Publetariat

An Indie Call To Action

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Most of us indie authors talk a good game about how there are plenty of quality indie books available, and how there are plenty of terrible mainstream books. We also like to complain about the lack of variety and originality in mainstream book offerings as compared to indie books. Such musings generally lead to the conclusion that if people would just give indie books the same chance they give to mainstream books, if they would just put indie books to the ‘fifteen minute’ or ‘first ten pages’ test, the frequency with which they’d find books they would want to keep reading would be on par with that for mainstream books, and indie authors and readers everywhere would rejoice. It’s time we stop all the hand-wringing and blind hope, and make this happen.

Yes, we have the power. Every indie author is also a reader, and every one of us has a circle of influence. So if you’re an indie author or small imprint owner, I issue the following challenge to you:

1) Find an indie book you LOVE, from an author to whom you have no connection. The lack of a prior connection or relationship is important, since it will eliminate any possibility of a conflict of interest. Finding the right book will require you to put a few likely candidates to the fifteen minute/ten pages test, but if you’re not willing to do it, why should any prospective reader out there do it for your book?

2) Write positive reviews of your chosen book on every site where the book can be bought (e.g., Amazon, Smashwords, Scribd, Lulu store, Authors Bookshop, etc.; most allow you to enter reviews whether you bought a given book on their site or not) and on any reader community sites to which you belong (e.g., Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing).

3) If you’re on Twitter, tweet about the book and author, and include a link to a page where the book can be purchased. Use the hashtag #indieaction, to make it easy for everyone to find these indie action tweets (and some great indie books!).

4) Add the author’s site to your blogroll or links page on your own site.

5) If you were already planning to buy books as holiday gifts and your chosen book is available for sale, include it in your gift mix.

6) If you typically review books on your blog or website from time to time, review the book there as well. If you don’t typically post full reviews, just add a one- to two-liner about the book and author at the end of another blog post. Link back to this post if you feel you need to put your remarks into context.

7) Recommend the book personally to family, friends and coworkers.

8) Spread the word about this campaign to every indie author and indie supporter you know. Here’s a handy link you can share for this post –
http://bit.ly/19eRLb
 

This is not a shady scheme, and this is not a mutual back-scratching society. This is the many thousands of indie authors flexing their collective influence as readers for the benefit of the indie author movement overall.

Maybe you’ve never actively sought out indie books to read, and don’t know where to start. I’d suggest you begin by checking the top-selling, most-downloaded, and/or top-rated books at any of the sites listed below. Most of the bookseller sites listed allow authors to post a free excerpt (for your 15 minute/ten pages test); for other books, try looking up the author’s website to see if you can find an excerpt that way. Again, some time and effort will be involved here but you can gain a lot of insight into the typical book-buyer’s experience with indie books by going through this exercise.

Web Fiction Guide
LL Book Review
Small-Press Bookwatch
Scribd*
Smashwords*
Podiobooks (podcast audiobooks)
Authorsbookshop
Self-Publishing Review
The New Podler Review of Books
Top 100 Kindle Store Independent Authors
POD People

*These sites offer both indie and mainstream books, so you’ll need to check the publisher name to see if you’re dealing with an indie/small imprint book, or a mainstream release

I’m going to get the ball rolling by recommending an excellent indie book from an author who’s a complete stranger to me. The book is called The 6th Seal, and it was written by J.M. Emanuel. It’s an excellent, and truly scary, supernatural thriller set against an archetypal good vs. evil backdrop. If you enjoyed The Da Vinci Code but wished it had more depth, if you enjoy books by Straub and Stephen King, or any of the darker works of Neil Gaiman, if you like fictional explorations of Armageddon, mysteries, or stories built on biblical revelation, you really ought to give this book a try. You can read the first few pages of it using the Look Inside! Feature on Amazon.com, where it’s available in both print and Kindle editions.

In the coming week I’ll put my keyboard where my mouth is by tweeting and posting reviews of this book everywhere I can.

Now get out there and become part of the solution!

This is a cross-posting from April L. Hamilton’s Indie Author Blog.

Why Johnny Won’t Read and What To Do About It

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More & more children do not like to read, especially boys. Why is that and what can we do about it? To answer these questions, I will address the following:

  • Developing a love of story
  • Lack of reading skills
  • Short attention spans
  • Competition for children’s time and attention
  • Lack of good, appropriate content

Each of these points presents problems as I see them and possible solutions. In addition to my book & writing background, I am a certified teacher and taught in a juvenile detention center as its school master for two years in 2000-2002. I’m also a professional storyteller (since 1997) who toured my state’s schools as a performer on the Kansas Arts Commission’s Touring Roster.

Developing a love of story

When I was a little boy in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, My grandmother and my mother read to me or told me stories often. Each day I would anxiously await the Story Hour program on Purdue University’s radio station, when a story lady or man would read from an exciting children’s book—each day carrying the story along serial fashion until the book was finally finished and then a new one would begin. My favorite teachers were ones who would read aloud to our classes whenever they had the chance. All this developed my love of story and contributed to my love of reading. At one point, my mother and step-father (who were not readers of habit) actually took me to our family doctor with their concern that I was reading too much (is there such a thing?). Reading was my escape, my transport to other worlds and lands. Famous British children’s fantasy writer, Brian Jacques, understood that compulsion, when as a ragamuffin boy, he used to sneak into the library, grab a book, and hide back in the stacks to read until he was caught and they threw him out for being a dirty street kid. (He personally shared that story with me one night at an Author’s Dinner at the BEA).

Are we inculcating a love of story in our children today? Did we we read to them until they learned to read at school and then assumed they would read now that they knew how? Did we stop reading to them? Did books cease to come alive for them in the hands of a skilled adult reader? I read aloud to my incarcerated juveniles 30-60 minutes a day and they loved it. In my own family, even when my kids were in their teens, we would take turns reading thrilling children’s books aloud as a frequent family activity.

Finally, are we good role models to our children? Do we allow them to catch us reading? How can we teach them a love of reading, if we don’t display that behavior ourselves? All this illustrates what I mean when I talk about developing a love of story and a love of reading them.

Lack of reading skills

I could always tell when a student had been taught to read by the “whole word” reading approach. As they stumbled along, guessing at words until the passages became utter nonsense, I cringed at their frustration. Teaching reading by whole word recognition is like teaching the very visual Chinese written language. Instead of teaching students how to sound out words for themselves, using phonics, the students are required to memorize the shapes of words and encouraged to guess what words might be. It just doesn’t work well and makes reading a hideous, frustrating chore. How can children love to do something that they don’t have the skills to do?

Short attention spans

It is a great temptation to use the electronic babysitter (the TV) to occupy our children while we focus on getting the housework done. The next time you watch TV, note how often the camera shots change, about every 3-5 seconds. This constant stimulation of the brain at the unconscious level programs it to expect to be stimulated often. When that doesn’t happen, boredom immediately sets in. Is it any wonder we have so many children with ADD problems. The TV has trained them to expect constant stimulation on a very shallow level. Responsible parents should limit TV watching to few favorite shows per week instead of a constant bombardment of the senses. Books don’t hold up well in the competition for the senses because they require thought, visualization, and imagination. TV, movies, and video games offer immediate and constant gratification which doesn’t require any of these brain skills. In my early years, TVs weren’t available yet, so I sat and told myself stories I made up by the hour for my own entertainment. From this came my imagination and creativity in my adult years. Turn off the boob tube!

