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Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: September 9, 2016

Many authors feel that the only “real�� way to publish is to go through the well-established method of querying an agent, having your agent pitch to publishing houses, and then signing a deal where the author pays nothing and gets an advance from the publisher. This is called “traditional�� publishing �� or trade publishing for short. In this article I’d like to give some idea of what this industry really looks like from the inside.

Note: I’ll be focusing on the North American traditional publishing world as it’s where I work and what I’m most intimately familiar with. This article will talk about the publishing side of things –the next article will talk about the bookstores.

First of all, as the CEO of a small press, , let me explain what the traditional publishing model is from the publisher’s point of view. This is how it works:

1)I pay you, the author, money up front for your IP (the manuscript);

2)I pay a bunch of talented folks to edit, design and otherwise get this book ready for market;

3)I pay to prepare an amazing sales pitch to either my distributor (for the big American bookstores) or to the book buyers themselves (here in Canada and to independent bookstores);

Note: the chances of any particular title on my list (such as yours) actually getting picked up for a major, nation-wide buy, is slim at best �� despite all my efforts as publisher to make it irresistible;

4)I pay to print the book and ship it to all the places who want to sell it;

5)I pay to market the book in various ways;

6)Four months after the book launches, bookstores will start to actually pay me for the books they’ve bought, less their 40-65% discount �� BUT, bookstores have the right to return, for full credit and at any time, any books of mine which haven’t been sold to customers.

So it’s a lot of money up front, and the only path for revenue starts to pay between twelve and twenty-four months after I’ve signed you, and those revenues are unreliable at best.

What a stupid business model!

But that’s how traditional publishing works. And woe be to anyone who suggests to the establishment that maybe we should re-think some practices. That’s the way it’s always been, and damn your eyes if you think it’s going to change! (More on this when I talk about self-publishing and hybrid publishing in later articles��)

I hope this enlightens you to why publishers operate the way we do. Every time we sign a new book we’re committing ourselves to considerable financial risk. So when we look at submissions, we’re of course looking for excellent writing, but just as important we’re looking for a book which we think we can make enough money selling to at least cover our risk (to say nothing of making a profit). Call it cold and hard, but if publishers don’t make money they go out of business, and then they don’t publish anything anymore.

The North American traditional publishing industry is dominated by the Big Five. These are New York based publishing groups which together control about 80% of trade publishing sales. They are:

Penguin Random House
Harper Collins
Macmillan
Simon and Schuster
Hachette

All of them have multiple publishing imprints �� for example, you as an author may sign with the publisher Morrow, but Morrow is just a division of Harper Collins �� and most publisher names you might recognize are just small components of the Big Five. Each of the Big Five is in turn owned by a larger business group, many of which are actually based in Europe, and none of the Big Five represent the majority of sales for their parent company.

You will definitely need an agent if you want to deal with these publishers. Each company produces between 1000 and 15000 new titles a year, so there’s plenty of opportunity for authors, but keep in mind that you’re competing against thousands and thousands of other aspiring authors, plus thousands of established authors, too.

The Big Five bring with them the clear advantages of dominant market share, powerful lobbying abilities and vast pots of money to throw at books they want to support. Most best-selling authors come from the Big Five. For an excellent summary of the current (and shaky) financial positions of the Big Five, please have a look at this recent article by Thad McIlroy at.

As almost (but not really) a side note, Amazon is considered the Great Satan by the traditional publishing industry. And Amazon is now doing its own traditional publishing through its imprint Thomas & Mercer. We might need to talk about The Big Six before too long��

Beyond the Big Five, there are hundreds of small presses and micro presses. They can produce anywhere from one to a few hundred new titles each year, and many specialize in their favourite niche or genre, so be sure to research this before submitting your manuscript to them. Small presses often deal directly with authors, but agented submissions are also usually welcome. Small presses pay much smaller advances than the Big Five, so agents aren’t always interested in dealing with small presses as they get a percentage of whatever advance they negotiate for their author.

