did a most excellent trilogy for that editor, and it died by the chains order-to-the-net policy. Her career was dead under her own name. I met her after she’d changed her pen name to Kate Elliot, and was selling Jaran, another brilliant book. We shared a signing table at a Waldenbooks, and because traffic was painfully slow, had plenty of time to talk. At a later date I recommended her to my then-agent, and he loved her work, and took her on, and moved her to DAW, where she broke out in no uncertain terms—deservedly, and after years of having her career beaten to pulp by the same computerized ordering system that hurts most of us.

It’s a David and Goliath story, told over and over again. Anyone who isn’t King, Koontz, or Nora Roberts has fought with it. And while many people root for and stand up for the underdog, there are as many—as witnessed by the angry chain booksellers currently rubbing their hands gleefully at the prospect of stripping my books, who think if the giant is a giant, it must be because he’s good (and who will hotly defend even the giant’s basest practices, even to the point of lying about those who point them out), and who truly believe if little guys get crushed under his feet, it is the little guy’s own damn fault. And by the readers [same to links, read the comments] who fervently believe that if the writer’s books do not survive, it is because they don’t deserve to.

It’s a good reminder for any of you thinking of pursuing a career in this business.

All articles in this series, in order:


And after a furor by chain booksellers

By Holly Lisle

It would be lovely if people would learn to read what was written, or would perhaps not so closely identify themselves with their jobs that they believe a hostile comment about a bad corporate business practice was a hostile comment about themselves.

For the record, then, to those of you who are chain booksellers:

Read what I wrote, dammit, and not what other sloppy readers tell you I wrote. Someone actually had the balls to state that I hate chains, putting words into my mouth that were never there. Idiot. And to state baldly that I said chain booksellers are evil, which I never have and never will. (Actually, there’s a term for what that writer did when claiming I said things I did not say, and it isn’t “idiot,” and it would best be explored by lawyers.)

No, I don’t think chain booksellers are evil. Good Christ!

But the practice of buying books to the net, WHICH IS WHAT I WAS DISCUSSING, AND ONLY WHAT I WAS DISCUSSING, is destructive of careers and books and futures, and chain employees’ employers at the highest level are involved in that practice. If dedicated chain booksellers can overcome the corporations’ bad business practices by overriding computerized ordering in order to keep good books from disappearing from the shelves, then do it. We’ll cheer them for it. Having watched many wonderful series that started to great acclaim and died because of the practice, including several of my own, however, I can tell any reader now that however many chain booksellers there are out there who are actually paying attention, handselling, putting favored books on Our Picks Shelves, and everything else, it still isn’t enough to stop the tide that has killed so many wonderful careers.

As yourselves, what DID happen to Barry Hughart, and why didn’t anyone save him? Or Alis Rasmussen with her earliest works?

I can tell you exactly what happened to THE WORLD GATES, and ARHEL, and THE SECRET TEXTS.

Ordering to the net.

You may, if you like, call me a terrible person for having said it (though be goddamned careful not to put words in my mouth that I didn’t put there myself when you do it), but that does not make what I said untrue, and it does net magically transform selling to the net into some brilliant bit of corporate goodness. It is what it is.

All articles in this series, in order:


Rare for a while

By Holly Lisle

The Christmas season and all of its attendant hoopla have landed with a reverberant thunk at my house. With an astonishing number of things to do, and no where near enough time to do them, I have to make time where I can. So I’ll be hard to find here for the next few weeks. I’ll post as I can, but won’t be back regularly until after the first of the year.

I hope your season progresses happily, and that you can be with those you love and those who love you.

Contents © Holly Lisle. https://hollylisle.com All Rights Reserved