Competition for children’s time and attention

When I grew up, there were very few organized activities. Playdate? What the heck is that? Our biggest complaint as kids was there was nothing to do. Today, there are way too many things for our children to do: gymnastics, dance, music, horseback riding, sports, you name it. Moms and dads are worn to a frazzle just trying to keep track of all the schedules and transport there to. When is there quiet time just to read? When a child is constantly stimulated with physical activities, how can a non-physical activity such as reading compete in that environment?

Lack of good, appropriate content

My last point is directed more toward young boys than girls. There is not enough good content to read. That is slowly starting to turn around, although way too many children’s book authors tend to only write fantasies for boys and a wider range of literature for girls. Writers and publishers, you must consider your target audience/market! What do boys like to do? That’s what needs to be written about. Like their fathers, many boys tend to prefer nonfiction. They like true life tales, sports stories, history, as well as fantasies. There are a few authors championing this cause; however, they are too few. Make a difference! provide interesting, fun content boys can identify with.

Conclusion

If you go back over the above material, the common theme is adult responsibilities. The child can’t and won’t make these fixes. YOU have to. Hopefully, this has given you some ideas as to how a love of reading can be inculcated. From my experience with wayward juveniles, it’s never too late, but the earlier you start, the better your chances will be. Our civilization is threatened. Remember what the old cartoon character, Pogo, once said: “We have seen the enemy, and he is we.”

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear’s Book Trends blog.

Literary Agents and the Changing World of Trade Publishing

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This post, from Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on the Idealog blog on 11/14/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

I had a lunch conversation this week with three successful literary agents, who will remain anonymous for this post. They wanted to talk about the panel we’re having at Digital Book World called “The Changing Author-Agent Relationship: How Will It Affect the Business Model?”

That panel was born when I engaged an agent last summer with my observations about digital change and tried to recruit her to join a panel discussion about it. “Suppose you work with an author to develop her manuscript so your creative input becomes part of the work. Then you can’t sell it, or you get only a token offer for it, and the author wants to self-publish. Shouldn’t you, or any agent in that spot, be entitled to something in that case?”

The agent, sensing quickly that I was going to a model of “author pays agent for consulting help” said, “I can’t participate in a conversation like that. We have a canon of ethics in the AAR, and that might well run afoul of it.”

As it turns out, the canon of ethics of the AAR only explicitly prohibits agents from charging “reading fees” to prospective clients. Other charges are explictly permitted, such as for xeroxing and messengers. And others, such as consulting on self-publishing options, aren’t mentioned.

But, still, the question of whether the business model needs to change remains. The kind of book advances that agents have made a living on for years are diminishing in number. And now that self-publishing is legitimately part of the commercial continuum, authors have a right to expect that their career business manager, which an agent is, will employ it, or suggest that they do, when it makes sense. And agents will have a right to expect to be paid for that.

Of course, that’s not what these three successful working agents do. Their business assets are their personal knowledge of and relationships with acquiring editors; their ability to shape a writer’s concept and proposal into a commercial book; their knowledge of the ins and outs of book contracts and publishers’ accounting procedures. Exploring and keeping up with the various print and electronic self-publishing options: starting with Author Solutions and Smashwords, but including many others including our client Bookmasters, lulu.com, and many others, is a fulltime job in itself. (There’s a string started on Brantley’s list today by Joe Esposito who noticed announcements for four new self-publishing startups in his email in the past few days.) And searching out the authors with the money to self-publish, let alone to pay for advice on how to do it effectively, is also not what the successful agent in the current marketplace does.

I had spoken at a Writer’s Digest conference two months ago and told aspiring writers “get an agent” but also, “make sure the agent knows about the self-publishing options.” These very professional and desirable agents did not. But they agreed that when ten or thirty or fifty times a year a project they’d developed goes off for self-publishing, they’ll want to have a way to monetize that. We agreed that the likely solution will be an alliance with somebody who perhaps positioned themselves more as a “consultant” to aspiring authors. There is no shortage of such people.

The conversation turned to contract terms, particularly regarding ebooks. The agents asked me: “don’t the big trade publishers see that the strategy of paying authors half or less of what many ebook publishers will pay on digital book royalties isn’t sustainable? that we’ll end up splitting those deals?” I told them that I had raised this point with Big Six CEOs and they all said, “we won’t buy print-only; never happen.” The big publishers are counting on the authors’ (and agents’) desire for the advance to keep them locked into the current model. (Richard Curtis made this same point in a recent eReads post.) It is clear that the idea of splitting off ebooks from print contracts is one that these agents have been thinking about for a while. The relative attraction of the advance goes down as the level of ebook sales on which you’re taking half or less of what you could get goes up.

We also spent a little time discussing “verticals” and my theory that power is moving from “control of IP to control of eyeballs.” In the past week, I’ve had two conversations with Hay House executives (they’re on the Digital Book World program too) about their business. To somebody with a trade orientation, it’s pretty phenomenal. They run between 30 and 100 live events a year for their community. They have over 1 million email addresses that drive the sales of all their books. One of the agents said he had an author for whom he sold a book to one of the Big Six houses and they sold twelve thousand copies. He sold the next title to Hay House and they sold two hundred thousand. How long will the Big Six houses be able to compete for big-potential books in Hay House’s sweet spot (mind-body-spirit), advances or no advances?

One of the agents at lunch does a lot with juveniles. “Do I have to worry about this ebook thing much?” that agent asked. Soon you will, I said. After lunch I was working with my frequent collaborator Ted Hill on a proposal we’re making for another conference on digital tipping points. One we were talking about is “when does the publishing house have editors shift their focus from developing a print book with an author, with the ebook as afterthought, to developing the best possible digital product, with the print book coming out of it?” That gave me an answer for that agent: you better have somebody on your team now who can see the digital book possibilities in every idea before you peddle it. Now that you’ve made me think about it, I realize that if you’re not fully exploring the creative possibilities for digital products for every kids book you develop, you’re already missing the boat.

The Unmentionable Alternative

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This post, from Moriah Jovan, originally appeared on her website on 11/10/09, and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

I am constantly struck by the idea that writers “give up.” What does that mean, exactly? They stop writing? They stop submitting? Or they stop writing because they’re so disheartened by the submitting? My bet’s on that.

Keep on submitting and you will get published.

By “writer,” I mean good, unpublished novelists who don’t, for whatever reason, catch an agent and/or editor’s eye. I’m not talking about the people who don’t hang out on agent and editor blogs, learning every query trick in the book (some of which are flat wrong to some agents and golden to others). These are the writers who assume that the problem is with them, not with the odds.

Write a better book next time.

Oh, fuck that. It’s odds, folks, whether you want to believe it or not—and the odds get worse every week. And that write a better book bullshit? How do you know the one you just wrote is bad?

You don’t.

And then some of you will crack under the discouragement and say, “I write crap.” And you’ll stop submitting. You may even stop writing.

I did that.

I didn’t write crap, per se. I wrote slightly off-tick that didn’t hit the romance formula bullseye exactly right. Yeah, I said it. There’s a formula. I couldn’t hit it, and the misses were near enough that it was sickening.

willworkforfood243x301This is not an anti-traditional-publishing rant. This is about writers, about you and your work and how much faith you have in it.

Why are you basing your goals on decisions someone else has to make? And, by extension, why are you waiting for validation based on odds that aren’t in your favor? And why are you acting like a job applicant?

You’re not powerless.

But somehow the idea of taking control of your work and presenting it to the public/the readers/the (gasp) curators is “giving up.”

Because “money always flows to the author.” Fuck that, too.

Yeah, you’ll have to assume some risk. Deal with it.