Small presses can be advantageous for a new author as it is marginally easier than with the Big Five to get your manuscript reviewed. Another advantage is the care and effort a small press will put behind its titles �� it only does a small number each year, and the likelihood of a blockbuster is slim, so the publisher needs to ensure that every book does at least reasonably well in sales. However, small presses have much less access to major bookstore shelves and cannot afford (or even execute) huge marketing campaigns.

It’s pretty clear that the traditional publishing industry is in trouble. Sales are mostly flat, there are a lot of mergers going on and with the rise of online selling and ebooks the traditional sales routes (ie, through bookstores) have been seriously disrupted. Self-publishing, although derides as “vanity publishing�� by most trade professionals, is also becoming a noticeable threat because traditional books now have a much larger field of competition online, stunting sales growth online even as traditional bookstores are reducing their orders (more on that next time).

Originally published at .

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: August 25, 2016

Last week I flew to the far-off land of Kansas City, Missouri, to partake in what many science fiction fans consider a pilgrimage: I went to the annual World Science Fiction Convention �� otherwise known as World Con.

Home of the Hugo Awards �� which continually fight it out with the Nebula Awards for rights to call themselves the MOST PRESTIGIOUS science fiction literary awards �� World Con is a pretty big deal. I packed all my geeky shirts (Dr. Who, Firefly, Stars Wars and Game of Thrones), brushed up on my nerdy arcana and arrived with camera phone ready to capture all the cosplay and crazy stalls selling everything from Pokemon stuffies and Sailor Moon dresses to real-life broadswords and actual chainmail.

Now I’m not a fresh off the applecart kind of con-goer. I’ve been to local cons, like VCon in Vancouver, and I was thrown way out into the deep end with the massive Phoenix Comicon last year. So having seen the extremes, how did World Con compare? It was big, but not labyrinthine. It had some quirks, but nothing zany. I got a few compliments on my shirts, I saw some cosplayers and a few, modest stalls selling artwork, jewellery and books, and I don’t think I ever once got into a furious argument with anyone about whether Kirk acted recklessly in Episode 47. (We universally agreed, however, that Han Shot First.)

So in the end, I was comfortable meeting World Con somewhere right in the middle on the SF convention spectrum. There were lots of people, and lots of fun, but nothing to make a casual onlooker get spooked. And there was plenty to do, from morning walks with the stars (famous authors) to the evening Bar Con events. There was the Hugo Awards ceremony itself, of course, but most of each day was spent going from one fascinating panel discussion to another. These ranged from the presentation of full-on academic papers (on anime, no less!) to fan-led discussions on the popular legacy of Star Wars.

I myself mediated a very entertaining panel called “We Don’t Need Another Hero�� and participated on two others. “Political Worldbuilding in SF�� was an��intellectual discussion to a standing-room-only audience where we examined the creative process of building the future or alternate world which supports the story. In contrast, “What’s New in the World of Dinosaurs�� was a raucous affair, also to a full house, where five SF authors tried to present ourselves as somehow knowing something more than our audience about dinosaurs. There wasn’t a paleontologist in sight, and probably a good thing, too.

For me as a relative newcomer to the professional author scene, it was a thrill to be able to mix it up with some of the biggest names in science fiction. George R.R. Martin, Greg Bear, David Brin, Joe Haldeman, Cory Doctorow and William C. Dietz are just some of the shining stars in the galaxy of talent I had the chance to meet.

It was meeting all these authors, and seeing how they were the real centrepiece of the week, that made me realize what really distinguishes World Con from the mega-cons like Comicon and Dragon Con. World Con is all about books. Yes, TV and movies are welcome, but World Con has never forgotten the fact that it is a literary celebration. It exists to bring together the fans of books and the authors who write them. This is very special, because it’s easy for books to get out-glamorized by the visual spectacle of Hollywood, HBO and Marvel. At the other big cons there is always a literary element, but you have to look hard to find it amidst all the TV star autograph sessions, exclusive releases of the next superhero movie, and legions of stormtroopers in the corridors.

All this worked to create a comfortable, collegial atmosphere for everyone at World Con. Famous authors could walk freely in the exhibition hall and the conference corridors, mixing easily with fans and creating an accessibility and intimacy that is impossible to replicate at a mega-con. I myself, as a fairly junior member of the professional club, was welcomed as a peer �� there was no “pecking order�� of A-List celebs and then the rest of us.

So, World Con gets a thumbs-up from me. It was big enough to draw in the industry’s heavy hitters, but still small enough that I would bump into the same folks each day. Call it the Goldilocks of cons. I look forward to our next encounter.

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: August 10, 2016

One of the biggest challenges an author faces in today’s publishing landscape is just trying to understand what’s what. Taking money from authors has become a billion-dollar business in the past ten years, and there are all kinds of terms floating around out there. As authors unravel one scam after another, the charlatans and pirates are forced to repackage their scams with fancy new terms.

But to make matters much more complicated, not everyone out there charging money is a scammer. Many of them offer legitimate, valuable services which authors are well-advised to consider. Even those authors dead-set on traditional publishing.

So which is which? And what’s what? This article is going to attempt to offer some clarity.

Traditional publishing:

Also known as “trade�� publishing, this is the old school method of getting books to market �� it hasn’t changed much since it was established in Edwardian times. The publisher pays for all the production and distribution costs and in return owns the rights to the book and keeps 90% of the revenue. The author is usually paid an advance on royalties. The publisher will have a sales team who actively sell the book to bookstores and they will probably have a marketing team who will promote the book in the month leading up to launch.

The publisher carries all the financial risk and is motivated to sell as many books as possible in order to make money.

The strengths of this model are:

Books are rigorously curated, usually ensuring that the quality of writing is very high;
There is a team of professionals working hard to ensure that the book is excellent in all aspects;
The publishers have the best access to brick and mortar bookstores and other major distribution channels;
The author gets paid for their book and does not have to contribute financially to the project.

The weaknesses of this model are:

It is very hard to get in �� bordering on impossible for an unknown, first-time author;
It is driven fundamentally by economics, not art, making it very difficult for unusual or ground-breaking books to get accepted;
It is utterly dominated (in North America, at least) by the Big Five publishers in New York;
Each book has only one shot at the market �� if it fails, it is relegated to the backlist and forgotten.

Examples of traditional publishers are (one of the Big Five) or my own (a small press).

Self-publishing:

This is a relatively new way to publish books, brought about mainly through the development of three key technologies: print-on-demand (POD) printing; ebooks; internet selling. In this model the author retains all rights to the book and pays a self-publishing company to do many of the things a trade publisher would do. The self-publishing company will “publish�� the book �� although in reality, it will merely list the book on bookstore and distribution databases. It is important to note that a self-publishing company has no sales team or marketing team and they will make no effort to pitch or promote the book to bookstores.

The author carries all the financial risk. The self-publishing company makes all its revenue from the fees authors pay up front and has no stake in the ultimate success of the book. Because of this, there is no quality control by the self-publishing company �� their business model is based entirely on quantity, not quality.

The strengths of this model are:

The author retains full control over the final form of the book;
The author retains all rights to the book;
The author receives a high percentage of revenue from sales;
There are no barriers to entry beyond cost.

The weaknesses of this model are:

There is no quality control �� this industry has justifiably earned a reputation for producing junk �� and therefore it is harder for an author to be taken seriously in the market;
There are a lot of false promises made to uninformed authors;
There can be a great deal of “opaqueness�� and the author can struggle to know what’s actually happening with the book;
There is no access to brick and mortar bookstores.

Examples of self-publishing companies are and .

Hybrid publishing:

This is a middle-ground method of publishing, trying to take the best elements of trade and self-publishing and create a new way. There are very few true hybrid publishers, and it can be difficult to distinguish them from self-publishers who cloak themselves in names like “partner publishing�� or “assisted publishing��.

The author and publisher both make a financial contribution to a hybrid project and share the revenues more equally than in trade publishing. The publisher has the same sales and distribution access to bookstores as a trade publisher, and they will have a sales and marketing team dedicated to supporting each book.