It pains me to see good writers on agent blogs talking about “when I’m published someday,” because “it will happen if I submit enough and don’t give up” and “I just have to write a better book next time.”

Stop thinking that way and start believing in your product.

Stop thinking you have no power.

Stop thinking like an employee and start thinking like an entrepreneur.

Go make your own damned job.

Update: To clarify, I’m using the term “curators” to describe the self-appointed task of the people who consume the work, like it, and recommend it to others, i.e., the readers/fans, the people who make being The Lone Artist all worth it. I’m not using the term as it has been tossed around the internet for the last year.

#fridayflash: The Love of a Cat

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There was once a cat who loved a woman.

Actually there are often cats who love women, but it’s usually just a passing fancy quickly outgrown with kittenhood. This was a special case.

First, there was the matter of his name. She didn’t give him one right away, as so many humans do, based only on the color of his fur, or his propensity toward (or away from) play. Gathering him into her lap like a sleek, black puddle, she said, “You already have a name. All cats do. I just have to guess it.”

For days after bringing him into her small, tidy apartment, she’d periodically toss out a candidate and watch for his reaction. He wasn’t sure if he already had a name or not but he reveled in the power of choosing, and in her attention. “Winston?” she asked, and he went on purring, looking impassively up at her. A few hours later, “Henry?” as he chased paper balls around the room; he didn’t react. The next day she tried again, lifting his chin up so she could look directly into the giant, golden marbles of his eyes. “Horus?” “Apollo?” “Anansi?” “Caspar?” “Merlin?” Stately, regal names all, but none resonated with the cat.

In the morning she announced, “I have it! I know your name.” He hopped up onto a barstool expectantly. “Rama.” The cat felt a strange, ticklish sensation in his chest. He raised himself on his hind legs, lifted a forepaw and gently placed it on her cheek. “I knew it!” She exclaimed, scooping him up in her arms. “Rama was a prince of India, and you are a prince of cats!”

He knew he wasn’t really a prince of cats; cat government is parliamentary and there hasn’t been a feline ruling class since the days of ancient Egypt. But he did know he loved her then. He reached out to bat at a strand that had escaped from the long, gray braid draped over her shoulder, and she indulged him, bouncing the strand in front of him as if it were a bit of string, smiling, her eyes sparkling. He didn’t notice the many lines in her soft, translucent skin, or the brown spots on her hands and face. He saw only beauty, joy and love in her.

Eventually Rama learned her name, when another woman came to visit. The other woman called her “Sarah”, and Sarah called the other woman “Hope”. By listening carefully when they talked, Rama learned Hope was Sarah’s younger sister. Hope came to visit Sarah every week on Friday afternoons, and she liked Rama just as much as her sister did. For Rama’s part, he liked Hope well enough, but it was a feeble sentiment compared to his love for Sarah. As Rama grew he came to understand things about Sarah, and her routines. Except for her weekly trip to the corner market and her increasingly frequent doctor visits, Sarah and Rama were together all the time. She was a quiet, stay at home sort of person, and that suited Rama very well.

He learned to read as most housecats do, by waiting until Sarah had a book, magazine or newspaper open and unceremoniously plopping himself into her lap to look on. Humans think cats do this as a gambit for attention, and that’s just how cats like it since humans can be such a nervous, unpredictable lot when it comes to things they can’t explain. Sarah would continue reading, absently stroking his back and scratching his ears, periodically turning to him to discuss whatever it was they were reading.

“Can you believe that Angelina Jolie is pregnant again?!” Rama didn’t understand what was so shocking about this, since Cinnamon, the female cat down the street, had had two litters a year for the past three years running, and wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down. But he humored Sarah and kept his opinions to himself.

One afternoon, Rama woke to a piercing, mechanical wail. It seemed to be coming from the necklace Sarah always wore. The pendant had a little red dot in the center, and now it was flashing. Sarah lay there, her eyes open, but still. He rubbed his head as hard as he could against her face to rouse her, but she didn’t react. She didn’t reach out to run a finger along his jaw, or rub under his chin like she usually did, but he didn’t give up. Soon a pair of large men dragging a bed on wheels burst through the front door. One of them grabbed Rama and tossed him aside like a sack of flour, and when Rama tried to get back to Sarah the other man shut him up in the bathroom. Rama screamed himself hoarse, until finally the door opened. He raced out to Sarah, but she was gone.

He dashed around the apartment, crying out for her, inconsolable. He was standing on the bed he’d shared with Sarah, keening in a scratchy whisper that was all that was left of his voice when Hope found him. “Rama?” she asked, tentatively.

He fell silent and his head whipped around. It was definitely Hope, but something was different about her. Her eyes were red, and her face was puffy and pale. She threw herself on the bed and did something Rama had never seen Sarah do, didn’t even know humans could do: she wailed the death wail, and then he knew Sarah was never coming back. Hope reached for him and hugged him close. He didn’t want to be hugged by anyone but Sarah, but as much as it shamed him, he abandoned himself to the comforting feeling.

And so he went to live with Hope, who was married, and had children and grandchildren who often came to visit. They would all fawn over Rama, petting him and scratching his head for as long as he would allow, but he seemed indifferent to their attention. Hope’s husband would often complain about Rama’s standoffish nature, but Hope knew Rama’s nature all too well. His heart was broken by Sarah, and he would never love another.

Crunching The Numbers: How It's Possible To Sell Every Copy Of Your Self-Published Book And Still Lose Money (And How To Avoid That Outcome)

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This is a sample lesson I’ve written for a new Publetariat offshoot: Vault University. Vault University provides monthly lessons in self-publishing in all formats (print, ebook, podcast), author platform and book promotion. Enrollment in the curriculum of their choice is free of charge for authors who have a published book listing in the Publetariat Vault, and is offered on a subscription basis to all others.

I recently met a self-published author who seemed at first glance to be doing everything right and whose book is on track to sell 10,000 copies. The only problem is, by the time all those books are in the hands of buyers this author will have lost over US$32,200 and will have no idea how it happened. I’ve changed identifying details of the author and book for purposes of this lesson, but the pitfalls to which this author fell victim are still very clear.

The author, we’ll call him Jim, had an idea for a novel and decided to self-publish. Jim’s job gives him lots of exposure to consumers from all over the world, so he set up an online shopping cart early on and began pre-selling before the novel was even finished. He figured a typical book in a store sells for about US$20, so that’s where he set his retail price. Jim did a lot of community outreach as well as personal outreach, and by the time he was finished writing the book he’d pre-sold 5,000 copies. At US$20 a pop, that’s US$100K! Even after subtracting the online payment processor’s service fee of 3% ($3,000), he still stands to net $97K. Sounds terrific, right? There was only one problem: he’d not yet paid anything to have the book produced, printed or shipped to buyers.

Jim settled on a subsidy publisher I’ll refer to as Publisher X. Jim decided he wanted a top-quality book, so he opted for a hardcover publishing package. Publisher X charges a minimum of US$1000 for project setup on a hardcover book, plus US$12-25 per author copy (depending on quantity ordered). Jim wanted to get the maximum discount and already had 5,000 copies pre-sold, so he ordered 10,000 copies of his book at the author price of $12 each. Jim opted to pay an additional US$1000 for Publisher X’s add-on editing and interior layout/design service, and paid US$8500 for professional photography and design services for production of a wraparound, full-color dust jacket for the books. Jim’s total expense up to this point is US$130,500.

You’re probably thinking (as I’m sure Jim is) that when Jim sells those additional 5,000 copies, he’ll earn another US$97K and have US$66,500 in profit. Not so fast: Jim still has to pay to have those hardcovers shipped to him, then he must turn around and pay for packaging materials and shipping expense on every copy sold to get his books to his buyers. If Jim didn’t charge his presale customers sales tax on their orders, he must pay that government tax out of his own pocket too, but let’s cut Jim a break and assume he did charge for sales tax.

Hardcover books are heavy. If we assume Jim will pay about fifty cents per book—which is a lowball estimate, but let’s just go with it—to have them shipped from the publisher to his home, that’s US$5,000.

In order to ship the books to his buyers, he must package them in padded envelopes and pay for postage on each copy, and many of those copies are going overseas. If we assume Jim gets a bulk deal on padded envelopes so that they cost him just ten cents each, that’s still US$1000. But that’s nothing, it’s the shipping expense that’s going to kill any chance his book had of being profitable. Even if Jim uses book rate mail for shipping instead of first-class, he’ll pay US$6 per copy on average to ship the books domestically, and US$15 per copy on average for international shipping. Let’s assume only 1/3 of his buyers are international (3,300 of 10,000). The shipping and packaging expenses still work out to US$49,500 for international shipping and US$40,200 for the remaining 6,700 domestic shipments.

You should now be able to see why Jim’s book cannot possibly turn a profit. If he’s paying the publisher US$12 per copy to buy each book, plus fifty cents per book to have them shipped to his home, plus ten cents per book for padded envelopes and US$6-$15 to ship each book to his buyers, you don’t even have to take the US$10,500 he paid Publisher X into account to see he’s either just breaking even, or losing money, on every copy sold.

Let’s review all of Jim’s income and expenses on this book project.

Item Income/Expense
10,000 books sold at US$20 each, minus 3% proc. fee +  $194,000
Fees paid to Publisher X for setup, + add-on services –     $10,500
10,000 copies of book @ $12 per copy –   $120,000
Shipping from Publisher X –       $5,000
Padded envelopes –       $1,000
Shipping to international buyers, 3300 copies @ $15 ea. –     $49,500
Shipping to domestic buyers, 7500 copies @ $6 ea –     $40,200
Total –     $32,200

Remember, this is assuming he sells all 10,000 copies of his book; he’ll be out much more than $32,200 if he sells less. Had Jim done some number crunching ahead of time, he could have made better choices, spent his money more wisely and turned a profit.

To determine what it will really cost you to self-publish, and how much you stand to earn on a book, you must calculate all of the following—ideally, before you publish:

1. Upfront costs

2. Author copy costs

3. Net “Royalty” per copy sold

4. Break-even point

 

Read the rest of this free, sample lesson on Vault University (no signup required to read this full lesson) to learn how to calculate each of these items, how to compare costs among author and print service providers, how to set a retail price for your book that’s appealing to buyers while still netting you a worthwhile royalty, and how to tell when a given self-published book project cannot possibly be profitable. This content © 2009 Vault University.

Me — Interesting?

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I now have the information about the other authors that will be with me at the Nov. 15th book signing at the Lemstone Christian Bookstore in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This week I visited the store to talk to the owner about the book signing. While I was there I found out what I needed to know to report accurately about the authors. Kent Stock, Marion, Ia, from "The Final Season" fame has written "Heading For Home." His story about being a successful coach, teacher and business man. Karen Roth, San Antonio, Texas and formally from Cedar Rapids, Ia has her second book out. "My Portion Forever". Her first book is "Found On 16th Avenue". She writes about growing up in Czech Village in Cedar Rapids which last year was in the devastating flood.

　

　

When I can get the Internet to cooperate with me, I’m back writing blogs on a new monitor the size of a small television instead of the very small, ten year old screen I was using. I can’t believe what a difference screen size makes when I’m staring at it for a long period of time. Not that there is that much wrong with my eyesight as long as I wear my glasses. The fact is I’m feeling great, busy and full of purpose. It took a visit with a young neighbor girl to get me thinking about the generational gap between her and me and to bring this gap into prospective.

　

When I answered the phone one evening recently, I had to ask the caller to repeat her name. I want you to know I’m not hard of hearing. I’d heard right the first time, but I was too surprised to believe I had. It was the fourteen year old neighbor who lives in seeing distance of my home.

It seemed over night I watched her change from baby to toddler to an energetic child to a bashful preteen that didn’t speak when she came with her father to visit. Now a teenager, she was still very quiet this summer with a look on her face that said she would run for home if we spoke to her.

Her father described her as his Tomboy. Her attire was a shirt and jeans. Dresses were for a rare occasion. Most likely an occasion deemed appropriate by her mother. She went with her father to the barn to help with chores until she was old enough to do them on her own. Her love of animals led to her taking care of a flock of sheep and a horse. She worked with a lamb so she could enter the sheep exhibits at the county fair.

Out of the blue, she called me and got right to the point. "I have to write a story about someone for English Lit. I want to interview you for the story."

Not comprehending why she would call me for her assignment, I said, "Okay, but why me?"

"Because I think you’re interesting," she said.

I must admit I was baffled by that statement. We set up a time for her to come late one afternoon after school on a day between cheerleading practice and a football game. In walked a young woman who over the summer had grown a foot taller than me. Her long, dark blonde hair was styled. She had on makeup. Best of all, she was smiling as if she was happy to see me. Her father had told us a few weeks earlier he had lost his Tomboy. He was having trouble adjusting to the fact since the change happened suddenly. Now I saw first hand what he meant.

We sat at the dining room table so she could spread out the contents of the folder she carried. First thing she said in a very direct manner, "I can make the interview short and write three pages. That won’t get me an A." As she shuffled through her papers to get organized, she continued, "If I talk to you longer and write 5 pages, that would get me an A. I would rather get the A. It’s up to you how much you want to tell me. The teacher said not to talk too much if you would rather I didn’t stay long."

I told her she could take all the time she needed. Why would I want to rush her when I finally had her talking to me. I wanted to get to know her. I said I would do my best to answer her questions, but I warned her she might have to spice up her story. I was pretty sure I wasn’t interesting enough to get her that A. I offered to go over the story so we could do just that, spice it up. I could even proof read it for her while I was at it to make sure she got the A. She said she couldn’t let me do that. The teacher told the students to bring the stories to her so she could give them pointers on making the stories better before they turned the final product in.

"So where do we start?" I asked.

"From the moment you were born."

"That is going back a long ways. We may need a lot of time," I warned her.

Reading from a list of questions, birth was the first question the teacher had furnished to help the students with this story telling process. The girl wasn’t sure how some of the questions applied to me, but I encouraged her to ask me anyway. Once I elaborated enough that I unwittingly answered the next question.

I fear I was born in a much earlier generation than the teacher. Maybe she thought the students would pick someone more her age to interview instead of someone who could have been the girl’s grandmother. I came by that impression when I was asked the question, "How did the arts and craft movement play a part in my life or did it?"

Through my mind scrolled my childhood years in the Missouri Ozarks. Nothing about my early life was an arts and craft experience, but I was determined to give her an answer. Once in awhile we went to a western movie on a Saturday night in a vacant lot next to Schell City’s car repair garage. As for crafts, my family was in to crafts, but the main objective for being crafty was to make money. My father built flower baskets, with a log cabin look, from twigs. My mother made crape paper roses she dipped in paraffin. Back in the fifties, we didn’t have plastic or silk flowers. My younger brother and my part of this work was after supper. Mom gave us boxes of Kleenex in different colors. We folded a couple Kleenexes in accordion folds and wrapped a wire around the middle. The ends with the fold had to be cut off, then we carefully pulled each fragile layer of tissue paper to the middle. When we were done, we had a carnation. The flowers were arranged in a bouquet in the log cabin baskets and sold to neighbors for Memorial Day decorations to take to the cemeteries. Any basket left we spent the day delivering to cemeteries for our relatives. This story was noted. Maybe she could figure out a way to work it in.