The financial risk is shared between author and publisher. Both parties are dedicated to selling as many books as possible in order to make money. The publisher does not profit from author fees �� rather, anything an author pays goes toward producing and distributing the book.

The strengths of this model are:

1)usually ensuring that the quality of writing is high;

There is a team of professionals working hard to ensure that the book is excellent in all aspects;
The publishers have access to brick and mortar bookstores and other major distribution channels (but often not as good as trade publishers);
It is more accessible for new authors than trade publishing;
The publisher will usually promote a book longer than a trade publisher will.

The weaknesses of this model are:

The author usually makes a financial contribution to the production of the book;
It can be very hard to determine from the outside whether a publisher is truly a hybrid or just a self-publisher in hybrid clothing;
The author will have to do much of the marketing after launch;
Some industry groups (such as major awards and grant-giving organizations) consider hybrid to be self-publishing and do not recognize it as legitimate.

Examples of hybrid publishers are and .

(Full disclosure: Promontory Press has done some hybrid contracts in the past in addition to our traditional contracts.)

Author Services:

This is a recent industry trend which developed from the backlash against self-publishing companies. As authors become more informed and comfortable with the self-publishing landscape, there is less and less need for “hand-holding�� by a self-publisher. Self-publishing is much easier for authors than it was even five years ago and there is a growing demand from authors for greater transparency and control over their books.

Author services are simply that: individual, tailored services offered for a price with no ongoing commitment to (or interference with) the project. There is no “publisher�� besides the author. There are thousands of contractors who offer their paid services to authors (editors, cover designers and website designers are the most common) and in this landscape it is very much a “buyer beware�� for the author. Most contractors are honest and talented, as ultimately it is their reputations which will sustain their businesses in the long term.

The advantages of this model are:

The author has complete control over every aspect of the book;
There is more transparency than with self-publishing;
The author can pick and choose exactly what services he or she wants;
There is no “hard-selling�� from a self-publishing company to buy more services.

The disadvantages of this model are:

The author has to act as project manager of the book;
The author has to be very discerning about which contractor is signed;
The author carries all the financial risk;
There is no access to brick and mortar bookstores.

Examples of author service companies who provide a wide range of services are (owned by Amazon) and .

Examples of distribution providers (for the author looking to publish without an intermediary) are , and .

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Originally published at .

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: July 1, 2016

The centre of all publishing is the author. Without the author, there is no art form. There are no manuscripts for agents to pitch, no covers for publishers to design, no books for stores to sell. Without the author, the publishing ecosystem would not exist.

So why is the author at the very bottom of the food chain?

If you are an aspiring author, or are just musing on how you’d like to one day write a book �� welcome. My name is Bennett R. Coles and I’m an author. I’ve been traditionally published through New York, I’ve self-published my way to awards, and I’ve even tried out that mysterious new “third way�� of publishing, hybrid. I’m still active as an author through Titan Books, but I also happen to be the publisher at a small (but mighty) publishing house called Promontory Press. This dual role gives me a fairly unique perspective on the industry, but in my heart I’m always an author first.

So�� you want to be an author. Awesome. The very first question I’m to ask you, though, is this: why?

There are plenty of valid reasons to want to be an author. Perhaps you’re an angst-ridden intellectual desperate to steer the collective will of the people toward a greater tomorrow. Perhaps you’re happiest when writing and nothing would give you greater pleasure than to share your words with the world. Perhaps you have a business which could benefit from having a companion book which can offer value to people over time and serve as a high-quality business card for you. Or, just perhaps, you’re naturally good at writing and you want to make a ton of cash from your skillset, no matter what the genre or style. These are all good reasons to write, and all equally valid, no matter how different from each other they might be.

But, the approach to publication is very different for each one. Before you set out on a publication path, take some time to really ask yourself what motivates you. Are you an artist first, or do you just want to get rich? Is the book a means to an end for you, or is it the end itself? Most people will feel that they have a bit of everything in their motivations. I mean, who wouldn’t want to keep their artistic integrity while raking in bazillions of dollars in author royalties, proud of their book as an accomplishment all on its own while recognizing that it supports something greater. Sounds good to me!

Unfortunately, the reality of publishing rarely winds up being so generous. If you are an author who really has something to say �� be it a political position or just a specific genre of fiction �� you will likely find yourself fighting to even get your work read by publishers hungry for market success and wary of outliers. Likewise, if you’re just writing whatever the market demands for a bunch of cash, don’t hold out a lot of hope of winning any awards or changing the world.

What I’m trying to say here is this: before you even start to think about which publishing route to investigate, be honest with yourself about what really matters to you as an author. Here are some typical writing goals which you should weigh:

Money �� would I still write if it paid almost nothing, or am I doing it to make serious money?
Fame �� do I want to be mobbed at writing conventions, or would I rather remain unknown?
Validation �� is it important that I be taken seriously as an artist, and if so, by whom?
Motivation �� is writing this amazing thing I do that I love and draw great energy from, or is it more of a job?

Likewise, here are some skills which most modern authors need. Do an honest assessment of yourself for each, either at your current level or what you honestly think you could develop into:

Writing new and original stuff versus formula fiction, academic works or business writing;
Working with an editor and potentially seeing your book changed significantly;
Talking to strangers;
Being involved in social media;
Being able to actively sell yourself and your book;
Marketing savvy.

All of these skills are required by both the traditional and the self-published author �� the only difference is degree.

In this series, A No-BS Tour of Modern Publishing, I’m going to explore the ins and outs of the publishing world, but I’m always going to bring it back to what it means for the author. As we move forward, I encourage you to really take some time and ask yourself the questions above. I’ll do everything I can to break down some publishing myths and provide some solid info, but in the end different authors (and their books) can be genuinely better-suited to traditional or��self-publishing. The most honest you can be with yourself, the better chance you’ll make the best choice for your own career.

Originally published at .

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: June 23, 2016

Once in a generation, a motion picture masterpiece comes along which changes the way we think about the world. Warcraft is a visually stunning, epic drama which confronts the challenging issues that face us today as a society. Racism, environmentalism, the corruption brought by power and even parenthood are vividly explored in this thought-provoking work. If ever there was �� a�� single ��

BAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I’m sorry, I can’t type any more with a straight face.

This movie is based on a video game, people! A mighty fine game in its day, to be sure, but a game built on the premise that there are good guys (humans) and bad guys (orcs) who just kill each other on sight. Not a lot of social commentary going on there. But really, what did you expect?

My biggest disappointment with Warcraft was that none of the characters actually spoke like the cartoon figures in the game. I really, really wanted a peasant to look up and “Yes, milord�� Awright,�� before shuffling off to gather resources. And I wanted every knight to say “For the king,�� in a deep, booming voice whenever he was clicked.

Despite these variations from the game’s canon, however, the folks who made this movie did manage to create a pretty entertaining couple of hours for the audience. Now, let me be clear. I went into the theatre with my expectations set even lower than they were for Jurassic World, and consequently I was totally in the right headspace for what Blizzard Entertainment served up for me.

Genuinely stunning visuals, more action than you can shake a severed arm at, and a thunderous musical score that just kept the blood pounding �� that is what Warcraft delivered. And I think it’s fair to say that’s exactly what it promised.

So�� Maybe Warcraft loses a few marks for artistic genius, and I doubt it will ever be studied in film schools. But it was entertaining as anything, and on a scale of 1 to 10 for taking a 90’s video game and turning it into a feature film, this baby is dialled up to 11.

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Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: March 11, 2016

There's been a lot of media hype on both sides of the border this week due to the official visit of Canada's new prime minister, Justin Trudeau, to Washington DC. It's been fun to watch, but I'm actually a lot more impressed by an announcement that was made last week - Canada has reached its goal of receiving 25,000 Syrian refugees. So yes, I'm happy that the Canadian and American leaders are getting along again - it's been a while - but ultimately leadership is about substance, not glamour, and I'm happy to say that Prime Minister Trudeau is scoring high.