Two hours and several pages of notes later, the girl gave me the last question. The time had passed fast for her and me as well. Since we never had really had a conversation I doubt she was prepared for how much I can elaborate on a subject when given the chance. However, she left happy with her interview and eager to turn it into a story. I asked her to let me know if she got that A.

According to her father, who came over recently to tell me after a talk with his daughter, she had been nervous about talking to me. By the time we finished, she was excited to relate to her parents all the experiences I had shared with her. Her father says she is very impressed with me. That is a two way street. What were the things she found most interesting about my life? It wasn’t that I write books and have been a CNA. What impressed her was the fact that I can vegetables we raise. She had me show her my pressure cooker and explain the process. The other thing was that I have for years did my own vet work as much as possible for my flock of sheep and goats. Though she takes care of sheep, she had never thought about giving shots or helping during a difficult birthing and all their food comes from the grocery store. Wow! I could do all that. Not what I would call interesting. These are things I have done for years. Just part of life as a person who lives in the country.

It didn’t matter that she wasn’t impressed when I said I was an author. I found this bashful Tomboy had turned into a polite, articulate, caring and lovely young woman. I told her to come back and visit any time she wanted, and I hope she does. Maybe I can get her to help me can green beans.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

More on The Reality of a Times Bestseller

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This post, from Lynn Viehl, originally appeared on GenReality on 11/6/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission. In it, she explains why it’s possible—perhaps even typical—to be a multiple-NYT bestselling author and still not be rich, nor even necessarily be entirely self-supporting. It’s a sobering wakeup call for all those aspiring authors who think if they could just sell that first novel, their careers would be set and their financial futures would be secure.

Back in April when I posted and discussed the royalty statement for Twilight Fall, my top twenty New York Times mass market bestseller, I promised I would post the next royalty statement that came in for the book. That arrived this week, so today I’d like to take a look at that and share some thoughts on how the book performed in the eleven months since the initial release.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: if you’re not familiar with royalty statements, it will be helpful to read Lynn’s post from April before continuing with this one.]

First, the actual statement, which you can view here.

As before, the only thing I’ve blanked out is Penguin Group’s address. This statement represents the sale period from November 30, 2008 through May 31, 2009. It was issued on August 18, 2009 and I received it on November 2, 2009.

On the statement my publisher reports sales of 7,550 copies and returns of 10,812 copies. The publisher released credits of 21,140 copies or $13,512.69 from reserves held against returns, but at the same time reserved credits against another 13,790 copies or $8,814.57, which reduces the credit adjustment to 7,350 copies or $4698.12.

Total sales for the novel now stand at 89,142 copies, minus returns of 27,479, for net sales of 61,663 copies. My credited earnings from this statement was $2,434.38 with no money due; it will probably take another six months to a year for the novel to earn out the last of my $50,000.00 advance.

So how much money have I made from my Times bestseller? Depending on the type of sale, I gross 6-8% of the cover price of $7.99. After paying taxes, commission to my agent and covering my expenses, my net profit on the book currently stands at $24,517.36, which is actually pretty good since on average I generally net about 30-40% of my advance. Unless something triggers an unexpected spike in my sales, I don’t expect to see any additional profit from this book coming in for at least another year or two.

One thing I didn’t mention in the last post is whether or not my sell-through, advance, and royalties are typical of an author with a top twenty Times mass market bestseller. Very few authors offer up their numbers, and even when they do they either go the anonymous survey route and/or don’t post statements, and publishers rarely give us any information at all, so it’s difficult to know. But based on my estimation of comparitive print run sizes, placement, distribution and a couple of other factors, I’d say no; my numbers overall probably run lower than most of the other authors on the list (of course if any other Times bestseller authors out there want to post their royalty statements, we’d all love to see the real numbers so we can establish a range.)

Speaking of comparisons, the publisher’s portion of sales on this book has grossed them around $453,839.68. I don’t have any hard figures on the publisher’s net, so I can’t give you the bottom line there. If I had to make a guess, I’d say they probably netted around $250K on this one.

What I’m taking away from this statement: returns were about what I expected; booksellers have been keeping these books on the shelves due to steady sales, and that helps.

My export sales are up, and they’re now constituting about 10% of my total sales, which is great. I’ve been reaching out to overseas readers for a couple of years now via blog promotion and I’m seeing a growing return on that investment. I’d love to see some foreign rights sales so that more of my readers could have the books in their native language, but unfortunately that doesn’t happen very often, and I can’t do anything about it because it’s all decided and handled by the publisher.

My income per book always reminds me of how tough it is to make at living at this gig, especially for writers who only produce one book per year. If I did the same, and my one book performed as well as TF, and my family of four were solely dependent on my income, my net would be only around $2500.00 over the income level considered to be the U.S. poverty threshhold (based on 2008 figures.) Yep, we’d almost qualify for foodstamps.

I finished this novel’s series in January of this year with the seventh book, which debuted eight spots lower than TF on the Times extended list. I’ve since moved on to writing a spin-off series, the first book of which is Shadowlight, which debuted at #17 on the Times list, two spots higher than TF. Shadowlight is now my bestselling novel to date.

What it boils down to is that you never know. I won’t find out for another six months how well Shadowlight initially performed or if TF will earn out in the next six months, which keeps me from obsessing over my sales. Either the books sell or they don’t; I have zero control over whether or not they appear on any list. My focus has to be on the writing (and Carrie did an excellent post this week to celebrate her series anniversary and to discuss excellent reasons to focus on the work; check it out when you have a chance.)

The overall response to the last statement I posted in April was quite positive and supportive, especially here at Genreality. A few places elsewhere, not so much. Several times since April I considered forgetting all about this follow-up post because I knew if I did it I’d be painting another great big target on myself, and no one wants to volunteer for that kind of duty. But I did promise my writer friends and you guys that I would do this, and I keep my promises. So I will duck and dodge one more time.

I know how important writer dreams are — sometimes they’re the only thing that keep us going — but I think they also have to be tempered by facing reality. To me, sharing an uncomfortable truth is better than perpetuating a myth. I know Publishing will never rise up to meet our expectations, but fiction belongs on the page, not in what we tell each other. Otherwise we risk becoming characters uttering lines of dialogue instead of working writers helping each other make good decisions.

So there you have it. If you’d like to share the info, please do; a link back to this post in return would be appreciated. If you’d like to express any gratitude, you can buy one of my books (or if my work doesn’t appeal to you, buy a book written by one of my blogmates. They’re all very talented folks.) And if you have any questions about the statement, let me know in comments.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: "comments" link will take you back to the original post on GenReality; scroll down to read, and add to, the comments there.]

Writing Wednesdays #15: Elements of Success

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This post, from Steven Pressfield, originally appeared on his War & Reality in Afghanistan | "It’s the Tribes, Stupid!" site on 9/11/09.

I was making a long drive this week, across the desert from L.A. to Phoenix, and I got to thinking about the elements that comprise success-particularly for people like us, e.g. writers, artists and entrepreneurs, who work from the heart and on their own, without any imposed external structure. What are the skill-sets we need? Over a lifetime, what challenges do we need to master?

In today’s post, I’m attaching a podcast of an interview I did with Jen Grisanti, who helms a Los Angeles-based consulting firm dedicated to helping talented writers break into the industry, shape their material, hone their pitches, and focus their careers. Her one-on-one consults with authors offer the insight of a personal studio executive. Considering Jen’s last job was as VP of Current Programs at CBS/Paramount, writers do, indeed, benefit from having their own “executive” – one who has worked with over 190 writers working in television, features and novels, and who is also the Writing Instructor for NBC’s, Writers on the Verge, and a blogger for The Huffington Post.

In addition to consulting, Jen holds monthly networking events and does a twice-monthly podcast, featuring interviews with movie-industry professionals and writers and artists of all kinds. This podcast would fall under #2 of my desert-drive list of the elements of success: Technique. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

  Elements of Success – An Interview with Jen Grisanti

[ Click on above link to open the audio file in your computer’s default audio player, or right-click this Download link and "save as" to download.]

 

1) Talent.

There’s a reason why you and I are not Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods. On the other hand, it’s no coincidence that so often the greatest athletes, artists and entrepreneurs also embody the most ferocious work ethic. Talent may set the final limit to how good we can be, but it also can be stretched way beyond what most of us believe.

2) Technique.

This is an easy one because it can be taught. We can learn it-in school, from books and mentors, in seminars and workshops and coaching sessions. We can teach ourselves in the university of hard knocks. Jen Grisanti’s interview is in this category. So are the Iowa Writers Workshop, Robert McKee’s Story Structure classes (and his book, Story) and Noah Lukeman’s The First Five Pages.

Read the rest of the post, which includes elements #3-6, on War & Reality in Afghanistan | "It’s the Tribes, Stupid!".

 

But let’s go back to Number One in the elements of success. What skills do you and I need as solo gunslingers in order to call ourselves “successful” over a full career?

Veterans Day

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Today is Veteran’s day and I wish to thank all those who have served bravely to protect our freedom and to remember those who perished preserving our liberties.

Today I published an article for RedAdept on her Kindle Review Blog:

http://redadept.wordpress.com/

Thanks to all the Operation eBook Authors (232 strong) for supporting our troops.

"I believe that human courage must be matched by our very best efforts. As authors we may not be luminaries, but we all have a light to stand tall beside those who protect our right to be creative in ways not allowed universally. In that, we pay their courage forward with our creative thanks."

Edward C. Patterson

Using Twitter’s Lists Feature for Writing

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This post, from Meryl K. Evans, originally appeared on her Meryl.net site on 11/2/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

If you haven’t heard by now, Twitter now has Lists that lets you put Twitter users into groups. It doesn’t matter if you’re following someone or not, you can add anyone into a list or two or three. Here’s an introduction and a how to use Twitter Lists at Web Worker Daily.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: there’s also an embedded how-to screencast in this post, after the jump]

Round Twitter ButtonTwitter users have their own rules for who they follow and not follow. Some follow those who fall into a specific field, career and whatnot. Guy LeCharles Gonzalez follows those with some connection to publishing. It’s not elitist if someone doesn’t follow you back. They use Twitter in a different way than you and I do. Nothing against you. Really. I promise.

I follow thousands of people. It’s crazy, I know. But my work varies. Know that I do not follow every high quality tweeter who follows me. Some folks just talk about things I’m not interested in. Most of the people I follow fall into one of the following areas:

  • Work as writers, editors, publishers and related.
  • Tweet about casual games. After all, I run The Game Zen and write for Gamezebo.
  • Experts in social media and PR. This area changes daily and I want to keep up.
  • Experts in marketing especially business-to-business (B2B). For my work with InternetVIZ.
  • Make me laugh. I find lots of gems in Tweets to fill me with energy and smiles.
  • Those from the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Gotta stay on top of what’s happening in my neighborhood.
  • People who write about things related to disabilities and accessibility. Might find something worth sharing in my CI blog.
  • Gadgets, technology and web design. I cover this area often and have met a lot of folks in this field.
  • People who discuss general business. This one is broad, but they just don’t fall into any of the above categories.

I know it’s crazy that I have a bit of a list and a huge Twitter stream. Social networking is high on my list of things to do for my business. Writers could manage the people they follow and their lists in the following ways:

  • Create a writers list. This will be your water cooler, support system and colleagues in the same boat.
  • Create separate lists for editors, publishers, agents and gigs. I lump all of these into one because I have broader interest. Or you can make one list. It depends on your needs. If writers and these folks are the type of people you follow and nothing else — then use lists to narrow them down further.
  • Create a favorite people and clients list. Yes, you can make it private if you prefer not to share. This way you don’t miss a single tweet. This would most likely be a short list.
  • Follow other people’s lists. Why start from scratch? We’re not the only ones creating lists, so we can follow other people’s lists. I follow Simon Mackie’s list of Web Worker Daily writers.
  • Create an experts on X topic list. What’s your beat? Football? Finance? Fashion? Make a list for your frequently covered topics for instant access when you’re working on an article. No more trying to remember the people you read for the topic.
  • Create a list for learning. Plenty of Twitter IDs focus on tweeting writing, grammar and other tips.
  • Create a list for current events, conferences and projects. Hey, there’s lots happening on Twitter right now due to NaNoWriMo.

To see my lists, go to @merylkevans and look in the right sidebar. Click the list to see who appears in it. You can also “Follow the list,” which adds my list to yours so you won’t have to manage it. Just remember, you can’t edit other people’s lists.

Here’s a closed-captioned screencast on how to create lists.

Some developers behind applications that make it easier to manage your Twitter business are already working on adding the list feature. I look forward to seeing what they do.

I love these lists especially since I’m a freak when it comes to organization. Of course, you can find me @merylkevans; hope I make the good list!

You might like to read more Twitter articles.

How do you use the list feature?

Mythbusting the ISBN

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This post, from Laura Dawson, originally appeared on the LJNDawson blog on 11/4/09.

It’s probably not healthy to keep thinking about this. It certainly makes me a lousy conversationalist. Because in all the ruminating and talking and (if you must know) mad nattering to myself (luckily, I spend LARGE portions of my day alone), I keep coming back to the ISBN.

Bear with me. (I have already investigated, and there is no rehab facility that deals in identifier addiction problems, so that’s out.)

Last month, the AAP’s Digital Initiatives Working Group and BISAC’s Identifiers Committee conducted a survey among members to determine what publishers’ views actually are on the ISBN. Publishers have been told what to think, repeatedly – and we know how much publishers like being told what to think – so we thought we’d turn the conversation around and ask them what they thought. The results are not yet finalized, and when they are I will talk about them.

But I worry. Because as we expand book distribution from merely a paper-with-occasional-ebook business to an all-kinds-of-paper-and-lots-of-different-ebooks-plus-vooks-plus-promotional-packages-plus-print-on-demand-plus-subscriptions-to-book-content-plus-downloadable-audio – well, you can see where this is going, and it’s messy.

And I have been in more than one meeting where I have heard these exact words (and I am not making this up), “If only we had some kind of system to deal with this, some way of identifying content…”

Hello????

So, first, some mythbusting.

ISBNs are expensive.

Actually, no they are not! The new My Identifiers site will offer new pricing in January. A single ISBN will cost an author or publisher $125. Ten ISBNs are $250, or $25 per ISBN. A hundred ISBNs are $575. This is cheap!

An ISBN is just a bar code for a book, and if my books are digital, I don’t need ISBNs.