First, an important clarification. I didn't vote for Mr. Trudeau's Liberal party in the last election. I was as surprised as anyone when he won a majority government. But when he did, I accepted the news graciously and said to myself, "Okay, the people have spoken. I'm willing to give this kid a chance, but he better live up to all the hype."

So he's been in office for a little over five months - has he accomplished anything? Well, actually, yes. Quite a lot. He restored the long-form census, reversing a ridiculous decision by the previous PM to try and blind the federal goverment to national trends. He made the environment a major priority again, conducting perhaps the fastest, biggest reversal of national policy on a major issue I've ever seen. And good thing, too, because the environment matters. He pulled Canada's jet fighters out of the bombing campaign on ISIS - maybe I didn't agree with that one so much, but at least he kept his campaign promise. He created a government cabinet of unprecedented diversity and relevant experience - you know, like a Minister of National Defence who was actually a soldier, and a Minister of Health who was actually a doctor - and stood strong in front of scathing criticisms by the right over the fact that he hadn't created a cabinet of the usual gaggle of old, white, male lawyers.

Oh yeah, and in the midst of an epic humanitarian crisis he pledged to take in 25,000 Syrian refugees - and then actually made it happen! Quickly. Efficiently. Effectively. That's 25,000 lives saved - men, women and children - without even a wrinkle to our national well-being.��

Times are tough for a lot of people in Canada and the US. The economy is still sputtering, jobs can be scarce, debts are high, and there is a lot of uncertainty and fear. But in just five months Mr. Trudeau has shown that it is still possible, in these tough times, to remain positive, intelligent and compassionate. The troubles that we face here in North America are NOTHING compared to the troubles faced by the millions of people who've had to flee their homes in Syria. We have so much - they have nothing. For us to share just a little bit of our wealth and safety with them isn't a noble act: it's a basic act of human decency. I lived in Syria in 2003-04 and I saw first-hand the wretchedness which life there could be, even before the civil war. Trust me, our problems here in Canada really aren't that bad.

A lot of American politicians don't seem to see this - they'd rather focus on the relatively minor local challenges here at home and blame foreigners for it. They use refugees as a bogeyman to get their own people angry and scared.

And, I'm sad to say, there is a strong right-wing sector of Canadian society who are doing the same thing. And I'm not sure how much of this radical sentiment is genuine anti-immigration (ironic, in a country made up 99% of immigrants) and how much of it is just a knee-jerk, childish backlash against anything Mr. Trudeau does. His predecessor, Steven Harper, was a master at creating fear and scorn against anyone who disagreed with him, and it seems his ten years in office succeeded in creating an entire section of Canadian culture who want to keep that negativity going. Facts don't matter, it seems, and there's no place for compassion when fear and hatred are socially acceptable. If Justin did it, it's the worst thing ever, apparently.

So I didn't vote for Mr. Trudeau, but man, am I happy that he became Prime Minister. In five months he's done more good for Canada and for the world than Mr. Harper did in ten years, and most of all Mr. Trudeau has remained consistent to his campaign attitude of leadership through positive, intelligent collaboration. In the US, President Obama has struggled for eight years to remain positive against a tidal wave of Republican obstructionism, and the insanity of the GOP primaries is the result of that long acceptance by the right of extremist, knee-jerk attitudes.

So to the 25,000 newly-arrived residents in Canada - including those here in my neighbourhood - I say welcome. I'm proud of Canada for standing up and doing the right thing for the people of the world, and I'm proud of our prime minister for making it happen so quickly.

Mr. Trudeau, I had a lot of doubts, but you, sir, have impressed. Keep it up.

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: September 23, 2015

Getting reviews online is one of the biggest things an author has to look forward to. It's also one of the biggest things an author can dread. With my own recent release of Virtues of War with Titan Books, I've been amazed at some of the reviews that have been posted by folks around the world.