Not so! In using an ISBN for a digital book (or any book), a publisher creates an automatic web page for that book, which is populated by the bibliographic data in Books in Print (and can be edited or added to by the publisher). Bowker hosts that web page, and the hosting price is included in the purchase of the ISBN. Publishers can choose which booksellers will sell their titles on that page – or direct traffic specifically to the publisher itself.
The price of the ISBNs also includes a widget for each title, to put on your own website or to share – you can choose to display as much or as little of each book as you want.

 

Read the rest of the post on the LJNDawson blog.

Publishing: How does the "mix" affect writers?

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Here’s a question for publishers and literary agents.  This morning, NBC featured yet another book tour interview.  This time it was a non-fiction (I’m assuming) tell-all from a former Miss California and gay-basher who, by the way did make a ….sex….tape.  Oh No! Not that!  Maybe she wrote it, maybe it was ghost written after her agent explained the money to be made, who knows?  It raised a question for me, immediately. 

I assume that publishers work with a finite number of books they can produce in any given year.  The number must be based upon market conditions and costs.  I do know that re-prints of existing books tend to be a hard decision if they’re not selling well — that makes sense, financially.  I also know that if a publisher produces both non-fiction and fiction, the mix proportion is probably determined in accounting ultimately.  They probably leave a certain amount of wiggle room, to take advantage of instant opportunities that come up — like this new hardcover tell-all that the world clearly needed (insert sarcasm here). 

You can’t fault the publisher for the amazing appetite for garbage the market seems to exhibit.  After all, BIG publishing is not a non-profit organization. Some smaller ones are, much to their chagrin, and not because they don’t work at it.  My heart goes out to them, as they really are trying to keep the art of literature alive.

My question concerns the impact to new authors and unpublished authors.  If there is a fixed number of books that can be published any year, doesn’t each book produced to take advantage of a perceived short-lived celebrity — like this new hard cover — reduce the chances for a publisher assigning a slot to a new author?

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but looking at the industry from the weary eyes of running a small business, it seems that the only answer is that for every 15-minute celebrity tell-all, one less real work of important writing must be overlooked.  With mainstream publishing still pounding the table, insisting that they are the "gatekeepers" of quality and good taste, the field seems to be getting mored tilted all the time against new authors, especially fiction writers that only write well.  Maybe we should all do sex tapes?

I’m tired of the old, tired publishing fable is that they will gladly publish a new writer’s work…if it "good enough".  Market conditions are part of the mix, and given what I’ve read and heard about, the definition of "good" changes constantly.

Am I wrong?

Remix My Lit: Literature That's Read and Write

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This is a cross-posting of a post that originally appeared on Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn website on 9/23/09.

I went to the Remix My Lit masterclass at the Brisbane Writers Festival last week, and came away inspired! It was run by Amy Barker, author of Omega Park and the notes below come from her presentation and ideas.

RemixMyLit.com is a project that took original works by authors licensed under Creative Commons. Then a whole load of new authors remixed them creating new works, also shared under the Creative Commons license.

Some of the best works were published in an anthology, ‘Through the Clock’s Workings‘, that can be downloaded for free here, a Creative Commons work you can remix and share to your heart’s content.

“It is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike licence. What that means is you can remix the stories, but only if you acknowledge the author, the remix is not for commercial use, and your new work is available for others to remix”. Remix My Lit.

What is remixing and why is it interesting?

Remixing is a term more commonly used in music, where artists remix each others work, or fans do the same (the project uses the example of Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nails The Slip album).

But it has been used in literature, most commonly with Shakespeare – endlessly remixed into films, stories, plays and other works. Baz Lurhman’s Romeo and Juliet kept the language, but totally remixed the location, scenes and time to create a fantastic version.

Shakespeare and other older works are in the Public Domain, out of copyright and available for anyone to use for any purpose. You can get free digital copies of Public Domain books at Gutenberg.org.

Public domain classics include: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Ulysses by James Joyce, Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, and of course Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, most recently remixed as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame Smith.

This is a ‘novel as mashup‘, certainly more recognisable that Bridget Jones Diary (albeit a better looking Mr Darcy!).

Whatever the literati think of these remixes, Seth Grahame Smith has made a lot more money than many, more original authors. He has 2 more books coming out, the next being “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters”. There are also rumours of a movie!

So you can remix/reuse public domain works, certain Creative Commons works and, I presume, other work you have express permission to use.

So why is that interesting?

Remixing is great for writing prompts and jump-starting creativity!

If you need some inspiration for your writing, there is literally a world of ideas just waiting for your brain to create something new! That is pretty exciting.

In the workshop, we did this fun exercise where we took the hard copy of one of the stories, ‘Cherished’ by Emily Maguire. We then proceeded to do a ‘cut-up’ – literally!

We all cut words out of the story and re-pasted them into a remix, some taking the angle to preserve some of the original ideas, and others making something very new with the same words.

You can read the original story in the free eversion here. It is short narrative.

You can see all the remixes of the original stories here.

Here is my offering (and yes, I’ve been reading too much horror!)

‘Cherished’: The Scott Sigler Remix

Behind a smear of pinkish sunless skin

her gums are dried blood

Her ragged bathroom belly

flaunting retro-blue-frosted polished stumps

stiff to the touch

squat reflection on her steel-blue veins

the rest of her remains, a goth-inspired charcoal

disposable beloved,

Emily, Cherished girl.

****************************************************

The Remix My Lit logo is a derivative work of a CC Attribution 2.0 Flickr image ‘Street Art’ by Kim Laughton, aka ‘olivepixel.’

Ebook Drama Roundup

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There’s been a lot of hang-wringing, railing, theorizing and punditry about ebooks lately: pricing, devices, formats and DRM. Here’s a roundup of just a fraction of the buzz.

On October 23, Crain’s New York Business ran a piece entitled Analysts Warn Booksellers Of E-Peril. Sounds pretty melodramatic, but as it turns out, all the worrying and worst-case-scenario discussions can affect stock prices. The article ran within a few days of the launch of Barnes & Noble’s "Nook" dedicated ereader, and according to the article, "The shift from digital to physical books will ultimately hurt traditional bricks-and-mortar book sellers, analysts said Friday…" The article goes on:

The company could become a major player in the digital book business, but that actually may speed the downward trend in its revenue and profit, said Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter, who rates the company "underperform."

As the math currently works, each sale through a Nook is not just unprofitable but potentially replaces a higher-margin sale at stores," Mr. Balter wrote in a client note Friday. One obvious risk is that downloading books reduces the need to go into stores, he said.

Yet there’s a tiny ray of sunshine for B&N stock holders, in that the sale of Nook devices will temporarily increase B&N’s revenue picture. But that’s not necessarily a good thing for all the rest of us. On his Publishing 2020 blog today Joe Wikert wonders, Is the eReader Financial Model Upside Down?, saying:

I won’t buy a Kindle edition of a book that’s more than $9.99.  Why?  Besides the fact that I’m a cheapskate, I guess I’m still bitter about paying almost $300 for an original Kindle, so I expect to "make it up" with cheaper content.  I wonder how many others like me are out there.

I’d say quite a few.  Look at the Kindle book bestseller list.  Even though there are plenty of Kindle editions priced above $9.99 they rarely make the bestseller list. In fact, as I type these words 14 of the top 25 have a price of $0.00, one is $0.01 and the rest are at or below $9.99.  I only found three books in the top 100 priced above $9.99. Three."

Why can’t a device vendor go with more of a cell phone model, where the low price of the device is subsidized by the longer-term commitment to buying content?

According to Max Magee’s piece, Follow the Money: The ebook Pricing Wars, which ran on The Millions on May 28 of this year, Wikert is on target:

You’ve likely heard about Kindle owners who have balked at the idea of spending more than $9.99 for an ebook. With the Kindle going for $359, many Kindle owners have decided that their willingness to pony up the big bucks for the device was their side of an implicit bargain. In return, there is an expectation that ebooks will come at a discount to their physical counterparts, allowing Kindle owners to recoup their investment in the device over time. Any sign that this bargain is falling apart has been met with resistance by Kindle owners…

Okay, so publishers and consumers alike have a lot of financial concerns about ebooks. But what about the authors? J.A. Konrath has recently begun publishing some of his work for the Kindle himself, and on October 13 he posted a surprising comparison of Kindle Numbers: Traditional Publishing Vs. Self Publishing on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog. His conclusion?

My five Hyperion ebooks (the sixth one came out in July so no royalties yet) each earn an average of $803 per year on Kindle.

My four self-pubbed Kindle novels each earn an average of $3430 per year.

If I had the rights to all six of my Hyperion books, and sold them on Kindle for $1.99, I’d be making $20,580 per year off of them, total, rather than $4818 a year off of them, total.

So, in other words, because Hyperion has my ebook rights, I’m losing $15,762 per year.

Konrath is so pleased with his Kindle self-publishing results that’s he’s now beginning to dabble in iTunes ebook apps as well. Sounds pretty good if you’re an author, until you take a gander at Henry Baum’s piece, Ebooks are a Disaster, posted on Self-Publishing Review on November 4. Henry says:

I spent a long time designing the interior of my book – choosing fonts and font-sizes, etc. – only to have to delete all of that when creating the ebook. Given that people already chide ebooks for being a pale comparison to printed books, having an ebook be so different from the printed text is going to slow down converts to the platform.

The process of duplicating his interior formatting to the extent possible proved to be such a hassle that he eventually hired B10 Mediaworx to do the formatting for him, but even then it was no slide on ice. He adds:

We had a time of it, though, because the epub file wasn’t revealing the italics – which isn’t just a formatting problem, but an actual content problem. Italics can change the entire meaning. Turns out – after many emails sent back and forth – that the desktop version of Stanza does not work as well as the iPhone app, which actually does reveal italics in the epub file.  One example of the many possible ways that ebook formatting can go awry.

Unfortunately or fortunately for authors, depending on how you look at it, static text ebooks are just the tip of the digital book delivery iceberg. Last month I interviewed Al Katkowsky about the success of his iTunes book app, Question of the Day Book, and you’d have to be actively avoiding publishing news to avoid hearing about the Vook. Publetariat contributor Joanna Penn wrote about it on her The Creative Penn site on October 4th in a post called What is a Vook, and How Will It Change Publishing?

Publishers Simon& Schuster launched 4 ‘vooks’ last week, a combination of book and video to create a new medium for the reading/watching experience (video on What is a Vook here).

They are available in the Apple app store for the iPhone and are aimed at handheld devices, although are not compatible with the Kindle or Sony e-reader as they don’t do video. You can also buy them at Simon & Schuster’s website.

Following a video clip of Vooks in action, Penn notes:

  • There are opportunities for new sources of revenue for both publisher and author. The authors are getting ebook royalties (whatever that means!) but Jude Deveraux wrote her novella in 6 days and then worked with a film-maker. This is clearly not the 5 years Dan Brown took to write “The Lost Symbol”! These vooks may not replace the mainstream novel but they could represent a smaller, short story based product that could make authors money in between novels.
  • The ‘vooks’ have launched on Apple’s app store, and so the possibility of creating one as an indie author is there. This week I am interviewing Winged Chariot, who publish children’s books on the App store. I will be asking them how to create an app and will be posting more on this. I am determined to have my books as iPhone apps, but not for a huge price. I’ll let you know what I find out!

So authors, perhaps especially indie authors, have a brave new world of publishing opportunity at their feet, but it’s a world that demands that authors have either the techno-savvy to develop their own book "products", or the money to hire out for techno-savvy. Now if only we could get a handle on Digital Rights Management (DRM), that process whereby publishers and device providers collude to prevent consumers from sharing, moving, and generally doing whatever they want with their purchased ebooks.

The Nook ereader device introduces a new wrinkle in that discussion: ebook sharing. On October 25, Medialoper’s Kirk Biglione wondered, Is Book Sharing Really a Threat to Publishing? 

Although ill-named, the Nook is a worthy competitor to the Kindle, offering a number of features not found on the Amazon device, including LendMe, a feature that allows for controlled sharing of ebooks. While the sharing feature comes with a number of limitations, it would appear to be a small but important step towards making DRM-restricted content slightly more flexible for consumers. There’s just one problem — publishers want no part of the Nook’s LendMe feature.

Publishers Lunch reported last week (registration required) that many large publishing houses have indicated that they won’t participate in the LendMe program.

Later in the article, Biglione adds:

What Unnamed Publishing Executive seems to fear most is a sense of consumer entitlement. If consumers have the right to share ebooks now, they’ll expect to have that right until the end of time. Never mind the fact that consumers share print books all the time…If the history of digital media has taught us one thing it’s that media companies see the digital future as an opportunity to exert extreme control over how consumers use and interact with content.

It seems reasonable for publishers to want to protect their livelihood, but they may be barking up the entirely wrong tree if  a recent report out of Norway on the music-buying habits of filesharing pirates is to be believed. As reported by Ars Technica on April 20 of this year:

Researchers examined the music downloading habits of more than 1,900 Internet users over the age of 15, and found that illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user.

As a legalized version of file sharing, LendMe may have the potential to actually spur more ebook sales. And ebook sales are most definitely on the rise according to quarterly reports by the Inernational Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). On January 21st of this year on the Smashwords blog, Smashwords founder Mark Coker says of the quarterly report for period ending December 2008:

The IDPF today reported ebook sales were up 108% for the month of November, 2008 compared to the same period a year ago…

Dig beneath the surface, and the numbers are striking. Ebook sales are surging while the entire trade book industry suffers a decline…

For the five years between 2002 and 2007 (Click here for data, opens a PDF), overall trade book sales averaged an annual increase of 2.5% (lower than inflation, which means unit sales probably decreased), while ebooks for the same period turned in a 55.7% average annualized increase.

Granted, the robust sales growth for ebooks was off of a tiny base to begin with. But…fast forward to October of 2008, the date for which year-to-date sales are reported on the AAP web site , and you see overall trade book sales for the first 9 months of the year were down 3.4% while ebook sales were up about 58%. So the rate of ebook sales accelerated during the first 9 months of 2008 compared to the previous five years.

More interesting, for the month of October the AAP reported overall trade book sales suffered a 20% drop in the year over year monthly comparison, while ebook sales accelerated to 73% growth.

It seems that what we’ve got here is a mix of good news and bad news caught in a whirlwind of flux and guesswork. In the final analysis, I think there are only three things that can be said of ebooks with any certainty:

1) Digital books are here to stay

2) Publishers will not succeed in realizing the full potential of digital books until they can better comprehend the potential of the numerous media available to produce digital books, and consumers’ expectations of both the media and media providers

3) We have yet to see the best or final incarnation of the digital book; in the Vook and today’s ebook apps, we’re witnessing the infancy of a new type of book that is much more about dynamic content than it is about any specific delivery system (and we’re not just talking electronic files and gizmos – paper bound between two covers is a content delivery system, too)

Whether you’re a publisher, author or reader, you have a stake in the future of digital books and your opinion is no less valid than those of anyone quoted here. So, what do YOU think?