Depending on who you ask, the book is��"crisp", "solid", "thrilling" and "timeless" - or "sexist", "bloodthirsty", "confusing" and "just plain bad". Some folks can't wait for the sequel, while others apparently burned their copy.��According to some I am a "new master of the genre" and according to others I am things��better left untyped.

Wow. Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride for an author. Now, I can certainly take solace in the fact that Virtues of War is averaging 4.6��out of 5 stars on Amazon.com (44 reviews) and 4.05 out of 5 on ŷ������ (115 ratings). So the vast majority of people like the book, and many folks have said really nice things. So maybe I should just read the good reviews and ignore the bad ones?

Many authors I know say flat-out that they never any read reviews of their own works. I can see the wisdom in that. Reading the bad reviews of Virtues of War, it's interesting to note that many of them say things like��"too much sci-fi" or "too much military". This suggests that perhaps the reader just isn't into the genre which I write, and for that I can certainly feel comfortable in making no apologies. If you don't like military or sci-fi in general, then you may not like my book. Because it's military sci-fi. And I'm pretty sure that's clear by the cover.

The comment "I didn't like the characters" - and there are a few, with varying degrees of venom - is a more interesting comment. My characters are complex, and most of them do bad things at some point or another in the story. But that doesn't mean I as an author condone their bad actions - I'm writing a story which involved conflict. My��central character, in fact, does some very bad things in Chapter 1 - and there is even one Amazon review which suggests the reader was so offended by this that they threw down the book and didn't keep reading. This is is real shame, because that reader has now missed out on discovering how the main character hates what she did, and how her bad actions have real, terrible implications for both herself and for all of humanity. The entire story hinges on those bad things she did, in fact. That's the drama, but it takes a bit of time to play out.

Another review, this one from ŷ������, slams the book for being sexist. That shocked me. Sexist? Seriously? Both my main protagonist and main antagonist are strong, complex women who are anything but the stereotypes this reader tags them as. Two of the most powerful (and admirable) supporting characters are senior military officers who are��also both women. Reading the review I got the sense that this particular reader - who is a man - went into the book with some sort of sexist chip on his shoulder and was just looking for reasons to criticize. I don't know. Maybe he just didn't "get" what I was writing. Maybe he just sucks. Or maybe I'm just being oversensitive.

And that's the point. As an author, bad reviews really do affect me. The overwhelming majority of reviews and ratings for Virtues of War are positive - but it's the negative ones which I remember most. I understand that not everyone is going to like my writing, and I'm professional enough to let those opinions stand alone without any sort of direct response from me. But that doesn't mean I'm not affected by them.

So, if you're an aspiring author, brace yourself for the fact that sooner or later there will be a reader who hates what you've written. And the internet being what it is, that reader will hold nothing back in condemning your work in full, gory detail. Be ready for this, because it's going to hurt no matter how many awesome, glowing reviews you get alongside the bad one. And then move on - just keep doing what you do.

Are those bad reviews going to change how I write? Not one damn bit. I'm sorry that those particular readers didn't enjoy��or appreciate my novel, but it's what I wanted to write and it's what I'll continue to write. There is an audience for my particular style of writing and the particular philosophies I explore therein, and it is for those excellent folks��- and for myself - that I write.��

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: August 7, 2015

Virtues of War, my military SF novel, was re-released just over a month ago by the traditional publisher Titan Books. Having self-published Virtues myself way back in 2010, I was quite curious to see how the two processes differed. Well, now I've had��my first glimpse.

First and foremost, traditional publishing takes a LOT longer than self-publishing. This isn't due to any laziness or inefficiency. It's due to the fact that there's a whole industry involved now, not just the author, and every player in the industry needs their own time. Bookstores need to be pitched the book four months prior to launch; reviewers needs to receive the book six months prior to launch; sales teams need to be briefed��on��the coming book ten months before launch, so that they can in turn pre-pitch the bookstores and get them excited about the real pitch coming next season... This is all for real, and it's all good stuff. But my goodness it takes a long time.

Around launch date itself, I as the author felt pretty good, because my publisher worked hard to get me some interviews with noted SF sites, and had me write a few articles on SF topics for publication. A bunch of major reviewers came out with their reviews of Virtues of War around that time - all good, I'm happy to say - and for about six weeks prior to launch I felt like centre of my publisher's universe.

Then launch date itself arrived. There was no gala event, no big announcement. It was more just the day when all the efforts for the past ten months sarted to pay off. As the author I was excited, but also a little frustrated because I couldn't really tell how well the book was selling. Other than checking the Amazon sales ranking each day (which is itself a pretty blunt instrument) I've been completely in the dark about whether the book is selling well or not.

And all that support from my publisher I was enjoying? Gone. Silence. Once launch day was upon us, the publisher's work was done. And I can't really blame them, because Titan puts out new books every month, so everyone's focus had now shifted to the books coming out in August. Virtues of War isn't forgotten, but it's no longer their priority. And it probably won't ever be again.

So to all those authors out there who wonder what it's like to be traditionally published, or who are wondering how it compares to self-publishing, here's my little snapshot of the short period around launch date itself. I received excellent support from my publisher, but now that the book is out I'm pretty much on my own. At least, until Book II is getting ready for launch.

Roll on March 2016...

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: June 23, 2015

It's nearly launch time! After eighteen months of self-imposed exile from the public, Virtues of War is being relaunched through Titan Books, bigger and better.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited. And nervous. I've done two book launches as an author before, but never at the scale of this one. In a sense it's very much like a rocket launch - everyone in the team has done their job well, and every preparation has been taken, but all we can do now is watch and wait. If everything works it will be spectacular: if everything goes wrong it will be over with swift brutality.��The book is on final countdown for launch in the UK on June 27th, and in North America on June 30th. My dear friends in the Antipodes will have to wait until August.

For me, these next few days are going to be like the week before Christmas, as I try to think about anything besides the launch but quietly countdown the sleeps. I wish I could write something witty and profound to express my feelings, but all I can come up with is:

"Blaaaaahhhhh! I wish��it was next Tuesday already!!!!"

So there you are, words from the deepest depths of an author's heart.

We are GO for launch. Commencing countdown.

Author: Bennett R. Coles

Date: June 8, 2015

Last week I attended my first Comicon. It was everything I imagined it would be, and more.

Four days of crowds, costumes, cat-calls, conference rooms, celebrity sightings and, apparently, comics. All in the desert heat of Phoenix.

I was privileged to attend as an author, and my publisher made my new novel, , available at the Comicon bookstore a full one month prior to the official launch on June 30th. The salesman in me couldn't help but tell everyone that this was a "world premier exclusive" for Phoenix Comicon, even if my life really isn't that grandiose...

I was on five author panels, and meeting my fellow SF authors was no doubt one of the best experiences of the whole trip. It was great fun to compare techniques and experiences, and my summer reading list is suddenly a whole lot longer. But most of all, it was good to connect with other folk who do what I do. Writing is a solitary profession, and most of us aren't that sociable to begin with, so getting thrown together en masse and told to be nice to each other was a breath of fresh air from the daily, solitary seeking of my muse.

The cosplay throughout the Con was amazing, of course, and it demonstrated to me just how much schtuff is out there in the speculative fiction world. I certainly recognized many Star Wars characters, as well as various iterations of Doctor Who, and I'm pretty sure I know what Sailor Moon looks like now. But then there was all the other costumes��- who on Earth were they? Sitting at an author signing, I discussed with delightful fellow author����the need for an app where you can take a photo of a cosplayer and then your phone will tell you, based on, say, colours and silhouette of the costume, exactly who it is this cosplayer is dressed as. Somebody needs to make the app, please.

Wandering around the vast exhibition hall helped me to understand exactly what kind of geek I am. Everything for everyone was on offer, but I consistently found myself drawn to booths offering two kinds of things: Star Wars (of course) and little models of ships. My kids and their toys have been providing��my Star Wars fix, but clearly I need more little starships in my life. Who knew?

All in all, an exhausting but very fun event. Highly recommend. Five stars. I'll be going next year.